[Jeremy Garchow] "I ask because I don't know, do other major computer/NLE/Plugin/hardware manufacturers provide roadmaps?"
Some do, some don't.
HP has a bunch of product lines, but they released a WebOS roadmap in January.
Here's the press release.
The native tongue of big-balled business is PowerPoint....which of course tells you juuuuuust about everything you need to know, right?...so when you look at this, keep in mind that IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HUMAN LANGUAGE. It's PowerPoint.
It's SUPPOSED to look this ridiculous.
Ah, but before you actually ridicule, look more closely. For all that there's a pile of disclaimers that it's only a general picture, it's actually pretty dang specific.
Because here's the thing. You have a pretty good ideas about when the next iPhone is coming out, that it's going to be AWESOME, and your inclination to buy. The rest is finesse.
But when you're the one guy steering a billion-dollar ship's IT, you need more than a pretty good idea. So yeah, this one "general" idea ppt gives more specifics than Apple will give you before the sun goes nova.
Hey, this one's fun, regarding the EOL of an HP server.
Since November 2001, when HP announced discontinuance plans for the HP e3000 and MPE/iX, HP has worked proactively with customers worldwide to help these accounts plan and order final upgrades, software, or accessory purchases. A number of HP and partner programs are in place to assist customers with transitioning to HP-UX 11i, Microsoft Windows, or Linux on other HP systems.
That's on the full-blown sub-site for the HP e3000 Transition Program, which begins with
"A Message To The Community."
Those heartless, soulless, putty-colored, Windows-loving business bastards! Why can't they be more like Apple???
For real grins, here's their roadmap press release after the Compaq merger: "
Customers need to know which offerings we will have in which markets.
And we wanted to be able to tell them on Day One of the new HP."
See, this is how a computer company does it. Even if, as has been the case for HP, the roadmap can change pretty wildly, pretty quickly, you tell people reasonable stuff about what you want them to know. I found that document pretty fascinating.
I also like that they offer roadmap advice to other mouth-breathing business nerds like themselves. They published a whole series of white papers called "Develop A Financial Roadmap To The Cloud," which point out that you can't just make this stuff up. You have to have a plan, and that plan has to make you more money than it will cost you, or it's not worth doing.
Too bad the former CEO didn't read any of that.
I'm obviously being a little tongue-in-cheek here, but I'll end with a peek at Microsoft.
This very day brings updates to the 2012 roadmap posted by a third-party publisher in the channel partner game. When you look at it you'll see that a number of products have had their product roadmaps updated this month. Again, compiled by a third party, but all sourced from Microsoft, making it
an interesting exercise in roadmapping nevertheless.
Not that they had to be Kremlinologists to get the info. Microsoft publishes it. These guys make it easy to find in one place. Here for example is just one of MSFT's own roadmap pages, for
Windows Embedded.
You can find a ton of these with a couple of clicks.
As with one of HP's roadmaps above, this next one may give you a knot in the pit of your stomach because it lacks the loving embrace you're used to from Apple....and because, okay, you don't like MSFT, that's cool. And it might prompt you to laugh so hard you spit milk out your nose. But they're making a statement about the life cycle of their products that you can do with what you will.
Every Windows product has a lifecycle. The lifecycle begins when a product is released and ends when it's no longer supported or sold. Knowing key dates in this lifecycle helps you make informed decisions about when to upgrade or make other changes to your software.
Mock away at the clueless goons and vampire monopolists. And, facetiousness aside, this isn't all that substantial...but this is how you do it when you believe that your choices have an effect on your customers, and
you acknowledge that it matters to them.
Oh, and for grins, a guy in 2009 at MSFT's equivalent of WWDC, rolling his eyes at them for
saying that Windows 8 will come out around 2012.
Tell you what, if anybody here can post a slide showing Apple's 3-year OS roadmap, I'll buy you a real pony. Actually, I'll buy you a real pony if you can show it to me in private. It'll be just between you and me.
So to answer your question without being a wiseass Jeremy, I can come up with more examples of companies in other parts of the broadest meaning of "our industry" who are very open about their roadmaps, just as I can come up with companies whose lips are sealed tighter than a tomb. But HP and Microsoft seemed like good comparables to Apple's place in the ecosystem, and couldn't be more different in their approach.
