Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page

By Paul Williams

Tech talk has been in overdrive this week as Google I/O comes to a close. The annual developer-focused conference saw Larry Page, Google co-founder and CEO, deliver the opening keynote speech on May 15^th.

What did Page and co. really say in those three and a half hours (spoiler alert: there were zero new hardware announcements) and what do you really need to know? If you missed out, take a look at the good, the bad and the unexpected that came out of the 180-minute keynote.

Google Play Music All Access

The Good: More unlimited music. Spotify proved that millions (24 million in fact) are over radio-only music services like Pandora, and want the freedom to create their own playlists – without having to pay for it. Enter Google Play Music All Access (yep, that’s a mouthful). It’s Google’s version of Spotify, where you have access to millions of songs, create your own playlists and radio stations, and get song recommendations based on music you already like. To try and set itself apart from Spotify, Google Play also gives you access to eBooks, movies, magazines and TV shows.

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The much anticipated successor to the hugely-successful Samsung Galaxy S3 has finally arrived, so we’ve taken a look at what the S4 has to offer, what the reviewers are saying, and which brands should be worried.

Last year the Galaxy S3 was by far the best selling smartphone not adorned by a fruit, achieving approximately ten per cent of the global smartphone market share according to Strategy Analytics. The phone also picked up the coveted ‘best smartphone of 2012’ award at the annual Mobile World Congress Tradeshow.

The Galaxy S4 has received a significant amount of pre-orders with companies such as online mobile retailer E2Save. But with such big shoes to fill, the S4 has unsurprisingly been met with mixed initial reviews: “The Galaxy is still a beautiful, high-horsepower Android phone,” writes New York Times’ David Pogue, “but basically, it’s an updated Galaxy S3. If this were Apple, who adds the letter S to denote a slightly upgraded model, Samsung might have called this phone the Galaxy S3S”.

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By Simon Leps, CEO of Fontera Digital Works

Technology has transformed consumers’ lives, with shopping centres and the opportunities to spend now being brought to your PC, tablet and even your phone. With e-commerce on the increase in South Africa, such as with the latest online retail offerings by the popular fashion house, Mr Price, as well as Zando, the online-only shopping site with international roots, companies’ opportunity to leverage these opportunities online is growing.

Not surprisingly however, according to the Boston Consulting Group, a report published earlier this year, shows that SA’s e-commerce offering was growing at a surprisingly slower rate (12.6%) than the average for developing nations (17.8%). The report predicts that online purchasing would account for 1.5% of all retail shopping in South Africa by 2016.

A few years ago, e-commerce was nowhere in South Africa. People were shopping on the international site Amazon.com, only because nothing similar was available in South Africa. Now with shops like Zando, Mr Price, Yuppie Chef, Banks Kitchen Boutique and Takealot, things are taking off. The fact that there are competitors in different market segments online means that the consumer has more options, and that this space is growing fast. With South Africa’s average consumer download speed estimated to be at 3.54 megabits per second, there’s no doubt that we will see a flurry of online retailers setting up shop in the months to come.

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At the beginning of April 2013, the market capitalization of Bitcoin passed the $1 billion mark for the first time. From there, it bolted upwards to a max of $2.6 billion only 10 days later, trading at an exchange rate of $266 per Bitcoin. From there, it plummeted though, to about $120 only two days later. Furthermore, only earlier in this year the exchange rate was only $13 per Bitcoin. So why did it happen and how did this kind of volatility hit a purely virtual currency which is completely decentralized – meaning it is not backed by any central bank or government authority – in such a short time frame?
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iPhone – The smartphone’s new hope

I have been, like many other consumers around the world, a loyal and dedicated follower of the Apple product range. The original iPhone was the “big-bang” moment for the lucrative smartphone market we see today. Although Microsoft, and after them RIM, were the actual trailblazers, the iPhone made the smartphone a must-have product. With the launch of the 1^st generation iPhone back in 2007, Apple’s share price shot from $120 to $700 (Google Finance) in September 2012 after the launch of the iPhone 5. Their share price has dropped recently to around $430 but the business is still one of the biggest in the world, but for how long? I have owned 3 iterations of the iPhone, the 3GS, 4 and now the 5. I have also been through many an iOS upgrade and one thing I have noticed is that through all these devices, the primary look and feel hasn’t changed a bit.

If you’re not reading Asymco for insight into the business behind mobile technology you’re missing out. Writer and analyst Horace Dediu put a great tweet out earlier today about the marketing spend of some of the worlds biggest retail companies:

Interesting to see that Samsung spends the most although this does make sense in that they’re advertising everything from the latest Galaxy phone to a TV or laptop (for full info on what falls under Samsung Electronics click here). These are interesting numbers but nothing without context. Twitter user @Chiphanna went and ran these numbers in order to compare marketing spend vs revenue and came up with some interesting figures:

Essentially for every dollar Apple spends on marketing, they make $156 in revenue. Compare that to Samsung that have to spend a dollar to only make a  relatively low $46 in revenue and you wonder if someone like Samsung is doing something wrong? (more…)

In America the Federal Trade Commission have come out with some interesting rules on the disclosure required by bloggers and twitter users that are seeded free “stuff”. Locally we have no such regulations and it’s interesting to see what sort of regulations have been put forward:

• Where and how to disclose: As far back as 2009, the FTC was already publicly recommending that disclosures not be buried at the bottom of a post or on a separate page
• The disclosure needs to travel with the content: The disclosure must be in every Tweet. You can’t tweet a single disclosure that covers the whole conversation; there is no guarantee that readers will see the disclosing statement. The hashtag #spon is not sufficiently clear. The word “ad” is sufficiently clear, but needs to be in a prominent place. The FTC also suggests not using a #ad hashtag after a URL or shortlink as it could be overlooked.
• Longer disclosure required: When an advertising claim merits a longer disclosure than is practical for the format, a hyperlink to additional information is acceptable, provided that anything material, or “triggering” is included in the original advertisement and the link is clear and conspicuous. In other words, you cannot bury CRITICAL disclosures in hyperlinked pages, but you can provide additional details.

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After months of deliberation and murmurs, supposed leaks and rumours, the Samsung Galaxy SIV is finally here. It will replace the most popular Android device in history and many were expecting extraordinary things from the latest iteration of Samsung’s flagship smartphone. Alas, even though there seems yet again to be many new features, just a glance at the phone will make anyone but the utmost experts say: “That’s not the S4, that’s the SIII.” But isn’t this one of the Android and Samsung fanboys’ biggest criticisms of Apple? Isn’t it supposed to be a cardinal sin to give incremental upgrades?

Until the launch of the Galaxy S4, throughout the smartphone world it was widely agreed upon that only Apple could afford to launch only mildly refreshing devices from iteration to iteration. This is of course because of Apple’s loyal customer following; Apple has never suffered a dip in sales or customer interest since the launch of the original iPhone in 2007.

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