2011 in review
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: February 13, 2012
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,200 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 20 trips to carry that many people.
Is Innovation outpacing Mobile Infrastructure?
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: November 22, 2011
- In: Innovation | iPad | Mobile Technology | Wifi
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Every time I hear rumours and then see the delivery of new mobile products I am impressed how far we have come over the last few years. Smartphones are becoming more and more feature rich and the proliferation of tablets is becoming the norm. However I do get frustrated with the networks that support these, has product Innovation surpassed the infrastructure they rely upon?
I live in London and even within the M25 have trouble getting a 3G or GPS connection some times, so cannot imagine how rural areas of the UK cope.
Will the growing trend of mobile devices accelerate LTE rollout (4G) or like Europe will more and more cities begin to offer free Wi-Fi? although existing Wi-Fi networks are not immune as the iPad on average uses 400% more Wi-Fi than any of device so in time these will need to be upgraded too.
Could Quantative Models predict Innovations?
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: November 3, 2011
For years now quantative models have been used around the globe to predict stock market movements however with advances in Indexing technologies could these techniques now be used to predict Innovations?
Even though Technology Innovations seem to be radical, usually they are either incremental changes to existing products or actually based on previous ideas. If we look to science fiction films for example you can see many products that now exist.
If we consider two, “Star Trek” and “Back to the Future” there are many products which are the forerunners of products we use every day.
The Star Trek Communicator could be a mobile phone, the sliding doors were a fantasy.
More recently Nike released shoes based on Marty Mcfly’s from the film
And of course these items are only the tip of the iceberg.
There are now tools which can look at the meta data from films using Deep Video Indexing (VDI) so how long will it be before we can map the time line of science fiction to science fact and predict the next Innovations.
Will Cloud Computing become as pervasive as Electricity?
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: October 18, 2011
- In: Cloud | Innovation
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Electrification was once called “the most important engineering achievement of the 20th century” by the National Academy of Engineering, and following a number of commercial uses all with different technologies and standards the technology converged and became commonplace in households (In large cities to begin with) during the 1920s.
In my view this evolution is not that dissimilar from the adoption of Cloud Services; before the inception of Broadband most institutions had little option but to build and run their own systems or get a partners to host. But post Broadband the ability to transmit data at fast speeds has seen the emergence of SAAS, PAAS, IAAS etc. which is evolving how enterprises procure technology and fix costs.
Even in the consumer space the use of the cloud is becoming more and more popular, especially if we think the new Apple operating system IOS5 includes iCloud and in the first 3 days of launching the Apple iPhone 4s 4million units were sold.
So if the enterprise and consumer are drifting into more and more cloud solutions could cloud Computing become a utility (Like Electricity) which we all subscribe to and get a monthly bill for usage??
The Power Of Brand – How Innovative do you really need to be?
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: September 29, 2011
- In: Innovation | iPad
- 2 Comments
A day doesn’t seem to go by without someone mentioning Innovation in the News, however how Innovative do you really need to be? Does Brand allow the fast follower to become the market leader?
If you really think about it; how many Innovations are really Innovative? I would hasten to say not many. Most Innovations are the implementation of many incremental changes done at the right time. Think of the Apple iPad, this device is certainly a game changer and is encouraging the post PC era however what is Innovative? Tablets are not new, touch screen technology has been around for a while, however when you combine these with the extended ARM battery life and add an App Store you have a game changer. Also, If you look at the MP3 market most people think that Apples iPod created the market however Sony had an MP3 player out first but again no vehicle for delivering the tunes i.e. iTunes.
Recently I noticed that one the UK Banks introduced a Currency Converter to the Apple App store and although I already had an app from a different developer I still loaded this and actually removed the incumbent (This type of app is not Innovative or really hard to create). However it made me think, if you are happy with a Brand would you consume all its fast follower Innovations in the long run?
So from an enterprise perspective, if your brand is strong and your strategy is set you can still be seen as Innovative even if your choice is to be a fast follower. This way you will retain your Customer base and can only invest in Innovations which your customers want (You need to ensure however that you don’t take too long to fast follow as you may miss the boat altogether).
Innovation: Crowd Sourcing gets personal
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: July 11, 2011
Leveraging the power of the crowd to solve a Business problem is not a new concept. It has been done for years and in the UK it can be traced back to at least 1714.
In 1714 – British Parliament offered £20,000 to the first person who could invent a device to determine a sailors longitude at Sea.
Using crowdsourcing to solve a problem is a very commercially astute proposition as most of the time the prize fund being offered by the competition organiser will be less than the monies expended in R&D solving the issue. However for an individual company the kudos of winning can now gain you global recognition and business (See Goldcorp Below)
The Canadian gold mining group Goldcorp made 400 megabytes of geological survey data on its Red Lake, Ontario, property available to the public over the Internet. They offered a $575,000 prize to anyone who could analyze the data and suggest places where gold could be found. The company claims that the contest produced 110 targets, over 80% of which proved productive; yielding 8 million ounces of gold, worth more than $3 billion. The prize was won by a small consultancy in Perth, Western Australia, called Fractal Graphics.
Even though using crowdsourcing is not new, different ways to accomplish this are continually evolving (See my post of May 3 on Funded Apps). However to date there are still very few platforms which can allow you and me to crowd source for anything we need until now.
There is a new site called Prizes.Org which allows you to do just that. Have you every wished you could offer a financial prize to solve your problems? Why not try this site out there are people wanting you to “name their unborn children”,” plan their honeymoons” and even design logos.
The Generational Stereotype
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: May 9, 2011
If you are involved with Innovation or Social Media you can’t help but to be sucked in the generalisation of the world population. Nearly every article seems to mention Gen Y or now the Gen Z (I even heard Gen Z being Called Generation C – the Connected Generation) but can you really stereotype the world population? Certainly the younger generations have never known any reality other than that defined and enabled by the internet, mobile devices and Social Networking, however like most things experience also counts. When I say experience I am not referring to the traditional view of work experience but experience of application and technology usage – this no longer needs to be learnt at work and is not age dependant, especially when the Silver Surfers are one of the larger growing groups at the moment.
One of the main reasons that Innovation programs or Social Media experiments fail is not in the rollout but in the application, consumer targeting and monitoring of the initiative. Today everyone seems to believe that to progress in the world you need a Social Media presence, both personally and professionally. Although this is true you must first ask the question why?? Once you have a “real reason” to enter this space you can then consider the type of consumer you are targeting (Is it to sell a product or promote yourself?). No longer does one size fit all (I don’t believe it ever did however) as the different generations may require different Social Media approaches.
You cannot segment by Generation alone; if you are looking to segment a global demographic you need to consider Generation, Location (1st World, 2nd World and 3rd World) and Experience as a minimum. This will then ensure that your product reach is not only targeted only at the Generations which should purchase your product, but the ones which may be interested which do not fall into the Generation Stereotype.
Generation Types
Baby Boomer – A person born in the postwar years (generally considered in the USA and other Allied countries as between 1945 and the early 1960s), when there was an increase in the birth rate following the return of servicemen at the end of World War II.
Generation X – The generation of people born after baby boom that followed World War II, especially those born in the 1960s and 1970s.
Generation Y – The generation of people born in the 1980s and 1990s.
Generation Z – The generation of people born in the 1990s and 2000s.
A New way to CrowdSource?
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: May 3, 2011
If you are an Innovator you are probably aware that getting ideas is never an issue it’s the quality and the implementation which are. I was recently looking through the App store and came across the iPhone App “Funded Apps” which allows you to submit your own app ideas, for £1.19 a pop, to the FundedApps creators who will analyse your idea before dumping it or creating it. If your idea is accepted they will pay £250 plus 25% of any net profit the app makes when it is published.
We have all used Innovation Tools before however is this the “lite” way forward for enterprises once they have a remuneration package in place (The £1.19 per suggestion may put people off but at least you attract serious ideas)
http://www.fundedapps.com/taf/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/apr/15/fundedapps-consumer-app-of-week
Social Media – Whats your angle
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: April 15, 2011
In our connected society a day doesn’t seem to pass without a mention of social media as everyone climbs onto the bandwagon, however does active Social media participation actually increase your reputation or damage it?
Over the years many Social Sites have come and gone and I am sure everyone can remember the plethora of invitations from friends you have received. However what is the point of it all? To some people it seems to be a game where they must be a member of every type of social media platform to prove them as a social evangelist, although sometimes all this does is show them as a fraud (See my previous post). Like most things in life there are two things you must consider
1) Who is your audience i.e. Is it business or pleasure and can you comments be separated
2) What is you Angle i.e. are you a creator of content, a participant, a reader or do you feel the necessity to point out everyone else’s information
Social Media is connecting the world at a tremendous pace and should be embraced however if you want to enhance your own reputation and make it an enjoyable experience for everyone else remember that we can all search the web quite happily on our own.
Will 2011 be the year of creation?
Posted by: Steve Wakefield on: March 7, 2011
Unless you have been on another planet you could not have missed that Apple launched their third post-PC blockbuster the iPad 2 last week (2001 the iPod, 2007 the iPhone, 2010 the iPad). The original iPad was a huge success and in its first 9 months of being 15 million iPads were sold in 2010 from April through December, with $9.5 billion dollars in revenue. 65000 apps are also available in the App Store which have been rendered for use on the iPad.
So you may ask yourself how can Apple improve this product so that it can be even more successful than the first…..well they have and I want one.
The iPad 2 has an all new design (in black and white) with a A5 dual core processor which makes the CPU x2 as fast and x9 as fast for graphics. It has x2 video cameras which we alll wanted to see, a 5 mega pixel for video on the outside (still no camera for stills so this may be an iPad 3 feature?) It is also 33% thinner than the original iPad (8.8 mm apposed to the original 13.4mm) and also lighter (1.3 pounds apposed to 1.5 pounds). It will be available in the US on 11 March and 25 March in the UK.
You may however be asking yourself so what? I know not everyone is impressed with new gadgets, however this one is going to be a game changer. The first iPad was fantastic however when running some files it was not that fast (It still is however better than anything out there, apart from the iPad 2) and without a camera you could not Skype so would never replace a Laptop or a Netbook. With the increased power and cameras this takes the iPad to a new place. This may soon be able to replace your laptop (not yet however).
When the iPad first came out there were many reviews and it was branded a consumption device rather than a creator due to it’s power and the applications available. With the iPad 2 Apple is launching a version of iMovie which for the first time will allow you to shoot video and edit it on the iPad. This will enhance some of the original Apple business apps and start to turn the tablet into a creation device. In addition to the Apple apps you can also create documents using the many online creation apps like Google Docs and Evernote. 2011 therefore may actually be the year where the iPad turns into a creation device and becomes a valuable addition to the Enterprise rather than another toy to increase the cost of IT.
Before you all rush to your IT departments to say you have lost your old iPad, apart from the camera the old one is still good enough unless you need video editing and the business enhancements will be in the app world rather than the hardware. Naturally there will be apps the require the new high spec hardware but not yet.
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- Steve Wakefield: I completly agree, Innovation is only bound by your imagination, however an ROI should always be sought. No ideas are bad ideas, they may just be imp
- Bob: Steve, couple of thoughts 1. Serious innovations are few and far between. The iPad is just an improvement in a well defined area. Digital music inste
- innovationtoday: I am still considering, i have the iPad 1 and although the camera and speed enhancements are interesting until there are more enterprise grade applica
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