Thursday, September 12, 2013

Smartwatches - A solution looking for a problem

I get it. Tech companies need to make money. They need to produce new shiny toys for all of the good little geek girls and boys. But I do not understand the sudden massive push for smartwatches.
I'll admit it, I was one of the early backers for the Pebble! I have one of them sitting on my desk. Generally it gets charged, then loses its charge without me even putting the thing on! Its not that its a bad little piece of technology,  its just that is that it is a solution looking for a problem to solve.

Lets take a look at what we get from using one of these devices. The main purpose of all of these devices is to essentially notify you when something happens on your smartphone. Now I don't know about you, but pulling my phone out of my pocket or picking it up off my desk is not exactly difficult or time consuming, and I am the owner of a Galaxy Note 2 and father of a tech infatuated toddler! If anyone would have a difficult time looking at a phone its me! So if its not helping me there whats the point?

It would be naive of me to think that there aren't any other use cases for these devices, and I understand that many tech companies are simply trying to get ahead of the curve and hoping to produce the next iPad. I just don't think that this is a device that can make our lives better.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

The new Kindles

I can't help but think that most of the media reporting on the new Kindle Fires haven't actually spent much time reading on one.

In Forbes, Juliet Barbara talks about how current e-ink e-readers are basically like the desktops of the 80s, a necessity for cost and that they will eventually die away. This is her argument as to why Amazon is making the move to Tablets.

I hate to rain on her parade but the reason Amazon is making tablets is because Amazon has a shit ton more content than just books. More importantly they want to target their advertising to individuals and why better way to do that than give people as subsidized device that doubles as a portable billboard?

Bottom line is this is a brilliant move by Amazon. Not only is it a shot over Apples bow regarding music and media, but it simultaneously gives Amazon an amazing marketing tool over all other online and offline retailers. This is Bezos genius at its best: heads I win, tails you lose.