Stella!

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:43:00 -0500

Stella!

"When predicting technology trends, Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and..."

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:31:12 -0500

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When predicting technology trends, Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and author of Sketching User Experiences may have said it best:

“If history is any indication, we should assume that any technology that is going to have a significant impact over the next 10 years is already 10 years old!”

This theory holds true for several technologies. For example, the first mobile telephone call was made in 1946, many years before the first commercial cellular network was launched in 1979. GPS was in use for nearly 30 years in government and military programs before it became a must have for personal vehicle navigation. And, the formation of the Internet as we know it began in the 1980s, but wasn’t truly incorporated into virtually every aspect of modern human life until a decade later.

Applying this premise to radio frequency identification (RFID) seems to hold true as well. The technology itself was well over 10 years old in 2004 when retail giants began pushing it as a means of driving efficiencies into their supply chains. While these initial retail programs didn’t succeed according to plan, and mass adoption didn’t happen the way many analysts predicted, these initiatives did kick off a high level of interest from retailers, product manufacturers and many other industries and markets focused on improving their business and service processes. Between 2004 and now, something else happened that makes one ask if RFID is ready to have that significant impact Buxton mentions.

”

- Reshaping the Way We Think about RFID | ThingMagic’s RFID Blog - Radio Frequency Identification Company and Industry News (via smarterplanet)

courtenaybird: Fifty years ago, the four most valuable U.S....

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:21:45 -0500

courtenaybird:

Fifty years ago, the four most valuable U.S. companies employed an average of 430,000 people with an average market cap of $180 billion. This year, the four largest U.S. companies employ an average 120,000 people with an average market cap of $334 billion. The titans of 2011 have twice the the value of their 1964 counterparts with a quarter of the employees.

(via The Atlantic)

Untitled

Stella!

"When predicting technology trends, Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and..."

courtenaybird: Fifty years ago, the four most valuable U.S....