Top Bananas | Monthly Archives: February 2018

Fitbit Tries to Compete (Again)

Posted on February 28, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware Leave a comment

What it is: Fitbit is trying to compete with the Apple Watch with another smart watch.

At one time, Fitbit was the leader of wearable computers that are mostly geared for fitness tracking. Then the Apple Watch arrived that could do fitness tracking and so much more. Fitbit decided to fight back by releasing their own smart watch complete with their own operating system. Unfortunately for Fitbit, sales of their smart watch failed to take off.

The problem is that Fitbit is starting from scratch trying to convince developers to create an app ecosystem based on a product that few people even have. Even worse, once you learn how to create apps for Fitbit, your skills are relatively useless to create apps for anything else. In comparison, lots of people own an Apple Watch and once you learn the basics for creating Apple Watch apps, you can easily create apps for the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Macintosh. So why would any developers want to create apps for Fitbit?

The answer is simple. They have no reason to develop for Fitbit. With few developer support, there’s no reason for people to buy a Fitbit either. With few customers, there’s no reason for developers to create apps for Fitbit.

Fitbit is trapped in a vicious cycle of no return. How can they get people to buy a Fitbit? Beyond their fading name recognition, they offer little compelling reason to buy it over an Apple Watch beyond a lower price. Then again, you can still buy Windows RT Surface tablets cheap too and nobody’s buying those en masse. If your product’s only compelling advantage is a low price, you have no compelling advantage.

Fitbit has no strategy for competing against the Apple Watch other than mimicking the Apple Watch and hoping people will want a copy of an Apple Watch instead of the real thing. Some people want to save money and buy a clone of an Apple product. Most do not. People who buy cheaper clones of products aren’t loyal to a product either so they make the least loyal and least profitable market. If Fitbit continues pursuing this market, their chances of success is about the same as Samsung’s Tizen operating system.

Fitbit has nowhere to go but down, and they’re heading in that direction as quickly as possible. They should stick with low-cost, easy to use fitness trackers, and then watch that market get run over by the Apple Watch eventually as well just as the iPhone wiped out dedicated GPS devices for cars. The best way to compete against the Apple Watch is to create a compelling product that doesn’t have a rival. Fitbit likely won’t do this so expect their name to go down in the history dustbins along with Palm, Pebble, and JooJoo (which tried to sell a tablet to compete against the iPad).

To read about Fitbit’s latest struggles, click here.

Apple Offers Health Clinic

Posted on February 27, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Medical Leave a comment

What it is: Apple is running a company called AC Wellness to provide health care to its employees.

There’s a saying in the corporate world that “We eat our own dog food.” That essentially means that the company uses their own products because what better way to get feedback on what works and what doesn’t work than to use their own employees? Yet this simple concept often escapes corporations as they dictate solutions that they never test first.

To get into the growing health care business, Apple is running a company called AC Wellness that will provide health clinics to their own employees. The idea is to create a concierge-like atmosphere for a clinic that focuses on health and wellness rather than dealing with disease and problems after they occur. By testing health procedures and equipment on their own employees, Apple can better learn how to apply new health care practices to the general public.

Health care is such as disjointed mess in the United States that somebody is going to fix this problem and streamline it while gathering profits as a result. Since Apple has a vested interest in the Apple Watch and their frameworks like CareKit and HealthKit, they might as well test their ideas on their own employees to get immediate feedback. Then their own employees can go back and create better hardware or software that meets the needs of actual patients (themselves). This should create a virtuous cycle of constant improvement. Once Apple finalizes the design of AC Wellness, they can offer this company’s services to others.

Health care is the new market that wearable computers will tackle. The Apple Watch can track health symptoms in real-time while the iPhone and Macintosh can store and analyze that data later. Companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are venturing into health care services too, but they all lack the crucial hardware needed to monitor health symptoms. This leaves Apple as the prime source of real-time health monitoring as long as they stay focused and don’t ignore the Apple Watch, HealthKit, and CareKit.

In the future, expect health care to look radical ally different than what it looks like today, and it could come about thanks to wearable computers like the Apple Watch.

Beware of First-Generation Products

Posted on February 26, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Bitcoin has grabbed all the news recently as the number one cryptocurrency, but be careful of first-generation products.

Bitcoin helped define the cryptocurrency market with its blockchain technology. The biggest problem with Bitcoin is that it’s a first-generation product. There’s nothing wrong with a first-generation product except that others can offer improvements that will eventually eclipse the features of the first-generation product.

In the computer world, WordStar, dBASE II, and VisiCalc were the first generation products of their time. They worked just fine until rivals came along that offered features that these products did not. These first-generation products simply defined their markets but rivals had the opportunity to design new features that first-generation products had trouble duplicating.

VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet in the world, but Lotus 1-2-3 came along and offered integrated graphics. VisiCalc could do graphics with add-ons, but Lotus 1-2-3 proved better so people gradually shifted from VisiCalc to Lotus 1-2-3. When Windows arrived, people shifted from Lotus 1-2-3 to Microsoft Excel to take advantage of the Windows environment.

VisiCalc could have kept bolting on features like graphics and Windows compatibility, but it was so much easier for rivals like Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 to simply start from scratch and create an optimal solution instead.

WordStar dominated the word processing market until WordPerfect took it over. Then people shifted from WordPerfect to Microsoft Word. Now nobody seriously considers WordStar or WordPerfect any more although both still work just fine. WordPerfect for Windows is just as capable as Microsoft Word, but everyone shifted to Microsoft Word and never had a reason to switch back to WordPerfect for Windows.

In the cryptocurrency world, Bitcoin defined blockchain technology, but because it’s a first generation product, limitations are appearing. Bitcoin’s technology is slow to process transactions so rivals are offering faster ways to process transactions. In the meantime, Bitcoin is stuck with its first-generation solution. Eventually, rivals will offer dramatically enhanced performance compared to Bitcoin for processing transactions, and when that happens, that will be the end of Bitcoin.

Since Bitcoin’s code is open source, some people have forked Bitcoin to create alternatives like Bitcoin Cash. Since these still rely on the original Bitcoin code with all its inherent defects, these Bitcoin rivals are doomed to fail eventually just like Bitcoin.

The real future in any market is to ride the first-generation product as long as possible and switch when people shift to a newer product. Bitcoin’s the early leader, but rival cryptocurrencies are offering improvements that build on Bitcoin’s base, but with the benefit of hindsight to build a better cryptocurrency. These small improvements will only continue until the improvement is so large that there will no longer be a reason to stick with Bitcoin any more.

The time may not be now, but it will happen eventually. Bitcoin simply cannot keep up because it’s tied to its first-generation code while rivals can start from scratch and optimize their cryptocurrency to overcome all the flaws of Bitcoin. Given a choice between Bitcoin or a rival cryptocurrency that offers advantages that Bitcoin can’t offer with none of the disadvantages, why would anyone choose Bitcoin any more?

Bitcoin is a trailblazer but trailblazers eventually run out of steam and get overtaken by newer, faster, more optimized rivals. It happens in every field and it’s likely to happen in cryptocurrency as well. The only question is when.

The Drawbacks of Self-Driving Cars

Posted on February 24, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Self-driving promise greater mobility, but their multiple sensors have a weakness; they need to be cleaned regularly.

Every new form of technology has unintended consequences. When smartphones started to appear, people started relying more on their smartphone and less on their PCs to do tasks like instant messaging or getting driving directions. That’s because it was easier to use a smartphone since most people have their smartphone with them at all times and don’t always have access to a PC at all times. Of course the problem with smartphones is that people stare at the screen and walk into walls, traffic or off the edges of sidewalks.

With the coming self-driving car revolution, there’s a huge drawback. Self-driving cars can only work using multiple sensors to detect other cars, pedestrians and obstacles in the road such as construction detours or junk that has fallen off a truck into the road. For self-driving cars to work, those sensors need to be kept clean so dust and dirt doesn’t obscure the camera or sensor lens, creating a false reading from the sensor. Think of snowbound areas like Minnesota or North Dakota where snow can cover an entire car and the road, making a self-driving car literally blind.

For optimum use, self-driving car sensors need to be kept clean, and that requires constant maintenance. A dirty self-driving car risks having dirt cover up a crucial sensor. Rain, sleet, hail, or snow risks blinding a self-driving car’s sensor altogether. If a sensor can detect other cars, the road, or obstacles, that self-driving car will be driving blind and risk crashing into objects.

That means self-driving cars may be limited by foul weather, which makes them relatively useless in areas that experience such changes in weather from rain and snow to sleet and fog. Ultimately, that means self-driving cars still have a long way to go. Instead of waiting for self-driving cars, it’s far simpler to rely on assisted driving technology that essentially uses self-driving technology but in conjunction with a human driver.

Already today’s cars have cameras in the back to help you back up and avoid obstacles. Assisted driving technology will automatically brake to avoid collisions and provide aid to drivers in other ways such as alerting them to obstacles int he road or warning them when another car may be getting too close.

Assisted driving technology is the stepping stone to self-driving cars int he same way that hybrid cars are the stepping stone to pure electric cars. To make the leap to self-driving cars is impossible and untrustworthy. To rely on assisted driving technology that gets smarter and adapts to foul weather is far more likely and much safer.

Such a simple thing as cleaning a lens can make the difference between success or failure in a self-driving car. Until sensors get smarter at dealign with dirt and foul weather, expect self-driving cars to remain a niche product like electric cars of today. Self-driving cars are coming. They’re just not ready to take over the highways just yet.

The Slow Growth of Apple Pay

Posted on February 23, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Apple Pay is now used by 16 percent of iPhone owners.

Apple Pay is a fast and secure way to pay by credit card without giving up your credit card number. In traditional credit card readers that rely on a swipe or even a chip, each purchase you make gives the retailer your credit card number. This is why hackers target large retailers like Target and Home Depot because they know those companies store large amounts of credit card numbers and likely have poor security to protect it.

With Apple Pay, your credit card number remains securely hidden from the retailer. This lets you purchase products safely without ever worrying about giving away your credit card number to retailers who will become targets of hackers in the future.

The big problem with Apple Pay is that not all merchants who accept credit cards accept Apple Pay. Another drawback is that Apple Pay is unfamiliar to many people. Using Apple Pay with an iPhone requires pulling out your iPhone and remembering the steps to access Apple Pay. The Apple Watch is convenient for using Apple Pay but you must still figure out the steps to using Apple Pay. For many people, these minor steps and learning curve are less convenient than simply using a credit card instead.

That’s why only 16 percent of iPhone users use Apple Pay. Security isn’t a huge incentive so Apple needs to encourage more people to use Apple Pay through a rewards program like most credit card companies offer such as frequent flyer miles on airlines or cash back after a fixed amount of purchases. Apple Pay is far more secure than giving your credit card number to every merchant you visit, so take some time today to learn how to use Apple Pay. That way when you’re in a store with a line of other customers behind you, you won’t feel self-conscious trying to figure out Apple Pay on your iPhone or Apple Watch.

Apple Pay is a safer way to pay by credit card and it won’t cost you anything extra in return for greater security. Now if only more people understood this, they would find a reason to use Apple Pay just for the added security alone.

Wearable Computers for Cows

Posted on February 22, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware Leave a comment

What it is: A startup company called Vence plans to sell wearable computers for cattle.

Many people still can’t figure out a reason for using a wearable computer like the Apple Watch. Never mind that the Apple Watch’s main purpose is real-time health monitoring and everyone should be concerned about their health. Just in case you still can’t figure out why wearable computers are the next big future in technology, consider a new product by a company called Vence.

The idea behind Vence’s wearable computers is to put them on the ears of cattle. Currently the approach to confining cattle to limited spaces is to use expensive fencing that takes time to put up and maintain. Vence’s wearable computer simply provides an external stimuli such as a noise, vibration, or shock to cattle when they approach areas where they’re not supposed to be. In this way, cattle can be kept away from certain areas without the need for fences.

Even better, Vence’s wearables can be programmed so cattle can be moved from one place to another without ripping up fence posts and sticking new fences in the ground. This gives greater flexibility at much less cost for confining cattle.

If you think wearable computers have no purpose, think again. Wearable computers provide computing power wherever you move so it can create virtual fences for cattle (or people) in ways that ordinary personal computers could never do. The next time you think a wearable computer has no purpose, remind yourself that mainframe and minicomputer users used to say the same thing about personal computers too. Wearable computers may not be for everyone, but they definitely have a specific purpose that no other type of computer can match.