Don't forget that Google is an advertising company

June 14, 2015 James Saye

So I think we learnt a lot from Google's 2 hour keynote at it's developers conference but the overarching impression I got is that Google just wants people to use it's apps and services - it wants mass market. Almost everything they announced were cloud services or apps, rather than embedded Android features. This isn't a bad thing though, the apps and services announced looked very polished and very useful, the majority are also available on iOS (again proving they want mass market).

One could almost say that Google doesn't really care about Android - it doesn't care what hardware it goes on, it doesn't care what's in its app store or how much revenue it could make from it, it doesn't care what version consumers use (btw <10% are on the latest version - Android L), it doesn't even care about adding major new features - again, nearly all the new features were separate apps.

What it does care about though is that people are using Android rather than using Windows or iOS or any other operating system. The reason Google cares? They're a data company and they want (need) to know everything they can about it's users and the world around them, and they need mass market to do this well. Why? So they can deliver advertising to those users.

Now these aren't criticisms of Google, I think they're a fantastic company, but when people talk (positively and negatively) about Google as a business and it's products and services they forget that everything it does is to gather data to enable them to serve better adverts... and that's not a bad thing really.

Top 5 Tech Events to Attend this Spring

February 23, 2015 James Saye

Here's my top 5 list of tech events to attend over the next few months. March

1. Mobile World Congress

Easily one of the biggest exhibition and conferences in tech Mobile World Congress (MWC) attracts over 85,000 attendees and hosts the worlds biggest companies. Last years speakers included company presidents such as Ford's Stephen Odell and CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg and you can expect more of that calibre this year. It's not cheap though with a conference and exhibition ticket setting you back €2200 (£1600, $2500).

This year it's taking place on 2nd - 5th March in Barcelona.

2. Internet of Things Summit

A somewhat smaller event that MWC but interesting nonetheless. This event run by RE.WORK brings together over 200 technologists, entrepreneurs and innovators together to discuss the rapidly changing Internet of Things (IoT) landscape. There are 50 speakers at the London event on 12th and 13th March including John Lewis' Paul Coby, Hugh Knowles from the Internet of Things Academy, and many other industry and business leaders.

April

3. TNW Europe

The NextWeb's European conference kicks off this year on 23rd April in the great city of Amsterdam. With 3,500 attendees and speakers including Neelie Kroes and Werner Vogels this year promises to be a must-attend event. For start-ups Boost offers the chance to pitch in front of conference attendees and maybe spark the interest of eager investors. Tickets are quite reasonable at around £400 and students can get full 2-day access for only £180.

4. IDTechEx Europe

On April 28th and 29th IDTechEx plays host to one of their largest conferences yet with six co-located events in Berlin. The co-located conferences include 3D Printing, Electric vehicles, Energy Harvesting, Graphene, IoT, Wearable, and Printed Electronics. They're expecting 2000 attendees with 150 exhibitors. Speakers from companies such as Qualcomm and Jaguar Land Rover means this event can't be missed for anybody in these industries.

May

5. TechCrunch Disrupt New York

TechCrunch's conferences are known world-wide as some of the best with their legendary Startup Battlefield giving new companies a once in a lifetime chance to pitch to attendees, investors and press, and be in with the chance of winning $50,000. Taking place on 4th - 5th May at the Manhattan Center in New York it also hosts some of techs best speakers with Aaron Levie of Box fame already confirmed. If you can't quite make it New York you have to get to their European conference which usually takes place in October.

Is Microsoft Back?

February 1, 2015 James Saye

For the last five to ten years Microsoft has come under a lot of criticism, and quite rightly so, for constantly lagging behind in the consumer technology arena. It seems that under Steve Ballmer anything that threatened Microsoft's cash cows such as it's desktop OS (XP, Vista, 7 etc.) and Office products were immediately thrown out. This caused a long period of stagnation, as you can see in the chart below, and it wasn't until mid-2013 when Ballmer announced his retirement that the stock price began to rise again. Microsoft has seen some awful products over this time period with the most memorable being Windows Vista, Windows 8, the first Surface, and of course it continued to pump out useless versions of Internet Explorer.

It does seem now though that Microsoft is making some what of resurgence - it's stock price is up, it has a new boss - Satya Nadella, and it's released details of some exciting new products. All is explained below.

Financials

Since around 2002 Microsoft's share price has been pretty flat at between $25 - $30 but since mid-2013 it's started to rise and now sits at about $40 after a peak of $50 in late 2014. This says to me that there's some confidence out there about the future of Microsoft and it's P/E ratio of 16 backs that up too.

The company's financials are also looking up. In 2014 revenue was almost $87 Billion which is $13 Billion more than 2012. R&D spending is up and so is profit which now sits at just over £22 Billion.

These increases are set to continue through 2015 with the introduction of Windows 10, probably a new Surface tablet and the expected upgrades when Server 2003 goes out of service.

Office on all devices

Something Microsoft has always done well with is it's Office products. Everyone learns them in school and everyone uses them in their day to day lives - they're pretty good products. However, under Ballmer Microsoft seemed very wary of messing with this cash cow. Office was never really available (and if it was it was unusable) on mobile devices and has always worked best on PCs. Now though they have developed versions for Android and iOS, and they're really quite good. They've also opened up to a new business model which is offering subscription rather than a one type payment which really works in their favour.

This is a great step in the right direction for Microsoft and one of their biggest products.

Windows 10

Everyone hated Windows 8 - it only worked properly on touch screens and some it did away with some basic features that users were used to on previous versions e.g. the 'Start' button.

Windows 10 is currently in Technical Preview (Beta) stage which is expected to end April this year and so far has received positive reviews. The interface looks clean, simple and brings back the start button. They're also bringing universal apps so developers can develop once for Microsoft and their app will then work across all Microsoft devices including mobile.

There'll also be a new browser, codenamed Spartan, which promises to be much better than Internet Explorer. Cortana, Microsoft's (better) version of Siri will also be available on Windows 10.

With an expected release date later in 2015 it should be a positive step for the company.

HoloLens

A really innovative future product for Microsoft, Hololens hopes to bring holograms to our everyday lives - and it looks pretty cool. This has to be the most innovative product we've seen from Microsoft and although it won't be a consumer product for a good few years yet it gives a great glimpse in to the way the company is thinking and it looks like they're thinking about the future rather than just iterating their current cash cows.

I'm not going to attempt to describe HoloLens - it won't do it justice. Have a look at this link.

Mobile

This is an area where Microsoft have really struggled in the past and I they're still not there yet. Even with the acquisition of Nokia mobile sales are no where even near those of iOS or Android and although the Surface 3 is a great tablet it's again not even coming close to the iPad in terms of sales. I'm sure Windows 10 will go some way to enhancing their mobile offering but I'm not convinced it'll make much of a dent. I think they should be going after the business customers that left Blackberry but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

On the whole then I'd say things are looking up for Microsoft. They've got some great products in the pipeline that look they can easily compete with the likes of Apple and Google as well as keep their loyal users happy. It'll be an interesting year for Microsoft that I look forward to following.