Music streaming – Tidal wave

Reply to this post           Tidal at risk of being swamped by a wave of bad press. Tidal is a music streaming offering backed by Jay Z and other artists that launched with much fanfare at the end of March but it looks like the offering is already in serious trouble. Following a rocky launch where...

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Health wearables – Heart of the matter

Reply to this post           Makers of medical equipment need not fear yet. As Apple is tweaking how the Apple Watch monitors the user’s heart rate, it becomes abundantly clear that health wearables are far from being able to challenge the medical devices industry. Most wearables that track heart rate do it by measuring the absorption...

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Google I/O 2015 – Elephant dodging

Reply to this post           Without distribution Google’s innovations have negative value. Google launched a whole raft of new innovations at its 2015 I/O developer conference but omitted to address the elephant in the room. I am referring to Google’s inability to control the distribution of its Android software. This problem is so severe that in...

Apple – Das Auto

Reply to this post           Apple is not about to start making cars. Apple has confirmed that it is interested in the automotive sector but it is an enormous leap of faith to assume that it will start making cars. At the Re/code conference, Apple SVP operations Jeff Williams referred to the car as the ultimate...

Snapchat – Salad days.

Reply to this post           Snapchat very unlikely to escape the bubble bursting. If Evan Spiegel really thinks that the tech market is currently a bubble then there is hope. It would imply that are plans already in place for when the torrent of easy money dries up which are certain to include monetisation and rapidly...

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Blackberry – Survival instinct

Reply to this post           Blackberry’s hardware days are numbered. In a week where all of Blackberry’s dirty laundry is laid bare in a new book, Blackberry is also moving to again reduce headcount in its handset business. Blackberry has attempted to play to its strengths by narrowing its hardware focus to financial institutions and governments...

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Firefox OS – Soggy matches.

Reply to this post           Ignite initiative has far to go before it catches fire. Mozilla has done a complete about face in ditching its cheap smartphone strategy and deciding instead to focus on an experience that users might actually want. Ex-Mozilla CMO Chris Beard has been running the show since July 2014 and last week...

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Radio Free Mobile – Service interruption

          Addition to the family earlier than expected triggers a service outage.  Service will resume in a few days.

Google vs. Operators – Storm in a teacup.

Reply to this post           Rebellion against Google’s dominance likely to fail. Between them Google and Apple have the mobile operators in a tight grip. The operators’ failure to develop any kind of services (other than voice and data packets) that users like has meant that they are fully on track to become commoditised bit pipes....

Samsung – Back to basics.

Reply to this post           Launch of IoT modules returns Samsung to its roots Samsung has launched a range of modules aimed at Internet of Things (IoT) devices at an event in San Francisco. The new platform is called ARTIK and will initially consist of three modules. First. ARTIK 1, a ladybird sized module with a very...