Versatile Amphibian

Wearables are one of the tech' trends of 2014, with the launch of Glass upon us and continued interest in life-logging activity bands . I've been messing around with this tech since early 2012, when I was one of the first UK buyers of the Nike FuelBand . That device had it's flaws, but certainly demonstrated the potential for gamifying the lifestyles of everyday consumers. More recently, I've switched to a second generation device, Jawbone's Up. It's lighter, more comfortable and has better software than the Nike effort, although it lacks wireless connectivity. The second recent development is me training for the London marathon, which gives me the chance to try out the Up in a pretty in depth way. 6 weeks and 220km in, here are some early takeaways: It's more accurate than you'd think: +/- 5% or better in terms of distance travelled... ...but it has it's flaws: the lack of waterproofing is annoying for my swimming training (I'm doing ...

The pace and breadth of change in technology and media is awesome right now, so my view is that people in the industry need to read widely to get a sense of what’s going on. To that end, here’s the stories that caught my eye. This week: Macy’s becomes Minority, HBO struggles in Sweden, self-driving cars by 2020, inkjet-printed electronics and digital puzzle baffles Internet Business models Macy’s becomes the first big store to trial iBeacon, Apple’s new in-premise presence technology… cue Minority Report comparisons galore. In seriousness, this kind of store based presence technology should be a godsend for retailers as it can link online experiences to physical in a much more engaging way. http://gigaom.com/2013/11/20/macys-is-the-first-retailer-to-use-apples-ibeacon-for-in-store-presence/ The ultimate narcissism, combining Kinect, 3D printing and $59 to create a figurine of yourself. http://www.gizmag.com/shapify-kinect-3d-printing-selfie-statue/29885/ Not really a business...

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 (short) post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye in the last week. This week: smartphones vs magazines at the checkout; Spotify vs Netflix in video and Yahoo! pays $30m for a 17 year old. Media Shoppers aren’t reading magazines anymore because they check their phone in the checkout queue. Interesting social observation! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-21/shoppers-mobile-blinders-force-checkout-aisle-changes.html Spotify planning to go toe to toe with Netflix in online video. Makes sense. In fact, I can see Spotify being good at it – I love the way they make commodity music into an experience. http://uk.appy-geek.com/Web/ArticleWeb.aspx?regionid=4&articleid=7784749 Nearly 90% of 18-24 year olds check their smartphone within 15 minutes of waking up; 75% check it immediately...

As the end of the year approaches, many of my clients and Deloitte clients are thinking about what 2013 holds for the markets in which they operate. Predictions is something my colleague Paul Lee and his team do really well, so I won’t replicate their thinking. Instead, over the next month I’ll write down a few trends that I think will either gather or emerge in 2013. First up, wearable computing. What they are: Internet connected devices that are worn in place or instead of or in addition to conventional jewellery. Emerging categories include smart watches, personal health monitors, life blogging photo recorders and heads up displays. My prediction: each of the above products will be million unit+ per year categories in 2014, which means that they should be hundred-thousand unit categories in 2013. One or more of them will hit iPad 2 levels of distribution (10’s of millions) in 2015. Why I think this: smartphones are to mobile computing what laptops are to desktop – they’re a...

This week I’m going to go counter-trend and say nothing about Surface or the tiny iPad or the sleek new Macs. You’ve all heard enough about those things and I can’t add much. Instead, this post is a collection of the less well publicised articles that have caught my eye. This week: CMOs slam mobile, Mayer prepares for Yahoo! future, Penguin House emerges from shadows, future of wearables and connected cars in focus Digital media CMOs aren’t happy with the results they’re seeing from mobile advertising. Not a surprise to me – the techniques of mobile advertising are not well established at the moment, so trial and error is inevitable. http://www.digiday.com/brands/brands-struggle-in-mobile/ Some Olympic Games sponsors saw a lift in brand awareness. I hope it was worth it! http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/topics/branding/some-olympics-sponsors-enjoyed-lift-in-brand-awareness-esteem-24181/ It is a little silly that ebooks are counted as software and therefore attract VAT in the...