The Competitive Landscape

4/21/2008 The Competitive Landscape. Mitch Wagner of InformationWeek and Gartner Fellow Steve Prentice. They discuss prospects for corporate investment in virtual worlds, the state of the competitive landscape among developers and worlds, and the future of Second Life.
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The speakers didn't pull any punches. Wagner referred to the position of Linden Lab as "dire," while Prentice wouldn't recommend that enterprises use SL for anything more than 'pilot' projects, because it is too unreliable.

Minutes later, Linden Lab CFO John Zdanowski (aka Zee Linden) made a surprise visit to Metanomics to address the analysts' concerns, providing some fascinating insights into both the financial status of Linden Lab and the importance of the SL economy to Linden Lab's strategy. Zee also comments on the motivation for the recent price changes in land.

Recommended reading:

1. Read Mitch Wagner's commentary about Qwaq, the virtual world tailored to business collaboration.

2. Explore Mitch Wagner's blog.

3. Read a summary of Gartner's five laws for companies looking to conduct business in the metaverse.

4. Read Gartner's concerns over issues associated with security and risk management in virtual worlds.

5. Last summer, when Metanomics was Metaversed, Steve Prentice and Rob Bloomfield were on a panel moderated by 57 Miles and discussed Gartner's predictions for the growth of virtual worlds. SL Insider carried some analysis of these events: Links here and here.