As many would know, reporting season puts a bee in my bonnet. Many companies reporting things they may/may not have forecasted & the market rewarding/beating them up appropriately. I don’t chase stocks, nor do I react to the financial press so it’s usually a time to sit by the side and look at the big picture, preferably an interesting one.
The following looks at your language and how everyday things you take for granted are being used to make money.
To begin, choose any object (noun)
Now describe it, using the following descriptors with the noun at the end, thus:
Age, Size, Opinion, Noun
Here are some examples in the same order:
Old, Little, Lovely, Chair
Provided you are a native English speaker I can guarantee the order you put the above into. Do it now before you read any further. Put the above list into a coherent descriptor of the chair. Now remember it because I already know the order you chose.
Any, and every, native English speaker would use the following order:
Lovely Little Old Chair.
or
Opinion Size Age Noun.
Any other variation of this order would sound ludicrous. It also extends to age, colour, origin, purpose etc. They all have an order. Credit to Mark Forsyth, Matthew Anderson & the BBC for this one.
The point is we do it without noticing. We do many things without noticing. There’s money to be made in the space of doing things without noticing…
Speaking of which…Amazon & The Internet of Things
Our ability to take everyday actions for granted (especially in speech) is nothing but incredible. This extends to so many things in our life and brings me to the Internet of Things. A colossal web of interconnected objects that take care of our day-to-day needs, some helpful, some harmful. Some innovative and intuitive, some annoying and/or completely redundant.
The Internet of Things is not a new term. Indeed its existence has been known for years. Its relevance to you right now, however, can only be communicated once the following link has been read.
Trust me, stop whatever you are doing right now and read the following because the details of your life are changing because of the contents within and the history that led to its creation. We all know that Amazon is coming and retailers should be afraid. However, whilst the fear is real, that fear is based on old-school thinking. Clicking buttons and distribution centres and drones are great but here’s the reason your life will change IN YOUR OWN HOME:
Amazon’s Operating System for Your Home
Gerry thinks he’s ready for what’s ahead. He’s not…
If you can’t be bothered going through the whole thing (fair), here’s the quote you need regarding Amazon’s personal home assistant ‘The Echo’…
“The Echo created its own market: a voice-based personal assistant in the home. Crucially, the home was the one place in the entire world where smartphones were not necessarily the most convenient device, or touch the easiest input method: more often than not your smartphone is charging, and talking to a device doesn’t carry the social baggage it might elsewhere.”
I’ll summarise this further: The home is the last frontier when it comes to your purchasing of products. Phones have it cornered and cars don’t leave much room for shopping. The Holy Grail is the home.
Your Home.
Whoever gains access to you calling out your needs to some object to do your bidding will win.
Example:
You need something added to the calendar? Just yell out and it’s done.
You need the air-con temp in the upstairs spare room raised by half a degree? Just yell out and it’s done.
You need the blinds closed by one-quarter of a degree while you’re at work for no particular reason? Just yell out and it’s done.
You need a dozen eggs added to the shopping list?
JUST.YELL.OUT.
The idea is that if you have a system in your home (the place where you do most of your things) that takes care of most of your life then you’ll also be using that same machine to do your purchases. So everyone is now involved trying to be a part of this. Your assistant needs to connect to ‘things’ and your ‘things’ need to connect to your assistant.
Your calendar is easy and already links to your phone which links to your home and family.
Your air-con is easy- just buy a “Smart” air-conditioner that can connect to your phone and you can change the temperature from your phone without leaving your couch (or work). Your phone app will connect to your Amazon Echo and if you need to do the above without picking up your phone it is possible.
However it’s all gone a little far. Take a look at this….
You needed to open or close your blinds remotely and this is how you do it…
I’m not sure you need your pasta to be connected to an app. I think I can handle this one myself…
OK, I think we’re done here…
The above (& below) is all courtesy of the Consumer Technology Tradeshow called CES just held in January in Vegas.
Sources on request.
So it’s all gone a little too far and everyone’s trying to cash in on the action. Take an object, put a chip in it, connect it to an app, profit, right?
Wrong. Things still need to work and the below is just one of a long list of examples of how our lives halt because of the desperate need for producers to make things “smart.”
This person just wanted some water…
Another example had a chap unable to start his brand new Telsa because he was too far away from phone reception. The list goes on…
So what’s the point of all this?
The battle for your home to be a “smart” home is going on right now whether you like it or not.
The companies that connect and connect well may not succeed but they at least won’t be the first ones destroyed.
Watch as the big companies attack and take more and more of the “Smart Home” market. Have a look at the recent moves by Telstra in the space…Telstra Smart Home
And this is Telstra we’re talking about, and they’ve never been much good at anything!! And they want to run your home??
Put simply, there is money to be made in this space if you’re smart and if you’re early. The market is, as of now, wide open to all players trying to chance their arm in the space.
Compared to where we’re going to be in a few years everything you’re seeing and investing in now in the Smart Home space is going to seem truly ground level.
Please call for details.
All the best,
James Whelan | Investment Manager
Level 30 Australia Square, 264 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000
t +1300 220 360 | m +61 407 958 036 | www.vfsgroup.com.au
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