Life at the cutting edge for Samsung
Staying at the top is harder than getting there.
With the smartphone 'slab' now the single surviving model in the mobile universe differentiating one from the other is getting chaotic.
Should the focus be on improving camera quality?
Or increasing battery life?
Customers paying top dollar for the latest models are looking for performance bumps. And that's getting harder to deliver year after year.
Reviewers who wait with bated breath to be the first to break a feature upgrade are struggling with their descriptions.
On Click, the program from BBC, the reporter went so far as to say there was nothing exciting happening at the Mobile World Congress. After the event was largely virtual because of Covid in 2021.
Sandwiched between retaining its place at the top with $1000 phones and meeting customer expectations, Samsung is experiencing the brutal cutting edge.
To prevent overheating and preserve battery life, Samsung's Game Optimising Service (GOS) automatically restricts the handset's performance. Apparently, this is as much as 46% according to Geekbench, which scores processor performance.
Though the company defended itself by saying that the feature could be turned off with no safety issues, the fuse had been lit.
A social media storm blamed the company for putting out sub-par phones with the highest sticker prices in the market.
The reviewers, the testers, the grand event platforms and the media spectacle are all part of a carefully coordinated effort that drives both - the anticipation and the disappointment.
And that's where the cutting edge makes it hard to survive.
In Korea, home territory for Samsung, all the leading telcos have cut prices by 50% for the S22.
Perhaps it is time to increase the time between model launches. But that's another edge to navigate!
What if power is generated from a hole in the ground?
That's the essence of geothermal energy.
Drill deep enough and the red hot heat miles below the earth's surface can generate all the power the earth needs.
Now, apart from coal, nuclear, thermal, fossil fuels, solar, and wind, geothermal is making a play for prime source.
Quaise Energy has a different spin on it. The idea is to convert existing power facilities using fossil fuels anywhere in the world to geothermal.
It needs new drilling prowess and the ability to break through extremely hard rock as well as incredibly hot conditions, at temperatures that would vaporize most equipment.
The company describes it as a radical approach to ultra-deep drilling. First, they use conventional drilling techniques to get through basement rocks. Then, use high-powered millimeter waves that vaporize boreholes to reach depths that were not possible before.
They are aiming to drill 20 kms below the earth's surface to reach temperatures of 500 degrees centigrade.
The existing capabilities of the fossil fuel industry and the expertise it has gained is being seen as the force to transition to geothermal.
People who already have the skills developed by working on deep-drilling rigs can find new career opportunities.
From an environment point of view, it's like drilling needle-holes in the ground. Large spaces are not required because it is the heat from below that has to be piped into the facility.
The company's estimate is that less than 1% of land and materials will be required to power the earth's requirements.
That's a big promise to live up to.
In a few decades, we will know which power sources will win the race. But retrofitting existing power plants is a capital idea.
Are online marketplaces the new sweat shops?
In the industrial era, factory floors were the flash points for labor.
Now, no one ever assumes entrepreneurs will agitate.
But that's precisely what sellers on Etsy went ahead with.
Slowly, but steadily, the company increased the transaction fees from sellers on the platform. Locked them into expensive advertising deals. And made profits harder to come by.
A set of sellers went on strike. They asked shoppers to boycott the platform from April 11th to 18th.
They think that the old ways of Etsy where personal crafts were the mainstay have changed. And it has become a shopping site like any other.
The new business models look suspiciously like the old ones with new legal terminology
Uber calls it's drivers 'independent contractors'. That's a legal wall separating labour from entrepreneurs. Uber's defence is that the company does not own the cabs and drivers can choose their time of work.
That ensures company does not have to pay salaries or compensate them like workers.
At Etsy, the pressure on sellers to increase sales has ramped up. First, differences were created between existing sellers on the platform. The ones who sold more were labelled 'Star Sellers' To keep that label, they had to maintain customer metrics like 24-hour response time and consistent 5-star ratings.
The early sellers on Etsy were craftspeople who worked at their own pace and built a following over years. They did not have to meet targets or increase production.
But these new rules are stacked against them. And they don't like the character of the site changing to another faceless marketplace.
However, it looks as if they will need to find alternatives, or set up shop on their own.
The more things change, the more they remain the same!