Amazon Trying a New Approach to Mobile that makes Sense – by Carolina Milanesi This week, Amazon started offering Prime members a $50 discount on two smartphones models, the Moto G and the Blu R1 HD, as long as they agree to view lock screen ads similar to what the Fire tablets and the Kindle … Continue reading Unpacked for Friday, June 30th, 2016
Over the last few weeks, I have fielded a few media calls asking why Apple has not entered the VR space. Anyone who really knows Apple knows the answer to this question. Apple almost never leads the charge when it comes to new or even cutting edge technology. Instead, they watch a new technology enter … Continue reading Why Apple has not Entered the VR Scene Yet
The Information had an interesting article going into a bit more depth on what we all already know — China wants to be the future consumer electronics powerhouse. China’s moment is coming. It seems inevitable. The evolution of major consumer electronics brands started in Japan, then went to Korea, and is now moving to China. … Continue reading China’s Consumer Electronics Moment is Coming
Don’t Mistake the iPad Lack of Stage Time at WWDC as a Sign Apple is done with Tablets – Carolina Milanesi At the end of WWDC, I read a few articles by disappointed reporters regarding the lack of an iPad presence during Apple’s WWDC keynote. The iPad was, of course, mentioned in the keynote either … Continue reading Unpacked for Friday, June 17th, 2016
One of the thing we sought to understand in our quantitative study of Amazon’s Echo, Apple’s Siri, and Google’s Ok Google was how often people are using their voice to interact with their devices. We did this with our early adopter panel and what I want to unpack is the usage frequency of each by … Continue reading Unpacked: Amazon Echo, Siri, OK Google Frequency of Use
The idea of talking conversationally to computers has been a long time in the works. Science fiction is so often a self-fulfilling prophecy as it provides a vision for humans to chase after with technological innovation. For those of us who have watched voice-based computer interactions evolve, we have seen it go through many manifestations … Continue reading The Voice UI has Gone Mainstream
ARTICLE OUTLINE This is part 4 of 7 in a series of articles that explores Innovation at Apple. 1. Who is Apple innovating for? 2. Where should Apple’s innovation be focused? 3. How does Apple innovate? 4. When should Apple introduce its innovations? 5. What does innovation inside of Apple look like to someone outside … Continue reading Part 4: When Should Apple Introduce Its Innovations?
Everyone is familiar with the saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention”. In fact, most inventions come from someone seeing a need and creating a product or service that meets that need. More importantly, inventors pretty much drive much of the world’s commerce as individuals and companies apply various levels of R&D to an idea … Continue reading Does Apple Need to Invent or Innovate?
ARTICLE OUTLINE This is part 3 of 7 in a series of articles that explores Innovation at Apple. 1. Who is Apple innovating for? 2. Where should Apple’s innovation be focused? 3. How does Apple innovate? 4. When should Apple introduce its innovations? 5. What does innovation inside of Apple look like to someone outside … Continue reading Part 3: How Does Apple Innovate?
The Amazon Echo: what happens if this is all there is to a device? CC-licensed photo by Cryptik Merlin on Flickr For years, Apple has made a name for itself through the design of its products – their combination of appearance, materials, and software functionality (which is part of the “design”, aka “how it works”). … Continue reading The Real Threat to Apple: The Invisible Device
If you ever start to wonder whether there’s anything more out there these days than a rehashing of existing ideas in the tech field, a quick trip to a Maker Faire will answer your question definitively. Absolutely. At the 11th annual Bay Area Maker Faire, held at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds this past weekend, … Continue reading Turning Makers into Manufacturers
The PC industry is in the doldrums. Shipments continue to decline, and consumers and business buyers are holding on to their existing hardware for increasingly long periods of time. Fast new processors haven’t caused them to upgrade. Nor have thinner, touch-enabled form factors. And new operating systems no longer move the needle. So what’s it … Continue reading Let’s Make PCs First-Class Citizens of the Connected World
Microsoft Sells off Feature Phone Biz – Carolina Milanesi Two years after the acquisition of Nokia, Microsoft has sold its feature phone business to FIH, a subsidiary of Taiwanese hardware manufacturer Foxconn, for $350 million. In a separate deal, Microsoft also sold its brand rights on feature phones and certain related design rights to HMD, … Continue reading Unpacked: The Week’s News
Yesterday, Google announced its answer to Amazon’s Echo home speaker product, which will be known simply as Home. But it also announced what it called “the Google assistant”, which will operate both on the Home device and in a variety of other products. These announcements, and some recent news from Amazon, highlight the fact that … Continue reading Echo and Home are Endpoints, not the Endgame
Software upgrades are commonplace. We have them in apps, video games, computer software. Pay an additional amount and the products can seamlessly acquire new capabilities. Now, there’s an equally seamless hardware upgrade: Tesla will upgrade the battery in an owner’s $71,000 Model S70. The owner pays an additional $3250 for the company to do an … Continue reading Hardware Upgrades Offer New Opportunities
Google’s hardware strategy has always felt less like a strategy and more like a string of experiments. It is understandable why a company like Google is interested in their own hardware. In many ways, Google and Amazon are alike in that their business model opens the door to a “hardware as a service” offering. They … Continue reading Google, Amazon, the Chinese, and the Hardware Brands of Tomorrow
The marketing machine around 2-in-1s has been at full speed for a few years now. As Windows 8 was coming to market, hardware vendors, Intel, and Microsoft all put their thinking caps on to see how they could take advantage of the new OS to sell new PCs. A Recap Between the beginning of 2011 … Continue reading Stop Talking about Replacements. Give PC Owners Something New Already!
The tablet category remains a central part of our analysis amidst the personal computing hardware landscape. I’ve been bullish on this form factor, despite the market issues, and still believe it represents the most approachable and easy to use larger screen computer on the market. We have been digging into consumer behavior around the tablet … Continue reading Unpacked: The Tablet is more Social Than Personal
India will remain a key area of interest in the iPhone narrative. While we can chime in on the big debate of whether the iPhone will see growth again in 2017, we can’t ignore the reality that, even if it does grow, only single digit growth is to be expected. I say that with one … Continue reading India Bans Second Hand iPhones, the Services Narrative, Hardware Maturity
We’re now most of the way through earnings season, at least as far as the biggest tech companies are concerned. It’s been an interesting one – some of the largest companies have posted disappointing results and seen their stock hammered for it while a smaller number have blown through expectations and seen their stock rise. … Continue reading Earnings Season: Headwinds and Drivers
Anyone who follows Apple commentary closely, either by what Apple has said on previous calls, or by the Wall St. analysis, knows this quarter’s YoY decline in revenue was not a surprise. A key point to make, right off the bat, is Apple met their own guidance for this quarter. Apple guided between $50 and … Continue reading Apple Earnings Fact and Fiction
Over the past year, many people, on noticing the Apple Watch on my wrist, could not help themselves but ask, “So, how do you like your Apple Watch?” After a short pause, my answer has always been, “I like it!” So, one year into the launch of the device seems like a good time to … Continue reading The Apple Watch Keeps My iPhone Addiction Under Control
The picture isn’t pretty. Whether it’s PCs, tablets, smart watches or now, even smartphones, the outlook for most major hardware device categories is not looking good, particularly here in the US. The issue is that both consumers and businesses have already bought a lot of these devices. Plus, they’re hanging on to their purchases longer … Continue reading The End of Hardware?
Part 1: Argument On April 19, 2016, Ben Thompson of Stretechery wrote: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads. If you haven’t read it already, I highly recommend you read it now. In a nutshell, Ben Thompson’s contention is: 1) Apple employs a (rarely used) functional organizational structure; ((“(T)he very structure of Apple the organization — the way all … Continue reading Apple Shouldn’t Cross That Road Till They Come To It
The computer industry continues to experience tough times, as evidenced by IDC’s preliminary 1Q16 shipment numbers and Intel’s recent quarterly earnings data. Charles Arthur wrote a good column on the topic last week. I’d like to dive deeper into one of the fundamental issues facing the industry — declining consumer demand for home PCs. The … Continue reading The PC Industry’s Consumer Conundrum
