Lenovo
How did Lenovo become the world’s biggest computer company? (Economist) – large home market giving it enough time and capital to invest in products. Lenovo started off in 1984 as a television manufacturer called Legend. Lenovo then moved into making and selling PCs. In 1994, they managed to raise US$30 million. By 1999 Legend managed to buy IBM’s PC business and then became Lenovo. Lenovo is notable for the way in which it has blended Chinese and US business culture.
Consumer behaviour
New-to-vinyl converts talk about the joys of playing LPs | The Audiophiliac – CNET News – interesting observations about ritual and really listening to music
Stop Generalizing About Europe | JonasBentzen.com – I wish I could have given this to clients back when I started in agency life
Economics
How Chinese Economic Policy Could Save Club Med Countries – interesting take on whether free trade zones would help the PIIGS countries
Daily chart: Undue credit | The Economist – lending to decline further in western Europe, in contrast with the rest of the world
Five economic charts that will define 2013 – Quartz
FMCG
How Tide Detergent Became a Drug Currency — New York Magazine – particularly interesting when you think about the way Tide doesn’t match your traditional idea of currency: it isn’t particularly portable for instance
How to
4 Secrets For Doing Gonzo User Research | Co.Design
wireframe.cc – minimal wireframing tool – for free
Ideas
The new politics of the internet: Everything is connected | The Economist – really nice analysis of how web issues affect society and politics
What Turned Jaron Lanier Against the Web? | Smithsonian Magazine – an antedote to data utopianism
The Web We Lost – Anil Dash – good ideas that the social web has killed or corrupted
The WELL: State of the World 2013: Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky – interesting if rambling discussion with author Bruce Sterling
Innovation
The Technium: Pain of the New – interesting review of high frame rate (HFR) film screenings and the initial consumer reaction to many pieces of technology
Facebook?! Twitter?! Instagram?! We Did That 40 Years Ago | Wired.com – every idea has its time
Media
Edelman – Paid Media — A Change of Heart – not terribly surprising
EU Antitrust Chief: Google “Diverting Traffic” & Will Be Forced To Change – it will be interesting to see what the EU comes up with
Better than Nielsen: Twitter breaks down TV behavior by demographics, device, and genre | The Verge
Topspin’s Ian Rogers to Head Beats’ New Music Subscription Service – AllThingsD
Websites Vary Prices, Deals Based on Users’ Information – WSJ.com
A more complete picture of the iTunes economy | asymco
Is Facebook worth it? Film execs confide they may cut movie ads – latimes.com – the content optimisation steps that studios are taking are particularly interesting
Chinese Social Network Douban Rolls Out Paid Music Streaming Subscriptions
Why Does Everyone Think Google Beat The FTC? | The New Republic – Tim Wu’s great analysis of the Google verdict
Facebook’s Confidence Is Shaken – Business Insider – interesting take on Facebook. The underlying theme is Facebook a one-trick pony or are there future services that will better justify its share price?
Online
British Facebook population hits 27 million – Brand Republic News or roughly two thirds of the online population
Here’s a Heatmap of WeChat Users Around the World – seems to be driven by Chinese communities overseas
December 2012 Social Media Report: Facebook Pages in the United Kingdom – Socialbakers – useful reference
Flickr Photos Added to Yahoo! Image Search – I thought this was done 7 years ago?
Yahoo’s Mail And Search Traffic Drops – Business Insider – not surprised by the search numbers, the mail numbers are more alarming
Who Is Using Twitter in France? – huge increase in the over-55s
Flickr: Why did Flickr drop the “e”? – Quora
China’s Sina Weibo Rolls Out Partial English Interface [UPDATE: Sina Confirms] – it is inconsistent, but promising development
Elapsed Time: Trying to be the one true social graph is like trying to hold water in your fist the futility of all your online social interactions being captured by Facebook
Retailing
No Logo | Design Week – I love this new campaign by Selfridges that I heard of via Stephen
Security
Nokia: Yes, we decrypt your HTTPS data, but don’t worry about it — Tech News and Analysis – but knowing that exists could encourage hackers to break Nokia so that they can sit in on the man-in-the-middle attack
Software
Nokia Boss: “Today we are with Microsoft, but anything is possible” – is the contract with Microsoft non-exclusive?
WINDOWS 8: Do People Want To ‘Touch’ Laptop Screen? – Business Insider – interesting observations about price points for Windows devices, the comments section is particularly interesting with desperate sounding justification of Windows 8. Whether people want to touch their screen they are likely to getting touchscreen laptops at some point
Java Was Strongly Influenced by Objective-C – interesting how programming languages influence each other, how would this sit with current IP stances?
Polyvore Engineering Blog: Web Developer Admits: Objective-C > HTML5 – provides more engaging experience
Steve Ballmer’s Dilemma ~ I, Cringely – interesting financial analysis on Microsoft
Communities Dominate Brands: Kantar November Numbers: Suggest Decline in Windows Phone and.. Increase in Symbian? Nokia is so doomed – interesting bits in the comments
Samsung and NTT Docomo Bet on Tizen OS to Rival iOS/Android in 2013 | SiliconANGLE – interesting that NTT Docomo is less concerned about vendor consolidation than OS consolidation
Technology
Panasonic halting LCD production to focus on OLED TV and 4K tablet – News – Trusted Reviews – all of those LCD plants could seem like a millstone for Samsung et al in a couple of years
Tablets Will Overtake Laptops in 2013 – AllThingsD – in the same way that mainframes and workstations / mini-computers haven’t died out but become specialised
Tech’s Hot New Market: The Poor | Wired.com – disrupting pay-day loans etc
USC – 25% of PC owners may switch to other devices, reports Center for the Digital Future & Bovitz, Inc. – downshifting computing power, tablets and phones as substitute products
Global Semiconductor Revenues Grew Less Than 1% In 2012: IDC – poor PC component sales
Telecoms
Future Internet Architectures Aim to Better Serve Billions of Tablets and Smartphones | MIT Technology Review – new ideas in network architecture
Apple slashes price on Thunderbolt cable, releases additional shorter model | 9to5Mac – interesting that this story ranked so highly in Techmeme despite CES
Web of no web
CES: Sunnyvale chipmaker Invensense seeks to bring GPS indoors – San Jose Mercury News
Wireless
Deciphering the Decline in Spanish Mobile Accounts – NYTimes.com
Apple secures majority of US smartphone market, Samsung dominates Europe | ZDNet
Nokia’s Lumia Offered at Discounts – WSJ.com – looks like Nokia demand is soft