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Jeff Bezos and Amazon continue to disrupt

Colin Henderson

Amazon appear to have a strategy that is to disrupt and dominate niche plays.  While the general headlines are focussed on market share of tablets, smart phones, PC’s etc, Amazon focus on those components that make them money.  It is a strategy of giving those things that will drive their core business away for free.  It is not necessarily clear how free phones will drive Amazon ecommerce revenue yet, but I am certain Bezos sees a way.  One thing I know is that its super handy for me to be able to read by latest book during off times on … Continue reading Jeff Bezos and Amazon continue to disrupt

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The end of summer primer for the payments planning season

Colin Henderson

This post makes great summer reading in preparation for the autumn planning cycle.  It is long with lots of enthusiasm but the points being made are dead on.  I paraphrase the highlights here but if you are actively planning for your bank/ payment company this is a thought provoking piece worth the read with an open mind. Six points are made but I chose to highlight three that brilliantly challenge payments as we know them today. The Six Things That Will Change the Future of Payments Interchange Fees Are Hosed The one positive outcome is that the discussion has forced … Continue reading The end of summer primer for the payments planning season

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Bitcasa – my 2 year journey to personal hard drive elimination

Colin Henderson

I am guessing few will know about Bitcasa.  And to be clear this is not an advert from me.  This is about my experience and thoughts on a concept that is critical to us all (imho) and that remains unique which is why it took me two years. First off I have made the leap to fully eliminate use of my hard drive as a medium to store things and now I use Bitcasa.  That might explain why it took a while and here follows how I got there and what I was thinking along the way. And yes there … Continue reading Bitcasa – my 2 year journey to personal hard drive elimination

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Stripe–simple online payments levering technology banks are missing

Colin Henderson

Here is a brilliant example of how online payments should work.  I have always maintained banks should be dominating this space.  But no.  Banks lost this battle by refusing to adopt new technology that works with the web.  Banks are still too focussed on platforms that support legacy systems, and that’s where a company like Stripe excels versus banks. What is Stripe: In typical developer form (take that as a compliment) they forget to tell site visitors who they are and what they do.  Any home page which includes reference to Stripe.js or anything *.js makes me smile.  The home … Continue reading Stripe–simple online payments levering technology banks are missing

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A road map for Blackberry – forget about hardware

Colin Henderson

I clearly remember my first Blackberry in 1998 +/-  There were only a few hundred out there and this was bleeding edge when a few tens of us at mbanx got one. Email connection in your pocket.  Before that I used a Psion 5c while others use Palm Pilots.  Those devices were powerful but the frustration was lack of connection to the grid.  There were modems being sold to work around that, but the magic of connection in your hand was not there. The Blackberry introduced that magic.  It used the pager network as a workaround to get connectivity.  It … Continue reading A road map for Blackberry – forget about hardware

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An interesting mobile/ ABM innovation could have unintended consequences

Colin Henderson

This is one of those innovations that kind of makes you wonder if it is a good thing.  I can see criminals loving this one. Banco Sabadell adds cardless ATM withdrawals to mobile app However, in a neat twist, the Banco Sabadell service explicitly promotes the capability for customers to send the code on to the phone of a second person, effectively making it a person-to-person payments system. The pros are distant at best.  You can interact with the ABM from your phone.  You generate a code in advance and use that at the ABM to get your cash.  Yes … Continue reading An interesting mobile/ ABM innovation could have unintended consequences

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How far has the economy really come since 2008?

Colin Henderson

This rather complicated image from here is actually quite telling if you take a minute to study.  The black line is the supposed normal long run level for each indicator.  The red line indicates when QE began in 2009, and the blue is where we are today. In summary not much has changed and despite the month to month improvements, the relative improvement to where we were prior to 2008 is immense. Continue reading How far has the economy really come since 2008?

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Who is your Edward Snowden?

Colin Henderson

The story of Edward Snowden is becoming more interesting than the message he has brought.  He has been a spy all his adult life and he has been with Booz Allen for 2 months~.  Further he is 29 years old suggesting a career span of 10 – 11 years max.  The dichotomy of this apparently intelligent young man lies in the range between delusions of grandeur and deep experience with the shadow world of espionage. The personal history of Snowden will become a large part of this increasingly fascinating story.  Booz Allen Statement on Reports of Leaked Information Booz Allen … Continue reading Who is your Edward Snowden?

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To the Guardian – why PRISM? ECHELON has been around since 1948 supported by US, UK, Canada, Australia

Colin Henderson

It is not at all clear to me why everyone is so excited about PRISM and the apparently new ability to monitor private communications that the Guardian got all excited about last week.  It took me a day or two to remember the name, but I have this piece (below) from 2003 which documents ECHELON which has been around since 1948.  PRISM reads like an extension/ subset/ addition to ECHELON. For the record I am not afraid of this kind of thing.  Indeed we can’t on the one hand be happy to throw everything personal out there, and the on … Continue reading To the Guardian – why PRISM? ECHELON has been around since 1948 supported by US, UK, Canada, Australia