Tech / Telecom news — 10 Jul 2017
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Video
After suffering an erosion in digital music, on the shift from downloads to streaming, now Apple is also losing share in digital movies, with an estimated fall of 15–20pp in just 5 years (to 20–30% today). But they keep growing (as the overall market grows), and current focus as enablers of third-party subscriptions is going well (Story)
Devices
“Avant-garde” hardware keeps being used as a differentiator for devices. After Essential’s new phone, now RED, a premium digital camera manufacturer, is also launching a smartphone that they describe as the “world’s first holographic media machine” and enables Artificial Reality experiences with no need of a headset (Story)
Security
American banks are working on new ATMs in which passwords are substituted by linking with users’ smartphones (where users authenticate with biometrics, e.g. fingerprints). This comes after previous efforts to use biometrics directly at the ATM were abandoned, due to vulnerability of the centralised database they required (Story)
Innovation
This long post argues that the cheapest, often initially overlooked innovations are the ones that shape the economy: e.g. paper (enabling the “printing revolution”) to smartphones (not predicted in many SciFi works). Candidates for next “shapers” could be cheap sensors + connectivity, or AI tech complementing human activities (Story)
HARDWARE ENABLERS
Network technology
Lots of problems for Frontier to sustain their fixed operation, after the large acquisition of Verizon’s landline business in 2016, which increased debt by $17bn. The company claims that the last Verizon deal was “about fiber”, and relatively immune to customers “cutting the cord”, but admits that integration has not gone well (Story)
SOFTWARE ENABLERS
Artificial Intelligence
Understanding how AI works is now a key research objective, to anticipate & control ethical risks from using AI, e.g. to take decisions on who goes to jail or who receives a loan. So the US government is funding an “explainable AI” program, and some scientists are using cognitive psychology techniques on AI algorithms (Story)
Meanwhile, some philosophers are claiming that adding human features to robots / AI systems is not a good idea, as it increases users’ expectations on the robots’ behaviour, and could even lead to people holding them accountable of their acts, when they’re just tools. But again, there’s a problem in algorithms’ predictability… (Story)
Google is collaborating with a British press association to create software to automatically write up to 30,000 stories per month, in a clear sign that AI could one day automate much of the work that journalists (or even corporate strategy departments) do today. But specific talent / expertise is required to build the models ;-) (Story)
FINANCE
Telecom Italia’s CEO F Cattaneo could be discussing his exit, after recent tensions with Vivendi, and concerned that he no longer can manage the company in the way he wants. Cattaneo’s performance has been stellar, but Vivendi seems to be interested in appointing A Genish (ex Vivo Brasil) as a strong general manager (Story)
Even if most analysts would expect that the 4–5 largest “tech giants” would be key for success in tech investments, returns in 2017 (year to date) have been driven by more “exotic” companies, from more specialised industries / segments, like Salesforce (B2B), Activision (Gaming), Micron and Lam Research (chips) (Story)
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