http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20100923/chapter-11-in-which-blockbuster-does-the-inevitable/
The article I selected this week is pretty short, but has a great connection to class. It is about Blockbuster officially filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today in order to cut down some of its $1 billion in debt. This presumably means further retail store closures so they can try and get their debt around $100 million.
The main reason why Blockbuster is filing for bankruptcy is because of the business share they have lost due to the competition from Redbox and Netflix. Hardly anyone goes into a brick and mortar video store anymore to rent a DVD for the night, when they can go to a Redbox vending machine and pay a dollar or stream a show or DVD to their TV/computer or receive it in the mail directly to their house. The business model changed and Blockbuster did not respond to it at all. Relating this to our course is that Blockbuster was not able to create value with their business any longer. Using Porter's Five Forces we can see that Blockbuster had a huge threat of new entrants, as well as a threat of substitute products, and that was satisfied by the the already mentioned companies. The barriers to entry were not high because their core competency was selling DVDs, not a very hard concept. Lastly, with the intense rivalry of the DVD rental business, Blockbuster did not gain a competitive edge by using innovation or technology. They are paying the price now by filing Chapter 11 and I'm sure in the near future other MBA classes will have to present a case study on Blockbuster and what went wrong.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
F.C.C. Likely to Open New Airwaves to Wireless
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/13/technology/13wifi.html
My article this week focuses on the topic of the FCC potentially opening up new bands of the spectrum for unlicensed wireless. This is mainly due to the fact that TV was recently changed from analog to digital and some space was freed up. The last time unlicensed wireless was opened up we received such innovations as the TV remote, cordless phones, garage door openers, and Wifi; inventions that we can't imagine living without.
While no one is sure what innovations and new products will come about if this spectrum becomes unlicensed, but the talk is that "super Wifi" would probably be feasible. This means that a high rise building, college campus, or even a city would be able to cover their entire area with a wireless signal. Not only would the days of searching for a hotspot be a thing of the past, but there would be other benefits as well. A hospital could monitor the location of all their equipment as well as the vital signs of all their patients. Cities could monitor all their traffic cameras and other equipment from one location. A distribution center would know at anytime the exact count of the inventory in their warehouse and be able to more efficiently track what they receive and ship with the help of RFID tags. A power company could monitor their entire power grid and distribute power more efficiently, with less waste. These are just a few examples that the experts say would be very feasible.
While we can't predict all the innovations and inventions that will follow if this wireless spectrum becomes unlicensed, but we know it will be a game changer. It will connect our lives, society, and businesses even further than we already are now. The possibilities are almost limitless and the opportunities to create spinoff businesses due to this technology or to help existing businesses to use this technology to their advantage will be something that will be key in the future.
My article this week focuses on the topic of the FCC potentially opening up new bands of the spectrum for unlicensed wireless. This is mainly due to the fact that TV was recently changed from analog to digital and some space was freed up. The last time unlicensed wireless was opened up we received such innovations as the TV remote, cordless phones, garage door openers, and Wifi; inventions that we can't imagine living without.
While no one is sure what innovations and new products will come about if this spectrum becomes unlicensed, but the talk is that "super Wifi" would probably be feasible. This means that a high rise building, college campus, or even a city would be able to cover their entire area with a wireless signal. Not only would the days of searching for a hotspot be a thing of the past, but there would be other benefits as well. A hospital could monitor the location of all their equipment as well as the vital signs of all their patients. Cities could monitor all their traffic cameras and other equipment from one location. A distribution center would know at anytime the exact count of the inventory in their warehouse and be able to more efficiently track what they receive and ship with the help of RFID tags. A power company could monitor their entire power grid and distribute power more efficiently, with less waste. These are just a few examples that the experts say would be very feasible.
While we can't predict all the innovations and inventions that will follow if this wireless spectrum becomes unlicensed, but we know it will be a game changer. It will connect our lives, society, and businesses even further than we already are now. The possibilities are almost limitless and the opportunities to create spinoff businesses due to this technology or to help existing businesses to use this technology to their advantage will be something that will be key in the future.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Number 2
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/streaming-your-entire-computer-to-a-television/
Alright, here goes blog number two for the semester. The article I chose for this week is from the New York Times and is not much of an article, it's really a short update on a new technology that has recently come out and spurred some thoughts for me. The article is on a new USB device from a company called Warpia, which allows you to wirelessly stream whatever you are doing on your computer (i.e. watching a Web video, movie, or just surfing the Web) to a TV. The TV and laptop have to be within Line of Sight and the signal is only good for about thirty feet.
I see this technology as the next step before TVs, PCs, and cell phones will all be merged into one device, with maybe a few different sizes you can choose from. I mean really what is the point of having a laptop that you can put a DVD in and watch a movie or stream Netflicks and at the same time have a TV that can serve the same function. You can get online with a computer, but I have seen technology lately where you can hook your TV up to the internet as well. The trend with cellphones is the same thing. You can surf the Internet with your phone, watch movies/videos, and make calls. Skype and other programs on your laptop can make calls as well, so the laptop really is just a larger Iphone/smartphone or you can think about cellphones as being smaller computers, however you want.
I suspect that in the future laptops, cellphones, and TVs will all be very similar devices and the only difference will be the size. All of these devices will be able to surf the web, stream video, make calls, and do anything else that comes along in the next few years. Sizes will vary but the range of functions will essentially be the same. You can probably think of them in three seperate sizes: portable size (Iphone), semi-portable (laptop), and nonportable (TV sized). I think in the future there will be no reason for devices to have specific functions when the technology will be such that it will only really matter on what size you want the device to be.....60 inch flat screen for your house or 4 inch to be able to fit in your pocket.
Alright, here goes blog number two for the semester. The article I chose for this week is from the New York Times and is not much of an article, it's really a short update on a new technology that has recently come out and spurred some thoughts for me. The article is on a new USB device from a company called Warpia, which allows you to wirelessly stream whatever you are doing on your computer (i.e. watching a Web video, movie, or just surfing the Web) to a TV. The TV and laptop have to be within Line of Sight and the signal is only good for about thirty feet.
I see this technology as the next step before TVs, PCs, and cell phones will all be merged into one device, with maybe a few different sizes you can choose from. I mean really what is the point of having a laptop that you can put a DVD in and watch a movie or stream Netflicks and at the same time have a TV that can serve the same function. You can get online with a computer, but I have seen technology lately where you can hook your TV up to the internet as well. The trend with cellphones is the same thing. You can surf the Internet with your phone, watch movies/videos, and make calls. Skype and other programs on your laptop can make calls as well, so the laptop really is just a larger Iphone/smartphone or you can think about cellphones as being smaller computers, however you want.
I suspect that in the future laptops, cellphones, and TVs will all be very similar devices and the only difference will be the size. All of these devices will be able to surf the web, stream video, make calls, and do anything else that comes along in the next few years. Sizes will vary but the range of functions will essentially be the same. You can probably think of them in three seperate sizes: portable size (Iphone), semi-portable (laptop), and nonportable (TV sized). I think in the future there will be no reason for devices to have specific functions when the technology will be such that it will only really matter on what size you want the device to be.....60 inch flat screen for your house or 4 inch to be able to fit in your pocket.
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