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Connected consumer first-quarter 2013: Analysis and outlook

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 22:46:59 +0000

Many long-standing legal rules of engagement between publishers and consumers tilted the playing field in unexpected ways in the first quarter. The period also saw a major expansion in the amount and quality of original productions for web-based video platforms and a major move by chipmaker Intel to stake a claim in the digital living room.

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Mobile first-quarter 2013: analysis and outlook

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 06:55:19 +0000

The mobile platform wars escalated once again in the first quarter of 2012 as BlackBerry finally took the wraps off its much-anticipated new operating system. Meanwhile Android continued to build on its dominance both worldwide and in the U.S., cementing a two-horse race with Apple.

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Cloud and data first-quarter 2013: analysis and outlook

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 06:55:36 +0000

Cloud computing is finally starting to add value to business, as those in charge of cloud within enterprises are moving from talking to doing. That much was very evident in the first quarter of 2013.

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The Mobile 15: Our picks for the most innovative companies

GigaOM Staff — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:12:49 +0000

The mobile industry has changed radically in just a few years: We’ve had the smartphone revolution and the app revolution. And it was only three years ago that the tablet was written off as failed experiment. Now, it is testing the physical boundaries of the internet.

What’s next? Faster and cheaper mobile networks, an array of new devices to connect to those networks, disruptive payment models, and more captivating user interfaces. So which companies are likely to help power that new wave of innovation? Welcome to The Mobile 15.

These aren’t necessarily the most successful companies in the mobile world, though you could argue that a few of them might qualify for those lists as well. Rather, what we’re highlighting here is simply innovation: These are the companies, startups and giants alike, that are changing, or could potentially change, the mobile landscape in the most profound ways. We’ll be talking about this list — as well as many of broader themes and challenges in mobile– at Mobilize, our conference in San Francisco later this week.

The Mobile 15 includes some big brands, like Alcatel-Lucent and Samsung, but also some lesser-known names, like the printed memory company ThinFilm and crowdsourced traffic app developer Waze. Some of our picks may surprise you, like the inclusion of long-suffering Nokia. We know Nokia has hit a rough patch in recent years, but we think its attempts to radically reinvent itself with a new OS and new technologies are compelling — see more on our rationale below.

A word about our methodology: To create the list, we didn’t simply pick a bunch of names we liked and throw them into a spreadsheet. Our team — which included writers Katie Fehrenbacher, Kevin Tofel, Ryan Kim and Stacey Higginbotham– submitted dozens of candidates in categories ranging from app development to handset technologies to infrastructure vendors. We even included the Internet of Things — companies are turning everything from medical devices, energy-management systems and product packaging into small mobile computers.

We then graded every company on several different measures of innovation. Those with the highest total innovation scores earned a spot on our Mobile 15 list. Some of these companies, like Israeli startup Intucell, are working on one-time innovations, while others, like Apple, of course, have a longer track record of breakthroughs. What connects all the companies on our list is that they will have a big impact on the mobile industry.

So keep your eye on these companies in coming months. To the 15!

—Kevin Fitchard

Go to page 2 (of 16) on GigaOM .

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IT spending update, third quarter 2012

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:34:03 +0000

While cloud, mobility, social, and analytics have been driving demand for IT products and services in 2012, the worldwide IT spending picture has become dimmer as the year has progressed: We’re looking at 5.1 percent worldwide IT spending growth in 2012. The first in a new quarterly series of IT spending forecasts, this report is intended for vendors and users of IT technology to help them better align their technology and business strategies by identifying where their peers and competitors are focusing their investments in 2012. Additionally, this report creates a baseline context for evaluating the extent of adoption of emerging, innovative technologies.

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How emerging technologies will influence collaboration

David Coleman — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 06:55:35 +0000

Workplaces are changing because of trends like BYOD and gamification. But other emerging technologies are also altering not only what our work and space look like but also how we collaborate on that work. This piece delves into the different types of collaboration to provide a baseline of concepts. It then examines how emerging technologies like driverless cars, brain science, and 3D printers are being used to further collaboration in the near and far future. These advancements will not only support more and better types of collaboration in the workplace but will also impact where we work, what a workspace is, what we work on (literally), and how we share our work.

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Readers weigh in: future prospects for Twitter

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 17:14:36 +0000

Twitter is a mainstream communications technology that plays a critical role in news and content discovery. The company has spawned a business ecosystem of third-party developers and services that create apps and data analysis. But as it evolves its business model, Twitter has also generated controversy around its changing developer and user policies. Twitter feels like it is at a crossroads, so GigaOM Pro took a quick pulse of the tech community’s opinions on the company’s future prospects, its likely business model, and its role in the overall technology industry. The results are presented here, with analysis.

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The economics of clean-data-center innovation

cwaxer — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 06:55:45 +0000

Around the world, data centers consume around 1.5 percent of total electricity demand, a figure that’s expected to increase significantly. Greenpeace predicts power consumption will grow 19 percent by 2013 to 31 gigawatts. To cut power and, with it, costs, tech titans like Google, Apple, and Facebook are aggressively pursuing strategies to cut electricity use by greening their data centers. But do energy-efficiency gains justify huge capital outlays? This report attempts to answer that question by looking at the ways in which companies are greening their data centers and attempting to achieve social, economic, and environmental value.

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Consumer privacy in the mobile advertising era

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:18:28 +0000

Smartphones can enable an amazing level of connectivity, but they can also allow that activity to be monitored and used in controversial ways. But for mobile marketing to realize its full potential, consumers may need to sacrifice their privacy to one degree or another. This report is intended for every link in the mobile-marketing chain, from app and web developers to advertisers to providers of mobile operating systems. It examines the innate trade-offs between consumer privacy and successful business models that leverage potentially sensitive user information, and it details existing and pending regulations that will shape the growth of mobile advertising and marketing. Finally, the report offers suggestions and best practices that will help every player in the value chain tap the market.

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Research In Motion: future scenarios for its fate

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 06:55:26 +0000

It’s all too easy to pile on to the Research In Motion–bashing bandwagon. The company’s decline is the stuff of water-cooler chatter, and RIM will doubtless end up as the subject of dozens of business-school case studies. But technology markets are always a little uncertain, so for now let’s get beyond the finger-pointing. RIM is a different firm today than it was in 2007. It has new management, a full awareness of the gravity of the situation, restless investors, an upcoming OS release and a number of lingering advantages that can still be leveraged. What might the future hold for RIM? CEO Thorsten Heins has said he plans to surprise critics with RIM’s transformation. But in case you don’t like surprises, here’s a brief look at the most likely scenarios for RIM going forward and their probability of occurring.

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