Innovation Management

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.

An interesting perspective on the long-term impact of "apps". From the demand side, they represent a completely new paradigm for interacting with technology. From the supply side, they lead to a deep reconfiguration of the computing industry and of its business models.

Twitter is trying to become a real company, based not only on an impressive user base but with a real business model. The idea is to operate on advertising and value-added services created by communities of developers. Not an easy feat, given that users might not appreciate it, and that players like Google and Facebook are not going to sit on their hands in the meanwhile. 

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.

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.

Another comment on the HP/Palm acquisition. 

That Palm couldn't make it alone was quite clear. However, its competence and assets (the WebOS operating system) are pretty valuable, especially in the hands of the world's largest PC maker now trying to figure out what happens beyond the era of the PC.

Inventions sometimes remain dormant for decades. This is the case for Stirling engines, once considered a funny desktop gadget and now making a comeback because its peculiar features fit into an emerging market need.

An interesting summary of a new book on radical innovation in the field of transportation. One interesting feature is the view that change will occur not only in powertrains, but also in the connectivity that will link cars together.

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.

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.

Smartphones are about to overcome traditional "feature phones" in the US. When inovation happens so fast, with new product generations emerging at intervals that are roughly twice the average replacement lifetime of a product, it becomes difficult to understand whether we are operating within a broad s-curve (mobile phones) or within a succession of s-curves. Could be an interesting topic for research.

The iPad has finally been launched. It will be interesting to see whether this new type of product will carve itself a niche along to existing products (smartphones on the one side, PCs on the other) or whether it will become a substitute to them. Of course, this doesn't only depend on its own merits, but on features like connectivity, availability of applications and content and - not to be neglected - performance of the supply chain.

3D visualization is probably going to become a disruptive innovation over the next few years. This is true for movies and TV sets, but also for gaming on both TV-based and hanheld devices. As usual, the question is whether the disruption will be at the level of device makers or for manufacturers of the component (i.e. screen).

HP and Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm webOS mobile operating system, at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. The transaction has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors. The combination of HP's global scale and financial strength with Palm's unparalleled webOS platform will enhance HP's ability to participate more aggressively in the fast-growing, highly profitable smartphone and connected mobile device markets. Palm's unique webOS will allow HP to take advantage of features such as true multitasking and always up-to-date information sharing across applications. "Palm's innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP's mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices," said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. "And, Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team. The smartphone market is large, profitable and rapidly growing, and companies that can provide an integrated device and experience command a higher share. Advances in mobility are offering significant opportunities, and HP intends to be a leader in this market."

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.

Apple has finalized a deal to acquire a small chip company called Intrinsity, Apple confirmed. Intrinsity, of Austin, Tex., made a name for itself by creating a fast chip for mobile devices in cooperation with Samsung, both a partner and competitor to Apple. Many experts in the chip industry have speculated that Apple relied on Intrinsity's chip as the basis for the main engine behind its new iPad.

More than 120 million people play Zynga's online games. Revenue mostly comes from selling virtual hoes and machine guns and such to players of FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and other titles. Zynga's success depends on the good graces of Facebook, where almost all of its games are played. Facebook doesn't just get happier users, it also gets big checks from Zynga. Facebook is testing a service called Facebook Credits that would offer a single virtual currency for use on many different apps. If the social network forces app makers to use Facebook Credits, as some developers expect will happen this year, Zynga would have to pay the company up to 30% of every transaction. "Zynga is riding high," says Barry Cottle, general manager of EA's interactive unit. "But they may soon find out that the next three years are a hell of a lot harder than the last three."

The digital generation loves social networking, but still there is no way to ensure that social networks are easy to use together. Especially because there are too many. Microsoft is playing the card "Kin", formerly known as Project Pink. Kin's been developed in collaboration with some important partners like Vodafone, Sharp, in order to be more competitive and to create a new smartphone platform., and also with Verizon, to guarantee a huge distribution for the product, in contrast with Google's strategy. The aim of the first pair of mobile Kin (in the future Microsoft could add other devices to this first generation platform) is not to simplify but to amplify the social users life and has got the difficult task of attracting the young, future consumers, within the Microsoft ecosystem, rather than in those created by Google and Apple.