The Six Thousand Accounts were part of a Larger Spam Network of 88,000
On casual observation, there appears to be a surge in bogus accounts attempting to manipulate on Twitter recently and now this has been confirmed, partially, with six thousand accounts deleted with Twitter disclosing the inauthentic behavior and violations as well as the State-backed Source (Saudia Arabia) in its blog today.
The disclosure shows some very interesting tricks that various bad actors are using to try and mask their true intent in order to “survive” longer on the platform without having their accounts deleted.
According to the Twitter blog the Saudi Arabian government backed accounts were engaging in retweeting, liking and replying, using automation, in order to mask tweets with a political agenda favorable to Saudi Interests.
The method of masking the true goal of an account that is an automated spam bot is becoming more common based on our observations of the platform. Accounts favorable to Trump, that appear inauthentic (robots) will retweet and even retweet liberal content, such as tweets favorable to AOC, to mask their intent. Then, if the account is followed, pro-Trump spam is sent via private direct messages, for example.
As the Tricks get Deeper and the Stakes Higher, Twitter must also Evolve in its Response
It appears that , with this report on the eighty-eight thousand account take down, Twitter is learning and following as these attempts to avoid detection are created, developed and implemented.
Twitter also disclosed that a social media marketing and management company based in Saudi Arabia called Smaat was behind the platform manipulation. The company has also been “permanently” banned from using Twitter due to the activity. In an interesting additional action, the accounts of senior executives of the company were also deleted and the persons banned.
The company used third party automation services to produce high volumes of activity related to non-political content. This, based on the content, is not necessarily against Twitter policy as such amplification of non-political content in allowed. In this case, however, the high volume of activity was used to mask the political content that was interspersed in the “storm” of activity.
Here is the quote from Twitter that serves as a comment on the action and what they intend for future cases:
“We exist to serve the public conversation around the world. To this end, we’ll continue to take strong enforcement action against any state-backed information campaigns which undermine our company’s mission, principles, and policies.”
In a Feature article WSJ does an Investigative Report but Leaves out the Real Dirt
opinion
In an article with a date stamp of December 18, 2019 at 3:38 am, WSJ released a scathing report detailing how potentially millions of sellers are allegedly scamming the public by selling discarded and remaindered good through Amazon’s marketplace.
The aim of the investigative piece was to show that Amazon did not pre-qualify or filter its selling accounts in any way and that pretty much anyone can sell anything, at least for a while, until Amazon shuts them down.
In order to add drama to the account and to emphasize how disgusting this situation can be for the buyer, WSJ set up its own marketplace “storefront” and listed items, literally found in a dumpster, for sale on Amazon. The items included a discarded jar of Lemon Curd.
While the interaction with Amazon ( a nicety afforded the Wall Street Journal) was amusing, with Amazon repeating the phrase “Amazon’s high bar for product quality” repeated over and over, for the most part the article, while well researched, totally misses the point.
The Real Rot is not in the Garbage Being Sold but Amazon’s System that Is a Machine Designed to Destroy Legitmate Retail
As is well documented in the, now ancient, saga of how Amazon killed off all competitors in the Book selling business, it has always been a clear goal of Amazon to bankrupt its competitors by any (legal?) means. These extreme tactics have not been abandoned now that all products are target for sales monopolization.
Further, regarding selling products out of dumpsters, for many years Amazon’s system has not only encouraged such desperate methods on it’s marketplace it has made them virtually impossible to avoid. In the WSJ article the question of the motivation of the sellers and why they “prefer” to sell, literally, garbage is never addressed.
It is even implied that they are just “poor” and one seller is even quoted as saying that he started selling products out of dumpsters because “he didn’t have money to buy products”.
It was also mentioned that one of the sellers “couldn’t make money as a photographer” and so he decided to start selling trash from dumpsters.
This is so incredibly misleading that it is difficult to even begin to deconstruct.
The List of Omissions from the WSJ article is Mind-boggling
While it is great to see some of the common practices that make up over 50% of sales on the Amazon platform exposed, omitting the real issues, the built-in ugliness of the system itself, is inexcusable.
First of all, no human sells products out of the trash as a first resort. To imply that these are “poor” people and therefore somehow taking advantage of Amazon’s lack of oversight is utterly ridiculous. Somehow in a “serious” exposé WSJ manages to make Amazon look like the victim. You have got to be kidding.
The fact is that Amazon is based on a system of undercutting, through various tactics, legitimate commerce, especially competing eCommerce, by forcing prices, after fees, to a level well below traditional wholesale levels. This means that anyone, large company or small individual, must source products at an unrealistic “impossible” price level in order to be competitive. Hence the popularity of the dumpster.
Who is the Real Victim? We all are.
That bears repeating: It is not possible to make a single cent on the Amazon marketplace by buying an item legitimately through a wholesale distributor and then adding a retail mark-up as has been the system for centuries (except in cases of price-gouging and other anomalies).
To use a different method to put this into perspective, remember that jar of Lemon Curd from the dumpster? Here’s the rough general breakdown for a similar product based on a 10$ sale price on the Amazon Marketplace:
Price of item “shipped” (free shipping) = $10 (rounded off for illustration purposes)
Cost of shipping and handling = $4.50
Various Fees to Amazon = $4.50
Remaining amount retained by seller = $1.00
Since the cost of this product at wholesale is around $5 and the seller must also survive, the only acceptable price for the seller to acquire the jar is $0. Dumpsters do not charge. Therefore this is the default system for sellers that work 7 days a week to try to make even a modest income.
The absurdity of this is off the charts. Even if you debate the details +- .50 in each category, etc., this is nevertheless the system that gets your Lemon Curd to your porch. A more wasteful and backward system could not be devised if you tried. Thank “modern” finance and devious minds for this wonderful invention of commerce.
The Amazon system is based on these concepts:
A. Set marketplace fees at a level where the maximum allowable “profit” for the third-party seller, after fees, is effectively zero. Fees are added to everything. A “variable closing fee” for the sale itself, fees on storage, “pick and pull” fees, shipping fees, on and on and on. These apply, at varying but always astronomical levels, through the “Fulfillment by Amazon” program and for sellers that ship and warehouse their own goods as well.
B. Encourage Chinese and other gray-market suppliers to maintain the system and “impossible” price level at below wholesale cost. Next, sell Amazon Branded products as an “alternative” and source these at the lowest possible cost to insure no legitimate seller can compete.
C. Cover all this with “no questions asked” returns (paid for primarily by the 3rd party sellers themselves) and by taking massive losses due to unrealistic shipping speeds. These ultra fast speeds serve as an attack against other companies such as Walmart, that can not be crushed by A. and B. above due to size and other market advantages.
The key objective of this strategy is to destroy legitimate retailers and brands at every level. Large brands like Nike, who recently ended a short-lived arrangement to allow its products to be sold on Amazon, are hurt by a relentless cheapening of the brand and a stampede of inferior knock offs and other damaging effects.
Smaller independent retailers are either bankrupted or forced to reduce costs of supply to well below standard wholesale prices. If you are thinking “fell off a truck” you are on the right track.
As a dramatization of the problem it can be said that to sell on Amazon, and realize any profit at all, your source must be either couinterfeit, aftermarket rejects, stolen or….. wait for it….. from a dumpster.
So, to be clear, the “dumpster divers” so lovingly described in the WSJ feature article are not just “poor” they are an inevitable result of a system, built on endless greed by the “richest man in the world” in order to have a virtual monopoly in US online sales (can’t survive without selling on Amazon is the mantra) and to insure future growth by literally destroying all legitimate competition.
Please let me know when this background “color” will be included in the next hard hitting investigative piece from the Journal.
Sunshine Behind the Clouds and the Future in your Hands
Finally, it is all of us, consumers that control the quality of the products and the purity of the supply chain that fulfills sales, online or otherwise. While it is ceratinly convenient to go online and visit either Google, Facebook or Amazon, competition online is, no less than in traditional commerce, essential to maintaining standards of quality and service.
For all Amazon’s “high standards” a deeper look at the system they have in place clearly shows that it is profit for amazon on every sale – and more importantly using income by gouging smaller marketplace sellers to attack larger competitors with unrealistic shipping cost structures, that is most important, not the quality of goods.
For now they will continue to “bribe” the public with a powerful cocktail of virtually instant delivery and “no questions asked” returns. But does that make you feel better about the dumpster sourced lemon curd you just ate? What about the poor seller than has been forced into dumpster diving to have a shot at the huge success of a $20,000 per year income, which Bezos gets in a microsecond. Maybe there are better places to buy your lemon curd.
The Tipping Point is Behind us Now, It’s only a question of When EV’s Market Share will Overtake ICE
The most talked about car in 2019 has been Tesla’s Model 3, an electric vehicle from Tesla that is sleek, modern looking, and highly desirable. In Tesla’s latest quarter alone, the company has sold nearly 80,000 Model 3s, sustaining it as the most popular EV on the market.
This is not Tesla’s only achievement for the year. The company’s Cybertruck and Semi have received copious attention; its Model X and Model S continue to be popular; and consumers are eagerly awaiting 2020’s releases of the Model Y and Roadster. It’s been a long time coming, but thanks to Tesla, EVs are growing market share at an extremely rapid pace.
Other car manufacturers, even ones that have been stubbornly committed to ICE vehicles, have had to accept that the tide is turning. Naturally, many of these companies do not want Tesla to have a monopoly on EVs, and they want to have their own stake in the market before it’s too late. For that reason they appear to have capitulated and there is now a large and public shift towards the EV market.
Car companies from General Motors to Ford to Mercedes to VolksWagen and more are now hopping aboard the EV train, announcing new full electric models aimed at competing with Tesla in the upcoming year.
In addition, longer term multi-billion dollar investments to fund an infrastucture and development shift toward sustainable and EV systems have been announced. There has been some scepticism that these are more of a PR effort, with possible changes at anytime, likely due to the extremely poor efforts of the last 25 years, and even the perception that they were trying to intentionally “fail” with EVs just to postpne any meaningful transition away from fossil fuel based transportation.
While the oncoming change in car-culture may be attributed more to Tesla’s sexy, ulta-modern designs than it is to environmentalism, the widespread transition towards electric vehicles is still an enormous win for the battle against climate change.
Transportation is the top CO2 buring category and automobiles are the largest contributors to carbon emission from transport across the globe. The systemic reliance on gasoline makes cars even more environmentally harmful, as their very fuel comes from big oil companies that drill the earth without much regard for balanced ecosystems.
Finally, there has been a Major Shift in Thinking in the Auto Industry
In just the past year, however, we have seen a noticeable increase in the number of charging stations for EVs, and certain governments have started cracking down on vehicle-related greenhouse gas emissions. These changes in infrastructure and politics reflect evolutions in consumer behavior—evolutions that bode well for our planet.
Between the VolksWagen ID.4, Ford Mustang EV, Mercedes ESQ, and all the upcoming Tesla models, there are about to be a whole lot more electric cars on the market, which will (hopefully) create healthy competition.
There remians skepticism in the automobile industry, implying that this could, indeed be some sort of elaborate head fake. In response to General Motor’s recent announcement to invest $2.3 billion in an EV battery factory, for example, Toyota Executive Bob Carter warned of an “electrified armageddon” for the industry. Indeed, despite EVs recent surge in popularity, gasoline-powered cars continue to dominate the streets. To invest so much in EVs at this point is a bold, somewhat presumptuous move for all of the companies, and they run the risk of overshooting consumer demand.
There is Still only one EV Company that Stands Above in Every Way
And the Toyota response while both tone deaf and likely misguided, is not wrong in the sense that a worldwide shift away from a fossil fuel based economic system will certainly lead to hardship and immense challenges and a long time. The problem with trying to wish away that fact is that, by extending the intentional sate of denial that has persisted for over a half century, things will only be worse when the inevitible and necessary changes finally come.
This exposes the brilliance of Tesla’s approach of starting with high end luxury vehicles, spurring demand and desire and then building downmarket into more afforable vehicles as economies of scale begin to kick in. And, even more prescient is Tesla’s stated mission “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy” which removes any ambiguity or hesitation and signals a 100% clear commitment to the most important goal a transportation and energycompany can have.
Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
Nevertheless, while this “plays” as an example of corporations displaying a logical reaction to the market for the benefit of the environment, it could, in actuality, more likely be an example of corporations playing the market to make money as per usual. The less cynical among us must hope, nevertheless that this is truly at least partially an ecological conscious choice that happens to transparently project an immediate economic benefit. If these companies are correct, and EVs do ultimately lead the car market, then it will not just satisfy the executive’s bottom line, but it will also help make the planet a cleaner and safer place.
Diversity Theme Crops Up Once Again in Hollywood Awards Season
The 77th Golden Globe nominations are finally revealed, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has made a few bold choices when it comes to their top picks for film and television from 2019. To no one’s surprise on the television side, Netflix’s “The Crown” and “Unbelievable” led the race along with HBO’s “Chernobyl,” each program receiving four nominations. Likewise, when it comes to film, we had the usual suspects in each category; “The Irishman,” and “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” respectively nominated for best drama and best comedy; Joaquin Phoenix and Brad Pitt respectively for best actor and best supporting actor; Scorsese and Tarantino for best director; “Frozen II” for best animated feature; and many more noms that don’t raise any eyebrows.
What is more conspicuous, however, is what was left out of the running this year. While Christian Bale received a nomination for his performance in “Ford v. Ferrari,” his co-star Matt Damon was stubbed. Likewise, right on the heels of Adam Sandler’s NBR Award for “Uncut Gems,” the actor was ignored by the HFPA. Even De Niro did not get a leading nomination for “The Irishman,” while Joe Pesci and Al Pacino both got supporting nominations. Jordan Peele was similarly left out of the best director and both best picture categories for “Us,” as was Tom Hooper for “Cats.” Meanwhile, HBO’s innovative new “Watchmen” series also missed the cut.
The most egregious absence comes on a larger, more systemic scale, though. In all of the nominations for best director and best picture, there is not a single female filmmaker on the ballot. And this is a year when women made a number of quality films.
Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” came out this month. It is a compelling film focusing on the relationship between women and art, and despite receiving high praise from critics and audiences, it got little love from the HFPA. It’s only nomination came in the Best Actress in a Drama Motion Picture category for Saoirse Ronan’s performance. The same situation occurred for Lorene Scafaria’s “Hustlers.” Even though the film made a riot at the Toronto Film Festival, its only nom was for Angelina Jolie as Best Supporting Actress.
Moreover, although this was an enormously successful year for Netflix—earning four Best Picture nominations and “Marriage Story” achieving the most recognition of any title—the HFPA overlooked the streaming service’s female led productions. Particularly, it ignored Ava DuVernay’s “When They See Us,” a highly important race-focused miniseries about the Central Park Five. Directed by a black woman, this commended show was completely shut out, not earning a single nomination in any category.
Glass Ceiling Not So Easy to Break
Adding insult to injury, several of the most nominated pictures in this year’s running are not just man-made, but they are also highly man-centered. The two most talked about nominees, “The Irishman” and “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” are practically devoid of complex female characters. Through their respective focuses on the mafia and Hollywood stardom, the two films portray distinct images of patriarchal institutions. The same goes for “Joker,” which paints mental illness through a jadedly masculine lens, and “1917,” which spotlights wartime fraternity.
Ultimately, not much room is made for feminine movies like “Portrait of a Lady On Fire” from director Céline Sciamma, which only got nominated in the Forgiven Language category. Set in 1770 France, this underrated yet captivating period piece employs a nearly all-women cast to tell a uniquely female story. It delves into sorority, lesbianism, art, and feminism to share two ladies’ experiences during a highly patriarchal time in history. Sciamma getting ignored in the best director category could almost be forgiven if it weren’t for the brilliant cinematography, costumes, sets, and performances that she brought to her work—validating the film as a powerful art piece, and not just a piece of feminist propaganda.
In the wake of the #MeToo movement and remaining concerns about gender inequality in Hollywood and beyond, it is imperative that female filmmakers get the recognition they deserve. Of course, the HFPA choses its nominations not based on politics, but on artistry and talent. Nevertheless, just as those in the studio executive chairs ought to start listening to broader ideas, those in the critics chairs should also learn to see the value in female-centered releases and consider feminine themes on the same level as the masculine themes that we’ve been applauding in movies for the past seventy-seven years.
They all said it would be boring. That you should skip this year’s model and wait for September 2020. That it would be ugly. And were they wrong? In all the ways that matter, yes, once again they were all wrong. Here’s why:
[Want specs and highlights and a list of reasons why this is a device worth upgrading to? See below.]
First take a look at some of the announcements that just broke regarding possible anti-trust violations by Google, Facebook and Amazon. And, yes, apple is on the radar too, according to reports.
Although it is easy, and, for many, tempting, to lump Apple in with the gang of violators, it is wrong in one extremely important respect.
Click to see “Steve Jobs” and help Lynxotic and all independent bookstores
In each case, the huge and monopolistic tech behemoths are guilty, not of the traditional price gouging necessarily, which is the simple minded way to define monopoly, but rather, in the most egregious and damaging area for society as a whole: stifling and impeding innovation in order to preserve monopoly advantages and profits.
Is there a better search engine than Google? A better eCommerce web site than Amazon? A better social media network than Facebook and it’s owned subsidiaries?
In every case the answer is maybe there could be, but we will never know as long as these massive monstrosities control the majority of the business models, in each case, that they originally innovated, but now seek only to monopolize.
In order for innovation to continue, make no mistake, other companies would not only need ideas and a creative drive, but also resources. Resources that the marketplace could easily provide, if not virtually completely controlled by the existing giants. Better search engines, better social media platforms and most of all, more and better ways to buy products online.
Only the death of these companies could guarantee that those dreams become a reality.
Photo / Apple
Apple Stands Alone as the One True Innovator (Along with Tesla for EVs)
What about Apple? Apple is based 100% on the need, desire and belief in innovation. Steve Jobs set this drive in motion and embodied the DNA of a person with a core goal to innovate at all costs. Apple continues to follow that credo, chapter and verse.
Today’s September Special Event was nothing less than a re-affirmation of the pure focus on any and all innovation, as a core principal and goal.
What innovations were announced? The reality is that the list is so long that it will take dozens of articles to detail the changes to our shared digital lives that have been announced and are being released by Apple in 2019.
Disclaimer: Here at Lynxotic we have a saying: “The Second Wave is Coming” and it is about the eventual results and improvements to our digital lives that this article, and the Apple Event today, are all about.
Lynxotic
Often the focus in the media seems to be on the price of a phone, if its new camera is improved enough to be worth buying instead of a cheaper Samsung, and similar, perfectly valid concerns. Apple’s focus is more on finding a way to take us into an unknown, better, future, for technology, communication and creativity.
The first Mac computer was very expensive, many would say overpriced, but without it where would the state of computing and tech be today? And the iPhone being in reality a hand-held computer with a voice calling feature was predicted to be a failure and criticized as unneeded by many. How’d that work out?
No different now, critics are bound to say, that the iPhone 11 pro announced today “only” has enormous advances in iPhone camera technology, not only for shooting photos but for virtually “pro” potential for videography.
Machine Learning and the 3 Layer approach to design
As the features and capabilities of the new devices from Apple become more advanced it becomes more and more difficult to fashion the improvements into a single product feature or change.
Wired magazine says “it’s all about the cameras”, is that really true? In a way, yes. The iPhone 11 Pro has no less than three 12 megapixel cameras, along with a triple-lens array. In some modes featured in a presentation from Filmic all three cameras were shown recording video simultaneously.
But the real story, underneath the story, is more complex. The M.L. or machine learning capabilities (A.I. But not?) that are only possible within an ecosystem that builds its own chips, creates its own operating systems and application software, as well as its own hardware. Then, from the design stages to final end user, tweaks each to maximize the overall performance.
Machine learning within the iPhone has been quietly growing over the last two years and is starting to pick up steam. However, because the ways that the triumvirate of processors, software and hardware work together to make the impossible possible are so complicated they are seldom mentioned. It also appears that these updates are also happening in between iOS upgrades, under normal operations and aided by iCloud.
Make no mistake, the results and improved capabilities that arise from this constant innovation are going to change our digital lives for the better.
DL
This may seem trivial. Who cares about better photos? Better videos? Increasingly, as we live more and more in a digital world, the quality of the experience of that “surrogate” world matters. It is barely a subject being discussed, but going forward it will become more and more meaningful as various technologies converge and evolve in tandem.
That is The Second Wave. And just like the first wave that started in 1984 when Steve Jobs announced the 1st Macintosh, Apple will be at the forefront of the creative innovation, even while Google, Facebook and Amazon do their best to stifle innovation and maintain their strangle-hold on their little empires.
The Second Wave will slowly rise and a richer more creative digital life will emerge. Thanks, in part, to the announcements at the Apple Special Event today, especially the iPhone 11 Pro and it’s great new cameras.
(Apple: “The new TrueDepth camera introduces a new 12MP camera with a wider field of view to capture selfies, and next-generation Smart HDR enables more natural-looking photos. Expressive selfie videos take on a whole new look with the TrueDepth camera that now records 4K video at up to 60 fps and 120 fps slo-mo.”)
Additional Features
The new Apple-designed U1 chip uses Ultra Wideband technology, the first ever in a smartphone, for spatial awareness. With iOS 13.1 coming on September 30, AirDrop gets even better with directionally aware suggestions.
Face ID, the most secure facial authentication in a smartphone, gets up to 30 percent faster and easier to use with improved performance at varying distances and support for more angles.
Spatial audio provides an immersive surround sound experience and Dolby Atmos delivers powerful, moving audio to iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Gigabit-class LTE up to 1.6Gbps and Wi-Fi 6 allow for even faster download speeds2 and Dual SIM with eSIM.3
Nike Shoe Steps on Sad Amazon – Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Upsplash
Just Do It – Nike Dunks on, or Rather Dumps Amazon
In 2017 Nike participated in a pilot program to test out selling a small sampling of its products on the Amazon e-commerce site. Now, in late 2019, Nike made the decision to end that relationship, one that will have only lasted a little over two years. This parting will mean that Nike will no longer sell any of its merchandise directly through Amazon.com.
In a Yahoo Finance interview with the President, Heidi O’Neil, she explained, “We have ended our pilot with Amazon — it comes back to being incredibly committed to amazing experiences for our consumers, direct relationships and building unbreakable relationships. We want to move forward and make sure we continue to innovate on our own platform.”
Nike’s separation from Amazon comes at a time when Nike has also made internal changes to its leadership. Heidi O’Neil has been President of Nike Direct for one year (working within Nike in the marketing department for 20 years). Mark Parker current CEO will soon be stepping down and taking on the role of executive chair and be succeeded by John Donahoe at the start of the new year on January 13, 2020. Donahoe was the former CEO of eBay and current chairman of PayPal, his experience with e-commerce and online payment systems will surely serve Nike well.
Sharing Customer Relations is not what Amazon was Built On
Nike’s shift away from Amazon serves the company’s larger mission to provide stronger customer relations. Using a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business approach, the aim is to sell more Nike products through its own website and stores – which is something not possible when partnering with Amazon.
Since making a purchase through Amazon, all points of communication begin and end and are funneled through its platform. If any third-party vendor (even Nike) required additional information from a buyer or wanted to reach out to establish more of a relationship with customer – this involves, at best, a shared information system as the customer is deemed, by Amazon, to be its own, regardless of what brand they are purchasing. This stranglehold of customer data allows for Amazon to keep control in the purchasing process from start to finish.
In addition, companies that sell on Amazon and have repeat business on the platform do not reap the customer relation benefits, instead Amazon asserts control of that customer relationship.
Nike’s status as a well-established brand fortunately does not necessarily need to rely on Amazon’s fast shipping and low prices in order to its attract customers – instead the company can focus more on its desired goals to bring about “unbreakable relationships” with those that sport Nike footwear and branded gear.
After Nike’s exit from Amazon, things can only get better: For Nike
Nike counterfeits and unauthorized sellers have always been a concern for the company and was a major discussion point prior to entering into the pilot program with Amazon. Brands that do not sell directly on Amazon are often faced with resellers filling that gap. Grey market goods and resellers with fake or counterfeit products have been a major problem with Nike related products – even conducting a simple Amazon search for Nike products will yield many a reviews that point out the above issues.
“The move shows us that strong brands realize that traffic driven to their own site is self-sustaining, more profitable, and actually brand enhancing, while traffic and incremental revue from Amazon.com is less profitable but also less brand enhancing.”
– Randy Konik, Jefferies & Company ANalyst
Although Nike will cease listing on Amazon, the e-commerce site will still have third party sellers that hold Nike products available for purchase, which leaves the door open for problems relating to authenticity that customers will have to risk if they purchase on a site other than Nike.com.
The counterfeit issue within the Amazon marketplace has been such a rampant problem that another large name footwear brand, Birkenstock removed its products and no longer sell on Amazon as of 2016.
Nike, as one of the best known product lines to leave the online-selling platform is sure to affect Amazon’s future attempts of attracting other big name brands.
Randy Konik a Jefferies analyst spoke about Nike’s departure: “The move shows us that strong brands realize that traffic driven to their own site is self-sustaining, more profitable, and actually brand enhancing, while traffic and incremental revue from Amazon.com is less profitable but also less brand enhancing.”
Rumors Already Predicting big things for the iPhone 12: 5G plus Starlink will only Add to the Furor…
Seems like just yesterday that Apple Inc. released the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro. Consumers are still riding high on the hype and performance of these latest smartphone models. Nevertheless, Apple is already looking to the future and creating estimates for the iPhone 12 in 2020. According to Digitimes, Apple expects that the iPhone 12 will be one of the company’s most successful models.
While the 11 and 11 Pro are expected to have sold 80 million units by the end of 2019, Apple predicts that they will receive over 100 million orders for the 12 next year.
Apple anticipates such high figures for the iPhone 12 in part due to oncoming innovations in 5G and satellite Internet. While the software and hardware details of the new phone remain shrouded in mystery for now, there is high confidence that the device will be built for the latest advances in Internet speed and 5G networking—a powerful upgrade that is bound to bring in many customers.
Right now, the term “satellite Internet” may seem like something slow, old-fashioned, and used only by people living in remote locations where traditional broadband sources are unavailable. This may be the case at the moment, but new technology known as “Low Earth Orbit” micro-satellites could bring satellite Internet access with fiber optic speeds and beyond. Constellations of these micro-satellites could not only deliver the internet to more people around the world, they could potentially reinvent satellite Internet as a high-speed and perhaps even premiere way for virtually all people to get online.
Many tech companies have been trying to perfect micro-satellites and get the upper hand and dominate the skies. Leading the charge is Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which intends to cover the stratosphere with thousands of low-orbit satellites through its StarLink initiative. The company has already gotten approval by the FCC to launch several thousand micro-satellites into the sky, and they intend to keep launching more until they have a massive interconnected network of satellites orbiting the globe.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson & OneWeb, Google, and Facebook are all playing competitive catch up with SpaceX on the micro-satellite front. Jeff Bezos has been pursuing Project Kuiper, a satellite-oriented task which aims to provide worldwide broadband access via space. While certainly not as far along as StarLink, Kuiper plans to have hundreds of satellites in the sky in the near future.
Google has an alternative route to Low Earth Orbit micro-satellites, relying on weather balloons with antennas to stand in for cell towers and provide service to greater areas—an initiative that the company has coined “Loon.” Simultaneously, Facebook tried to make headway with its “FreeBasics” project, whereby the social network also wants to get more people active and connected on the web, and, of course, logged into its Social Network.
5G Speeds will be the Big Upgrade but the extended Competition and Coverage of Satellites are Next
After purchasing Intel’s 5G modem unit earlier this year, and with 5G modems by Qualcom already widely expected to be in the iPhone 12, Apple is uniquely positioned to be at the forefront of this looming expansion of mobile data networks and satellite internet access points.
It’s important to remember that 5G and satellite internet both have the potential to be much faster than current broadband connections. However, the roll out timing is uncertain and the speed increases will depend on various systems and stages of network build as well as many other factors. For example, an ultra fast satellite system is being built by LeoSat which will be used by Enterprise level customers at up 5.2 Gigabits, close to double the speed of fiber, but this will be exclusively business users, at least initially.
It is the sheer breath of competition and the wide array of systems in the mix that insures that there will be more options, and more speed coming online by 2021. Not only for mobile phones but for mobile laptops and as wireless home and business routing systems also.
What all this means, in a nutshell, for Apple, is that more people will want to buy smartphones that are capable of accessing these newer, faster internet providers. If StarLink (or any of the other upcoming satellite services) can provide a greater fraction of the world with Internet access, more people will desire the latest devices to make full use that Internet. Likewise, these consumers will also want the device that is most compatible with 5G and micro-satellite technology.
Given Apple’s record, the company will probably release the iPhone 12 in September, 2020. 5G will already be in an ongoing build-out phase, with T-mobil launching on December 6, 2019 and Verizon, AT&T and Sprint already in the mix. StarLink will likely not be up and ready by that time—they are aiming for an initial roll out to start as early as mid 2020 and with continuous expansion to 2022 and beyond. However, the project will certainly be further along in becoming a worldwide sensation, with launches of multiple satellites happening every few months.
With 5G speed, and an Operating System fit for the latest forms access in its arsenal, and with the fastest chips and most powerful software and systems to accommodate the added bandwidth, the iPhone 12 has the potential to be a blockbuster of historic proportions, even by Apple’s high standards.
Memes and Ridicule are spreading the word: There’s a New Truck in Town…
It’s been quite a week in Tesla news since the Cybertruck was unveiled near the SpaceX headquarters on November 21st. There’s been a rollercoaster of love and mocking, most of which has been entertaining. Once the initial barrage of silly memes hit like an avalanche on Twitter, auto insiders piled on, in a nice way with tongue in cheek, and all seemed to combine to take an already massive press event to an even higher level.
While pre-orders for the Model 3 peaked around half-a-million, and as all would know by now, that model is a huge success story, 250k in pre-orders in less than a week for Cybertruck is not a bad start. Yes, the pre-orders for the Cybertruck are only $100, more a token of appreciation than a hard reservation, and are fully refundable at that, but for a truck that was roundly derided and even scornfully laughed at, this cannot be considered an insignificant number.
There has been much speculation, as the pre-order tally kept growing, that this could all be a ruse and that the publicity would spur on accelerated development at other automakers, which does appear to be the case. However, amid all the noise and squawking, the name, the image, the logo and the concept are splashing across the world like a tsunami of retro-nostalgic-futurism gone wild.
And, deep deep below the surface of that wave, there is something more. Much more. As is often the case with Elon Musk led projects, an attempt was clearly made to break the mold when it comes to the engineering and feature-set capability, not just the aesthetic ethos.
“So, normally the way that a truck is designed, you have a body on frame, you have a bed on frame and the body and the bed don’t do anything useful. They’re carried like cargo, like a sack of potatoes. It was the way that aircraft used to be designed, when they had biplanes, basically. The key to creating an effective monoplane was a stressed skin design. You move the stress to the outside skin.”
– Elon Musk at the Tesla Cybertruck Unveil Event
As can be seen by looking online at the stats, or reading some good Teslarati articles that go further into the deeply practical innovations, there’s a lot more here than meets the eye.
2019 has been a Watershed Year for Tesla and Elon Musk and 2020 will see more Massive Changes
The 250k pre-orders represent, at the very least, a massive world-wide focus group on the idea of the Cybertruck, if not the truck itself. This focus group is very, very enthusiastic about the idea. How much of this is celebrity love? How much is tree-hugger-meets-mad-max eco-rescue lovers? How many are tired of the macho-hillbilly-redneck pro-gas-guzzling Marlboro-Man image of “Made-Ford-Tough”? A lot, clearly.
“So if you think about a truck, you want a truck that’s tough. You want a truck that’s really tough, not fake tough.”
– ELON MUSK AT THE TESLA CYBERTRUCK UNVEIL EVENT
And what if it is just a lot of people with a C-note to spare that would like to vote for an overthrow of the old guard and see the transition to a sustainable energy transportation infrastructure at least get off its ass?
In Southern California you get on the freeway anytime, anywhere and you will see old guard 19mpg, 40 gallon per tank monsters with fat, stupid oversized clown wheels as far as the eye can see. What if they were mixed with Tesla Cybertrucks, in addition to the Model S and Model 3s that are already a California freeway mainstay. Would that be “Blade-Runner-esque? And what of it? At lease a new day will look new and be different.
Haven’t we seen enough of the Status Quo? Haven’t the Dinosaurs had their day? Change can be refreshing, even while retro in a cyberpunk kind of way, and in the end, Saving the Planet and Having Fun Doing It is a much better way than the way we had.
More than 200k in pre-orders and Future buyers posting Proof Online as a Badge of Honor
The Cybertruck unveiling at the SpaceX adjacent Tesla Design Center on November 21st was one for the the ages. The initial reaction by the throngs of invited press (invitations were required and very hard to come by for the ultra-anticipated event) was to run with the obvious: smash proof window failure and wild twitter responses to the extreme throw-back-style design.
Elon Musk even pre-revealed what the general look the truck would be before the event, as if he was concerned that people needed a preview to reduce the shock of seeing the radical concept without a prior hint of what was to come.
Electric motors also have insane torque. If we load both trucks to the max, electric still wins. Physics is the law, everything else is a recommendation.
And then, within 24 hours of the unveiling, literally 100s of online media outlets pumped out articles, perhaps with a ratio of two or three to one ridiculing the design, or the issues with the on-stage window demonstration vs. the minority actually digging deeper into the truck itself and how it might actually fare in the real world. One outlet even speculated that the whole concept was 100% fake and that there was no chance that any truck, at least not similar to this one, would ever be produced.
In the run-up to the epic unveiling, Musk hinted that the truck would possibly be influenced by the “Blade Runner” aesthetic and cyberpunk ethos and might be like “an armored personnel carrier from the future”. And how spot on those hints turned out to be!
Once the pre-orders started to flood in, something changed, big time.
Within 72 hours Elon had tweeted milestones for the $100 fully refundable pre-orders. First that approximately 160k and then more than 200k orders had been taken. Not quite at the level of the Model 3 pre-orders, and at a much lower cost (Model 3 was a $1000 deposit) but, for an unveiling that was considered by the press, generally, to be a failure and even worthy of mocking and derision, this was an abrupt, if not surprising turn-around.
Not surprising because this type of press-vs-the public behavior is commonplace in all areas of commerce and entertainment. Just last summer, Disney’s Lion King was almost universally panned by critics, then went on, predictably, to be one of the biggest financial successes in movie history. Cybertruck is unlikely to be that extreme as it bounces back from the initial negativity coming from the press, but what the bounce back says about Tesla, climate change and the future is an even more fascinating story, to observe and speculate on, than that cute and cuddly digital cat.
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Tesla’s Support and Status as a Hero in the Fight against the Fossil Fuel Industrial Complex and ICE automakers runs deep and strong
The speculation on why Elon Musk chose to design and offer this vehicle at this time has obviously run rampant. There are many theories, most of them pretty silly, and, short of a detailed announcement from the man himself, there can be no definitive statement.
However, now that the pre-orders are proving to be robust and the company’s stock has rebounded (probably unrelated but, that’s another story), the possibility of a “crazy like a fox” story behind it all begins to make more sense.
Reason Cybertruck is so planar is that you can’t stamp ultra-hard 30X steel, because it breaks the stamping press
One interesting development is the tweets of the deposit receipts as a badge of honor among the faithful. This could just be folks who love everything about the truck and it’s radical design and features.
It could also, however, be something larger in play. Once the truck concept vs. the EV concept is taken into account the process of observing social and commercial trends in this case becomes very interesting.
Factoid 1: Incidents involving Tesla charging stations being blocked and vandalized have generally been perpetrated by strange rogue Pick-up truck owners and there has been an exaggerated hate and pride in driving a gas guzzling anti-Tesla. It’s bizarre to think that Tesla in this case could be creating a kind of counter force to these oddly “pro-gasoline” wackos who seems to see Tesla as some sort of flashpoint for their retro-oil-fetish. And, the Cybertruck is bulletproof (!?).
Factoid 2: While it has been well documented that Tesla stands virtually alone against the power structure of the entire world in its crusade to rid the world of ICE vehicles ASAP, the degree to which the general public has a strong desire and motive to support the company and its products, above and beyond a love for the products themselves or its leader, is as yet an unknown quantity.
In the press at large (many who are beholden to the ICE power structure) Tesla is often seen as just another carmaker selling wares, while customers may have a deeper connection as they search for ways to support solutions to the climate crisis as individuals. This could be a major and growing force in the days and months ahead, and can be a powerful resource to help to keep Tesla afloat even when Elon Musk decides to tackle challenging and even outlandish ventures.
Factoid 3: Perhaps more fantasy based than fact supported, the connection between the climate crisis as a motivation to buy and EV truck may go even deeper and wider than just the battery power. As a virtual disaster survival vehicle with various features that would be potentially life saving in a post-catastrophe situation – such as being employed as a bug-out vehicle to escape a flooded urban area. Various features seem to be conceived in response to a potential dystopian fantasy, but could be extremely valuable in a real emergency. The almost tank like durability, the shatterproof windows (as long as a sledgehammer doesn’t hit the door first), the battery powered cooking facilities in the camping-mode version, even the optional ATV come to mind.
“an armored personnel carrier from the future.”
– Elon Musk
Taking this thought experiment to its furthest possible conclusion its not hard to imagine a future (the Cybertruck could be on streets by perhaps 2021-2022) where the factions who support ICE trucks and the anti-fossil fuel “warriors”, each become radicalized and clash in some crazy mad max survival contest on US highways.
A more Optimistic stroke of Genius could also have played a role
Another very interesting possibility is that Elon Musk, known for being a master playing in marketing ventures, as well as being dedicated to sharing the EV market gladly with “competitors”, who he sees more as partners, once they take up the mantel of helping to accelerate the global transition to sustainable energy transportation.
It is no coincidence that GM, Ford, and many others have announced EV truck projects and details in the wake of the Cybertruck unveiling. It is a given that they will be watching very closely as Tesla ventures in to the traditional automakers most lucrative market segment.
“Trucks have been the same for a very long time like 100 years, we wanted to try something different,”
– Elon musk
For Musk and Tesla, however, it is clearly a win-win if you understand the higher purpose and motivation that infuses all activities within the company and yet is often misunderstood by others.
Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
If the Cybertruck does not command a large market share and somehow ends up like the DeLorean that it resembles, it will have, nevertheless, been a huge success in forcing the hand of the legacy automakers toward offering more EV options asap.
The legacy ICE carmakers cannot afford to wait while hoping that Tesla will fail. That phase of the battle over sustainable vs fossil-fuel transportation is over. Tesla is a force to be reckoned with and the Cybertruck, along with its on-going army of supporters who’ve ponied up C-notes, are making themselves seen and heard and stand as a warning that it’s not only the climate that’s changing on this planet.
Same song and dance? First all the negative predictions and then….
In the 80s and 90s there was an almost unanimous consensus that Apple was inferior to Microsoft and that Bill Gates was a genius for choosing to forgo building hardware and creating an empire on selling operating system software and a suite of office applications.
The choice and steadfast refusal by Steve Jobs to change the basic idea that Apple would build and back all aspects of the product and experience has, practically to this day, been seen as, at best, short sighted.
Ironically, the current wave of products for 2019: iPhone 11 Pro and Max, the Mac Pro with Pro Display XDR, the new MacBook Pros and Air and new iPads, AirPods Pro (still more to come) are all getting “better than expected” reviews and sales (at least the products that are available to date).
Although this is not an usual pattern. Like a blockbuster movie (Lion King?), as often as the negative reviews come flooding in, so the performance of the actual product shines in virtually inverse proportion to the dire predictions of the pundits and “experts”.
But this year, for Apple, it goes beyond that knee-jerk pattern. This year the chickens have truly come home to roost.
At this very moment millions are upgrading to iOS 13+ (don’t worry, the bugs will be ironed out soon enough) and next we will see iPad OS and Mac OS Catalina.
Just because these are all “free” upgrades, don’t be fooled by the price. The beauty of a complete ecosystem is that the benefits of one entity within the system (such as system software) accrue in great measure to all others.
And this year the interdependent innovations are nothing short of spectacular. Just take any individual device, service or function and the accelerated improvement virtually explodes in your face.
MacBook Pro 16 inch
Buy another iPhone? Is that really necessary? Only for a better camera?
The iPhone 11 Pro? “Just” has a great camera? Really? Well yes, it’s 3 cameras, 3 lenses and looks like a TV news camera from the 60s. But it is the combination of the evolution of the processing software, the “deep fusion”, machine learning within the photos app, also interwoven through iCloud and proprietary internal components, that make features like that unbelievable night mode possible, and make it possible to shoot 60fps 4K videos with all three cameras simultaneously (wait, say that again?) and all of this is just the tip of an iceberg that can only be rendered if you happen to be the company that also designs and builds its own chips (A13 Bionic with neural engine).
But wait, that is just the headline, under the hood, all of these improvements and upgrades are echoed and mirrored in every apple produced stand-alone software application, every third party developer product quick enough to ride the waves that the new system and processor makes possible, every app, every add-on all the interconnected functionality, on and on and on.
The buyers sense value – not just window dressing and hyped up bells and whistles but a complete ecosystem that was always better but now threatens to evolve at a pace that will be as mind-blowing as the original iPhone was just 12 years ago.
Because it’s the sum of the entire system – a “feature” that can not be marketed or even listed on a stat sheet – that is the most powerful force that will draw in users and surprise the nay-sayers again and again.
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All across the device galaxy the upgrades are more than incremental, they are transcendental
Take the iPad – particularly the iPad Pro, Not only will it take a quantum leap forward with added iPad OS features that push it into laptop-like functionality, but all the lame comparisons with the Surface are completely meaningless once you factor in the “Sidecar” function within Mac OS Catalina, not to mention the constantly evolving interconnected software (example: Photoshop and Affinity Photo both now on iPad). Sidecar allows the iPad to be used as an external, extra screen, or, if you have a recent Mac, for example a MacBook Pro or an iMac or a Mac Mini, and you are within 10 meters of it, you can use a mouse or Apple Pencil and you, literally, have a tiny mac in the form of an iPad Laptop.
So, in essence, you have a mostly iPad touch system device with all the special uses that implies, and yet, with iPad OS you also have the option to use it as a touch screen Laptop or, using Sidecar, you can switch to an actual Mac with all the associated functions and capabilities. And, yes, did I mention that if you already have an iPad and a Mac this has a cost of $0 for the double upgrade?
During the coming months features of this type (benefits of the eco-system) will expand and improve and, yes, next year there will be yet another quantum leap. I am writing this on an iPad Pro from 2015 and it has improved in functionality constantly for the last 4 years, and that’s before this huge step forward coming in the next 30 days. Added cost, zero. A product that improves for years after you buy it for free? Only Tesla is even attempting to match such a business ethos.
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Hardware, Chips and Components, Software, Services, Os’s All Evolving in Concert
It will take a series of articles to go into any kind of depth at all regarding how the machine learning and AI within the Apple ecosystem is evolving with amazing speed, how the various hardware design improvements are being optimized for just those uses. How a system which not only has constantly upgraded operating systems, but a growing and deepening array or application software (also “free”) all benefitting from each other.
“Buy any part, piece or product and you are pulled into a vortex of virtuous and redundant improvements, which obliterate cost comparisons.”
– D.L.
What this all adds up to is “just” better performance, functionality and expanded feature sets (as well as entirely new capabilities) across the entire constellation of devices, applications and services. Buy any part, piece or product and you are pulled into a vortex of virtuous and redundant improvements, which obliterate cost comparisons. Could this be the reason the most expensive iPhone is, once again, leading in sales volume? Why are people buying an iPhone 11 Pro Max with 256 GB? Why, indeed.
So, the genius idea to charge people every year or two for another bug filled monstrosity of an operating system is truly genius if you only care about money for nothing (hello windows and android universe).
If, on the other hand, you care about improved user experience, satisfaction and productivity, and have the increased creative and technological capabilities of the new cyborg army (that is the new human race) as job 1, well, to paraphrase a certain former President, it’s the eco-system, stupid.
But the genius and power, seldom singled out for praise of any kind (even among Tesla fanatics), in finding “sexy” ways to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and of waging war against the capitalist world that itself created the problem of Global Warming, is mind-bendingly fantastic.
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To survive this oncoming competition, Netflix has been looking for ways to distinguish itself. It has done this partially by creating more original content and making a name for itself as a production company. At the same time, though, Netflix is also trying to get creative within its… Continue reading
The backbone of the fossil fuel strangle-hold on the world economy is cars and, particularly in the US, a transportation infrastructure based on solo drivers and individual cars. Because of this, a fossil fuel alternative is hard to obtain without the use of fossil fuels themselves… Continue reading
Consensus Building Rapidly Against the Business Models of Internet Giants
Earlier this week, Amnesty International, a non-governmental organization from the UK, called Google and Facebook’s practices of omnipresent surveillance on people around the world an “assault on privacy.” The organization, which focuses on human rights, recently released a report outlining how these two major tech companies hold too much power and should change their business models to stop infringing on users’ personal information.
Amnesty International’s accusations may seem extreme, but that does not mean that they are inaccurate. While Google and Facebook might appear to be free websites, the reality is that you pay for their services with your data. Whenever you search for something, you feed the sites information—information that they can sell, manipulate, market, or use for a countless number of other things, some of them perhaps unethical.
The upside is that data is cheap, and therefore these websites are not about to start charging you. The downside, however, is that there are really no limits to how tech juggernauts like Google or Facebook (or Apple, or Amazon, or Microsoft for that matter) use the data you provide them. No concrete laws in the United States monitor these companies’ use of data, and given that the Internet was built as a place of free-flowing information, there are no internal boundaries that stop these websites from taking full, unrestricted advantage of your information.
This is not the first time that Facebook and Google have been called out for issues regarding privacy and cyber-ethics. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has found himself before Congress on more than one occasion recently. Ever since it became known that Cambridge Analytica used web data to falsely advertise on Facebook during the 2016 elections, the social network’s surveillance tactics have been in question.
Benign Monarchs? Not Likely.
As for Google, the website practically has a monopoly on web-searches across the world. The search engine accounts for 90% of the Internet searches on Earth, and it is not always transparent about what it does with the resulting data. With such huge numbers, though, Google can afford to distribute your extensive information to just about anyone—even government organizations or institutions with malintent.
The two companies usually respond to these kinds of accusations with vague optimism about current and future cyber-safety. Google claims to have changed its model within the last year, making the site more user-friendly and giving its patrons more control. Meanwhile, Facebook has largely stood its ground when it comes to online freedom. Zuckerberg and other Facebook officials have suggested that they will heighten security, but they simultaneously stand by that censorship on any scale is constrictive and antithetical to the website’s intent.
Facebook also owns Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and several other websites/apps that are used across borders, making the issue a conglomerate and worldly one. Although they are both American companies by origin, both Facebook and Google are international entities. Thus, creating laws around their practices is a complicated and culturally sensitive process.
At the same time, though, these enterprises have been going unchecked and unchallenged for well over a decade now. When they started, the digital world was much smaller and very different than it is now. Technology has changed, and so has the world— now the rules that govern it must follow suit.
Tesla Continues its Founding Sustainability Mission and Allies with Competitors against Washington D.C.
Ahead of Tesla’s much-anticipated unveil of their EV pickup “Cybertruck” coming this Thursday, November 21st, Tesla partners with their biggest EV pickup truck rival Rivian, and other companies related to the electric vehicle (EV) industry, in the fight against the federal government’s decision to revoke California’s rights to create their own environmental emission standards that differ from President Trump’s administration.
Together, the EV manufactures, Tesla and Rivian, and electricity and charging equipment suppliers, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Plug In America, and ChargePoint Inc., joined forces to establish the National Coalition for Advanced Transport (NCAT).
NCAT recently joined California and twenty-two other states in the two lawsuits with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. against the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), regarding this issue.
This alliance between Rivian and Tesla in the face of their upcoming EV pickup competition reminds us that the electric vehicle movement in the auto industry is more than just another capitalist market competition, but also about pressuring the rest of the industry to follow suit towards sustainability.
Tesla Wipes Out ‘Granola Style’ EV Trend with High-Quality, Powerful, Sexy, and Fun EV Production
Tesla has already found success in influencing major auto manufacturers to turn seriously towards high-quality EV production in the realm of sedans and crossover vehicles, which has made the production of less attractive and lower-quality, “granola style” EVs less viable.
Historically, traditional electric vehicle (EV) design involved a “granola style,” which involves the cultural perception of EVs as light, small, and weak “golf cart”-sized cars (think SMART cars). This has been the EV design trend for years by auto makers to pacify environmentalists, who were willing to overlook the advantages of powerful and large gas-powered vehicles to own a weaker, lower-quality electric car just to decrease their own carbon emissions. Because of this, there is a cultural perception that electric vehicles, in addition to the environmental movement that influences its market, require an almost impossible level of self-denial that feeds into the rhetoric that it isn’t worth the switch from powering cars with fossil fuels to electricity.
“Tesla has certainly set a positive impulse because the do not say electromobility is renunciation [of power] and about ‘granola image,’ but on the contrary: that is power and enthusiasm. And that is the right way.”
Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler, to German Magazine T3n at SXSW 2017
But through Tesla’s introduction of the “Roadster” battery electric vehicle (BEV) sports car, the “Model S” all-electric liftback sedan, the “Model X” mid-sized crossover SUV, and the “Model 3” all-electric four-door sedan, Tesla has proven that zero emissions can be sexy, fun, and practical.
Tesla’s Next Step is to Address Historical Market Rise towards Powerful Trucks and SUVs
However, one growing market that Tesla has yet to tap into–at least until this Thursday– is an all-electric truck suited for multiple terrains. This trend towards truck purchases is evidence of the public demand for pragmatic and powerful vehicles, which has historically been dominated by gas-powered vehicle manufacturers.
Auto sales in the US. soared in 2018 for “light trucks,” which is a vehicle category that contains SUVs, vans, and pickup trucks. Cars were outsold by trucks, which occupied 69.2% of the market share that year. The truck sales market share during 2018 is the highest in history as it skyrocketed from 5% to 69.2% within one year. This consumer trend towards light truck purchases comes from a variety of features including more room for cargo and passengers, towing capabilities, four-wheel drive, and more.
Of the vehicles in the “light truck” category, the crossover utility vehicles, like the upcoming Tesla Model Y, led the demand for light trucks by being 38.7% of the sales. SUVs were followed by pickup trucks with 30.5% in sales, which left small cars with 30.8% of the market share.
Tesla’s next step in their multi-pronged plan to prove that electric power can rival that of fossil fuel power is their all-electric pickup truck “Cybertruck,” and they need to be able to compete with their all-terrain, EV pickup truck rival Rivian in order to be successful.
How will Tesla compete with its Biggest EV Pickup Truck Rival: Rivian R1T?
In order to compete in the large and growing market share of trucks, Tesla’s upcoming “Cybertruck” electric pickup truck needs to be able to surpass the tried and proven powerful capabilities of both gas-powered trucks and the electric powerhouse of Rivian R1T.
In light of the big reveal on November 21st in Los Angeles, the “Cybertruck” needs to either measure up to or, ideally, surpass a number of high expectations in order to find success in the nascent market for EV pickups.
In order to continue their mission of making electromobility accessible to the masses, the “Cybertruck” needs to compete with affordable pricing. Currently, the starting price for the R1T is $69,000, while the Cybertruck should cut well underneath that with a starting price of $50,000.
The Cybertruck also needs to have incredible endurance capabilities with a super long range, off-road dominance, high-volume storage availability, massive towing strength, and a towing-tuned auto-pilot to match. For reference, the R1T already touts a 400+ mile range and an 11,000 lbs towing capacity complete with multi-terrain capabilities, including a water wading depth of over 3 feet, cloud-based navigation features, and “Level 3” autonomy features.
Although Rivian’s R1T’s impeccable features seem intimidating compared to the specs of Tesla’s other models, Tesla has the advantage of a much later unveiling that may have given them more time to fine-tune their technology and strategize to compete.
We’ll know how the “Cybertruck” will compare against the R1T on Thursday, November 21st at 6pm in Los Angeles, CA near SpaceX, when Elon Musk finally makes the EV pickup truck’s specs known to the public.
Ford Announcement is Harbinger of Avalanche of New EV Models are on the Horizon from virtually every Major Automaker
With today’s scheduled announcement of a new Ford Mustang EV and a slew of other companies rushing into the fray, the transition into more sustainable automotive transportation has gone into hyperdrive.
Since it’s founding in 2003, Tesla has been about two things: all electric zero emission electric cars and making them fun, fast and sexy.
The genius of this cannot be overstated. In retrospect, it can even be said that the auto industry intentionally tried to make EV’s, to the extent that they were developed at all, an experience like eating broccoli while everyone else at the table feasted on a cornucopia of delights. The idea appeared to be to intentionally fail and thereby take away the need for EV’s to be produced at all (and ICE vehicle production to continue uninterrupted)
Elon Musk and Tesla put a stop to all that. Facing incredible resistance and negative press bordering on sabotage, nevertheless the company persisted and stuck to the concept: EVs must be not only have a long range and be powerful but also be fast and fun like hell to drive.
Also, could it be that all the boring, staid productions and designs were built specifically to fail? That the fossil fuel industrial complex wanted to perpetuate itself (automakers included) and stop or at least slow down the transition to EVs?
For years, there was not much more than a trickle of projects at other manufacturers trying to follow suit. No more. Not only are there huge and growing numbers of new models either in production or soon to be produced, but longer term commitments and infrastructure investments, particularly by the top German automakers are being announced virtually by the day.
Theses commitments follow not only close attention to the sales numbers and successes of Tesla’s Roadster, Model 3, S and X, but, with a high likelihood, huge companies are seeing that the tide is turning in awareness of the need for sustainable energy infrastructure among the general public.
Although there is plenty of debate as to whether battery based individual cars can be powered by primarily sustainable energy sources (Solar, wind, etc), it is clear that reducing CO2 emissions by phasing out, and eventually eliminating, ICE vehicles is a positive step forward.
Photo / Tesla
The Future can’t wait, and thankfully, Elon and Tesla Survived and Brought us All to this Moment
But the genius and power, seldom singled out for praise of any kind (even among Tesla fanatics), in finding “sexy” ways to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and of waging war against the capitalist world that itself created the problem of Global Warming, is mind-bendingly fantastic.
While this sounds almost insane at first blush, Elon Musk and Tesla are proving that, by focusing on making products that are not only environmentally progressive but also attractive to consumers, (using a marketing style straight out of Apple and Steve Jobs playbook) the “free market” can bring extreme pressure to bear on polluting fossil fuel behemoths and force them to change.
The brilliance of this is deep and formidable. In the end, it is “the people” that must stand up and act to change the ways that we travel and use transportation. It has been clear for half a century that a “top-down” approach where a kind of energy austerity is forced on the public is not possible and would bring great hardship. And voluntary change by the power structure went virtually nowhere in the last 50 years.
Why not find ways to make sustainable energy solutions and products that improve the transportation systems into aspirational objects of desire and status? Why not make green more than just politically correct but also cutting edge and satisfying to the lifestyles of the affluent and mobile in the G7 member countries?
Tesla Store in Hamburg, Germany
One Step Forward is better than Excuses not to Act, which has been the Stance of Government and Industry until now
And so what if battery factories are not yet able to run on 100% sustainable energy sources? Isn’t it better to start now and accelerate the transition to a better way? Tesla is also a solar company and a battery manufacturing company and is doing everything possible to upgrade all available technology to make its entire operation more completely sustainable and “green”.
Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see the rest of the auto industry (and indeed other industries and companies) to follow this path of prioritizing sustainable energy production and use?
Now, today, we see that a miracle has happened. Using great technology and product designs and marketing them with emphasis on the driving pleasure, speed and sexy fun, just as much as the environmental benefits Tesla has pulled and prodded the rest of the auto industry toward the future, and forced them to abandon all efforts to delay or impede the transition to sustainable energy in automotive transport.
In a war with a single company / entity against almost literally the entire world infrastructure, the war was won by the underdog, hands down.
Perhaps this is a lesson for the future: that winning the hearts, minds and the wallets of the general public, by creating products people love, can be an even better catalyst for positive change, than preaching suffering and guilt while clinging to the obsolete structures of the past.
You can watch the live unveiling of the Mustang Mach-E at 5:15 PM (PST) Nov. 17, 2019 below:
The main factor preventing carbon emission reductions? Over-reliance on fossil fuel for energy & transport
As the climate crisis rages on and protests for climate action happen all over the world, peoples and nations worldwide struggle with implementing a sustainable alternative to the biggest cause of carbon emissions: fossil fuels.
The backbone of the fossil fuel strangle-hold on the world economy is cars and, particularly in the US, a transportation infrastructure based on solo drivers and individual cars. Because of this, a fossil fuel alternative is hard to obtain without the use of fossil fuels themselves throughout the process.
The European Union, for example, despite being the top funds provider for global projects aimed at fighting against the climate crisis, has also provided funding and subsidies for fossil fuels at the same time. However, on Friday, November 8th, the European Union Finance Ministers backed a declaration to end all fossil fuel funding for the first time.
After previously only agreeing to end funding for coal power plants, they issued a joint statement with the EU calling “to phase out financing of fossil fuel projects, in particular those using solid fossil fuels, taking into account the sustainable development, and energy needs, including energy security, of partner countries.”
The European Investment Bank’s official decision regarding the matter is unclear as a number of countries push for the continuance of gas funding in the face of the EU’s general fear that those countries would turn to Russia for help. The EIB board will meet on November 14th to further discuss this policy issue.
Tesla’s Mission and Vision is Coming to Fruition
Fortunately, Tesla has been aware of this complex socioeconomic issue from its establishment, and they are the leading cause of change and innovation that combats this issue on all fronts.
On May 9, 2019, Tesla’s twitter account released a thread detailing the company’s mission and how they plan to execute it in a multitude of ways as they go forward. Their mission is “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”
Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
The first part of their “Master Plan” to realize this mission is to influence the auto industry to transition to electric power because the current leading cause of global CO2 emissions is the constant use of fossil fuels for transportation, especially in the U.S., where its infrastructure primarily relies on transportation via solo, gas-powered cars with individual drivers.
Tesla accomplished this by designing the Tesla Roadster, Model S, Model X, Model 3, and the upcoming Model Y to prove that “people didn’t need to compromise to drive all-electric” in order to benefit the environment.
Tesla’s planned impact on the auto industry is clearly a success as various hybrid and all-electric model cars are set for deliveries in 2020.
Tesla Successfully Influences Auto Industry to Embrace EVs as ‘Sexy & Fun’
As Tesla’s founding ethos of making sustainable transportation fun and ‘sexy’ is proven to be successful, many car manufacturers are following suit by moving towards producing hybrid and/or all-electric vehicles that guarantee a high quality that lives up to, or even surpasses, their long-established, gas-powered, vehicle brand names.
https://youtu.be/o0F9Uktpgtk
On Sunday, November 17th, it looks like Ford is about to jump on this trend first introduced by Tesla and incorporated into the recent practices of renowned car manufacturers, like Lamborghini, Porsche, and Jeep.
Porsche and Jeep have already produced hybrid plug-in versions of their iconic Cayenne and Wrangler models as a movement towards sustainable energy, but Ford’s Mustang Mach-E is going to be the first all-electric SUV to bear a name originally reserved for a trademark, powerful, gas-powered, “muscle” car.
This marks a major shift in values for traditional automakers. At first, car manufacturers would produce moderate-to-low quality electric vehicles just to pacify the environmentalist demographic, essentially putting the carbon emissions reduction burden on consumers, who rightfully find that sacrificing the quality transportation that they deserve in the name of saving the planet is too inconvenient, rather than themselves for failing to give consumers a compatible alternative to their gas-powered vehicles.
But now, with Tesla’s burgeoning global success in high-quality EV sales, the demand for electric vehicles has finally increased to a level that traditional auto companies were unable (or unwilling) to achieve. As a result, high-quality EV production is finally at the top of production priorities in heightening the possibility for a real start toward a sustainable future.
BMW i4
Auto Companies Rushing Forward to Ramp Up EV Production in Fear of Losing the Market to Tesla
Audi, Mercedes and BMW all have big projects for EV production, and have, in essence, capitulated and conceded that EVs will be 100% of the car market in the relatively near future, within a decade for example. They are now concerned that Tesla will dominate with a massive market share if they do not start working to catch up. And if this shift isn’t seen in the various hybrid and electric models coming out in 2020, it demonstrates a clear trend, based on recent auto company investments and factory expansions.
On Wednesday, November 13th, Volkswagen unveiled an $800 million investment into an expansion project for their Cattanooga, Tennessee factory to be turned into VW’s main base for electric vehicle manufacturing in North America. They also expect to introduce 1,000 new jobs at the factory through the 564,000-square-foot body shop addition that’s part of the expansion.
In light of their 2015 emissions cheating scandal, the expansion is also a piece of Volkswagen’s broad plan to turn away from diesel, which globally entails a $50 billion commitment towards EV development and production.
Photo / Volkswagen
Volkswagen’s expansion will also enable the production of their all-electric compact SUV, the VW ID.4, by mid-2022, which is expected to compete with Tesla’s Model Y, which will begin production in early 2020.
Thanks to Tesla’s success, this insurgence of EV popularity amongst consumers is forcing auto companies to measure up to the high-quality Tesla standard, which indicates that the tipping point leading to a clean energy future through sustainable transportation has arrived.
2nd Bombshell ? Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR also Released Today
World’s best Professional Notebook? Probably not even close
Right up front let’s state the obvious: sometimes bigger is better. This might be one of those times. 16 inches for a screen can help enormously to allow pro users to untether themselves from those huge multi-screen arrays with massive desktop functionality when traveling or just when that locked in feeling creeps up and creativity needs new scenery.
This idea is not to replace your upcoming new massive Mac Pro / Pro Display XDR combo (interestingly slated as of today for December availability) but to give you at least the feeling that you do not need to curtail the most power hungry activities while away from your main rig. And, if the specs herein are any indication, it will clearly enable you to do just that in all but the most demand situations. And with a max internal storage capacity of 8TB (yes, you are reading that right), for many, it could indeed replace an entire desktop workstation.
Here it is: The New Magic Keyboard
Billed as a “new scissor mechanism” but more importantly with a “rubber dome” that all of us hope will do away with the “dead” feeling of the now infamous “butterfly” keyboard. Headline is “comfortable and quiet”, but I think many would be satisfied if it is at least as nice as the “old” pre-butterfly model that was a durable dream to use. They put back the escape key (good job!) and, as this is the most expensive and fully decked out MacBook Pro ever, with the Touch Bar features and upgraded (fixed) keyboard we should be ready to rock.
More Power Demands a more Advanced Thermal Design
As processors get more and more powerful (here we have the 8‑core Intel Core i9) heat always becomes a potential issue and problem. As can be seen in the animated image above there has been a lot of effort put into dealing with this in an effective, elegant way. The improvements to the cooling capacity will allow the MacBook Pro 16″ to handle up to 12 more watts, while intensive workloads are present, compared with the previous MacBook Pro iteration.
100Wh Battery for 11 hours Browsing and an AMD Radeon Pro 5000M series GPU
For the largest screen and fastest processor, naturally, a bigger better battery is needed. The monster in question is a 100Wh (largest yet in a MacBook) and is said to add an extra hour of life, in spite of all the muscle under the hood.
With video and other intensive graphic workflows becoming more and more important (and software allowing more complex actions and higher video resolutions) a fast, powerful GPU is extremely crucial. It will be fantastic to see how far we can push the AMD Radeon Pro 5000M series graphics card which apple says is the first 7nm mobile discrete GPUs for pro users. External GPUs have been all the rage, perhaps the new 16 inch MacBook pro can dispense with the need via this AMD upgrade?
An 80% improvement in performance is claimed in comparison to the previous fastest-ever 8-core 15-inch MacBook Pro when equipped with the highest graphics options:
Video editors using DaVinci Resolve will see up to 1.8 times faster effects rendering when color grading.
Gamers will enjoy smoother gameplay with up to 1.6 times faster performance in games like Fortnite.
In Unity, developers will experience 1.4 times faster fly-through performance during game development.
And, yes, as you would expect, there are More Powerful Processors and Faster Memory
Again, the new MacBook Pro 16 inch (not coincidentally, released on the day that the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR December release is also on the agenda) is all about computationally intensive tasks such as code rendering, graphics processing, up to 8k (!) video and so forth. In keeping with this goal, processors are beefed up 6- and 8-core 9th-generation with Turbo Boost speeds up to 5.0 GHz. Apple claims speeds up to 2.1 times faster performance than the quad-core 15-inch MacBook Pro. It’s possible to load this beast with up to 64GB and, also factoring in the result of the improved thermal design mentioned above, this could allow us all to blast through heretofore impossible tasks, if not with ease, at least with some fluency. According to Apple, when compared to the fastest quad-core 15-inch MacBook Pro:
Music producers can play back massive multi-track projects with up to 2.1 times more Amp Designer plug-ins in Logic Pro X.
Scientists and researchers will benefit from 2.1 times faster simulation of dynamical systems in MATLAB.
Developers using Xcode can compile code up to 1.8 times faster.
Photographers can apply complex edits to photographs 1.7 times faster in Photoshop.
Processor:
Configurable to 2.4GHz 8‑core Intel Core i9, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz, with 16MB shared L3 cache
Retina display
16″ Display:
16‑inch (diagonal) LED‑backlit display with IPS technology; 3072‑by‑1920 native resolution at 226 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors
Elon Musk made an appearance on German’s Auto Bild TV for the 2019 Golden Steering Wheels Awards (Die Verleihung des Goldenen Lenkrads 2019) showcasing the best cars of the year. While receiving an award, Musk announced that the location for the next Gigafactory will be in Berlin, Germany.
The first European Gigafactory will be situated near the newest airport in Berlin named the Brandenburg International Airport (BER). The airport is still under construction with reported plans for a 2020 opening date. Since the new Berlin airport location is already infamous for construction delays, Musk joked that the new Gigafactory would “hopefully” be completed more swiftly in comparison
Tesla’s site as of November 12th, now shows career opportunities in “Remote, Germany” for Gigafactory 4.
The Tesla Factory is located in Fremont, California, with Gigafactory 1 and 2 both based the United States in Sparks, Nevada and Buffalo, New York respectively. Gigafactory 3 is the first overseas factory in is located Shanghai, China.
In a tweet in June, Tesla’s CEO shared a potential teaser into the location of the European factory. The reality is, however, better- Berlin is in! The speed at which Gigfactories are popping up worldwide is impressive. Gigafactory 3, near Shanghai, that can build 150,000 Model 3 sedans a year, according to Tesla, was build in just 168 working days!
Musk has previously estimated that it will eventually take 100 Gigafactories to build the components necessary in order to run the entire world on sustainable energy. Naturally, as he also pointed out, Tesla alone could not build that many, and plans are for, eventually, an initial twelve to be built. So, 8 more in the pipeline now that #4 in Berlin has been announced. At the time of completion the first Gigafactory was the second largest building in the world by volume, with the largest footprint at 1.9 million square feet, hence “Giga”.
Will build batteries, powertrains & vehicles, starting with Model Y
Musk flew his private jet to Germany on November 11th, curiously missing the successful launch of 60 Starlink Satellites – and now we know the main reason why he did. Shortly after the award cerimony, a couple of tweets went live. The first, announcing the award, and more importantly, the second detailing the initial plans for the factory’s uses: building powertains and vehicles, starting with the Model Y and, of course, batteries.
The Model 3 has been, by almost any measure, a spectacular success. Now, with the Model Y looming on the horizon, and the mysterious Tesla pickup truck set to be unveiled on November 21st at the Tesla Design Center in Hawthorne, CA, 2020 is sizing up to be another make or beak year for Tesla and Elon.
Congrats to Tesla team on Model 3 winning best midsize car in Germany! 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 https://t.co/4CDTf4c3eC
5G Network to be Available in Over 5,000 Cities through T-Mobile in 2019…
Recently, T-Mobile announced that they are set to launch their 5G network nationwide in over 5,000 cities next month on December 6th. This comes after a successful trial period in select cities where their millimeter wave 5G was deployed for testing. For their official launch, they plan to use a 600MHZ band spectrum, which will slightly affect its 5G internet speed, but with the benefit of being able to cover more space and penetrate buildings.
The widest increase in coverage to date by T-Mobile, the new, slightly slower version will increase the initial overall coverage to over 200 million subscribers. In optimal conditions the network is predicted to ultimately reach speeds of up to 10 times the current LTE network at 450 mbps.
China’s carriers, China Unicorn, China Telecom and China Mobile all recently announced accelerated plans to launch 5G services in 2019, ahead of initial projections of a 2020 time frame. Services are currently available in 50 cities across the Middle Kingdom, and 130,000 5G base stations are planned to be activated by the end of the year, according to a government press release.
Currently, however, there are only a couple of smartphones that can take advantage of 5G. Models made by Samsung (Galaxy Note 10 ) and OnePlus (7T Pro 5G) are currently available. Naturally, this entire transition will be a multi-year affair, with 2024 being a date for eventual transition to a majority of users.
Network Build-out and Consumer Adoption could hit Initial Peak in 2021
This gradual, yet sooner than expected, expansion of 5G coverage comes at an interesting time for iPhone users as Apple continues to develop their 5G iPhone technology for their future launch in September 2020, after recently acquiring Intel’s smartphone modem unit for their upcoming 5G push back in July.
Although much has been made of the race to 5G and the battle between the U.S. and China for leadership in the area, it will likely be the adoption by consumers, dependent on the investment by same in the associated costs, that will ultimately determine the speed of the transition. The improvements to all forms of online communication, particularly when coupled with the planned rollout of global satellite systems, such as SpaceX’s Starlink, have the potential to spur major changes in the coming decade.
As 5G internet coverage becomes more widespread through the various carrier roll-outs, it has the potential to revolutionize audio and visual technology by making high-quality sound and video more accessible to the general public. Once this 10x optimal speed and bandwidth become “standard”, all forms of online media will become more viable, hence the current steaming wars.
Interestingly, this nationwide 5G coverage could possibly be even greater if T-Mobile and Sprint are able to merge successfully, especially after considering that they obtained the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) approval for the merger in the midst of anti-trust concerns and a multi-state lawsuit against it.
Can this Digital GrandDaddy Stay Relevant as Disney+, Apple TV+ and more enter the Fray?
For years, Netflix has been pointed to as the premiere streaming service and the foremost company responsible for popularizing watching content online instead of on a television or movie screen. It has earned a spot alongside Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google as one of the most influential companies in the world of 21st century technology and entertainment—being the N in the notorious acronym FAANG.
Recently, however, Netflix has been hitting some hard times. Its debt has been steadily increasing for a while and fewer companies are renewing their contracts with it, thus limiting the breadth of its library. Likewise, the launches of Disney+, HBO Max, NBCUniversal’s Peacock, and Apple+ are creeping closer and closer. When these new streaming services become available, their parent companies will stop licensing content to Netflix, and they will bring about unprecedented competition.
While Netflix has slowly been increasing its amount of original content over the years, its most popular offerings remain properties from outside sources. As it has been for a couple years now, the two most watched programs on Netflix are “The Office” and “Friends.” In fact, one has to go pretty far down the list before finding a Netflix original among company’s most popular shows.
Once the streaming war begins, though, Netflix will lose many of these licensed-out titles. Originally airing on NBC, “The Office” will be available exclusively on Peacock. Likewise, being a Warner Brother’s television production, “Friends” will find its new streaming home on HBO Max. Netflix will thus be in a pickle, as they will have fewer titles in their libraries and fewer active deals with pre-established studios and networks.
Nevertheless, Netflix is responding to the impending streaming war with surprising optimism. The company’s CEO, Reed Hastings has expressed feelings of confidence, explaining how the increased competition will force Netflix to be creative and improve its model.
Content is, once again, Key in a Competitive Market
Creativity will be the key to success in the streaming war, as original content will largely determine which platforms outlast the others. Netflix has certainly been upping its original content game throughout 2018 and 2019. On the series side, season three of “Stranger Things” broke records for the company, and the innovative “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” introduced the choose-your-own-adventure model to television and garnered a Primetime Emmy win in the process.
Likewise, ever since Alfonso Cuaron’s 2018 Netflix original film “Roma” earned several Oscar nominations—including wins for best director and best foreign film, and a nomination for best picture—Netflix has been seen as a far more legitimate production company, worthy of immense talent and prestigious content. To an extent, Netflix has ran with this new reputation in 2019, creating Steven Soderbergh’s “The Laundromat” starring Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, and Antonio Banderas, as well as Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” with Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci.
It is a bold strategy for Netflix, but it seems like the company is going for prestige as its new brand. When the streaming war takes place, one of the things Disney, Warner Brothers, and NBC have that Netflix currently lacks is an identifiable brand-type. For the majority of streaming history, a subscription to a service simply meant that you were paying for a smorgasbord of content that could range all different genres and cater to diverse tastes. Now that streaming services and production companies are merging into one entity, subscribing becomes a far more divisive strategy based on brand recognition.
In order for Netflix to remain afloat, they will need to sell themselves as offering something not available anywhere else. For years creative and business-minded people have scratched their heads trying to figure out what kind of content Netflix desires. Perhaps this prestigious trend brings us closer to an answer.
Nevertheless, Netflix has also employed a couple other strategies to keep itself moving through 2019. It has dug into some preexisting intellectual properties and expanded upon them. Recently, it re-capitalized on “Breaking Bad” with Vince Gilligan’s “El Camino” taking place in the same universe as the show. Meanwhile, it also exploited 1990s nostalgia by producing original movies based off of old Nickelodeon cartoon shows “Rocko’s Modern Life” and “Invader Zim.”
Therefore, Netflix’s playbook remains mysterious. Unlike other web-based companies of its caliber, Netflix keeps its data private. So while there are guesses and estimates about trends in Netflix’s model, it is quite possible that the company has a few unseen tricks still hidden up its sleeve. Only time will tell if Netflix will find a way to keep up with the competition, or if the service will go down as an immensely influential, yet tragically short-lived blip in entertainment history.
Facebook Attempts to Rebrand itself with New, Colorful All-Caps Logo for all Owned and Acquired Apps
In the fifteen years that Facebook has graced our computer screens, the website has undergone many aesthetic and technical changes, yet its lower-case, white printed name set against a blue background has stood the test of time as the company’s unmistakable corporate logo. However, even the most familiar things must evolve at some point. Despite its long run, Facebook’s corporate logo is finally changing and the change is far from subtle.
Facebook’s updated logo no longer reads “facebook” but instead shouts “FACEBOOK” in all-caps, slightly bolded Helevetica font. According to Mark Zuckerberg, the new logo is meant to offer a sense of security and optimism, with its soft edges and comfortable spacing reminding users that the website was created to bring people together.
Perhaps even more dramatically than the all-caps decision, though, Facebook’s new logo is also losing its signature blue and white color combo. The company’s name will now be written in transitional colors, changing hue depending on the application it is seen on.
The logo will be seen on multiple applications, as Facebook also announced that it will start branding itself more straightforwardly on the company’s other apps and sites. One may not know that Facebook owns Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Workplace, Portal, and Calibra. The company plans on making this Facebook-family of services more blatantly related, printing “from Facebook” on each homepage using the new logo.
New Facebook Marketing Stunt Comes Amidst Political Strife and Corporate Pitfalls
This re-branding marketing stunt could not have come at a more astute time for Facebook. The company has been in hot water for well over a year at this point, and the pot is beginning to boil over.
During the 2016 election, the Cambridge Analytica British Consulting Firm used Facebook to steal data and falsely advertise for the Trump campaign. Since then, the company has been accused of profiting off of fake-news and not doing enough to police their content.
New multi-colored version of the Logo released as an animated GIF
Just a couple weeks ago, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grilled Mark Zuckerberg before Congress, exposing the young CEO’s ignorance as well as his lack of initiative to address Facebook security issues and protect its users.
Similarly, Senator Elizabeth Warren has scathingly called out Facebook during her Democratic presidential campaign. Part of her anti-corporation platform includes breaking up the big tech conglomerates—that means Apple, Google, Amazon, and yes, Facebook. Essentially, Warren gave a voice to the widely accepted belief that Facebook currently holds too much control and has become an unchecked power.
No—Facebook is not on great terms with its users nowadays. More and more people are deleting their accounts on the site that once ruled social media, following the #deletefacebook trend growing across the globe. Sadly, there is not a whole lot Facebook can do about the underlying causes, though. As dumbfounded as Zuckerberg may have seemed before congress, these cyber-security questions are far from simple.
For now, Facebook is doing what it can for itself. It is changing its image, hoping that the updated logo and united approach to the multiple apps will revamp interest in the site and maybe just cover up some of the hostility it currently faces. A new logo doesn’t actually solve anything. Facebook will still remain the same old site it always has been. So how do we take the new logo? As a sign of corporate reformation on Facebook’s behalf? Or as a symbolic front to distract user’s from the company’s inaction? Or is it just a logo? A marketing ploy like any other meant to make the website more modern and appealing to digital passerbys.
