Global Strategy | International Business | Emerging markets | International Finance | Social Media | Technology | Higher ahead of the curve
Today, (February 1st) Microsoft Corporation, the world’s biggest software maker, made an unsolicited $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo! Inc. to challenge Google Inc.’s dominance in Internet search services and advertising. The proposed deal, which would transform the software and internet-services industries, values Yahoo! at $31 a share, a 62% premium over the closing price on Thursday. What will the outcome be?
Sphere: Related Content
The World Economic Forum has announced 39 visionary companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2008. The companies’ products and services include identity management on the Internet, understanding of individuals’ genetic information, robotic radiosurgery, pollution control materials, low-cost remote diagnosis solutions, virtual interface technologies, wiki-based projects and next generation business intelligence solutions.
Twenty-three of the Technology Pioneers 2008 are US-based companies. Israel and the United Kingdom each boast three; Sweden and Switzerland two each; Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands and Russia, one each. Technology Pioneers are nominated in three main categories: Energy/Environment, Biotechnology/Health and Information Technology.
The entire list of Technology Pioneers and interviews with the CEOs of the selected companies can be found here and the BusinessWeek’s article and slide show here: article, slide show.
Sphere: Related Content
Today Google announced the first piece of its “master plan” to enter the mobile phone market. Not with the much anticipated Gphone, but an operating system for mobile phones; Android.
Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications — all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation.
Google hopes Android will power a variety of future mobile phones and boost the web on the move. Basically, it is building software to make the Internet run more easily on mobile phones.
It has been working with 30 partner companies. Including some of the world’s biggest handset makers and wireless service providers: Motorola, Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, China Mobile, Telefonica, etc. Conspicuously absent are Nokia, AT&T, and Verizon, among others. (Like Apple, on whose board Google CEO Eric Schmidt sits, European mobile platform provider Symbian, Microsoft, Blackberry maker Research in Motion…)
Silicon Alley Insider has published an interesting post on four remaining questions regarding Google’s mobile ambitions. Earlier post related to Google’s latest move can be found here: Shaking up the mobile phone industry, Mobile advertising and Google OpenSocial.
Sphere: Related Content
Google unveiled its OpenSocial platform earlier this week, saying it would give outside developers tools to write programs for any of its social network partners.
“OpenSocial is going to become the de facto standard (for developers) instantly out of the gates. It is going to have a reach of 200 million users, which is way bigger than anything else out there,” Chris DeWolfe, chief executive and co-founder of MySpace, told reporters. Source
“OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites. With standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps that access a social network’s friends and update feeds.”
Head on over to http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/ to find out what the buzz is all about.
>>UPDATE @ November 3rd<< Nicholas Carr gives his opinion on Google’s OpenSocial.
Sphere: Related ContentGoogle’s introduction of OpenSocial, which, as Marc Andreessen explains, provides a kind of universal two-way connector between web applications and social networks, marks an important moment in the transformation of the World Wide Web into what I term, in The Big Switch, the World Wide Computer. The internet, as Google frequently points out, is the new computing platform, and OpenSocial - whether it succeeds or not - gives us a view as to how that platform may operate. Continue reading
Will iPhone trigger a next revolution as iTunes and iPod did to the digital music world?
Will iPhone be the killer device of the 21st century that enables the next wave of ultimate and ubiquitous personal mobility at large? Browsing the web, listening music while navigating your way around the world, taking snapshots, and calling your friends, truly at any time and anywhere in an utmost consumer friendly integrated device?
Watch the iPod promotion video at this page. A more comprehensive analyses is published by The Economist.
Sphere: Related Content
MIT Technology Review has lined-up the 10 emerging technologies for 2007 that will most likely alter industry boundaries and even our lives. The ten technologies can be categorised into information, nano, and bio technology related fields. A short description of each technology can be found here.
# Optical antennas
# Metamaterials
# Peer-to-peer video
# Personalized medical monitors
# Compressive sensing
# Nanohealing
# Quantum-dot solar power
# Neuron contro
# Single-cell analysis
# Mobile augmented reality
Check out MIT’s technology Review webpage for a full coverage of these ten technologies.
Sphere: Related Content
Yesterday BusinessWeek published eight top tech trends to follow in 2007. One of them the “touch wall” which was first introduced to the wide public in 2002 with the movie “Minority Report”. I really look forward to work with it!
In addition BusinessWeek also listed the tech companies to watch in 2007. It includes one Chinese company, two European companies and five American companies. My favourite company on the list the London based Last.FM. It gives you the opportunity to discover new music!
Sphere: Related Content
Talked about for many years and now it finally seems to become a reality for the mass, Mobile-Payment (M-Payment).
Visa in cooperation with Nokia has launched a global system to turn mobile phones into wallets for millions of customers.
The initial version of the mobile payment platform offers contactless mobile payment, personalisation over mobile telephony networks, coupons and direct marketing. Forthcoming versions of the platform, to be made available later in the year, will include remote payment, and person-to-person payment.
Since October 2006 there is a test running in Japan whereas the first test in Europe will be held in the Netherlands with telecom operator KPN and Nokia. Furthermore, last month the Dutch bank, Rabobank announced as the first bank in Europe to introduce mobile banking and low-cost calling in one with Rabo Mobile.
Soure: Red Herring
Sphere: Related Content
Red Herring - a leading innovation, technology, and business magazine - is featuring a special report on 25 young entrepreneurs between the age of 17 and 35 who will rock the world in 2007 and beyond.
You can read about Elizabeth Holmes, who dropped out of Stanford University at age 19 and launched a start-up that developed a monitoring system for tracking a person’s blood status remotely. And then there is Weina Scott, a 17-year-old CEO who already has three successful start-ups under her belt. Furthermore, in terms of companies, seven occupied the Internet space; four companies in software, two each in biotech, venture capital, and wireless and there were one each in the solar, medical device, nanotech, and telecom segments.
In short, a must read during Christmas when you’re interested in entrepreneurship and innovative technologies that will shape various industries the forthcoming years.
Sphere: Related Content
Who knew that good old GE was into developing Web2.0 applications? Well, I suspect they’re not, but they have created this awesome online collaboration tool. You can use it with others to work on designs, and it is incredibly nifty, my favourite feature being the chat function that goes with it. This means you can chat at the same time you’re creating something on the workscreen. Try it out, preferably with a friend so you can see the full thing in action. Doodling… I love it! Now, if they only add functionality so you can import images, that would make this a supertool.
|
|
Recent Comments