With all of the recent news, an interesting idea came up at dinner a couple of nights ago in conversation with Gordon Young, the editor of The Drum. As Microsoft makes its moves into the world of devices and services, what other acquisitions might make sense? What, for example, if they bought Ford? The … Continue reading What if Microsoft bought Ford?
So the hoo-har about smart watches begins in earnest with the launch of Samsung's Gear. But here's an interesting social factor that might stand in the way of mass adoption... Whilst it bizarrely appears to have become socially acceptable to whip out a smart phone mid-conversation these days, looking at your watch has a much … Continue reading The smart watch challenge
A few years ago I was at an IT industry event and met a chap who worked for Ford in the UK. Specifically he worked for Ford's retail operation, and chatting to him I was surprised to learn that over recent years the blue oval brand had been buying up a number of its car … Continue reading Supply chain acquisition
News came out last week that the analyst group IDC have yet again dropped their forecast for the future sales of laptop and desktop PCs, so that they are now predicting that sales of new devices will remain essentially flat for the next 4-5 years. As The Guardian put it - the PC boom is over. … Continue reading Trending down
On Friday afternoon I'm going to be presenting at the 2013 Silicon Beach event. Unless I have a massive change of heart between now and then, the following is roughly what I'm going to be saying. If you're attending the event, really, really, this is what I'm going to be saying so don't read the … Continue reading seven stories – Silicon Beach 2013
Achievements this week included: - getting some time with the kids on this short week before stamp startup madness truly descends Next week: to Silicon Beach and beyond
So within a fortnight of my own departure, things appear to be entering a really interesting phase at Microsoft with Steve Ballmer's announced retirement "within the next 12 months". It's generated a flurry of press coverage, a significant uplift in the stock price and one paradox that is being frequently mentioned is that on his … Continue reading The next CEO
Achievements this week included: - my first public outting as the man behind stamp (does that make me adhesive?) - great catch ups with Dwain, Alex at LBi, and Ben at Twilio - a fun evening as a panelist at Tech Talkfest - a few new supplier contacts made via a new SalesForce-sponsored LinkedIn group … Continue reading Weeknote 161: summer daze
A few weeks ago I was chatting with an acquaintance who works for a trade body in the marketing industry, organising events for them. These events take sponsors, and the sponsors they were working with were exclusively technology service providers. Marketers buy marketing agency services, advertising space, novelty pencils and the occasional cuddly toy, right? … Continue reading The “2017 Meme”
Here's a question - what's more ecologically sustainable... a physical telephone directory, or a phone book smartphone app? At base level, the "death to paper" technologist will say the printed telephone directory claiming dead trees and non-biodegradable plastic packaging. In retort, the telephone directory publisher will respond that (somewhat incredulously) that a smart phone uses … Continue reading Infinitely measured
