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IT is a peculiar technology, rather similar to electricity. Rather than being a sector on its own, it is becoming an enabling technology stimulating radical innovation for an ever broader range of industries. After telecoms, then media, and many other industries, it is now the turn of energy to be affected by "smart grid" technology. Spotting the next radical and disruptive inovation could be easy: just try finding an industry where IT has not yet created a lot of change.

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

Article on the complemetary role of public and private financing in supporting technology in the early phases of its lifecycle. Financing is a mixed blessing, since it is necessary to make technology viable, but it risks supporting the "wrong" technology or dominant design

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.

2010 will probably be the year in which 3D television sets enter the market. Interesting that this up-and-coming technology will probably emerge before its predecessor (HDTV) becomes dominant, especially because the useful life of a TV set is longer than the lifeitme of its technology. Another interesting point is the standard that will emerge as a foundation for 3D TVs, whether it will be based on traditional colored eyeglasses, or (more costly) glass-less technology.

We all know stories of radical innovation becoming disruptive because incumbent cannot change their competencies and embrace the upcoming technology. Maybe not any more, given the fluidity of modern markets for technology. In fact, one of the main players of the e-paper industry, PVI, is in fact a subsidiary of a major Taiwanese paper mill, and has pursued an interesting strategy of partnership and acquisition in order to transition to the new technology.

Augmented reality in 2010 is a typical technology in the "incubation" phase. The technology is there, the basic building blocks (e.g. GPS-enabled smartphones cum camera) are already widely diffused... but it is now necessary to find a real application that people will be willing to pay for.

It seems that someone around the world has come up with some interesting applications in the field of gaming! Check out these links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZvxIjdyyII, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lHOHYhp6b4. Simply …uaohhh!

Photovoltaic technology is an interesting case study. Americans firms have pushed their way in thin-film technology, but are finding it difficult to scale up manufacturing. Meanwhile, the Chinese have invested heavily in reducing manufacturing cost of traditional technology. Though it is still early to understand which is the winning bet, it shows that it is not easy to make such far reaching choices

Interesting discussion on the diffusion of solar energy around the world and especially in the US. The main point is: is solar energy a valid energy source, and is just in need to have some economies of scale and learning to kick in? If so, government subsidies may be helpful... but don't they bring the risk of locking us into a wrong technology, or simply the wrong technological generation?

Details are unfortunately light on this one, but Intel has closed out the week with one interesting tidbit of news -- it's apparently planning to bring its wireless display technology (a.k.a. WiDi) to netbooks, tablets and other mobile devices. That word comes straight from Intel wireless display product manager Kerry Forrell, who says that "we fully expect to take the technology there," but that he can't yet provide a specific time frame. Those plans are further backed up by Intel CEO Paul Otellini himself, who told investors this week that "what we'll be doing over the next few years is take the Wi-Di capability that's in the laptop today and extend that into all the Intel platforms." Intel doesn't even seem to be stopping there, however, with Forrell further adding that the company even sees the technology being built into to TVs "over time."

Nuclear technology is a strange beast in the field of innovation. Based on science and complex technology, characterized by huge advantages but also marked by huge disadvantages, it has never gained widespread acceptance in the market. Now there might be a new application, in the field of civilian shipping.

e-books are an up-and-coming technology and there is a strong debate on the way they will affect the future of newspapers. The case is more complicated for magazines, that of course require color. An interesting case of the interplay between technology performance and user needs, leading (or not) to the enabling of a disruptive innovation.

Tablet PCs have been recently been proposed as the big innovation in the PC arena. But the problem - as usual - is going beyond technology and into usability. Will people really accept something that is larger and more expensive than a handheld, smaller than a notebook, with a touchscreen but no keyboard? Will the devices be attractive per se, or will it be necessary to integrate them into a wider ecosystem? Of course, past experience tells us this last question suggests different potential winners (the PC camp in the former case, Apple in the latter).

 A story from an often neglected industry: shipbuilding. A new technological trajectory seemed to emerge during the last decade, with the launch of large and extremely fast (30 knots) container ships. Unfortunately, the economic crisis and a new vision onsustainability has changed the tradeoffs between vessel speed and operating cost. Technology is definitely shaped by demand.

Yet another acquisition by Google. The company, also thanks to its impressive position in cash, has a long-term strategy of using acquisitions in order to grow its base of technology assets and competencies.

The transition from conventional to electric cars is probably undergoing the "sailing ship effect". Traditional technology is being improved quite substantially, and this is likely to defer the switch to the emerging technology

Are 3D movies going to become the "dominant design" for the industry and supplant 2D? Or will the two technologies co-exist, with directors, producers and audiences preferring one or the other depending on the movie? A question still un-answered, where technical features intermingle with consumer preferences that are hard to fathom. Companies making investment decisions on this technology may find it difficult to make rational choices. 

An article highlighting issues that carmakers will have to tackle in the future, with electric vehicles, self-driving technology, and a new concept of mobility. The challenge is not only related to technology but also to business models.

The user interface for games consoles has dramatically changed since the Nintendo Wii. Now, in order to be in the game, console makers had to provide motion detection technology. Looking at Microsoft, will this R&D race pay off, maybe in terms of spillovers to other business lines, or only lead to defocusing?

Google's innovation strategy started out with mostly internal developments, then moved to related acquisitions - mostly to speed up innovation - and is now moving towards loosely related investment. However, this effort is not viewed as diversification but as getting a foothold in fields that now seem unrelated, but might not be in the future, giving the ubiquity of information technology