Pages tagged: 'Disruptive'
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Too Late for the Gold Rush ?
With smartphone sales stagnating and social media in the news for all the wrong reasons, it seems we’ve fallen out of love with technology. But isn’t innovation always in vogue?
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Virtual Not So Real
Not so long ago virtual reality was heralded as the next new wave. James Carmeron’s entirely virtual epic Avatar remains the top grossing film of all time. But how real is this new wave? A recent report by respected analysts IDC called out the emperor’s clothes – virtual reality (VR) headset sales were down a massive 33% in one year. So what is going on?
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Does AI Sometimes Mean Artificial Illusion?
Artificial intelligence is a current hot topic for investors but much of what is hyped as AI may not be all that it seems. Hype is a term often seen around disruptive innovations and Gartner penned the hype cycle a couple of decades or so ago in order to describe the different stages (“peak of inflated expectations”, trough of disillusionment”, “slope of enlightenment”, “plateau of productivity”). More recently, analyst Davey Jose at sombre bank HSBC modernised the picture, using terms like “hype mania”, “backlash” and “real application”.
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Quantum Supremacy
A few weeks ago Google announced that it was close to achieving “quantum supremacy”. Maybe the machines are about to take over. Actually, Google has just made the next stage quantum computing chip (called Bristlecone) that has 72 bits. John Martinis, who heads Google’s effort, says it’s “pretty likely” that the new chip can achieve “quantum supremacy.” But what does this mean?
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Firework or Flop?
Selecting technology that’s going to change the world can be as simple as not choosing those things which don’t work, don’t get attention or simply flop. As the 2016 year end approaches, more people will be buying more technology than ever before – but there are losers. A brief look at some of the largest tech flops of all time could yield insights on what’s to come.
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Visioning Our Future
In 1984 Apple aired a TV ad that introduced the Macintosh. The ad borrowed from Orwell’s 1948 vision of Big Brother and featured a rebellious athlete throwing a sledge hammer into the status quo. The catchline ended ‘…and you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like “1984”’. Apple revolutionised the way we work with computers but how many other visionaries have had such an impact? Recent work by GoBankingRates points the way.
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Why Some Bubbles Burst
Nick Woodman is one of those rare breed of golden geese that have made more than $1bn through a technology innovation. In Nick’s case (he founded GoPro in 2002 to take action surfing shots) it wasn’t that he even made a technical breakthrough – he simply took existing technologies (firstly 35mm film and then digital cameras) and used them in a new and disruptive way. GoPro was once the darling of investors but why did this tech hit a bad wave?
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Disruptive is the New Norm
Investors like disruptive businesses because they can potentially lead to outsize returns and the term has been around for a while now – it was first coined by Clayton Christensen in 1995. But how do you identify the winners?
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Keeping Control
One time Harvard Business Review editor and now general contrarist Nicholas Carr argues that much of today’s technology imprisons rather than liberates users. In his book, The Glass Cage: Automation and Us, he argues that the invisibility of our high-tech snares gives us the illusion of freedom.
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Inventing Innovation
The respected Boston Consulting Group surveyed 1,500 senior global executives and discovered that innovation is consistently amongst the top three priorities for their companies. Such results are not surprising, given that innovation is seen as the key means of staying ahead of competitors. Everyone likes an inventive organisation but where do the best ideas come from and can you build-in innovation?
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Wearing Thin
Apple became the largest publically traded company just over three months ago so there’s been a lot of expectation around it’s recent Spring Forward event. Many of the announcements were as expected – the iPhone6 is enjoying phenomenal success with customer satisfaction at an incredible 99%, the new 12” Macbook is only 2/3 the volume of the earlier 11” version and so on. However, most of the mainstream news centred on the Apple watch. But despite the frenzy, are wearable technologies a solution looking for a problem?
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Why Technology Investments Shine
Every index has its ups and down but on 11th April this year the technology focussed Nasdaq fell 3.1 per cent, the worst one-day percentage loss since 2011. Why?
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Why Every CIO/CTO is a Venture Capitalist
Crystal ball gazing in the search for disruptive technologies is a favourite pastime of investors, analysts and futurologists. Predictions range from the obvious to the science fiction. However, a recent report by Deloitte came up with a disruptor that was not a technology at all. They said that every CIO and IT manager should stop focussing on keeping the lights on and minimising risk and instead should think like a venture capitalist. Isn’t this is a recipe for disaster?
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Complexity is the Hidden Killer
One of the great accomplishments of the technology sector is it’s ability to make increasingly complex systems easy to use. Whether you think of Windows, Skyboxes or iPhones, you are using multiple layers of technology to convert the simple things that we can do (swipe, tap, press) into fiendishly complex operations. But are we like the hungry caterpillar, gorging ourselves on each new temptation without thinking of the consequences?
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Wearing Your Health on your Sleeve
Wearable technology has long been talked about and as over a day you’re likely to have your smartphone with you longer than you wear some of your clothes, some have argued it’s already here. Certainly the launch of google glass has opened eyes to the possibilities of augmented reality. But with healthcare being one of the fastest growing sectors, has wearable medical technology come of age?
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Rise of the Anti-Business
In 2007 two men and a dog in Aberdeen set out to brew a new kind of beer and take on the leviathans that dominate the sector. Roll on seven years and the self proclaimed anti-business business Brewdog has more than trebled every year, boasts 6,500 shareholders and even global drinks giant Diageo was forced into a humiliating public apology over it’s clumsy efforts to stifle them. If this disruption can happen in an industry that’s over 4,000 years old, what does that tell us for the tech sector?
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Is Bitcoin Worth More than Chocolate Money?
A turbulent week for Bitcoin has seen the price for one bitcoin slump to half it’s November high water mark, principally on the basis of comments from China. On Wednesday the Chinese central bank authorities ordered third-party payment providers to stop using the virtual currency. So how can anyone use a transaction medium with such wildly varying exchange rates?
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Why It’s Black Friday for Virtual Money
The Friday after Thanksgiving is apparently known as Black Friday, the traditional day that US Christmas shopping starts. Over here, the term would be more likely interpreted as a reference to the banking crisis, but on the other side of the pond Black Friday is mean to be a retail bonanza, enabling struggling shops to claw their back into positive territory – hence “black” Friday.
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