- The Flexible Display Glass interests me the most. Besides being ultra-thin, roll able and electronics enabling, it is portable and looks like it is applicable to areas such as architecture and medicine. Flexible Display Glass would enable light, thin, and cost-effective applications including the present slim displays and the future smart surfaces. The strength, flexibility and thinness of the glass material has the latent to allow displays to be wrapped over a structure or device (Corning Display Technologies | Corning Willow Glass, 2013). In architecture, it can be used instead of paper maps while in medicine it can be used to store patients’ data. Instead of patients walking around with their X-ray films and medical cards, they can carry their flexible display glass, which will serve the same purpose. This technology is more competitive than the others because of flexibility and portability (Yoshida, 2004). This technology is likely to introduce use of electronic certificates, licenses, and identification documents.
- Bill Gates uses his finger instead of a mouse to select designs and write his signature (Bill Gates, 2008). He is able to do this through the touch recognition technology in the screen hence enabling it to respond to touch as if it were a mouse. This touch technology comprises of camera hardware and special software that make it recognize fingers and objects.
- They selected the music in the sync-enabled car through a voice command (Microsoft CES, 2010). The ford and phone sync have the “Tell me capability” which enables the driver to select desired music and play it from his phone to the car because these two devices are automatically synced via blue tooth hence the car can be used as a hands free even to call contacts on the phone.
- The Blio Reader enables students to self-administer a test and get real-time feedback without the help of their professor (Diaz et.al, 2010). This application also enables students to watch videos inside a textbook. The final feature is the ability of the book to read to the students, more like an audio book but even better (Microsoft CES 2010 Keynote). This brings a whole new experience to the world of e-books and even improves the experience of online classes which are becoming more popular as the world becomes digital.
- The criteria used to create the third category of device between smart phones and laptops are that this device has to be better than smartphones and laptops at performing key tasks. These tasks include; browsing, watching videos, playing games, reading e-books, listening to music, sending e-mails and sharing photographs (Steve Jobs, 2010). This device is also slightly larger than smartphones and slightly smaller than laptops therefore making it the perfect choice in terms of portability and performance.
- According to Steve Jobs the disadvantage of netbooks are; they are quite slow, they have low quality displays and run cranky old PC software. The only advantage he sees in netbooks is that they are cheaper laptops (Steve Jobs, 2010). The netbooks will therefore not be able to survive in the digital world, which requires powerful and fast devices to improve productivity (Apple iPad: Steve Jobs Keynote, 2010).
- The customers spend 8,000 to 10,000 of cost per terabyte to store the day, and they spend time doing nothing but chasing the day therefore increasing their IT budget by two to three percent due to increase in their data (Oracle Big Data and Innovation, 2012).
- When 43 percent of Americans retire, this matters because they will be replaced by another 43 percent hence introducing a new group of customers who are more demanding than the previous. Companies will need to change how the new customers are handled due to new demands. The agendas of customers, which are innovating and saving money, will also interchange by some extent (Oracle Big Data and Innovation, 2012).
- Gartner has predicted that technology will have a significant impact on businesses for the next 3 years. Companies that are slow at embracing and adopting these technologies run a risk of being obsolete in the near future. The top 3 technology strategic trends that I would recommend for Wal-Mart are;
Personal Cloud- Cloud computing is the heart of our digital lives. It is based on synchronization across devices to enable them share data instead of each device storing its own data (Hiltunen, 2010). This trend will minimize business expenses for Wal-Mart because information is stored online instead of on servers, which are quite expensive to host. It shifts attention from hardware to services (Gartner, 2013). This cloud technology also demands that PCs are replaced by mobile devices which have a greater connectivity such as Wi-Fi, hotspot tethering, blue tooth and NFC. Wal-Mart adopting this technology will also prove to their customers that they practice what they preach and increase loyalty.
Mobile Device Battles- In 2013, mobile devices have been tipped to surpass PCs as the ultimate web access tools due to their better experiences and because they are also mutually inclusive with cloud computing which is gaining more popularity (Gatner, 2013). This has led to mobile wars between companies with the four biggest mobile operating system platforms, which are Android, Windows 8, Apple, and RIM (Hempel, 2013). These mobile device wars are important factor to Wal-Mart as an electronics retailer to determine which platform is preferred by customers and to what extent, in order to be able to stock the right products (Gartner, 2013). The PC era with windows as the main platform is fast being replaced with mobile device era with a variety of platforms.
The Internet of Things- This provides many opportunities for businesses and organizations should be prepared to exploit these opportunities because the future business success will be online, so the faster businesses embrace this trend the better for them (Curatolo, 2011). One key technology of the internet of things is the Near Field Communication mobile payment for smartphones (Gartner, 2013). Wal-Mart being a retailer should embrace this technology fast enough to enable its customers use it to pay for their purchases. This will benefit the company because it encourages the customers to spend more and save less therefore increasing revenue.
References:
Apple iPad: Steve Jobs Keynote (Jan 27 2010). Part 1 [video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBhYxj2SvRI
Aziz, A., Lokman, A., & Yusof, Z. (2011). Information Technology Ethics: The Conceptual Model of Constructs, Actions, and Control Measure. International Journal on Computer Science & Engineering, 3(6), 2580-2588. Retrieve March 26, 2013 from http://www.enggjournals.com/ijcse/doc/IJCSE11-03-06-002.pdf
Bill Gates 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show Keynote highlights [Video file]. Retrieved March 25, 2013, from http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0801/31781/CES_WCTV_feed.asx
Corning Display Technologies | Corning Willow Glass. (2013). Corning Incorporated | Home. Retrieved March 26, 2013, from http://www.corning.com/displaytechnologies/en/products/flexible.aspx
Curatolo, T. (2011). Old And New Power Technologies Approach The Crossroads In 2011. Electronic Design, 59(1), 16. Retrieved March 26, 2013, from http://content.ebscohost.com/pdf25_26/pdf/2011/EDS/13Jan11/58834466.pdf
Diaz, V., Jennings C., Bentley, K., Garrett P. B., Koralesky, B., Royal, C. & Starrett, D. (2010). Deploying Innovation Locally. EDUCAUSE Review, 45(5), 58–74. Retrieved March 26, 2013, from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/deploying-innovation-locally
Future Technology Watch your day in 2020 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBjvqnKQsTI
Gartner, (2013). Gartner identifies the Top 10 strategic technology trends for 2013. Retrieved from http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2209615
Hempel, J. (2013). Smartphones: Microsoft and RIM battle for No. 3 - Fortune Tech. Fortune Tech: Technology blogs, news and analysis from Fortune Magazine . Retrieved March 26, 2013, from http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/01/28/microsoft-blackberry-iphone- android/
Hiltunen, E. (2010). Message from the future. Engineering & Technology (17509637), 5(9), 18- 20. Retrieved March 25, 2013 from
http://digital-library.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/et.2010.0903
Microsoft CES (2010) Keynote - Part 4 (Gaming Laptops, DirectX 11, 3D Gaming, Form Factor PC) [video file]. Retrieved March 25, 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY0_ZzUbqiM
Oracle Big Data and Innovation (2012): President Mark Hurd [video file]. Retrieved March 24, 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6YGZZeG_2M&feature=related
Yoshida, J. (2004). Plastic, not glass, to spawn new breed of thin, flexible displays. (Cover story). Electronic Engineering Times (01921541), (1322), 1-90. Retrieved March 26, 2013, from http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4048989/Plastic-not-glass-to- spawn-new- breed-of-thin-flexible-displays-item-1
