Biggest Stories in Tech July 14–24
Here are 3 of the biggest stories in tech from the last couple of weeks.
- Pokémon Go
This is probably the biggest story of 2016 and not just the last couple of weeks, and yes, I’m talking about Pokémon Go.
There isn’t even a single analyst that haven’t wrote tons of words about this unbelievable phenomenal, and yet I’ll try to conclude and add my two cents…
So first, what is the secret source? Why makes this game so popular? Is it the augmented reality (AR) aspect of the game? Is it the fact that you actually need to leave the couch and go outside to hunt Pokémons? Is it the Google Maps integration or is it like many believe to be the craving for the nostalgic characters of Pokémon?
Surely any of these explanations is valid, but the secret sauce is the fact that this game is so different than any other game we have experienced!
It starts with the game design, the goals of the games, the strange concept of the Gym, the fact that you’re actually capturing your allies… And I can go on with it in almost every aspect of the game.
We crave for a new gaming concept (just like a new TV show and it can be about dragons, zombies or drug manufacturers) — as long as it is fresh and innovative, the impact will be in accordance.
Sadly, due to risk-averse policy, game developers tend to replicate successful game mechanism and add it a minor twist. That is usually a short-term strategy that work well for the big publishers that leverage again and again the same game engines and work less well for small developers that need to compete with huge marketing campaigns in order to get their cut.
That is the reason why new gaming concepts usually come from small game developers (see below, only one game out of the 10 all-time top games was developed in the US, as Candy Crush is a UK based company)
2. Cord Cutting, Netflix & Everything In-Between
So a new research was published last week and it shows a tremendous growth of the cord-cutting segment in the US, and right now 25% of the US households do not pay for their cable TV!
You can see that the percentage of cord-nevers (hence, people who never ever paid for cable subscription) is already 10%.
But the main reason is for curd-cutting is money saving. As simple as that. Most of the cord-cutters are paying for a SVOD (subscription VOD like Netflix) service.
And the highlight of last week is the statement from Comcast that it will run the Netflix service on its TV
Which reminds me of a statement provided in late 2010 by Jeffrey L. Bewkes, who was the chief executive of Time Warner at that time… Someone said IBM and the future of PC?
3. Facebook Vs. Snapchat Vs. the rest of the world
The two media moguls are trying to eat the lunch of its opponent.
Facebook just announced that they are testing disappearing messages while Snapchat introduced memories, that are here to stay forever:
However, both companies biggest threat is in foreign markets, especially in the far-east where clones like Snow are stealing Snapchat’s thunder, or Line (with an amazing IPO both in Tokyo & NYSE) that is doing so well in Japan and Indonesia leaving FB’s Whatsapp far far behind.
These apps are paying a lot of attention to local taste and that is probably one of the key reasons for their enormous success. Have a look at Snow:
