Trends – Page 2 – Mike Berry Associates

Need for Speed online

I read recently that in the ‘Browser Wars’, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer’s share has dipped below 50% of all users (on all devices, globally). Lest we forget, in 2004, IE’s share was 95%. Firefox was the first real challenger to IE and continues to gain ground, but the big winner is Google Chrome, which positions itself as a new, fast browser.

‘New’ is a familiar advertising copy word which has been proven to be effective (after all, new must be ‘improved’…). But what about ‘fast’? The car manufacturers aren’t allowed to sell ‘speed’ any more but browser makers still can.

Google announced last […]

Mike Berry2021-09-23T16:57:33+00:00December 29th, 2011|Trends|1 Comment

Bumbling politicians serve up digital dog’s dinner

“The Law is an Ass” says Mr. Bumble in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Yes, even here in Good Old Blighty, the oldest democracy in the world (err…sorry Iceland, Greece, Isle of Man, America, NZ +++), we sometimes get it badly wrong: the upshot being that we end up with laws that are ridiculous, unenforceable, dangerous or all of these. One such is the new UK Digital Economy Act (DEA). The Act was rushed through by the last UK Government without proper scrutiny or discussion, in the pre-election ‘wash-up’ period.

I recently took part in a debate […]

Mike Berry2021-09-23T17:10:03+00:00July 25th, 2010|General, Trends|13 Comments

Changing Times. But will we pay?

Today, we find a place to rent or a house to buy, we book a holiday and stay in touch with our friends using different technologies from those our parents relied on 25 years ago. We all know the internet has changed the world, both economically and sociologically. We call it ‘The Internet Revolution’, but this wasn’t just an event which occurred in 1998 (say) and then stopped. It’s an ongoing process. This is the Revolution. We’re in it. And big changes will […]

Mike Berry2021-08-16T23:18:24+00:00June 14th, 2010|Trends|6 Comments

Augmented Reality – because the world is not enough…

The British Science Fiction writer Arthur C Clarke once said: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

In my opinion, one such technology is Augmented Reality. Or just ‘Augmented’ or even ‘AR’ to the cognoscenti.

I saw a powerful demonstration of AR (by Brand Attention) at the recent London Online Marketing Show. It reminded me how far AR has come.

The basic idea is to overlay something onto the real world (using a webcam) to provide more information than meets the eye. E.g. you walk down a street and view a building through your mobile device; you see a ‘heads-up display’ (or […]

Mike Berry2021-09-23T17:26:52+00:00July 7th, 2009|Trends|4 Comments

Video/ audio piracy: you hum it and I’ll share it

Do you download music? If so, do you pay for it? Amazon, iTunes Store and Napster, among others, sell music downloads; simple to use, fast and legal. However it is estimated that 95% of music downloads are illegal. (IFPI 2009)

Recently four directors of the Swedish file sharing website, The Pirate Bay, were arrested, found guilty of ‘aiding and promoting copyright theft’ and sentenced to jail. There are powerful interests opposed to file sharing of music, TV and Movies.

In a simpler age, Sir Paul McCartney sang “You never give me your money”. But in fact millions of people did, and […]

Mike Berry2021-09-23T17:36:08+00:00May 8th, 2009|Trends|1 Comment