Google made several jokes about Apple and the new iPhone at its event to show the Pixel 2. They took aim at Apple's storage problems and its perceived aloofness.
In a move seen by many as one friend loaning another some money to help them through troubled times and garner favours, Google has paid $1.1 billion to smartphone manufacturer HTC to expand their Smartphone business. HTC, once a major player in the market have visibly struggled in the face of huge growth by competitors such as Apple, Samsung and more recently, Huawei.
The injection of cash is believed to be focused on the development of Google’s Pixel range of smartphones currently developed by HTC with the Californian company acquiring the team who develop the hardware and securing a non-exclusive licence on HTC’s intellectual property.
Google Focus on Hardware
The deal is further proof that Google are investing heavily in the hardware market to ensure a strong future for Android and its own status within the smartphone hardware market. "We think this is a very important step for Google in our hardware efforts," Rick Osterloh, Google's senior vice president of hardware, said. "We've been focusing on building our core capabilities. But with this agreement, we're taking a very large leap forward."
The move is an attempt to prevent Google from being left out of the loop in the smartphone industry as current Android devices can easily be adapted to bypass Google's services altogether. It appears that Google are attempting to take a leaf out of Apple’s book by ensuring smooth rollouts of their mobile operating system, such as the recent IOS 11 update, combined with a boost to their own Pixel handsets. Pixel arrived with great fanfare, but has not yet made significant in-roads to displacing either Apple or Samsung. In purchasing the HTC team who have developed it, Google are clearly hoping that will change.
Google will retain some caution however, given that they have attempted to enter the market before with their 2011 purchase of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. That move was both disastrous and relatively short-lived with Google off-loading the business for just $3 billion in 2014.
The deal is yet to be ratified by the regulatory bodies, but caught many industry experts by surprise with the majority believing the deal would constitute a full takeover. Rumours were so abundant that Google purchasing HTC outright was imminent that the Taiwanese stock market suspended trading on HTC on Tuesday.
The move comes with several risks for the Californian tech giant, with the major one being the possibility of alienating Samsung who currently run Android on their popular range of smartphones. But what is clear is that the big winner from this deal is HTC, the struggling Taiwanese company who have now not only strengthened ties with an important ally, but crucially have acquired a much-needed cash injection which will allow them to concentrate on the further development of smartphones and also on their Virtual Reality headset, Vive, which is not only favoured by Google, but is also outselling the Facebook owned Oculus Rift by almost double.
What is certain is that this deal will be watched closely by several hardware developers wary of Google’s manoeuvres in a very lucrative market and the potential for added competition.
Everyone’s been saying for quite a while now that drones are going to take over, the technology will be used for flying cars and we’ll be delivering almost everything via drone, but is that really the case or are we too excited to see the obstacles ahead? William Sachiti, The Academy of Robotics explains to Finance Monthly that there is a more realistic perspective.
Drones are the future of home delivery! Or at least that is what I used to believe. They appear to be an efficient means of transporting items from one location to another. My mind ran wild, picturing a drone superhighway! I was keen to establish a dedicated airspace for drones to self-navigate, and to deliver packages to customers.
But… and there is a big but. Such a big one, I no longer believe drones are the future. The issue is not technical – it is social.
The Social challenges
The more I researched, I began to realise the safety defects of a cluttered airspace, peppered with flying machines, often controlled by amateur operators. Not to mention the cost of achieving this drone superhighway in the sky.
These issues have already been encountered by Amazon, which is currently leading the way with drone delivery. For example, the retail giant must house drones near to population centres in order to be more efficient than road-based delivery.
Now imagine your neighbour’s daily impulse-buys being delivered by a very loud drone, the novelty would fade fast. Imagine the sound of a washing machine spinner at full-belt during unpredictable hours of the day, waking up your kids and spooking your spaniel. Take it a step further and imagine living near a big retailer’s drone delivery centre. The noise and intrusion could be worse than living under the Heathrow flight path.
I had initially overlooked our roads – thinking of them as ‘the past’ and drones as ‘the future’ – but I no longer believe that to be the case. Ultimately, road-based delivery using driverless vehicles is far safer, quieter and more cost effective than the seemingly futuristic, yet comparably less-practical drone courier services. It is easy to forget that we haven’t fully tapped the potential of our road networks – public, unmarked and residential. And autonomous vehicles present the opportunity to tap into and make better use of the infrastructure we already have.
So what form will deliveries of the future take?
Judging by early designs and models, autonomous delivery vehicles, will take diverse forms.
Italy’s Piaggio Fast Forward - a subsidiary of Vespa manufacturers, Piaggio - has invented a cylindrical luggage compartment capable of tailing its owner by a few metres, while holding up to 18km of cargo. This clearly shows the value of wheels on the road.
Mole Solutions is ignoring both road and air for something completely different: below-ground freight capsules. Thrown into the delivery mix, such an invention could help to reduce road (and air) traffic congestion, as well as keeping out of sight.
Pelipod on the other hand, is seeking to cater specifically to businesses that need efficient, secure and direct delivery. Bypassing post offices, courier firms and depots, the firm is pioneering delivery pods that will travel straight to the destination. Integrated electronic systems will grant access to only authorised users, and provide proof of delivery.
And Kar-Go, the driverless delivery vehicle from my own Academy of Robotics, will autonomously navigate unmarked roads such as residential areas, and use an intelligent package management system to deliver packages to retail customers, day or night.
So, road vehicles will still be the primary force for delivering packages but they’ll come in all shapes and sizes.
Delivery beyond the physical
Looking beyond the first incarnations of autonomous vehicles and towards the far-future of delivery, I believe product delivery will be digital. Driverless vehicles, and smart devices in general, will benefit from 5G mobile technology. With so many devices feeding data into the Internet of Things (IoT), devices are able to communicate and act in unison. Autonomous vehicles for instance, will be able to communicate with one another, and other road users.
Let’s put digital delivery into context. 25 years ago, the only way to send a document to someone was to have it physically delivered. With a little help from technology, the same document could, just a few years later, be sent via fax; scattered into bits of information, sent across the world and re-assembled in a matter of minutes.
As technology improved, sending a document moved from minutes, to seconds to an instant. So, if delivery of physical goods continues to incrementally improve over time, it’s not unrealistic to imagine that your latest smartphone could one day not be physically sent to you at all.
Instead, it could be purchased via a digital download and, through some 3D printer/fax machine-hybrid, be re-assembled in your living room. Of course, we can’t expect to see such an invention anytime soon. Technological advancements – despite accelerations in the digital age – are gradual.
And finally
With giants like Google, Tesla and Uber counted among the early adopters of self-driving cars, you can bet that the overwhelming majority of future vehicles, whether transporting people or packages, will be driverless.
When consumers are ordering compost from the garden centre, supermarket groceries or pretty much anything from the online superstores, you can bet that, regardless off the type of delivery vehicle, the driver will be digital.
Results from the second quarter of a year-long research study reveal how investors view the performance of a range of different players in the autonomous vehicle (AV) market, providing for each firm, the percentage of investors who judge that company as ranking in the top five for having the most investible Autonomous Vehicle technology.
Manufacturers
In the survey, conducted by international law firm Gowling WLG and economic research agency Explain the Market, Tesla (26%) topped the charts when it comes to investor confidence in AV manufacturers - closely followed by BMW (22%).
IT giants
For the world's biggest IT companies, investors ranked Google (35%) as the business with the highest potential for success in the AVmarket. This is markedly higher than other giant brands which investors feel are yet to make an impact - notably Baidu (2%), Uber (8%) and Apple (11%).
Tech brands
The survey also reveals Bosch (54%), Tata Elixsi (36%) and ParkWhiz (29%) as the most investible tech brands in the AV tech sector, according to UK investors.
Guy Shone, CEO Explain the Market said "When it comes to driverless tech UK investors are showing a deeper level of interest and a stronger commitment than ever before"
Stuart Young, partner and head of Automotive at Gowling WLG said: "When it comes to the AV sector - research shows UK investors are backing innovation from a wide range of sources. UK Investors clearly have confidence in both the old and the new, the big and the small. They are tracking the best ideas and conditions whether they come from start-ups or corporate giants."
Since the survey's Q1 results, there have been some subtle shifts in investor mood regarding the barriers towards widespread AV introduction. Whilst concerns about unclear rules and regulations have slightly diminished, doubts about a lack of collaboration between industry and government appear to be increasing.
The progress of smart cities projects is also an increasingly important factor to investors when it comes to making a decision to invest in the AV market.
As our economy enters a new period of instability, the importance of monitoring investor attitudes increases. This is the second wave of a year-long study of over 1,000 investors. The ongoing tracker study will track the confidence, attitudes and opinions of UK investors to the AV sector and reveal what investors really want as the sector develops. The study will also probe the real barriers and factors that impact confidence.
(Source: Gowling WLG)
Stephan Thoma, Google's ex Global CLO, shares his thinking on an innovation model you can use allocate resources to allow for fresh thinking, new ideas and experimentation. Sign up for more thought leadership pieces here: https://fuse.fuseuniversal.com/commun...
About Stephan:
Stephan Thoma has been an executive level leader in the global talent & leadership development world for over 25 years, most notably at Google for nearly eight years as Global L&D Director. He is now an independent Advisor and Coach to L&D /HR leaders, and Visiting Professor at the Centre for the Digital Economy.
About Fuse:
Fuse Universal (Fuse) is a global learning technology solution disrupting the learning technology and communication space. Fuse has a new approach to online learning, knowledge sharing and communication in the workplace through its innovative technology platform, that supports continuous, social, blended and mobile learning.
Alphabet, the holding company for Google, has passed Apple as the most valuable company in the world for the first time since February 2010. With an increase of approximately 8% after the company reported its fourth-quarter earnings, Alphabet‘s value is now approximately $568 billion, compared to Apple’s worth of $535 billion.
Alphabet, a software company with a few hardware bets, has seen a continuous rise in the stock market in the past twelve months. Apple, a hardware company with a few extra software bets, has been underperforming. Since July 2015, Google’s shares have risen 44% while Apple’s sank 16%.
Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said in a statement, “Our very strong revenue growth in Q4 reflects the vibrancy of our business, driven by mobile search as well as YouTube and programmatic advertising, all areas in which we’ve been investing for many years”.
According to specialists, Apple’s major problem is relying mainly on the iPhone. Despite the fact that it is the best-selling smartphone globally, sales in the fiscal first quarter increased only 1% from a year earlier. Given that the iPhone accounts for two-thirds of Apple’s revenue and sales in the remaining one-third (consisting of iPad and Mac revenue) dropped, investors have expressed concerns about the future of the company.
Google on the other hand is convincing investors that its dominance, helped by its strong mobile advertising sales, will remain stable. The company is poised to capture 32% of the mobile ad market this year, according to eMarketer, while Facebook is expected to stay well behind with around 20%. The profitability of Google’s search engine and other online services have been generating so much profit that the company has been investing in all types of potential growth projects such as self-driving cars.
