Group items tagged

The paradigm shift to electric cars and to the "smart grid" in electricity distribution is happening.What is particularly interesting is the complementarity and potential convergence between the two innovations, if V2G (Vehicle to Grid) technology develops as promised. In this case, the batteries in parked cars could become distributed accumulators of surplus energy and feed it back into the grid. 

The increase of data traffic due to audiovisual content is straining Internet networks, highlighting another strong complementarity between infrastructure and content. The problem is, that most of this content is associated to a few companies (such as Google), who bear the (advertising) fruits of this growth and does not share enough of its costs. What kind of arrangements between players in the value network will create a sustainable model?

Radical innovation is coming into the world of servers too, with multi-core, enery-efficient machines. It is interesting to notice the strong complementarity between this innovation and the emergence of cloud computing.

Success in business models often comes unexpected and generally is due to complementary products and services. For instance, the app store has been one of the main drivers behind the success of i-phones and has been widely imitated by other smartphone manufacturers. However, it appears that Apple hadn't viewed it as such an important element of its strategy at launch

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

3d television is emerging as a radical and potentially disruptive innovation. As usual, availability of complementary goods (content) is a key element in stimulating diffusion, but this time Panasonic is taking an interesting twist to this story. Instead of relying on partnerships with traditional creators and distributors of content (movie producers and broadcasting operators), it is wondering whether a 3d YouTube coiuld be the real solution. Of course, this could lead to completely different business models.