Indian E-Commerce: Amazon is the only real winner from the strategic choices being made by Flipkart
Amazon goes for the jugular. Amazon is not content just to let its rivals gift it the Indian market through their own bad decisions but is going for the jugular by opening up a second front in bricks and mortar retail. Amazon is buying a 5% stake in Shoppers Stop for $28m which will enable Shoppers Stop to increase the number of stores it has by 25% thereby expanding its reach into smaller towns. Currently only 5% of retail sales are made online in China meaning that for at least some time to come it will be an advantage to have an offline presence. This is exactly the strategy that Alibaba is pursuing in China and is looking to improve the poor offline experience by adding in technology and know-how garnered through its growth online.
Read more...Troublesome hardware. Snap Inc. is admitting that it made a wrong turn with its spectacles
With the reorganisation of its hardware division, Snap Inc. is admitting that it made a wrong turn with its spectacles which despite being cool, no one bought. Steve Horowitz will now become president of technology and report to the chief strategy officer rather than the CEO in what can only be a significant demotion, while a large part of the marketing effort has also been terminated with the COO of hardware, Mark Randall presiding over the vestigial remains.
Read more...If Google is prepared to be as aggressive on price as Xiaomi, it might just get somewhere
Google – Thrice bitten, never shy. Fourth time unlikely to be the charm. Google has announced a partnership with HTC that sees some key engineering talent join Google but it remains a complete mystery as to what Google is paying money for.
This will represent the fourth major hardware related transaction that started with Motorola Mobility and continued with Nest and Dropcam.
Amazon still has the upper hand which it is showing no sign of losing
Amazon increases its aggressive land grab. Not content to sit on 70% market share, Amazon is aggressively compensating for the lack of Alexa on smartphones by effectively giving the devices away and pushing e-commerce as hard as it can. A land grab strategy makes complete sense because the more Amazon can drive Alexa usage, the more data it will generate and the better it can become. Usage is the key to making all digital assistants better and this is the one area where Amazon has huge ground to make up compared to Google.
Read more...Apple - Worst kept secrets
. Face ID was the star of a show where everything had been leaked.
Read more...Electric Vehicles - Extinction level event
EVs could trigger a huge decline in vehicle demand
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