Category Archives: Amazon

Amazon, Earnings, Episodes, News Roundup, Snapchat, Uber

Week 94 News Roundup – Amazon Echo Show, Snap Earnings, Uber’s Court Case

This is our News Roundup episode for the week, in which we discuss the announcement of Amazon’s Echo Show device with a screen; Snap’s first earnings as a public company; and Uber’s failure to have its court case with Waymo settled in arbitration and related news. Aaron’s away this week, so this is a solo effort from Jan.

As always, you’ll find links to these stories and other things we discussed underneath the SoundCloud player embedded below.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

As ever, we welcome your feedback via Twitter (@jandawson / @aaronmiller), the website (podcast.beyonddevic.es), or email (jan@jackdawresearch.com).

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. You can reach the individual hosts on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast. And we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes or in your podcast app of choice.

Amazon, Apple, Episodes, QotW, Retail

Week 92 QotW – State of Physical Retail

This is the Question of the Week episode for this week, and the News Roundup episode should be up on Friday.

This week’s question is about whether the death of physical retail has been exaggerated, and ultimately what the state of physical retail is in a world where Amazon and e-commerce in general seems to be wreaking havoc. We talk through recent trends in retail, from the supposed apocalypse to those companies investing despite the downturn including Apple and T-Mobile. Aaron uses the jobs-to-be-done framework to talk through what people hire retail to do for them, and how physical retail might be able to hold its own against online retail. And we talk about the experimental nature of much of what’s being done in physical retail to stem the tide of e-commerce.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

  • Article on Amazon’s book stores:
    http://www.retaildive.com/news/why-amazon-is-betting-big-on-brick-and-mortar/431499/
  • Introduction to jobs-to-be-done theory:
    https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-done
  • T-Mobile store expansion:
    http://fortune.com/2016/04/26/t-mobile-store-openings-iphone/
  • New York Times piece on Amazon retail technology:
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/25/technology/amazon-wants-to-crush-your-store-with-its-technology-might.html?_r=1
  • Quartz piece on retail innovations:
    https://qz.com/956745/retail-experiments-from-farfetch-nike-and-amazon-offer-visions-of-the-store-of-the-future/
  • Blog post on JTBD framework applied to retail:
    https://bhc3.com/2012/01/11/carving-up-the-retail-industry-by-customer-jobs-to-be-done/.

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. You can reach the individual hosts on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast. And we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes or in your podcast app of choice.

Amazon, Apple, Earnings, Episodes, Google, Google Home, Netflix, News Roundup, Samsung, Voice recognition

Week 91 News Roundup – Apple tidbits, Google Home Multi-user, Netflix Earnings, S8 Reviews

Earlier this week, we did our Question of the Week episode, which covered the Facebook F8 announcements, so this News Roundup episode covers some of the other big news for the week:

  • Several Apple news tidbits, including a set of environmental announcements, hires of satellite experts from Google, the purchase of a music documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival, web embedding of Live Photos, and purported shots of the chassis for the next iPhone
  • Google Home announcing multi-user support, as well as two announcements relating two Amazon Echo and Alexa
  • Netflix Q1 2017 earnings
  • Samsung Galaxy S8 reviews, which came out this week, and news that Google Music will be the default music service on the devices.

As always, you’ll find links to these stories and other things we discussed underneath the SoundCloud player embedded below.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

  • News stories we covered (Tech Narratives links):
    • Apple’s environmental news:
      https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/20/apple-makes-big-environmental-push-for-earth-day/
    • Apple hires Google satellite execs:
      https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/21/apple-hires-google-satellite-execs-likely-for-mapping-or-broadband/
    • Apple acquires a music documentary:
      https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/20/apple-acquires-first-movie-at-tribeca-film-festival/
    • Apple enables web embedding of Live Photos:
      https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/20/apple-enables-web-embedding-of-live-photos-for-developers/
    • Google Home multi-user support:
      https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/20/★-google-home-now-recognizes-multiple-users-by-voice/
    • Amazon opens Lex platform to all developers:
      https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/19/amazon-scales-alexa-back-end-by-opening-lex-voice-and-text-service-to-all-developers/
    • Amazon bans most ads in Alexa Skills:
      https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/21/amazon-bans-almost-all-ads-in-alexas-third-party-skills-apps/
    • Netflix reports Q1 2017 earnings:
      https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/17/netflix-reports-q1-2017-gains-5m-subs-makes-first-profit-internationally/
    • Galaxy S8 reviews:
      https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/18/samsung-galaxy-s8-reviews-say-hardware-is-great-software-not-so-much/

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. You can reach the individual hosts on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast. And we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes or in your podcast app of choice.

AI, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence, Assistants, Episodes, Google, Google Home, Hulu, Intel

Episode 86 – State of AI, News Roundup

This week’s format is a little shorter than usual – we dispense with our third segment and stick to just the News Roundup and Question of the Week, partly in preparation for some format changes we’re planning. More about this in the episode, but we’re considering a split of the News Roundup and Question of the Week portions into separate episodes. That change – or something like it – should be happening in the next week or two, so look out for that.

This week’s News Roundup covers our usual trio of topics. First up, Intel’s proposed acquisition of Israeli tech company Mobileye for its autonomous driving technology. Secondly, a few additional details that have emerged about Hulu’s over the top pay TV service which is launching soon. And lastly, a pair of home speaker-related announcements: Google plays its first ad on Google Home, while Amazon puts Alexa in the Amazon app on iPhones.

Our Question of the Week is “What is the state of AI?” There’s been a bit of a backlash recently agains the alleged overuse of “AI” to describe all kinds of technologies, and certainly evidence that the term has been used increasingly on earnings calls and elsewhere. So what is the definition of AI, and what counts and what doesn’t? Is it being overused (or underused)? And what is it actually being used for today?

Our Weekly Pick is a TV show recommended by Aaron.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Amazon, Apple, AWS, BlackBerry, Cloud, Episodes, MWC, Snapchat, TV, YouTube

Episode 84 – AWS and Outages, MWC Announcements

This week’s News Roundup covers YouTube’s announcement of the appropriately named YouTube TV service, which will offer a bundle of broadcast and cable channels from four major companies for $35; rumors that Apple would replace the Lightning connector on iPhones with USB-C in the fall; and Snap Inc’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Our Question of the Week is “What is AWS and why are so many people so dependent on it?” Naturally the prompt here is this week’s AWS S3 outage, which caused many sites and services to go down for several hours on Tuesday. We talk through what AWS is, the major products and services that are part of it, how big this is, and the details of Tuesday’s outage, in terms of both the causes and the impact, and whether it’s healthy that so much of the Internet depends on one company.

Our Third Segment is a discussion of some of the phone announcements made at Mobile World Congress this week, from Nokia, BlackBerry, Oppo, LG, and Motorola, and what they tell us about the state of the smartphone market.

Our Weekly Pick is a life hack of sorts recommended by Aaron.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Amazon, Android Wear, Apple, Apple TV, Episodes, Ethics, Politics, Trump, Virtual reality

Episode 81 – Business and Politics, News Roundup

We have a slightly different format this week – Jan lost his voice and so we took out the third segment we usually have and spent a little more time on the Question of the Week, where Aaron was going to be doing most of the talking.

Our News Roundup covers three news items as usual. First up: Oculus’s decision to close 200 of its Best Buy demo areas for VR, which some have taken as a sign that VR is fizzling. Second, we talk about Apple’s recent hiring of a former Amazon Fire TV executive, and what it might mean about Apple’s ability to sign content deals. And thirdly, we discuss Android Wear 2.0 and the new LG smartwatches which launched this week, and what they suggest about the state of the smartwatch market and wearables more broadly.

Our Question of the Week is “What role should businesses play in political and social change?” This topic has been in the news recently with many tech companies weighing in on the Trump administration’s recent executive orders on immigration, but it also has a long history. Aaron talks us through some of the history, the pros and cons of corporate intervention in politics, and the evidence about whether such intervention is actually effective or not. This isn’t a political discussion per se, but we do touch on some current and past political issues.

Our Weekly Pick is a TV show recommended by Jan.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Amazon, Apple, Apple Music, Cars, CES, Episodes, Facebook, Nintendo, Xiaomi

Episode 77 – CES, iPhone 10th Anniversary

We’re back after our long Christmas, New Year, and CES hiatus – thanks for bearing with us while we took our break, and Happy New Year!

We kick things off with a News Roundup, with three topics: Apple’s reported investment in original video content, ostensibly for the benefit of Apple Music subscribers; Nintendo’s announcement of pricing, specs, and other details for its Switch console; and Facebook’s attempt to help news organizations with its Journalism Project. Our main topic today is themes from CES, in which we discuss the fact that Amazon’s Alexa was everywhere, cars continued to grow in importance, smart home gear and services continue to evolve, drones were popular at CES but struggled elsewhere this week, wearables seem to be fading as a force, and Chinese companies continue to struggle to break into the US in a big way. Our third segment is a discussion of the 10th anniversary of the announcement of the iPhone, and all that’s changed in the world as a result.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

2016, AirPods, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Episodes, Uber, Waymo, Yahoo

Episode 75 – 2016 Year in Review, AirPods

Our News Roundup this week covers three topics. We start with a second week in a row of Amazon news, this time the announcement of a drone-based delivery trial in Cambridge, England. Next, we discuss a couple of pieces of news about autonomous driving – Google’s restructuring of its self-driving car efforts into Waymo, a separate entity under the Alphabet umbrella, and Uber’s self-driving cab testing in San Francisco. Lastly, the news of yet another massive Yahoo hack.

Our usual Question of the Week segment this week becomes Questions of the Year, as our way of looking back on 2016. We answer a set of questions about the year that’s ending soon, from what surprised us the most this year to which companies we changed our minds about during the year. Next week, we’ll follow up with predictions for 2017 (and a review of last year’s predictions for 2016).

Our short third segment is a quick discussion of Apple’s delayed AirPods launch and the AirPods themselves, which Jan has been using this week.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

AI, Amazon, Apple, Apple Music, Episodes, Hardware, Music, Spotify, T-Mobile, Wireless

Episode 74 – Music Streaming, Are Gadgets Dead?

Our News Roundup this week covers three topics. First, T-Mobile’s announcement of Digits, a service which will allow customers to use their single number on multiple devices, or multiple numbers on a single device. Second, we discuss two news items relating to Apple and AI: the announcement that its researchers will now be able to publish their research, and second the slides from its talk this week at an AI conference. Third, Amazon’s announcement of Amazon Go, a sort of grocery store of the future.

Our Question of the Week is “How is streaming changing the music industry?” Jan talks about the size and composition of the music industry and its revenues, and the rise of streaming. We discuss the differences between ad-supported and paid streaming, and what’s happening with each. And we talk about where the industry will go from here.

Our third segment is a conversation about Farhad Manjoo’s article this week in the New York Times about the increasingly tough landscape for hardware vendors, and whether we agree with his conclusions.

We wrap up with our Weekly Pick, which this week is a holiday gift guide recommended by Aaron.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Earnings, Episodes, Microsoft, Q3 2016, Samsung, Twitter

Episode 69 – Q3 2016 Tech Earnings Review

This week’s episode is a review of earnings for the biggest tech companies that have reported earnings for Q3 2016 so far: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and Twitter. We cover each for a few minutes in alphabetical order, discussing the highlights and trends they suggest.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.