Tag: apple

Uncategorized

Connected products detect dementia

by sbsikesLeave a Comment on Connected products detect dementia

Apple and Eli Lilly partner to detect dementia

In a study involving 82 people in a control group and 31 people with some form of cognitive decline, Apple and Eli Lilly collected data from usage of an Apple watch, iPhones and Beddit bed sensors. The study collected usage data on both groups, to characterize differences in usage of those with dementia. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: With 6 million people living with dementia in the U.S., and rapid increases in the incidences of Alzheimer’s, technology is much needed to help us understand and act on cognitive decline. The key to using technology to predict disease is mountains of data, and the barrier to mountains of data is HIPPA (privacy) compliance. Tech companies and health companies should, with full disclose and consent from consumers, collect as much anonymous data as possible using connected devices in order to get ahead of massive stress on the care systems resulting from the graying of Western Europe, North America and Asia.

Google’s Live View Augmented Reality guides you as you walk

Now rolling out to Google Maps applications on both Android and iOS, Live View augmented reality simulates the view you see as you face a direction, and overlays arrows and street names. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: How many times have you ascended from a subway stop and not known which direction to walk? Google is fixing that. Expect to see many people staring at their phones as they stand on street corners, and expect to see many more “location aware” advertisements to take you to coffee shops, restaurants and shops right around you, wherever you are.

Sony’s version of AirPods include noise cancellation

It has become commonplace to see people everywhere wearing Apple AirPods. Sony’s answer includes noise cancellation, meaning that for travelers or those who study in a public place, they are ideal. Sony’s WF-1000xm3 headphones are more expensive at $230 (AirPods are $159) and the carrying case is bulkier. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Sony, in the 70’s through the 90’s was ‘the Apple’ — the cool tech company that made the best gear. The company, since then, has struggled to find its niche but creating premium earphones is a good place to focus. For anyone who travels, noise cancellation is critical and ear buds take up a lot less space in a carry on that over the ear phones. But please, Sony, take a marketing cue from gadget leaders Samsung and Apple and give your products a name that people can weave into conversation. “Hey man, where’d you get those cool WF-1000xm3’s?”

Samsung has the hottest new smartphone

The Samsung Galaxy Note10 debuted in Brooklyn on Wednesday. Here’s the quick summary:

  • No headphone jack
  • Enhanced stylus
  • Gesture control without touching the screen
  • Multiple color choices
  • Larger screen due to very thin bezel (frame)
  • Four camera lenses and ability to zoom audio to get focused sounds on videos
  • AR Doodle feature to add creativity to photos
  • 3D scanning of objects — capturing depth in addition to length and width
  • Quick charge battery and power sharing
  • Support for 5G networks

dis-rup-shun: Samsung maintains its lead on bells and whistles — staying a step ahead of the iPhone, but given that Android vs. iOS has long been a religious discussion, few iPhone users will be swayed by Samsung’s features. Kudos to Samsung for working hard to keep smartphones from becoming commodities — little discernible differentiation between brands — but that is getting tougher to do, especially given that new top of the line smartphones are similarly priced around $1000.

Uncategorized

Apple and tariffs on China: how to respond

by sbsikesLeave a Comment on Apple and tariffs on China: how to respond

Apple’s dilemma: to eat or pass on tariffs

Apple’s stock took a 5% hit on Monday as the U.S. trade war with China experienced its most damaging day to world markets. Apple faces a choice: absorb higher manufacturing costs from goods impacted by a 10% tariff, or pass on higher costs to consumers. Wedbush analyst Mike Ives says eating the tariff will reduce the company’s profits by 4%. On the other hand, Apple can pass increased costs to consumers, increasing prices of already pricey phones amidst a slowing smartphone market. Ives believes this choice will reduce stock price by $25 to $30 per share. On Monday, investors devalued the stock without waiting to see what course management will take. Fortune

dis-rup-shun: Apple is swiftly moving production from Chinese plants to locations in India, Vietnam and the U.S. In addition, the company is increasing its emphasis on services: streaming music and cloud, which will, over the next few years, make the company less vulnerable to supply chain fluctuations. As Apple is seen as a star of the American tech economy, the company can expect consumers in Asia to stop buying its products, but we can assume that investors have already priced that shift into the stock price.

Facebook placing its name on Whatsapp and Instagram

Two properties that Facebook purchased in the last half dozen years were maintained as separate brands. In a reversal this year, Zuckerberg has not only replaced the founders with Facebook execs, but has decided to brand the Facebook alternatives with the parent’s name. Wired

dis-rup-shun: Zuckerberg must like press, as he will keep getting it if he continues to do dumb things. Facebook, for the past three years could win the prize of the most tarnished megabrand, as one misstep after another has brought the ire of users and regulators alike. Now the Justice Department is examining Facebook for being anti-competitive, so Zuckerberg decides to flaunt domination of social media properties — huh? Does the boss think that this branding move will improve the perception of Facebook, or is he oblivious to the fact that he will now dent the clean reputations of Whatsapp and Instagram?

Apple credit card available today

Apple’s reinvention of the credit card, a titanium numberless card that is a physical reminder of the card app on your iPhone is released to a limited audience today. The card, backed by Goldman Sachs, can be applied for easily in the wallet app and pays 1% cash back on transactions, and doubles to 2% when you use the iPhone rather than card, for transactions. Wired

dis-rup-shun: Why would you need a credit card from Apple? If you have never used Apple pay from your iPhone, you are missing real convenience. Because you likely already have your phone in your hand, by placing it on a scanner, you save a few digs, opens, searches, swipes and replacements. But even better, the iPhone app immediately confirms the transaction on your screen, and provides a history later when you wonder how much you did pay for that item. Apple is out to replace your wallet with your iPhone, and this is a nice step. The Apple card, with no account numbers printed on it, is certainly more secure and the fact that one doesn’t need a physical card makes going for a run or a quick errand that much simpler.

Electric cars gain another foothold

The number of electric cars available on used car markets has grown to almost 4% of all cars offered — signaling that EVs are becoming sufficiently commonplace and available for lower price points in pre-owned outlets. Saving the environment is important to many, but not as important as saving money. Affordable and used EVs enable both. Wired

dis-rup-shun: Pre-2000 attempts to make hybrid vehicles mainstream were quashed by falling oil prices, but this time around, it appears that EVs are gaining critical mass, or at least past the point of no return. EVs, with near zero maintenance costs and shorter ranges align well with a consumers that are very comfortable with ride sharing apps, life-as-a-service business models (low home ownership) where ownership of assets is less important, and more environmentally conscious. All companies selling expensive assets must consider the content-to-rent attitudes of young consumers.

 

Uncategorized

Machine Learning capable of chronic disease prevention

by sbsikesLeave a Comment on Machine Learning capable of chronic disease prevention

AI used to prevent kidney failure

Alphabet’s AI division, Deep Mind, worked with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to develop an algorithm that accurately predicts kidney injury up to two days before it occurs. Kidney injury is an often fatal condition frequently occurring among hospital patients and difficult to detect until its onset. The algorithm is effective at identifying patients who are highly likely to have kidney damage in time to effectively treat them. Financial Times

dis-rup-shun: This exciting use of machine learning, improperly termed AI, relies on vast amounts of hundreds of patients’ records to ‘feed’ the algorithm. This same analysis is promising in detecting many other diseases such as breast cancer, heart disease and others, and will eventually become the primary form of diagnosis, relying primarily on data and secondarily on trained medical professionals. This transformation of the medical industry and relief from a shortage of medical professionals, however, will be stunted by the problem of patient privacy. In order to build effective data sets that are the foundation of detection algorithms, tens of thousands of patient records must be de-personalized for protection of privacy — a thorny issue that HIPPA is designed to prevent.

Consumers tire of expensive phones — leading to softer tech economy 

Consumers were raised on carrier subsidized handsets — meaning a new phone required only a few hundred dollars out of pocket. Given that the latest smartphones from Apple and Samsung cost around $1000 and are no longer carrier subsidized, sales are slowing. Apple’s sales are down 15% and Samsung 11%, according to a number of sources. Consumers are increasingly embracing less expensive phones made by Chinese companies Xiomi, Huawei, Oppo and Vivo. Huawei, despite sanctions from the U.S. government, has achieved a worldwide market share of 15%, a sliver behind Apple’s 16%. ExtremeTech

dis-rup-shun: We have seen cellphone incumbents Nokia, Motorola and Blackberry rise and fall in stunningly swift succession. Surely Apple and Samsung won’t miss the call to offer more variety of price points and let upstart “value players” quickly grab market share, followed by growing consumer approval of the new brands. In the cutthroat electronics business, fast is often not fast enough, and smartphones are a very large driver of the tech economy and associated stock prices.

The confusing world of streaming music players 

Selecting the right streaming music speakers for the right setting is increasingly difficult with many new form factors and options. Wired profiles the major options from Sonos, with prices from $50 to $1100.

dis-rup-shun: As a teenager, the holy grail of music enjoyment was owning a giant receiver (what’s that?) and speakers that were at least waist high. Today, the majority of music fans don’t understand file compression and the loss of high fidelity that came with digital music, and very few understand the best architecture for a whole home audio system. Wired or wireless? Digital to analog or all digital? Sonos is the new Bose, and all but very discriminating aficionados will be content with a digital streaming music player.

Uncategorized

How Bezos will spend his $1.8 billion paycheck

by sbsikesLeave a Comment on How Bezos will spend his $1.8 billion paycheck

Bezos cashes a check for $1.8 billion

Bezos sold Amazon stock worth $1.8 billion over the past few days. The value matches the value gained in last fall’s run up of stock value. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: How do you spend $1.8 billion? Turns out Jeff is likely moving his money to his space exploration company, Blue Origin, which just won a long term contract with NASA. The rocket business, undoubtedly, consumes a lot of cash, and Bezos has enough to build a footbridge to Mars. Ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos has pledged most of her $36.6 billion divorce settlement to charity, content to live off of whatever is left after “most.”

What to think of AT&T DirecTV now

AT&T is changing the name of its brand streaming service (Netflix killer?) called DirecTV Now to AT&T TV Now. AT&T’s journey into the streaming world has been bumpy, as the service experienced multiple network outages, and has lost 500,000 subscribers in the past year. Combine that with total subscriber losses across all TV properties, and the losses total 2.5 million subscribers. ArsTechnica

dis-rup-shun: If streaming services are the future, what’s up with AT&T’s tinkering?

Here are a few answers:

  1. AT&T is not stupid. In fact, they earned $19 billion in profit last year and have maintained leading market share in multiple communications/entertainment industries.
  2. AT&T knew that cord cutting (dropping pay TV packages) was a growing trend, yet they invested in Time Warner and their Now streaming service.
  3. The power of the bundle is not to be discounted. AT&T is in a unique position to offer customers Internet, wireless, and entertainment services.
  4. As entertainment shifts to streaming services, market share will be gained by those services with differentiated content. That’s why the company purchased Time Warner — to make the content.

The company is positioned for a long, expensive battle with Netflix, Amazon, Disney and others to restructure entertainment services. AT&T will come out a winner at the end of the slog, but it will be three to five years of building on shifting sands and heavy subscriber movement.

The next wave of Intel chips coming for Christmas

Intel is, after much delay, releasing its generation 10, 10 nanometer chip family in time for holiday 2019 purchases. What does that do for you? The processors bring to computing much higher battery life (9 hours), better graphics processing, optimization for AI, faster Wi-Fi (version 6), and support for more really fast ports (Thunderbolt). Wired

dis-rup-shun: Intel is increasingly challenged by competition, including Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, and many others, who are gobbling up share of non-PC computing devices. It is rumored that Apple will move away from Intel CPUs sometime next year for Mac computers. Expect Intel to be increasingly on the hot seat as it is not changing as fast as the world of computing.

Uncategorized

Walmart discovers $10 billion app

by sbsikesLeave a Comment on Walmart discovers $10 billion app

Walmart misstep turns to $10 billion gain

Walmart, in an acquisition questioned by many, acquired, for $17 billion, an Indian e-tailing company, Flipkart. Last year’s acquisition was seen as a misstep given vast cultural differences between the companies and Walmart’s distance behind Amazon in e-commerce. Recently, however, Walmart discovered that the acquisition’s subsidiary, payment app PhonePe, has experienced 77% growth in the past year. The payments company is riding atop of rapid growth of Indian consumer use of payment apps. ZDNet

dis-rup-shun: Walmart needs a little luck as it struggles to catch Amazon in the online retailing race, but finding it has control of one of the fastest growing payment apps in India could open new lines of business for the company that has mostly struggled to gain traction outside of North America. As mobile payment apps quickly become preferred forms of commerce outside of the U.S., Walmart can build on its strong position in India.

Attorney General Barr decides to take on Big Tech

After a number of controversial testimonies, the U.S. Attorney General has decided to investigate if Big Tech has become anti-competitive. Stock prices of Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook and Apple fell 1% in extended trading. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: If the determination of anti-competitive is having a “dominant market position,” then Google search dominance will be a problem, as will Facebook’s dominance in social networking with not only its Flagship, but its owned subsidiaries of Instagram and WhatsApp. Amazon’s domination of ecommerce will be hard to dispute.

Honeywell T9 smart thermostat full on features, light on design

Resideo’s newest smart thermostat, branded Honeywell T9, has remote sensors that go beyond Nest and Ecobee by measuring both temperature, presence and humidity. Despite the strong feature set, the device lacks the sleek industrial design of leading competitors. The Verge

dis-rup-shun: Despite Honeywell being the best recognized brand in residential HVAC controls, it has struggled to grasp the importance of cutting edge design and to shake off its industrial heritage. As the smart home struggles to move from Early Adopter to Early Majority, engaging the young professional, tech savvy buyer who considers aesthetics as important as features, is critical and appears even more important than brand recognition.

Electric Ford F-150 pulls a train

Ford sold 1.1 million F-150 pickup trucks last year. The company released a video showing a prototype electric F-150 pulling a train load of F-150s (42 trucks). Ford believes that consumers perceive EVs to have less power, hence the towing demonstration. Ars Technica

dis-rup-shun: Global share of electric vehicles of all vehicles was up 54% in 2017, and is expected by Statista to make up 14% of all U.S. vehicles sold by 2025. Government policies, providing incentives for electric car buyers, has been critical to sales growth. Now car makers are offering some exciting electric options. Expect ride sharing apps to offer an electric vehicle option, as soon as there are enough on the road to enter the ride share pool.

Uncategorized

Big Tech stares down Congress

by sbsikesLeave a Comment on Big Tech stares down Congress

Congress summons Big Tech for a big chat

Top executives from Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google were on the Hill this week, arguing that they are not monopolies and are not using customer data for competitive advantage. Data is used, said Amazon’s Sutton, to better serve customers, when asked if the company launches its own products based on what’s selling. Wired

dis-rup-shun: Everyone except for small business was a winner this week as congress persons posed as tough on tech, tech executives sounded smarter than legislators by delivering punchy but circuitous answers, and lobbyists validated their billings by offering evidence that tech is increasingly under fire by legislators. Legislators have to find the balance between an increasingly less-competitive landscape and nationalistic interests in defending against global competition, mainly from China, for next generation technology dominance.

Netflix faces first significant subscriber loss 

In Q2, Netflix faced loss of 130,000 U.S. subscribers and added only 2.7 million global subs instead of the predicted 5 million. The Verge

dis-rup-shun: Why is the unstoppable streaming service slowing down? A number of reasons, and they aren’t new competition, as Disney, Apple and AT&T’s ‘Netflix killer’ streaming services are not yet open. The reasons include saturation — with nearly 60% of U.S. households already subscribers, those that aren’t, don’t want to spend the money or don’t watch TV. Existing competition is increasing its original content, making some other services more desirable than Netflix (since House of Cards is finished), and rising inflation has been slowly taking a bite out of U.S. consumers’ disposable incomes. Netflix may be an indicator of a slowing economy.

AT&T and Microsoft form $2 billion alliance for cloud and 5G

AT&T announced that it will move much of its business computing needs to Microsoft’s public cloud, Azure. In addition, it’s 268,000 employee workforce will use Microsoft  365 applications for its computing needs. The $2 billion deal does not include AT&T outsourcing its network infrastructure, like cellular communications networks. The companies are also cooperating on development of 5G tools. Reuters

dis-rup-shun: This deal looks like a huge win for Microsoft and likely a cost-savings move for AT&T which continues to seek efficiencies as it prepares to engage in a long battle for streaming content viewership following integration of Time Warner. Microsoft Azure is cleaning up cloud services accounts from many companies that consider Amazon a competitor on various fronts including retailers (Walmart) and shippers (FedEx). Microsoft also secured additional defense against Google apps by ensuring that AT&T continues to use Microsoft’s office tools.

Maps with images only moments old

Online maps such as Google Street View feature photos of locations that are often months if not years old. Nexar’s Live Map application uses dash cam and smartphone images to refresh map images constantly, showing viewers a wreck moments after it happened. The company has been quick to address privacy concerns by stating that pictures of people, addresses and licenses are anonymized and blurred. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: Privacy is a big concern when a) everyone’s every move is captured on a dash or doorbell camera, and b) companies collect and store those images and promise to self-police breaches in privacy. This puts companies in a position of high liability as they are liable to shareholders to monetize data they collect, and liable to society to not use that data in a way that would compromise privacy. Big profits come to those that expose secrets.

Uncategorized

Is the magic gone at Apple?

by sbsikes2 Comments on Is the magic gone at Apple?

Apple is losing its luster

Forbes says that Apple is going the way of IBM — the once great technology leader that peaked and has slowly lost its market power. The evidence provided includes Apple’s rock star lead designer, Jony Ive’s departure last week. This follows Q1’s revenue decline of 5%. Apple did report a 16% increase in service revenue last quarter but its iPhone revenue, over 50% of its total revenues, fell over 17%. The company’s last megahit was the iPad, launched in 2010.

dis-rup-shun: Tech watchers will agree that a definitive mark of a company’s peak is the moment when it builds a lavish headquarters building. The completion of Apple’s ring campus was an indicator that the company was overly impressed with its own aura to the detriment of customer focus. Apple is the symbol of the post PC tech economy, and it is critical that the company continue to lead innovation, design and sales, despite the loss of key people including Jobs and Ive.

40th anniversary of the Walkman

Sony’s Walkman, released on July 1, 1979, created the first personal, portable music experience — enabling people to take their favorite music with them and experience it privately (the boom box had been around for nearly a decade). While Sony enjoys only a small share of the personal music player market today, the Walkman set the stage for the Discman and for personal music players, eventually perfected by the iPod. The Verge

T-Mobile joins the 5G fray

T-Mobile has now switched on its 5G network in 6 cities, joining Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint with some form of offering. The service results in speeds of 250 Mbps, or 5 to 10x the speeds of 4G. The service, however is not ready for prime time as it rides on spectrum not compatible with many phones. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: The 5G race is a reminder that competition is a great thing. 5G does not make economic sense at the moment, as great amounts of infrastructure, both handsets and network, must be upgraded and carriers simply wouldn’t do it if their competition wasn’t. 

Fireworks — one of the few things you cannot buy from Amazon

Few things are not available on Amazon.com, but fireworks and other explosive devices are prohibited from the online retail system. Amazon has constructed special warehouses for handling hazardous goods and is building its own delivery network, but so far fireworks are not in the plans. Wired

dis-rup-shun: Fireworks stands may be the only mom and pop enterprises not threatened by the Seattle behemoth. Happy 4th of July.

Uncategorized

Why the laws of competition don’t apply to tech giants

by sbsikes1 Comment on Why the laws of competition don’t apply to tech giants

Monopolies, duopolies, and the role of regulators

The network effect, which states that the value of components in a network increase as the members increase, makes tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Apple almost impossible to slow down once they gain critical mass. The more users of a platform (iOS, for example), the more apps are developed for the ecosystem, making the ecosystem more valuable. Competing with that platform becomes extraordinarily difficult as exponentially rising network value creates insurmountable barriers to entry. Microsoft’s failed mobile OS is an example (see next article). The Verge

dis-rup-shun: As The Verge states, competition is good for the consumer and good for the economy. If the forces of competition are not able to scale the barriers to entry into network-based businesses, then it is the job of government regulators to level the playing field, or at least monitor the powers of those that control the network and access to its markets.

Microsoft’s biggest error ever

Speaking to Village Global venture group, Bill Gates said the biggest mistake in Microsoft’s past was missing the opportunity to be the alternative (to Apple) mobile OS provider – an opportunity lost to Android, which Google purchased in 2005 for the purposes of defeating Microsoft’s mobile strategy. The Verge

dis-rup-shun: For those that tried Microsoft mobile phones, you recall that the company really blew the customer experience opportunity. At the time, there were Blackberry, Motorola, Nokia and upstart iPhone. Microsoft’s error was to think it could squeeze the bloated WinCE operating system into a phone form factor. Rather than looking at the opportunity as a fresh, new ecosystem, Microsoft (Steve Ballmer) saw mobile phones as tiny Windows devices. The error launched Google’s fortunes in the Android business, both in licensing software and building handsets, while missing, likely forever, a future in mobile for both Microsoft and close partner, Intel.

Smart products suffering from lack of intelligence

TechCrunch reports on Samsung SmartThings’ release of a new camera, smart plug and smart bulb. The products work as expected but are described as not very exciting.

dis-rup-shun: Unfortunately much of the smart home industry is still competing on devices — expecting the white box or switch with the most features or protocols to prevail. Machine learning, however, is the competitive differentiation that will make smart homes intelligent homes. By using data profiles of users and ‘understanding’ habits, as well as deviations from those habits, connected products will operate for users, not by users, and will become ubiquitous in new homes and buildings. Connected products that do not use data and data analytics for their operation will remain lackluster to the markets.

Hackers have infiltrated over 10 mobile carriers

According to cyber security firm Cybereason, hackers have infiltrated over ten global wireless carriers and, prior to detection, could have shut the networks down at any time. The firm says none of the carriers are in the U.S., but spread around the globe. CNet 

dis-rup-shun: Global infrastructure, including energy grids, wireless networks, and banking networks are dangerous prizes for hackers. With escalating tensions with Iran and ally, Russia, the West can expect a sharp increase in cyber attacks, and the future of defense will increasingly involve hardening networks and scanning for breaches.

Uncategorized

Streaming TV to look like cable you just cancelled

by sbsikesLeave a Comment on Streaming TV to look like cable you just cancelled

How streaming TV is repeating the evolution of cable TV

Wired lists seven free streaming services with advertising that you will want to have as backups to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video accounts: IMDbTV, the Roku Channel, Kanopy, Tubi, Pluto TV, Crackle, and Vudu.

dis-rup-shun: If you are old enough to remember when cable TV was a new thing, you remember that for a reasonable monthly fee, your three-channel rabbit-ear antenna TV could become clear and sharp. Then came more channels. Then came movie channels such as HBO. Then came original content, like the Sopranos. Now that 76% of us U.S. households have Netlix and 51% have Amazon prime, we see the add on of many more streaming ‘channels’ or services. The next step will be bundling of many services into streaming packages, enabling one to access many services through a single sign-on and credit card authorization. With the pay TV providers such as AT&T driving those bundles, these new services will come from the same providers who used to offer cable TV packages. Once again we will be buying packages from big TV providers — but this time based on when we want to watch.

How apps get to the Apple App Store

Apple’s process for reviewing and approving or rejecting apps for publication on the App Store includes over 300 human reviewers who speak 81 languages, at two offices in Sunnyvale, CA with a goal to complete review of a submission within 24 to 48 hours. Each reviewer must review between 50 to 100 apps per day to ensure they run properly, are not illegal, and do not contain prohibited content. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Apple fan or not, one must credit the company on the high quality of available apps. Apple takes up to 30% of revenues generated from sales on the app store, so the company has an incentive to provide a quick turn-around and ensure a good app experience. TechCrunch states that 2/3rds of an estimated $75 billion (2018) in app revenue is generated by Apple’s app store. The revenue gap between Apple and the Google Play Store increased last year, with Apple advancing its lead. Research firm Sensor Tower states that rising revenue disparity is driven by increasing number of subscriptions to monthly services such as Netflix, and Tinder.

Drones for humanity

Eco-entrepreneurs are developing a working drone that will biodegrade in weeks after completing its mission. Otherlab of San Francisco has built a gliding drone made now from cardboard but later to be made of a mushroom-based mycelium material. The Apsara drone is funded by DARPA who required a design that not only could carry cargo to a designated spot, but that would also decompose quickly. Wired

dis-rup-shun: Given last week’s downing by Iran of a $220 million U.S. surveillance drone, it is easy to consider drones as weapons, but this brilliant drone design will enable humanitarian aid of emergency food supplies and medicines in an effective and responsible way — likely helping to maintain populations that are caught in the cross hairs of military actions.

Kano, the Erector Set of today, will boost STEM interest

Microsoft has invested in UK youth computer maker Kano which will now run Windows 10. The $300 computer kit comes with creativity and development software which encourages kids to design 3D objects, build their own programs, computer art, and collaborate with other builders through a youth version of Teams collaboration software. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: Today’s youth have most often clamored for Apple to be their first device. By introducing a computer designed to engage youth prior to the age of ownership of first computer, Microsoft has seized on an opportunity to develop renewed interest from tomorrow’s newest scientists. Hopefully the move will address the shortage of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students by developing an early interest in computer science. 

Uncategorized

How Amazon will wreck the pharmacy industry

by sbsikesLeave a Comment on How Amazon will wreck the pharmacy industry

How Amazon will wreck the pharmacy business

Amazon quietly entered the pharmacy business in 2017 and introduced PillPack, a direct to home prescription drug business that packages pills by daily dosage, with dates and times to take the medicine printed on the package. The retail pharmacy heavyweights currently play middle man by negotiating discounts from drug makers for large health insurers, creating special pricing for insurance networks. By selling directly to insurance companies, Amazon will cut out the retail pharmacy giants. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Amazon’s disruptive move will benefit the consumer with lower drug prices and, possibly, lower health insurance premiums, but will destabilize the retail pharmacy industry by forcing it to rely more heavily on the sale of non-drug products, a battle it is already fighting against Amazon.com and Prime. One answer is for retail pharmacies to move more aggressively into care clinics, a trend well underway, putting further pressure on doctor and hospital chains to become more consumer-friendly as they are forced to compete with retail pharmacies for walk-in healthcare.

Direct share offerings will put a squeeze on bankers

Collaboration tool vendor Slack went public this week without assistance from investment banks, gaining 50% value in its first day. The capital raise puts valuation of the company at $23.1 billion. Compare this to Uber’s IPO last month which, by absolute dollar valuation, was the worst performing IPO in history. Both Lyft and Uber have recovered somewhat from a bad initial offering. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: Two large IPOs, Slack and Spotify in 2018, were direct (limited banker involvement) offerings. Both companies have enjoyed strong value growth since IPO. Uber and Lyft were heavily hyped by investment banks and crashed after offering. Before we conclude that bankers are bad, it is important to note that Uber and Lyft’s business models do not show profitability in the near term, and seem to be in multiple businesses. On the other hand, Slack is facing stiff competition from tech giants. If we assume that the market is sophisticated enough to understand the competitive landscape ahead of the IPO, then one conclusion is that bankers may be over-promoting offerings and that a more informed market later corrects. Expect direct offerings to become more commonplace, eventually forcing a correction in the fees charged by banking firms.

Zuckerberg outranks Tim Cook

Glassdoor’s anonymous survey of former employees’ views on their CEO has a number of tech CEOs ranking in the top 10. Ranking in the lower half of the 100 ranked are Facebook’s Zuckerberg at 59 (#1 is the best) and Apple’s Tim Cook at 69th place. ZDNet

dis-rup-shun: Interesting to see Cook at the bottom of the heap, especially after a brutal year for Facebook’s public image. Does the secrecy inherent in Apple’s culture create distrust inside the family? Despite Facebook’s missteps, Zuckerberg has been quite penitent in public, perhaps gaining employee’s respect. It is rare for a company as successful as Apple to not become an arrogant empire, and perhaps more transparency would engender more employee admiration.

Netflix will eventually include advertisements, says industry

Netflix, with its 150 million subscribers, faces significant costs from developing original content. Industry insiders predict that Netflix will break its vow of no advertisements as production costs increase and the value of its audience reach soars. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Netflix continues to pursue a unique strategy — using debt to finance a very large catalog of original content that it can monetize over coming years. As other streaming services are launched from companies including Disney and AT&T’s WarnerMedia, Netflix subscriber growth will be challenged. The barriers to entry for streaming services have become original content — a very expensive barrier. As John Penney, CSO of 29th Century Fox has been telling the industry for years, there is simply not enough non-movie theater revenue in the TV distribution chain to support the costs of original content. The company’s stock price, however, continues to show confidence in the company’s ‘think different’ strategy.