innovation

What is a watch ? My first weeks with an AppleWatch

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I am one of these early adopters that are responsible for financing the innovation of products and companies contributing to what we call progress. Therefore, I always believed that our social function should be rewarded somehow, at least with discounts or buy back options for all these products that end up pretty fast in the closet.

Of course, I bought an Apple Watch !! you knew that already, didn’t you?  and I thought it could be a good idea to share with you my thoughts about it. You will probably are going to end up buying one, so it might interest you and besides it, it’s a kind of nice post for summer.

Before we start, please take note that it is a great product for networking ! Maybe because its adoption rate is being slow – no data so far -, maybe because it is not widely known yet, I don’t know … but people ask about it … so networkers of the world, this is your product ! 

One of the most interesting characteristics of Apple is that it attempts to redefine the meaning of existing products and by doing that, they open new markets where they have the monopoly or almost, of the redefined product increasing its margin nicely.

Probably the clearest example of this is the iPhone. Phones used to be devices that we used to talk to somebody, not anymore, now we do with them everything but talking. The meaning of the term smartphone now could be something like a device to connect to the digital world but nothing about making calls.

Therefore, maybe it will be interesting to analyze the AppleWatch from the perspective of meanings and try to find one if and what will be the new meaning of a watch.

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¿Qué es un reloj? Mis primeras semanas con el Apple Watch

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Yo soy uno de esos “early adopters”, uno de los muchos que acabamos financiando los experimentos y  mejoras de un sinfín de productos en aras de lo que llamamos progreso. Por cierto, siempre he creído que nuestra función social no está suficientemente reconocida y deberíamos gozar de al menos un descuento de todo este sinfín de productos que acaban almacenados en el desván de casa con excesiva rapidez.

Como no podía ser de otro modo compré un Apple Watch tan pronto como estuvo disponible. Como algunos o muchos de vosotros comprareis o habéis comprado uno,  pensé que compartir mis impresiones de este casi un mes con él podría interesaros y seria un buen post de verano.

Antes de nada, ¡ el AppleWatch es fantástico para hacer networking ! Si queréis un producto por el que la gente se interese y pregunte, no busquéis más, es vuestro producto. Quizás debido a que su adopción está siendo más lenta de lo esperado, aunque no hay cifras, quizás porque es un producto que aún no es ampliamente conocido y sobre el que se interesa y pregunta mucha gente. Extrovertidos del mundo y fanáticos del networking: ¡¡¡ ya estáis tardando !!!

Una de las características interesantes de muchos de los productos de Apple es que intentan redefinir su “significado” (meaning) y con ello abren nuevos mercados donde poseen el monopolio, o casi, de un producto con un significado redefinido, por supuesto la cuenta de resultados refleja esta situación de monopolio o casi-monopolio.

Probablemente el caso más claro donde se refleja este cambio de significado es el iPhone. Antes, los teléfonos eran dispositivos que servían para hacer llamadas, su significado era dispositivo para hacer llamadas telefónicas. Obviamente con el iPhone y los smartphones hacemos de todo menos llamadas. Si tuviésemos que darle un significado al smartphone podría ser nuestra herramienta de conexión a la red o a nuestra vida digital.

¿Por qué pues, no analizar el AppleWatch desde esta perspectiva, la de los significados?

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La política monetaria no va a solucionar nuestros problemas …

121128-unit-labourHoy aparece en El País una entrevista a Ray Dalio, presidente de Bridgewater, el hedge fund más importante del mundo. Dalio hace un diagnóstico de la economía española de sobras conocido: trabajadores caros (51% más que en Estados Unidos), semana laboral sólo superior a la de Alemania y Francia, burocracia elevada, apenas un 4% de la población española es emprendedora (frente al doble de la americana) y por supuesto las dificultades burocráticas en establecer una empresa. ¿Suena familiar? ¡Seguro que sí !

Paralelamente, estos días el Banco Central Europeo está empezando una política de Quantative Easing (QE) con la que Mario Draghi quiere captar la deuda de los estados europeos sacándola de manos de los bancos de manera que éstos den préstamos a las empresas en vez de aparcar el dinero en la deuda de los estados, un préstamo seguro y rentable.

Pero, ¿es ese el problema? ¿Todo eso va a solucionar los problemas del sur de Europa?

Ray Dalio decía que a España le iría bien una devaluación, puede ser, pero eso en el euro no es posible (aunque el QE inyectando euros va a provocar un descenso con respecto al dólar).

Todo parece ir fatal, sin embargo, si vamos al nivel de las empresas, vemos que hay algunas que funcionan muy bien: Inditex (Zara), Mango, Desigual y muchas otras tienen beneficios record y compiten a nivel mundial. No parece que tengan un problema de costes.

¿Qué es lo que pasa? ¿Por qué tenemos en el mismo país empresas que son lideres mundiales mientras el país está hundido en la miseria con un 23.7% de paro?

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Is 3D printing the next job killer?

In early December I went to one of the few camera shops left in San Francisco, although I don’t live there I have bought cameras and lenses there many times (Discount Camera in Kearny – I love the place!). I was looking for a fix lens for my Olympus OMD-EM5, a 45mm and as usual, I ended up with a different model, a fantastic Leica lens. Throughout the buying process we were chatting about what had happened to camera shops. Can you guess how many are left? Only two downtown ! wow !

This is a familiar experience to all of us. Where is the photo-lab next door? And the record shop? How many hours did you spend browsing through vinyl’s first and CD’s later? They are all gone.

We normally say that Digital Photography killed Kodak, although in fact they invented it. But, what about the ecosystem? From photo-labs to photo-albums, a whole industry devoted to it has also gone.

Maybe the case of music is even better known and studied. It’s not only about the big record companies, but also the transformation of the business model and the whole ecosystem around it. Records and books used to take up a quite a lot of space at home. Now they are mostly decorative objects.

Many times when we think of disruptive technologies we think about the incumbents, the big companies that went from dominating the market to bankruptcy. But we don’t often  remember the many jobs and business around the large companies that have been washed away by the tide of disruptive innovation. With them a myriad of jobs, companies and even competences got lost forever.

Will that be the case of 3D printing? Will 3D printing wipe out so many manufacturing jobs and will rock our economies?

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3D Printing – First resin toys now cars and buildings, the only question is: When?

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3D printing started producing small pieces mad of resin. With time, this technology has become commonplace and now we can buy a 3D printer in a kit for $600. We realize to what extent this technology is being incorporate in our lives when we stumble upon one of these shops that produce a mini-you printed full-color in 3D for $100. Then, suddenly, we become aware that it is becoming mainstream.

However, not all technologies have the same transformative power. Some of them, radical and disruptive innovations can destroy economic empires, change our habits and create new meanings and social constructs in a matter of years. If you are not convinced of this, look into your pockets, what do you find there? A Nokia or a Blackberry? Chances are that you use an iPhone or Android based device. Only a few years ago these companies had market shares approaching 60% or 80%. Now, who do you know that uses a Nokia?

Is 3D printing one of this?

In many ways 3D printing as an innovation process resembles previous ones such as LCD TVs, PDAs (now called smartphones), … a pattern typical of disruptive innovation. A new technology appears that beginning as a toy, after a few iterations covers 70% of our needs with a huge price gap and eventually replaces and redefines a whole sector. This has been the case of LCD with CRT, SDD with hard drives or smartphones with mobile phones and so many other examples.

Always the puzzling story is that we know the outcome, we all know it. There is little doubt that eventually the old technology is going to be replaced. Looks this familiar? Do you think it fits well the pattern of 3D printing? Probably yes.

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