Friday, March 30, 2012

Best Buy: On the Right Track?

Recently, Best Buy announced a new strategy. They plan to shutter 50 stores and migrate towards smaller stores focused on mobile and tablet sales and service.

As I noted in an earlier post on showrooming, the traditional retail model is under attack by the internet and new approaches will need to emerge for brick and mortar operations. Local companies need to figure out the unique advantages that they derive from a local presence, and to build their operations around those advantages. In the showrooming article, I mention one approach that could be used by Target (and Best Buy), but it's certainly not the only approach.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Why Population Change May Mean More Robots in Your Future

Everyone 'knows' that the world's population is constantly increasing. Indeed, the U.S. census bureau projects that the world population will grow by 34% from 2012 to 2050. However, the story changes if we dig down to the country level. Consider the forecasts for the following countries

Friday, March 9, 2012

Is The Retina Display on the New iPad compatible with 4G LTE?

If you buy a new iPad with a retina display, you will download 1080P movies over wi-fi, not LTE. The problem is the price plans that are available from AT&T and Verizon.

Netflix estimates that an HD movie will take 'up to' 2.3 GB per hour. This means that one hour at 1080p can use up your entire 2GB to 3GB of data that you get on the carriers $30 plan. The solution to this is to download your movies over wi-fi before you hit the road. On the road, you will just do basic web browsing and email so you don't eat into your cap.

So, the question is ... why do you need LTE if you can only use it use for 3g-speed data downloads? Or, why do you need the retina display over LTE if your browsing caps limit the quality of the content you can see?

Companies Know No One Reads those Legal Agreements. So What?

In the legal world, how can one party agree to something if they literally can't read the agreement? Terms and Conditions imposed by consumer-facing organizations have been controversial for some time, at least in the eyes of some consumer advocates. However, in the light of a recent article on web site privacy policies, can these really be called "agreements"? How can one party agree to something if they literally can't read it?