Important Note
Tech Narratives was a subscription website, which offered expert commentary on the day's top tech news from Jan Dawson, along with various other features, for $10/month. As of Monday October 16, 2017, it will no longer be updated. An archive of past content will remain available for the time being. I've written more about this change in the post immediately below, and also here.
Huawei’s Mate 9 will be the first phone with Alexa preinstalled – The Verge (Jan 5, 2017)
I’ve been saying for months now that where Alexa really needs to make progress is in phones, because unless an assistant is with you all the time, it’s not truly useful. Well, here’s the first phone with Alexa, and it’s an Android one, as you’d expect, though the announcement here feels a little half baked. The news leaked due to a prematurely unfurled banner at CES, and even now it’s out there some of the details are unclear. But this is a blow to Google and yet another CES win for Amazon.
via Huawei’s Mate 9 will be the first phone with Alexa preinstalled – The Verge
T-Mobile Delivers Strong Customer Growth Once Again | T-Mobile (Jan 5, 2017)
The headline here is strong growth, though compared to last year’s results there aren’t huge differences. Total branded net adds were actually down slightly, largely because of lower mobile broadband (tablet) net adds, while wholesale adds were up slightly (these may both have been caused by a shift of subscribers from retail to wholesale last quarter in connection with a Walmart deal), and overall net adds were up slightly too. As the traditional phone market slows down, it’s going to be tougher for T-Mobile to keep driving growth in net adds, and it doesn’t yet seem to have cracked new categories beyond phones, which continues to be my main concern about its longer term prospects.
Samsung Electronics forecasts fourth-quarter profit at over three-year high | Reuters (Jan 5, 2017)
These are remarkable results in the quarter after the Note7 fiasco began, and the quarter in which the recall itself really began. Revenues are very close to last year’s, while operating profits are the third highest ever after two quarters back in 2013. We’ll have to wait for the final results to come out later this month to see the breakdown, but the Reuters report makes it sound like both smartphones and semiconductors did well, which would be impressive if it’s true.
via Samsung Electronics forecasts fourth-quarter profit at over three-year high | Reuters
Walmart has acquired a Zappos competitor to boost Jet.com’s shoe business – Recode (Jan 5, 2017)
Walmart has been hard hit by Amazon’s success and dominance of e-commerce, but has lately been taking more proactive steps to fill gaps in its own e-commerce portfolio, using its Jet acquisition to make further buys. Given the sheer number of small- to medium-sized e-commerce plays out there, Walmart can easily snap up these focused providers and roll them up into its broader e-commerce offering, accelerating its efforts to become more competitive with Amazon.
via Walmart has acquired a Zappos competitor to boost Jet.com’s shoe business – Recode
Apple’s Search Ads Are Generating Conversion Rates Higher Than 50% | Adweek (Jan 5, 2017)
The numbers in this article, which appear to come straight from Apple, are fairly impressive – half of those who click on an ad in the App Store end up downloading the app. That’s measuring conversion rate differently from the usual method, which would be downloads / impressions, rather than clicks, but it’s still high. And the average cost is low too – 50 per click, and $1 per install, much lower than, say, Facebook. Advertising is never going to be a significant chunk of Apple’s revenue, but this could turn into a nice little revenue stream over time, and it has a lot in common with Google’s search advertising, combining timeliness and relevance.
via Apple’s Search Ads Are Generating Conversion Rates Higher Than 50% | Adweek
Audi Pushes Toward Fully Autonomous Cars – WSJ (Jan 5, 2017)
Nvidia has been making big strides in the car technology space, and made more news this week at CES with a partnership with Audi. This is one of the most interesting battles among the major chipmakers at the moment, and Nvidia does seem to be doing well, while Intel and Qualcomm also make advances (both also made news at CES this week).
via Audi Pushes Toward Fully Autonomous Cars – WSJ
Baidu’s ‘Little Fish’ home robot could be China’s Echo – The Verge (Jan 5, 2017)
If you live in the US, it’s easy to forget that it’s one of only three countries where Echo is available, along with the UK and Germany. For all the many integrations Alexa is seeing this week at CES, there are many markets Amazon isn’t addressing directly, and China is the biggest. There will therefore be opportunities for other players in the same space in other countries, and Baidu is an obvious candidate in its domestic market.
via Baidu’s ‘Little Fish’ home robot could be China’s Echo – The Verge
App Store Shatters Records on New Year’s Day – Apple (Jan 5, 2017)
These new numbers from Apple reinforce the sense that Service revenues, driven largely by the App Store, continue to be the company’s most consistent growth driver. Payments to developers were up 40% on 2015, for a total of $20 billion, while subscription billings alone were up 74% to $2.7 billion, or almost 10% of the total. That 40% year on year growth rate is fairly consistent over the past year or two, as the rise of IAP accelerated growth above levels in 2012-2013. All of this also reinforces Apple’s argument to Wall Street that Services will grow even as device sales falter.
via App Store Shatters Records on New Year’s Day | Business Wire
FTC takes D-Link to court citing lax product security, privacy perils | Network World (Jan 5, 2017)
This is yet another story about IoT security, and the many vulnerabilities that exist in a variety of connected devices in the home. The difference this time around is that this isn’t some low-cost Chinese vendor, but D-Link – one of the larger router manufacturers, and the FTC claims its gear suffers from some of the same basic flaws that enabled the Mirai botnet attack a while back. We could still see far worse attacks taking advantage of these vulnerabilities, and with the growth of home automation gear there will be even more attack vectors. All this makes it even more important that those selling connected gear from the home bake in really serious security protections and educate users on the risks.
via FTC takes D-Link to court citing lax product security, privacy perils | Network World
The PC is interesting again – The Verge (Jan 4, 2017)
Rather than linking to a whole set of separate CES press releases from various PC makers, I’ll link to this. It’s a great summary of what we’ve seen in PCs at CES and to some extent over recent months in general. Though PC sales overall are declining, there are still some interesting things happening with form factors, performance, and more, and increasingly spec- and performance-wise, Windows PCs are now the equals of the Mac. The big question, then, becomes philosophical differences in approach as regards things like touch, convergence of operating systems across device types, and so on.
via The PC is interesting again – The Verge
Lyft’s Ridership Reaches 52.6 Million in Fourth Quarter – WSJ (Jan 4, 2017)
This article highlights two things: first, Uber still dwarfs Lyft, with 78 million rides in December to the latter’s 18.7 million. Secondly, both companies are still growing ridership at a rapid pace. That’s important because although this sometimes feels like a zero sum game, it clearly isn’t, at least not yet. The overall pie is still growing, and even though Lyft’s slice is far smaller, that’s growing too. The question is how long both the overall growth and individual companies’ growth will continue.
via Lyft’s Ridership Reaches 52.6 Million in Fourth Quarter – WSJ
LG Electronics, Moving Away From Modular Model, Plans New Smartphone – WSJ (Jan 4, 2017)
I’ve been skeptical of the modular approach to smartphones taken by both LG and Motorola from the start – a smartphone that becomes what you want in different scenarios sounds great, until you realize it will cost lots more to get all the add-ons/mods. In practice, it’s a gimmick few will go for, and it seems LG now recognizes that its experiment didn’t pan out, and will go back to a more traditional approach. Kudos for trying something new, but being an Android OEM remains really tough.
via LG Electronics, Moving Away From Modular Model, Plans New Smartphone – WSJ
Apple community reacts to lack of Mac Pro – Business Insider (Jan 4, 2017)
The version of this headline on BI’s site is much blunter, and the gist is that Mac fans are ticked about Apple’s lack of upgrades for the Mac Pro. Some see this as a sign of broader issues at Apple, while others see it as merely a side effect of Apple’s tendency to focus resources on a small number of products at once. I do think the Mac Pro boxed Apple into a corner somewhat – having boasted about the US manufacturing, it likely finds it difficult to back away, but I suspect it may regret some of the form factor choices – the lack of upgradeability means Apple needs to update the computer more frequently, something it hasn’t been willing to do. I think we’ll see an update in 2017, but I’m really curious as to what the new version will look like.
via Apple community reacts to lack of Mac Pro – Business Insider
Ford and Toyota Establish SmartDeviceLink Consortium to Accelerate Industry-Driven Standard for In-Vehicle Apps | Ford Media Center (Jan 4, 2017)
This announcement builds on an existing partnership between Ford and Toyota around in-car entertainment systems, and it’s hard to see it as anything but a concerted effort to bypass CarPlay and Android Auto. Ford supports both technologies after being a holdout early on, but Toyota never has. It’s likely that for most of the consortium members those options will be present in addition to their proprietary systems, but it’s clear these carmakers aren’t willing to cede the in-car UI to Apple or Google.
Apple Removes New York Times Apps From Its Store in China – The New York Times (Jan 4, 2017)
This is the cost of doing business in China – a cost other companies have decided they’re not willing to bear. Apple has already had to shut down elements of iTunes in China, and now this. It’s not a great look for Apple in China, but this kind of thing is likely to continue to be a thorn in Apple’s side as it seeks to do business there. Striking a balance between avoiding censorship and doing just enough to stay in business there is tricky, and likely to offend quite a few people in the process.
via Apple Removes New York Times Apps From Its Store in China – The New York Times
Apple Confirms $1 Billion Investment in SoftBank Vision Fund – WSJ (Jan 4, 2017)
This is the second billion-dollar non-acquisition investment Apple has ever made, and both have taken place in the last few months. It’s hard to avoid the sense of a change in strategy here, and an attendant implication about innovation at Apple – that the company recognizes is can’t develop in-house or buy in all the innovation it needs, and will leverage research conducted elsewhere to an increasing extent going forward. Of course, both deals can also be seen as opportunistic with regard to governments, in China (Didi) and the US (SoftBank) as well.
via Apple Confirms $1 Billion Investment in SoftBank Vision Fund – WSJ
Ford becomes the first automaker to bring Amazon Echo into their cars – The Verge (Jan 4, 2017)
This is an important new domain for Amazon and Alexa, one of the first that gets it out of the house with its voice assistant. Of course, it’s also one of the slowest-moving technology products, with massively long upgrade cycles and very long development cycles too.
via Ford becomes the first automaker to bring Amazon Echo into their cars – The Verge
DeepMind is thrashing some of the world’s best Go players – Business Insider (Jan 4, 2017)
I tweaked one part of the headline – it later emerged that Alphabet’s DeepMind subsidiary’s AlphaGo technology was the one beating all comers. This is the best possible kind of publicity for AlphaGo, DeepMind, and Alphabet around AI – creating massive organic buzz before it is even known the company is behind it. Alphabet’s Go experiments have been great advertising in general, but of course the key remains putting this same technology to work in ways that benefit ordinary people in their everyday lives.
via An unknown entity is thrashing some of the world’s best Go players – Business Insider
Energous still isn’t delivering truly wireless charging, but says it’s coming later this year – The Verge (Jan 4, 2017)
Energous and its version of wireless charging has always been far more interesting to me than the standard, mat-based version, because the latter is actually less flexible in some ways than cable-based charging. Charging over distance is the real innovation here, but no-one has cracked and released it yet in a mass market product. The big question about Energous specifically is whether Apple is or isn’t the mysterious partner it frequently refers to – if Apple puts this technology in products and it works well, that will be game changing for a whole range of products from iPhones to Watches. But if it isn’t, Energous appears to be stalling indefinitely on technology that never seems quite ready.
Watch out, Wi-Fi systems! Comcast is transforming its Xfinity gateway to a smart digital home platform – CNET (Jan 4, 2017)
Two hot areas collide in this Comcast announcement – smart home and better whole-home WiFi. But that’s kind of the point here – better WiFi is increasingly important because a lot of smart home gear relies on it, and I’m coming to the conclusion that smart home gear will likely need to be tightly integrated into the home router/gateway, rather than piggybacking off a generic router. That puts companies like Comcast in a strong position, and it also means AT&T and others that currently use other connectivity will have to go deeper into home networking. Meanwhile, standalone off-the-shelf smart home gear makers will be increasingly isolated.