1. anon(5876743)'s Avatar
    this is why I believe in Blackberry understanding the bigger picture and contributing more
    than just cool gadgets... good article.

    MW UPDATE: Why Apple exemplifies everything that's wrong with Silicon Valley
    Sep 09, 2014 12:51:00 (ET)
    By Tim Mullaney

    Let us now overpraise famous companies.

    Later today, Apple (AAPL) is expected to drop its long-awaited iWatch, loaded with features Silicon Valley has been dying to sell us, from mobile payments to a heart-rate monitor. And the advance press is as rapturous as always. The iPhone 6, due the same day, is supposed to be bigger than the last one! And it's, it's bigger! And yet ...

    It's much harder to get excited about the Valley today if you look critically at what's funded, and how innovative (or not) it actually is. The state of Valley innovation and disruption is not as good as advertised -- not hardly. Apple 's roll-outs are as good a time as any to point out that this tech boom is built mostly around the easy and the glib, far more than around innovation that matters.

    The problem with social networking and mobile technologies driving this boom is exactly the paradox Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Solow saw in early personal computers in the 1980s: You can see their impact everywhere but in the productivity statistics, and the economic growth and rising standards of living that higher productivity would allow -- if only today's Valley were contributing to it much.

    Say it: I'm a hater, I'm a faker, I'm a shameless click-baiter. I'm also right.

    Productivity growth is amidst its worst four-year stretch since 1982, less than a quarter as fast as in the late 1990s. No wonder real median incomes are close to flat and still below pre-recession levels, after rising 15% in the 1990s. If this tech boom feels different, and less than sufficient, it is. No matter how much you like your iPhone, or how many of them Apple sells.

    The truly odd thing about this boom is how little serious use corporations have found for technologies underpinning it. Scholars have looked for corporations exploiting social networking but found mostly minor gains. Yammer, the corporate social-networking software leader, sold itself to Microsoft (MSFT) rather than go public. Kleiner Perkins' iFund for mobile-app companies hasn't generated notable initial public offerings, either.

    Mobile hasn't had nearly the impact on the economy that e-commerce, search or open-source computing did. Even with Facebook's (FB) huge valuation, everyone knows from common experience that social is mostly for goofing off. In 2010, then-Groupon (GRPN) Chief Operating Officer Rob Solomon predicted a "Facebook economy" of startups living on referrals from the social network. Its test case was video-game company Zynga (ZNGA), whose stock is down almost 80% since 2012. That was supposed to be Groupon's wave as well.

    Now the hype is that Uber will remake distribution of physical goods, taking on FedEx and UPS (UPS) and growing into its recent $18 billion venture-capital valuation. That, plus Airbnb is supposedly disrupting lodging, which you can see everywhere but in hotel-occupancy rates, forecast to hit all-time highs next year. I'll take the under on both companies until we see public numbers.

    Think of the trail of butts Amazon.com (AMZN), Google (GOOG) and Wal-Mart (WMT) (a remarkably smart technology user in the day) kicked, and are kicking still. Think of how much more efficient every survivor had to get to deal with them. Now look at Marriott (MAR) and FedEx (FDX) shares and tell me Airbnb and Uber, let alone Zynga and Groupon, are the same thing.

    But the money has been good, because these companies are cheap to start and generate good returns even if they're only sold to Facebook or Google, which want their engineers. That encourages ever-more ridiculous companies, culminating in New York magazine's piece about startups (plural!) vowing to "demolish laundry." Whirlpool (WHR) stock shows a certain lack of investor terror.

    That, friends, is how we get to the Valley going wild over a watch whose big innovations are that it will do a lot of what a $99 Fitbit does and will let you pay for coffee with your phone. Long-promised phone-based wallets will indeed change your life: You'll reach for your front pocket, not the back, at Starbucks (SBUX).

    It's been years since the most critical new tech came from the Valley. The most wealth-creating, new technology of the past decade was hydraulic fracking, which also cut coal use and attacked global warming than all of Kleiner Perkins poobah John Doerr's green portfolio put together. The big disruption now is not in laundry, but in health care, where the combination of IT-enabled management, the Affordable Care Act and other changes are keeping cost growth to a 50-year low while insuring millions of working-class families.

    The iWatch will probably sell, but the hard work of health-care IT is led by doctors, hospitals and software companies in Kansas City and Madison, Wis. The iWatch isn't even the Valley's biggest 2014 health-care innovation. That's Gilead Sciences' (GILD) drug to wipe out hepatitis C, which neither Re/code nor TechCrunch, which are Frick and Frack in today's fanboy media, have covered at all.

    So excuse me if I don't get excited. If Big Tech gives me tools to be more productive, or save the time and money that Internet search, supply-chain management and e-mail did, I'd be duly impressed.

    And we'd all, finally, begin getting richer again.
    09-09-14 07:57 PM
  2. diegonei's Avatar
    Didn't BlackBerry say something about Health Care?..
    09-09-14 09:36 PM
  3. Shanerredflag's Avatar
    Sure did...they bought minority stake in Nanthealth...and the Passport is aimed directly at that market too.

    Eazzy Peazzy
    bungaboy and Soul_Est like this.
    09-09-14 09:44 PM
  4. Pluto is a planet's Avatar
    Ummm yea I'm going to have to disagree here. The amount of jobs created by silicon valley and the amount of wealth brought into the local economies is quite frankly staggering. Just because this guy isn't in the consumer business doesn't mean what silicon valley is producing doesn't have value. In fact in San Francisco (my hometown and current residence) I'm going to argue that there is too much money too fast. There are literally too many affluent people moving here and many natives and lower income people are getting priced out of the city. So sorry if I do get excited about the iwatch, because that will probably allow 10 of my friends to get jobs out of school. Hopefully one of us strikes it rich and this blogger can complain about us too

    Posted via CB10
    Last edited by Pluto is a planet; 09-09-14 at 11:04 PM.
    09-09-14 10:18 PM
  5. phuoc's Avatar
    San Francisco has always been expensive but your other points are well taken.
    09-09-14 10:48 PM
  6. STV0726's Avatar
    Ummm yea I'm going to have to disagree here. The amount of jobs created by silicon valley and the amount of wealth brought into the local economies is quite frankly staggering. Just because this guy isn't in the consumer business doesn't mean what silicon valley is producing doesn't have value. In fact in San Francisco (my hometown and current residence) I'm going to argue that there is too much money too fast. There are literally too many affluent people moving here and many natives and lower income people are getting priced out of the city. So sorry if I do get excited about the iwatch, because that will probably will probably allow 10 of my friends to get jobs out of school. Hopefully one of us strikes it rich and this blogger can complain about us too

    Posted via CB10
    Lol...you failed to explain how the iWatch is going to let 10 of your friends get jobs...unless you meant 10 of your friends are lazy and unemployed and will look for work just to afford an iWatch.

    Okay...just messing with you...

    But seriously people, if you are going to give a rebuttal to a well-written, backed up editorial/opinion piece, then match the quality of whom you are arguing with. Cite evidence (preferably more than anecdotal) and be specific.

    -STV on Z30STA100-5/10.2.1.3247 TMO US
    09-09-14 11:04 PM
  7. Pluto is a planet's Avatar
    Lol...you failed to explain how the iWatch is going to let 10 of your friends get jobs...unless you meant 10 of your friends are lazy and unemployed and will look for work just to afford an iWatch.

    Okay...just messing with you...

    But seriously people, if you are going to give a rebuttal to a well-written, backed up editorial/opinion piece, then match the quality of whom you are arguing with.

    -STV on Z30STA100-5/10.2.1.3247 TMO US
    Because when people buy the iwatch and other apple products, they make money and hire people. When people buy apple products, people want to make apps for those apple products. When people want to make apps, they hire developers and startups are formed. When that happens (and it already has), those of us with relevant degrees get hired and make money. I thought it was fairly obvious.

    Ok just saw you want evidence. I'm not going to Google it for you but San Francisco is going through a serious economic boom right now. There has never been this much construction in my lifetime, every park in the city is being renovated, there is a ton of infrastructure improvement, and real estate continues to rise.
    I'm sure there is plenty of data on each of those things but I don't really care if anyone doesn't believe me. There are of course downsides to the money silicon valley and tech brings in but that's another discussion.
    Posted via CB10
    09-09-14 11:11 PM
  8. 00stryder's Avatar
    Didn't know about the oral antiviral therapies being tested for Hep C, good to know. So debilitating because it's a chronic condition that can take quite a while to do damage, so people may not know they have it. Wasn't your intention, OP, but thanks for sharing.

    And I absolutely agree that health care is going to be huge in terms of technological advances in the next 5 years or less. So much potential waiting to be tapped into.

    Posted via CB10
    09-09-14 11:15 PM
  9. STV0726's Avatar
    Because when people buy the iwatch and other apple products, they make money and hire people. When people buy apple products, people want to make apps for those apple products. When people want to make apps, they hire developers and startups are formed. When that happens (and it already has), those of us with relevant degrees get hired and make money. I thought it was fairly obvious.

    Ok just saw you want evidence. I'm not going to Google it for you but San Francisco is going through a serious economic boom right now. There has never been this much construction in my lifetime, every park in the city is being renovated, there is a ton of infrastructure improvement, and real estate continues to rise.
    I'm sure there is plenty of data on each of those things but I don't really care if anyone doesn't believe me. There are of course downsides to the money silicon valley and tech brings in but that's another discussion.
    Posted via CB10
    Yes they hire people. All these people I see everywhere with no idea how the first thing about their smartphone or other gadget works. You all just consume like a plague...

    Humans really aren't mammals anymore. They are, a virus.

    -STV on Z30STA100-5/10.2.1.3247 TMO US
    sawax likes this.
    09-09-14 11:18 PM
  10. Pluto is a planet's Avatar
    Yes they hire people. All these people I see everywhere with no idea how the first thing about their smartphone or other gadget works. You all just consume like a plague...

    Humans really aren't mammals anymore. They are, a virus.

    -STV on Z30STA100-5/10.2.1.3247 TMO US
    0/10

    Nice try

    Posted via CB10
    09-09-14 11:20 PM
  11. 00stryder's Avatar
    Yes they hire people. All these people I see everywhere with no idea how the first thing about their smartphone or other gadget works. You all just consume like a plague...

    Humans really aren't mammals anymore. They are, a virus.

    -STV on Z30STA100-5/10.2.1.3247 TMO US
    Smith... is that you?

    In all honesty, Apple certainly does contribute to the local community in mid- to northern California, and likely globally as well from their manufacturing plants, retail stores, customer service, app and engineering houses, etc. Though, I think the main point of the article is that the author doesn't see much contribution to society at large from a product like the latest iPhone or wearable smart devices.

    PI think he's using Apple as the example here but basically calling out all of the mobile device manufacturers (Android OEMs, M$ and BlackBerry included) to forego this annual release of "the latest and greatest" that we as a society don't actually need and instead focus on things that will dramatically improve our productivity and efficiency, such as in the health care industry with the recent push for more digitally-bases record keeping and communication. The recent partnership that BlackBerry struck with Nanthealth suggests that Chen is already on the ball here with what the author is calling for, as health monitoring apps and devices will only take us so far as a society. Streamlining and revolutionizing how we manage our national health care system though, that would redefine how we look at personal health altogether.

    Posted via CB10
    09-10-14 12:04 AM
  12. anon(5876743)'s Avatar
    Great point. It's one thing to have these gadgets on a personal level, but another to transform a whole system. Nothing wrong with personal health monitoring, etc, but every time Apple and Google offers something it seems more about helping themselves (which is their business model). Just interesting if BlackBerry could go further than that and really transform health, automotive, banking, etc while being platform agnostic.

    Posted via CB10
    09-10-14 12:17 AM
  13. iamagod's Avatar
    I think you guys are missing the point. Hes not talking about Apple or other tech companies creating jobs in san fran. Thats obviously happening. There is economic activity happening from these companies growing and creating products/services.

    What he is saying is that the products and services that have been coming out of the valley in the past several years are not adding value or boosting the productivity of people and enterprises across the country and rest of the world. Make sense?

    Posted via CB10
    09-10-14 12:22 AM
  14. Pluto is a planet's Avatar
    I think you guys are missing the point. Hes not talking about Apple or other tech companies creating jobs in san fran. Thats obviously happening. There is economic activity happening from these companies growing and creating products/services.

    What he is saying is that the products and services that have been coming out of the valley in the past several years are not adding value or boosting the productivity of people and enterprises across the country and rest of the world. Make sense?

    Posted via CB10
    Ok now this makes the authors point more clear.

    I was thrown off by him talking about economic growth, median incomes, and standards of living in the beginning of the piece. And of course, some of us are indeed getting much richer.

    Posted via CB10
    09-10-14 12:57 AM
  15. eyesopen1111's Avatar
    This article was exactly the BS, hater click-bait the author describes. Using a consumer device launch to make this rant relevant is bogus. If the author feels that Silicon Valley has not done enough for business economic productivity (really?), then his beef is with business productivity-focused products, not consumer devices like the iPhone. He is just piggy-backing on the iPhone launch like so many other hack journalists out there for clicks.

    If you want to know the real causes of the economic malaise vexing the U.S. and other parts of the world, watch Inequality for All by Robert Reich. He's happy to explain how even given the constant increase in worker productivity (due largely to technology), wages have remained flat for most of the US labor force over the past 40 years, pushing the economy into vicious cycle. See? It's not due to consumer smartphones at all. Increased productivity doesn't make us richer because all the additional profits are taken by the extremely wealthy.

    Of course, this hack journalist would rather vaguely blame Silicon Valley than neoliberal policies for the malaise, probably due to his accurate assessment that corporate media consolidation has left us with editors that only buy stories that fit the various BS narratives favored by corrupt media elites. That is, the journo only sells BS because his publisher only buys BS. And a writer has to eat, right? Even if it means click bait, right?

    There's more BS in this piece, but the fracking stuff is off-the-scale BS. I'm an energy lawyer in Houston and you should look closely at both (1) the financial windfall narrative (Fracking isn't a windfall. Lots of companies are losing their shirts because, for one, the wells don't produce enough and don't last long enough) and (2) the claim of the environmental "boon" of fracking (the process produces several environmental problems and is widely protested due to a negative environmental track record).

    TL;DR This writer is garbage in my book.

    Z-30 / STA100-5 / 10.3.0.1154 / T-Mobile USA
    techvisor, Soul_Est, sedat and 1 others like this.
    09-10-14 01:11 AM
  16. STV0726's Avatar
    Lol...

    Let's just say BlackBerry has serious potential here.

    -STV on Z30STA100-5/10.2.1.3247 TMO US
    09-10-14 05:03 AM
  17. theRock1975's Avatar
    He's saying that we are wasting time, money, talent and effort on Apple garbage.

    Apple didn't change the world for the better. I feel bad for youth today. Arcades are filled with Temple Run and Fruit Ninja instead of 8 player Daytona, TimeCrisis. All devices had SD drives. Gps didn't consume data. Music was better, movies were better, video games were better.

    Problem is that the masses are piling money into a company that just doesn't deserve it. Innovation and fun will come back when the masses turn their backs to Apple.

    Posted via CB10
    rarsen and sawax like this.
    09-10-14 06:09 AM
  18. systemvolker's Avatar
    He's saying that we are wasting time, money, talent and effort on Apple garbage.

    Apple didn't change the world for the better. I feel bad for youth today. Arcades are filled with Temple Run and Fruit Ninja instead of 8 player Daytona, TimeCrisis. All devices had SD drives. Gps didn't consume data. Music was better, movies were better, video games were better.

    Problem is that the masses are piling money into a company that just doesn't deserve it. Innovation and fun will come back when the masses turn their backs to Apple.

    Posted via CB10

    ^
    +100000000000000000000000

    Look at the kids now and young generation.
    They spend too much time on iPhone and other gadgets instead of teaching, training, educating their selves and discover things how to live better. (in other words, acquire skills.)

    Those kids who grew up in a barn/farms who doesn't give a sh** about gadgets have more common sense and better than the ones who gets blinded with gadgets.

    Hehehe
    theRock1975 likes this.
    09-10-14 06:23 AM
  19. theRock1975's Avatar
    ^
    +100000000000000000000000

    Look at the kids now and young generation.
    They spend too much time on iPhone and other gadgets instead of teaching, training, educating their selves and discover things how to live better. (in other words, acquire skills.)

    Those kids who grew up in a barn/farms who doesn't give a sh** about gadgets have more common sense and better than the ones who gets blinded with gadgets.

    Hehehe
    That's right.

    My kids will get a $35 RaspberriPi and a command prompt. That's the ONLY computer they can use at home.




    Posted via CB10
    09-10-14 07:49 AM
  20. early2bed's Avatar
    Well, if you live in the US, you should ask yourself where we would be if it weren't for Apple and the rest of Silicon Valley. It wasn't too long ago that Japan dominated consumer electronics. Think of how many US industries have been lost due to overseas competition. We still have significant economic leadership via technology but it takes a ton of innovation from places like Silicon Valley. Detroit, and other older industrial areas haven't been able to do it for a variety of reasons. Thanks, Silicon Valley!
    techvisor and m1a1mg like this.
    09-10-14 08:06 AM
  21. Tyler Nellissen's Avatar
    Silicon Valley big tech circle jerk is the tl;dr for this article. The whole time I was watching the event I couldn't help but think, who are these gadgets for anyway? Most people probably can't afford them. Silicon Valley is an Ant Death Spiral ( ) the whole industry just circling around itself congratulating itself, making itself money, and making more things to congratulate itself about. Tech is more about than phones and watches but the popular media out there would lead you to believe otherwise.

    The issue in San Fran and people being evicted from their homes is another issue which I find appalling.
    09-10-14 08:40 AM
  22. Tyler Nellissen's Avatar
    Well, if you live in the US, you should ask yourself where we would be if it weren't for Apple and the rest of Silicon Valley. It wasn't too long ago that Japan dominated consumer electronics. Think of how many US industries have been lost due to overseas competition. We still have significant economic leadership via technology but it takes a ton of innovation from places like Silicon Valley. Detroit, and other older industrial areas haven't been able to do it for a variety of reasons. Thanks, Silicon Valley!
    Where is all of this tech made and produced? Silicon Valley has the idea but it is not American factories that see any work. That is why tech in Silicon Valley is about tech people in Silicon Valley and not about anyone else or for anyone else.
    HabsFan9860 and Soul_Est like this.
    09-10-14 08:42 AM
  23. pri79269's Avatar
    ^
    +100000000000000000000000

    Look at the kids now and young generation.
    They spend too much time on iPhone and other gadgets instead of teaching, training, educating their selves and discover things how to live better. (in other words, acquire skills.)

    Those kids who grew up in a barn/farms who doesn't give a sh** about gadgets have more common sense and better than the ones who gets blinded with gadgets.

    Hehehe
    This is on the parents not the companies creating the devices. My home is tech central and my kids have lots of various devices BUT they also take advance courses in school and participate in sports to get out the house and off their a*s. Everything in moderation and moderation is controlled by the parents.
    09-10-14 08:53 AM
  24. eyesopen1111's Avatar
    ^
    +100000000000000000000000

    Look at the kids now and young generation.
    They spend too much time on iPhone and other gadgets instead of teaching, training, educating their selves and discover things how to live better. (in other words, acquire skills.)

    Those kids who grew up in a barn/farms who doesn't give a sh** about gadgets have more common sense and better than the ones who gets blinded with gadgets.

    Hehehe
    LOL. Do we have Luddites in the forum? Yeah, let's just all go Amish and forget about technology altogether! That'll keep us globally competitive, right?

    Wrong!

    Z-30 / STA100-5 / 10.3.0.1154 / T-Mobile USA
    techvisor likes this.
    09-10-14 09:06 AM
  25. theRock1975's Avatar
    LOL. Do we have Luddites in the forum? Yeah, let's just all go Amish and forget about technology altogether! That'll keep us globally competitive, right?

    Wrong!

    Z-30 / STA100-5 / 10.3.0.1154 / T-Mobile USA
    Refusing to buy a $350 smart watch that needs an iPhone to work or refusing to buy a giant ipad doesn't make you Amish.

    You're completely missing the point.


    Posted via CB10
    09-10-14 10:00 AM
38 12

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