Why did Sony Connect Fail?
Jupiter Research comments on the failure of Sony Connect music service:
Sony is not shutting this down for lack of effort. It may in fact have spent too much money developing the service, from the Connectsets (Exclusive music performances by artists from Anna Nalick to the Killers) to the creation of a new (and buggy) media player midstream. It had a good deal of money to spend and, like any major media company entering a space where it perceived ownership, it decided to spend the money by offering, in larger volume, some version of just about everything on the market.
At the same time, the Connect playstation group is the only group that will remain after the business winds down. Perhaps this is where they should have started. There are thousands of gamers who live in virtual worlds and gaming avatars are, right now, nonconsumers of music. What if Sony had moved away from making music for the player and toward selling music that could be inserted in games from Halo (music mine: step on it and be frozen for a 2 minute song duration... mines can be purchased through connect store) to the SIMS, it might have found a small but committed customer base. If it had left this point to sell music for network services such as CyWorld and for other virtual platforms from SecondLife to World of Warcraft, Kaneva, etc, this user base would have grown. What does music look like in a virtual environment, I'd suggest that each song and album has it's own icon, in the shape of in world objects.
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Patents are about to get longer
The patent law blog looks at Biomedino v. Waters Technology, where a court found Biomedino's patent invalid since the patent claimed something that was then insufficeintly described in the specification.
To wit, "the court held that the structure must be disclosed in the specification even if one of skill in the art could implement a structure without such a disclosure."
This means that we need to describe, in detail, pretty much anything that is claimed. This is probably a good thing. It may make discovery easier by reducing problems of obviousness and construction.
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Business Schools for the Impoverished
Microcapital looks at the Udyogini Business School in Maharashtra (India). Designed for illiterate rural women, it offers courses on Fianance, Marketing and other skills. It is intended to increase the number of women participating in microcredit.
I'm interested to see whether this works. In general, the rural poor tend to work extremely long days and don't necessarily have time to attend day or evening classes. This also harks back to a popular NGO view that poverty is connected to a lack of education rather than a lack of access to affordable business inputs (through reasonable credit, among other things). I wonder whether these classes will present a more acceptable way for Women to learn about business and bring their families around to the concept of a woman managing finances. On the other hand, maybe the classes are given in an entirely nonstandard way.
I wonder if management/ finance classes would be better for someone who has made it through 2-3 rounds of microcredit and wants to expand a business (or look at insurance or other hedges against business failure) rather than someone who is just joining the credit pool.
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Online sales
JupiterResearch notes that online sales seem to have peaked for the time being and talks about implications for online retailers:
This does not seem to include growth in mobile sales, which may or may not catch on in the US. I am more interested in implications for offline sales. Business, such as bookstores, have been forced to change rapidly over the past few years in response to pressure from explosive online growth. As the acceleration curve for online sales flattens, offline retailers may be given more of a chance to work with the customers that they have. In major markets such as New York, Mumbai, and Tokyo this means making enough money to cover increased rental costs while dealing with savvy consumers who often treat stores as demo areas, sampling a product and then buying it from the convenience of home.
There are still tons of problems facing offline retailers. They may have a better opportunity to solve some of these problems-- for the time being-- if the roles of online/offline retail become slightly more demarcated over the next few years
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Why didn't we think of this?
Venturebeat looks at Daily Strength, a social network based on health problems. The name strikes me as cheezy but the concept is great. If it has not been done, someone should search the usenets and the major informal community posting portals. I wonder if there are other affinity groups that can match health interest groups for the mix of online and offline affiliation. Parents with young kids comes to mind (call it Neighborhood?), and we already have Dogster, for a subset of pet owners. We probably need something for cars or possibly bbq and well maintained lawns
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There has always been a difference-- in my mind-- between energy and biotech pursuits. Biotech looked at health and agriculture while energy looked at oil and gas. VentureBeat, however, points to Craig Venter's new project, Synthetic Genomics, which has raised a great deal of money from BP in order to develop genetically engineered organisms that do a better job producing alternative fuels. Between this and the plastic (announced last week) that has been engineered to break down into a liquid fuel in the presence of specific enzymes, it looks like biotech has really entered the energy market.
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Sequoia Capital is pushing more funds toward Chinese startups. It should be careful to seek small companies that can grow organically rather than under the auspices of the array of passive and active government subsidies that have made so many Chinese manufacturing firms competitive in the short run.
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Make Magazine looks at the gradual disappearance of Chem sets, underpressure from law and drug enforcement companies
It is probably time for a Make magazine version of the Boy Scouts, something that will not only have kids running around in the woods but also experimenting with chemistry and Genomics, and design, and just about everything else out there that is both constructible and interesting.
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Small storage containers to MP3 players to Amplifiers. if I were a designer, I'd consider trying to make my next handheld object the size and shape (without the rim) of an Altoids can
Altoids Amplifier from Make via Octopart:
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Thi is the first time that I've heard the term "Manhattan Borealis" but I like it...
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This is a little bit overshot, probably
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Proton therapy
If we combine this with fluorescent cancer cell imaging, we might see the day when complex cancer surgeries can be done remotely in a relatively noninvasive manner:
pic from Medgadget:
Jupiter Research comments on the failure of Sony Connect music service:
It doesn't come as much of a surprise but Sony is basically closing down the Connect music service. (the eBook version will still live for now to service the Reader product). It's a slightly bittersweet note for the company that once was synonymous for portable music. As we predicted, the market will simply not bear five different closed eco-systems for digital music distribution (especially when one player holds 70%+ share of the market). We've said it before, the devices still drive the stores and services and unless there's a credible iPod and soon iPhone challenger, it's going to be hard to compete here.
Sony is not shutting this down for lack of effort. It may in fact have spent too much money developing the service, from the Connectsets (Exclusive music performances by artists from Anna Nalick to the Killers) to the creation of a new (and buggy) media player midstream. It had a good deal of money to spend and, like any major media company entering a space where it perceived ownership, it decided to spend the money by offering, in larger volume, some version of just about everything on the market.
At the same time, the Connect playstation group is the only group that will remain after the business winds down. Perhaps this is where they should have started. There are thousands of gamers who live in virtual worlds and gaming avatars are, right now, nonconsumers of music. What if Sony had moved away from making music for the player and toward selling music that could be inserted in games from Halo (music mine: step on it and be frozen for a 2 minute song duration... mines can be purchased through connect store) to the SIMS, it might have found a small but committed customer base. If it had left this point to sell music for network services such as CyWorld and for other virtual platforms from SecondLife to World of Warcraft, Kaneva, etc, this user base would have grown. What does music look like in a virtual environment, I'd suggest that each song and album has it's own icon, in the shape of in world objects.
========================================================================
Patents are about to get longer
The patent law blog looks at Biomedino v. Waters Technology, where a court found Biomedino's patent invalid since the patent claimed something that was then insufficeintly described in the specification.
To wit, "the court held that the structure must be disclosed in the specification even if one of skill in the art could implement a structure without such a disclosure."
This means that we need to describe, in detail, pretty much anything that is claimed. This is probably a good thing. It may make discovery easier by reducing problems of obviousness and construction.
========================================================================
Business Schools for the Impoverished
Microcapital looks at the Udyogini Business School in Maharashtra (India). Designed for illiterate rural women, it offers courses on Fianance, Marketing and other skills. It is intended to increase the number of women participating in microcredit.
I'm interested to see whether this works. In general, the rural poor tend to work extremely long days and don't necessarily have time to attend day or evening classes. This also harks back to a popular NGO view that poverty is connected to a lack of education rather than a lack of access to affordable business inputs (through reasonable credit, among other things). I wonder whether these classes will present a more acceptable way for Women to learn about business and bring their families around to the concept of a woman managing finances. On the other hand, maybe the classes are given in an entirely nonstandard way.
I wonder if management/ finance classes would be better for someone who has made it through 2-3 rounds of microcredit and wants to expand a business (or look at insurance or other hedges against business failure) rather than someone who is just joining the credit pool.
===========================================
Online sales
JupiterResearch notes that online sales seem to have peaked for the time being and talks about implications for online retailers:
The key news here that the Times rightly points out is that online retail is entering into a period of maturity where growth will be more organic rather than explosive. That means that the competitive fires will continue to heat up and as we have written in the past, retailers must step up their game in terms of differentiating their product, service and communication offerings. They must also rethink their efforts to drive loyalty, not just frequency, among their customers in order to maintain and grow market share.
This does not seem to include growth in mobile sales, which may or may not catch on in the US. I am more interested in implications for offline sales. Business, such as bookstores, have been forced to change rapidly over the past few years in response to pressure from explosive online growth. As the acceleration curve for online sales flattens, offline retailers may be given more of a chance to work with the customers that they have. In major markets such as New York, Mumbai, and Tokyo this means making enough money to cover increased rental costs while dealing with savvy consumers who often treat stores as demo areas, sampling a product and then buying it from the convenience of home.
There are still tons of problems facing offline retailers. They may have a better opportunity to solve some of these problems-- for the time being-- if the roles of online/offline retail become slightly more demarcated over the next few years
=========================================================================
Why didn't we think of this?
Venturebeat looks at Daily Strength, a social network based on health problems. The name strikes me as cheezy but the concept is great. If it has not been done, someone should search the usenets and the major informal community posting portals. I wonder if there are other affinity groups that can match health interest groups for the mix of online and offline affiliation. Parents with young kids comes to mind (call it Neighborhood?), and we already have Dogster, for a subset of pet owners. We probably need something for cars or possibly bbq and well maintained lawns
=========================================================================
There has always been a difference-- in my mind-- between energy and biotech pursuits. Biotech looked at health and agriculture while energy looked at oil and gas. VentureBeat, however, points to Craig Venter's new project, Synthetic Genomics, which has raised a great deal of money from BP in order to develop genetically engineered organisms that do a better job producing alternative fuels. Between this and the plastic (announced last week) that has been engineered to break down into a liquid fuel in the presence of specific enzymes, it looks like biotech has really entered the energy market.
=======================================================================
Sequoia Capital is pushing more funds toward Chinese startups. It should be careful to seek small companies that can grow organically rather than under the auspices of the array of passive and active government subsidies that have made so many Chinese manufacturing firms competitive in the short run.
=======================================================================
Make Magazine looks at the gradual disappearance of Chem sets, underpressure from law and drug enforcement companies
In an attempt to curb the production of crystal meth, more than 30 states have now outlawed or require registration for common lab equipment. In Texas, you need to register the purchase of Erlenmeyer flasks or three-necked beakers. The same state where I do not have to register a handgun, forces me to register a glass beaker. In Portland, Oregon, even pH strips are suspect.
It is probably time for a Make magazine version of the Boy Scouts, something that will not only have kids running around in the woods but also experimenting with chemistry and Genomics, and design, and just about everything else out there that is both constructible and interesting.
=========================================================================
Small storage containers to MP3 players to Amplifiers. if I were a designer, I'd consider trying to make my next handheld object the size and shape (without the rim) of an Altoids can
Altoids Amplifier from Make via Octopart:
=======================================================================
Thi is the first time that I've heard the term "Manhattan Borealis" but I like it...
These upcycled benches would ideally be placed at strategic points throughout the city to accommodate a solar-powered LED light show ("Manhattan Borealis") highlighting various wooden water towers across NYC's skyline, enhancing the existing nighttime glow. Accordingly, the previously mentioned benches would become the "best seats in the house" for the nightly light shows...
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This is a little bit overshot, probably
Scientists at the University of Portsmouth, UK, have developed an artificial intelligence system to build the world's first thinking car wheel. The steering wheels use microcomputers which perform 4,000 calculations per second and communicate with each other. Then the wheels use AI to learn as the car is being driven, making calculations and adjustments according to travelling speed and road conditions. These intelligent tires mark the first time AI has replaced fundamental mechanics within a motor vehicle.
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Proton therapy
If we combine this with fluorescent cancer cell imaging, we might see the day when complex cancer surgeries can be done remotely in a relatively noninvasive manner:
Unlike high-energy X-rays, proton beams deposit almost all of their energy on their target, with a low amount of radiation deposited in tissues from the surface of the skin to the front of tumor, and almost no "exit dose" beyond the tumor. This property enables doctors to hit tumors with higher, potentially more effective radiation doses than is possible with gamma radiation
pic from Medgadget:
