The four big utilities in California get together every year to check some of the latest solutions developed by start-ups. PG&E hosted the Emerging Technology Coordinating Council (ETCC) Open Forum in San Francisco last week. It was an opportunity to get a heart beat in the smart grid sector while private investments in start-ups have taken a dive.
I was expecting to see a mixture of utility strategy executives and product managers along with investors, similarly to the Telecom Council that used to meet regularly in Silicon Valley ten years ago. Apart from a few angel investors, the room was packed with technical personnel. The Q&A discussion following the presentation of the fourteen selected companies was of high quality as a result, but it got me thinking about where the smart grid sector is going.
The new CEO of AT&T Labs talked about innovation at the Aspen Forum in Colorado last week. It marked a change in the company’s strategy as Dr. Krish Prabhu stated that AT&T took several steps to open its network infrastructure and work with software developers. Without equivoque, this move follows the strategic decisions of Apple and Facebook to open their leading smart phone and social network platforms several years ago. To when an AT&T “app store”?
One of the hottest markets in Silicon Valley this year is mobile payment: VC's financing start-ups, Fortune 500’s trialing solutions, and Internet giants battling over patents and executive staff, you name it. Smart phones have become the primary battle-ground for Google and Apple. But you would be surprised where the up-take for those new servies is the strongest? Nope, not North America. It is Africa after Japan pioneered mobile payment a few years ago.
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