Is Microsoft Back?

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.

My Predictions for Tech in 2015

2014 was a great year for technology. There were brilliant IPOs such as GoPro and Zendesk, the shareconomy rocketed thanks to the likes of Airbnb and Lyft (among others), Apple released the brilliant iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Android got a whole lot better with Android L(ollipop), and there were acquisitions left, right and centre. There were also some lows for tech in 2014. Blackberry almost completely disappeared, Uber received massive opposition from local government (and dug itself some pretty big holes), once great companies such as IBM continued in a slow decline, and hackers (for good and bad reasons) were out in full force with the biggest hacks coming late in the year to Sony along with Xbox Live and the Playstation Network (PSN) over Christmas.

I think many of these trends will continue into 2015 and the negatives will lead to some positives for many. Here's some of my full predictions:

1. Wearables will flop

There was huge hype around wearables in 2014 with Google Glass being a big player and almost every tech company at least announcing their intentions for wearables while many actually released consumer versions - mostly watches. Guess what? They all failed. And I think they'll continue to fail through 2015. I don't think the technology or the consumer want is there quite yet. The devices are still too bulky for most and so far have just emulated smartphones on a smaller screen. I think this will change slightly with Apple's iWatch as they always do UIs well but it's not going to be the big hit that the iPod, iPhone or iPad were.

2. Cybersecurity will rule

Following the high profile hack of, and release of information from Sony 2015 will be a brilliant year for the cybersecurity industry. Companies of all shapes and sizes are going to be on the hunt for protection in an attempt to avoid being 'Sonyed'. The solution too will come in many shapes and sizes but I think Software/Hardware as a Service (S/HaaS) will be the big business model. Of course, there will continue to be high profile hacks as anything connected to the open web can never be 100% secured.

3. IPOs galore

As already mentioned there were some great Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in 2014 and this will only increase in 2015. Some of the IPOs to expect include, in my opinion, Spotify, Box and possibly Uber and Airbnb. I'm still not sure about Evernote but that would great if it happened. We could also see some small unexpected IPOs from the likes of Pinterest or Snapchat but I'm not convinced these would be particularly successful/necessary.

4. Unbundling

I think 2015 will see some pretty big corporations splitting up their operations to compete with the smaller, more agile start-ups that are so threatening to their businesses. This will be out of necessity rather than something they really want to do - it's much more efficient and cost effective to have everything in one place and share overheads but I don't they'll have a choice going forward. I'd be keeping my eye on the likes of Microsoft, Sky, Cisco etc.

5.Disruption will get more opposition

Highly disruptive companies will get more and more opposition in 2015 as they spread their wings and go international. The companies I'm talking about are those such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, 23andMe, and Tesla. Much of this opposition will come from local government who have failed to keep-up and therefore have no, or the wrong, legislation in place for these companies. Unions and those in the disrupted industries who fail to innovate will have an ever stronger but short lived voice. Eventually the disruptor's will be successful.

6. Retail will suffer at the hands of mobile

Bricks and mortar businesses will continue their general decline as online and particularly mobile gains more and more traction. At points in 2014 Amazon saw 60% of it's sales coming from mobile. Only a couple of years ago it was still more convenient to go to a store to buy something but now with one-click purchasing on the go (on mobile), one day delivery and click and collect it's almost more convenient to buy online and with the upcoming launch of Apple Pay and increasing use of and innovation by PayPal this will only become more convenient. Any company that isn't mobile first in 2015 should be preparing for failure.

9. Healthcare will become personal

As more and more of our devices monitor our every move and heartbeat I think 2015 will just start to see a revolution in healthcare. I think individuals will become even more aware of their own health and tailored healthcare and fitness will become a big trend starting in 2015 and continuing for years after.

10. OS wars will end

Finally, I'm pretty confident that the Apple vs Android vs Microsoft wars will come to an end. As Benedict Evans has very well noted towards the end of 2014 Apple and Android have both won in their war. Android have won the mass, low price point consumer, which is what they wanted and Apple have won less market share but it's at the high end (price point) of the entire mobile market, which again is what they wanted. Meanwhile, Microsoft have retained the vast majority of their business customers and even gained some consumers with their Surface tablets. So 2015 will hopefully see an end to the OS wars we've seen over the last few years. Oh, and as for Blackberry, say Goodbye!!

Top 5 Start-Ups from TechCrunch Disrupt Europe

It's been a good couple of weeks since TechCrunch Disrupt Europe in London and now the hype as settled I can get to a top 5. This was a really difficult task to do as there were so many brilliant start-ups exhibiting at the conference without even mentioning those that made it to the Battlefield and those in the Battlefield Final. Anyway, this is my top 5 from across the two days. Oh, and there's no order to this top 5 - I couldn't decide.

1. Intelligent Energy

Although they're not exactly a start-up any more, I think they were an event sponsor or something, Intelligent Energy were showing off a really cool product called the Upp. It's essentially a portable phone/device charger that uses Hydrogen fuel cells rather than the traditional lithium batteries you would see in these kinds of things. Now of course you can't recharge a Hydrogen fuel cell as  you would a battery from the mains so all you do is exchange your empty cartridge for a new one at hopefully one of many stockists around the UK, although there don't appear to be any at the moment. They reckon a single cartridge will last around two weeks once you've got in to a routine and of course depending on how much you actually use it. At the moment they're saying around five full charges.

Upp is certainly not the lightest thing ever weighing a whopping 620g in total but it does look nice and also has an associated app to manage the charging and tell you how much is left and where to get a new cartridge.

There's no official word on cost as far as I can tell but I'd guess at around £150 for the device and <£10 for a cartridge.

So, it's not quite the most convenient solution yet but I really see the potential in this and it's certainly cutting edge. Let's hope they get the weight down and number of charges up.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCJ287P7APY[/embed]

Find out more at BeUpp.com.

2. cloudcannon

These guys started off in New Zealand and have now moved to San Francisco - I guess there's not a big start-up scene in NZ. Their offering is really quite simple but delivers something really useful and that is editable HTML websites. It's essentially a CMS that at the moment seems aimed at freelancers who as you'd expect love creating and developing but hate doing the mundane content bits and trivial day-to-day updates that most websites need.

So as a designer you build a beautiful website in HTML and then your client can easily edit select parts from a WYSIWYG interface without breaking the website.

The company was started little over a year ago and consists of only four guys but they've already managed to raise $500,000 and moved to Silicon Valley. I think this company is really going to go somewhere.

Find out more at cloudcannon.com.

3.Mous

Time for another British start-up and this one is also in the hardware game. Although not quite as high tech as Hydrogen fuel cells their product is just as useful and simple.

Mous are just about to launch a Kickstarter campaign for an iPhone case that allows your Apple headphones to be integrated in to. This means you no longer lose your headphones, forget to take them with you and when you want to use them they're not in a tangled mess.

Personally, I tend not to use Apple headphones but apparently 70 something percent of iPhone users do so it makes sense for these to be the ones to fit. The case is quite bulky but feels very light and will be available in a number of different colours or you can mix and match colours to create something more distinctive and personal.

Their hoping to raise £10,000 in their Kickstarter campaign which is launching in 6 days on 8th November. They're also part of Virgin Start-up.

This product isn't going to change the world but I really do wish these guys the best of luck and I'm confident they'll more than exceed their Kickstarter goal.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tg8gJ_0B_4[/embed]

Find out more at mous.co and Kickstarter

4. PredicSis

Big data is a bit of a buzzword at the moment and there's so many companies out there offering a full spectrum of solutions and PredicSis are one of them. That sounds quite negative but I think this company are offering something a bit different and with the start-up mentality they can probably survive the inevitable downturn more than others could.

PredicSis are using Machine Learning to predict customer behaviour such as buying a product, switching providers etc.

This is a big thing for many businesses who are keen to better understand what their customers are going to do next so they can tailor their marketing around this.

They're based in Paris, France where there's a big start-up scene with lot's of potential customers and investors.

Predictive Analytics is a very promising area and is the future of big data as more and more companies have more data on customers they need a way to analyse it and predicting future behaviour really gives a tangible return which decision makers like to see. Once again, I can see this company doing well.

Find out more at predicsis.com.

5.Kinetise

Everybody wants an app but many can't afford the cost of development and this is where Kinetise comes in. Kinetise is a website that allows you to very easily create good looking and very functional websites in very little time.

They were demoing a number of apps at TechCrunch and one they had built was an almost exact replica of Facebook, this had been created in less than 24 hours.

The drag and drop interface will be very easy to use for most but don't forget that at least some technical knowledge is needed to develop any app and it's the same here. If you're developing a dynamic app you'll data sources for example.

Once you've created and are happy with your app you can download it instantly to your phone or tablet for testing and demoing. To publish the app you simply pay $1000, which is a fraction of the cost of a developer, and the app is sent to the app stores for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry, plus a version's available in Java for other uses. Of course, your app does have to be approved first to be published on certain app stores.

I think this is a really interesting platform and the possibilities are far more than anything similar that I've seen out there.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox2H-o5jX98[/embed]

Find out more at kinetise.com.

So that's my Top 5 from TechCrunch Disrupt Europe held in London this year. There really were so many interesting and amazing start-ups there and choosing a top 5 was really difficult.

What were your favourites? Comment below.

Should You Buy The New Tesco Hudl 2?

We all know that the budget end of the tablet market is filled with horribly impossible to use small Android tablets (apart from Google's own of course) but now surprisingly the UK's biggest Supermarket, Tesco, has got in on the act and has done a brilliant job. As the name suggests the Hudle 2 is the next iteration to Tesco's budget Android tablet and after the huge success of the original nobody can blame them for going at it again. At only £130 the Hudl 2 is perfect for kids and those that are perhaps new to tablets and won't use or need the features of a larger more expensive device. At that price you'd expect fairly lacklustre tech specs but Tesco have pulled out all the stops with this one.

The 8.3" Full HD screen makes using the device a joy and the crisp, clear text makes it perfect for a bit of Facebook, online shopping and reading books while the Intel Atom quad-core processor and 2GB RAM makes it great for watching HD films and even gaming. It comes with the latest version of Android (at the time of writing anyway) which is called KitKat meaning you get a great choice of apps from the Google Play store. Unfortunately Tesco have loaded a few of their own which can't be deleted but they don't really get in the way too much. However, one of these apps, the child safety app, is very useful. It lets you set profiles for everybody in the family and with this you can set which apps and websites they can use and even how long and what times of the day they can use the tablet - essential for any family.

But, and there's always a but, the battery life is really the thing you'll notice on the Hudl 2, at most it'll give you 8 hours of web browsing and book reading but as soon as you play a movie or processor intensive game the battery will really start to drain - you'll certainly be charging it almost daily. It's also not the greatest looking of tablets and weighs just over 400g which is significantly heavier than the 330g iPad Mini, but then it is half the price. The cameras are pretty pointless t00 with a 5MP rear and 1.2MP at the front - although nobody should ever being using a tablet to take masterpiece photos anyway.

So, should you buy the Tesco Hudl 2 tablet?

If you're looking for a budget tablet for your kids, something cheap to use around the house or a gift for your parents or grandparents then absolutely yes, you should buy one - it's a really great tablet.

If you're looking for a sleek, good looking, feature filled tablet for more than web browsing and the odd bit of gaming then no, you'd be better going for an iPad Mini, Nexus 7 or Amazon Fire HD.

Shareconomy to get an 'Independent' Review

It's a £9bn global industry and a recent announcement by the UK government proves it wants to be at the heart of it. As part of the Conservative - Lib Dem coalition's plans recover the economy through entrepreneurs an independent review of the 'sharing economy', commonly known as the shareconomy, has been ordered.

Some of the best known companies in the shareconomy include ZipCar, Airbnb, Lyft, and even London's Boris bikes. The whole aim of these is generally access not ownership meaning that anybody can access a car, for example, but not everybody has to own one. The car sharing company, City Car Club, is a good example of this. They have cars dotted around a number of UK cities and members simply book a car online for however long they want. This gives those who don't need to use a car often or simply can't afford to own a car access to one whenever they need it.

The industry is growing rapidly and is expected to be worth over £200bn within 15 years but these new business models aren't without controversy. Airbnb has recently faced opposition in New York and San Francisco with some accusing the company of facilitating illegal hotels and most are aware of Uber's recent trials and tribulations.

Although this review is being called 'independent' it's being conducted by Debbie Wosskow who founded Love Home Swap - one of the biggest home sharing companies out there so I think we know what the results of this review will be already.