wall street journal
Apple Buys Indoor Mapping Company WifiSLAM
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-buys-indoor-mapping-company-wifislam-2013-3
Apple has bought WifiSLAM, a company providing indoor mobile location services, which lets people figure out their location inside a building using the strength of its Wi-Fi signals.
Indoor mobile location is a burgeoning field as more and more people use their smartphones inside buildings – with at least two Finnish companies, Walkbase and IndoorAtlas, offering their own systems for zeroing in on where they are, and a map of their surroundings.
Apple confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that it had bought the company, though it didn’t comment on the estimated $20m price tag. It said that it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time”.
WifiSLAM uses the variation in different networks’ Wi-Fi signal strengths to triangulate the user’s location. The company co-founders include a former Google staffer, and has backing from Don Dodge, who worked at both Google and Microsoft.
Walkbase has been developing its offering since 2009, and presently has an Android app offering. IndoorAtlas uses variations in the earth’s magnetic field to determine the user’s location – meaning it doesn’t rely on Wi-Fi or other data, and doesn’t need hardware.
Finnish mobile phone company Nokia already offers Destination Maps, an indoor mapping service.
For Apple, improving its maps offering has become increasingly important since it dumped Google’s mapping service for its iPhone and iPad products last September. That met with widespread criticism, and forced chief executive Tim Cook to issue a grovelling apology, and saw the ousting of Scott Forstall, who had been in charge of the iPhone software division, and of the head of the mapping team.
Yahoo Is In Talks To Buy A Big Stake In Video Site Dailymotion (YHOO)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/yahoo-is-in-talks-to-buy-a-big-stake-in-video-site-dailymotion-2013-3
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer could be on the cusp of her first big acquisition-like move.
The Wall Street Journal reports Yahoo is in talks to buy 75 percent of Dailymotion, a YouTube-esque video service that’s popular in Europe.
Dailymotion is owned by a French Telecom. It’s sort of a mess of different videos. Some are user generated, some are professional.
Yahoo would buy the stake at $300 million valuation with an option to buy the remaining 25 percent later, says the Journal.
Yahoo’s HR leader Jackie Rees told employees recently Yahoo was working on two large acquisitions. A lot of names have been floated around since then.
We’re not sure how Dailymotion fits Mayer’s vision for Yahoo. It’s never struck us as a great technology or media property. And, it’s not a big mobile property as far as we can tell.
However, the Journal says it had 116 million unique visitors in January, making it the twelfth biggest site in the world. It’s also popular outside of the U.S., which could be valuable to Yahoo since it’s largely a U.S. based business.
Ubuntu smartphones set for October launch in two markets
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/06/ubuntu-smartphones-october-launch/
Sure, Ubuntu for smartphones is slated to appear as a downloadable image for the Galaxy Nexus late this month, but you’ll have to wait until fall to get your hands on honest-to-goodness Ubuntu phone hardware. According to the Wall Street Journal, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth says Ubuntu handsets will hit two “large geographic markets” in October, and that the open source OS has struck the fancy of carriers, to boot. However, Shuttleworth remained coy regarding which regions will see the devices launch in October and which manufacturers will be serving up hardware.
Source: Wall Street Journal
It’s Time To Admit That Hulu Is A Failure (DIS, NWS)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/its-time-to-admit-that-hulu-is-a-failure-2012-12
This morning, a Wall Street Journal story by
How Restoration Hardware Made ‘Showrooming’ An Asset Instead Of An Enemy
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/restoration-hardware-uses-showrooms-2012-12
Many retailers are terrified of turning into a showroom. They fear consumers will come only to test out the products they’ll later buy online.
Furniture store Restoration Hardware decided to approach “showrooming” differently by accepting and encouraging it, reports Joan Solsman at The Wall Street Journal.
Many stores, including Restoration Hardware’s rival Pottery Barn, fought showrooming by “rushing to lower prices,” Solsman writes.
But Restoration Hardware decreased its number of physical stores and used the remaining ones as showrooms. Sofas, tables, rugs and other decor were meticulously arranged with an emphasis on the aesthetic. Customers could find even more merchandise online or in catalogues while shopping in the stores.
The tactic is working. Direct-to-consumer now makes up half of Restoration Hardware’s business, and the retailer has reported double-digit sales growth for 10 quarters, according to Solsman.
Restoration Hardware’s model probably wouldn’t work for Best Buy, the most prolific victim of “showrooming,” Solsman cautions.
“Furniture and decor, unlike consumer electronics and other items, aren’t easily searchable by specifications,” Solsman writes. “A highly fragmented market, home furnishings sellers benefit from many players having proprietary merchandise, which stunts online competitive threats.”
DON’T MISS: The Fabulous Life Of The Mysterious Billionaire Behind Zara >
Please follow Retail on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights. 
Digital Consigliere
http://twitter.com/acfou
Send Tips: tips@go-digital.net
Digital Strategy Consulting
Dr. Augustine Fou LinkedIn Bio
Digital Marketing Slideshares
The Grand Unified Theory of Marketing
Tags
Popular Posts
Published Articles by Dr. Augustine FouPages
Archives
Prototype Web Services
