No crisis felt at the CES2013 with more people in 2013 than ever, which is amazing.

From one year to the next we try to see the major changes, both on Hype side and the BUST one. Here are the 3 major trends observed by our group which has been doing business innovation watch within an ecosystem.

 

Trend 1 : Beyond « smartphone »

There is now more of a kind of general understanding that the word PHONE in Smartphone is inappropriate and too restrictive.  The world as to reflect that it is more the universal companion, my unique interface to all numeric matters, the tool which stay always with me to guide me in more and more decision … or in one word my intellectual « orthesis » as we call it within InnoCherche for quite a while now.

 

My intellectual orthesis is involved in more and more aspects of my life

  1. In previous years, people where speaking of ATAWAD because they understood that they had the pain to switch constantly between 4 screens: PC, Phone Tablet and TV. Now it is obvious that new screens are coming (glass over my eye, in my watch, on my fridge, on my clothes) with  my smartphone connecting via by Bluetooth to my entire environment. Therefore, and in order to keep it simple, one element needs to be in the center of this flexible infrastructure: it will be my orthesis.
  2. It is my universal remote control and any idea to go against this trend is doom to fail … particularly for my TV: “I do not want another interface I would need to get familiar with like a Google TV. I prefer to search on my Phone or tablet and then push the content to another screen when I want to do some quality viewing on a larger screen like my TV”
  3. Trend is that strong, to the point where people are asking « I want an iPhone like interface please! ». Ford understood this and is now opening its API (application protocol) and is encouraging developer of the iPhone or Android community to build applications for the car, which will change your travelling experience … without having to wait a change of model.
  4. It is my personal recorder, my QS (Quantified self) node which aggregates all the data coming from all my captors … and which is downloaded by my doctor when I see him. My orthesis is more capable than me to tell the doctor what I have really done. With it I start to capture contextual information around QS, which at the end is the most important thing in big Data about me.
  5. More and more it is capable to « shazamise » (automatically capture and recognize information like shazam app does for music)  any picture and environment in order to give more info on the context. When I need more info, I pull it out of my pocket, and press it near any object, an image or whatever, assuming that he will get more info without having to bother to scan a barcode … just by sound or image recognition.
  6. Mid term, it will surely have NFC, but more important, the phone will soon disappear somewhere in my cloth or body and the NFC transmission with go through my human body up to my finger and will be instantly recognized and starting a transaction.

 

Trend 2 : Network … or not work.

 

In the commercial arena, and also within big companies, there are as many examples of failures than successes. It is time to try to understand why.

 

One big BUST this year is Smart Grid, which was hot last year. 2 reasons : 1 – a more rosy picture in term of Hydrocarbon import thanks to higher production through cracking    2 – some push back by potential customer afraid about Big Brother knowing everything which happens in my house.

 

One still very in the Hype : QS.  People are ready, and so far, happy to share  … even if potentially the Big Brother threat of government agency or HMO to stop refunds you if you have not done a good job at following the doctor prescription.

 

To be successful, a network must show the value to its member it term of – help me to reach my goal – sense of belonging  –  each decide what to share -… in one word, you must have the feeling you are in control.

 

If we look now at the business environment and the community some companies are trying to build around their brand … a lot of this apply to.  If a company page was designed just as a showroom to lure some true and/or paid fans, … the wake up call is terrible.  The brand has now to search through its millions fans, which are the true one they can engage with.

In term of community, the transparency must be there and the company has to trust its own people. For example, your tech support people must be in the network from the beginning to interact with fans… and not only when there is a problem

 

So here it is back to basic … after the Hype and pissing contest on fan count.

 

 

Trend 3 : Beginning of the Robot revolution.

 

The signal is given by Lego who is launching at CES a 300 $ play box with do it yourself robots, which are programmable using a programming language almost similar as the one used by the pro. Does this remind you something that happen 30 yr. ago ? The birth of the Y generation when we gave them a mouse and the right to play on the computer… 30 yr. later we see the result.

 

Here the same is happening in front of our eyes. The 5 yr. old who start playing with robots, will at the age of  15, be completely at ease with tons of robots around him and be happy to present to his grand Dad at Christmas its latest robot creation which will ease its life.

 

If you commingle with that,  the industrial launch of 3D printing, … you start a supply chain revolution. You start speaking of Demand chain … and no longer of supply chain.

 

We have the next 15 years to see that evolving at a pace difficult to predict. Let’s continue the innovation watch together