The Economist recently noted that Apple, Amazon, and Google together employ 113,000 people—which is less than 1/3rd as many as a single American success story from the prior generation, GM, employed in 1980.
- Henry Blodgett, THE COUNTRY’S PROBLEM IN A NUTSHELL: Apple’s Huge New Data Center In North Carolina Created Only 50 Jobs
(via jonathanmarcus)
Yeah, except we need to rebuild the entire infrastructure of the country, and the government has abrogated its leadership in that area. So now we can watch our bridges collapse, and our trains running slower than they did in the ’70s. Not to mention high speed rail, solar power, more denser and efficient cities, tearing down the suburbs, and a new generation of local food production.
(via thenextweb)
China’s Swift Trains Are a Boon to Development, but a Costly One - Keith Bradsher via NYTimes.com
People worrying about the US losing its lead to China should stop the nonsensical talk about declining math SATs, and look to the difference in our investments in high speed rail. The know-nothing GOP have cut our investments to zero, but that’s lunacy:
Keith Bradsher via NYTimes.com
Just as building the interstate highway system a half-century ago made modern, national commerce more feasible in the United States, China’s ambitious rail rollout is helping integrate the economy of this sprawling, populous nation — though on a much faster construction timetable and at significantly higher travel speeds than anything envisioned by the Eisenhower administration.
Work crews of as many as 100,000 people per line have built about half of the 10,000-mile network in just six years, in many cases ahead of schedule — including the Beijing-to-Shanghai line that was not originally expected to open until next year. The entire system is on course to be completed by 2020.
For the United States and Europe, the implications go beyond marveling at the pace of Communist-style civil engineering. China’s manufacturing might and global export machine are likely to grow more powerful as 200-mile-an-hour trains link cities and provinces that were previously as much as 24 hours by road or rail from the entrepreneurial seacoast.
Zhen Qinan, a founder of the stock exchange in coastal Shenzhen and the recently retired chief executive of ZK Energy, a wind turbine producer in Changsha, said that high-speed trains were making it more convenient to base businesses here in Hunan Province. Populous Hunan has long provided labor to the factories of the east, but its mountains have tended to isolate it from the economic mainstream.
Mr. Zhen ticked off Hunan’s attributes: “Land is much cheaper. Electricity is cheaper. Labor is cheaper.”
Around China, real estate prices and investment have surged in the more than 200 inland cities that have already been connected by high-speed rail in the last three years. Businesses are flocking to these cities, now just a few hours by bullet train from China’s busiest and most international metropolises.
Meanwhile, a shift in passenger traffic to the new high-speed rail routes has freed up congested older rail lines for freight. That has allowed coal mines and shippers to switch to cheaper rail transport from costly trucks for heavy cargos.
Because of this shift, plus the construction of additional freight lines, the tonnage hauled by China’s rail system increased in 2010 by an amount equaling the entire freight carried last year by the combined rail systems of Britain, France, Germany and Poland, according to the World Bank.
The bullet train bonanza, and the competitive challenge it poses for the West, is only likely to increase with the opening of the 820-mile Beijing-to-Shanghai line, which will create a business corridor between China’s two most dynamic cities. The railway ministry plans 90 bullet trains a day in each direction.
The trains will barrel along at initial speeds of 190 miles per hour, with plans to accelerate to 220 miles per hour by the summer of 2012, if the first year of operation goes smoothly.
Even at the initial speeds, they will take less than five hours to cover a distance comparable to New York to Atlanta — which requires nearly 18 hours on Amtrak.
China’s huge investment in high-speed rail may be instructive to the United States, whether for proponents of federal rail investments or critics who consider bullet trains a boondoggle.
President Obama, who has proposed spending $53 billion on high-speed rail over the next six years, faced a setback in his budget deal in April with Congressional Republicans, who eliminated money for that plan this year.
Last fall, newly elected Republican governors in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin turned down federal money their Democratic predecessors had won for new rail routes, worrying that their states could cover most of the costs for trains that would draw few riders.
We need to start building an infrastructure connecting our major cities that scales to what is needed in a post-automobile economy. Imagine a 5 hour train ride between Chicago and New York, or a 1 hour train ride between Boston and New York.
The entrenched mindset of cars and highways is an impediment to real cost savings for business and new opportunities for innovation. There is no possible way to have trucks moving goods or cars driving people at 220 miles per hour, but it is totally possible with trains.
We are also at the perfect time for this investment since the US can borrow money at 2%, which is the lowest it has ever been, and likely to be cheaper than we will see in decades. I won’t even mention the benefits of employing a few hundred thousand unemployed people building the lines and the trains.
And let’s not forget that the US has fallen behind in the maintenance of the current, now obsolete highway infrastructure to the tune of at least $1.6 trillion as of 2008, more like $2 trillion at this point. And most of that is unfunded, so the bridges, on ramps, and streets are falling apart.
There can be no significant change in the ecologies of the city, including the mental and social, without total reorganisation of infrastructure.
Urban Renewal
These 10 global infrastructure and tech companies are among the early leaders in smart-city programs.
“Like Siemens and ABB, most of the beneficiaries of urbanization will be infrastructure and technology outfits that provide or utilize smartphones, sensors and software and services to track the use of a city’s assets and commit resources when and where they’re needed. Cloud technology, which can cut costs while boosting computing capacity, will play a big role. Even social media will participate, as cities multiply the ways a citizen can spot a problem–anything from a water-main break to a traffic snarl–and then alert others to avoid it or do something about it.
Technology researchers at IDC estimate the size of the smart-city information-technology market is now $34 billion annually and will gain 18%-plus a year to $57 billion by 2014. That’s not a huge amount to global giants, but certainly enough to help drive growth. (The companies don’t break out earnings related to these projects.) The market has broadened to include items like broadband connectivity, green belts, renewable energy, green buildings and other intelligent-city systems. “You are talking about smart water, smart transportation, better public safety,” says Jennifer Bélissent, a consultant at Forrester.”
- “The bias lurking behind every large-scale smart city is a belief that bottom-up complexity can be…” (underpaidgenius.com)
- Those Pesky Humans: Urban Planning and its Discontents (blogcritics.org)
- Why The U.S. Government Should Embrace Smart Cities (fastcompany.com)
(via thenextweb)
Twitter Raising The Infrastructure: App Builders Better Run For The Ultrastructure
So, Fred Wilson’s recent blog post (see Fred Wilson Plotting Twitter’s Future) turns out not to have been the ramblings of philosophical market observer: it looks more like the starter’s gun at the outset of a footrace.
He suggested that Twitter might start to fill ‘holes’ in its architecture, holes that may be occupied by other applications built by third parties. Then, the next day, they announced the roll out of a ‘official’ Twitter client for Blackberry, and today, Ev announced the acquisition of Atebits, the maker of Tweetie, the most popular iPhone client:
Ev Williams, Twitter for iPhone
Twitter has been growing by leaps and bounds around the world. Mobile has always been a focus for us—starting with SMS which lead to the 140 character limit. People everywhere should be able to access Twitter without friction or confusion. Careful analysis of the Twitter user experience in the iTunes AppStore revealed massive room for improvement. People are looking for an app from Twitter, and they’re not finding one. So, they get confused and give up. It’s important that we optimize for user benefit and create an awesome experience.
We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve entered into an agreement with Atebits (aka Loren Brichter) to acquire Tweetie, a leading iPhone Twitter client. Tweetie will be renamed Twitter for iPhone and made free (currently $2.99) in the iTunes AppStore in the coming weeks. Loren will become a key member of our mobile team that is already having huge impact with device makers and service providers around the world. Loren’s work won the 2009 Apple Design Award and we will eventually launch Twitter for iPad with his help.
Note there is no fiddle-faddle about the name: they immediately rebranded to ‘Twitter for iPhone’.
And the motivation? People are confused that there is no Twitter branded client, so Twitter has decided to do the right thing and give them one. No mention of the existing players in those niches, and all a week before the developers conference.
Here’s what is happening: Twitter is consolidating its position at the center of the ecosystem it has engendered, and as part of that functionality that is deemed necessary to the infrastructure is going to be built by them, or at least owned by them through acquisition.
The old model had a lot of holes, like search, clients, Url shortening, pictures, and geolocation. These niches had many players trying to establish themselves, creating a rich ultrastructure above the platform:
Twitter started to buy some companies to fill glaring holes (like Summize for search) and they have built some parts of other capabilities (like their own URL shortener for direct messages), but mostly the maps was still a mess.
Now, they have bought Tweetie, built a client for Blackberry, and they are moving toward a new theory of where the platform begins and ends:
Of course there is no saying that Twitter will leave the line there. They are going to have to make their roadmap clear at the upcoming Chirp developer conference, so that third parties can make reasonable investments in new applications without the fear that Twitter will step on their toes.
However, I am making a bet. I am sure that Twitter realizes the value of analytics: the treasure of information about the flow in Twitter can’t be treated as a side show, because it is the show. Therefore, I am predicting that Twitter will build or buy technology to capture all sorts of information — what links are streaming by, who’s using what hashtags, and sentiment about brands — this is enormously valuable. Acquisition of companies like Radian6, bit.ly and a few others would make sense, especially considering the value to large companies, media, and even political parties.
The other ultrastructure niches really make sense as independents. Consider games: they come and go, like hit music, and it requires a big sprawling community of developers. Not a good fit inside a single monolithic company. The same is true with communities, like Stocktwits. And obviously, niche apps.
***
So, Wilson’s shot was heard round the world, and now Tweetie is part of the new Twitter infrastructure.
This won’t mean the end of competition by players like Tweetdeck or Seesmic. These have large and dynamic communities of users. But we have to see how Twitter plays this nesw game. Will they use the same APIs as everyone else, or will they exploit their knowledge and access to the inner workings of Twitter’s technology to make their own offerings faster and more reliable, a sort of Microsoft approach? Will Twitter transform itself into a Salesforce-like platform, with hundreds of integrated offerings, but owning the CRM heart of the platform?
I am sure we will hear these questions at Chirp, and although I won’t be attending (conflict with work on my own event on 19 Apr, Social Business Edge), I will be watching the Twitter stream from the event very closely.
[disclosure: Bit.ly is a client of mine, and I have a financial interest in the company.]
Update on Saturday, April 10, 2010 at 1:01PM
This looks like the weekend’s big tech news story:
Daniel Ionescu / PC World: Twitter Gets Official iPhone, Blackberry Apps Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life: Twitter Slaps Developers in the Face and How They Can Fix It Greg Jarboe / Search Engine Watch: Newspaper Blogs Break Story of Twitter’s Acquisition of Tweetie Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb: Why Twitter Buying Tweetie is Great News Stowe Boyd / /message: Twitter Raising The Infrastructure: App Builders Better Run For The Ultrastructure John C Abell / Epicenter: With Tweetie Acquisition, Twitter Locks On Mobile Zee / The Next Web: Twitter Acquires Tweetie. Launches on the iPhone. Mathew Ingram / Fortune: Twitter nabs top app maker Brad Linder / mobiputing: Twitter acquires Tweetie, introduces official iPhone Twitter app Dave Winer / Scripting News: Twitter Week for client developers Mark Evans / Twitterrati: Tweetie: The Start of Twitter’s M&A Activity? Ben Parr / Mashable!: BREAKING: Twitter Acquires Tweetie CellPassion: Twitter acquires Tweetie, to make it the official Twitter iPhone app Dan Moren / Macworld: Twitter acquires Tweetie developer Atebits Shane Richmond / blogs.telegraph.co.uk: Twitter buys Tweetie Stephen Bennett / GeekSmack: Twitter acquires Tweetie for iPhone Kiet Chieng / App Advice: Twitter Acquires Tweetie, Will Become Official Client On iPhone Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch: Twitter Acquires Tweetie GigaOm / Silicon Alley Insider: Twitter Buys Tweetie, Adds Fuel to Developer Fires Rafat Ali / paidContent: Twitter Makes First Client Acquisition: Buys Tweetie For iPhone Client; What’s Next? Alexia Tsotsis / The Snitch: Twitter, Now Filling Its Own Hole Peter Kafka / MediaMemo: Twitter Goes Shopping, Comes Home With Tweetie. Next? Mike Schramm / TUAW: Breaking: Twitter acquires Tweetie, will make it official and free Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac: Twitter buys Tweetie, iPhone app to become free Charles Hudson’s Weblog: Three Reminders about Platform Businesses (Apple, Twitter, and Facebook) Jay Hathaway / Download Squad: Twitter acquires Tweetie, hires developer Loren Brichter Rene Ritchie / TiPb: Tweetie to become official Twitter for iPhone Jim Dalrymple / The Loop: Twitter buys Tweetie Ray Basile / iPhone Savior: Twitter Buys Tweetie As Their Official iPhone App Phil Nickinson / Android Central: Twitter buys Tweetie for iPhone; which Android client would you serve up? Krishnan Subramanian / diversity.net.nz: Twitter Acquires Tweetie, What’s Next? Jesse David Hollington / iLounge: Twitter acquires Tweetie, to become official Twitter app Krishnan Subramanian / CloudAve: Twitter Acquires Tweetie, What’s Next? Scott Beale / Laughing Squid: Twitter Acquires Tweetie iPhone Client Ben Metcalfe Blog: Twitter continues on the offensive: now iPhone Federico Viticci / MacStories: Twitter Acquires Tweetie, Becomes “Twitter for iPhone” Soon Free in the App Store Daniel Kaszor / FP Posted: FP Tech Desk: Twitter aquires Tweetie, renames it Twitter for iPhone » All Related Discussion
Update on Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 9:18AM
Interesting piece by VC Mark Suster (Twitter’s Acquisition, Chirp & Managing Developer Relationships) on the Twitter Atebits acquisition and what it means.
Social anthropologist, clairvoyant, postfuturist.
