Group items tagged

Flat pricing schemes for mobile internet are enticing customers to dramatically increase use of bandwidth. Interestingly enough, that is the axiom on which most operators have buidlt their mobile internet business models. Will this be sustainable in the long run?

Quite thought provoking. TV sets are being deeply changed by enabling technologies such as 3D and Internet access. However, what is the product, the viewing experience and the business model that will become dominant, based on these enablers?

Story about IBM's move from software to services science. There is an interesting sideways remark on the fact that this effort will also act as determinant for developing the "internet of things"

What will paradigms for TV sets after HDTV is a bit of a question mark. On the one side, it might be 3D technology. On the other, it might be convergence with the Internet. TV-set makers are playing big bets on both possibilities, and convergence is of course dependent on the existence of content and software that can make it interesting in the eyes of customers. As is currently happening for smartphones, content need not be generated internally, but through app-store mechanisms. Will this strategy pay off?

Talking about changing paradigms on the Internet, it is becoming clear that in the world of social networking the idea of privacy is changing (if not disappearing at all). One of the most extreme cases is Blippy, a seemingly successful Twitter-like service that captures all of your expenses and shows them to all on the web.

One of the first examples of the Internet of Things, i.e. using the idea of the Web 2.0 (i.e. user-generated content) but with objects providing the information. Disruptive? Potentially yes, because it kills the need for expensive dedicated infrastructure. Of course, an interesting idea but you must also think about what will the sustainable business models be.

The battle for smartphones is no longer a Symbian / Nokia vs.Microsoft affair. The two real competitors appear to be Apple and Google. However, it is interesting to notice that their strategy is markedly different, and depends on the underlying business model of the two companies. Apple wants to use cheap Apps to bring users to its devices. Google wants to use Internet access to bring users to its search algorithms. In any case, it is interesting to notice that both firms base their competitive position on a mixture of openness (to achieve reach) and secrecy/closeness (to make money).

Internet è nata come uno strumento di ricerca. con i Social Network ha assunto anche il ruolo di strumento di sociale. L'uso sempre più diffuso dei Social Network sta forse cambiano lo scopo originario dei Internet? Si sta andando verso una nuova direzione?

The Netflix contest was significant as a test case for new ideas about how to efficiently foster innovation in the Internet era - notably, offering prizes as an incentive and encouraging online collaboration to tap minds worldwide. The lessons of the Netflix contest could extend well beyond improving movie picks. The researchers from around the world were grappling with a huge data set - 100 million movie ratings - and the challenges of large-scale modeling, which can be applied across the fields of science, commerce and politics.

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 happens in services too. Companies like Mastercard and Visa are now facing strong competition from Internet-based players like PayPal and have to start developing new products. It is interesting that MasterCard has gone beyond the usual approach of acquiring smaller firms and has set up an R&D unit. This may help develop absorbtive capacity and avoid running into integration problems.

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?

Google and Intel are expected to announce a significant breakthrough into consumer electronics and the broadcast industry this week with the launch of a "Smart TV" platform. Top executives from the Silicon Valley companies are reported to be ready to reveal a deal with Sony, bringing web services to its televisions, during Google's annual developer conference in San Francisco. Intel's Atom microprocessor and Google's Android operating system are spearheading their assault on set-top boxes and TVs featuring integrated internet services. Intel pioneered internet "widgets" on TV screens with Yahoo in 2008 but while many other players have entered the market since, it remains fragmented and has been slow to take off.

Authorities on both sides of the Atlantic on Monday moved towards investigating Google following the internet group's disclosure that it had recorded communications sent over unsecured wireless networks in people's homes. Peter Schaar, the German commissioner for data protection, called for a "detailed probe" by independent authorities into the practice by Google. He said the group's explanation of the collection of data as an accident was "highly unusual". "One of the largest companies in the world, the market leader on the internet, simply disobeyed normal rules in the development and usage of software," he said. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission was expected to launch an inquiry as well, according to people who spoke to agency officials. Privacy advocates said an inquiry could look at whether the collection of data breached rules on unauthorised access to computers and private communications. "This may be one of the most massive surveillance incidents by a private corporation that has ever occurred", said Marc Rotenberg, leader of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Centre in Washington. "It is unprecedented vacuuming of WiFi data by a private company. Can you imagine what would happen if a German corporation was sending cars through Washington sucking up all this information?" Google reiterated its statements from late Friday in Europe, when it reversed earlier denials that it had collected personal activity. It said it had been using a fleet of camera-equipped Street View vehicles, which take pictures for the group's imaging services, and had been at the same time using the cars to assemble a database of electronic WiFi addresses intended to improve the functioning of its maps and other location services. Google said the project leaders ignored that the vehicles were also taking in snippets of activity on the WiFi networks. "We didn't want to collect this data in the first place and we would like to dest

A nice overview on how cloud computing works, and on how this could become the next paradigm for information technology. Don't read the main article only, but also the ones that are linked at the bottom. The review leans a lot on technology. I think it should be read by thinking about which market demands might favour or hinder the emergence of cloud computing.

The shift to digital media requires a shift in business models. But, are customers willing to pay enough to cover the costs?

Analysts are starting to recognize that - maybe - operating systems for smartphones will follow a different story than in the past. Instead of a winner-take-all market based on standardization, diversity is likely to prevail. This because handset makers and telcos will try to push in that direction  - as long as this will not reduce customer utility - and because the real source of value (and potential locus of standardization) now sits in the web and in social networks. In this case, which device and which OS is going to be used is going to be irrelevant.

Yet another move by Google... becoming one of the first providers of NGN (Next Generation Networks) services, allowing ultra-fast connectivity and a new generation of services to emerge. Understanding the business logic behind such moves is of course difficult, but we are accustomed to the fact that Google quite often gets it right!

The burgeoning legal challenges to Apple over its rapid advances in mobile computing mounted on Friday when Finland's Nokia launched a patent infringement suit over the iPad. Nokia accused Apple in a US federal court in Wisconsin of infringing five patents in the iPad, which has sold 1m units since its US debut in March. Nokia's suit cites technology used to enhance speech and data transmission and antenna innovations that allow for more compact devices. "These patented innovations are important to Nokia's success as they allow improved product performance and design," the Finnish company said in a statement. Apple had no immediate response. The Finnish company, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, is already in dispute with Apple over alleged patent infringement in the iPhone. IDC said on Friday that Nokia's smartphone market share in the first quarter was flat at 39 per cent, while Apple saw its share of the shipments jump to 16 per cent from 11 per cent a year ago, closing in on Canada's Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, which occupies second spot. Overall, smartphone sales rose 57 per cent in the quarter. The iPad is Apple's bid to leverage its smartphone success into a new category of mobile computing, with fingertip control instead of a mouse and an interface designed for consuming digital content. Apple announced on Friday that the device would go on sale outside the US at the end of the month in nine other countries. The US technology group is planning to charge more for the iPad in other countries than it does in the US, with UK prices starting at £429 ($632) for tablet devices, which currently only offers a WiFi connection to the internet. Prices in continental Europe will begin at €499 ($630). This compares with $499 in the US. The latest patent dispute, as well as the earlier cases, will aim to establish whether the intellectual property that powers Apple's mobile devices owes more to the world of mobile

Toyota has agreed to invest $50m in Tesla, the Californian builder of battery-powered cars, as it seeks to extend the dominance it has built in petrol-electric hybrids into the next generation of green vehicles. The deal announced on Thursday makes Toyota the second big global automaker to invest in Tesla, a six-year-old startup founded by Elon Musk, creator of the internet payment service PayPal, and backed by other Silicon Valley luminaries such as Google's founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin. The deal could help Toyota repair its reputation in the US after a series of safety problems that have forced it to recall millions of its cars, pay a $16.4m fine and endure multiple investigations by Congress. Toyota has built a big lead in low-emission cars with its Prius hybrid, which went on sale in 1997, and is by far the best-selling alternative to standard petrol-only vehicles. But some other carmakers are preparing to try and leap-frog Toyota by introducing battery-only cars.