Gaming AMD’s 2012 Strategy

AMD intends to pursue “growth opportunities” in low-powered devices, emerging markets and Internet-based businesses. There’s an awful lot of mis-guided analysis wafting about regarding AMD’s new strategic direction, which the company says it will make public in February. This piece is to help you (and me) sort through the facts and the opportunities. I last … Continue reading Gaming AMD’s 2012 Strategy

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion May Be RIM’s Future

The flood of iPhones, iPads, and Androids into corporate offices is destroying BlackBerry’s once dominant position in the enterprise. In a bold if-you-can-lick-them-join-them move, Research In Motion is striking back with BlackBerry Mobile fusion, a software and a back-office package that promises to bring BlackBerry-like security and manageability to competing hardware. This may be an obvious move … Continue reading BlackBerry Mobile Fusion May Be RIM’s Future

Who Really Needs a PC Anyway?

James Kendrick at ZDNet wrote a post asking an interesting question: Who really needs a stinking tablet anyway? His post is well articulated but misses the bigger picture of what tablets are and more importantly what they represent. So rather than look at the world today where tablets are in their early maturity stage, I … Continue reading Who Really Needs a PC Anyway?

Tech Trends and Disruptors to watch in 2012

You may not know it yet, but when we end 2012, we will look back on it and realize that it was the most disruptive year we will have had in personal computing in over a decade. In the next 12 months, the market for personal computers of all shapes and sizes will have changed … Continue reading Tech Trends and Disruptors to watch in 2012

Black Friday and The Philosophy of a “Deal”

Let me try to define a few terms first as I flesh out this idea of the philosophy of a deal. – A deal is when an objectively better product is offered for a limited time at a lower than normal price – A price war is when subjectively different products compete on price As … Continue reading Black Friday and The Philosophy of a “Deal”

Tis’ the Season of the iPad

Nielsen released the findings of a U.S. Survey where they were hoping to discern what electronics products will be hot for the 2011 holidays. Among kids, not terribly surprising, was the iPad atop the list for kids aged 6-12 ranking an all time high with 44% naming the iPad as their most desired product for … Continue reading Tis’ the Season of the iPad

Interactive TV Trends – How the TV Experience is Changing – Part II

This is the second article in a three-part series discussing key trends in TV. The first article looked at how new interface technologies are enabling new ways to control our TVs. This article focuses on how the TV experience is changing as we begin to use multiple screens of our PC, phone and tablets together … Continue reading Interactive TV Trends – How the TV Experience is Changing – Part II

The Nintendo 3DS and Gaming in a New Dimension

Gaming is one of the areas where I hunt for technology and behavioral trends. I really like the category, and it is my desire to look at consumer trends holistically. That is why the new Nintendo 3DS has been on my radar. 3D is a hotly-contested topic in consumer electronics trends conversations I am involved … Continue reading The Nintendo 3DS and Gaming in a New Dimension

Of Course Amazon Kindle Fire Cannibalizes the Apple iPad

One way I test and gauge insights is to engage in and monitor social media.  It’s certainly not the only way, but it is one of many ways.  One very interesting discussion I am monitoring is the Amazon Kindle Fire versus Apple iPad.  There are definitely two camps that exist and not a lot in-between.  … Continue reading Of Course Amazon Kindle Fire Cannibalizes the Apple iPad

The Tech.pinions Amazon Kindle Fire Review Roundup

Well the reviews are out and it seems like they are mostly positive. Other than a few user interface gripes it appears most reviewers believe the Kindle Fire to be a worthy Android tablet competitor but not much of an iPad competitor. From our own experience with the Kindle Fire we tend to agree on … Continue reading The Tech.pinions Amazon Kindle Fire Review Roundup

Analysis: How Amazon’s Kindle Fire Will Impact The Tablet Market

I have been using the Kindle Fire for a while now and I am quite impressed with this new entry into the tablet space. Although one of Amazon’s major goals was to make this a great eBook reader, the fact that it runs on Android and can run Android apps, has a Web browser, and … Continue reading Analysis: How Amazon’s Kindle Fire Will Impact The Tablet Market

Quad Core Smartphones: What it Will Take to Become Relevant

There has been a lot of industry discussion on multi-core smartphones in the past year, and the dialog has increased with NVIDIA’s launch of Tegra 3, a quad core SOC targeted to phones and tablets. The big question lingering with all of these implementations particularly with phones is, what will end users do with all … Continue reading Quad Core Smartphones: What it Will Take to Become Relevant

Apple Is Becoming the New IBM

“No one ever got fired for buying an IBM.” That phrase was popular when IBM, in conjunction with Microsoft, was becoming the standard business workstation in the mid-to-late 80’s. Deciding to purchase products from the industry leader was the safe bet, the one with the least risk. This was the underlying psychology of corporate IT … Continue reading Apple Is Becoming the New IBM

The Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet Will Not Slow the iPad

Philip Elmer-DeWitt reported on the Fortune blog about data released suggesting the potential impact of the Kindle Fire on iPad sales. The data originated from ChangeWave and points out several key findings from their survey of “early adopter types.” 5% of those surveyed said they had pre-ordered or were very likely to buy Amazon’s new … Continue reading The Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet Will Not Slow the iPad

Mobile Flash: Adios and Good Riddance

UPDATE: Adobe has confirmed the end of mobile Flash development. Jason Perlow at ZDNet is reporting that as part of a restructuring announced yesterday, Adobe is ending development of its Flash plug-in for mobile browsers. If true, and the story seems well-sourced, this marks the end of one of the silliest tech controversies in recent … Continue reading Mobile Flash: Adios and Good Riddance

Why HP Has Chosen to Make A Windows 8 Tablet

When it comes to being a PC vendor these days, life is tough. For 30 years they have had a cozy business and only had to worry about designing two major form factors. Desktops and laptops were their bread and butter and they mainly needed to focus on enterprise, SMB and consumer markets. But over … Continue reading Why HP Has Chosen to Make A Windows 8 Tablet

Interactive TV Trends – How the TV Experience is Changing

The article below is the first in a three part series describing key interactive TV trends. This first article looks at new technologies to control the TV – and how the TVs future ability to recognize users will allow it to tailor content choices and preferences. The second article in the series will examine how … Continue reading Interactive TV Trends – How the TV Experience is Changing

The iOS and Android Mobile Web Disparity

There are two interesting data points released that I think is worth asking some questions. The first comes from Net Applications and it plots out mobile web browsing OS share by platform. The full chart is below. What strikes me in this chart is the clearly dominant iOS platform when it comes to mobile web … Continue reading The iOS and Android Mobile Web Disparity

Give Your Smartphone Room to Stretch

As convenient and versatile as mobile devices have become, there are still times when that little 4-inch, 7-inch, or even 10-inch screen just isn’t enough. Maybe you want to enjoy your mobile apps and content with friends or colleagues – without knocking your heads together. Maybe you read the latest study that found that reading … Continue reading Give Your Smartphone Room to Stretch

What It Will Take for Apple to Crack TV

Steve Jobs posthumously set off a new round of speculation about that perennial object of desire, the Apple television, by telling biographer Walter Isaacson: “I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. No longer would users … Continue reading What It Will Take for Apple to Crack TV

iPad’s Market Share Will Crater, but You Shouldn’t Care

Research firm Strategy Analystics got some attention with a report that showed Android accounted for 27% of the tablet market in the quarter ended Sept. 30. The report raised a lot of eyebrows.Kevin C. Tofel of GigaOm did some digging and found two significant issues with Strategy Analytics’ methodology. First, the Android numbers are for … Continue reading iPad’s Market Share Will Crater, but You Shouldn’t Care

Highlights of KPCB’s Mary Meeker Presentation at Web 2.0 Summit

One of the smartest people covering our industry is Mary Meeker, formerly of Morgan Stanley and currently with VC giant Kleiner Perkins. This week she gave a major presentation at the Web 2.0 summit and as usual, here material is stellar and significant. Here is the link to the presentation itself and in this post … Continue reading Highlights of KPCB’s Mary Meeker Presentation at Web 2.0 Summit

iOS Morphing Into a Desktop OS?

During the Apple WWDC, I was really struck at just how many features were added into iOS 5 and just how few new features had been added to Lion. Don’t get me wrong here, I like Lion a lot but after using many of the 250 new features, few altered how or what someone can … Continue reading iOS Morphing Into a Desktop OS?

Nook Color Users Like Apps–And Pay for Them

Owners of the Barnes & Noble Nook Color e-reader/tablet don’t just buy books. They also consume apps, quite few of them, it seems. The buying habits of Nook Color owners are a bit surprising, and that could have interesting implications for Amazon.com’s  forthcoming Kindle Fire. Both the Nook Color and the Fire are highly modified … Continue reading Nook Color Users Like Apps–And Pay for Them

When Markets Are No Longer Price Sensitive

There will always be a customer who only wants the lowest cost products. That truth however, does not represent the whole market. Price, for the majority of consumers, is not the only driving purchasing force. If in every market the lowest cost product was all consumers wanted–then we would all be driving Toyota Corollas. The … Continue reading When Markets Are No Longer Price Sensitive