Appliance vs. General Purpose - Here We Go Again!

This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on May 9, 2011:

Since the introduction about five years ago of smartphones and their dramatic pace of commoditization, the trend of end users bringing their own devices into the workplace and asking or demanding that IT support them has been picking up pace. This consumerization trend has been accelerating following last year’s introduction of the iPad. As a completely new form factor, the iPad is driving completely new usage habits and end user expectations for tablet devices.

The iPad and its Android-based competitors are general-purpose one-size-fits-all computing devices – granted they are built around and optimized for a touch screen in a revolutionary manner. However, for many , it’s been fair game to compare these tablet computing devices in the same breath to single-purpose tablet appliances such as the e-readers Kindle from Amazon and Nook from Barnes & Noble. These devices, while similar in appearance, are vastly different in purpose and design. Built on the Android operating environment these devices are appliances: purpose-built and optimized for a single purpose; In this case, reading books.

In the consumer technology space the question is “when is an appliance a better general-purpose device?” I would strongly suggest the answer is “never.” (Unless, of course, it’s a virtual appliance! ; )

Having lived through the debacle that was computing appliances at Sun Microsystem (Sun acquired Cobalt Systems for $2B but shut down the computing appliance vendor after just one failed year), it’s very difficult to take a purpose-built engine and make it fit a commoditized, general-purpose market. Yet despite history we are seeing headlines like this:

Barnes & Noble Plans New E-Book Reader

Wall Street Journal (May 4, 2011)

Summary: In a SEC filing, Barnes & Noble revealed their intentions to release a new e-book reader on May 24. There is speculation this device would be a combination of a tablet and e-reader.

In addition there has been industry speculation following Amazon’s foray into the Android application marketplace that the Kindle is too being repurposed into a general-purpose tablet.

Don’t get me wrong: if Amazon and Barnes & Noble are interested in pursuing their niche in the tablet business there would be no one more interested than me (and Citrix) in supporting their devices with Citrix Receiver for secure enterprise access to data, apps and desktops! However if they believe that they can simply add access to general-purpose Android applications to their existing platforms they haven’t learned from history. End users will take them up on their offer and install applications that benefit from touch screens, built-in GPS or other capabilities left unfulfilled by their appliances and will soon realize that they can much more easily install the B&N or Kindle app on a Motorola Xoom or Apple iPad than get a rich, multimedia experience from a Kindle. Maybe that’s ok for Amazon. After all, they are first and foremost a media sales company. From whichever platform you purchase a book or a music album, Amazon always takes a cut. At the end of the day, Amazon is also happy to sell you an iPad from their store, as well.

If, however, either company believes the transition from retail to hardware vendor is a small leap, they will be quickly surprised to find out how many vendors have tried and failed to make the leap.

Now I’m not the only one looking at the tablet appliance market and wondering how long vendors like the booksellers will continue to support single-purpose platforms. The money in applications and general ubiquity is too large to ignore. After all, if you’re making the investment in the hardware and software integration you might as well go all the way and make the investment address the largest market possible.

Citrix Receiver and the RIM PlayBook

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on April 19, 2011:

Earlier today, Research in Motion (RIM) announced general availability of its new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Citrix first announced support for the (QNX-based) BlackBerry PlayBook at Fall Synergy 2010 and consistent with our Receiver Everywhere vision we are planning to release a Receiver for PlayBook by the end of Q3.

Citrix Receiver will greatly extend the PlayBook’s enterprise capabilities, by giving owners easy and secure access to their corporate data and business desktops while bringing hundreds of thousands of existing business applications to PlayBook users. PlayBook will be the first RIM device to feature the QNX operating system, which, one could certainly speculate will become the standard OS for BlackBerry devices going forward. PlayBook requires close development between Citrix and RIM engineering teams to develop a new Citrix Receiver product specifically to support the QNX operating system and to leverage the unique enterprise capabilities and features of the PlayBook. Citrix already enables the latest BlackBerry devices on the market as Citrix Receiver for BlackBerry has been offered as a free download on both BlackBerry App World and www.citrix.com client center since May 2010.

RIM’s strong enterprise market position fits well with the Citrix vision to enable virtual computing across the enterprise and to enable users to enjoy the virtualization lifestyle, with the ability to work most productively from anywhere on any chosen device. Citrix and RIM are currently planning to demonstrate Receiver for PlayBook at two events next month, BlackBerry World and Citrix Synergy. In late February, Citrix was featured as the key enterprise partner at BlackBerry’s PlayBook pavilion at Mobile World Congress where an early version of Citrix Receiver was demonstrated on a pre-production PlayBook.

Citrix Receiver for PlayBook once again extends the Citrix commitment to Receiver and “Receiver Everywhere” by making it available for virtually every computing platform – Windows PCs/laptops, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Android smartphones and tablets, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and now QNX devices.

Update 6/28/11: We hear you… Citrix Receiver for Playbook is under development and targeted for end of 3Q11 release.

Citrix at CTIA - Breaking New Ground with Citrix Receiver

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on March 21, 2011:

Considering just three months ago at the Consumer Electronics Show, over 100 new Android-powered tablet devices were introduced; with many of those new devices now coming to market. Tablets and enhanced smartphones are changing the technology landscape. In less than a year many of us have gone from just laptops and smartphones to laptops, smartphones and tablets. And many of us are toying with the idea of leaving the laptop at work and traveling with just a tablet and smartphone.

Over the past year, we have focused our development and support to extend Citrix Receiver across all of the leading technology platforms in the market. Citrix Receiver is now supported natively on Apple iOS and Macintosh, Google Android and ChromeOS, RIM Blackberry, Microsoft Windows Mobile, and Linux with planned Day 1 support for webOS. That said, the real story is the growth of mobile devices – smartphones and tablets – and the rapid market adoption of Citrix Receiver as the preferred client for accessing corporate virtual desktops, applications and data.

With this explosion of alternative devices beyond the laptop or desktop as the standard device for corporate workers, Citrix is breaking into new territory, forging new partnerships and expanding its reach into the mobile device world. Coming on the heels of a strong showing at last month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in which we demonstrated the power of virtual computing with Citrix Receiver alongside partners Research in Motion and Samsung, Citrix will again be side-by-side with our mobility partners this week at the International Cellular Telephony International Association (CTIA) show in Orlando, Florida. Citrix is again featured as a premiere enterprise partner demonstrating the unique capabilities of Citrix Receiver with the three top Android device makers in the world: Motorola, Samsung and HTC.

• Motorola – Citrix will be showcasing Receiver for Android on both the ATRIX 4G WebTop and the Motorola XOOM tablet. The ATRIX is the first device pre-loaded with Citrix Receiver, while the XOOM is the first Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) device to be available for purchase.
• Samsung – Citrix will be showcasing Receiver for Android on the latest Galaxy Tab devices, included the soon to be launched 8.9″ Tab 2, Honeycomb-based tablet device.
• HTC – Citrix will be one of only two enterprise vendors featured by HTC in its Application Showcase

Showcasing Citrix Receiver with the leading device makers at North America’s premier wireless event represents only the latest success Citrix is having in supporting new platforms and leading the way with secure and ubiquitous client access to the Citrix XenDesktop virtual computing solution.

For more information please be sure to check out the Citrix Receiver homepage and the Citrix Virtual Computing demo center!

Today, More Than Ever, Citrix is the Right Choice for the iPad!

This blog originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on March 9, 2011:

Today VMware announced the availability of their very first View client for the industry leading Apple iPad™. That could be seen as a competitive shot at Citrix but I see it a different way entirely: VMware has just sent a strong message to their customers that Citrix and the XenDesktop solution is the best choice for virtual computing!

For over two years Citrix has been evangelizing and delivering on a vision that empowers IT to evolve into an applications and desktop service provider and frees end users from the shackles of a locked down corporate desktop in favor of choosing their own devices. An important component in the Citrix strategy is Citrix Receiver. Citrix Receiver is a freely downloadable software client that provides secure access to Citrix XenDesktop infrastructure from any device, anywhere. As part of this strategy, Citrix Receiver has natively supported the Apple iPhone for two years and the iPad since its introduction last year. In addition, Citrix customers have native Citrix Receiver support for Android devices – including support for the Android tablet distribution (Honeycomb) – RIM Blackberry smartphones, Windows mobile devices, and forthcoming webOS devices from HP and Chrome OS notebooks from Google. This is in addition to providing secure native support for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux support for desktops and thin clients.

Citrix Receiver provides a unique and easy-to-use interface for subscribing to desktops along with Windows applications and cloud-based SaaS apps all with an end users corporate credentials. In addition Citrix Receiver, already in use by millions of end users on today’s most popular devices, provides native touchscreen controls optimized for the capabilities of the particular platform including multitasking and touch screen enabling Windows apps on the iPad. The experience – simple, intuitive and consistent across the multiple devices – is one of the most important differentiators of the mature Citrix Receiver solution.

It’s important to remember that providing desktop access is only part of the end user challenge; secure access to Windows applications, data and cloud apps along with desktops provides the most powerful and comprehensive end user solution. The Citrix Receiver user interface includes an app store for subscribing to and accessing enterprise applications and desktops. By building an application store user experience, Citrix Receiver builds on a user interface that is already well known to consumers. This is particularly true for Apple’s end users who have downloaded over three billion apps from the iTunes app store.

Receiver is only part of the Citrix story. In addition to providing industry leading Virtual Desktop infrastructure – supporting all of the broadly adopted hypervisor technologies, including VMware’s ESX and Citrix XenServer – Citrix also provides the broadest range of virtual computing options for customers looking for more than just a server-hosted desktop. Citrix is the only one-stop solutions vendor for all models of application and desktop virtualization including application virtualization, streamed apps and desktops, and client side virtualization solutions.

Another critical part of the Citrix virtual computing solution is the Go-To suite of products including GoToMeeting, which has been available for nearly a year on the iPad, and the recently introduced GoToMyPC. As a matter of fact GoToMeeting is fully integrated in the Citrix Receiver for iPad distribution for the most optimal end user experience.

As IT and end users alike consider the impact of tablet computing devices on their application portability and mobility strategy there is only one vendor that seamlessly supports all mobile devices – smartphones, tablets and desktops – across all operating environments, with an optimized end user experience. Millions of end users have already downloaded Citrix Receiver!

At the end of the day, don’t take our word for it. Read about some of our happy customers for yourself:

Kaweah Delta Healthcare District (California) and Derby Schools (Kansas) both profiled on Citrix iPad At Work

Or hear from Chicago’s SNR Denton/Sonnenschein Law Firm directly on YouTube!

Significant Citrix Receiver for iOS milestones:

• Citrix Receiver for iPad was available on the iTunes App Store on Day One of the initial release of the iPad on April 3, 2010;
• Citrix Receiver for iPad has had nearly 500,000 downloads since April 2010, placing it in the top five free business apps available on the iPad.
• Citrix Receiver for iPhone was released in October 2008 and has generated more than 700,000 downloads since it was made available from Citrix in late 2008. As with the iPad Citrix Receiver is one of the top free business apps available in the iTunes App Store

Citrix Receiver will make webOS devices enterprise ready at launch!

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on February 9, 2011:

Citrix will immediately enable webOS consumers with access to Windows apps

Today, Hewlett-Packard announced the first webOS powered tablet devices that are expected to launch later this spring. Citrix Receiver once again is planning to be there on Day 1 with a version of Citrix Receiver to support HP’s webOS powered tablet devices, just as we have been with all important mobile device (iPad, Galaxy Tab, Google Chrome laptops, etc.) and new distribution channels (Mac Store), over the past 18 months. Citrix Receiver is a lightweight software client that will turn any webOS device into a powerful business tool by providing secure Enterprise access business desktops and any Windows, Web or SaaS application. The immediate benefit for webOS consumers is that Citrix will make webOS devices enterprise-ready by securely delivering access to the existing ecosystem of Windows based apps: Citrix Receiver will instantly enable new webOS devices for the enterprise!

The latest proof point in our commitment to make every device enterprise ready

Citrix Receiver support for HP’s webOS represents another milestone in delivering on our vision to provide easy-to-use secure access to business desktops, apps and docs from any device. With the addition of Receiver on webOS powered devices, Citrix will add yet another mobile platform to the impressive list of platforms and devices already supported – including Citrix Receiver versions for Windows, Mac, Linux, Java, Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile. Whether your preferred computing device is a PC, Mac, laptop, netbook, tablet or smartphone, Citrix makes you productive from anywhere on any device.

Citrix continues to deliver on its commitment to give consumers choice by embracing the consumerization of devices trend and making it easier than ever to empower the IT enterprise to say “YES” in letting employees access their enterprise apps using any device, anywhere to be more productive. Citrix and Citrix Receiver are enabling the “Bring Your Own Device” revolution. Simply stated, Citrix Receiver is a win-win for both consumers and IT!

Don’t forget about the Developer benefits!

With the introduction of webOS into the tablet fray the battle for developer mindshare will only get that much more difficult. As an ISV which mobile platforms will you prioritize? iOS, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, webOS; so many to choose from? The benefit of the Citrix Receiver architecture is that Enterprise IT doesn’t need to make that decision. Deploy your Windows applications and let Citrix worry about the client!

Try it for yourself: two million downloads and counting…

Users have already shown their enthusiastic support for Citrix Receiver with over two million downloads, making it one of the world’s most popular free business apps. As I noted in a blog posting a couple of weeks ago, as the number one free business app since Day 1 on the recently launched Mac App Store is just the latest example of the overwhelming market acceptance of Citrix Receiver over the past 18 months. If you haven’t experienced Citrix Receiver, we would invite you to take a test drive on your favorite device via a Citrix hosted cloud demo and you will be up and running in minutes. As always, we would love to know about your experiences and to share how Citrix Receiver fits with your virtual workstyle.

Citrix Receiver Delivers as Advertised!

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on February 7, 2011:

I think everyone in some way, shape or form, has, at one time or another, been accused of “drinking the kool-aide.” Certainly that’s true for marketing people. After all in order to be the best marketing person you should believe what you’re selling. On the other hand I know that there is a very fine line between believing what you’re selling and believing your own spin.

It’s for this reason that I thought it worthy to point out that Citrix Receiver isn’t a solution spun up in the last few months as a fancy user interface on top of an old ICA client. It is so much more than that (and, certainly, it’s a solution that has evolved over years of development)! So, with that said, it’s nice to see product coverage from someone who isn’t drinking the kool-aide highlight all the great benefits of the solution.

You can read the review here:

A Week of Productivity With the Galaxy Tab

In his review, Matt Coddington describes the Galaxy Tab / Citrix Receiver experience in exactly the way we see it (and built it). It’s certainly heartening to know that while I may have more enthusiasm for Receiver than many people, it delivers again and again the end user experience as advertised!

Citrix Receiver is Number One!

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on January 21, 2011:

I am honored, with my first blog post at Citrix, to be able to write about some very good news: The newest version of Citrix Receiver for Macintosh, released on January 7th to correspond with the launch of the new Macintosh App Store, is the number one free business application download! Released just a couple of weeks ago, Citrix Receiver for the Macintosh has been downloaded over 20,000 times and has been profiled by Apple in the App Store as the premiere software solution for accessing Windows-based enterprise business applications securely on a Macintosh.

This is very exciting news for Citrix, the Citrix customer community and Macintosh users worldwide. With Citrix Receiver we have designed and delivered the most robust cross-platform tools for easy and secure access to enterprise infrastructure. For an end user the value is obvious: you can access your workplace applications, files and data from anywhere! (And by anywhere we truly mean from anywhere: your Mac, your PC, your iPhone or iPad, or Droid or Blackberry. Citrix provides the broadest device support in the industry and our commitment to you is to continue to broaden support to include virtually any end user computing device!)

For IT the Value is Even Greater!

Citrix Receiver provides a single software download that supports their existing enterprise infrastructure without any of the challenges of writing or supporting device specific code. Heck, for that matter, Citrix Receiver frees IT admins from having to uniquely support any end user device including PCs, tablets, mobile phones or anything else device manufacturers think up in the future.

Another interesting tidbit from the download data from the Mac App Store is that over 50% of the Citrix Receiver for Mac downloads has come from outside the United States. Citrix Receiver and XenDesktop infrastructure have gone global. The success of mainstream virtualization will hinge on worldwide deployments and adoption. Based on the initial Receiver download data, Citrix is having tremendous success in globally rolling out a new way of thinking about where and how people gain access to work resources and how they work. Clearly the desktop revolution has begun…

Oh, and you can download Citrix Receiver for the Mac from the App Store today!