"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
I have always been interested in how technology influences how we live, and how innovation is infused into our society. For example, when I has four or five, the grainy black and white television pictures of the moon landing are still branded into my memory, and even the collective world wide memory. It seemed almost all eyes and minds were on this event. This collective memory along with a generation of kids citing being an astronaut as their planned profession, when asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” TV enabled this universal memory and helped spur the imagination of kids at that time. It has also enabled a plethora of both useful and dubiously entertaining shows.
Despite my best efforts to reduce exposure of myself and my family to TV, as I recognize the time spent in front of it can be better spent losing a couple of pounds, reading a few books, doing homework, or playing a few games with my kids, TV remains a constant. It has become a daily component of our, and almost every person’s life. Despite that fact even this image is from July 20, 1969 (the date of the moon landing), TV has continued to innovate and evolve and influence our daily lives. Just when we don’t believe the experience can be improved, we are surprised again, as innovations such as large screen LCD, high definition, and internet connected units are introduced. These are the technology and consumer experiences that this blog is dedicated to.
This is a particularly exciting time, as major emergent trends in consumer habits and technology convergence are occurring.
The Mobile Revolution is well underway, and is defined by intersection of mobile Operating Systems (IOS, Android, …), Apps, platforms (Apple, HTC, Samsung,…), Accessory Devices (MiFi, Streaming enabled products, …) and Service Plans (unlimited internet, pay as you go, …).
Cloud computing is here to stay, as firms recognize there is little added value fiddling with their own server farms, technical staff, SOX compliance, upgrade nightmares (e.g. data migration, client deployments, …) and vendors that continually nickle and dime them for yearly maintenance fees for products that aren’t much different from the year ago. This topic is defined by the intersection of consumer/business services, the internet, and hosted applications.
Media trends are rapidly changing, already having transferred the population from broadcast to cable, record stores to on-line music stores, and DVDs from stores, to kiosks, to on-line media streaming services. Content providers, service providers, e-commerce, and evolving digital rights policy define this intersection.
Although Alternative energy is in its infancy, in terms of adoption, numerous events in the last decade have spurred innovation in this industry, from the adoption of hybrid vehicles by the public, and recently released models of electric vehicles, to photovoltaic systems and government subsidies. The intersection of utilities, energy costs, government policy/incentives, energy innovation, world supply, and high energy users (electric vehicles) define this topic.
Customer experiences captures the elements of the user experience relative to any product or service. Simply put, these are either stories of elation and surprise, as even simple services are rendered with thoughtful excellence. Or stories of poor service, not from the perspective of dealing with an agent who had a bad hair day, but where services are rendered as intended, and yet, there is dissatisfaction. Or, for those of us who are early adopters, what do the first few months of using a new product or service look like, in terms of our daily habits, and how do the technologies or services displace our previous habits, or are abandoned.
Consumer electronics are rapidly being impacted by the availability of new technology, and techno-ecosystems. This topic is defined by emergent trends in consumer electronic products, and public need.
Technology Crossroads 
