by Chuck Martin on Jul 31, 12:40 PM
Following mobile as the third screen, the car of the future is poised to become yet another screen where publishers and advertisers compete for attention. A new report paints a picture of autonomous vehicles becoming a new frontier aggressively used by brands to build deeper digital relationships with customers. The study by Forrester suggests that autonomous vehicles will reshape the global economy, dramatically impacting six industries: media, automotive, shipping and logistics, insurance, government and data security and privacy.
by Chuck Martin on Jul 27, 6:57 PM
When consumers purchase connected devices, they want security to come already built in to that device. Security in connected devices obviously is critically important and is top of mind for consumers around the word. A large majority (90%) of consumers say it is important that a connected device have security built into the product, based on a new study.
by Chuck Martin on Jul 26, 8:26 PM
Just because a new and sophisticated technology comes along doesn't mean it will be widely adopted and used. A great example of this is in mobile payments. Using NFC (near field communication) in mobile phones, which even Apple finally included in its more recent iPhones, a consumer can pay at a store checkout by simply tapping their phone to a checkout terminal.
by Chuck Martin on Jul 25, 9:26 PM
Thanks to artificial intelligence, chatbots have the potential to one day replace some of the tasks of many humans with programs sophisticated enough to hold seamless conversations with people. Anyone who has chatted with Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa knows that day is not yet totally here. However, some new research shows that there's a big driver to make chatbots work: money.
by Chuck Martin on Jul 25, 2:42 PM
Wine bottles are getting connected. A Spanish winemaker has launched a national consumer campaign by turning bottles of Castillo de San Diego 'smart bottles.' The winemaker Barbadillo is adding NFC (Near Field Communication) tags to 126,000 bottles, portrayed by the company as the largest global deployment of NFC tags in the wine and spirts industry.
by Chuck Martin on Jul 24, 2:22 PM
Some employees at a Wisconsin company are going to have chips implanted into them. The company, Three Square Market (32M), announced that it is offering implanted chip technology to all of its employees beginning Aug. 1. Employees who want them will be implanted with an RFID chip allowing them to make purchases in their break room, log in to computers, open doors and use the copy machine. The company is expecting more than 50 employees to be voluntarily chipped by BioHax International from Sweden. This is believed to be the first employee-chipping programming in the U.S.
by Chuck Martin on Jul 20, 6:59 PM
In somewhat of a twist on the forward motion of the development of self-driving vehicles, there seems to be a movement in vehicles that use a driver, but via remote control. An electric, self-driving truck has been unveiled by a Swedish tech company with the intent of creating 200 of the remote-controlled vehicles. The 'T-Pod' is 23 feet long and has an operating weight of 20 tons, smaller than normal heavy trucks. It's controlled by an operator, but also has the ability to take advantage of a self-driving system, according to Einride, the company making the vehicles.
by Chuck Martin on Jul 19, 9:36 PM
One of the major promises of the Internet of Things has to do with location. Identifying where a consumer is at any given moment and creating relevant messaging delivered in context has been a marketing goal since forever. Beacons started to help a little in stores over the last few years and, along with Wi-Fi location and the old GPS standby, knowing where a person is has somewhat improved.
by Chuck Martin on Jul 18, 9:56 PM
Some consumers may have to be paid to use certain smart home devices. Just yesterday, a study came out showing that smart thermostats are gaining traction, with North American sales of the devices increasing 64% in a year. That puts the count of smart thermostats installed in homes at 8 million, as I wrote about here at the time.
by Chuck Martin on Jul 17, 9:26 PM
The number of so-called smart homes continues to rise by just about any measure. However, a smart home may contain one smart device and or many, some working together, others not. Berg Insight defines a smart home system as one that requires that it has smartphone app or a web portal as a user interface, which makes sense, since the smartphone is the practical hub of the smart home for the foreseeable future.