Technology Head Fakes
A loser: everyone who bets on technologies that never get out of a niche market. That means mass customization, Internet of Things, beacons, 3D printing, and the next big head fake – virtual reality.
A big winner: podcasts. The medium is rapidly growing, with 21 million hours of podcasts consumed each day – offering big opportunities for the media companies and advertisers who get in early.
A loser: Fitbit. Shares fell by 18% on the day when Fitbit released an Apple me-too product, the Fitbit Blaze, and all the new products introduced at CES will likely cause the company’s market share to continue dwindling.
Another loser: girls. If you’re shopping for products, it’s typically cheaper to buy the “male” version. For example, Target sells red Razor scooters marketed to boys for $24.99, but the pink version marketed to girls costs $49.99.
President at G Asset Management
9 年Are technology head fakes fraud? Rhetorical question. It's all fraud america website idea. Just read the headline as a disclaimer. Respect though. Hope all is well, Scott.
Love these commentaries, entertaining and insightful! Thx Scott. From anecdotes I've heard, those that have chosen fitbits over Apple Watch liked it's simplicity over the more complicated Watch. Fitbit should have focused on this a core design advantage. Insightful notion that Watch is a second screen, makes a lot of sense for the companion device. Not sure I agree with the IoT comment, I love my connected Nest and want a connected fridge/pantry so it orders our daily necessities without requiring my brain or time. Is A Tesla an IoT? Love that autopilot feature, again can see how it could save me time and let me think about more productive things.
Director Strategic Alliances driving partnerships for growth @ Dview
9 年You Bet Scott! Technology is like the Yan which is more visible and well defined and hence can be copied.
Venture Investments, Corporate Development & Innovation Executive: Strategic Partnerships, Venture Capital/Early-Stage Investing, Relationship Management @ FIS, Barclays, Mastercard, Anheuser-Busch & American Express
9 年Oh man. First time listening to this. Scott is hilarious, awesome and right. I need to start following these so I can never miss an educated laugh again.
Senior Project Engineer at New York Power Authority
9 年Winners and losers is an interesting series . I believe podcasts are a certain winner . Addition of home made apps by Apple directly on the device is useful. Same thing happened with Apple maps . It has much more usage and it has only continued to increase . Fitbit is an interesting story. It was the most selling wearable some time back. Apple disrupted the industry by Apple Watch and 50% of all smartwatches were sold by Apple . It's not new considering Apple success story but it was not remarkable . It's agreeable that watch is just a second screen but it can be made useful , it's just waiting for that one killer app . Virtual reality is an interesting platform but offerings by Facebook are too costly . Google cardboard is cheap and offers a really good and immersive experience . Playing games is fun at times too. 3-d printing needs more availability and usuability and it can turn out to be useful. Companies can start this by selling codes for products for which you can just manufacture at home. Cheap and fast . And mass customization is possible too. Beacons certainly don't have any good use other than being near an Apple Store and having a pop up on the phone screen . Well girls will be girls . When there is a price set for a product, the company knows there will be buyers . So till the time girls start loving blue and black , this will continue to sneak in money from their lv purses .