Wherever relief from COVID-19 is evident, we can see signs of recovery in offline retail, that is at physical stores and shops. In the first months of 2021 countries have lapsed again into third and fourth waves of COVID and lockdowns, which caused a reversal of earlier signs of recovery experienced. But where a recent… Read More
Smart Automation in Conflict
Smart automation is an integral part of the digital transformation of operations and services. However, automation goes much beyond the application of digital technologies and data when artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are recruited to fulfill any task. Smart automation entails using capabilities of learning from data (huge amounts of data), adaptation and autonomous execution… Read More
The Personal Transporter of Segway Is Driving Off
The vertical scooter-like vehicle of Segway, the Personal Transporter (PT), takes little space and moves smoothly. Segway’s PT, created by Dean Kamen, introduced an innovative and inspiring product concept in its technology and form, easily recognizable on sight. There is something elegant about the way it looks and moves. Yet, the PT never fulfilled the… Read More
Digital Transformation and the Corona Pandemic
The restrictions on movement and contact imposed in the battle against the Corona virus are forcing consumers to rely more heavily on digital channels and their tools for obtaining products and services. Companies are required to provide and support more extensive digital tools of self-service for customers to be used in their homes. Some companies… Read More
A Psychological Framework for Website Design and Usability
Usability of websites may ascribe to the ease in which visitors can navigate and find helpful information through website pages and perform tasks successfully on the website; the visual design of webpages can determine the ease, convenience, as well as pleasure, of reading text, viewing images, interacting, and getting overall self-oriented on each page visited.… Read More
Whole Foods Market in the Hands of Amazon
When Amazon.com acquired the food retail chain Whole Foods Market in the summer of 2017 (for $13.2bn), it stirred bafflement mixed with speculations: What is happening here? To what aim does the giant e-commerce retailer need physical stores of a natural and organic food retail chain? Customers were worried out of concern about what Amazon… Read More
Is a Premature Decline of Tablets in Sight?
The tablet brought the promise of a screen-based computing device that would be much easier to carry around and handle than a laptop computer while making relatively small sacrifice in screen size and computing capabilities (e.g., the kinds of software it would be able to operate efficiently). Still, the tablet should provide better display (e.g.,… Read More
Into the Future of Unmanned Stores
Think of this: You enter a store and it is only you and the merchandise to choose from. There is no personnel in the store to talk to or to be served by. All operations are automated (robotic) by smart systems that watch, sense and “know” everything you do in the store. Thus you may not… Read More
Samsung’s Bump in a Rush to Market: Galaxy Fold
The forthcoming new model of Galaxy smartphone with a large (7.3”) foldable screen looks as a brave move by Samsung — it opens new options for consumers in using their smartphones and may lead to new patterns of behaviour. But in a rush to get its solution for a ‘larger-than-ever’ screen of a smartphone —… Read More
