Why Samsung Gear is not completely a success ?

In less than 1 month, Apple will launch its Apple iWatch. And the question is : will it be a success?

This is always difficult to know if a new product will be a success or not … But there is 1 thing to understand when we launch a new product : what are the main failure of the competitor products?

And Samsung Gear, the main competitor is not completely success. Do you see nowadays, in the subway, in the street, people with the Samsung Gear Watch? … And the problem is not that the Samsung smartphones are not the leader, isn’t it? In 2013/2014, the average Worldwide market share of Samsung was about 30% ; in January 2015, nevertheless, the market share was reduced to 20%, decreasing from 30% (in ratio).

But, nevertheless, Samsung with Samsung Gear is the leader of smartwatches sold in 2014 with 1,2 millions of units.

Is people satisfied by their smartwatch ? … No!

3 main topics are not relevant for the Samsung watch:

• Autonomy : with 1 day of autonomy, you always have to recharge the battery of your watch … And if you are using your connectivity at the maximum, it is less than 4 hours …
• Apps: there is not a lot of usage for the Samsung watch : we are speak about 20 to 30 Apps, and not all of them are good
• Connectivity: with Bluetooth, the connectivity is not good and not secure …
• Sensors : camera, sound, … nothing incredible ! Less than a smartphone !!!

With Apple, what do we know:

• Autonomy : 18 hours … probably in the same condition as Samsung ; in full usage of connectivity, 3 hours … as rumor said !
• Apps : 34 Apps advertised on Apple Store for the moment ; and nothing that seems to be a revolution. What is the real interest to have a new connected object with a computer inside with so few Apps. To be dramatically upgraded!
• Connectivity : with Wifi in addition of Bluetooth, we can expect better connectivity, more secure than Samsung … Nevertheless, this connectivity between a smartphone and a watch will remain via Bluetooth … This is only connectivity with public Wifi area that could accelerate the connectivity; not so sure that it will be sufficient !
• Sensors : no revolution compare to Samsung Gear ; how to measure diabetes, arterial pressure, temperature, virus and batteries overview  … and more!

To conclude, Apple could probably sell around 1 million of iWatch in 2015 … but not more than Samsung Gear in 2014. You will not see 100 millions of iWatch sold, as for smartphones.

Why? No revolution of this object …

What could be the future of the revolution ?

• Autonomy : 1 month, 3 months, 1 year or … without any recharge! How to do that: reduction of energy usage by 10 or 100 by thinking the OS differently than for a smartphone. And use the energy to recharge with heat of the skin, solar and moving of the hand. If the autonomy is not the same or better than for a non connected watch, what is the real interest to
• Apps : minimum of 1000 Apps to have a real added of these connected objects with connection to bank, credit card, insurance, police, hospital …
• Connectivity : without 3G / 4G direct connection with military encryption is a must do for this type of objects
• Sensors : measure of health situation is a must do

Of course, Apple iWatch will not be completely a failure. And having 1 million of iWatch sold this year is not so bad. But this is not the revolution that Apple is pushing with its marketing. The connected revolution is not really ongoing with this object ; Apple just not would like to be outside the competition.

And the real revolutionary smartwatch remains to be invented with, this time, a lot of innovations. 

Connected car: new model building by Google

This is incredible to see how Google progressed within 1 year about their program “Google self-driving car project”. This is now not anymore, a concept with technical tests using a Toyota cars, as it was last year, with Prius or Lexus RX; this is not anymore a technical solution with engineers embedded in these cars, checking the issues of the software developed.

This concept allows Google to propose a completely automatized car without any steering wheel nor any pedals of acceleration or brake nor any engineer embedded in the car.

A new model of usage born

These cars will not be sold by Google; the cost of cars remains too expensive from now; some rumors speaks about a price of 1 million of dollars for the first Google cars, if we integrate manufacturing costs and R&D costs included; and the running costs of these cars is unknown for the moment; for sure, limited people could buy these cars if they would be allowed to buy them.

These cars will be firstly rented by Google to replace your car to go to supermarket, to go to airport or to go some meetings in your town.  This model reinvent the usage of transports.

On one side, this car can be compared to a public transport, completely optimized: the car is able to take you everywhere; and you can go everywhere; this car is a two places car, it doesn’t take a lot of place in the road circulation and you don’t need to park them; the car is able to know the traffic jam and optimize the way to go to the destination.

On the other side, this car can manage all small “travel” corresponding to 80% if car usages. This is a complete revolution for the car manufacturers in the next 10 years; in this case, people will not buy anymore a car; what is the interest if you can “call” a car when you need it?

Of course, it means that there will be enough “automatized” cars available in one place as big towns. This is also a complete revolution for taxi or public transports: this automatized transport can be very competitive in the next 10 years and completely change the model of transports in big town.

Continuous disruptive model as Business model

This revolution is exiting because Google, a “big” company with 50000 employees and 60 billions of turnover, is able to make some disruptive innovations on many different sectors every year!

Generally, companies are able to make one disruptive innovation every 10 years; and when it is more, a big risk of failure of the company can be predicted. In the case of Google, it seems not; their Business model seems to be constructed on their capacity to continuously be able to build some disruptive concepts with a lot of synergies with existing profitable activities they also manage.

A lesson to be learn by many worldwide companies if they would continue to exist in the next decades.

Google: new tablet tailored for 3D

The Mountain View company plans to produce from June 2014, 4000 tablets equipped with cameras, infrared sensors and software to capture images of 3D objects .

After glasses connected (and before clothing) , Google continues its momentum in innovation by developing a tablet with this time function for capturing images of 3D objects. Google is about to start production next month of tablets equipped with two cameras located on the back cover but also infrared sensors and specialized software to capture precise images of objects 3D .

These tablets , with a size of 7 inches are for the moment the prototype stage but could be officially announced during the annual Great Mass Google I / O addressing developers , which will be held 25 and 26 June in San Francisco.

It has been several months that Google is working on another generation of mobile devices , especially with the announcement of the Tango project in February and a prototype smartphone also equipped with sensors and 3D display technologies. This tablet would be another piece of development of Google in the field of advanced 3D functions with mobile devices, including improved navigation inside buildings and in stores (indoor) or to increase the immersion in 3D applications including video games . An area where Facebook is precisely positioned by placing the hand on the startup Oculus VR for $ 2 billion in March.

iGlass: reality augmented by Apple

In parallel of the Google Glass developed by Google and that could be sold starting 2014 or 2015, it seems that Apple is working on a new Apple patent for glasses recently discovered, detailing the project “iGlass” as we call them. Apple could work on reality augmented glasses projects since 2008.

These glasses are mounted in HMD (Head Mounted Display) or a display to the eye. HMD has an OLED screens or two with magnifying lenses and other optical elements associated. Lenses and other components are used to give the user a view image far as not to tire the eye. This is explained in the preamble Apple.

Currently, there are HMDs for military or engineers to have some first-hand information as geographical data or stereoscopic representations (techniques to reproduce a depth perception from two planar images) from CAD drawings.

The “iGlass” could, using a processor, display source images from external sources. This means that the iPhone could serve as a source eyeglasses for example. Apple glasses are therefore an accessory in addition to your device. So most of the applications running on your iPhone or iPod could work with your glasses.

To conclude, the HMD is revolutionary and allows the user to adjust the glasses to his vision and thus enjoy a unique experience.

iGlass would be probably introduced with other connected devices like iTV and iWatch, using contextual computing concepts with multi sensors management.

Africa: G Days Cameroon IT Innovation 2014

Google Developpers Group ( GDG ) of Cameroon organizes G DAYS Innovative Ideas Open 14 of 1 to 2 March 2014 at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering of Douala.

G DAYS Cameroon Open Innovative Ideas ( GDays IOI) is a national event which aims to create a technological lever arm in the IT ecosystem Cameroon innovation , boost students’ creativity and enhance the ability of firms to enter business opportunities.

G 14 DAYS Cameroon IOI follow the path begun by the first edition by adding a focus on the ( secondary and university ) education as a lever for innovation, the involvement of women in the technology field as strength and thinking work and efficiency in business and entrepreneurship in young as vector smarter management and the introduction of ” just in time” for better capitalizing on business opportunities.

The goal this year is to bring together more than 2,000 IT enthusiasts , students , developers, entrepreneurs and businesses around IT innovation , with an emphasis on solving social issues in Africa, especially those from Cameroon .

Powered by the slogan ” Innovation also be able to adapt existing technologies to the realities of Africa” ​​, the IOI GDAYS 14 promises a rich set of sessions around Cloud Computing , Google Apps, the ” Smart Cities ” , robotics, mobile development , web development , etc. . led by international experts and the best local experts.

Check the web site of the event: http://gdgcameroon.org/

Context Computing: a new age begins

I was in San Francisco in November 2013 and I had the opportunity to see a conference from Robert Scoble and Shel Israel about their last book “Age of Context”.  This age of Context Computing will revolutionize the way to image the interaction with devices and will concretely enter in our life in 2014 with the electronic Glasses and interactive watches. And this is only the beginning as explained the lecturers ; in the next ten years, you will find the context programs in your cars and probably in all devices that you can imagine: toothbrushes , industrial machines, refrigerators, televisions , … and probably everywhere in more than 10 years!

From the 70s and 80s , for 20 years , we have evolved into the age of the batch computing. Humans keyboarded data during the days ; and during the night batches calculated data from those entered manually .

From the 90s and 2000s, for 20 years again, we entered into the age of the event computing. Humans keyboarded data ; and immediately by clicking on a button,  program was launched to calculate synchronously or asynchronously data.

From the 2010s with tablets and their sensors and more significantly from 2014 with the new usage of the new electronic Glasses or interactive Watches, we are entering in the age of context computing . Computers or devices are equipped with sensors for sensing the temperature , brightness, heartbeat , blood pressure , speed, racing acceleration or position in space; and depending on the context , the developments made interacts with humans when a context is recognize; the system provides contextual information in order to help people with the aim to be more effective. This may seems firstly trivial, but this is for me also a revolution.

Don’t hesitate to read the excellent article from Forbes published in October 2013 : Contextual Computing: Our Sixth, Seventh And Eighth Senses.

Don’t hesitate to buy the book “Age of Context” that gives really the possibilities of the future major revolution of the computing : Age of Context from   Robert Scoble and Shel Israel .

Managing innovation? First freeing creativity

Innovation & creativity: 2 things different

Innovation and creativity are not the same thing. This might not come as a big revelation, but too often companies treat the two as if they’re one and the same. Here’s a simple way to tell the difference: If you can measure it, it’s innovation. This week’s lead Searchlight item talks about the metrics you can use for managing innovation, starting with the importance of using a common language when crafting ideas into innovations.

Common language is a key first step, author Drew Marshall says, because your employees who have the biggest ideas might not technically be your innovators. They might have the ideas but not know what to do with them. Top companies like Google famously set aside time for employees to explore innovation — but what they’re really encouraging, Marshall contends, is that necessary first step — some free time for minds to wander.

Creativity first!

Creativity precedes innovation. Last summer at the Gartner Inc. Catalyst conference in San Diego, I joined a packed hall of IT leaders who sat in rapt attention during a keynote address from famed graffiti artist (and former entrepreneur) Erik Wahl. Bounding around the stage and through the audience, he encouraged people to remember and embrace the creative freedom of their youth, pausing only to paint perfect pieces of pop art before their eyes.

The audience exploded into a standing ovation, which to me translated as “Yes! Get me a canvas!” There was definitely a buzz, and maybe that buzz carried people through the day. Maybe it was just the pep talk some of them needed to get their creative juices flowing again. Here’s hoping that back home, those big ideas were met with the guidance needed to transform them into real-life innovations.

Check out SearchCIO’s own coverage of these topics Boston CIO uniting citizens and the city through gamification CIO advises focus on making mobile applications ‘killer apps’ Cracking the big data analysis code Before you run out and buy a set of oil paints, check out the rest of this week’s roundup which includes a look at perhaps the most critical battle in the data wars — the next killer mobile app, why Facebook is so last year and more. Your employees are simply endless founts of creativity, but the world will never know it unless you know about managing innovation. Data doesn’t get much bigger than this. Forget about companies owning information that helps them target you as a consumer; next week the Supreme Court will consider whether companies can own and patent human genes.

Teenagers sick of something? Can’t be! It’s not surprising that teens are tiring of Facebook; but for the sake of knowing your future customers and employees, it’s useful to note that a new study shows they’re drifting from traditional social networking altogether. Once just considered a cheap alternative to texting, messaging may be emerging as “the killer app in mobile.” It’s those darn teenagers again. (This may shed some light on Facebook Home.)

Don’t view these findings about consumer shopping preferences as an excuse to keep your mobile e-commerce app on the back burner. Read the article, take a deep breath and get back to work! For once when the government is accused of playing games, it can take pride in the barb — it’s using gamification to improve the nation.

Related articles

• Managing innovation means first freeing creativity from Karen Goulart
• True Creativity: a discussion on aesthetics (amosandgromar.wordpress.com)
• An SMB Guide to the Importance of Innovation (synergymanagedsolutions.wordpress.com)
• 27 creativity and innovation tools – in one-pagers! (worldcreativity.wordpress.com)
• What is the Best Organisational Structure for Creativity? (timkastelle.org)

Microsoft purchased Nokia’s devices for 5,5 billion

Microsoft has purchased Nokia’s devices and services unit, bringing the Lumia lineup under the Redmond roof. The move unites Windows Phone 8 with its biggest hardware supporter, giving the company the integrated mobile offering it’s been looking for with Surface and other devices. When the deal closes in the first quarter of 2014, Microsoft will pay €3.79 billion for Nokia’s business, plus another €1.65 billion to license its portfolio of patents. 32,000 people are expected to transfer from Nokia to Microsoft, including 18,300 that are “directly involved in manufacturing.”

The purchase comes on the heels of what appeared to be a failed acquisition in June, at which point it seemed conversations had broken off entirely. Now the two come together, in what outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called “a bold step into the future.”

A driving force behind the sale seems to be Nokia’s low-end Asha brand, which Microsoft has acquired outright. Asha gives Microsoft a far larger footprint for Windows Phone, and access to millions of customers in developing countries that it plans to use as an “on-ramp to Windows Phone.” The emphasis also lends some credibility to the notion that Nokia’s high-end strategy isn’t working — analysts predicted a horrific Q3 for the company, and its struggles to find a foothold are well-documented. In fact, Microsoft’s licensing deal for the Nokia brand doesn’t include future Lumias — Nokia as a smartphone brand is effectively dead, as Microsoft takes the lineup in-house.

Though Nokia was by leaps and bounds Microsoft’s best hardware partner for Windows Phone 8, EVP of operating systems Terry Myerson was careful to note that Microsoft’s purchase doesn’t come with nepotism. As Google has with Motorola, Myerson promised every partner would be treated the same, even quoting a song by The Killers to make his point. And from Huawei to HTC, there are still other partners — Nokia’s coming in-house, but Windows Phone 8 isn’t being walled off.

Related articles

• Microsoft: Nokia kept some of its Lumia hardware features secret from us (neowin.net)
• Nokia kept secrets from Microsoft over its Windows Phone plans (theverge.com)
• Microsoft Purchases Nokia’s Device and Services Division to Unite Windows Phone Hardware and Software (macrumors.com)
• Even with its purchase of Nokia, Microsoft won’t forget its Windows Phone partners (phonearena.com)
• Microsoft’s Nokia Deal by the Numbers (allthingsd.com)
• Microsoft: This is why we bought Nokia (wpcentral.com)
• Microsoft purchases Nokia for $7.2 billion (digitaltrends.com)

June 2013: Stats of WorldOfInnovations.net

Global overview

Top views by country

Top pages viewed

Top sites which referrer

Related articles

• April 2013: Stats of WorldOfInnovations.net (worldofinnovations.net)
•  May 2013: Stats of WorldOfInnovations.net (worldofinnovations.net)

Apple vs Google vs: where is innovation?

Google’s primary source of profit is search-related advertising while Apple’s is consumer hardware. And Google’s five-front assault on Apple’s profit model takes advantage of that difference.

Here are five of Apple’s fronts and how Google is attacking them:

1. iPhone

Apple lags and has lost share in high end smartphones where 426 million units were sold during the first three months of the year. Gartner reported that in the first quarter of 2013, Apple’s global share of the high-end mobile phone market declined from 22.5% in the 2012 period to 18.2%.

Apple is number two to Samsung — which supports Google’s Android operating system. Samsung’s market share increased from 27.6% to 30.8% in the first quarter of 2013.

2. iPad

Android has already taken the tablet market lead from Apple. IDC expects Android to control 60% of the tablet market by the end of June 2013.

It wasn’t always so gloomy for Apple’s iPad. After all in the second quarter of 2012, the iPad commanded over 60% of the tablet market — but that figure has dropped ”to around 40% in each of the third and fourth quarters of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013,” reports Venturebeat.

And Android has been gulping iPad’s market share. Venturebeat notes that between the first quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013, Apple swapped the lead with Android — in 2012 Apple outsold Android by 11.8 million to 8 million; while in that same period in 2013, Android trumped the iPad by 27.8 million to 19.5 million.

Moreover, IDC expects skies to darken for the iPad. In the second quarter of 2013, IDC believes that Apple will ship fewer than 19.5 million units because Apple is not launching what CEO, Tim Cook, called its “amazing” new hardware until “fall 2013 and throughout 2014.” Thus IDC expects Apple to ship between 17 million and 18 million iPads — leaving Android tablets with 60% of the market in Q2 2013.

When it comes to competing with Android smartphones and tablets, Apple can either cut price and slash its profits or hold its prices and win fewer new customers. Cook has yet to prove that Apple can innovate its way out of that profit-growth dilemma.

3. Apple Maps

Under a year after Apple removed Google Maps from the iPhone, Google introduced a new version that is simpler and can be customized to each user.

By sharing what Google knows about each individual from other services, Google can customize maps. According to the New York Times, “When users who are logged into Google visit Maps, they will see the places they frequently visit highlighted, like restaurants, museums and their home. Google learns the places they go by drawing information from all of Google’s services — including search and Maps history, Google Plus posts and information in users’ Gmail in-boxes.”

Bernhard Seefeld, the product management director for Google Maps, bragged to the Times, “We can build a unique map for every place and every click.” For those who are worried about Google knowing too much about them, this new service is creepy — but potentially useful.

Meanwhile, the memory of Apple Maps six most epic fails lingers.

4. iTunes

Google is going after music streaming through the introduction of Google Play Music All Access (GPMAA) — a service that lets users stream music using Google Play for Android. For $9.99 a month, GPMAA combines “users’ current Play collections with access to millions of additional songs,” according to Fortune.

Meanwhile, Google was able to secure content deals with three major record labels—Universal Music, Sony, and Warner Music Group — and beat Apple to market with the streaming service that iTunes has long-been rumored to be developing, says Fortune.

5. Innovation

The most important front where Google is trouncing Apple is innovation. To be fair, under Steve Jobs, Apple’s approach to innovation was to introduce a much better product in an established industry. The result was big success from great products like the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and iTunes.

But Google Glass’s big media splash suggests that creating entirely new categories of products can also be a way to spur growth. We can also speak about the Google Cars that can for sure impact also IT solutions.

Google certainly needs help there — since its traditional markets are slowing down.But it looks like Google is winning the war for the future: Google is offensive and Apple only defensive.

Related articles

• Google’s Five-Front Assault on Apple (forbes.com)
• Who can rescue Google Wallet? Apple. (sivag1.wordpress.com)
• Google’s Five-Front Assault On Apple (soshitech.com)
• Google’s Getting Its Game (Console) On (newsy.com)
• Report: Google developing an Android-powered console (polygon.com)
• Why Apple, Google want to make consoles (stuff.co.nz)