Less is More

The Economist

Constant improvements mean that more features can be added to these products each year without increasing the price.

But now things are changing, partly because the industry is maturing, and partly because of the recession. Suddenly there is much more interest in products that apply the flip side of Moore’s law: instead of providing ever-increasing performance at a particular price, they provide a particular level of performance at an ever-lower price.

future: apple-controlled mobile browsing

Imagine that iPhone 2.0 attains the kind of market penetration currently enjoyed by the iPod music player. ... We will have sleep-walked into a different world. How come? Because whereas the personal computer is an open, user-configurable device, the iPhone is a decidedly closed one. Nothing runs on it other than software approved by Apple. This is not because the iPhone is incapable of running complex software: on the contrary, it is, in fact, a powerful Unix computer. But users who treat it as such - for example, by installing 'unofficial' software on it - run the risk of having their device 'bricked' [disabled] the next time they synchronise it with the iTunes software on their PCs.

Of course anyone can write programs for the iPhone with the aid of Apple's (free) Systems Developers Kit. But the only way they can get them installed will be via Apple's 'App Store'. And nothing will get into the store unless it's been approved by Apple.

If Apple's strategy succeeds, an increasing proportion of internet users will access through a gateway entirely controlled by a single company.

From guardian.

Challenges & Drivers for Mobile web 2.0 applications

This whitepaper categorizes mobile web 2.0 applications by three verbs - share, collaborate, exploit. For example, in location-based services, users share their location with others, collaborate with those narby and exploit local knowledge.

Challenges
* Telcos control the distribution channel and content on it.
-> It's impossible for small start-ups and developers to innovate
* Flat-rate data pricing undermines revenues
* Don't exist performance analytics for advertisers

Drivers
* Offer new ways to deliver ads
* Anywhere/anytime accessibility of mobile phones
* Convergence of mobile & web worlds
* Flat-rate pricing (cheaper and more transparent for customers)
* If operators' portals will be open --> each operator can search beyond its portal

What's on CIO wish lists?

Number 5: Collaboration Technologies "Web 2.0 and social networking may be becoming candidates for the mainstream, although some CIOs have their reservations. Bob Worrall, for example, CIO of Sun Microsystems, reckons to have talked to well over 100 of his contemporaries over the past year and believes that social networking represents a new threat. There is a lot of information out there on blogs and wiki, but there is no easy way to harvest that information and make it available to the organisation” he says. Sun, however, has created a virtual Californian building in cyberspace and is experimenting with its use as a meeting place for remote staff... RM, the supplier of IT to UK schools, places collaboration and mobility at the top of the list... One of the biggest challenges is to evaluate Web 2.0 opportunities and select those which will add real value to the business" FT

Eight business technology trends to watch (McKinsey)

Here comes another bubble

Your personal data? If you can't take it out, don't put it in

Many companies are going open. Are they? Take OpenSocial (APIs by Google), Open Handset Alliance (alliance of 34 companies led by Google), and Open Media (an initiative announced by Bebo). What is common to all three initiatives, apart from the use of the word "open", is that none is directly aimed at benefiting the user (here).

Google is clearly "not responding to consumer needs. The applications it has
demonstrated using Android are readily available on existing phones and operating systems. Users are not crying out for yet another interface for their phones".

Tim O'Reilly: "We don't want to have the same application on multiple social networks, we want applications that can use data from multiple social networks".


In another FT's article: "the technology industry has little financial incentive to reduce switching costs. While users are free to switch from one service to another at any time, the critical question is: can they take their data with them? Can they take their photos, their videos, their e-mails? And how easy is that? Data are often stored in proprietary file formats, which are protected by patents, and those are controlled by software and service vendors."

"Which raises the question: Do you actually own your own data?" The answer is unfortunately a qualified no! A very interesting research direction, right?

How innovation happens in Silicon Valley

NESTA - How innovation happens in Silicon Valley, London 20/11/07
George Osborne MP will deliver a keynote address. Reid Hoffman, Megan Smith and Javes Slavet will take part in an interctive panel discussion to consider why the Silicon Valley has been so successful, and what lessons can be learned for the UK.