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A bit of a provocation, but interesting. The idea is that adoption of e-health is hindered by the fact that the business model of health care institutions (i.e. hospitals and such) is to provide care, not to improve health. As such, the greater process efficiency induced by e-health systems would not benefit the very institutions who should invest for its adoption, and who instead make their money out of current inefficiencies. The reader comments at the bottom of the paper enlarge the picture a bit.

This an example of a business model change. The innovation is in the change of the way to make money. Deutsche-Bahn entered with its new business model in the market of another country, where the competitors are going in a completely different way.  But is the way to make money adopted by Deutsche-Bahn really innovative, or is Trenitalia going in the wrong way, allowing so  the German competitor to realize its strategy?

An interesting article on the social impact of technology diffusion. In this case it is the way with which (mostly young) Chinese are behaving when they become adopters of motor cars and enjoy the freedom of individual mobility. The business implication is that the way with which a product is used creates demand for complementary goods that are specific to the same behavior. So, understanding such behavior can provide interesting guidance for new products and services

A strange battle is coming up. Apple's portable devices cannot access Flash content on websites. The declared reason is that Apple thinks HTML5 content would work better on mobile devices and wants to force website developers to adopt this standard instead of Flash. This looks like a dangerous position: why should a company engaged in a standards batlle look for the "technically best" solution and forego the advantage of compatibility with the main complementary asset (the Internet)? Apple made a big mistake a few decades ago with a similar stance. Or, could it be that Apple thinks that the diffusion of the Flash proprietary standard is a threat?

'Early adopters', 'trendsetters', 'opinion leaders', 'first movers' - are the labels describing those who are ahead of the mainstream, who are keen to try out new things. The article explains the subtle differences between those terms and how can companies proactively incorporate using these groups and their insight into their innovation management process.

An interesting comment on the way with which technology is likely to shape the concept of home entertainment in the near future. As it appears, it will be based on bringing "intelligence" on board devices rather than adopting a single do-it-all server. Implications on competitive advantage for the many potential competitors are pretty obvious

Nokia's once established dominance in smartphones is a distant memory, due to iPhones and Android based devices. It is true that being an early mover is key to setting standards, but it is not enough if dominance doesn't remain when one moves along the s-curve from early adopters to the early majority.

Mr. Joshi (the head of Hewlett-Packard's $24 billion printing empire) has spent years disputing the notion that people will print less as they do more on their hand-held devices. This week, he will see his ideas put into action as H.P. introduces a fleet of printers with Web access, their own e-mail addresses and touch screens. These products should open up new ways for people to print from Web services like Google Docs, and from smartphones and devices like the iPad from Apple. Mr. Joshi is going back to his roots as an engineer - as a young H.P. researcher, he figured out a way to make ink cartridges fire 45 million drops - and relying on new technologies, not slick marketing. But still, he will have to prove that customers will change their behavior and print more if given the right tools. That, Mr. Reitzes said, is crucial to how investors will evaluate the long-term prospects of H.P. "Investors are worried about printing," he said. "It's really important that they get this right." As the world's largest technology company, H.P. sells a wide variety of products but got much of its profit from printers and their pricey ink. More recently, H.P. has built up a large technology services arm as well, which has helped round out its business. But the printing division accounts for about a fifth of its revenue and a third of its profits. The new printers - which build on a limited experiment last year - will range in price from $99 to about $400. Every one will come with what H.P. executives billed as a breakthrough feature - its very own e-mail address. H.P.'s engineers hit on the e-mail address as an easy, familiar way for people to send print jobs to the Web-ready printers. You can, for example, take a photo with a phone, e-mail it to your printer's address and have the printout waiting for you at home. Or, you can share the printer's e-mail address with family and friends. This means that someone can buy Grandma a Web-ready printe

Now that battery-powered vehicles seem to be the solution of choice for the next generation of cars, companies are looking for attractive markets. Will fleets be the right place to go? Maybe yes, if such fleets require short-range urban mission profiles. Maybe not, if all the attractiveness simply is adding a "green touch" to the company. 

Yesterday in Cupertino, CA, the Apple's CEO unveiled at the developers the new iPhone OS 4.0. The new OS is available to iPhone developers today, while the general public will get the update sometime this summer. Apple uses innovators and then early adopters to improve the product, leveraging on their enthusiasm. "We are not the first to offer this service, but we are the best" : Steve Jobs doesn't know moderation and understatement. Some of the OS 4.0 features, as the multitasking, doesn't represents that kind of radical innovation, just because Google did it first. But Apple is aware about giving those features to its product in the right time, according to Jobs. By the way, multitasking is only 1 of the 100 new user features announced and thanks to the early market the OS 4.0 could potentially represent the birth of new paradigms in the operating software market.

Advertising agencies and software developers also welcomed Apple's new iAd network as a potential breakthrough that could give an important boost to the small but fast-growing mobile advertising market. iAd is an OS 4.0 built-in app, which could be the starting point of a new generation of mobile adverts that would be far more engaging than current formats, which Jobs said "suck". Thanks to his company's control Apple's network would be able to serve up more creative forms of advertising to run inside the "apps" users download on to these devices. Advertising inside apps, although still small, has become the hottest corner of the mobile advertising business, prompting a race between Google and Apple. In fact, earlier this year Apple bought Quattro Wireless for $270 million signaling its intention to enter the advertising network space. Quattro is an ad network that spans both mobile websites and smartphone applications. It seems to develop a new strategy and paradigm for the advertisement and a new battle field for the two giants Apple and Google. Which will emerge?

In order to provide a better communication between the corporate seat and the foreign branches in Germany, and to manage the whole organisation and data, FIAT adopted a new Corporate Planner. The strengths of this application are the compatibility with the older ones, the flexibility of the system and the real time management. Actually, this can be a starting point to solve the huge internal communication problems of the Fiat Group Automobiles, created by the new alliance with Chrysler. If it works correctly,it will be extended to the whole company.

Slowly but surely, LED light bulbs have been getting brighter and more efficient, but price has always been a major factor staying their adoption. Back in 2007, a single 308 lumen bulb cost $65, and the more things changed, the more they've stayed the same. Now, out of the blue, The Home Depot has stepped forward with a cost-effective alternative. For $20, the new EcoSmart LED bulb promises a 429 lumen, 40W equivalent with a 50,000 hour expected lifetime, making it cheaper and nearly as powerful as the 450 lumen, $40-50 design industry heavyweight GE unveiled last month. Best of all, it's already available for purchase (though backordered) at our source link. Honestly, we're starting to wonder what the catch is. PR after the break.