Do we really understand just how fast technology advances over time? And the magnitude of price changes and innovations it yields? Especially in the realm of public policy, we often obsess over today’s seemingly intractable problems without realizing that technology and economic growth often show us a way out. In several recent presentations in Atlanta and Seattle, I’ve sought to …
Biting the handsets that connect the world
Over the July 4 weekend, relatives and friends kept asking me: Which mobile phone should I buy? There are so many choices. I told them I love my iPhone, but all kinds of new devices from BlackBerries and Samsungs to Palm’s new Pre make strong showings, and the less well-known HTC, one of the biggest innovators of the last couple …
Bandwidth Boom: Measuring Communications Capacity
See our new paper estimating the growth of consumer bandwidth – or our capacity to communicate – from 2000 to 2008. We found: – a huge 5,400% increase in residential bandwidth; – an astounding 54,200% boom in wireless bandwidth; and – an almost 100-fold increase in total consumer bandwidth U.S. consumer bandwidth at the end of 2008 totaled more than …
Technologies of Freedom
In my first, lone, measly, pathetic tweet a month ago, I asked if the whole Twitter thing was a “Revolution? Time-waster? Both?” Now we may know. The information evading the official government walls and making its way out of Iran on YouTube and Twitter may answer my question: “Revolution” — literally.
Huge $1.45 billion, a new low
After the EU antitrust authority today leveled a €1.06 billion fine against Intel, the company’s general counsel Bruce Sewell gave an illuminating interview to CNBC: We better come up with a better way to restrict the EU’s range of motion on these matters. Sewell called the action “arbitrary.” The CNBC reporters called it a “shakedown.” They’re both right. Read rest …
