Hilton Worldwide
Hilton Worldwide Files for an IPO – Euromonitor International – interesting analysis of their business. Hilton Worldwide can trace its history back to a Texas hotelier in the early 20th century. It expanded to New York in 1943. Hilton Worldwide was one of the first users of computing with its centralised hotel booking system. It also pioneered the airport hotel with the first Hilton Worldwide airport property at San Francisco airport. Hilton Worldwide is being taken public by private equity company Blackstone.
Consumer behaviour
Selling to China’s digital divas: Microsoft – Campaign Asia – 18-34 year old women in China own on average just under 5 digital devices, the most popular being a smartphone
Edelman Trust Barometer – The Emerging Markets Supplement – I’ll dig into this and there maybe a post with more detail here later
DailyTech – Generation Y Wants iPhones/Tablets, Not Cars – imagine American Graffiti without the drive-in or the cars, but with iPads and iPhones
Design
Thuraya SatSleeve | Thuraya – reminded me of the OmniSky wireless sleds that used to clip on the back of Palm devices
Gadgets
Alcatel’s Crazy Idea: A Remote for the Smartphone – I don’t think that these are so crazy at all, having context dependent peripherals
How to
Matt Cutts Answers Whether Or Not Nofollow Links Can Hurt Your Site – nofollow links don’t hurt your search ranking
Ideas
Mutual Mobile | trend report on automotive – (PDF)
Ireland
TDs and Senators get reality check on mortgage arrears – The Irish Times – not really that surprising
Luxury
2013 White Paper on Travellers – The Rise of Social Travel | Group M & CIC Data – on Chinese travellers
Media
Sina Made Enterprise Weibo Verification Available for Singapore Companies — China Internet Watch
When aggregators attack: Techmeme’s headline-rewriting is just part of a larger shift — paidContent
Riptide: what really happened in the news business – great paper on the collision of digital technology with journalism and news gathering since 1980 (PDF)
Online
Twitter makes IPO plans official: files confidential S-1, but expected value is about $14B — Tech News and Analysis – that this is a confidential filing means the company’s annual revenue is less than $1 billion. Usually when companies announce plans to go public, they have to file an S-1, the securities filing that companies use to provide details about their planned initial public offerings. Under the JOBS act of 2012, however, companies with less than $1 billion in revenue can file confidentially.
@ twitter: We’ve confidentially submitted … – why use a press release when this will do
LinkedIn CEO: We’re aiming for 3B profiles and a map of the world’s economy | VentureBeat – reminds me of doing Yahoo! knowledge search press briefings with Jeff Weiner; similarly grand vision
Retailing
Chaos Reborn: Kowloon Walled City Rebuilt as Arcade | WebUrbanist – this is so cool
Security
NSA Spies on International Bank Transactions – SPIEGEL ONLINE – not terribly surprised
VPNs caught in Cameron’s porn filter – O2 network lists privacy service as adult content | TechEye
Google security exec: ‘Passwords are dead’ | Security & Privacy – CNET News – 2-part verification etc
Software
Cloud Phones Threaten iPhone Android – Business Insider – standard app versus web argument. The question is whether it will open up the market to a multiplicity of smartphone OS’ or just a few winners
Wintel destined to eventually fail, says Acer founder – many downstream players moving to Google eco-system… For an ecosystem to have a chance of growing and staying strong, it must have leadership adopting strategies that allow all partners to earn profits. – Surprised Stan Shih was that blunt about their relationship with Microsoft
Wireless
Microsoft Nokia merger: Android Lumia had been built | BGR – of course they would, you have development teams doing all kinds of things like this, but it doesn’t mean that Nokia was ready to capitalise on it
CannyVision – The most forward-thinking Apple yet – interesting speculative analysis
How significant is Apple’s deal with Docomo? 66% of ex-Docomo users left to buy an iPhone – The Next Web – potentially cut churn by 66%?
China approves new iPhone for all its networks – Rethink Wireless – an engineering feat certainly and potentially better for roaming, but don’t hold your breath for a China Mobile deal. China Mobile has more to gain by holding out for longer
Xiaomi Turns Profit on Sales of IPhone-Beating Handset – Bloomberg – bad news for Nokia and Samsung