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  • The Paradox of Consumer Choice
    A few years ago I read a book called The Paradox of Choice: Why Less is More by Barry Schwartz. His anecdotes were insightful and pointed to truths about the amount of choice the free market has laid on us as consumers. Of course free markets and consumer choice should be good things, but there are certainly experiences I have had where the overwhelming sense of having too many options made it difficult to actually make a decision. I related to much of what the book was saying, particularly with the experience of picking out a DVD to watch from my massive collection. I recall staring at a wall of DVDs and having the most difficult time deciding what to watch. The decision-making process when faced with so many good choices was simply immobilizing.  
  • The Future of PC and Mobile Processors

    I've spent a lot of time with a number of hardware manufacturers recently, trying to get a glimpse into the next generation of processors and the ways in which they'll impact future gadgets and PCs. In all my meetings, one term has arisen time and again: SOC, or system-on-a-chip.

    Traditionally, chips have been created independently and then coupled together to provide multiple computing features. For example, a manufacturer would create a core processor like an Intel Centrino with a built-in Wi-Fi radio, and then attach that to a systems board, perhaps linking it together with a separate graphics co-processor, in order to deliver enhanced PC graphics. Another might take an ARM core processor and then add on additional features like extended graphics to enhance device functionality.

  • Apple's iPad: Live up the Hype? It Will....
    It was interesting to hear all the chatter after last week's iPad launch. Most reactions I heard from other analysts and media were lukewarm at best...which was what I expected. If you think about it, how can anything live up to the kind of hype leading up to this launch? But there was a lot missed in the media about the event and the product that I hope to share in order to maintain our perspective on not only the iPad but on Apple and their products.  
  • Innovation Abounds - CES 2010 Post Show Analysis

    This year's CES was very interesting. I had felt for the past few years that CES was sorely lacking in the innovation department. But this year it looks like things have changed in the technology industry. Technology companies have realized that to reach the consumer the pace of innovation needs to accelerate, and this year's CES was a start in that direction.  Several things stuck out that I'd like to highlight:  

The Coming Technology Explosion - Part 1

Written by Ben Bajarin Thursday, 06 August 2009 18:46 Last Updated on Friday, 07 August 2009 06:24

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In 2001, my company, Creative Strategies, helped National Semiconductor host a customer conference to communicate National’s strategy and vision.  We do something similar for Phoenix Technologies every year. National, at the time, wanted to show how their products and solutions fit with the innovation happening in the industry. Even though much of their innovative silicon was sold off and never used, I took something important away from that conference.  

In his kickoff speech, CEO Brian Halla made an interesting point about the technology startup bubble, which had burst and was in the process of disintegrating.  He referenced a historical fact that every major industry in the 1900’s went through a similar pattern of growth and decline.  He spoke about how the railroad industry had fueled an increase then diminished. Then the same happened with the auto industry and so on. His point was that the burst of that industry’s bubble was always subsequently followed by a bell curve of growth that greatly surpassed the initial bubble. He reasoned that this secondary large industry growth was caused by the crash of the first bubble. He explained that after the first bubble burst, the cost of components became so cheap that entrepreneurs were able to start experimenting and creating all kinds of innovative products. In essence there was a "glut" of components which manufacturers had geared up to meet demand when all of a sudden demand dropped off the table.  In his railroad example, the initial decline of the railroad industry made it possible to finally perfect and utilize the frozen railroad car which eventually led to the “meat packing” industry.  

The point in his keynote speech was that the startup bubble bursting had the potential to lead to similar innovation where silicon and other important components for infrastructure would become cheap enough so entrepreneurs would experiment and innovate inevitably leading to new markets and technologies.  Although we have yet to see the kind of innovation of which he was speaking, I still believe he is correct.  

As we survey the current technology landscape and gain insight to a lot of the innovation taking place, we are slowly beginning to see a world where it is feasible to easily pack a lot of processing power into more and more devices affordably.  Also important is that it is becoming possible to do so without sacrificing battery life, thus bringing true computing to more and more devices.   This opens up all kinds of new doors for hardware, the web, social interaction, visual entertainment experiences and more.  Other important component costs like displays, memory, controllers and more are also seeing steep declines in price.

This is why we believe we are on the cusp of a technology explosion that will be driven by a whole new generation of “computing class” silicon powering more and more of our every day electronics. 

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