Happy Monday! With so much going on in mobile, wearable tech and the Internet of Things, it is easy to miss some of the happenings in the connected world. Here are our picks for the best stories of the week:
INNOVATION
Ho do you encourage innovation?
While almost all companies exalt innovation rhetorically, many fail to encourage it in practice. Which incentives foster consistent idea generation, collaboration, and problem solving? Experts discuss how to manage, organize, hire, and reward for innovation. Link
With innovation, a little chaos goes a long way
New research suggests that teams blindly following highly defined processes and execution plans are the least effective at achieving their goals and coming up with innovations. The most successful teams usually operate more like ant colonies. They are able to quickly adapt to changes in their environment, because they have a set of simple rules and a clear goal, allowing them more flexibility and ability to learn along the way. Link
MOBILE
No “Great Wall of Worry” for Apple
It turns out that Apple is still growing faster in China than in the rest of the world. Last week, the company said it now counts 1 million developers in China creating apps for its products. Link
WEARABLE TECH
Worldwide wearable shipments
According to a new forecast, the wearable tech industry will treble inside the next five years — with a whopping 245 million devices expected to ship in 2019. The forecast also states that the shipments for 2015 will be around 84 million units. That’s a growth in monetary value of 64 per cent; from $15 billion in 2015 to $25 billion in 2019. Link
Understanding the criminal minds with wearables
The advent of wearable technology with the exorbitant fee on taxpayers, and the unpredictability of inmates leads to one burning question: how can correctional facilities improve surveillance efficiency and lower costs? Link
Self-lacing shoes and body sensors coming to the NBA
At a recent meeting of the owners of the NBA teams, Nike CEO Mark Parker laid out a plan to bring more inventive technology to the company’s ever-expanding collection of athletic apparel. Two of the major pieces of technology Parker focused on were sensors to control body temperature and the much publicized self-lacing — that is, Power Lacing — technology the company unveiled recently. Link
INTERNET OF THINGS
The “Internet of Payment Things”
MasterCard introduced a new program that will bring MasterCard payments to a wide array of consumer products across the automotive, fashion, technology, wearables, and yet to be imagined categories. Essentially, the financial company hopes the MasterCard will soon fall into oblivion. Link
Fully automated farm in five years
Automated logistics are set to open up many things in agriculture that could never be done before. Little robots will be used to weed and spray fields. Drones could pick up canisters of spray and resupply them. Robotics will replace the seasonal workforce and the new workforce will need new skills. Link
Have a mighty week and be sure to follow us on Twitter!
Mighty Things is a global strategy and innovation company designed for the connected world. We solve business problems at the intersection of digital innovation, mobility, wearable tech and the Internet of Things.
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