The sharp decline is highly unusual for a new Apple product so early in
its life and will compound Wall Street concerns about the company’s
overall growth prospects this year. Common complaints about smartwatches include short battery life and
users’ difficulty in configuring them to personal preferences,
Having the money to invest in innovation does not necessarily guarantee success. But it helps. JL
Sally French and Terence Horan report in Market Watch:
Facebook
wants to bring the internet to the whole world — using a giant,
solar-powered drone with the wingspan of an airliner. And it flies on the power of roughly three hair-dryers.
A four-year construction boom aimed at buyers willing to spend $10
million or more has flooded the top of the market just as global market
turmoil has caused wealthy investors to pull back and the federal
government has moved to scrutinize some all-cash transactions.“The global misperception was that the demand would be endless. The reality was the market was not as deep as what was thought.”
Americans want self-driving cars. Not because they’ll save loads of time or ease the commute nightmare, but because it will save them money. Of the 1,500 US drivers surveyed, 55 percent said they “likely” or “very likely” would buy a semi-autonomous car.
Users spent 26% of their time on messaging and social media apps, and
10% of their time on internet search browsers. Additionally, Facebook
had the most touches with 15% of interactions. Touches began as soon as participants woke up — around 7 a.m. — and accelerated through the evening. 87% of participants interacted with their devices between midnight and 5 a.m.
Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielen report in Harvard Business Review:
Nearly half of office-based workers say technology has actually increased the amount of time they spend working. If you plan ahead, go far from your work, and feel safe, 94% of
vacations have a good ROI in terms of your energy and outlook upon
returning. (A) key predictor of vacation ROI is the stress caused by not planning. People who took fewer than 10 of their vacation days per year had a
34.6% likelihood of receiving a raise or bonus. People who took more than 10 of their vacation days had a 65.4%
chance of receiving a raise or bonus.
Our every click online is fraught with meaning - because it's all just data and can all be evaluated. JL
Adrienne LaFrance reports in The Atlantic:
Social media behaviors vary by age. Teens mostly post photos that reflect their “mood or personal well being." The slipperiness of the meaning of a “like” is no different than the
subtext that comes with any other form of human language. The way we
speak to one another evolves, we try to keep up, and sometimes we
actually understand each other.
You may buy the device, but you don't own the software that powers it - or the rate at which it may become obsolete. JL
The Verge reports:
When you’re signing up to a free new service, it’s easy to
understand the implicit contract: I’m giving something about myself
for free in exchange for this, and this might just
go away. Buying
something that’s attached to your wall, in your light sockets, or even
on your person is far more intimate and you expect longevity, but
there’s almost no chance it’ll work for as long as your offline gadget
did. The tech world moves so fast it’ll be forgotten before the decade
is out.
Security protocols are less robust than the incentives to disrupt systems - and then charge for their repair or restitution. JL
Lorenzo Francheschi-Bicchierai reports in Motherboard:
The biggest vulnerability is the link between the
human and the robot. Researchers studying the cybersecurity
risks of robot surgeons believe that in a real-world scenarios,
the machines will likely use the same networks we use to check Facebook
or play Pokémon Go. Where there’s opportunity, there will be motive. The security and the resilience of the IT we depend upon should be commensurate with the level of risk
On the internet, shelf space is infinite. And so is the potential to fail. JL
Ben Thompson comments in Stratechery:
AWS and Amazon itself, having both normalized e-commerce amongst
consumers and incentivized the creation of fulfillment networks, made
the creation of standalone e-commerce companies more viable than ever
before. This meant that Dollar Shave Club, hosted on AWS servers, could
neutralize P&G’s distribution advantage: on the Internet, shelf
space is unlimited.
Through our use of the internet we are in the process of creating a digital self. Discerning consumers have become aware of the fact that every click download and purchaseis data to built into a predictive model that can help marketers and government officials build a profile of us, and an increasingly accurate one.
What is becoming clear is that we are also developing an online personality whose shape can be both identified and accessed. The power of this information in helping to shape decision-making - our own and those of enterprises hoping to sell us anything from a laundry detergent to a political candidate.
One of the most important coming economic, ethical and personal battles will be over the degree to which individuals and those enterprises agree to share management of that data. Europe is already insisting upon a right to assess the personal impact of algorithmic use as well as a right to forget. But it is what data are remembered - by whom and for what purpose - that will most profoundly influence public and private futures. JL
Dave Winsborough and colleagues report in The Guardian:
Abilities to extract personality from our digital behavior, predicting how we’ll behave, is close. Researchers (have) used Facebook likes to identify personality, gender,
political affiliation, sexual orientation and religious affiliation. While the algorithms (and) profit models are unfolding, our
digital personalities are accessible to anyone - more revealing than a conversation, and more accurate than our own hopes and desires. Others (may) know us better than we know ourselves, and use that knowledge to take our agency. (Or) our digital selves allow the power of insight to be
harnessed for our own good.
Hell, yes. Less painful than incessant pop-ups for products you've either already bought or will never use. JL
Rachael Cusick reports in Slate:
Might I still shamelessly opt for one of those surveys over an inescapable video advertisement? Any day. These surveys make me feel as though I control my browsing experience,
which sharply contrasts those video advertisements and encroaching
sponsored images. And that’s exactly the reaction the folks at Google
Consumer Surveys were hoping I would have.
The dirty little secret behind the responsiveness of some customer-oriented bots: actual humans.
Could this become a longer term feature...out of necessity? JL
Jessica Stillman reports in Inc:
The tech behind chatbots is far from ready for prime time and companies are often covering
this up by employing "humans pretending to be robots pretending to be
humans. Companies offering do-anything
concierges; shopping assistants; and e-mail schedulers have sprung up.
The goal for most is to require as few humans as
possible. But for now, the companies are largely powered by people,
clicking behind the curtain and making it look like magic.
Former GE Chairman Jack Welch's system for rating executives and then culling the bottom 5 or 10% always seemed to pat. And one wonders if the company might have exceeded its mediocre decade of performance after his retirementhad it been more focused on the future than on adhering to rigid processes. JL
Lauren Webber reports in the Wall Street Journal:
The chance of an employee receiving the same rating from one year to the
next was 33%—meaning the practice of “managing out” workers who rate
low relative to their peers in annual rankings could result in companies
firing next year’s solid B players or even stars. The study adds some heft to recent decisions by bellwethers such as Goldman Sachs and GE to coach workers more and reduce the focus on annual performance appraisals and ratings
Amazon has made a fetish of customer service, even defying Wall Street's chronic demand for better margins in order to invest in enhanced delivery capabilities.
That focus has permitted the company to expand, despite having to survive questions about the treatment of employees and destruction of entire swaths of the traditional global economy. There is a powerful lesson in that emphasis and the freedom it has given the company. JL
Scott Davis reports in Forbes:
Amazon regularly ranks at the top of every customer service poll, was
recently inducted into the customer service hall of fame, and was found
to be one of the most relevant brands to U.S. consumers. Imagine the levels of customer loyalty it will achieve if Alexa becomes as widely adopted as Siri. Amazon
is becoming the world leader in delivering on its
brand promise: being the “Earth’s biggest selection and being the
Earth’s most customer-centric company.”
Not exactly a solution to the gender issues in tech, but you have to start somewhere, one supposes. JL
Andrew Cunningham reports in LeadGitzmos:
11 new "professional" emoji will depict both men and women performing
different jobs, and there will be both male and female versions of 33
existing emoji that currently depict either a man or a woman but not
both. The plan is based largely on a proposal from Google.
Data is just another fungible asset. It's what you do with it that matters. JL
Ron Miller reports in Tech Crunch:
Whatever the outcome, the data has no inherent value unless it produces
an outcome to help us perform better — and finding the data that matters
most is still a huge issue.
It's about how all those pesky humans interpret the potential of that technology and the opportunities it offers. JL
Scott Anthony reports in Harvard Business Review:
Companies often see the
disruptive forces affecting their industry. They divert
sufficient resources to participate in emerging markets. Their failure
is an inability to embrace the new business models
disruptive change opens. Kodak created a digital camera, invested in technology, and understood that photos would be shared online. They failed in realizing that online photo sharing was the new business, not just a way to expand the printing business.
The best defense is a good offense. In a sign of how global perceptions of value have changed, Chinese companies such as consumer electronics manufacturer Huawei are now suing American companies in the East Texas court known as the friendliest venue for patent trolls.
Companies notable for their disregard of others' intellectual capital rights are now vigorously defending their own. Which is progress, if ironic. JL
Joe Mullin reports in ars technica:
The Eastern District of Texas was once just a place where American
companies went to get fast justice when they wanted to sue a foreign
competitor over patents. But US intellectual property laws cuts both
ways. Chinese companies are quickly learning to
use IP law to gain an edge over their competitors. Huawei's litigation barrage marks the end of an era in which Chinese companies were always on the defensive in IP disputes.
Tech is always looking for the 'new, new thing' and given the relative paucity of recent transformational innovations, has not surprisingly embraced the first one to come along that appears to offer a semblance of globally scalable opportunity.
The question is whether that faith will be rewarded financially. JL
John Markoff reports in the New York Times:
The new era in Silicon Valley centers on artificial intelligence
and robots, a transformation that many believe will have a payoff on
the scale of the personal computing industry or the commercial internet. (But) the Valley’s new enthusiasm is troubling because it suggests an
unfounded optimism similar to earlier eras in which the field
overpromised and underdelivered.
It is logical that organizations which work to align fundamental human needs like independence, adaptabilityand a sense of accomplishment in the workplace would experience increased productivity and related outcomes.
Interestingly, industrial corporations offered the earliest antecedents for these efforts when they co-located component providers in client factories in order to capture the benefits of reduced friction and misunderstanding while improving speed, coordination and cost-reduction. Advantages now being reaped by enterprises engaged in far more intangible, but frequently more valuable and global initiatives.
What is significant is that a growing body of evidence provides detailed support for these policies, citing the psychological and sociological underpinnings for the findings, as the following article explains. JL
Wendy Marx reports in Fast Company:
Coworking spaces are
far less important than their social structures, where workers feel a
sense of individual autonomy, that's linked to a sense of
collaboration. Coworkers also shape their environment—which can significantly improve workers' performance and productivity. Independence, adaptability, flexibility are fundamental human needs. So it isn't surprising that they've been linked to positive outcomes in the workplace
Because images are just data - and we all know what can be done with that. JL
Kaveh Waddell reports in The Atlantic:
Cheap smartphones with cameras have brought the power take documentary
evidence to just about anyone, and the credibility of phone-shot video
has held up in court and in the news. But a patent awarded to Apple last
month hints at a future where invisible signals could alter the images
that smartphone cameras capture—or even disable smartphone cameras
entirely.
Well, it was a nice theory. Maybe we just need more research. Or maybe it just doesnt matter. JL
Jill Duffy reports in Fast Company:
Desks might make workers happier. They could even ease some of the pains
associated with sitting for extended periods of time. But they aren't
going to magically make anyone more productive.
Be smart, be focused, be articulate. And be lucky. JL
Sachin Maini reports in StartupGrind:
For teams looking
to get acquired by Google, the takeaway seems to be
that you ought to have a well-articulated vision and a strong ability to
reason through a variety of problems. And it can’t hurt to read up on your Salman Rushdie.
It may be that AI, by the nature of its structural reality, is easy to commoditize.
Whether providers will be able to charge premiums for elemental units or even build it into their consulting cost structure could prove challenging as the following article explains. JL
Thomas Davenport comments in Harvard Business Review:
Software “micro-services” perform small
chunks of functionality on data and then return a result. Because
these are small, it’s more difficult to get organizations to pay for them. Because they’re small and modular, they lend themselves to
creation by multiple software developers, who often contribute them to
open source libraries.This is what has happened in the cognitive domain. It’s going to be difficult to make a good living just by selling cognitive software.
Perspective and context do enhance the quality of insight. JL
Rich McCormick reports in The Verge:
Solar-powered cameras were strapped to five sheep. The video gives a good view of the islands — albeit from the perspective
of a waist-high animal very intent on eating grass — . A series of
pictures from these mounted cameras mapped the grazing spots of the sheep, letting you know where exactly each image was taken.
Big data is increasingly dominated by a few providers whose role as service providers anoints them as the gatekeepers for everyone else.
The challenge is creating alliances to gain - or maintain - access to the information an enterprise needs withoutsacrificing too much independence or flexibility. And good luck with that. JL
Ben Schippers reports in Tech Crunch:
With a few companies controlling 95 percent of the data, the internet is more closed and much more controlled than ever before. By keeping user data within the confines of the
core business, the ability to market and sell advertising wins every
time. A model where you can pay for robust versions of access is
never going to survive. The markets are just too small to support that
model.
Putting aside the political, military and diplomatic issues, in the first head-to-head confrontation of media power, new technologies and social media dominated mainstream news.
The coup plotters thought that taking over TV stations - like in the good old days - would be sufficient. Boy, were they wrong. JL
Merhul Srivastava reports in the Financial Times:
As chaos
reigned on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara, (Pres. Erdogan) took to FaceTime to
reach a television presenter and send his first message to the nation. He then tweeted
to his 8.6m followers, posted on his Facebook page, and his aides
turned to WhatsApp to keep in touch with each other as they sought to
wrest control of the situation as the coup is thwarted by government supporters using social media.
Playing the long game, GE recognized that Microsoft needed them more than did Amazon. And that given the relative equivalence of the cloud offerings, a mutually productive long term partnership was more likely with someone not out to some day become a competitor, a possibility no enterprise can ever assume about Amazon. JL
Austen Hufford reports in the Wall Street Journal:
Because Azure operates in many countries, Microsoft’s offering
may offer “better” locations globally than rivals, and that may make
Azure more attractive for some country- and regional-level customers. The partnership will allow Predix customers to
access Microsoft Azure capabilities such as natural language processing,
artificial intelligence, data visualization and integration with
Microsoft’s suite of online workplace productivity apps
Retailers are no longer shunning new products in order to maintain 'shelf discipline.' Instead, as the following article explains, they are welcoming new brands as the weight of consumer purchase decision making shifts from Boomers to younger generations, seeking different product and service attributes than did their parents. JL
Eddie Yoon and Steve Hughes report in Harvard Business Review:
Over the past four years nearly 50% of the growth in the U.S. consumer
food and beverage segment has come from 20,000 companies below the top
100 largest companies. One of the root causes is the shifting role of retailers, which have
gone from being gatekeepers for big brands to welcoming new brands with
open arms.
There are two myths that have constrained and even impeded the process of innovation in many organizations.
One is the notion of the lone inventor, fighting the odds and the skepticism of colleagues, as the source of the greatest technological advances.
The other is that the success of the end product is the only measurable outcome worthy of note.
But as the following article explains, enterprises are learning that collaborative teams may be more productive than lone wolves, especially at scale. And that process improvements may ultimately be the most valuable result of the innovation initiative.
Organizations capable of and disciplined enough to ignore traditional forms and measures may be better able to recognize - and act upon - improvements wherever they find them, achieving optimal returns on their investment and effort. JL
Greg Satell comments in Digital Tonto
Innovative enterprises have learned the value of instilling iterative process(es) across integrated, multidisciplinary teams within
their organizations. As it turns out, if we are to solve our biggest and
toughest problems, we need to learn how to implement that same level of
collaboration across our entire society.
Which might be just as well for drone owners worried about losing their devices, since guns of all types - thanks to Ohio law - are more than welcome. JL
Janet Guyon reports in Quartz:
The entire city of Cleveland–82.47 square miles of land and water– is a no drone zone. During the last Republican convention, held in 2012 in Tampa they were seen as a security device, not a risk. “Well, obviously, we are in a much different environment in 2015 than 2012,” says the Secret Service.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you: especially when they designed to learn from the behaviors they observe and adapt accordingly. JL
Oliver Burkeman comments in the Guardian:
How’s a four-year-old supposed to learn that other household members
aren’t simply there to do her bidding, when one (electronic) household
member was designed to do exactly that? It’s one thing to act with compassion when you spend your days with
family and neighbors. It’s quite another with various human-like devices, which invite us to order
them around. It demands effort to remember that humans are humans. And that computers aren’t.
The real challenge in determining liability when it comes to universally accessed media is clash of values, so different from continent to continent, region to region, clan to clan.
One could imagine litigants citing Europe's 'right to forget' in a bid to protect perpetrators while others cite its 'right to an explanation of algorithmic impact' as a reason why blocking technology should not be employed.
Ultimately the question may become a business decision based on perceptions of the optimal approach to limiting liability while minimizing commercial impact on profits. JL
Paul Barrett reports in Bloomberg:
The safe harbor provision
of the Communications Decency Act protects online service
providers, such as Facebook, from legal liability related to what their
users say. The First Amendment's protection of free speech could present a further legal obstacle. Better algorithms applied more aggressively could accomplish more
than billion-dollar lawsuits.
Only 59%? How many of the others are simply in denial? JL
John Dick reports in Civic Science:
By the end of 2013, the number of Americans who self-identified as
addicts was 49%, meaning the current 59% represents a 20% increase in
the past 30 months. If that torrid pace continues, we could see
addiction rates as high as 70% by the end of 2018.
Alliances, partnerships and ecosystems being created today are going to establish financial and economic advantage tomorrow. JL
Sarwant Singh comments in Forbes:
9 percent of company announcements in the past 12 months were
about ecosystem building – typically involving technology partnerships
and joint go-to-market strategy. Another 7 percent involved
product co-development. Within the next two years, the Internet of Things will become the biggest source of data on the planet. Though many relationships will be loosely coupled and dynamic, a land grab is underway to secure access to vital competitive assets.
For all of the benefits technology has rendered our civilization, there are some downsides. The most widely recognized is the tendency of technology to disrupt the status quo, creating confusion and, as has become especially true of this cycle, eliminating old jobs without replacing them with new ones. At least not yet.
But another issue is that given the nature of this technology, little investment is required to maintain their status. The dominance of a few large enterprises like Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft has also resulted in less competition than in the early days of some of the other technological revolutions. Those two forces have the combined effect of requiring less stimulatory investment than the economy could, frankly, use to bolster incomes and create new jobs, all of which have plateaued since the dotcom era.
The result, it could be argued, is that we as a society have paid for technology's benefits in full, but whether or not the return on the socio-economic benefit for that investment is positive - and to what degree - can not yet be determined. JL
Paul Krugman comments in the New York Times:
The three most valuable companies
in America are Apple, Google and Microsoft. None of the three spends
large sums on bricks and mortar. All three are sitting on huge reserves of cash.
When interest rates go down, they don’t have much incentive to spend
more on expanding their businesses; they just keep raking in earnings. Stocks don’t reflect incomes in general; they only reflect the part of income that shows up as profits.
As a Partner and Co-Founder of Predictiv and PredictivAsia, Jon specializes in management performance and organizational effectiveness for both domestic and international clients. He is an editor and author whose works include Invisible Advantage: How Intangilbles are Driving Business Performance. Learn more...
