Here’s another brilliant piece of industry analysis from Scott Galloway of digital innovation think tank L2, to add to his talk at last year’s DLD NYC event. In it, he proposes that an online-only approach to retail is not sustainable, and that ‘pureplay’ online-only retailers like Fab.com have so far relied on a novelty factor to woo investors. These online retailers will face stiffer competition as traditional brick-and-mortar retailers get better at selling online and on mobile and, to defend against this, they need to make some sort of a move towards physical retail. Galloway even predicts that Amazon will acquire a company with a huge location base like a chain of gas stations or post offices.
Drones have become pretty commonplace over the last year or so. Once upon a time, the concept of a drone seemed like something out of a sci-fi movie. But now, anyone can walk into their local shopping centre and pick one off the shelves, and we’re used to seeing countless videos of drone footage online. The idea of the drone might have lost its magic somewhat, but there’s so much more potential to this space than just being able to capture some dramatic aerial footage.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen concepts like the emergency defibrillator drone in Holland and Amazon’s delivery drone project that could revolutionize online shopping and logistics in general. But even Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos admits that it’s up to 5 years from seeing the light of day due to the multitude of regulations and lengthy approval process required to get such an idea off the ground in the United States.
Some countries however don’t have these restrictions. The UAE government for example are extremely enthusiastic about the idea of utilising drones, and because they aren’t constricted by the regulations that exist in the US, they can be a bit more adventurous and push through these ideas a lot quicker than most places. The Dubai government announced last year that they’ve been testing delivery drones with the intention of using them for the delivery of government documents and launched an initiative called ‘Drones For Good‘ to encourage new practical drone concepts that could improve people’s lives and make public services more efficient.
The initiative culminated this weekend with over 30 finalists competing in Dubai for a US$1 million international prize. The year-long competition drew over 800 entries from 57 countries around the world with entrants covering everything from traffic management, firefighting, reforestation, urgent transportation of organs and fog dissipation.
The international category was won by Swiss company Flyability and their collision-resistant ‘GimBall’ drone. The drone is built inside a rotating rollcage which makes it capable of colliding with obstacles in challenging environments without losing its stability. GimBall was designed to aid rescue relief efforts, enabling it to comb disaster areas, dense forests, or other tight spaces without fear of being damaged. The 400-gram drone can be deployed in hard-to-reach places during fires and disasters, which are usually addressed by search and rescue officials that could endanger their lives.
Flyability’s Patrick Thevoz said: “We struggled to find funding to develop our search and rescue drone but this UAE Government Summit initiative, Drones for Good, means we can commercially develop our project within a year, and with Flyability able to go where it is dangerous for rescuers, help save lives.”
Sustainable energy has been a hot topic now for a number of years. And rightly so. The amount of energy that is consumed globally is the highest it has ever been, and most governments around the world are yet to actually start taking global warming policy issues seriously.
In particular, the aviation industry takes a lot of flack when it comes to energy consumption, and aircraft manufacturers are facing increasing pressure to put an emphasis on fuel efficiency. That’s why, when something comes along that flies in the face (pun very much intended) of people’s general perceptions of a fuel-guzzling plane, it’s worth standing up and taking notice.
The Solar Impulse 2 was launched in Abu Dhabi during the week, an aircraft that runs entirely on solar power that is attempting to be the first plane ever to fly completely around the world under it’s own steam.
The aircraft is quite a sight, with a longer wingspan than an Airbus A380 (236ft), but weighing less than a Range Rover (5,000lbs) and it’s wings are covered with 17,248 solar cells that power it’s four 17.4-horsepower electric motors.
The aircraft is the brainchild of aviation nuts Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg and is scheduled to take off from Abu Dhabi in early March and fly 35,000km around the world, stopping off in Oman, India, Myanmar, China, the United States, and Southern Europe or North Africa, before landing back in Abu Dhabi sometime in August. The whole trip is expected to clock up 500 hours of total flight time.
The plane won’t be breaking any speed records though, with an average speed of between 50km to 100km per hour. The implications for commercial air travel are not that obvious either, but that’s not the point according to Piccard, “When the Apollo astronauts went to the moon, it wasn’t to launch tourism on the moon and open hotels and make money, it was to inspire the world.”
Who knows, maybe sometime in the future we’ll all be going on holidays on solar powered planes. But for now, we’ll just have to let projects like the Solar Impulse 2 fuel our imaginations.
Dubai is a city that is not afraid of ambition. Between pumping billions into positioning itself as a hub for innovation and technology, and spending big on sponsoring activities around the world through state-owned bodies like Emirates Airline and Dubai Duty Free, the city is an attention seeking over-achiever of sorts.
Sprouting up from the desert almost from scratch over the last 20 years, the entire city has a start-up mentality. So it’s no surprise that they don’t spare any expense, or imagination, when it comes to promoting themselves.
This week, the city launches a ridiculously slick online interactive city tour experience called Dubai 360. The website uses a combination of super high-resolution 360 degree panoramic photos, videos, maps and timelapses to give visitors a feel of what it’s like to stand on top of the tallest building in the world, float over The Palm Islands, take a ride on the Metro and sneak a peek inside some of the most luxurious hotels in the world.
Over 500,000 individual photographs were used for the project and it took a team of 30 designers, photographers and coders more than 18 months to complete with unprecedented access to the city’s landmarks. Every city should have something like this. Not just to woo tourists, but to give residents views of their city that might otherwise be off limits to them. Well worth a look.
Things are not looking too good for Samsung’s mobile division at the moment it appears. According to analysts this week, operating profits for the third quarter are projected to plummet 47%, while sales are projected to fall 15%. Grim reading for the Korean giants.
With cheaper competitors biting at their heels at the lower end of the market (namely Xiaomi) and Apple supersizing the iPhone and making iOS8 more customizable to bring it up to par with the premium Galaxy range, they have a battle on their hands from both sides.
The fact that Samsung were first to the market with a 5.5 inch screen won’t make much of a difference now that the playing fields are level and, with Apple selling 10 million iPhone 6s on the opening weekend last month, that’s 10 million people that presumably won’t be buying the Galaxy S5 or S6. They had their head start and now things are getting real.
If that isn’t bad enough, Samsung were overtaken by Xiaomi as the largest smartphone maker in China in Q2 2014, as well as in India that same quarter by local company Micromax Informatics. Their revenue from mobile handsets peaked at the end of last year and seems to have been on a downward spiral since then.
With the smartphone wars usually framed in either an iOS vs. Android context on an operating system level, or an Apple vs. Samsung context on a handset level, Samsung and Android are pretty synonymous with each other in the smartphone space. Maybe not for long though with more and more viable competitors coming onto the scene like the aforementioned Xiaomi, and newer brands like the OnePlus One.
They have made more of an effort over the last few months to lessen their reliance on Android by pushing their Galaxy apps platform, trying to insulate themselves from becoming a commodity like Apple does with iOS, but with declining sales, they are in less of a position to do that.
While Apple’s models are entirely in the high-end bracket, Samsung are in danger of getting stuck in a no-man’s land of being too expensive for the low-end of the market, and now being in a straight shoot out with Apple in the high-end.
So, what to do for Samsung? Focus on cheaper models to fight for market share in emerging markets like China and India? Innovate in areas that competitors can’t, like with the flexible screens that they have been testing? They certainly have the resources as well as a strong R&D department but the market is being commoditized and a change of tack may be needed to stop the rot.
About Me
I’m a Digital Strategist passionate about the intersection between technology and creative marketing. Last year I moved to London after 11 years living in Dubai.
