Monthly Archives: January 2019

More than half of marketers (53.8%) say they have not studied a marketing-related academic or professional qualification of any kind. Marketing Week’s 2019 Career and Salary Survey, which questioned 4,415 marketers, shows they clearly find their way into the profession via a wide variety of routes. Just 25.7% have a marketing undergraduate degree as their highest qualification, and 16.3% a marketing master’s degree, diploma or doctorate.Of those who say they have studied a marketing degree, just 32.2% found it very useful, with 55.9% describing it as fairly useful and 11% not very useful. Similarly, 35.9% of marketers who have studied a professional qualification – whether from the Chartered Institute of Marketing or another organisation – describe their course as very useful, 50.3% fairly useful and 12.6% not very useful.

Consulting firm Kurt Salmon—a part of Accenture Strategy—placed orders at 52 US retailers, ranging from big-box stores to online-only brands. Roughly 93% of retailers successfully completed deliveries to their customers by the last guaranteed shipping date.Amazon stood out as one of the top performers, delivering up until midnight on Christmas Eve through its Amazon Prime Now service, and fulfilled orders placed on December 22 by Christmas. Nordstrom, lululemon and Best Buy were among the top-performing retailers.According to data from Rakuten Intelligence, analyzed the week of December 2, Amazon also had the fastest average delivery time, from click to door—3.4 days. In contrast, Best Buy averaged 4.6 days, as did Target, while Walmart averaged 5.5 days.“Amazon has always set the pace for fast delivery, but the good news for consumers is that the rest of the industry has been catching up,” said Andrew Lipsman, principal analyst at eMarketer. “Click-to-door times continue to get better and almost all packages are getting where they need to be by critical deadlines.”A separate study Rakuten Intelligence conducted last year already noted how much Amazon had pushed other retailers to shrink their delivery windows.These improvements by retailers and logistics providers are creating a better customer experience for online shoppers and fueling strong gains in the ecommerce sector. According to data firm ShipMatrix Inc., UPS and FedEx both improved their on-time delivery. During a four-week stretch this holiday season, UPS had a 98.3% on-time delivery rate, while FedEx reached 96.9%.Retailers have also set better expectations. Roughly a third abandoned their “last order promise date,” in an effort to not disappoint consumers in case they weren’t able to deliver holiday orders on time, according to Kurt Salmon. Instead, many pushed their BOPUS (buy online, pick up in-store) capabilities, driving last-minute sales and reducing the risk of last-mile delivery hiccups.

Much has been written about China’s diminished presence at CES 2019. Looking strictly at the numbers, the story seems clear. The CES 2019 Exhibitor directory listed 1,211 Chinese exhibitors, down from 1,551 at the 2018 show (a 20 percent drop). Add in the congressionally approved CFIUS (the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) reforms, which all but dried up Chinese venture money flowing into the United States, then add the on-again/off-again China-vs.-US trade war, and it’s easy to adopt a bearish attitude toward Chinese tech. But there’s more to this story than the numbers and the politics suggest.CES 2019 Tech East Central HallWalking into the Central Hall of CES 2019, you might have been overwhelmed by the three incumbent tech giants. Samsung, LG, and Sony all had exhibits in their customary locations, and they were impressive. The jewels in their respective crowns were 8K smart TVs and, to be fair, the image quality from all three manufacturers was breathtaking.We can get into whether or not 8K video is ever going to be a thing for consumers, or if broadcasters and production companies will ever be able to afford to upgrade their workflows to deliver 8K (no one will pay more for 8K content than they pay for 4K content). What’s important here is that 8K is what the “Big Three” were using to demonstrate the state of the art in display technology.CES, the “Chinese Electronics Show”If you walked a little farther into Central Hall, you absolutely would have been overwhelmed with the number and size of the Chinese exhibits: Hisense, Haier, Huawei, TCL, and Changhong all had massive booths with exceptional technology on display. Hisense and TCL both have 8K smart TVs in the works and TCL will start producing an 8K set with Roku built-in by the end of 2019. That’s at the cutting edge.

La transition énergétique est souvent un thème de discorde. Tout le monde admet la nécessité de changer nos modèles énergétiques ; il en va de notre survie sur cette planète. Les solutions existent, souvent en nombre et anarchiques. Elles possèdent toutes plus ou moins d’externalités négatives avec lesquelles il faut faire des compromis éconmiques, financiers, techniques, géostratégiques.... Mais si on revenait à l’essentiel ? Si la priorité était la relation de l’humain avec les choix énergétiques qu’on lui propose. Pour le savoir, il faut aller rencontrer … des humains. Et si possible dans différents endroits du monde, avec des cultures différentes, des enjeux et des ressources différentes. C’est ce que font les « Vagabonds de l’énergie ». Ils partent à travers le monde, à pied, en voiture, en bateau ou en auto-stop, pour des voyages à la rencontre des gens et de leur relation à l’énergie ; aux énergies.  L’énergie, tout le monde en a un avis, toutes les activités humaines en sont dépendantes, tous les pays la placent dans la balance des rapports de force géopolitique. Et force est de constater que des solutions qui fonctionnent ici ne fonctionnent pas nécessairement là-bas et que des solutions qui ont fait leurs preuves en laboratoire sont rejetées par le tissu social. Il y a une sociologie de l’énergie à développer pour comprendre les raisons sociales qui font un succès ou un échec technique. Le monde se met entre les mains de la rationalité des techniciens pour lui élaborer des solutions. Mais rien d’efficace ne pourra émerger tant que les sociétés humaines et l’énergie qu’elles consomment ne seront pas pensées comme un tout. Car il ne s’agit pas de trouver une source d’énergie pour remplacer les précédentes, il s’agit en réalité de savoir si les modes de vies et les sociétés actuelles trouveront le moyen de se pérenniser. La vraie question de l’énergie est là, assez loin des considérations techniques finalement.

A croire Gary Shapiro, une pluie de « ninjas » va s'abattre cette semaine sur Las Vegas, une ville qui avait pourtant déjà fort à filer en termes de métaphores avec sa fausse pyramide de Louxor, sa Tour Eiffel en carton-pâte et son imitation de l'Empire State Building. « Ninja », voici en effet le qualificatif que le prêtre de la grand-messe technologique qu'est le CES utilise pour désigner les entrepreneurs, disrupteurs et innovateurs en tous genres.Mais ninja, il l'est lui aussi. Gary Shapiro s'immisce depuis plusieurs années dans les couloirs de Washington, où il est considéré comme l'un des lobbyistes les plus influents sur les questions de technologies. Il y susurre notamment à l'oreille des dirigeants que le droit à la liberté d'expression en ligne est primordial, et l'immigration des talents vitale. Car notre homme croit aux mercenaires étrangers qui composent, selon ses calculs, la moitié des troupes des startuppeurs à succès américains.Mais, comme les ninjas devaient se méfier des samouraïs, qui jugeaient leurs méthodes non-conventionnelles déshonorantes, c'est des régulateurs que Shapiro se garde avant tout. Lors d'un récent passage à Paris, il a d'ailleurs vivement condamné notre RGPD, assurant que l'Europe allait « perdre du terrain sur la Chine et les Etats-Unis », à trop vouloir protéger la vie privée de ses citoyens.Libéral en tout point, au sens américain du terme, notre Monsieur Tech se positionne en outre en défenseur de l'environnement. Discret comme un soldat japonais, il omet cependant de préciser que le numérique émet aujourd'hui plus de CO2 que l'aviation civile... que le CES soutient également largement : plus de 180.000 personnes issues de 155 pays y sont attendues.

L'excentrique milliardaire Yusaku Maezawa, patron du site de vente en ligne de vêtements Zozotown, a promis d'offrir au total 800.000 euros à 100 personnes choisies parmi ses followers.Battus les Ellen DeGeneres, Barack Obama et autre Ariana Grande ! Depuis, ce lundi matin, le tweet le plus retweeté de l'histoire du réseau social appartient à l'excentrique milliardaire japonais Yusaku Maezawa.L'homme d'affaires, patron du site de vente en ligne de vêtements Zozotown, a réussi à générer en 36 heures plus de 3,8 millions de retweets d'un message qu'il avait posté, en japonais, tard samedi soir.Dans son tweet, le patron de 43 ans, qui s'était fait connaître en Occident en septembre dernier en achetant à Elon Musk les premiers billets pour  un voyage touristique dans l'espace à bord d'une fusée de SpaceX , a promis d'offrir au total 100 millions de yens (800.000 euros) à 100 personnes choisies parmi ses followers qui allaient retweeter ce message avant ce lundi soir. Il a indiqué qu'il remettrait 1 million de yens (8.000 euros) provenant de sa fortune personnelle à chaque heureux gagnant choisi au hasard. Tous recevront un message privé de sa société.Immédiatement, ce tweet a enflammé les réseaux sociaux nippons et le nombre d'abonnés au compte de Yusaku Maezawa a bondi de 500.000 à près de 4 millions ce lundi. Il approche aussi désormais le million de « likes ».

Plus de 150 produits différents intègrent ainsi la technologie de reconnaissance vocale Alexa et plus de 28.000 sont compatibles avec lui, fabriqués par plus de 4.500 marques différentes. Pour le plus grand bonheur de ces dernières, puisque le label « Compatible avec Alexa » semble faire un bel effet marketing.Les spécialistes attendent du CES que Google révèle ce qu'il en est pour son assistant intelligent, ses chiffres étant inférieurs au dernier comptage. En attendant, le speaker intelligent maison d'Amazon, le « Echo » n'est donc pas le seul vecteur de diffusion d'Alexa. Même si Dave Limp explique que sa déclinaison « Echo Dot » est en rupture de stock après la saison de Noël, sans vouloir de donner de chiffres supplémentaires.Comme l'explique Dave Limp à « The Verge », Amazon n'est pas même inquiet que certains produits contenant Alexa soient de mauvaise qualité. Ce qui est important, note-t-il, est qu'il y en ait suffisamment qui donnent pleine satisfaction. La marque Alexa est assez puissante pour cela.Comme dans le cloudSurtout, Amazon semble faire un plaidoyer pour l'interopérabilité des assistants intelligents. Non seulement le groupe veut que les gadgets vocaux, comme les enceintes, de la maison connectée puissent intégrer les assistants de Google, d'Apple ou d'autres, mais il est prêt à ce qu'ils puissent collaborer afin que le consommateur n'ait pas tous les réglages à refaire.  Son Echo intègre même Apple Music .

The new wallet has been redesigned and can be pre-ordered starting on Monday. It is priced at $119 and is expected to start shipping in March. The company will also launch a mobile app, the Ledger Live Mobile, for both iOS and Android platforms.The Nano X joins Ledger’s two existing consumer hardware wallets: the Nano S and the Ledger Blue. The former currently retails for $59 and the latter $269.99. The company claims in its Monday’s announcement that over 1.5 million Ledger Nano S devices have been sold worldwide. The Nano X is only available in one color at present while the Nano S comes in six colors.According to Ledger, up to 100 cryptocurrency apps can be installed on the Nano X at the same time. The device also supports over 1,100 assets with more to be added each month. In comparison, the Nano S can simultaneously run up to 18 cryptocurrency applications with support for only 40 assets in total.

Ulrich ‘Ueli’ Maurer is one of seven members of the Swiss Federal Council. The body that holds the executive power in the country is headed by a rotating presidency shared among the councillors. The position is largely ceremonial and symbolic, but the president has one important role – his vote can tip the scales when the council is divided on important decisions. On Dec. 5, Maurer was elected by the Swiss parliament for a one-year term in 2019 with the impressive support of 201 out of 209 members.The 68-year-old trained accountant has been credited for his policies as head of the Federal Department of Finance controlling the public budget, Swissinfo reports. Maurer has also demonstrated capability to understand the changes that are taking place in the financial sector and the need to adopt liberal regulations for the industry built around blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies. Digitalization is among the president’s top priorities as well.Over the past few years, Switzerland has gradually become one of the most crypto-friendly jurisdictions in Europe and on the global stage. Last month, the Swiss government announced a comprehensive strategy recognizing distributed ledger technologies as an important development for the financial sector and aiming to build a legal foundation for their implementation.The document calls for the adoption of amendments to the current laws that would improve Switzerland’s status as a crypto-friendly nation. Among other proposals, the strategy focuses on the integration of decentralized digital currencies into the country’s economic and financial infrastructure. That’s an emphasis that hundreds of crypto startups based in the Swiss Crypto Valley in Zug should certainly appreciate.

The company showed off the new feature to members of the press in a late-night demo in Las Vegas, hours before the CES show doors officially opened. A concierge at Caesar’s Palace, one of the early beta testers of the feature, was approached by a German “tourist” (really a German-speaking Google employee) and asked about show tickets. The concierge turned to a Google Home Hub and, using voice, prompted the Assistant to go into German interpreter mode. The concierge and guest had a back-and-forth conversation, with the Assistant translating, and tickets were procured.During a demo with WIRED, the Assistant mistranslated at one point—though the translated text also appeared on the seven-inch smart display, so both men were able to use context clues to figure out what the other was asking. (Humans! So clever.) The conversation also didn’t feel completely frictionless, since the Assistant takes a second or two to translate in between each person’s remarks. But the brief interaction we saw still pointed toward a future in which Babel fish\–like translators exist at any kind of service desk where language could potentially become a barrier.Google already offers near-instantaneous translations on the web and on mobile with Google Translate. And when it released its wire-free Pixel Buds headphones a couple of years ago it introduced the concept of language translation in near real time, with the tap of a button. That same translation feature later came to all Google Assistant–optimized headphones. But that doesn’t always work so well; primarily because it’s an isolating experience, and only the person wearing the headphones hears the translation. And Google Translate requires you to open an app first.The Interpreter feature is launching today as a small pilot at a few hotels; one in New York, another in San Francisco, and Caesar's Palace in Vegas. It will support 27 languages to start, and will be available only on the Google Home Hub, Google Home speakers, and third-party Google Assistant displays.Google also said that the Assistant would now work within Google Maps, so you can use your voice to reply to texts or send your ETA while you’re driving. Amazon’s Alexa, meanwhile, has appeared in literally dozens of new products so far at the show, ranging from lighting kits to “smart” beds to a voice-controlled toilet.