All About Analysts

Brian Muys, a Managing Director here at Strategic, brought to my attention a new website that provides a Google-like search interface for analyst reports and publications. Called All The Analysts (http://www.alltheanalysts.com), the site:

"is the place to look for the latest reports, thoughts and trends in the world of industry analyst research. We search everything from the biggest firms, including Gartner, down to specialist independent analysts to find the most relevant reports for your needs. Currently in beta, the ATA team are developing key services for three roles: Technology Professionals, Technology vendors, Industry Analysts."

My initial impression is it's about time. Tracking analysts can be a pain, not so much for the big well known firms, but for the smaller more niche specific outfits. A full list of the companies ATA follow can be found here.

Mostly, I like the fact that the designers of the website focused on usability and didn't overload the site with videos, banner ads and whatnot. Clear, clean web design. Ah...

A couple of interesting tidbits I found interesting. Well, interesting enough to share with my vast readership...

One, apparently Google is setting up a location on the Moon.

Second, the confluence of digital media and the mobile device seems to be reaching a white-hot level of growth. I've been a happy owner of of broadband enabled PocketPC for quite some time now, but with, the rollout of the iPhone and other consumer focused broadband phones, I think the platform is there for both paid and advertising-driven content companies to drive an extraordinary amount of revenue.

Here is the chart from eMarketer, if you don't totally believe everything I write on this blog:

I'll be spending some time this Friday at the Digital Media Conference in lovely Silver Spring, MD. I'm looking forward to hearing from the experts how this exploding market is going to evolve, who the winners will be and when will I be able to just implant an iPhone in my brain and let Steve Jobs control me remotely.

According to IDC, tech companies are going to increase spending on marketing by 8% this year over last.

IDC forecasts 8% increase in tech marketing spending

The story in B2B Online points out that IDC surveyed 40 senior marketing executives. I'm no statistical genius but what kind of margin of error do you get with a sample size of 40...50% plus or minus?