Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0108 Aereo TV

Are you familiar with 'Aereo'??

Aereo is a service where your local, over the air, television broadcasts are captured as a DVR recording, stored in the cloud, then made available to stream to any device you wish.

Sounds pretty amazing right?

Well it may not be legal and television broadcasters are up in arms about it.  Legal challenges have now gone all the way to the United States Supreme Court that will be reviewing the case today.  I'll post an update once the news breaks.

Here are two articles that explain what is going on here:

http://www.cnet.com/news/why-the-aereo-supreme-court-case-over-tvs-future-is-too-tough-to-call/

http://recode.net/2014/04/21/why-the-aereo-case-has-cloud-computing-companies-worried/

I think the 2nd of those articles is the most interesting as it shows the threat to cloud computing in general this ruling may have an impact on.

Here is a snippet from one of those:

Here's the problem: Aereo doesn't pay the broadcast TV companies for storing and delivering their hit shows to consumers. And that has the broadcasters furious -- and afraid (Disclosure: CNET is owned by CBS, one of the broadcasters suing Aereo). Aereo says it is simply setting up antennas and DVRs on behalf of customers and plugging them into the Internet for their convenience. The only difference between Aereo and the same setup in a customer's own home is the length of the cord, the company says.

Here is one more to read:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101599314

More soon.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

**UPDATE #1**
The Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments pro and con today.  The decision isn't expected for several weeks.  Aereo claimed they are merely hardware providers while:

"...counsel for the broadcasters said Aereo's attempt to argue that it doesn't publicly perform programming is "like magic.""

Here is a link to the entire story:
http://www.cnet.com/news/with-aereo-supreme-court-digs-into-copyright-nuances/

**UPDATE #2**
ArsTechnica has a good write-up of the back and forth between the Justices and the lawyers.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/at-oral-arguments-supreme-court-isnt-sold-on-aereo/

Here is one bit from that:

[Justice Breyer] "And then what disturbs me on the other side is I don't understand what the decision for you or against you when I write it is going to do to all kinds of other technologies."

Next update will be the resolution unless I find something compelling to include in here.

Misc. News - Tablets Going Mobile, Mobile Payments, and Kroger

I'm writing about three pieces of news and analysis that I found interesting today.

First up is the increasing demand for and supply of truly mobile tablets.  Carriers such as AT&T and Verizon are finding mobile hotspots through smart phones are greatly increasing in use.  So why not monetize that by adding carrier coverage for the tablets being enabled through those hotspots?  Who wouldn't want one more contract right?

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/223943/tablets-the-next-connectivity-battleground.html

Next is a great bit of infographics on mobile payments:

http://www.mobilepaymentsinsider.com/2014/04/15/mobile-payments-to-replace-plastic-all-together-infographic/

Most surprising to me was the statement by consumers about when and how they are most likely to use a smart phone for payment:

"Likely Situations Consumers Say They Would Use Mobile Payments Is In:"

1. Groceries at a supermarket
2. Clothes at a retailer
3. Phone bill at a local wireless store
4. Coffee at a local coffee shop
5. Sofa at a furniture store
6. Taxi ride

Next and last is the big bet Kroger is making in the U.S. emulating Tesco and Walmart.  Bigger is better.  They are increasing the number of large stores, and stores with 'extra aisle' merchandise not traditionally found in a supermarket.  Kroger calls these 'Marketplace' stores and these will provide:

"...everything from apples to appliances, lettuce to lawn chairs and cantaloupe to clothing."

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2014/04/16/kroger-bets-bigger-stores/7805015/

I found this to be an interesting approach.  What we've seen the last 20 years in the U.S. is an increase in supply of groceries with only the minor increase in demand expected from modest population growth.  The result is excess capacity for supply so all of those neighborhood supermarkets are left with too much floor space.  It seems to me they will need to re-purpose this space and diversity as some have done by increasing fresh supply including options such as an in-store restaurant.  Kroger is taking a very different approach to diversity.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Target Subscription eCommerce Grows

Target is in the news around their subscription service for online ordering.

Need diapers?

How about a standing order to have them delivered to your house courtesy of your neighborhood Target store?  Amazon.com has been in this space for a while but the big box retailers see opportunity there as well.

Here is a piece from Internet Retailer on this story:

http://www.internetretailer.com/2014/04/17/target-beefs-its-online-subscription-service

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Target Corp. is sweetening its online subscription offer to better compete with Amazon.com Inc.’s Subscribe & Save program. The retail chain announced today it has expanded the selection of items available by subscription via Target.com from about 200 baby care products to more than 1,500 products that also cover household essentials, health, beauty, pets, grocery, home and office and personal care.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0107 Gap and Omni-channel

Gap Inc., has made public to their investors some of the effects and ongoing work they've been doing in fulfilling their concept of multiple channels of operation (omni-channel).  Chain Store Age has a write-up on it here:

http://chainstoreage.com/article/gap-details-omni-channel-strategy-global-growth?ad=technology

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Gap Inc. highlighted its use of technology and innovation to bridge the growing digital world with its physical stores at the company’s annual meeting with investors. In new initiatives, the retailer is expanding its reserve in-store service to all U.S. Gap stores by the end of the second quarter, enabling online and mobile shoppers to now reserve items at more than 1,000 Gap and Banana Republic store locations.

The connected world is a different place and the mobile internet is changing fundamental processes.  Gap is one of the leaders in this space, innovating and 'failing fast' to ensure they don't fall behind.  What can other retailers learn from their example?

Retail Information Systems has a good write-up that coincides with this thinking though you'll have to register to download the report.

http://risnews.edgl.com/reports

Here is one snippet from that I found interesting:

One final point and a big one: the best-of-breed approach to software, long the dominant architecture approach, is in a state of flux. It is not going away any time soon, and, in fact, it is not being supplanted by any alternative, such as integrated solutions suites or software as a service. (See Figure 4.)

However, evidence indicates it may no longer remain the dominant force it has been for the last two decades. This year, 38.1% of retailers chose best-of-breed software to describe their architectural approach to software, a nearly 20-point drop from last year’s 57%. Conversely, using in-house IT resources to develop software jumped to 44.1% and first place on the list, which is up from 31% and last place in 2013.

Why the dramatic year-over-year swings? Call it the innovation effect. If you can buy a best-of-breed solution off the shelf, so can all of your competitors.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

**UPDATE**  Another story on Gap Inc., and their digital efforts:
http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/gap-prioritizes-responsive-web-as-part-of-300m-digital-investment

Good read.

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0106 Boomers and Mobile

Pretty interesting reading over on Mobile Commerce Daily:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/older-generations-adopt-a-shopping-initiated-move-towards-mobile-study

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Older generations including boomers and seniors are embracing the use of mobile devices throughout the shopping experience, according to a new report from The Local Search Association.

The info-graphic referenced in that article can be found here:

http://www.localsearchinsider.org/mobile-goes-universal

Very interesting news.  You'll certainly see plenty of anecdotal evidence that contradicts this story (just talk to your parents or grand parents right?).  However the trend is accelerating towards more mobile usage across all generations.  That is a sea change event.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

LevelUp Reaches Break Even on Payments

If you live in an around Boston you definitely need to try out LevelUp.

https://www.thelevelup.com/

They are in the news a bit today:

http://www.pymnts.com/news/2014/levelups-march-to-free-payments/#.U06RoVVdU1I

Here is a portion of that article:

LevelUp stirred the pot in 2012 when it launched with its “Interchange Zero” campaign. Moving money, said LevelUp’s Chief Ninja, Seth Priebatsch at the time, was pretty much a commodity and of little value. (Well, he actually said no value, but I sort of disagree with that. Moving money is really valuable, it’s just that a lot of people are in the business of doing it and so it has become a commodity.) Seth felt strongly that the real value of any mobile payments provider was in their ability to track customers and capture data about their transactions; data that could be mashed up with other data, like the weather, to deliver targeted campaigns that helped merchants drive more foot traffic – and therefore, more dollars, into their stores. And, of course using the mobile device to enable all of that, including payment at the point of sale.

One more good link to read:

http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/article/231119/LevelUp-cuts-payment-processing-fee

I was on site visiting LevelUp during the 2012 time frame in question there.  It was shortly before the Interchange Zero campaign came in to being.  They are an energetic shop doing interesting things in the mobile payments and loyalty space.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Amazon Dash - Turn Your Home in to a Store

This is pretty interesting, cool & exciting, news from Amazon.com.

http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/amazon-dash-brings-store-home

Here is a snippet from that piece:

...

Dash is a portable wand-shaped device that allows users to automatically add items to their AmazonFresh shopping lists. Customers can scan items with the gadget, or speak them into a microphone for voice-based search. It reportedly recognizes more than 1 million items for sale on AmazonFresh and Amazon.com.

The idea is as soon as a consumer runs out of a replenishable item, like a gallon of milk or box of cereal, they use Dash to automatically enter it on their AmazonFresh shopping list, eliminating the need to go to the store to replace it. Take a moment to digest what this potentially means to paradigm of shopping for consumer goods and then read on.

What do you think?

The biggest problem Amazon.com has is the lack of physical stores.  This is a brilliant way to get around that.  This 'magic wand' turns your home in to a store.

Very interesting.

Immediately I have to think there will be issues with the 'wand'.  Lose one?  What do you do?  Why isn't this functionality merely an app on your smart phone?  Is it to provide Amazon.com with a controlled environment during these early days?

The world is changing fast isn't it?

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant