Self Driving Cars to dominate roads by 2030

Just saw this from LinkedIn. Kevin Ashton, the man who invented the expression ‘Internet of Things,’ foresees that by 2030, self-driving cars will be the norm.

Self driving cars being the norm in 15 years is not so surprising given that self driving cars from Tesla, Google, and Apple are already testing their own prototypes. In an FT article, Tesla has promised self-driving cars by 2018, Nissan has promised self-driving cars by 2020. Traditional car companies like Toyota, Volvo, and Continental also have experimented with self driving cars. Not to mention a bunch of startups like Auro Robotics, and countless more. Given the nature of competition in a free, open and technology-driven market, it is quite conceivable that self driving cars will be the norm in 15 years.

Its not flying cars, but it will do. For now.

(Btdubs, who is this Kevin Ashton and why have I not heard of him before?)

Harvard Business Review on IOT: Its all about personal augmentation

HBR claims that "they seeing a more human-centric category of IoT activity starting to emerge. It’s less about automation and more about personal augmentation; less about individual devices and more about “living services” that let people program and connect smart devices however they want."

That actually makes sense to me. IOT cant just be about making things faster and repetitive. It has to make life meaningful and enjoyable as well

The HBR article is here

Apple Watch is taking preorders!

The wait is over. Apple is taking preorders for the watch.

Personally, I wont be buying the 1st generation watch. It's not me. I will wait for version 2.0

Why? Well, looking at how huge the change was between the first iPhone, iPod and iPad and the second generation, I feel like it is not a good value to be on the cutting edge. The potential for the iWatch is huge but the practical uses for it and the software and features that will come out from the use cases that will result from the first gen watch will not really surface until 2.0


It is still a great stock to own though.

New words: The "Application-specific IOT" and "Industry-specific IOT"

As I try to learn more about IOT for my own edumacation, I sometimes stumble upon online articles that impart critical knowledge that I cant help but share. This, below, is one of them.

I am linking to an interesting article about the difference between The "Application-specific IOT"  e.g. wearables, the type of IOT that the majority of Americans know and are excited about and "Industry-specific IOT", which is something else that companies within the same industry will pursue.

Quoting the article:

How will IoT fans, pundits and especially company CEOs betting their company business on IoT explain the disparity between the vision and the reality? We are already witnessing the introduction of new “classes” of IoT such as the “industrial IoT”. I expect that we will witness the emergence of “application-specific IoT” and “industry-specific IoT”, which, in so many ways, will not be that different from the many M2M technology implementations that address narrowly defined yet no less valuable business opportunities such as the solutions implemented, for example, by Axeda at Diebold, EMC, GE Healthcare, and Philips Healthcare.

To read more about the Wisdom of Devices and the evolution of the IoT go to Joe Barkai's discussion on General IoT vs. Application-Specific IoT

"Fashion Tech" is another word for "Wearables"

Fashion Tech. I like the phrase.

Its a great word that encapsulates the two biggest determinants of success in wearables. These wearables must be technologically advanced and at the same time these must look good.

On a related note, and this is actually waht reminded me of the term "fashion tech", I just got an email about Fashion Tech Week.  The event's goal is to "showcase emerging products from the fashion/tech, retail tech, beauty, fashion and wearable sectors".

I think I will register and check it out. Well... if its not too expensive to attend. Last year the registration fee is $70. I will need to see a substantive line up of events to pay that much since I am just a hobbyist and a fanboy of wearables. (Its not like I have an employer that would pay for my entry fees.)

Maybe they will see this blog and give me comped tickets. Ha ha.

is Apple Watch making the Swiss nervous?

Italicized excerpt below from Switzerland vs. Apple Watch  Read more by clicking the link

Crowd source vs specialization

Apple has a secret weapon that Swiss watch manufacturers don’t: An incredibly talented community of developers who will take the platform that Apple gives them and design applications for it that will give the Apple Watch capabilities that Apple never even thought of. We saw this with the iPhone, we saw this with the iPad: Apps matter and Apple is smart enough to know that its developer community is one of its most valuable players.

Mass appeal vs elitism for the same price

Apple has another big weapon at its disposal: Millions of diehard fans who will gladly shell out cash to get the Apple Watch and who will evangelize it to others. Apple fanboys are easy to make fun of but their devotion to the brand is something that has been invaluable to Apple during its transformation from a has-been into the most valuable tech company in the world.

A city saved $95m a year in utilities cost through use of IOT

According to this article "The Internet of Everything", aka Internet of Things, IOT, is the next biggest awesomest thing that will save the world because even though it is only in its infancy and is barely better than a bunch of interconnected sensors it generated a city $37 million in light and $58 million savings in water expenses.

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To learn more about this city and read more about how IOT will save the world, read John Chamber's LinkedIn Blog