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LCD-based devices are based on glass screens. Now an LCD supplier is developing plastic screens, allowing cheaper, lighter and more robust devices to be developed. This could be an interesting turning point for e-book readers, and is a nice example of the interplay between performance and diffusion. At the same time, it could become a disruptive element in the value chain, given greater bargaining power to the suppliers and taking it away from device manufacturers.

Intel's acquisition of McAfee is puzzling. Beyond the financial motivation are there technical and business ones? Are we going to see a higher degree of integration, with security algorithms built in microprocessors? What is the impact going to be on the product and the value chain?

Toyota's recent response to claims of unintended acceleration in its vehicles illustrates the potential pitfalls of today's technologically complex automobiles. Software development, however, is still largely stuck in a 1970s pre-kaizen mode, where the human-readable instructions are accessible only to those who write the code. This protects the intellectual property of the software developer, but it also limits the abilities of others in the value chain to "see something, say something, and do something" to correct flaws. The lack of visibility into the software in its cars stands in stark contrast to the openness of its management and manufacturing processes. The software hidden in Toyota's black boxes is the equivalent to having a car with its hood welded shut. Open source represents the most significant change and most disruptive force in software development in 20 years. In the open-source software model, the human-readable source code is distributed along with the computer-readable machine code. Users are encouraged to understand the code, find flaws, suggest fixes, and add functionality. Open source is about leveraging the power of participation to solve complex problems such as manufacturing, health care, and government. It may also be how Toyota can improve its vehicles and ultimately regain consumer trust.

This is another important standards war, though few people mention it. The early entrant, wimax, didn't have the time to gain critical mass, and the latecomer, LTE, seems to have stolen the march. The technologies are  roughly equivalent but - the writer says - LTE is becoming the winner, seemingly because it is endorsed by downstream players (device makers such as Nokia), while wimax is being pushed by upstream ones (component makers such as Intel). This causal relationship is not clear, but nonetheless interesting.