Posts in Technology
Cloud plus on-premise vendors best placed for SMB SaaS opportunity
AMI Partners recently reported that the greatest growth in Cloud/SaaS for SMBs would be in email/messaging, online storage and backup, and document management/collaboration solutions. They made the point that the Cloud plus on-premise vendors are best placed to take advantage of this shift, and in fact to help accelerate the shift.
More..."SMBs have their doubts, particularly around the security of a 3rd party hosting confidential numbers. But companies like Microsoft and IBM who provide a convergence of on-premise and SaaS are clearing these concerns for interested SMBs who are trying to maximize the combination of cloud and on-premise issues," said AMI Senior Associate Yedda Chew.
The Economist on threats to the internet’s openness
It believes that the geographic, commercial and technological silos being created on the Internet are a threat to it’s openness and the very essence of the Internet.
It scrutinises the three types of silos that are being created on the internet.
- National – China, Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam all restrict access
- Commercial walled gardens – we’re reverting to a bygone period when tech companies (AOL, CompuServe etc) shackled consumers to their proprietary systems
- Net neutrality – The Economist suggests that operators looking for sources of revenue may try and strike deals with content provides and discriminate between traffic from different sources
It’s well worth a read if you’re inter More...
Eerily accurate predictions from AT&T 1993 television advertising
Take a look at this interesting montage of television advertising from AT&T from nearly 20 years ago.
The "You Will" series looked at what you will be able to do in the future. It's amazing how many of the predictions the ads got right – there’s an iPad like device, a GPS navigation system, the ability to purchase concert tickets online, virtual meeting software, and on-demand video at home.
There are several things that were spectacularly inaccurate however such as the continued use of a phone booth and fax. (When was the last time you even saw a phone booth?) But it's remarkable how much was absolutely right. More...
How Social Will Change Everything In Business
I saw a video on the State of Social CRM post on Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang in which Paul Greenberg talks about how companies are having difficulties with cultural changes internally to execute against the new bread of customer, the social customer. In case you don’t know what CRM is, it’s Customer Relationship Management as described in Wikipedia as a “technology that allows companies to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service.”
What an ear full!
My version would be just an application that keeps track of customer facing activities so you can find the gaps in your service and More...
The Web of data is a Web of influence
I’m a fan of Web 3.0. Perhaps obsessed is a more accurate description.
Web 1.0 is the Web of documents. Web 2.0 is the social and user content Web. Web 3.0 is the point at which the Web itself understands that content and social interaction. Some call it the semantic Web, and some call it the Web of data, but regardless of naming conventions, it’s going to mess up a hell of a lot of business models, and create some fascinating new business and public-benefit opportunities. And it’ll transform reputation management too.
If you think ‘atoms of influence’ trickle far and wide courtesy of human expressions and understanding with social media acting as loyal conduit, just wait until machines understand these contributions too. More...
Bad Social: Impact of Social Media on the IPhone 4 & AAPL Stock
By Ryck Lent: "It's the antenna, stupid!"
Well, sure it is. But Apple's (AAPL) handling of this product problem in the new world of social media and social commerce is worth considering in detail. Here's the key statistic:
During seven trading days, from the Friday (July 9th) prior to Consumer Reports' confirmation of the antenna problem and the "Not Recommended" review (Monday July 12) through Monday, July 19th, AAPL stock dropped around $15 per share. With a little over 900M shares outstanding, this means AAPL lost $12 BILLION in market capitalization -- a 5% decline. More...
Video Usage May Drive U.S. Broadband Revolt
eMarketer reports that while most mainstream U.S. consumers may not care much about the broadband access speed that they have at home, they are very interested in continuing to gain access to the vast array of video content that's readily available to them via the public Internet.
The number of online video viewers continues to grow, while the number of videos viewed skyrockets. Nearly 183 million U.S. internet users watched an average of 186 videos per viewer during the month of May, for a total of 34 billion videos, according to comScore.
U.S. households are also becoming more networked, as consumers buy more and more internet-enabled consumer electronics (CE) devices. More...
1.9 Billion Installed CE Devices in U.S. by 2013
Year-over-year shipment growth will be 231 percent between 2010 and 2011 -- resulting in a doubling of the U.S. installed base of units for 3D TVs from 2010 to 2011.
"High definition (HD) did create a wave of activity in the U.S. market, not seen since the introduction of color," says Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst. "3DTV promises to be the next significant innovation wave for living room entertainment."
Despite many bright spots in the U.S. More...
Tech in the Park: Making Clever Use of Teens’ Love of Music
Wondering what this is? It’s a rather clever contraption, apparently installed by Monster Play, a Hertfordshire-based company.
Built into the rain/sun shelter that sits on the edge of a new local skate park, this unit allows you to broadcast music to a small speaker from your phone, mp3 player, laptop, etc via Bluetooth. More...