The VAR Guy

Digital signage remains a hot opportunity for VARs and integrators. But most digital signage systems are passive networks that push content out to plasma and LCD screens. So, what’s next for digital signage? The VAR Guy found the answer in Australia.

Sometimes the best way to deal with stress is to laugh at the situation — before regrouping to face new challenges head-on. The VAR Guy rather enjoyed this video spin on the US economy. A pal who works for a major US broadband provider sent him the link:

Vendors fall all over themselves to try and land in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant research results. CIOs actually make buying decisions based on the Magic Quadrant reports (no joke). But has anybody else noticed Radicati Group evangelizes a Market Quadrant research strategy? Hmmm. Perhaps it’s time for The VAR Guy to launch the Magic Research Quadrant — to rank those unbiased research houses…

The VAR Guy has reached his breaking point. Each week he receives dozens of online meeting invites from vendors. The online presentations often contain lame product pitches, complex diagrams or terrible PowerPoints. Even worse, the online conference software often doesn’t work with The VAR Guy’s Apple MacBook Pro. It’s time to put an end to this nonsense, and reinvent these briefings.

It’s official. Even CNBC says the Wall Street meltdown has spilled over into Main Street USA. Credit is getting tighter. It’s going to be difficult for entrepreneurs to make deeper investments in their own business. But don’t panic, folks. Here are five steps every VAR and managed service provider should take — right now — to generate more recurring revenue during the economic turmoil.

The cartoon above pretty much summarizes how badly Microsoft’s marketing team botched the positioning of Windows Vista. As The VAR Guy has stated, there are 10 Reasons Why Windows Vista hasn’t been a hit. Reason Number 1: Too many versions of Vista.

Here’s to the next generation IT channel. The VAR Guy’s readership continues to master new technologies. For instance, 3.99% of www.thevarguy.com visitors now run Google Chrome. Not bad for a one-week-old Web browser. Here’s a breakdown of the browsers readers use when visiting this site.

The VAR Guy landed in Boston Tuesday night, and will spend Wednesday meeting with Novell and OnForce, among other companies. No taxis. No limos. No rental cars. Instead, our resident blogger will depend on a few trusted local friends to get him around town. He’ll be back later today with a recap of his meetings.

Initially, The VAR Guy was upbeat about Google Android. But the more he hears about the mobile open source environment, the more he worries that Google is starting to resemble Microsoft. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy and his sister site, MSPmentor, are scheduled to record a podcast August 26 with Greg Davis, vice president and general manager of Dell Inc.’s Americas Channel Group. Davis leads Dell’s PartnerDirect channel initiative. If you have questions or comments for Davis, please send them to our editorial director, Joe Panettieri (joe [at] ninelivesmediainc.com).