Advantage: Facebook

In yet another example of Facebook moving in on Google's territory, the social media behemoth now facilitates location-based advertising through mobile devices (at this time limited to the iPhone).

To my mind, this is a huge threat to Google. As the article mentions, Facebook has tremendous scale. But more importantly, their strategy drives at the heart of how we tend to make purchase decisions. We are by nature social creatures. Our circles of friends and family are probably the biggest influencers of what we buy. Furthermore, many items have their intrinsic value enhanced by network effects - videogames are more fun when you can play them against your friends, books are more enjoyable when you can discuss them with others. And, while many of us have learned to tune out the noise of online advertising, we still pay attention to what's happening with the people we know and like.

Wireless Diagnostic Devices

Reading the MIT technology review uncovered this article about the use of wireless devices to help people in the tracking of their disease states. The article talks about a new device that is stuck on a patient like a band-aid and does both; monitoring of blood glucose and tracks when a pill is taken by means of a tiny microchip embedded on the pill. This is a very important step for diabetes as complications stemming from diabetes and specifically non-compliance with a given drug regime cost the united states multiple billions of dollars per year. (23.7 million people, $10k average cost of complications) With the expected size of the diabetes population expected to nearly double in the next 25 years, reducing the cost of complications due to drug compliance issues becomes mandatory.

This use of data monitoring for drug compliance could be an influential step in reducing overall costs fro the health care system. I believe that similar technology could gain widespread acceptance in large disease fields where drug compliance is mandatory, yet neglected.

Mint: Data Aggregation Done Right

For the last few years I have watched Mint's success with awe and admiration. In the face of growing privacy concerns. Mint asks users to give up their log in information to there bank accounts. Yes! Account user names, passwords, answers to silly questions, etc. were all freely given to the company by the over 4 million Mint users. The company then goes a step further, analyzing the user data providing personalized suggestions for how each user can utilize a new financial product to save or earn money. "You can save $225 a year by switching to this credit card." "You can get $300 by moving your money to that savings account." The company has been essentially revenue positive from day one due to the targeted ads and consumers love them for the ease with which they can manage their finances. Most recently, Mint rolled out Mint Data allowing users to compare their spending habits with those across the country.

So why has Mint succeeded aggregating and monetizing consumer data while others have failed?I believe the secret is transparency. Mint makes no secret that your data will be made anonymized and then used to generate revenue and provide utility to other users. In addition they have gone to great lengths to gain legitimacy through certifications and online community. In the end great functionality and word of mouth has facilitated trust between Mint and their user base.

Looking forward it will be interesting to see if companies in industries like healthcare and government services use Mint as a model for launching their own services.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss?

I was intrigued by this article on Cloudera's strategy to revolutionize enterprise-level IT by modeling itself after Oracle.

Cloudera has all of the requisite "new tech" street cred: open source, cloud-based and founders that hail from Google, Facebook and Yahoo. They intentionally are attacking the vertical stack paradigm and have more VC funds than they need. YET, their main principle is that new data processing and analysis needs aren't that new and that the core capabilities of companies like Oracle still apply, they just need to be applied in a new way.

Weirdly, I think it could work. What do you think?

AT&T ForHealth

AT&T just announced its entry into the healthcare technology sector with its new ForHealth Division. The company is interested in providing data centers and hosting technology to accomodate the predicted increase in data sharing among doctors, hospitals and labs as electronic health records become standardized. The company also plans to leverage its position in the smartphone market by developing mobile health apps for the iPhone which would track diet and exercise. I can’t say that I’m too optimistic for AT&T in app world since there is so much existing competition from smaller, more agile developers. However, if AT&T can line up the right partners (I'm thinking GE), it could do very well. In addition, if I were AT&T, I would be throwing huge amounts of resources into developing secure cloud-based technology solutions, but I suspect they are probably already doing that. Since healthcare isn’t my specialty, I’d be interested to hear from the healthcare groups.

OnStar MyLink

Has anyone seen the new OnStar MyLink commercials? In the one I just saw, a guy is able to check out different aspects of his car through his smartphone (tire air pressure, oil, unlock the doors) remotely, so his girlfriend can use it without having to go through any of those checks herself.

I thought this was a really interesting commercial given our recent discussion of OnStar in class. Initially, OnStar was promoted in ways to emphasize qualities like emergency help and safety. As this latest commercial shows, the service value proposition is evolving to cover areas such as convenience and quick, real-time access to informatics and data.

The MyLink platform also includes a social messaging aspect, but GM is promoting it under the umbrella of "responsible connectivity". I think GM is trying to maintain its historic positioning (OnStar as reliable and safe) and trying to play catch-up to companies like Ford Sync, by moving into social networking and media. Supposedly OnStar will also allow users to access Facebook, but more importantly it will have an OPEN API, so anyone can submit applications, but GM will have ultimate right of refusal.

Do you think that GM is late to the game, or is this a viable contender?

Student tracking technology goes further than RFID

Just read this article"school buses test fingerprint scan"

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/surveillance/2010-10-29-1Aschoolbusfingerprints29_ST_N.htm

Fingerprint scanner, laptop, GPS are all equipped on school buses, and the electronic cards mentioned in the article, i think, is probably a kind of RFID card. With all these tech equipments, people have new concern with data security, as the article said:"what if a child predator was able to get access to this?"