Versatile Amphibian

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: Yahoo! tumbles into random buying spree, 3-D printed firearms, hacking vehicle networks & USSR's space laser near miss... Media Can YouTube's paid channels succeed? This blogger thinks so... I'm not so sure, but I guess they've got as much chance as NetFlix from a user experience point of view and perhaps the federated model that enables brands to set their own prices and packages within a familiar user interface will work. I'm not convinced, but I doubt it cost much to set up, so it's worth a try!  http://paidcontent.org/2013/05/11/pay-to-play-can-youtube-succeed-with-its-paid-channel-subscriptions/ An interesting perspective on the future of gaming. Arguably the writer has a vested interest ...

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...

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...

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. This week: BBC turns to Adobe for Olympian effort, Facebook rapidly turning into disaster, Apple quarterlies, MS avoids $1000 tablet howler Digital media A really interesting article on how the BBC is using Adobe Primetime to stream the huge volumes of video generated by the Olympics. Adobe are really on the up. I hear great things about their products in digital video and electronic publishing. Time to buy? http://gigaom.com/video/london-olympic-games-bbc-adobe/ iPhone is the best platform for mobile advertising; rich media is the most effective ad medium on mobile... but it’s expensive to make, Opera... An interesting set of statistics, nonetheless. http://www.opera.com/sma/2012/q2/ Corporates find Twitter more appealing than Facebook for their social ...

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. This week: Yahoo banks $7.1Bn, having bought Instagram, Facebook launches new Instagram, Apple ups manufacturing capacity ahead of mystery launch and it’s Chickenball time for Big Data Digital media In a week of bad online tech’ news (thanks Facebook!), Yahoo have just made themselves a cool $7.1Bn by selling half of its stake in troublesome Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba. http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/yahoo-sells-alibaba-stake-for-7-1-billion-21-05-2012/ 66% of national advertisers in the USA are also spending on local advertising. An interesting finding, but I suspect volumes are small – targeting and high ROI are even harder to achieve at the local level. Flip side is that I suspect a brilliant local campaign is very much more differentiated than a ...

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. This week: Spotify, Indian semis and the Academic Spring build momentum, HTC, Yahoo lose it; how the iPad dominates online shopping and why blue is the future of Internet infrastructure Emerging markets India’s semiconductor consumption is expected to grow 20% this year, to over $9Bn. The appetite of newly-middle class consumers for tech’ is huge – most good tech’ products provide unmatched aspirational bang for the buck compared to more traditional products like cars. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/10/semiconductor_india_growth/ TV set top boxes are just one such product. Technicolor have shipped 5Mn of them to Tata Sky customers. A huge number and demonstrative of the enduring value of TV in a market that has become consumerist in the era of smart devices....

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. This week: 300Mn reasons to be nicer to my clients, Apple go at gaming, lots of Chinese tech and Akira’s bike rides again Business models Fascinating – a “modest” improvement in customer experience versus your peers is worth about $300Mn in annual revenue, according to this study. I need to be nicer to my clients! http://www.temkingroup.com/news/report-the-roi-of-customer-experience The UK coalition government is putting a cap of £100Mn on IT contracts and projects. A brilliant idea in my view as my experience suggests that any project that is too large for one person to direct is doomed to failure. http://www.guardian.co.uk/government-computing-network/2012/mar/30/100m-it-project-cap As if things aren’t bad enough for RIM, a big marketing event in the UK ended wi...