Recently CNN’s Fareed Zakaria spoke with Sony Chairman Howard Stringer about Japan’s post-crisis economic recovery. In the context of that discussion, Stringer talked about the evolution of his own company, Sony, in the wake of a different kind of Tsunami – the kind Apple let loose on the world of mobile devices and entertainment beginning with its iPod and continuing to this day. Sony, Stringer explained, was once building vertical devices for vertical markets.  The company

The best argument for why you – or your clients, for that matter – could benefit from their own branded app is not “because everyone seems to have one” or “because my competitor has one.” Nor is it because “I have to get my stream on a mobile device.” The best argument is because mobile devices and the applications which power their potentialities are central to the experience of consumers, especially the younger ones who have never known a world without them. And that argume

What's left out of the news is one important point:  We're talking about an accessory here – not a core functional piece of the iPod hardware.  That's abundantly clear from the title of Apple's application and completely missed by most of the radio industry trades:  "Digital Radio Tagging Using an RF Tuner Accessory." An accessory is what you call shoes and a purse.  It's not part of the dress itself. The significance, of course, is that an accessory is optional.  It doesn't