I’m of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need
to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the
market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught
my eye – a late posting this week as I was on holiday. Lucky me!
This week: Apple and Amazon beat Microsoft on Black Friday,
Volvo goes self-drive but Cambridge warns of robogeddon
Digital media
ITN launch a citizen journalism on Youtube. Perhaps one of
the aforementioned citizens can post a story about why ITN would do that. http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/itn-production-s-citizen-journalism-youtube-channel-launches/s2/a551300/
Technology
Jawbone were one of the first companies to launch a
wristband activity monitoring product. Seems like they’re still learning. http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671325/jawbone-up-20-ambitious-beautiful-and-still-fatally-flawed#1
Tiresome tech wannabe Will.i.am launches an add on gadget
that turns the iPhone into a camera. Unless it’s super-cheap I don’t see the
point, although I’ll doubtless now be proved wrong by the power of celebrity. http://gizmodo.com/5962866/william-plans-to-turn-your-iphone-into-a-14+megapixel-super-camera
Amazon’s “Black Friday” sale in the UK yielded record sales
of Kindle tablets and eReaders. These categories will be the tech’ gift of
Christmas 2012 and a force for change in publishing in 2013. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=251199&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1761390&highlight=
Nokia has re-introduced “Facebook” buttons on phones. I
think this might be a good idea – it’s still faster to press a single button to
jump to a function than navigate a menu. Good for Facebook too, provided it is
the default setting. Most users won’t bother to customise. http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/26/the-facebook-button-is-back-on-phones-nokia-puts-social-networking-knobs-on-62-series-40-asha-205-205-dual-sim-qwerty-handsets/
The revamped Asha looks like it could be a real winner for
Nokia. Here’s more details about some of the device’s features – aimed at
catering for multi-SIM users and social sharers. http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2012/11/26/nokia-targets-emerging-markets-with-the-new-205-asha-205-and-slam-sharing-feature/
Intel has reduced forecasts for sales of its education
tablets. Intel not a consumer brand? Who’d have guessed? http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20121121PD215.html
Galaxy Note was one of the unexpected tech successes of
2012. Samsung have managed to sell 5 million of the sub-tablets/ super-smartphones
worldwide. http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/samsung-galaxy-note-ii-passes-5-million-sales-worldwide-video-26-11-2012/
Inrix is an interesting company that provides real time
traffic data. The article shows Black Friday congestion – a barometer for
retail sales, but I’m more interested in the increase in points of presence,
all of which are collecting data that will be useful for self-driving cars. http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/26/inrix/
Breakthrough technology
On the topic of self-drivers, Volvo are launching their own
in 2014. My prediction is already coming true J.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/03/volvo-self-driving-cars-2014/
Bionics are another super-growth area. Here’s some
information on different types of bionic leg. http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/11/features/giant-steps
Cambridge University are investigating whether robots will
one day try to overthrow us. Glad we’re funding that out of the UK Government research
budget. http://phys.org/news/2012-11-cambridge-technology-humans.html
Emerging markets
African innovators are benefiting from the reduced infrastructure
in their countries according to Ethan Zuckerman. I can’t agree. It’s much
better to have all the infrastructure and brilliant access to information and
capital. Necessity is the mother of invention, but how innovative is your
mother? http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/11/ideas-bank/africas-hackers-are-todays-world-class-tech-innovators
An excellent blog post about the divergence of sub-Saharan African
economies. http://africanarguments.org/2012/11/26/emerging-or-diverging-a-framework-for-discussing
Superpower politics
Sigh. Just when you thought the Patent Wars were on the
wane, Apple takes aim at Samsung once more. http://allthingsd.com/20121126/apple-would-like-to-sue-the-hell-out-of-six-more-samsung-devices/
Apple comfortably outsold Microsoft on Black Friday according
to exit polls conducted in the US. http://www.slashgear.com/apple-averaged-11-ipads-sold-per-hour-on-black-friday-26258315/
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