Internet Trends 2014 - Code Conference

http://forbesindia.com/blog/technology/mary-meekers-internet-trends-2014/

KPCB Internet trends 2014 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Marketing in the age of Data for a New Customer

http://forbesindia.com/blog/technology/marketing-in-the-age-of-data-for-a-new-customer/

The Future of marketing with respect to digitization and the complexity of analytics that are required to make sense of the data are already dominating our lives. A number of examples come to mind when I think of how the art of classic marketing is changing with time and transforming itself to leverage technologies and drive a clear business benefit as well as customer engagement.

My Favorite example is one of the early engagements that Starbucks launched online called “My Starbucks Idea”. It was a continuous engagement for co creation where customers and prospects propose ideas for new products, packaging, marketing etc. These are rated by others and best ones are awarded as well as the company uses them to transform business. Acting on that information and doing it publicly are keys to the success of this campaign which has already generated 70,000 ideas. Thinking of ways to build your company is great. But directly asking your consumers what they want is better - indeed awesome!

Fiat Group Automobiles needed to determine the likelihood that future and returning customers would buy specific brands and models of Fiat cars, so that individual dealers could optimize the use of available marketing funds. The company also needed to better understand customer experience with dealerships and repair facilities. Using statistics, they were better able to determine the likelihood that a customer will purchase a specific brand and model and the related timing of the purchase. This improved customer response rate to marketing initiatives by 15% – 20 %, customer loyalty by 7% especially when customers are ready to replace their existing one.

In February 2012, The New York Times published an article by Charles Duhigg (Doo-hig) titled, “How Companies Learn Your Secrets”. The story simultaneously captured the future of marketing, some very interesting possibilities for all of us marketers and most importantly, chilling risks about the new responsibilities in this era.

Marketing is indeed finding a way to serve various customer needs even before the customer can voice his exact requirement. Marketing is leading to a pre-emptive action to impress upon the customer and result in a meaningful transaction. A huge element of data analytics, customer buying patterns and past history is making marketers arrive at a more precise conclusion on a customer’s buying pattern.

Today’s marketing practice requires building this ability to understand customers as individuals across millions of interactions. And it sets the conditions for marketing to play new roles in driving business success. The key capabilities that marketers need to understand customers as individuals include:

1. Instrumenting all the key touch points to gather the right data on each customer

2. Interconnecting social media data, other forms of digital data and transaction data to paint a more vivid picture of each customer.

3. Run the right analytics, at the right time, on the right customer to generate new ideas about whom to serve and how to best serve that individual.

4. Generate insights in real time that are predictive, not just historical.

5. Build the capability to do this on a massive scale.

We all see that there is an unprecedented amount of data being gathered at every meaningful touch point about each customer. The best brands are very strategic about which touch points get instrumented, and what kind of data emerges as the result. Question to ask: what is your clients’ instrumentation strategy?

The most skilled companies are combining social data, other web-based data and transaction data—and running precise analytics over them to gain new kinds of insights. In this world, the path to success is largely dependent on having comprehensive access to the data. You need to formulate these insights and strategies to discern the veracity of that data. Question to ask: what is your client’s strategy for attracting data? 

And finally, what is your customer’s next likely move—so they can appropriately pair their response with the next best offer, next best action, next need etc. Question to ask: how predictive must your clients’ insights about customers be in order to succeed in their competitive market?

 -  By Sindhu Srinivas, Practice Leader – Marketing Consulting & Services, IBM India/South Asia.In my next post, I will share with you how new age data tools are being leveraged to help brands interact better with customers.

Read more: http://forbesindia.com/blog/technology/marketing-in-the-age-of-data-for-a-new-customer/#ixzz3Czr4toCk

Hands On With The iPhone 6 And The iPhone 6 Plus

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/09/hands-on-with-the-iphone-6-and-the-iphone-6-plus/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus represent Apple’s new flagship products, and they’re a big change from what came before: The 4.7-inch 6 has a new, Retina HD resolution display, and smooth, rounded edges and a smooth transition between the actual glass protecting the screen and the rest of the casing. It also has an improved camera, and what might be its most exciting super-power: Apple Pay, which uses NFC tech to let the device authorize payments quickly using Touch ID as an authentication step. The 6 Plus has all that, plus optical image stabilization and an even bigger battery.

iPhone 6

In the hand, the iPhone 6 definitely feels noticeably larger, but what’s remarkable is that it doesn’t feel significantly bulky. The rounded sides and thin, lightweight chassis kind of harken back to older devices, in fact, like the iPhone 3GS and earlier, but the more premium materials used here add another dimension of quality.

Reaching across the device to tap the top corner isn’t uncomfortable, despite the extra screen real estate, and the screen resolution is truly impressive. The additional pixel density makes an instantly observable difference, even if it should technically exceed the ability of the human eye to discern, if you buy the rhetoric around the original Retina display tech. Whether it’s improved resolution, or better color rendering and display lighting, the effect is one of an image that looks artificial – as if they’d pasted a demo screen photo on top of the showcase devices.

Playing with the new camera reveals the improvements there are also impressive. The iPhone 6 gets all the new features besides optical image stabilization, including slow motion video at 240 FPS, which is two times faster than the iPhone 5s (and so two times slower when played back). The camera’s autofocus is fast and effective thanks to the addition of phase detection, and it no longer highlights the point of focus, which it doesn’t really need to because of its improvements.

iPhone 6 Plus

The 6 Plus is a device that isn’t for the faint of hand: its 5.5-inch diagonal face is definitely something users will have to get used to. The process is made easier thanks to the introduction of a new mode that lets people use all aspects of the OS, including apps and the Home screen, one-handed simply via a double touch (not press) of the Home button, which shifts everything down into thumb range.

The 6 Plus also offers a useful new landscape view in most apps in exchange for the bigger size – you get an inbox while looking at Messages or Mail, for instance, and detailed views in most system software. It’s a big advantage for working through stuff quickly, and is comparable to what the iPad offers in many ways.

Apple’s optical image stabilization also does appear to make for big improvements in the quality of captured images, though we’ll have to do more extensive testing to really suss out how much of a difference there is between this and the image stabilization offered on the iPhone 6.

Overall, with both variants, this is a vastly improved device in most respects, including the responsiveness and speed of the OS in all areas I could test in a short time. The new A8 is clearly carrying its weight, and it’ll be exciting to see how these apparent improvements hold up under extended testing. This could be a crucial selling point for some buyers, but it still feels like the price and size are going to make the 6 Plus a rarer device to find in the wild.

StudyRoom Lets College Students Join Online Study Groups, Book Tutors

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/08/studyroom-lets-college-students-join-online-study-groups-book-tutors/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity

FOVE Uses Eye Tracking To Make Virtual Reality More Immersive

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/09/fove/

A side-by-side comparison of Apple Watch vs. Pebble, Moto 360 and other rivals

http://online.wsj.com/articles/compare-apples-watch-vs-other-wearables-interactive-1410306321?tesla=y&mod=e2fb

Here's How The iPhone 6 Compares To Its Biggest Competitors

http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/09/technology/mobile/apple-iphone-iwatch-event/index.html?hpt=te_t1

What Apple Didn't Announce

http://readwrite.com/2014/09/10/apple-didnt-announce-omissions-missing-iphone-6-watch-

Omissions from the iPhones 6 and Watch event.


Apple’s whiz-bang press event today at the Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif. yielded a stream of announcements, landing at breakneck speed—the iPhone 6, the Apple Watch, Apple Pay, and so forth.

For all that excitement, there were also some big omissions. (Apart from Apple vice president Craig Federighi and his spectacular hair, that is.)

iPod Touch And Apple TV

The iPod touch and the Apple TV were glaringly MIA today. The iPod—that MP3 player-turned-smart gadget—used to be the highlight of Apple’s end of summer–to–early fall event. But it was nowhere to be seen, apart from a cameo in a promo image touting Apple’s music line-up.

And Apple TV, a streaming set-top box, is sorely in need of an update after two years. (For instance, unlike most other streaming setups out there, it still has no app store of any kind.)

iPad

There was no sign of a new iPad, either. Of course, if Apple keeps to its recent pattern, it will probably hold a separate press conference in October to show off its new tablet—which, like the iPhones, is rumored to be getting bigger and to offer a Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

If that’s the case, then Apple might be saving a sixth-generation iPod touch and new Apple TV for then as well. Fingers crossed.

SMART WATCH FORECAST: The Apple Watch May Lead Wrist-Worn Computers To Mass Market Status

http://www.businessinsider.com/global-smartwatch-sales-and-the-apple-watch-2014-9

Consumers will come to embrace smart watches because they will be relatively unobtrusive and allow them to do things that smartphones don't. 

The mass-market debut of smart watches is now a reality with Apple's announcement today of "Apple Watch," which features a user interface organized around the "digital crown," a new take on the watch's winding mechanism. 

In BI Intelligence's proprietary forecast for the smart watch market, we provided a half-dozen charts and datasets illustrating the potential for smart watches within the wearable computing space, and mobile. 

Here are the dynamics and numbers we see driving the emerging smart watch market: 

• We forecast 91.6 million smartwatch units sold globally in 2018. With an average selling price of about $100, that translates to a $9.2 billion market by 2018. Subscribers can download a spreadsheet and charts that show year-by-year estimates and the numerical assumptions behind our market forecast. 
• A mass-market smart watch would be the first new mobile device since the smartphone to upgrade or enhance a ubiquitous consumer product — the wristwatch. A watch with an Internet connection isn't as alien a concept as Google Glass. 
• And watches are a huge addressable market. It varies by age and gender, but consumer surveys reveal a slight majority of the U.S. and global populations still wear a watch, around 55%. 
• Even if only a minority of watch-wearers upgrade to Internet-connected and app-centric smart watches, that's still a huge market and a boon for growth-hungry tech players and app makers. 
• In the future, about one in 20 smartphones will be paired in some way with smart watches. 
• Smart watches will come to absorb the market for popular smart fitness bands like the FitBit. Activity trackers will also tell the time, and smart watches will track steps and sleep. The market will blur into one. 
• Through just the first half of 2013, the Kickstarter-launched Pebble watch shipped 93,000 smart watches and took over 275,000 pre-orders.
• The market in mainstream, wearable computing has so far been anchored by smart fitness bracelets, and pioneered by Pebble, but mass-market smart watches will absorb some of the fitness wearables market, and become the wearables category-leader for the ordinary consumer.
• Smart watches will have screens, even if they're tiny, and potentially run software that allow them to serve as a robust extension to smartphone operating systems and apps. 

Apple unveils two new iPhones, Apple Watch and ApplePay

http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/09/technology/mobile/apple-iphone-iwatch-event/index.html?hpt=te_t1

For Apple CEO Tim Cook, iPhone, Smartwatch Launch Is Biggest Test

http://online.wsj.com/articles/for-apple-ceo-launch-is-biggest-test-1410217913?mod=e2fb

After three years of closely guarding his strategy for Apple Inc., AAPL +1.16% Chief Executive Tim Cook will show his hand Tuesday, with an ambitious blitz of new products and services that aim to resolve questions about the company's ability to innovate.

Apple is expected to unveil two new iPhones with larger screens, its first wearable device—a smartwatch—accompanied by new services around healthcare, home automation and digital payments. It's the type of new-product wave that Apple fans have been waiting for since Mr. Cook succeeded Steve Jobs in August 2011.

"It seems really clear that Apple intends to make a big splash," said Forrester principal analyst James McQuivey.

Apple's iPhone Event

Apple will have a whole bag of goodies to show off Tuesday.Here's what you can expect at the event , based on reporting by the Journal and others, along with some plausible rumors that fill out the bigger picture. The Journal's live blog begins at noon ET on WSJD.com..

More on Apple

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Apple is trying to prove that it can still deliver the type of groundbreaking products that vaulted it from the brink of bankruptcy to become the world's most valuable company by market capitalization. It established itself as a leading innovator by redefining the mobile phone in 2007 with the iPhone, and the tablet computer in 2010 with the iPad.

More recently, Apple's technological ambition has seemed to pale, compared with rivals like Google Inc., GOOGL -1.15% Facebook Inc. FB 0.00% and Amazon.com Inc. Google is tinkering with driverless cars, aerial drones and a network of connected home devices through Nest, started by ex-Apple employees. Facebook is buying virtual reality headset maker Oculus and paying $19 billion for messaging service WhatsApp. Amazon is making set-top boxes and phones, and recently bought Twitch, a popular network for watching videogames.

By revealing new hardware products together with service offerings, Apple is trying to show how it can create experiences that can't easily be replicated by competitors, to keep users loyal at a time when Google's Android mobile-operating system runs about 85% of smartphones.

WSJ personal technology editor Wilson Rothman joins Simon Constable on Digits to outline three key things consumers and investors will look for at Apple's new product event on Tuesday. Photo: Getty

Google, Facebook and Amazon all are essentially software companies that are trying to find their stride in hardware. Amazon Monday cut the price of its two-month-old Fire phone to 99 cents, a signal it hasn't been selling well. Apple's most prominent hardware rival in terms of sales and market share, Samsung Electronics Co., is weaker on software and services.

Mr. Cook started raising expectations for a wave of new products in October 2013, when he told investors they would see "some exciting new products from us in the fall of this year and across 2014." In April, he said he felt "really great" about forthcoming products. Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president in charge of online services, recently said Apple has the "best product pipeline" he's seen in 25 years at the company.

Investors are also feeling bullish. Apple's share price has risen 38% over the last year, reaching all-time highs earlier this month before pulling back last week. On Monday, Apple shares closed down 0.6%, or 61 cents, to $98.36.

Click the image above to see the interactive.

Tuesday, Apple is expected to unveil two new iPhones with larger 4.7- and 5.5-inch screens. The larger displays are expected to fuel a big upgrade cycle because Apple has stuck with smaller screens even as customer demand started shifting to larger smartphones. Apple last increased the iPhone's screen size in 2012, to four inches from 3.5 inches.

The company is expected to announce that it is entering a new product category with a smartwatch with a curved display. Engineering snafus may prevent Apple from selling the watch during this year's holiday shopping season. If it doesn't go on sale until next year, Mr. Cook will have failed to deliver on his promise of entering a new product category in 2014.

People line up outside an Apple store in New York City this week—even before a new iPhone is unveiled.Reuters

Tuesday's announcements won't be just new hardware. Apple is set to unveil new approaches to tackle thorny issues that have confounded technology companies—and their customers—for years. It is expected to demonstrate how the new devices will help people track and monitor their health, while equipping the new iPhones and wearable device with wireless technology for digital payments.

The venue—the Flint Center for the Performing Arts on the De Anza College campus about 1 ½ miles from its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters—carries a historic meaning for Apple. The company hasn't held a new product unveiling there in 15 years, often choosing smaller venues such as the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco or a Town Hall building on its Cupertino campus.

Mr. Jobs unveiled the Macintosh computer at the Flint Center in 1984, and the iMac there in 1998, after he returned to the company. "The very fact that they are holding it at the Flint is a signal that they are expecting this to be big," said Mr. McQuivey.