BRotD - Entry 0258 Facebook's Next Move

Best Reading of the Day

The wonderful narration of the opening paragraphs had me completely drawn in.

Do you love Facebook?

Or hate it?

Read this piece:

https://www.vox.com/2019/4/29/18511534/facebook-mobile-phone-f8

Here is a snippet from it:

Facebook’s core social network isn’t going away anytime soon, but there’s a good chance — probably a great chance — that the way you use Facebook’s products in 10 years will look and feel very different from the way you use them today. The device you use it on? That may change too.

Zuckerberg isn’t just thinking about that reality, he’s already betting on it.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

HBO Game of Thrones Season 8 Visual Effects

Tech.

Tech and more tech.

That has been the game in film-making since Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace.

The digital transformation was complete with Episode II three years later as the "film" was shot completely on digital cameras.  Since then we've seen a complete revolution in film-making and the rise of digital effects houses.

This Sunday past we saw it achieve a new pinnacle on television as The Battle of Winterfell consumed tens of millions of people in the United States alone.

This piece over on ArsTechnica is worth reading if you love technology, digital, film-making or Game of Thrones:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/with-its-latest-battle-game-of-thrones-solidifies-its-seat-on-tvs-vfx-throne/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

The Surveillance Economy

I don't recall having heard that exact phrasing until reading this recent piece in The New York Times.

The Surveillance Economy

I've read quite a bit about how authoritarian regimes around the world are using information tech to monitor and control its people.  Facebook is not a passive player in that space.  The political space has been highlighted since 2016 and the impact of Active Measures by Russian state sponsored actors to impact the elections in the United States. Also, it has been clear for quite some time how much data companies have on potential customers.  Finally, we've seen some positioning by Apple vs. the likes of Facebook (or Google) in data privacy.

This coin of phrase was new to me however and it caught my eye.  This is a good read.  How much do companies know about us? 

Read more to find out.

Here is the full story:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/30/opinion/privacy-targeted-advertising.html

Here is a snippet from the piece:

“The way ads are targeted today is radically different from the way it was done 10 or 15 years ago,” said Frederike Kaltheuner, who heads the corporate exploitation program at Privacy International. “It’s become exponentially more invasive, and most people are completely unaware of what kinds of data feeds into the targeting.”

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Apple Earnings Recovery

The times they are a changing if you are Apple and your iPhone is struggling to help your company hit its earnings marks.

The early growth days are long in the rear-view mirror for Apple now.  Last year saw a decline like Apple hasn't seen in decades but there appears to be a stabilization in effect so far this year.


Here is the full story:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/30/tech/apple-q2-earnings-preview/index.html

Here is a snippet from the piece:

"It has been Apple's pricing hubris on iPhone XR that was the major factor in the company's December earnings debacle in China," Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush, wrote in an investor note on Friday. "However with some recent price cuts demand trends are slowly turning around in this all-important region for Cupertino."

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Apple Wearables for Health

The Apple Watch is ... what?

Luxury?

That door closed pretty quickly.

Fitness?

Sure.  It does fine there.

What about a health device beyond just fitness?

What about all of those simple to use apple devices as health & wellness technology.

How about $300 billion worth of opportunity?

Here's a part of the story:

Apple Inc.’s health-care ambitions go beyond wearables like the Apple Watch, with the company poised to soon emerge as a leader in consumer health, according to Morgan Stanley.

The company’s health-care market opportunity ranges from at least $15 billion to a whopping $313 billion in revenue by 2027, according to estimates from a team of 14 analysts. The wide difference is appropriate given the early opportunity, they said.

Here is the full story:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-08/apple-s-health-opportunity-could-be-triple-smartphone-market?srnd=technology-vp

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS  I read somewhere the medical industry is entirely unprepared for the deluge of data it is about to start receiving.  Patients coming in with a dozen metrics calculated daily for the last year since their previous annual checkup and the M.D. does ... what with that?  Exactly.  The Information Age is upon us and every aspect of our lives is being fundamentally changed.