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Reports
Information technology's role in U.S., German, and Japanese households of the future This report taps the expertise of SRI Consulting Business Intelligence's (SRIC-BI's) Digital Futures for a look at three different households of the future—one each in the United States, Japan, and Germany. The report examines the family members' information/communications/entertainment needs and behaviors, the electronic equipment and services that they own and use, and how these elements evolve in the 2002–06 time frame. Instead of painting a picture of households that embrace every imaginable new product and service, the authors use SRIC-BI's VALS™ consumer psychographic segmentation system to build a realistic look at which technologies and services are likely to reach mainstream markets in the next four years. The report begins by examining daily life in a hypothetical U.S. family, looking at its activities in 2002, then in 2004, and finally in 2006, along with a profile of the family and the evolution of products and services that the family uses in each of those years. It then provides a similar profile of the Japanese and German families and households and the products and services that they use. The report also presents a brief description of the VALS system that contributed to the analysis. Author: Ed Christie. Executive Contacts and Report Recipients will receive this document automatically. Insights
Beyond today's personal-computing framework, in which users rely on keyboards and screens to access information, lies a world in which people will wear their computers—as an integral part of their clothing, as add-on accessories that attach or strap to their bodies, or even as surgically implanted devices. Today's wearable computers have unique characteristics that make them useful primarily in industrial, military, law-enforcement, public-safety, and health-care applications. They improve the productivity of workers or soldiers who need their hands free to perform important tasks, who must work in confined spaces, or who need to operate in stealth. With these wearable devices, users can accomplish hitherto difficult or impossible tasks and can perform other tasks more quickly. For now, consumer applications are less promising than industrial and military ones. Despite some novel wearable products on the market, consumers have yet to see compelling applications and await evidence that wearable computers offer clear advantages over laptop and desktop computers. In time, however, the wearable-computing revolution will change how people think about computers. The timing and extent of this revolution will depend on technological advances in power sources and interfaces. Authors: Carolyn E. Sleeth and Lindsay C. Wilson. 10 pages. Index Keywords: Information Technology; Computer Industry; Consumer Electronics.
Though digital payments are a small subset of electronic payments, they offer tremendous potential for growth and new business opportunities. Digital-payment systems either use well-established payment instruments, such as credit cards, to make payments on the Internet or use novel digital-payment instruments, such as smart cards, in both offline and online venues. Internet credit payments, direct debit online, and digital cash are the three dominant instruments today. At this stage of development, however, the digital-payment landscape is highly fragmented, and no one can predict which systems will succeed or which players or industries will dominate digital transactions in the future. Moreover, digital-payment schemes will have to offer convenience, security, and low cost to lure consumers and merchants from traditional payment instruments. The Internet economy has moved too fast for traditional, decades-old transactional options to keep pace. At the moment, developers are still trying to find workable ways to handle micropayments of less than $10, for example, and to enable efficient and easy-to-use mobile payments, which will be critical to the success of mobile commerce. The outcome of today's ferment in the digital-payment arena will shape the global business environment for years to come. Authors: Thomas M. McKenna and Martin Schwirn. 15 pages. Index Keywords: Banking; Consumer Finance; Electronic Commerce; Internet; Retail Trade.
The field of genetically modified (GM) foods has been rife with controversy, causing biotechnology companies to become concerned about the future of the technology. In the wake of a public-relations debacle, executives, strategic planners, policy makers, issues-management professionals, and others increasingly want to understand public opinion about GM foods and are seeking insights that will help them devise effective policy and strategic market responses. Indeed, in the realm of biotechnology, a focus on technological wizardry is no longer enough: Consumers' attitudes toward new biotechnologies can make or break markets. As a result, companies need to know which consumer groups are likely to be early adopters of GM foods, what kinds of foods early adopters are most likely to accept, and what messages are most likely to appeal to these groups. The big lessons are that consumers are not all alike, and their reactions to technologies vary over time. Companies that explore the long-neglected realm of consumer attitudes toward emerging technologies stand a better chance of winning early market acceptance for their products than do companies that expect consumers unquestioningly to embrace radical new products. A healthy regard for the lessons of history and the interplay of science, technology, and policy is also critical. Because consumers have an impact on public policy as well as markets, a scientifically literate public is critical. Companies can help build general literacy as well as pave the way for acceptance of their products by informing consumers of the benefits of their technologies throughout development and commercialization. Authors: Andrew Broderick and Kristen Thomas. 12 pages. Index Keywords: Agriculture; Biotechnology; Consumer Behavior; Food Technology; Genetic Engineering.
Fast technological change, faster-changing markets, demands for increased productivity, and more complex customer needs are compelling companies to look beyond traditional alliances to gain quick access to expertise and resources. Internet technologies have played a critical enabling role in new types of alliances (such as online industry exchanges or supply-chain–management software) and have had a multiplying effect on the distribution of information, indirectly increasing the number of knowledge workers available for solving problems. This study examines a recent addition to Internet-enabled alliances: services for outsourcing innovation processes. Internet-based outsourcing of corporate innovation processes offers benefits that existing forms of alliances for innovation do not offer. By outsourcing innovation, companies can improve their R&D, tap into existing solutions outside the company, and gain access to an increasing pool of knowledge and creativity. This study highlights three models of third-party services. Such services Web-enable innovation business processes and create channels to underused intellectual resources with little risk and potentially high reward. Author: Margaret Pak. 16 pages. Index Keywords: Innovation; Intellectual Property; Knowledge Management; Research and Development.
Signals of Change is a series of Business Intelligence Program research publications that help companies to identify signs of change and explore emerging opportunities. This study provides analysis of signals of change that the May 2002 Scan meeting in London, England, identified. The Scan meetings are, in essence, brainstorming sessions that take their cue from a list of news events and business developments and build on the knowledge of SRIC-BI participants. This study discusses how some companies are resorting to cross-functional teams that bring together expertise from different parts of an organization to meet certain challenges, such as new-product development. The study also discusses the importance of customer contact. In today's tough global economy, businesses focus more than ever before on retaining their existing customers and on lowering their operating costs. Customer-relationship management (CRM) is the latest in a string of management solutions to help companies achieve these goals. However, in spite of the popularity of CRM, the record of CRM failures is high. The last section of the study turns to China: the rapid rise in the number of international high-tech firms that have established R&D facilities in China and the implications that this development could have for businesses around the world. Clearly, opportunities exist for companies to reduce costs by locating R&D facilities in China—a low-cost, highly skilled workforce is an attraction that many companies will find difficult to resist. However, transferring technology know-how and technical expertise does not necessarily bode well for the long-term prosperity of other regions. Authors: Rob Edmonds, Erin Coberth, and Rosamund Gee. 8 pages. Index Keywords: Innovation; Strategic Planning. News The summaries below describe current activities and programs not included in the B-I-P membership but of potential interest to members. New Reports from Digital Futures Wireless Hot Spots looks at the emerging market for wireless hot spots—access points in public areas (coffee shops, hotels, airports, shopping plazas, and the like) that offer consumer and enterprise users roaming connectivity to data networks. This report places hot spots in the context of new "final-feet" questions that will challenge service providers to understand unique personal-area network and local-area network use patterns. Video on Demand (VOD) examines the marketplace in which VOD services will operate and the competition; it analyzes the network alternatives available to service providers. Speech Recognition: Beyond the Call Center examines the technical innovation that has fueled interest in the technology and explores the conditions that led to analysts' and industry observers' lofty and often inaccurate expectations. Digital Futures Scan: Next-Generation Digital Technologies, 2002, focuses on a selection of technology developments that promise to reach customers in more than five years but that affect current decisions for R&D managers. This report provides insight into early trends in three-dimensional displays, fourth-generation wireless services, multihop wireless networks, music recognition, and wearable computing. Mobile-Services Strategies provides insight into operator strategies and emerging best practices for navigating this difficult environment; it calls on a range of primary industry sources as well as ongoing secondary research and analysis. Adoption of Broadband Home Internet Services examines broadband home Internet development and viability from 2002 to 2007 in North America, Europe, and Asia. Digital Photography: Market Growth and the Photographic Experience traces the development of the digital still camera, outlines the stages in its acceptance, and provides forecasts for future developments. Next-Generation Wireless Devices examines the key issues surrounding next-generation mobile Internet devices to help vendors understand how the market will develop and how they can minimize risk to their business. For more information about Digital Futures, telephone: +1 650 859 4600; e-mail: info@sric-bi.com. Current Watch-List B-I-P's scanning and research processes identify areas on the periphery of your business's focus area that constitute potential opportunities or threats. The areas that we decide bear watching go on B-I-P's watch list of defining forces that are transforming the business environment. Current watch-list topics include:
The Bulletin will periodically highlight each defining force, listing related B-I-P publications. |
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