鬼佬預期：Mobile 商務進入主流應用期 戰線將在Mobile Money上

著名的Javelin Strategy & Research 一個分析員指出，種種跡象顯示，手機商務業正處於變身期，將會由創新期，進入主流應用期。他說，這種起飛徵兆包括了非凡的手機、銀行陸續提供手機財務服務、客戶對手機商務好奇、手機數據計劃降價、對下載應用程式的需求上升，和新產品新服務收費及新功能面世等。

這位分析員JimVan Dyke說，科技大量起變花，引發了新的革命，「手機錢」（Mobile money）將會是其中一個重要的部分，但這亦會帶來「血流成河」的。就好似，你不再會見到有類似Paypal異軍突起的事件重演，這不會再發生。

「Paypal在互聯網起飛的日子裡，角色特別，在如拍賣等用戶間付費平台湧現的日子裡，它擔當了橋樑的角色，但當中亦有僥倖的成份。以目前的發展來說，Mobile money將會陷於一次苦戰，甚至是一場塹壕戰。」

Mobile Money現時已由原來簡單地監管自己銀行戶口交易，逐漸變為移動銀行交易和支付。基於 5個主要方面，美國市場似乎也正準備為流動商貿起飛：用戶的行為，發卡，支付網絡，商戶和POS設備。 InStat公司2009年12月一項調查發 現，百分之六十四的美國人有興趣使用移動錢包的電子商務。

看來，大家的錢包真的很快會生出腳來，自己移動起來。

Summary: Four ways to get more value from digital marketing (McKinsey Quarterly)

Companies that make the deep strategic, organizational, and operational shifts required to become effective digital marketers can become more agile, more productive, and accelerate revenue growth.

Since the dawn of the Internet, marketers have regarded it as a vast laboratory, launching experiment after experiment to crack the code that generates sales and customer loyalty. Not surprising, most have failed. Consumers adopted digital technology as they themselves saw fit, in the process fundamentally altering the way they make purchasing decisions.¹ Companies that understand this evolution are now carefully moving digital interactivity toward the center of their marketing strategies, rethinking their priorities and budgets, and substantially reshaping their processes and skills.

Through our work with dozens of companies navigating this shifting landscape, we have found that the most successful digital marketers focus on managing four core sources of value as they increase the percentage of marketing and channel spending that is directed to digital activities. First, they coordinate their activities to engage the consumer throughout an increasingly digital purchase journey. Second, they harness interest in their brands by syndicating content that empowers the consumer to build his or her own marketing identity and, in the process, to serve as a brand ambassador. Third, they recognize the need to think like a large-scale multimedia publisher as they manage a staggering increase in the content they create to support products, segments, channels, and promotions. Finally, these marketers strategically plot how to gather and use the plethora of digital data now available.

The digital-marketing difference

At the simplest level, we’ve always known that consumers tend to go through a multistage journey as they make purchasing decisions. Yet most companies still concentrate marketing resources on only two stages: brand marketing up front to woo consumers when they first consider products, and promotions at the final point of sale to sway them as they are about to make a purchase.

Digital technology is changing all that. Consumers who used to seek out family and friends for word-of-mouth product recommendations now read online reviews, compare features and prices on Web sites, and discuss options via social-networking sites. This information flow not only empowers consumers but also allows marketing departments to be part of the conversation consumers have as they actively learn about product categories and evaluate choices. In fact, both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) purchasers increasingly want marketers to help them make smart decisions. They just don’t want to feel subjected to the hard sell—they expect marketers to engage them, not dictate to them.

Moving from a one-way, company-driven sales mentality to a two-way relationship with consumers requires core changes in the way marketers do business. While some of them have adjusted effectively, most simply tried everything that came to mind, because they weren’t sure what would work. Companies have explored digital-marketing vehicles such as video ads, sponsored content, and online promotions. New forms of targeted online ad delivery have emerged. Web sites have been overhauled, and microsites for specific products or promotions have multiplied. Companies are buying thousands of search terms across their lines of business, and new agencies keep popping up to serve marketers’ increasingly keen desire for innovative content, user tools, or social experimentation. While these initiatives usually make sense, their implementation often doesn’t: most companies merely add them to their other operations and thus stretch their organizations financially and operationally. In our experience, companies must thoughtfully integrate such initiatives by focusing on four core sources of value.

Orchestrate an integrated consumer experience

Whether by receiving marketing e-mails, searching for products online, or using mobile devices to find retail coupons, customers today continually interact with brands as they move closer to making purchasing decisions. Yet completely different parts of an organization manage most such contacts. Digital channels can unify that experience and prevent the leakage of opportunity. Across a range of B2C and B2B clients, we’ve seen companies accelerate revenue growth by tightening the coordination of the end-to-end experience (Exhibit 1). These increases represent the cumulative impact of capturing more online traffic, engaging consumers effectively, raising sales conversion rates, and then deepening bonds with the brand after sales are made.

To be sure, it’s not easy to coordinate content across the entire consumer experience, but the waste from failing to do so ought to be even harder to face. When done right, television commercials should at the very least inspire keywords for consumers to search. Great search positioning should offer easy-to-find Web links to specific offers being promoted in other media. Links should go deep into specific places to help consumers learn about and buy products. Retailer sites should show the same product with the same image, rich descriptions, and inventory availability. And all of these images and messages should be consistent.

Similar rigor is required to ensure that marketing investments are proportional to the influence they may have on a prospective customer’s purchasing decision. Consider the global consumer products company that traditionally relied on mass-media campaigns when launching new products. Because the brand was already well known, the campaigns failed to increase actual sales: the company was spending a disproportionate percentage of its marketing budget on advertising that consumers were largely ignoring.

The company realized that a big shift was needed—one that would likely ripple through much of its budgeting process, organizational structure, and agency lineup. It moved its spending to efforts toward influencing consumers as they actually evaluated products: by increasing its presence in stores and online, improving its search engine positioning, developing content for retailers’ Web sites, and cultivating recommendations from important online influencers, such as bloggers. Traditional media spending fell, and advertising agency budgets shifted toward online content development. As a result, the company doubled its rate of consideration as a top-three brand, almost tripled the rate of recommendations by salespeople in stores, and increased its market share.

Inspire customers to help you stretch your marketing budget

Traditional marketers spend about 60 percent of their budgets on “working media” (or paid placement), 20 percent on creating content, and the balance on employees and agencies. Digital channels, with their social nature, reverse these economics, focusing on a smaller core of engaged people who can spread positive impressions, or simply share information, with a broader audience. Active digital marketers tend to devote about 30 percent of their marketing budgets to paid media and 50 percent to content. Customers do more of the heavy lifting as they decide what to look at, play with content, and forward it to their online communities. We have found that by making the right investments, active digital marketers can spend significantly less on marketing as a percentage of sales, with little to no deterioration in performance.

Allowing consumers to make brands their own inevitably raises concerns among companies that are fearful of losing control over brands. The key is to strike a balance between retaining control and creating opportunities for consumers to embrace your content. One prominent example is American Express’s Members Project. Created to help consumers promote their favorite causes, the initiative offered $5 million to the nonprofit group that garnered the most vociferous support.

Consumer engagement was captured through a central Web site that offered tools for creating blogs about causes, widgets to distribute so that larger groups could show their affiliation, and a central system where members could rank causes. Despite very limited paid media (some banner ads, search, and e-mail), AmEx magnified its exposure through heavy interest from news sites and even traditional TV coverage. Celebrities became involved, placing widgets for their favorite causes on personal sites or Facebook pages. In short, this initiative generated an explosive viral campaign that made it one of AmEx’s most successful brand-building efforts, at little cost for paid media.

Adopt a publisher’s discipline to curb costs

Supporting the consumer’s decision journey requires a vast and growing range of content—well beyond advertisements. As companies chase digital opportunities, most have slowly but steadily begun publishing everything from static content, such as product descriptions, to games and other multimedia. Marketers are syndicating content and applications to flow across the sites and mobile platforms of other organizations and people. Content is increasingly being pulled on demand by consumers (who, for example, subscribe to alerts or become “fans” on Facebook) or is tailored to their preferences (determined through their past behavior), the context of an interaction, or the time of day. Most companies have now essentially become publishers, with a more complex set of cost and quality concerns, yet continue to behave like simple advertisers (Exhibit 2).

Most marketers, failing to adopt the discipline of a multimedia publisher, don’t realize that deep within their operations, they are facing rapidly escalating production costs, unnecessary duplication, inconsistent quality of content, and second-rate interactions with customers. One global B2B software provider, for example, produced a growing amount of content—from advertising to cost-of-ownership analytic tools to sales support materials to instruction manuals—for each of its products in every geography, all tailored to different types of audiences and for different online placements. Obsolete content persisted across the Web. Much useful content was poorly tagged or not well linked to related content, making it hard for consumers to find. Product descriptions on the company’s own Web site, for instance, were often different from descriptions of the same products on a distributor’s site. Finally, budgets for content creation were buried across business units, and no one had a clear sense of how to pare down the amount of content or raise it to a consistent standard.

The software company’s solution was to adopt a comprehensive, portfolio-based view of its content with a view to streamlining production costs, making its content more reusable, and finding new ways to improve the experience that the content delivered. It dug into activities across the enterprise to calculate its total publishing costs and understand the spread of its multimedia publishing presence. Then it began rationalizing the system. New processes were implemented and a new organization created to coordinate, edit, and manage the content. Performance measures tracked how well the content drove sales. A central warehouse stored reusable core content objects, such as product descriptions. Salespeople and users received automatic notifications of product updates, tailored to their specific needs. Databases and analytics were created to better target the right content to the right consumers at the right time, so material was surgically placed to maximize impact.

Switching perspectives in this way—from that of a traditional advertiser to that of a tightly disciplined, personalized publisher—helped the company cut its operating costs by tens of millions of dollars a year. Its Web site generated dramatically more sales leads than it had before, by offering more timely, personalized, and useful content. The software company’s salespeople felt more confident about directing customers to use the Web for research and support during the buying process. By improving the customer experience, the new approach improved efficiency and raised returns on assets and on investment.

Use intelligence wisely to drive performance

When a prospective customer actively evaluates product options, the right message is needed immediately, in the right location. When online conversations start to trash your brand, no response can be fast enough. When you need to optimize your search and other media spending on ever-faster cycles—eventually daily—there’s no time to waste. One telecom provider, for example, manages more than 40,000 search terms, has developed dozens of algorithms to identify and reach relevant consumers, and has a war room to spot and react to online complaints or rumors. The ability to mobilize in that way requires smart investments in data tools, a group of skilled analysts, and flexible processes that can facilitate rapid action. What isn’t required is a multipage performance report, pondered at a meeting several days later, that substitutes for action.

Savvy digital marketers are mastering intelligence-gathering tools and processes that analyze what customers are seeing, by examining positions in search results or coverage on key retail sites. These marketers explain what consumers are doing, by analyzing their online behavior, and interpret what they are saying, by mining online discussions and soliciting ongoing feedback. Such intelligence, the lifeblood of digital leadership, disseminates insights throughout an organization to drive ongoing optimization and promotes the personalization needed to help consumers feel that a brand is their own (Exhibit 3).

Marketers need the ability to assess and utilize intelligence in real time to drive performance by using it. Dell, for example, has a full-time team that monitors its IdeaStorm discussion boards and rapidly responds to posts. Packaged-goods companies are starting to manage thousands of search terms on a daily basis, not only optimizing what they spend but also looking for the keywords customers are using in association with their brands. One auto company tracks the volume of people using car configuration tools on its Web site as a way to forecast sales and tweak production. For these companies, such insights flow directly into operations. Unfortunately, that tight linkage between insight and action is rare.

We have found, for instance, that few marketing or sales executives can name three key insights, derived from their online analyses in the past month, that they acted upon to generate value. Activating a company’s intelligence goes beyond hiring statistical analysts, building dashboards, and writing reports. Marketers must prioritize what to measure, as well as assign a cross-functional team to analyze the data generated. Then they must have clear processes to act upon insights, track results, and follow up with action.

Taken together, these changes force companies to step back from tactical, day-to-day execution and take a more strategic view of where to invest and make changes. Companies often find that they must enhance their technology infrastructure, expand analytic skills, adjust organizational structures across business unit boundaries, and build processes that impose a new operational discipline. Tough decisions need to be made, such as who takes the lead in developing a new-product launch plan; how budgets for content creation are reallocated across global, regional, and local groups; and how to rebalance the roles of traditional media and digital agencies. Technology and marketing functions need to work together more closely, with clear service-level agreements from IT to maintain adequate support for much more information-intensive marketing operations.

Marketing departments will justifiably demand more resources, but those should come at a price: higher accountability for sales, innovation, and operational efficiency. Business line executives should demand better visibility into metrics about digital delivery and greater clarity about how marketing plans will directly improve performance. In return, marketers will drive value as their brands cease to be mere names and instead become central to helping customers get what they want.

HTC 反擊Apple

宏達公司已明確表示不同意與蘋果公司的法律指控，並重申其承諾建立一個投資組合的創新智能手機為消費者提供了多種選擇。

3月3日，宏達給蘋果吃了一驚，蘋果公司提起訴訟，對公司的侵犯20項專利與蘋果 iPhone的用戶界面，底層架構和硬件。蘋果同時亦向美國國際貿易委員會（ITC）和美國特 拉華州地方法院遞交了訴訟書。

宏達公司已明確表示不同意與蘋果公司的法律行為，並重 申其承諾建立一個投資組合的創新智能手機為消費者提供了多種選擇。

3月3日，以宏達電吃驚的是，蘋果公司提起訴訟，對公 司的侵犯20項專利與蘋果 iPhone的用戶界面，底層架構和硬件。該訴訟是同時與美國國際貿易委員會（ITC）和美國特 拉華州地方法院。

找到工作的你

“宏達不同意蘋果的行為，並會全力保衛自己，”周永明 表示，宏達電首席執行官，西雅圖。“宏達強烈主張知識產權保護，並將繼續尊重其他創新者和他們的技術是我們一直在做，但我們會繼續遵守競爭，通過我們自己的創新為消費者健康的方式獲得 最佳的移動體驗。

“從第一天開始，宏達著力打造尖端創新，提供獨特的價 值的人尋找一個智能手機，”他說。“1999年我們開始設計中，XDA（一）和T - Mobile Pocket PC手機版（二），我們的第一款觸摸屏智能手機，它們都在2002年 出貨量超過 50個宏達智能手機型號航運不知所踪。“

蘋果公司重新設計的移動電話在2007年其革命性的 iPhone，並再次做到了在2008年的開拓性應用程序商店，現在提供超過 15萬的移動應用在90多個國家。

成立於 1997年的熱情，創新和遠見智能手機將如何改變人們的生活，宏達不斷推動這一構想的不斷引入屢獲殊榮的智能手機，與美國無線運營商。

呼籲 HTC和蘋果公司關於訴訟沒有歸還。

這起訴訟開始後腳跟諾基亞提出申訴與美國國際貿易委員 會指控蘋果侵犯專利諾基亞幾乎所有的移動電話，便攜式音樂播放器和計算機。

諾基亞的7項專利，在12月的投訴與諾基亞的開拓創 新，目前正在使用蘋果建立主要特點在其產品在該地區的用戶界面，以及攝像頭，天線和電源管理技術（見故事）。

這是一場戰爭
宏達得知蘋果的行為基礎上的新聞報導和蘋果公司的新聞 稿。顯然，蘋果公司公開了備案宏達甚至前送達。

現在，週後，宏達終於公開了一個聲明，就其地位。該公司沒有提供細節時或計劃如何應對訴訟。

宏達使一些手機上運行谷歌的Android操作系統。谷歌和蘋果都在不斷的戰鬥模式近來，由於每個公司是竭 盡所能獲得成功的智能手機市場。

事情確實加熱到了。谷歌本週推出了新版本的手機納克斯一個運行在AT＆T 公司，這也是iPhone的獨家運營商在美國

看起來像谷歌，是加強對蘋果的腳趾。

預計宏達把一個良好的抗衡蘋果，因為台灣智能手機製造 商絕對有這樣做的資源。此外，Android手機是宏達電的黃金門票的領導在 智能手機領域，因此運行該訴訟是至關重要的製造商。

蘋果電腦公司訴訟證據表明，智能手機巨頭都試圖遏制 Android和宏達電的市場份額。

“宏達一直採取面向夥伴關係，協作的經營方針，”詹森 說麥肯齊，副總裁宏達美國。“這導致了長期的戰略夥伴關係的頂級軟件，互聯網和無線技術公司在行業以及頂級美國，歐洲和亞洲的移動運營商。

“正是通過這些關係，我們已經能夠提供世界上最多樣化 的系列智能手機，以更多樣化的一組人在世界各地，並認識到客戶的不同需要，”他說。

Summary: The Internet of Things (McKinsey Quarterly)

More objects are becoming embedded with sensors and gaining the ability to communicate. The resulting information networks promise to create new business models, improve business processes, and reduce costs and risks.

In most organizations, information travels along familiar routes. Proprietary information is lodged in databases and analyzed in reports and then rises up the management chain. Information also originates externally—gathered from public sources, harvested from the Internet, or purchased from information suppliers.

But the predictable pathways of information are changing: the physical world itself is becoming a type of information system. In what’s called the Internet of Things, sensors and actuators embedded in physical objects—from roadways to pacemakers—are linked through wired and wireless networks, often using the same Internet Protocol (IP) that connects the Internet. These networks churn out huge volumes of data that flow to computers for analysis. When objects can both sense the environment and communicate, they become tools for understanding complexity and responding to it swiftly. What’s revolutionary in all this is that these physical information systems are now beginning to be deployed, and some of them even work largely without human intervention.

Pill-shaped microcameras already traverse the human digestive tract and send back thousands of images to pinpoint sources of illness. Precision farming equipment with wireless links to data collected from remote satellites and ground sensors can take into account crop conditions and adjust the way each individual part of a field is farmed—for instance, by spreading extra fertilizer on areas that need more nutrients. Billboards in Japan peer back at passersby, assessing how they fit consumer profiles, and instantly change displayed messages based on those assessments.

Yes, there are traces of futurism in some of this and early warnings for companies too. Business models based on today’s largely static information architectures face challenges as new ways of creating value arise. When a customer’s buying preferences are sensed in real time at a specific location, dynamic pricing may increase the odds of a purchase. Knowing how often or intensively a product is used can create additional options—usage fees rather than outright sale, for example. Manufacturing processes studded with a multitude of sensors can be controlled more precisely, raising efficiency. And when operating environments are monitored continuously for hazards or when objects can take corrective action to avoid damage, risks and costs diminish. Companies that take advantage of these capabilities stand to gain against competitors that don’t.

The widespread adoption of the Internet of Things will take time, but the time line is advancing thanks to improvements in underlying technologies. Advances in wireless networking technology and the greater standardization of communications protocols make it possible to collect data from these sensors almost anywhere at any time. Ever-smaller silicon chips for this purpose are gaining new capabilities, while costs, following the pattern of Moore’s Law, are falling. Massive increases in storage and computing power, some of it available via cloud computing, make number crunching possible at very large scale and at declining cost.

None of this is news to technology companies and those on the frontier of adoption. But as these technologies mature, the range of corporate deployments will increase. Now is the time for executives across all industries to structure their thoughts about the potential impact and opportunities likely to emerge from the Internet of Things. We see six distinct types of emerging applications, which fall in two broad categories: first, information and analysis and, second, automation and control (exhibit).

Information and analysis

As the new networks link data from products, company assets, or the operating environment, they will generate better information and analysis, which can enhance decision making significantly. Some organizations are starting to deploy these applications in targeted areas, while more radical and demanding uses are still in the conceptual or experimental stages.

1. Tracking behavior

When products are embedded with sensors, companies can track the movements of these products and even monitor interactions with them. Business models can be fine-tuned to take advantage of this behavioral data. Some insurance companies, for example, are offering to install location sensors in customers’ cars. That allows these companies to base the price of policies on how a car is driven as well as where it travels. Pricing can be customized to the actual risks of operating a vehicle rather than based on proxies such as a driver’s age, gender, or place of residence.

Or consider the possibilities when sensors and network connections are embedded in a rental car: it can be leased for short time spans to registered members of a car service, rental centers become unnecessary, and each car’s use can be optimized for higher revenues. Zipcar has pioneered this model, and more established car rental companies are starting to follow. In retailing, sensors that note shoppers’ profile data (stored in their membership cards) can help close purchases by providing additional information or offering discounts at the point of sale. Market leaders such as Tesco are at the forefront of these uses.

In the business-to-business marketplace, one well-known application of the Internet of Things involves using sensors to track RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags placed on products moving through supply chains, thus improving inventory management while reducing working capital and logistics costs. The range of possible uses for tracking is expanding. In the aviation industry, sensor technologies are spurring new business models. Manufacturers of jet engines retain ownership of their products while charging airlines for the amount of thrust used. Airplane manufacturers are building airframes with networked sensors that send continuous data on product wear and tear to their computers, allowing for proactive maintenance and reducing unplanned downtime.

2. Enhanced situational awareness

Data from large numbers of sensors, deployed in infrastructure (such as roads and buildings) or to report on environmental conditions (including soil moisture, ocean currents, or weather), can give decision makers a heightened awareness of real-time events, particularly when the sensors are used with advanced display or visualization technologies.

Security personnel, for instance, can use sensor networks that combine video, audio, and vibration detectors to spot unauthorized individuals who enter restricted areas. Some advanced security systems already use elements of these technologies, but more far-reaching applications are in the works as sensors become smaller and more powerful, and software systems more adept at analyzing and displaying captured information. Logistics managers for airlines and trucking lines already are tapping some early capabilities to get up-to-the-second knowledge of weather conditions, traffic patterns, and vehicle locations. In this way, these managers are increasing their ability to make constant routing adjustments that reduce congestion costs and increase a network’s effective capacity. In another application, law-enforcement officers can get instantaneous data from sonic sensors that are able to pinpoint the location of gunfire.

3. Sensor-driven decision analytics

The Internet of Things also can support longer-range, more complex human planning and decision making. The technology requirements—tremendous storage and computing resources linked with advanced software systems that generate a variety of graphical displays for analyzing data—rise accordingly.

In the oil and gas industry, for instance, the next phase of exploration and development could rely on extensive sensor networks placed in the earth’s crust to produce more accurate readings of the location, structure, and dimensions of potential fields than current data-driven methods allow. The payoff: lower development costs and improved oil flows.

As for retailing, some companies are studying ways to gather and process data from thousands of shoppers as they journey through stores. Sensor readings and videos note how long they linger at individual displays and record what they ultimately buy. Simulations based on this data will help to increase revenues by optimizing retail layouts.

In health care, sensors and data links offer possibilities for monitoring a patient’s behavior and symptoms in real time and at relatively low cost, allowing physicians to better diagnose disease and prescribe tailored treatment regimens. Patients with chronic illnesses, for example, have been outfitted with sensors in a small number of health care trials currently under way, so that their conditions can be monitored continuously as they go about their daily activities. One such trial has enrolled patients with congestive heart failure. These patients are typically monitored only during periodic physician office visits for weight, blood pressure, and heart rate and rhythm. Sensors placed on the patient can now monitor many of these signs remotely and continuously, giving practitioners early warning of conditions that would otherwise lead to unplanned hospitalizations and expensive emergency care. Better management of congestive heart failure alone could reduce hospitalization and treatment costs by a billion dollars annually in the United States.

Automation and control

Making data the basis for automation and control means converting the data and analysis collected through the Internet of Things into instructions that feed back through the network to actuators that in turn modify processes. Closing the loop from data to automated applications can raise productivity, as systems that adjust automatically to complex situations make many human interventions unnecessary. Early adopters are ushering in relatively basic applications that provide a fairly immediate payoff. Advanced automated systems will be adopted by organizations as these technologies develop further.

1. Process optimization

The Internet of Things is opening new frontiers for improving processes. Some industries, such as chemical production, are installing legions of sensors to bring much greater granularity to monitoring. These sensors feed data to computers, which in turn analyze them and then send signals to actuators that adjust processes—for example, by modifying ingredient mixtures, temperatures, or pressures. Sensors and actuators can also be used to change the position of a physical object as it moves down an assembly line, ensuring that it arrives at machine tools in an optimum position (small deviations in the position of work in process can jam or even damage machine tools). This improved instrumentation, multiplied hundreds of times during an entire process, allows for major reductions in waste, energy costs, and human intervention.

In the pulp and paper industry, for example, the need for frequent manual temperature adjustments in lime kilns limits productivity gains. One company raised production 5 percent by using embedded temperature sensors whose data is used to automatically adjust a kiln flame’s shape and intensity. Reducing temperature variance to near zero improved product quality and eliminated the need for frequent operator intervention.

2. Optimized resource consumption

Networked sensors and automated feedback mechanisms can change usage patterns for scarce resources, including energy and water, often by enabling more dynamic pricing. Utilities such as Enel in Italy and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in the United States, for example, are deploying “smart” meters that provide residential and industrial customers with visual displays showing energy usage and the real-time costs of providing it. (The traditional residential fixed-price-per-kilowatt-hour billing masks the fact that the cost of producing energy varies substantially throughout the day.) Based on time-of-use pricing and better information residential consumers could shut down air conditioners or delay running dishwashers during peak times. Commercial customers can shift energy-intensive processes and production away from high-priced periods of peak energy demand to low-priced off-peak hours.

Data centers, which are among the fastest-growing segments of global energy demand, are starting to adopt power-management techniques tied to information feedback. Power consumption is often half of a typical facility’s total lifetime cost, but most managers lack a detailed view of energy consumption patterns. Getting such a view isn’t easy, since the energy usage of servers spikes at various times, depending on workloads. Furthermore, many servers draw some power 24/7 but are used mostly at minimal capacity, since they are tied to specific operations. Manufacturers have developed sensors that monitor each server’s power use, employing software that balances computing loads and eliminates the need for underused servers and storage devices. Greenfield data centers already are adopting such technologies, which could become standard features of data center infrastructure within a few years.

3. Complex autonomous systems

The most demanding use of the Internet of Things involves the rapid, real-time sensing of unpredictable conditions and instantaneous responses guided by automated systems. This kind of machine decision making mimics human reactions, though at vastly enhanced performance levels. The automobile industry, for instance, is stepping up the development of systems that can detect imminent collisions and take evasive action. Certain basic applications, such as automatic braking systems, are available in high-end autos. The potential accident reduction savings flowing from wider deployment could surpass $100 billion annually. Some companies and research organizations are experimenting with a form of automotive autopilot for networked vehicles driven in coordinated patterns at highway speeds. This technology would reduce the number of “phantom jams” caused by small disturbances (such as suddenly illuminated brake lights) that cascade into traffic bottlenecks.

Scientists in other industries are testing swarms of robots that maintain facilities or clean up toxic waste, and systems under study in the defense sector would coordinate the movements of groups of unmanned aircraft. While such autonomous systems will be challenging to develop and perfect, they promise major gains in safety, risk, and costs. These experiments could also spur fresh thinking about how to tackle tasks in inhospitable physical environments (such as deep water, wars, and contaminated areas) that are difficult or dangerous for humans.

What comes next?

The Internet of Things has great promise, yet business, policy, and technical challenges must be tackled before these systems are widely embraced. Early adopters will need to prove that the new sensor-driven business models create superior value. Industry groups and government regulators should study rules on data privacy and data security, particularly for uses that touch on sensitive consumer information. Legal liability frameworks for the bad decisions of automated systems will have to be established by governments, companies, and risk analysts, in consort with insurers. On the technology side, the cost of sensors and actuators must fall to levels that will spark widespread use. Networking technologies and the standards that support them must evolve to the point where data can flow freely among sensors, computers, and actuators. Software to aggregate and analyze data, as well as graphic display techniques, must improve to the point where huge volumes of data can be absorbed by human decision makers or synthesized to guide automated systems more appropriately.

Within companies, big changes in information patterns will have implications for organizational structures, as well as for the way decisions are made, operations are managed, and processes are conceived. Product development, for example, will need to reflect far greater possibilities for capturing and analyzing information.

Companies can begin taking steps now to position themselves for these changes by using the new technologies to optimize business processes in which traditional approaches have not brought satisfactory returns. Energy consumption efficiency and process optimization are good early targets. Experiments with the emerging technologies should be conducted in development labs and in small-scale pilot trials, and established companies can seek partnerships with innovative technology suppliers creating Internet-of-Things capabilities for target industries.

Yahoo!解散手機部？！迎戰新環境

沒有講錯！正正就在三月初，手機商務熱潮熾盛之際，雅虎的首席執行官Carol Bartz決定解散了內部的手機組，目前當然不是放棄市場，而是把整個團組分散到公司內部各階層，為手機搜尋市場作好最重要的部署。

不過，好消息沒有隨之而來，T-Mobile USA宣布與雅虎不再續約，投到Google的陣形，把旗下的手機內置搜尋置定為Google。至於T-Mobile的歐洲市場，則暫時仍沿用雅虎。

分析員指出，手機搜尋今天來說，帶來的收入仍然很微薄，但前景卻一片光明，尤其是手機搜尋對零售業和品牌有著無限的商機。

Facebook Twitter 手機登入跳升的啟示

互聯網上著名的統計及研究公司comScore發表報告，指今年（２０１０年）一月，有30.8%智能手機用戶利用瀏覽器上網登入社交網。這個數字將為手機市場推廣界帶來新的意義，意味著下一個兵家必爭之地，就是智能手機社交網。

還是不太相信，那就講講數字吧！根據comScore，Facebook單在去年，透過手機瀏覽器登入的人數狂飆了1.12倍，而Twitter因為還在起步初階，跳升幅度更強勁，達到3.47倍。

是否真的「嘩」多幾聲呢？！但我相信這個還沒有包括利用Mobile Apps上Facebook和Twitter的人數，實際數字可能更驚人。

comScore的研究員認為，社交媒體和手機平台之間有著一種很自然的協同效應，從Facebook和Twitter的情況來看，這可效應確實存在。更重要的是，社交媒體在手機上的落根生長速度，比其他傳統媒體來得更加快，意味著市場推廣者未來需要重視手機上社交網應用的環境。

好，看了這篇文章一段小時間，大家有沒有想過，其實我講的可能只是Hypes and Hoaxes，一味在「老吹」呢？

當然，各位做Marketing的朋友，還是應該要看清楚數字的。據comScore，在2010年1月，在整體手機用瀏覽器上網登入社交網的人數，實際只佔整體手機人數的11.1%，較去年增長4.6%。相對用智能手機戶口為低，但亦不能太差。

comScore研究人員表示，我們目前只看到冰山一角，還沒有了透徹了解手機用戶如何在手機環境下，利用社交網與朋友連繫起來，如怎樣相約聚會、下線購物、支付、交易等等，但總而言之，那是商機無限！

Facebook Page定係自己起網站好？

前數日的清晨時份上網之際，突然間想起，要為家人的公司推出一些簡單的網絡推廣。於是，急忙跑進Facebook，開了一個新的Page，只定好的欄題，想起了未能確定一些資訊，於是就這樣沒有內容、沒有照片，便擱掉下來。

沒想翌日下午，突然接到了傳銷電話，對方是一間Facebook廣告製作公司，知道我的姓氏，問我是否製作了某某個Page，向我介紹他公司的製作套餐，又說我所造的空間很有限，不像他們可以造一些PHP的問卷等等，還邀約我見面。我…一向的宗旨是盡做Fugal Marketing，慳得就慳，不想花費數千元製作費，當然推卻了。

這樣我想起了一事，換了數年前，我只會做網站，而沒有想過在Social Media做的。今天，以Facebook為首的Social Media大行其道，「個網」（個人網站和個別公司的網站）仍有空間嗎？

據Facebook的資料，目前約有多於三百萬個活躍的Facebook Page在它們的平台上，主要都是商業機構在打大眾市場。

對於擁有大批粉絲的商業機構來說，開設Facebook Page成為了一項重要的投資。美國廣告業界便發現，不少客戶在其網絡廣告上，現都會在結尾部分，「請到我們的Facebook Page」瀏覽，而不再連結到自己公司的網站。

最佳的例子莫過於Uniball在Facebook Page上送出了近一萬支筆，但竟然隻字不提自己的網站，也沒有作出連結。此舉明智是否，惹起了業界的討論，這種純粹推廣，把活動從官方網站中抽離的做法，很不為人所認同。

有電子顧問就這種做法提出五大的質疑：
1. 沒有擁有權：
Facebook Page根本就不屬於公司的，公司充其量只是在Facebook 租個「場」做推銷，Facebook有權改變策略，那時公司可能會損失客戶資料，甚至可能被Facebook閉掉。或許，影響可能好輕微，但一旦公司這樣做，就是把「人流」導向不屬於自己的地方，這是怎樣的策略呢？

2. 不是所有人都在上Facebook：
Facebook不代表整個網絡，更不代表全個世界，世界仍有很多人不上Facebook、甚至沒有Facebook帳號的。是否用Facebook Page，真的視乎你的對象而定。

3. Facebook Page的URL唔靚仔：
我很同意這個說法，真的無法記下的，用中文做標題，更會被改為一些奇怪的拼音字作為代替，相對自己公司設定的URL，真的有天淵之別！只要很微小的錯誤，足以影響整個推廣計劃的成效。

4. 廢掉你的SEO努力
就當你的Facebook Page好成功，如病毒咁散播出去，你所接收的連結都去了Facebook，對你的網站一點也沒有好處，也不能提升你的search engine optimization。

5. 一個成功的網站，一定比Facebook Page強效
依靠Facebook Page實無可厚非，但自家的網站一樣可以強大起來的，自己造作的內容一樣可以很有價值，Facebook Page有很多限制，例如一經設定，標題不能修改，始終都不及自己的網站好！

個人認為，這五大指控很有力。你呢？