Strategy in TECH...
Como Audio, Tom DeVesto’s latest innovative venture and maker of fine streaming smart speaker systems, has launched a funding campaign on Wefunder, seeking to raise between $100,000 to $1,000,000 in equity investment. Investors on the Wefunder site can buy preferred shares of Como Audio stock priced at $2.50/share and own a piece of the company.
Like many countries, Japan is facing a dramatic shortage in the number of available high-tech workers. To address this situation, the country has decided to make computer programming classes mandatory for all students, starting in elementary school. Students will be mandated to study coding for their entire educational experience, every year from 5th grade through high school graduation in the hopes of filling the high-tech worker shortfall and catching up with the rest of the world.
HiberSense, an emerging provider of smart residential and commercial climate solutions, announced this week that it has hired Chris Lawson as their new Channel Sales Manager for the US. Lawson will represent the line to residential and commercial integrators as well as HVAC contractors anywhere in the nation.
Control4 has recognized a new class of 67 dealers whose level of business with the brand has earned them the designation as a Pinnacle status partner. Pinnacle status, Control4 says, is a lifetime achievement that indicates their importance as a highly supportive partner.
Global competition continues to heat up and nowhere is that more obvious than a recent analysis from the World Intellectual Property Organization noting that in 2018 – for the first time in human history – the region of Asia filed the majority of all international patent applications. This new reality suggests that Asia is “rapidly increasing their presence in global innovation,” the report says.
And which company in particular was tops in the world for innovation? WIPO says it was Huawei Technologies, who filed the most patents from a single company in the world.
American companies are increasingly moving tech jobs to Canada, where easier immigration policies make it much easier to hire foreign tech workers than it is here in the U.S. where the Administration has taken steps to make it more difficult. That mean these companies are expanding their operations in Canada…especially in their tech divisions…turning certain Canadian cities into the next great tech hubs in North America.
Apple, Inc. announced today that it has upgraded its popular AirPods wireless headphones, with a new Generation 2 model featuring technology that offers more talk time, quicker connects, a hands-free ‘Hey Siri’ capability, and a new wireless charging case.
I have sad news to report today as respected audio industry veteran Graham Hallett died last Friday, March 8th, after a battle with cancer. Hallett was 73 years old and passed away peacefully, surrounded by his beloved family.
There are a lot of people excited about facial recognition, but so far the most aggressive experimenters (aside from law enforcement) have been marketers. This is especially true of retailers who see a lot of opportunity to exploit the technology to enhance in-store experiences, conduct research, or to stop shoplifters. Yet new polls show that consumers are truly creeped out by facial recognition, and privacy groups, consumer advocates, and even some regulators are coming out against it the technology.
As regular Strata-gee readers know, I follow basic economic data for our readers. Not all economic data, just that data I feel are germane to the custom integration and consumer electronics industries. Normally, that is a fairly sane and sedate task – but lately, it has gotten a bit crazy, with wild up/down swings the likes of which I haven’t seen since the last great recession. Take housing starts, for example…
