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Worldwide Broadband Speeds

18 Aug

Ever wonder if your Internet speed is good or bad compared to others? If you are on broadband — and reading this post, you are most likely well above average in Internet speed. Click here for a test of your speed.

Cable.co.uk has analyzed data amassed by research group M-Lab, which is a partnership among New America’s Open Technology Institute, Google Open Source Research, and Princeton University’s PlanetLab. The data include 189 countries around the world. 63+ million speed tests were conducted over the year ending on May 10, 2017. Worldwide, the median speed is less than 3.2Mbps.

Phil Wilkinson-Jones, reporting for Cable.co.uk, has a good synopsis of the findings.

 

Click here to access a full spreadsheet of the report findings.

 

 

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Most Valuable Global Brands 2017: An Infographic

14 Aug

Each year, BrandZ publishes its list of the top 100 global brands. Click here to access the 2017 report, produced by WPP and Kantar Millward Brown: “In its 12th year, this is the most comprehensive study into brand value, grounded in unique attitudinal data from over 3 million consumer interviews. The report includes an in-depth analysis of consumer and business-facing brands across 14 categories as well as the Global Top 100 ranking.”

Here is an interesting look — by Visual Capitalist — at the evolution of the most valuable brands in the world since 2006 (based on BrandZ data):

“A decade ago, the list of the world’s top brands was dominated by old guard names like Coca-Cola and Marlboro. However, the global scale of technology – and today, the top five brands by value are tech-related.”

 

 

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Video: Robotics Aid Warehouse Workers

11 Aug

A lot has been written and discussed about the negative impact of robotics on employment. So is there also any good news about robotics and the job market? The answer is yes!

Here is an example, as reported by Jennifer Smith for the Wall Street Journal:

“In the battle of humans versus machines on the warehouse floor, some firms have found common ground. Instead of developing technology to completely replace manpower, these firms are designing robots meant to work alongside people. These robots, for example, can guide workers to items to be picked or can transport goods across a warehouse to be packed and shipped. Deutsche Post AG’s DHL is testing ‘swarming’ robots at a facility in Memphis, Tenn. These machines help workers pick out medical devices that need to be shipped quickly. Quiet Logistics Inc., which fulfills online orders for retailers like Bonobos and Inditex SA’s Zara, uses the same type of mobile robots in one of its warehouses.”

“Known as ‘collaborative’ robots, they are small and relatively cheap — costing tens of thousands of dollars — compared with miles of conveyor belts and automation systems that run into the tens of millions. The new robots are designed with the majority of warehouses world-wide in mind, where orders continue to be fulfilled manually by people pushing carts up and down aisles.”


 

 
(Video from Business Insider)
 

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Apple on the Rise — Again

9 Aug

Apple is currently number three on the U.S. Fortune 500 list. It is on the rise again after some mixed results. According to Fortune:

“After more than a decade of solid growth fueled first by the iPod music player and then by the even more popular iPhone, Apple finally appeared to hit a wall, with lackluster sales — relatively speaking — for other products such as the iPad and Apple Watch and a heavy reliance on upgraded phone models. But the most profitable publicly-traded company in the world is investing heavily in software and its efforts in new areas of opportunity, including automobiles, remain in development (and under wraps). Apple was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Cupertino, Calif.”

 

The following chart from NASDAQ shows the ups and downs of Apple’s stock price over the past five years. Click the image for an INTERACTIVE, REAL-TIME view of Apple’s stock price.

 

The Fortune video below provides a provocative view of Apple’s prospects in the future. What do YOU think?

 

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Why the Customer Experience May Fail

7 Aug

For many consumers, the shopping experience is as important as — or more important than — prices in influencing their purchase behavior. And with today’s extensive amount of competition, consumer patience is at an all-time low.

Melissa Global Intelligence is a firm that provides in-depth data quality tools and services. It recently published “What Kills the Customer Experience?” by Nathan Safran:

“Melissa recently commissioned NAPCO Research to complete a wide-scale survey of 126 E-commerce managers. Participants were asked to speak specifically about their perceptions regarding 1) obstacles to customer conversion and loyalty and 2) the role of improved data accuracy in approaching these challenges. Our findings revealed that in the life cycle of the online purchase, two primary ‘pain points’ are evident: checkout and delivery. For customers, these intersections can yield a sense of dissatisfaction sufficient to cause shopping cart abandonment or even refusal to shop at the site in the future.”

 
Click here to access an interactive, scrolling version of the article.

Click each image below to access the individual pages of the article in a large format.

 

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Cybercrime Costs How Much?

6 Jul

The extent of cybercrime continues to explode, as we have noted before (see, for example, 1, 2, 3).

Consider the following:

  • Interpol describes the types of cybercrime that exist — “Cybercrime is a fast-growing area of crime. More and more criminals are exploiting the speed, convenience, and anonymity of the Internet to commit a diverse range of criminal activities that know no borders, either physical or virtual, cause serious harm, and pose very real threats to victims worldwide. Although there is no single universal definition of cybercrime, law enforcement generally makes a distinction between two main types of Internet-related crime: advanced cybercrime (or high-tech crime) – sophisticated attacks against computer hardware and software; and cyber-enabled crime – many ‘traditional’ crimes have taken a new turn with the advent of the Internet, such as crimes against children, financial crimes, and even terrorism.
  • David Sun reports that “Just last year [2016], cybercrime cost the global economy over $450 billion U.S., and this number is only expected to grow, with estimates that it will hit $3 trillion U.S. by 2020.” Also, click here for more from Sun.
  •  Verizon has published a 100-page PDF report (“Data Breach Digest”). Click here to access the full report.
  • Europol has published a 57-page PDF report (subtitled “Crime in the Age of Technology”).  Click here to access the full report.
  • Symantec has published a 77-page PDF report (“Internet Security Threat Report “).  Click here to access the full report.

 

 

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Seniors More Active on the Net

3 Jun

For years, there has been a pretty direct correlation between age and Internet use — with those 65+ and older having relatively interest. But times are changing!!

As just reported by Felix Richter for Statista:

“While young people in the United States have grown up using technology and spend a substantial part of their lives online, people from older generations are not what we often refer to as ‘digital natives.’ A record 46 million seniors live in the United States and many of them are still disconnected from the digital world.”

“However, according to Pew Research Center, technology adoption of Americans aged 65 and older is on the rise. 67 percent of U.S. seniors now use the Internet, up from just 12 percent in 2000. As our chart illustrates, older Americans still trail the overall adult population in terms of tech usage, but the digital gap is no longer as pronounced as it used to be.”

 

Infographic: U.S. Seniors No Longer Disconnected From the Digital World | Statista You will find more statistics at Statista

 

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