Yesterday Best Buy reported 4Q FY18 results well above Street estimates. Comparable store sales in the quarter were up 9% (domestic) and 9.9% (international), compared with a 3% Street estimate. US comps were especially strong for entertainment (16.8%) and appliances (20.7%). Entertainment was up 26% year-over-year (likely driven by gaming). Appliance sales were up nearly…
Earlier this week Axios published the results from a recent Axios-SurveyMonkey poll. The results reveal an interesting dichotomy. There appears to be wide consensus that technology is making us better off and that this will continue into the future. Consider the following findings: 82% of American adults believe the success of U.S. technology companies has…
The market for smart speakers, also commonly referred to as voice-enabled smart speakers and virtual personal assistant (VPA)-enabled wireless speakers, is still a very nascent market. Yes, the market has enjoyed tremendous growth, especially over the last six months, but there is still significant growth yet to be had. I’m already beginning to see some…
Earlier this week Eurasia Group published their Top Risks for 2018 which includes the risk of a global tech cold war. They write that, “achieving dominance in emerging technologies is the world’s most important battle for economic power.” But what does “dominance” of an emerging technology mean? And what does that dominance look like? Does…
Artificial intelligence (AI) will reduce use of centralized services and give further rise to decentralized, distributed services. The social implications of this are just beginning to materialize. Consider the case of Uber. Recent academic research found Uber’s entry into new markets decreased ambulance rates in those markets by at least seven percent. In a world…
The dust has settled. The results tallied. Black Friday, CyberMonday, and the entire weekend these two days bookend proved to be a strong thrust for holiday shopping. Here are 5 trends that materialized over the weekend. Some of these trends are continuations of story lines we’ve followed in past years that have grown and expanded…
It all started innocently enough, with seemingly normal individuals blogging about the less glamorous parts of their daily lives. In those early days we were attracted to the rawness and honesty of their writing. We laughed at their stories and looked in on their personal mishaps and adventures throughout the week. Strongly curated content began…
Amazon’s foray into streaming live sporting events is about digital data. It was never about audience size, new activations, or subscriber retention. Last night Amazon streamed their second NFL Thursday Night Football game. Bloomberg reported Amazon’s first NFL live streaming event last week attracted 372,000 viewers who watched the game an average of 55 minutes…
With a growing list of CEOs losing their jobs because of cyber attacks and data breaches, it’s time for corporations to change how they operate. Escalating cyber risks necessitate two core corporate structural changes. First, the role of the CIO should be elevated, reporting directly into the CEO and gaining corporate board visibility. Secondly, corporate…
We are introducing the internet to more and more diverse places through the wide deployment of digitized, ‘sensor’ized, connected objects. Each new introduction is an experiment. And the question we are asking is “does the internet make sense here and if so, what are the use-case scenarios?” When Apple announced the Apple Watch in September…
