11 January 2016
At SparkOptimus, we try to highlight the most important news and background stories in digital, e-commerce and retail. Here is our selection of last week’s news:
No time for a slow and relaxed start into the new year, as the annual Consumer Electronics Show CES this week provided us with a long line of new innovations. In short: e-commerce has proved to have grown up, now pizza can be ordered with an emoji. 2016’s new advances will be in hardware like trains, planes and automobiles, hereby further intertwining ecommerce and mobile technology with our offline reality. 2016 is also likely to be the year of drones, with over 18,000 drone users registered in the US Federal Aviation Administration’s record since its start two weeks ago, and this week’s launch of the first passenger drone by Chinese developer Ehang. Another big and long-expected topic is the launch of Facebook’s Oculus Rift, promising to lead the way for virtual reality into the fields of entertainment and ecommerce. Already, the fashion industry is providing us a sneak-peek of what we can expect, enabling fashion enthusiasts to experience Fashion Week from the couch, after which they can 3d print their own customized sneaker. Finally, 2016 is expected to result in a great year for smart home technologies, part of the Internet-of-Things, with introductions already announced of smart security systems, weather stations, and even kettles. Question remain however whether these innovations will all prove to add value to the life of customers: “Just because you can be connected, doesn’t mean you should be connected”. If not, it will at least have a chance of acquiring a position in this infamous list.