Innovation Management

An article on competition in the smartphone industry. Nokia is the market leader thanks to its brand and grip on the Symbian OS, but competitors like Apple and RIM are growing quickly thanks to superior product concepts. It is interesting that Nokia is teaming up with Microsoft in the area of Office applications, in order to increase the appeal of its products.

eBay offloads Skype, its famous and somewhat failed acquisition by selling it to a group of private equity firms. Though the acquisition failed from the point of view of operations and technology (expected integration never happened) it came out to be a success from a financial point of view. In fact, Skype has turned out to be a profitable and high-growth firm (try following the valuations along Skype's lifecycle).

Short article on the up-and-coming technology of 3D televisions, with some comments on the problem of standardization

A few examples of companies using the web to get input from customers

Another basic paper that discusses the impact of technological innovation on mature industries (TV in this case) and on their business models

A simple yet insightful contributions on the challenges that innovation is bringing to the printed media industry and its consolidated business models.

Nokia is suffering from the emergence of smartphones, with the market share growth of RIM and Apple, and a constant decline in unit margins. Therefore, it is now trying to move into online services with its Ovi portal.

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

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?

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.

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.

Nokia and Microsoft, who have always been at odds in the battle for smartphone operating systems, have now formed an alliance for mobile applications. The idea is to bring personal productivity (Office) tools on Nokia (Symbian) phones and fight against growing market share by RIM (Blackberry phones).

A short paper on recent advances in synthetic biology. What are the ethical issues and liability potential when just about any biologist will be able to assemble new life forms starting from basic commercially available components?

Short paper on Japanese attempts to introduce robotics into everyday life. The idea is to blend national competencies high-tech manufacturing) with national issues (i.e. an ageing population).

A well-written paper on the battle for OS dominance when moving from a PC-based world to cloud computing (provided this transition really happens, of course). Some interesting examples from history are provided too.

A brief editorial comment on the problem of conflicts of interest that emerge between companies that sponsor academic research and the recipients of such grants. Of course, when the field is pharmaceuticals, the problems become very big.

The diffusion of netbooks exhibits many interesting traits of radical and disruptive innovation: the change in technical tradeoffs and product architecture (though not of core technology), the downsizing in performance (good enough for a new market), the inertia shown by incumbents.

Microsoft slowly starts building an online business model based on cloud computing, tackling Amazon and Google

Article that discusses the importance for companies to couple innovation strategy with the core values of their brands.

The cloud computing paradigm is getting closer. Now Google is launching Chrome as an OS. While there appears to be widespread acceptance of the paradigm, we should not forget that Microsoft is strongly entrenched as a standard. The Chrome browser still has 2% market share!