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Insights
Satellite digital-audio-radio services (SDARS) is an emerging technology that promises customers 100 channels of continuously streamed satellite-delivered digital stereo-quality audio content. The audio services delivered via satellite will consist of specialized selections of music, news, talk, and entertainment programming, not standard AM/FM broadcasts. Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio are the two pay-for-service SDARS ventures in the plans for North America. Sirius Satellite Radio will offer commercial-free service. XM Satellite Radio has not decided yet what its advertising model will be. With approximately 40 million to 50 million projected subscribers in 2008, SDARS has the potential to affect the current radio-advertising landscape significantly. In-band on-channel digital-audio broadcast (IBOC DAB) and command audio are two potential competitors of SDARS. IBOC DAB will provide delivery of digital audio and data over existing AM and FM radio stations, with enhanced sound quality, improved reception, and new data services. Command Audio will wirelessly transmit hundreds of audio programs each day from a variety of print and broadcast sources, putting mobile listeners in control of the news, information, and entertainment programming that they select. However, these competitors remain constrained by the disadvantage of being range limited. Authors: David Benson and Suzanne E. Toledo. 14 pages. Index Keywords: Advertising; Communications; Entertainment Industries; Technology Trends; Telecommunications.
Soon, an owner of a personal digital assistant or a cellular phone will be able to enter a telephone number or address and within moments view on the device's screen a map that pinpoints the location. Government initiatives and technology developments are driving this location-based technology toward a mass market. Certainly, manufacturers still need to lower the cost and reduce the size of the chip sets for wireless devices, but most analysts believe that these goals are achievable within a couple years. Moreover, the U.S. government's decisions to make pinpoint accuracy available to civilian users of the global positioning system and to require that emergency services determine the location of callers will push the technology forward. Aside from public-safety applications, a range of location-based consumer services will become available, including connection to roadside assistance, location-based billing and advertising, mobile Yellow Pages, real-time traffic information, and people tracking. One estimate suggests that the world market for location products and services will achieve annual revenue of $3.9 billion in the next few years. Author: David Benson. 8 pages. Index Keywords: Communications; Computer Services; Consumer Electronics; Electronic Commerce; Mobile Communications; Telecommunications.
In May 2000, staff members in the Business Intelligence Center's Croydon, England, office met to discuss signals of change that they had picked up in their reading and professional activities. The meeting was part of the center's Scan process, which allows analysts, researchers, and marketers to brainstorm about the implications of emerging changes and look for unexpected patterns across industries and markets. In the May meeting, Scan participants noted that a "workforce precipice" is emerging as populations decline in industrialized nations, skills shortages intensify, and the workforce shrinks. Another cluster of developments suggests that new shopping spaces are emerging in which companies at the same point in the value chain pool their purchasing power or otherwise exploit synergies in online activities. Will these cooperative efforts create powerful corporate trading blocs that raise a red flag for regulators? Often Scan meetings pose more questions than answers. However, answering these questions is critical to the innovative process that companies need to stay abreast of developments and remain competitive. Other questions emerged in the May meeting: Will so-called branded communities increase customer loyalty and change companies' approach to advertising and marketing? How can companies feed consumers' desire for authenticity in products? Authors: Rob Edmonds and Robert Thomas. 10 pages. Index Keywords: Advertising; Aging Population; Consumer Behavior; Demographic Trends; Electronic Commerce; Labor Force; Marketing.
Competent employees have become the lifeblood of most companies. Yet competence is a moving target, perpetually in need of updates and retooling to keep pace with fast-moving business environments. Technology-enabled learning, or eLearning, opens the door to more effective learning and training and is already a fixture in forward-looking companies like Cisco Systems and Dell Computer. However, adopters of eLearning face many decisions--and often a change of corporate culture--in tapping into the benefits of the new systems. Networking technology and greater availability of quality content allow companies to adopt learner-centric approaches, link learning closely to people's daily tasks, incorporate video and audio components that attract learners' attention and improve their retention, foster learning communities in which people share information, and streamline many work processes by making information available for reuse. Employers' challenge is to create a learning-friendly culture in their organizations, using incentives and competence-based hiring and promotions to emphasize the importance of learning. Companies also need to avoid jumping feet first into eLearning--often hybrid approaches make the most sense--and need to set up tracking systems that allow them to link learning to performance. Authors: Eilif Trondsen and Adrienne Harris. 19 pages. Index Keywords: Computer Software; Education; Internet Technologies; Intranet; Knowledge Management; Labor Force; Training.
Wild cards are ideas and events well off the current trend lines in the business environment. They are the seeds of innovation, and the Business Intelligence Program (B-I-P) specializes in identifying them with its Scan process. This study reviews topics, trends, and discontinuities in the business environment that B-I-P researchers surfaced at B-I-P's Scan meeting of 17 May 2000. Topics are various: Companies are looking to build a sense of authenticity into their brands as consumers become increasingly suspicious (or at least more savvy) amidst a glut of new advertising channels and messages. The digital divide may eventually turn out to be about privacy as much as it's about access to data or economic opportunities--the world may divide between the people who monitor other people's behavior and the "monitorees." New market forces (enabled by the Internet) have the potential to alter dramatically what our educational institutions teach and why. Popular file-sharing programs such as Napster (currently in use to exchange music files) are likely to alter the way we all store, find, access, and exchange information in the long run. Author: Kermit M. Patton. 10 pages. Index Keywords: Innovation; Strategic Planning. Scan
Programs that allow dramatically new ways of locating, accessing, and distributing content are cropping up on the Internet. Napster allows users to find music files (through a centralized index on the company's servers) and then download those files directly from other users' computers. Gnutella skips the centralized index and allows users to find and download content (in a variety of file types, including music, videos, and documents) directly from other users who are also using the Gnutella software. Pointera skips the downloading process by allowing users to "play" content (such as music or videos) directly from other users' computers without downloading the file. These new "distribution" models are creating quite a stir in the music industry because they lack the means for content originators to collect royalties and protect copyrights on music. But the implications for the world at large are also significant. These programs represent the emergence of new distributed and decentralized models for searching for and accessing data of all kinds. Pointera can enable Web users to search personal-computer hard disks as well as Web sites. News The summaries below describe current activities and programs not included in the B-I-P membership but of potential interest to members. New Report from Media Futures Banking by electronic means dates back to as early as the late-nineteenth century, when Western Union and the telegraph first allowed businesses and individuals to "wire" money across a continent. The next stage followed in the mid- to late twentieth century, with computerized records, electronic funds transfer, credit cards, and automatic teller machines. At the turn of the new millennium, universal low-cost, user-friendly network access to Web-based services through the Internet will complete the transition to electronic banking by eventually eliminating paper processing of checks and enabling mobile electronic currency to substitute for today's cash transactions. Internet Banking and Bill Payment, a new report from Media Futures, discusses the transition to Internet banking, including efforts of major parties to develop key applications and standards necessary to attract consumer participation. It also explores efforts to develop Internet bill payment and presentment, which is still in a relatively low-tech state but is critical to attracting consumers and allowing companies to realize the full benefits possible through Internet banking. For more information about Media Futures, telephone: +1 650 859 4600; e-mail: info@sric-bi.com. |
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