Renting is the New Owning
Home ownership is still (mostly) in vogue. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, 81 percent of current home renters still plan to buy a house one day – though the number of individuals who “strongly agree” home ownership is the best investment a person can make is just 37% compared to 49% when the question was […]
Lighter Shades of Green…
Had an interesting conversation with a reporter earlier this week on the topic of “green tech.” Green tech has always been one of those loosely defined segments of consumer tech. Many want to box it concretely – but increasingly green is a story of relativism instead of absoluteness. Many (dare I say most) consumer electronics […]
Mobility Redefined (circa 2008)
The following was published in January 2008: Throughout the history of the consumer technology industry, the home has remained the hub for content. Today, households consume 75 percent of their total video content while at home. Even portable devices aren’t straying far. With 66 percent of consumers using their portable MP3 players and digital media […]
On Connectivity
The following was published in Dealerscope in November 2007: The first International CES debuted 41 years ago. Since then technology has made great strides, introducing a plethora of innovative products that not even George Orwell could have predicted. The 1970s were the information decade. The average household owned just 1.3 technology devices, and consumer technologies […]
Some Math Behind Electric Vehicles
The following was original published in CE Vision Magazine. You can download the full issue here. The presence of electric vehicles at CES continues to grow with 2011 setting records on multiple fronts. As gas prices rise and show little sign of retreating any time soon, interest in electric vehicles will continue to peak in the […]
Evolutionary Currents: Adding Context to the Nook Color Upgrade
This week Barnes & Noble upgraded the software running on their Nook Color e-reader tablets. Users can now access apps, have email pushed to the device and watch flash videos. There are a variety of reviews on the web (see: here, here, and here) discussing the anticipated update so here I’ll take a differ tack […]
Retail Trends to Watch
The following was published in Dealerscope Magazine in December 2010: The last three years have been a volatile period in the history of consumer electronics. While a recovery is slowly taking shape, I believe the next few years will offer as much change as the in the last year or so. Here are a few […]
Apple’s AirPlay Remains the Sleeper Hit for 2011
Back in January I wrote that Apple’s AirPlay would drive a renaissance for audio. Networked audio solutions have been building slowly to a crescendo I believe plays out over the next 24 months. Of course companies like Sonos and Logitech with their Squeezebox suite of devices left important early footprints while defining the market for networked audio solutions. Several years ago I spoke with […]
10 Themes for 2011
10 predictions for 2011 published in the January edition of CE Vision. You can see the entire issue here. 1) The unemployment rate will end 2011 close to where it is today During the muted economic recovery many metrics and measures have significantly underperformed past economic recoveries despite the fact that the significant depth of […]
Organizing Information
The most successful companies – especially in the digital world – will be built around organizing dispersed information (something I said I would expound upon). Name a successful company in the digital space, and you will see data organization at its core. AOL for example – while best known for its ISP business in the 1980s […]
