Jeff Richards' Demand Insights

Motorola announced last week it is acquiring Symbol Technologies. I immediately received quite a few inquiries asking "good thing or bad thing for RFID?"

As most of us know, Symbol's RFID business grew out of the 2004 acquisition of Matrics. Matrics was an early pioneer in the passive space, and did a lot to break ground with Wal*Mart's RFID initiative. For the past few years, Symbol tags and readers have been a standard part of any RFP response for passive technology, and it's hard to argue the company isn't one of the leaders in the space.

My contacts at Motorola tell me this is a good thing. Moto had been looking to play a stronger role in the enterprise space for years, and the discussions with Symbol aren't new. Plus, the company's got a wealth of talent from a science and technology perspective to draw from, and a heck of a lot more investment dollars to put to work in the space.

From an industry perspective, let's hope we see some of the same kind of innovation from Moto we've seen in the past few years in the consumer wireless segment - RAZR RFID anyone?

Posted by Jeff Richards at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As covered on RFID Journal and elsewhere, Mexico recently announced that it intends to require the use of RFID to track pallets, cases and individual items for drugs covered under the federal Seguro Popular insurance program, which covers roughly 4 million families.

Interestingly enough, it appears the mandate will require both UHF (pallet and case) and HF (item) passive technology - an interesting concept. Our experience here in the U.S. tells us the largest challenge will not lie in using the technology (it works), but in using multiple frequencies in environments where you have competing frequency traffic (hospitals) and low-tech inventory systems (pharmacies, retailers).

We also spent 9 months in 2005 running an item-level, in-store passive RFID pilot for a global apparel manufacturer and retailer. While the results were fantastic, the Mexican technology ecosystem is at a much earlier stage than the U.S., so expect to see U.S. technology vendors and systems integrators heavily involved in the Seguro Popular RFID rollout, if and when it begins to take hold.

Posted by Jeff Richards at 04:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

FastCompany magazine recently had an article describing an initiative by Wal*Mart and GE to get every one of the retailer's 100 million regular customers to purchase a compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL). According to the article, the environmental impact of such an effort would be massive:

"the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads. "

While I am by no means an environmental activist, and I am relying on the data supplied in this article to be factually correct, the impact of this seemingly small effort is staggering. It also highlights the incredible impact a large base of users can have on the world at large (think: MySpace's 100 million, Yahoo's 500 million, etc.).

In this particular effort, Wal*Mart worked directly with GE (led by Dartmouth grad Jeff Immelt, GE is also working hard to incorporate green initiatives into its overall corporate mission) to reduce the price of CFL's from $3.19 to $2.53 each. While still 10X the price of a regular bulb, the price cuts have made a big impact, and we can probably expect the price to fall further, if Wal*Mart's track record is any suggestion of future trends.

I'll stop shamelessly paraphrasing the article now, and emphasize my overall point - what if all those "eyeballs" we keep talking about "monetizing" were focused 1% of the time on socially productive initiatives? The outcome might be incredible (impact on US oil consumption, anyone). Say what you will about Wal*Mart, and the company takes plenty of shots daily, they may be on the front end of an overall trend - let's hope so.

Posted by Jeff Richards at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you're on this site, you're probably aware of the role VeriSign plays in the Internet ecosystem. From this vantage point, we also have a pretty good idea as to what it takes to drive the constantly-evolving "next generation" (think Web 2.0) of Internet-based technology and services.

One of the cooler concepts developed within VeriSignLabs isour Personal Identity Provider (PIP) service. Mike Graves and Kiran Dandekar cover the PIP concept in detail on the Infrablog, so I won't go into the basics, but we are starting to see an interesting new twist on the concept - one that benefits both consumers and the companies they do business with.

Neither the concepts of identity or the "digital consumer" are new - both have been covered ad nauseum. What is relatively new is the ability to combine the two in a networked model, and it's not readily apparent that brand marketers or retailers have fully leveraged the concept (yet).

As consumers are able to create secure, networked, digital identities on the web (yes, see PIP), the possibilities for opt-in marketing become exponentially interesting - and, if done correctly, should be entirely at the control of the consumer. A couple of examples specific to the retail segment:

- A retailer creates a Digital Consumer loyalty program, enabling its best customers to not only receive discounts in the store but also on the web, coupons via email (only for products they select), or - even better - coupons via their mobile phone when within range of a store.

- A major athletic gear brand is able to establish a "user community" online, with very specific demographic information (controlled by the consumer) driving targeted "panel" capabilities - think of a million teenagers reviewing a new promotional spot within 24 hours in return for a $5 discount on the company's newest shoe line. The shoe company can quickly adjust the messaging (negative feedback), accelerate the launch (positive feedback), etc.

There are of course significant privacy concerns around all of these concepts, but similar to sliced bread (neither bread nor slicing were new), the technology is available to make it happen in a safe, secure way. Suffice it to say we believe the concept of identity will drive a massive wave of consumer-enablement on the web (at a most basic level, who needs 10 passwords for 10 different sites?) and, if done right, a stronger connection with their favorite retail and consumer brands.

Given the uptake so far on PIP without any promotion, we think the Digital Consumer era is primed for a significant ramp driven by the networked identity concept.

Posted by Jeff Richards at 08:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In an Uncertain World by Robert Rubin is one of my favorite all time reads. Walks through his history at Goldman Sachs and covers in depth some of the major economic events of the Clinton era.

Posted by Jeff Richards at 01:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This one you have to read - and stay updated on. The LA Times and other publications have been covering the crash of the $1.2M Ferrari Enzo (@ 120 MPH) since February, and the plot just kept getting thicker. The driver was apparently a former founder of a European video game maker called Gizmondo. I won't replicate the Times - just read the articles...

Posted by Jeff Richards at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

John Battelle's book The Search is a great read - high level history of the search space, as well as reasonable depth and insight into the founding and rise of Google. Worth a read.

Posted by Jeff Richards at 02:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)