Posted by:
Brian Gammage – Chief Market Technologist, VMware End-User Computing
The rapid pace of change in end-user computing is affecting more than just the way users work through technology. It is also changing the language and the units of measure in what was, until recently, a very stable market environment. This creates ample scope for confusion, misunderstanding and (in some cases) creative license with descriptions.
Take the word “desktop” for example. Until recently, most people would have translated this as "PC". Measures of the desktop market described how many PCs were shipped or sold. It was easy – everyone was counting the same, physical objects. A desktop today might be virtual, with all the same software elements, but located somewhere completely different and accessed through a tablet or smartphone. The physical implications have changed.
For those measuring markets, this creates challenges – without consistency in measures, there are no meaningful comparisons across time: the growth rates and forecasts on which business performance is measured risk losing their meaning. So it is very important, when language and measures are changing, to ensure we are always very clear in what we are counting.
