Steve Blum's Blog
Virtual reality is ready for a break out into the mass market, but augmented reality is not offering a compelling product to consumers yet. It was hard to find a gee-whiz proposition while wandering through the Las Vegas Convention Center today at CES, or indeed much of anything that was significantly different from last year. Except for the virtual reality headsets and the long lines of (mostly) guys waiting for their turn to try one out.… More
The prospects for widespread adoption of 4K television technology and programming – often referred to as ultra high definition – are slowly getting better in the U.S. According to Akamai, which just released its State of the Internet report for the second quarter of 2015, about a fifth – 21% – of U.S.-based users on its network are running at 15 Mbps or better, which ranks 18th best in the world. That’s the minimum service level needed to stream 4K programming.… More
The Tizen operating system is at the center of Samsung’s Internet of things strategy, according to a company blog post. Backed by Intel and others as well as Samsung and originally intended to be an alternative to Android in the mobile phone space, Tizen’s focus appears to have shifted to embedded systems…
… MoreTizen requires less processing power and memory, thereby ensuring faster device speeds while consuming less energy…
Because it is lightweight, Tizen is optimal for use across a wide spectrum of smart connected devices in the IoT space.
Blackberry unveiled a new tablet device this week, called the Secutablet. With a price north of $2,000, it’s intended for a limited market but it does show that the company finally has a plausible long term survival strategy. It’s a change of direction for Blackberry, one that executives have talked about for the past three years. Instead of making devices and operating systems, they are focusing on their core competency – security – and leveraging the brand identity that goes along with it.… More
I didn’t give Samsung CEO BK Yoon enough credit for his keynote address at CES on Monday. Big ideas and industry leadership were front and center; product plugs were sparse and unnoticeable. You might disagree with his ideas and be unimpressed with his leadership, and dismiss it all as self serving, although I wouldn’t. But he filled the true role of a keynote speaker by showing his audience his vision of the future.… More
“As president of Samsung I am making a promise: our IoT components and devices will be open”, declared BK Yoon, CEO and president of Samsung Electronics. “The Internet of Things needs an open ecosystem”.
He was speaking to a packed keynote audience at CES tonight. The head of the planet’s dominant consumer electronics company remarks put him squarely on the side of open standards and freedom of access on the Internet.
Samsung will need easy and open access if it’s going to meet the goals Yoon laid out tonight: by 2017, 90% of Samsung Electronics – and all of its phones and televisions – will be IoT enabled, and within 5 years all products, across all lines, will be.… More
The Internet of Things is the most important development in front of the consumer electronics industry right now, BK Yoon, president and CEO, said in the opening to his CES keynote address tonight. It’s not something that’s coming in the future, he said, “I would argue that the age of the Internet of Things has already started”.
He called for open IoT standards, promised that Samsung’s products would comply and said by 2017 90% of the company’s products – and 100% within 5 years would be IoT capable.
Samsung has decided to take a different home automation route than Apple or Google. The announcement this week that it is acquiring SmartThings gives a hint that the Korean consumer electronic giant is looking, first and foremost, at creating an automation platform for its own vast array of products, rather than a web service business built around its smart phones. It might eventually do that too, but the decision to go with SmartThings, which relies on an in-home hub, shows a definite hardware-centric attitude.… More
Google’s try at adapting its Android operating system to specifically support wearable devices isn’t getting much love from manufacturers. Following Samsung’s lead, Sony has decided to make its own Android mod for wearable products, instead of using Google’s Wear platform. It’s a necessary gamble if Sony still wants to be Sony.
The company is trying to remake itself into a mobile-oriented, innovative brand. Like it used to be when Sony launched the Walkman 35 years ago.… More
Samsung is following Google into the wearable operating system space. Its Android alternative – Tizen – now has a software developer kit available specifically for wearable devices, including, of course, the Samsung Gear smart watch. The release came close on the heels of the announcement of 64 winners of the $4 million app development challenge the Tizen Foundation launched last year.
The contest was particularly aimed at HTML5 developers, who were offered $50,000 bonuses on top of the regular prizes, which ranged up to $250,000.… More