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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.

It's likely that some of the words such as "netbook", "smartbook", "tablet", etc. will sound funny and obsolete in the near future. However, it is always like this during paradigm changes. Industry is now trying to understand what comes after the PC, and no product architecture and usage process has yet emerged as dominant.

SAP, the dominant player in the corporate information systems industry, is apparently hitting a wall in face of radical innovation. First, the shift towards cloud computing seems to be very difficult to the company, although this slow transition could actually help its huge customer base move towards more modern systems without too many shock waves. Second, and probably more profound, SAP is finding it very difficult to change its internal routines and processes by embracing "agile" approaches to product development.

Amazon's 1-Click has come under a lot of fire over the years from critics who question whether such a broad technology should be patented at all. It refers to the process by which online shoppers make purchases with a single click, having previously entered their payment and shipping information. Amazon's patent on one-click shopping has survived the scrutiny of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In an official notice published this month, the USPTO declared its intent to issue a reexamination certificate affirming the validity of Amazon's amended version of the patent. The amended version has a slightly smaller scope, limiting the patent's coverage to online shopping cart systems rather than all one-click e-commerce. In its statement today, the USPTO declared that the new version of the patent is valid, despite the fact that it has no functional difference from the original version. This outcome, which took four years to reach, reflects the deficiencies of the reexamination process.

In India, where two-wheelers represent the most common transportation means, Tata Motors saw the need to come up with a safer kind of transportation. In addition to this safety issue, personal transport is also problematic because of the rare availability of public transportation . Therefore, Tata Motors introduced the People's Car, called the Nano. This disruptive product innovation will surely have significant effects on the small-car segment.

Design thinking is a crucial business asset-one that can, indeed, move a company forward and improve the bottom line. To optimize this impact, Ryan Jacoby and Diego Rodriguez advise thoughtfully structuring the innovation process. They stress working on projects that improve people's lives, and they present a "ways to grow" model that helps managers direct and assess innovation efforts.

After a period of research, Jacuzzi has come to IUNGO, the Smarten's software and business solution for managing the supply chain. They chose IUNGO instead of SAP first of all because it's Italian, and moreover because it's more customizable and easier to use. Furthermore IUNGO is fully integrable with the management software currently in use and did not require any customization of the ERP.

Google on Tuesday said it will acquire Global IP Solutions Holding, which makes processing software for voice and video over IP, for $68.2 million. The deal means that Google will own the voice and video conferencing engine behind its competitors' instant messaging systems. Global IP Solutions (GIPS) provides best-in-class voice and video processing in IP communications. GIPS enables its customers to deliver unmatched quality, with a faster time to market and less risk than alternative solutions. Its customer list includes Nortel, Oracle, Samsung, WebEx, Yahoo!, AOL and other key players in the VoIP market. The purchase of GIPS comes a day before Google's I/O conference. Given Google's acquisition of Gizmo5 and its existing Google Voice service, the search giant appears to be collecting enough assets to give Skype and others competition on the consumer and business fronts. GIPS's software can also be layered into Google Apps in multiple areas as a business collaboration tool.

Product liability issues are always quite tricky for companies. Even though child buggies are not really high-tech products, and safety problems should not come out unexpected, even established companies often mismanage the process.

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

'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.

It's hardly been a secret that Windows 7 was on track to become Microsoft's fastest-selling operating system, but the company has just now finally made that designation official, and also revealed that the OS has crossed the magical 100 million licenses sold mark in the process. In other words, that translates to Windows 7 being installed on one in ten of the world's PCs just six months after it launched, which is pretty darn impressive any way you slice it -- or punch it, as the case may be.

This ain't the first rodeo for Visa and DeviceFidelity, and if we had to guess, we suspect it won't be the last. Just a few short months after teaming up to bring contactless payments to any mobile with a microSD slot, the two are at it again -- this time aiming for the oh-so-tantalizing iPhone market. Reportedly, the tandem is toiling away in an effort to concoct a protective iPhone shell with a secure memory card that hosts Vista's contactless payment app, payWave. As it stands, the product would only function on the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, leaving upcoming iPhone 4G / HD / Barhopper buyers out in the cold. As with any other payWave-enabled handset, this would allow users to simply tap and go when checking out, a process that our pals over in Japan have had down for centuries now. If all goes well, market trials of the payment-enabled iPhone are set to begin this summer, or approximately six months too late for anyone to seriously care.

Household, Misc. Gadgets Northeastern University students build web-syncing, home-automating DPAC alarm clock By Donald Melanson posted May 6th 2010 4:51PM It may not actually be available for sale, but it looks like some students from Northeastern University are giving devices like the Chumby and Sony Dash a run for their money. They've built this so-called Dynamically Programmable Alarm Clock, or DPAC, which can sync up with your Google Calendar to automatically set alarms, get traffic, weather and other information, and even integrate with a home automation system to turn on the lights, open the blinds, and start your coffee maker as part of a wake-up cycle. What's more, the whole thing can also be configured using a web interface, and it of course packs a built-in FM radio and an iPod dock for good measure. Hit up the source link below for a look at the months-long build process, and head on past the break to check it out in action. See: http://egaertner.com/dpac/

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.

At the Intel Investor Conference on Tuesday, Intel's Paul Otellini opened his remarks by taking a step back to survey the results of the major restructuring that Intel has been implementing since 2006. This change has turned Intel from a company that makes chips into a company that sells platforms, software, and services-the whole stack. "The company has been transformed in a way that is remarkable, and in the aggregate reflects a different kind of company than we've ever had before," Otellini said. Much of this transformation was about getting costs down (read: layoffs) and boosting per-worker productivity, but the most interesting and important part of the story was the software and services piece. Early on in his talk, Otellini set the tone by naming silicon process technology and software as two of Intel's key differentiators from the competition. At a later point in the talk, he went on to explain that back in 2000, "we were just a chip company... over the years we've added a number of things. We've got platforms, software, and services increasingly being added."