A very interesting presentation on Internet and the economy presented by Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker at Web 2.0 Summit on Tuesday.
BusinessInsider summarizes the presentation as follows
Mobile internet is bigger than you think.
iPhone is becoming THE mobile platform.
Social media, mobile devices are changing communications and commerce.
Mobile internet trends in Japan show how the future will be. (Hint: Not much mobile advertising)
Carriers will be crushed by demand.
The Walled Gardens collapse.
Apple wins, Google maybe wins, Research In Motion withers
The number of mobile subscriptions is actually expected to reach 50 billion subscription in 2020 (even bigger than what Mary thinks, 10+ billions is mentioned in her slides). Apple is no doubt a major driver, but Google services are not to be forgotten. Also the android platform is being pushed and adopted by many manufacturers. Despite the iPhone’s popularity, I think it is still possible for other handsets to make a breakthrough. To a large extent, I seem to agree with Meeker about mobile internet trends, except for mobile advertising.
Take a deeper look into Mary’s presentation here and let me know what you think Read more…
Started as research project at Microsoft Research, the innovative SenseCam Technology aimed at helping people with memory loss problems. The SenseCam is a digital camera that you wear on a necklace and takes a picture every 30 seconds without user intervention. It’s equipped with different sensors such as light-intensity and light-color sensors, a passive infrared (body heat) detector, a temperature sensor, and a multiple-axis accelerometer that create the input signal to automatically trigger a photo shoot.
This device has also a sound recorder, built-in GPS and all those nice features to create a digital copy of your life timeline.
Michael Arrington and the techcrunch readers discussed this life recorder and broke it down in all aspects (see the brainstorming here)
Some people were worried about device loss or theft. I wonder how do they protect their mobile phone or laptop? But what really amazed me in the discussion though is how most of the readers were concerned about the privacy issues. Ironically, the same readers are either facebook or twitter users. Furthermore, I think these people really need this device because they seem to have memory loss issues and forgot that they had privacy issues with social networking and blogging before they came a trend. As everything in this world, this trend either evolves or dies. Looking at the daily increase in the number of bloggers/facebook users/twitterers, I doubt the trend would die.
The SenseCam could certainly benefit from a SIM card to connect it to a network, yet another application for mobile broadband enabling remote storage, geo-tagging, face recognition, … Read more…
Can you imagine yourself in 2020? Ever wondered about applications that can take advantage of the future mobile technology?
Ericsson presented a three conceptual mobile Personal Area Mediator (PAM) that aim to show the usage of the 100 Mbit/s mobile broadband. These concepts can be considered as the 4th generation of mobile devices after TV, PC and Phone. Each concept was described with a scenario to clarify how the mobile solutions could be used to satisfy different needs and wishes. Organizer for business and organization, Harmonizer for well-being health and balance and Exciter for fun and entertainment. Read more…