Is there a bubble in Asia? with Sameer Singh
Sameer Singh from Tech-thoughts.net, also a long time recurring guest, joined Bernard for an awesome discussion on post Google I/O and Apple WWDC 2015, and how some of the announcements from the two major conferences of the year will impact Asia as a whole. We have a brief and short chat on Softbank’s recent launch of Pepper, the robot with Foxconn and Alibaba joining forces to take this technology global, and infer the coming of technology age in Asia that might rival the US. Last but not least, with the recent chatter about a tech bubble in US, both Bernard and Sameer offered their theories in why an Asian tech bubble might in the formation with the unicorn funding conditions different from the US counterparts.
Here are the interesting notes and links to the discussion (with timestamps included):
- Sameer Singh, Tech-thoughts.net (@sameer_singh17)
- Post Google I/O 2015 [1:47]
- What are the interesting announcements?
- Google Now On Tap, PageRank for Apps & the Peak Google narrative. Sameer explained why some technology writers mistake narratives for business models.
- Does it still make sense to merge Android/Chrome?
- Brillio, the SDK for Internet of Things and the irrelevance of Android Wear.
- Jacquard – Software is eating your clothes.
- “Cloud is the strategy, Android is the tactic.” – Sameer shared his view that Android is the means but Cloud is the end goal. We also chatted on Google’s acquisition of Agawi and how this might trigger Google’s new advertising strategy for Now on Tap on contextual mobile actions.
- Has Android One failed in India? We also discussed Apple’s strategy in Japan that is contrary to Google’s strategy with Android One in India, and how Apple managed to make iPhone a success with Softbank.
- Is Google-X a Xerox PARC? Bernard disagrees and explained that Bell Labs are a better way to describe Google X Labs.
- What are the interesting announcements?
- Post Apple WWDC 2015 [20:00]
- What are the interesting announcements?
- Three OSes: Mac OS X, iOS and WatchOS
- iPad Multitasking: why it is the most important announcement according to Sameer with reference to tablet computing and why he thinks that Apple needs a iPad Pro.
- Apple “Proactive” – The contrast with Google’s machine learning strategy with now on tap and diverging philosophies in privacy and contextual learning of users.
- Apple Watch sales with some early forecast – Is there a market for smartwatches?
- What are the interesting announcements?
- Softbank Robot – Pepper Robot (Softbank Press Release) with investment from Foxconn and Alibaba. [31:04]
- Is Asia coming of age for technology on robotics and drone technology (DJI)?
- Is there a bubble in Asia? [34:15]
- Reference: Benedict Evans from Andreessen Horowitz: “US Tech Funding: What’s going on?“
- Public investors are coming for unicorns.
- The argument for a bubble in Asia using the ecommerce companies in India (Flipkart) and Indonesia (Lazada), and why it is different from the one speculated in the US.
- Lessons learnt from the Asian financial crisis in 1997.
- Bernard’s conjecture on Rocket Internet as a possible trigger to a potential Asian tech bubble burst.
Podcast Information:
The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bleongcw) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) and Linkcious (and check out their other product, Chiibi).
