Grizzly Analytics Blog

News broke this morning ( here , here ) that Intel is about to acquire Israeli start-up company InVision Biometrics .  The company has developed 3D sensor technology that recognizes human movement, including gestures, and interprets them for a wide variety of applications. The company's technology is based on, and apparently builds on, research by Professor Ron Kimmel at the Technion Institute of Technology.  Professor Kimmel has a number of patents in this and other areas, some owned by the Technion and some licensed to companies. For Israel, dubbed the Start-Up Nation , this acquisition continues a number of trends.  It's Intel's second acquisition of an Israeli start-up company in October alone, having acquired Telmap at the beginning of the month.  Both acquisitions are interesting in that they move Intel into new areas that have been previously handled by software.  Grizzly Analytics predicts that Intel will acquire more start-ups in software areas th...

It's great when a few questions are answered by a single answer: What's Apple's Geo Team , formed when they acquired Placebase , working on? What's Apple doing with the logs they're keeping of user locations ? What can Apple do in location services that Google doesn't already do? Behold a new patent application by Apple that was just published, titled RELEVANCY RANKING FOR MAP-RELATED SEARCH .  This patent looks at how any sort of location-based search system, such as local business search, nearby friend search, etc., can tell the difference between locations that people go to a lot and locations that people don't go to or don't stay in.  In a nutshell, their method looks at logs of locations of lots of users, and from those logs, the method figures out which places get a lot of people going there and which don't. In other words, by looking at where millions of iOS users go, Apple can figure out what places are hot. Their approach to doing thi...

Apple has a real knack for shocking us.  Every time, about five seconds after the shock, we all realize that we should have expected it.  The fact that we didn't expect it is what's made Apple Apple. "Hey, why didn't we think to integrate a media device with a media store?" "Hey, why didn't we think to build a touchscreen interface for dragging things around a screen instead of touching buttons and scrollbars?" "Hey, why didn't we think to build a 10" device for movies and content consumption?" Similarly, I think that this is the perfect time for Steve Jobs to retire.  This week. This day.  And the really shocking thing is that nobody predicted it a week ago. The whole industry is in the middle of uncertainty right now.  How will Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericsson and LG change their strategies in response to Google's buying Motorola? Will Nokia succeed at resurrecting itself as a top phone maker, and will Microsoft do the same ...

Google’s announced acquisition of Motorola Mobility is the subject of many articles and analyses, and the true consequences may not be known for years.   This Grizzly Analytics update points out the following for your consideration:       The reality of recent convergence in the mobile OS area will keep most Android phone makers with Android.       Android’s spread is moving competition back into hardware, where Motorola will have little advantage over other Android phone makers.       Google has a vested interest in separating Motorola Mobility from both its core Android business and its core Google business, and a history of maintaining separation.       Google is likely motivated by Motorola’s patent portfolio.       Google might be quietly interested in Motorola Mobility’s home devices business. Mobile OS Convergence has resulted in three ma...

A fascinating blog article came out a few days ago in CultOfMac titled, surprisingly, Why Apple is Done Inventing New Devices.   Not the title you'd expect from a very pro-Apple blog focused exclusively on Apple devices. I happen to think that the article's conclusions are all wrong.  But the article is still a must-read. The article makes two basic points.  First, Apple reinvented itself in the last 90's not as a computing company but as a "content consumption technology" company.  Just as Microsoft defines itself around software, Google around advertising, etc., Apple at the time defined itself around content consumption, and this drove the development of the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad and so on.  Second, the author claims that because of this, Apple is done creating new devices:  "...that’s why Apple is done creating whole new platforms. There will be nothing in the coming decade equivalent in newness to the iPod, iPhone and iPad."  He goes o...

Amazon recently launched their AmazonLocal deals service in a handful of US cities.  The service is a lot like GroupOn and other deals services - users subscribe to deals in a particular area, and receive electronic vouchers in their e-mail inbox each day.  This area has been getting a lot of attention, including the Google Offers service and Google's recent acquisiton of DealMap , leading up to GroupOn's expected IPO. This new deals service is a natural for Amazon, who is already a top trusted name in consumer on-line purchasing.  Most people do a lot more purchasing through Amazon than through Google or any other big player. Amazon appears to have big plans for Amazon Local.  They're busy hiring mobile developers for their Amazon Local team, clearly building a mobile app and infrastructure for a phone-based Amazon Local experience.  They're targeting iOS and Android platforms, as well as a mobile web version.  They're using their Amazon Web services...

On the one hand, everyone's getting excited about mobile payments.  The credit card companies and mobile companies are working together on it, and lots of surveys show that people like the idea ( here , here  and here , to name a few). On the other hand, it's slow in coming.  Technology providers are downscaling their forecasts for NFC-enabled phones , insiders think it will take a while to build the necessary infrastructure , and some NFC-powered phones (from Nokia) won't be able to make secure payments .  And many users are nervous: they want service from companies they trust , and as much as they want to make fast payments, they're not sure about putting their credit card numbers into their phones . But Grizzly Analytics predicts that mobile payments, at least in the short term, is about to be scooped up by PayPal and Amazon. Standard NFC payments work very hard to be safe and secure.  This includes having a Secure Chip on the phone that stores private...