Believe it or not, there is a somewhat timely pattern to the historical disruption caused by technology advances. Let’s call the individual technology advances the trees, and the profound business and societal impacts from those advances the forest. Individually, these advances may not do much to challenge the status quo, but together, in a compressed […]
Archive | Consumer electronics
Why Google, Not Amazon, Will Win the Smart Home War
Every new technology brings with it a clash of competing standards, formats and operating systems. Veteran observers can recount the (rhetorically) bloody battles pitting Betamax against VHS, HD-DVD against Blu-ray, DVD-A vs. Super Audio CD, Mac vs. PC—we could go on. The format wars, as they’re colloquially called, are by no means over. There are […]
Many Monstrous Notes at CES 2017
While wandering around CES 2017, I was reminded of that scene in Amadeus, in which the Emperor Joseph II decides that the new opera by Mozart had “too many notes.” (The actual quote is “monstrous many notes” and referred to Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio,” but I digress.) That’s what I felt about CES—monstrous […]
Chinese Mobile Makers’ App Store Strategy
How have Chinese smartphone makers, such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and ZTE, been able to compete in the domestic Chinese market at lower price points than those of international brands like Apple and Samsung? Local suppliers and service providers are vying for millions of consumer purchases—specifically, high-quality, feature-rich devices at relatively low prices. They must […]
The Chinese are Coming, the Chinese are Coming
Seven months ago, I reported on fifth wave of regional TV manufacturing dominance, the first wave from the U.S., the second from Japan, the third from Europe, the fourth from Korea and, now, the fifth, potentially from China. At least one Chinese TV vendor, Hisense, seems poised to try and make me look prescient. As […]
Video Recording Formats: Are We Done Yet?
While attending a corporate video shoot last week, I was a taken back by the recording gear sitting atop the videographer’s two tripods: not sophisticated prosumer models from Canon or Sony, not a couple of standard consumer beer can-style camcorders, not even a pair of GoPros. No, what these professional video makers were using to […]
Android Poised to Dominate in Emerging Markets
With the smartphone market looking to emerging markets for growth now that most developed markets have reached saturation, the Android OS is positioned to further dominate in these markets much the same way Microsoft dominates the computer business. The flexibility to develop devices at multiple price points and feature sets, as well as to customize […]
How TV Manufacturers Can Get to an OLED Future
Recent trends on display at both the IFA 2016 electronics show in Berlin, IBC 2016 in Amsterdam, and CEDIA Expo 2016 in Dallas showed that large-screen televisions based on organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology are in for significant revenue and unit growth as multiple vendors enter the market. Meanwhile, new OLED production technologies are […]
What the Olympics Tells Us About the Future of Broadcast TV
The Rio Olympics have come and gone. Several swimmers aside, the U.S. unquestionably had a stellar Olympic games, capturing the lion’s share of medals. But while athletes and coaches will be picking apart their performances for weeks to come, TV analysts have turned their eye to another post-mortem: How were the ratings? The short answer: […]
What Is a Portable Computer?
In recent dueling ads about their tablet/laptop hybrids, both Apple and Microsoft ask the rhetorical question: What is a computer? Well, we kinda know that, don’t we? The real question is, what is a “portable computer?” A long time ago, in a marketplace far, far away, when you talked about a “portable computer,” you meant […]