The next wave of computing, after cheap silicon and cheap hardware would be cheap reliable software and Web-based services, Forbes’ Daniel Lyons observes. If you were to follow startups, and startups usually bring the next wave of change, nowadays it’s everything about cutting the software costs by the orders of magnitude:
Coleman is one of dozens of new barbarians plotting the Cheap Revolution, the wholesale shift by corporate customers and techmakers to cheap chips and open-source (often free) software such as Linux. They are embracing simplicity, unlocking prodigious new power and cutting tech costs by up to 90%, threatening the Silicon Valley plutocracy: the proprietary gear, “closed” software, redundant backup systems and fat profit margins of incumbents like Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Cisco, EMC and other blue-chip nameplates.
