The Bloor Perspective: Police IT, Apple offerings and demand for IT skills

Following hot on the heels of several municipalities in Finland, we have news that the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) has awarded Netproject a contract to examine the issues of deploying Linux on up to 60,000 desktop computers in police forces throughout the UK.

The new investigation forms part of the much larger Project Valiant that is examining requirements for next-generation police computing. Marco Dawson, a member of the PITO team, commented: "The police need very secure, virus-resistant and stable desktop computing. We believe that Linux can provide this. We need a very good understanding of the deployment and migration issues to Linux on the desktop."

As there already exists a number of applications that have been developed for PITO that operate under Microsoft Windows, it is essential these can function under the Linux operating system. A significant portion of the study will cover the strategies and software tools available to port these applications to Linux.

It is also reported that the Linux PCs in the study will be configured to be highly secure and make extensive use of both smart cards and biometrics to enhance the security of user identification.

It would be interesting to see if PITO will look just a little further 'outside the box' and take the opportunity to investigate the potential use of thin client technologies. Such systems, when operated on their own or coupled with open source, could supply the security capabilities that need to be addressed while also positively impacting the total cost and manageability of the systems deployed.

This is the first concrete indication that large-scale enterprises are addressing the emerging capabilities of open source. However, it is stressed that at this stage this is just an investigation and that no decision has yet been taken regarding the use of Linux in the police.

Nevertheless, it is clear that this move adds to the pressure that Microsoft is experiencing from organisations around the world, many of whom are expressing concern over the cost of maintaining their Windows-based PCs.

*Apple's challenges*

Like many vendors, Apple has recently announced financial results. First quarter profits of $38m beat expectations but Apple was quick to warn of a flat second quarter. The market responded well to the results and the announcements at Mac World as Apple's shares rose.

The announcement of Apple's original iMac rejuvenated the company's flagging fortunes and while the company may not be in the same dire straits the problem now faced by the company is a slowly saturating market for personal computers. Will the new iMac win the market over and revitalise flagging sales?

Many remember one of Apples previous misses - the Cube - and it is this machine's radical looks and small footprint that some are comparing to the new iMac. The Cube's appearance defied description - was it a toaster, was it an ornament? Sometimes radical design doesn't work - the original iMac, while innovative, had the traditional look and feel of a computer. The new 'angle poise' iMac falls into the same area of confusion as the Cube.

With the original iMac, Apple showed the Wintel boys the integrated system unit and monitor could work. Credit must be given for that. The new iMac takes that one step further by introducing the highly desirable flat screen, as well as the SuperDrive option. It is these features rather than the admittedly impressive design that will be the drivers of Apple's success over the coming year.

What next for Apple? While the PDA market is more mature than when Apple produced the Newton, there is still no clear leader. Microsoft is gaining a foothold and there have been recent announcements about Linux-based PDAs, so the field is still wide open.

The PDA market still has to reach its peak. We have to wait for full 3G implementation together with value-added services before that happens, and so everyone is keen to enter what is bound to be a booming market. There is a strong emphasis on style in PDAs and so there must surely be an opportunity for Apple to give everyone a master class of industrial design and produce the PDA that everyone wants to own. Are you listening Steve?

*Let the good times roll, again, please...*

Things have been pretty tough in the job market for the last few months. A quick tour around the site Jobstats (http://www.jobstats.co.uk ) shows the demand for IT skills peaked around the end of 2000 and has been plummeting ever since. Yet right at the very end of the graph there is a rather steep upward turn. The tide might be on the turn.

According to Jobstats, the main demand is for operational staff and managers. There is still plenty of demand for good technical skills - Unix, Oracle, SQL and NT - although development skills such as C++, C and Java are not rising quite as quickly. However, these skills are the highest paid of the lot, which might account for a slightly more sluggish recovery.

Annual rates for language-based development skills are averaging out around £40,000 - the hourly rate for contractors comes in around £40. Unsurprisingly, the top location is London, specifically the City. Top salaries and lower taxes, however, are still to be found abroad.

The big question is whether it is just a case of more speculative advertising. Jobstats indicates that the steep rise in jobs is not really reflected in the recruitment shops who are showing much flatter curves. It is a case of many small rises aggregating into a single large one.

Last year many businesses cut back and laid off in anticipation of a massive downturn. Now that it hasn't quite happened, the green shoots of recovery are there to be seen.

The IT industry is all about confidence - we sometimes ask businesses to take a leap of faith in order to advance technological capabilities. For over a year, not many have been leaping but they are now, at least, shuffling up to the edge and taking a look.

**For more on the IT skills market remember our annual Skills Survey will run from 1 February and we'll be bringing you all the results from 1 March.**

Bloor Research is a leading independent analyst organisation in Europe. You can find out more at http://www.bloor-research.com or by emailing mail@bloor-research.com .