Two Tools For Fun And Profit
One of the seven driving forces of technological change I have written about, both in this newsletter and in various articles over the past decade, has been the technotrend of adding intelligence to both new and existing products.
Smart Objects
In 2003, Microsoft launched its smart personal object technology (SPOT) that turns keychains, pendants, watches and other personal objects into information--receiving devices capable of bringing the latest news, weather, stock quotes, sports or customized enterprise data to the SPOT-enabled device.
In my book, Technotrends, I shared twenty strategies, three of which Microsoft put to good use to cut time and price in developing and launching SPOT. The strategies were: Take Your Biggest Problem and Skip It, Apply Old Technology in New Ways, and Build Collaborative Relationships,.
Microsoft skipped the expensive and time-consuming job of building a new national wireless infrastructure to enable SPOT by using an old technology, existing FM stations, to transmit the SPOT data. In addition, they formed a collaborative partnership with National Semiconductor Corp. to build the F< receiver chips for the SPOT devices, which allowed Microsoft to focus on what it does best--software--and National Semiconductor to focus on what it does best, with both companies profiting from the partnership.
The first products ready for Christmas include watches by both Fossil and Citizen, with prices ranging from $175 to $300. To make the watches fun, Microsoft has a wide variety of downloadable watch faces, and to make them even more useful, the information sent to the watches is localized, providing local weather, sports and move listings for theaters in your area.
From a business standpoint, smart objects hold a very promising future, since you can send customized/localized data to a wearable device.
Metaverses
Metaverses are online worlds where users can interact with others via a virtual identity, or avatar, and 2004 should be the year they really catch on!
The most popular right now is Sims Online, which launched in late 2002 and has thousands of subscribers. Another metavers that is rapidly growing is There (www.there.com).
In these virtual worlds, you can select the type of virtual person you would like to be--male or female, tall or short, fat or thin, general look and personality--and you can control your avatar’s movements, facial expressions, emotions, body language and chat.
The sites also have virtual stores and customizing tools. For example, I have seen prototypes that let you take digital photographs of yourself and, using the site’s tools, create an avatar that looks just like you. Unlike the real you, the virtual you can do superhuman things, if you wish, such as fly or bend steel with your bare hands.
When you combine metaverses with online gaming and the Web in 3D, it’s easy to predict that this will become a popular pastime for the people who love online chat and online gaming. The business opportunities for metaverses will clearly be advertising. Imagine your avatar meeting your friends’ avatar in a virtual McDonald’s or a Starbuck’s, taking a drive in a Ford Mustang, or shopping at a Nieman-Marcus!
Knowing the potential of these tools, ask yourself if your organization can profit from their use.
Daniel Burrus, one of the world's leading technology forecasters, business strategists, and author of six books
Copyright 2004 Author retains copyright. All Rights Reserved.
