What’s happened this week:
- Samsung released the Galaxy S4 their flagship smartphone including touch-less gestures, eye tracking and real time health monitoring.
- Dropbox bought hot email service ‘mailbox’ for USD 100m possibly heralding a move into cloud based mail services.
- Google have re-launched their ‘Think Insights’ portal, with lots of new content such as the fact that only 17% of mobile searches happen ‘on the go’.
What we have learned:
- The average UK home now has 1.83 TV sets (down from 2.3 in 2003) but we watch more than ever across multiple platforms, according to the latest Telescope 2013 from TV licensing.
- Mobile hardware and services are now a USD 1.5trn sector.
- 31% of Kenyan GDP occurs through payments on mobile phones.
- Average broadband speed in the UK is now 12mbps up from 7.6mbps a year ago.
Cool stuff:
- ‘Automatic’ gamifies the driving experience on any car sold after 1997, enabling safer and more efficient driving.
- *The ‘If I had glass’ marketing initiative for Google Glass has produced some fantastic ideas from chasing your ghost runner to real time emergency advice.
- Macy’s in the US are cleverly connecting their partnership with NBC Fashion Star to mobile content, promotions and offers.
Where to find more:
- We are rapidly moving from the Quantified Self to a Quantified Society in which reputation is a KPI for everyone.
- How the goal of the autonomous car is driving a wide range of disruptive data services from mapping to traffic management and computer vision.
- The best of SXSW 2013 from The Verge, including the Empathetic Internet and a Zen robot gardener as well as all the keynotes as sketches.