Tag: Zuckerberg

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Glasses so smart they read your brain waves

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Smart glasses monitor your brain

Narbis smart glasses include sensors, one that sits atop your head, to measure brain waves to determine when you are distracted. Upon determining that you are distracted, the glasses black out your lenses, supposedly snapping you back to attention. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: Perhaps this approach is preferable to a life on Ridalin, but after the scathing abuse your child would receive by wearing this crazy device, you the parent might have to be medicated. A number of smart glasses are coming to market, all with unique benefits, but the problem they seek to solve is still a bit murky. This product category needs a really strong use case, like streaming movies to your lenses, or heads up display mapping for drivers, but it is unlikely that any vendor, save Apple, can create a stylish, lightweight, practical and easy to use pair of smart glasses that the masses will want to own.

Amazon offers free grocery delivery to Prime members

Amazon will drop its grocery delivery fee of $14.99 per month for Prime members, reportedly due to Amazon’s increasing efficiency at delivery. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Amazon’s reinvention of logistics is moving quickly. Deliveries of products purchased via Amazon.com are increasingly delivered by grey vans that run with frequency between local delivery hubs and homes and businesses seven days a week. How will UPS and FedEx, companies that have enjoyed a virtual duopoly for decades, respond to new efficiencies found by Amazon? The cost of shipping may soon decrease as Amazon increases competition in the industry, or an unexpected player such as Uber may fight for a slice of the parcel delivery business.

Zuckerberg needs to shut up, says prof.

In a scathing article, Wired states more emphatically than all other scathing articles about Zuckerberg, that the company simply refuses to learn from its mistakes. UVA professor Vaidhyanathan attributes Zuckerberg’s incompetence at Congressional hearings on the company’s “chaos, arrogance, panic, overreaction and defensiveness.” Wired

dis-rup-shun: Facebook’s refusal to thoroughly and convincingly make changes that prevent fake news or breaches in personal data baffles both the public and lawmakers. A company so questionable will struggle with controversial proposals like the launch of private currency Libra. Expect Facebook to continue to be the lightning rod that excites lawmakers into increasing scrutiny of all of BigTech, perhaps taking a little pressure off of more grown-up companies. 

NASA unmanned space plane spent 780 days in space

The X-37B is an autonomous space plane that resembles a miniature space shuttle. The plane just returned from a 780 day mission during which it performed a number of classified experiments. The plane was launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Wired

dis-rup-shun: Space commerce is getting a lot of press lately, with billionaires leading the race for the Moon and Mars, but perhaps the biggest news is that which is not being shared from NASA’s secret experiments, as the U.S. space agency quietly gains confidential data about whatever it is that it is learning in space. NASA is walking a tight line as its programs rely heavily on commercial contractors — yet seeks to advance technological and, certainly, defense innovations that will remain national secrets.

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Apple and tariffs on China: how to respond

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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.

 

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How Amazon will wreck the pharmacy industry

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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.