Increasingly we live in a society where we expect everything to be available instantly, 24/7/365. Yet often we take for granted the time and effort that it has taken to achieve this for each individual product or service. On another axis the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and therefore more complex. How many of us…
One of the key battlegrounds between Google and Apple over the next few months will be in the area of music streaming. The companies are likely to take subtly different approaches in terms of service offering and business model. Google’s recently launched ‘Play Music All Access’ is a subscription based service similar to Spotify and…
In an interview for CBS’ ’60 Minutes’ program, Bill Gates talked about his relationship with Steve Jobs. In it he talks about tablets, “We did tablets – lots of tablet – well before Apple did” he states, before conceding “they put the pieces together in a different way that succeeded.” In the world of tablets,…
As I’ve written before most mobile phone subscribers are unaware of the sweeping usage rights they give to their network providers in relation to their usage, and location data when they sign up to a mobile phone contract. The reporting this weekend in the UK of the partnership between EE, the largest UK mobile provider…
Back in October 2012 I wrote an article titled “Software by the Month – A better proposition than your gym membership?” in which I highlighted the increasing trend towards subscription based business models in terms of software licensing. In the article I investigated the opportunities for software publishers and users alike that the model could open…
One of the great examples of recent time that is used when people talk about innovation is the iPhone, however, in recent times the iPhone has been under stiff competition from other handset manufacturers and platform providers. It is widely acknowledged that the last iPhone didn’t really wow the world in the way that previous…
I recently wrote an article on the investigation by the UK telecoms regulator of mobile phone contracts, only a day later it was publicised that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is going to be looking at free web and phone games aimed at children and that charge for extras through in game purchases. I…
We would all acknowledge that the retail business model has changed massively over the last decade. In the UK there have been a steady stream of casualties over the past couple of years and it is easy to blame the economic environment or the growth of online business model as the reason. These are often…
In a business world where companies are adjusting their business model to outsource all but the business critical and core activities, in the consumer world we seem to be increasingly insourcing more and more to meet our value for money aspirations. A good example of this is the way in which many of us plan…
When we think of Facebook we often think of it as a social networking site. Yesterday, for a period of time, people trying to log into other, 3rd party, sites which use their Facebook account for authentication were redirected to an error page. At this point it became clear to them that services such as…