Better, Faster, Cheaper

As I write this in the dying moments of November, I am a little closer to the deadline and a little shorter of ideas than I would like. My better and wiser half has just suggested that a whiskey might help and followed this up with the idea that I should write something about giving up drinking and smoking for the New Year. However, since I don't smoke and only drink when she tells me to, I am not sure if this will be quite sufficient for the 800 or so words I have to find.

My idea, also vaguely seasonal, is more along the lines of a list of technical or business hits and misses for the last twelve months. You know the sort of thing, my personal favourites from the new gadgets, web sites, business and public services I have encountered recently. An opportunity to praise the efficient and get my own back on the time wasters.

Number one without question has to be e-bay the online auction system. This year PDMS has made considerable savings by sourcing equipment through e-bay with no bad experiences so far. In fact, for some of our more exotic (technical) requirements, the e-bay site, with its global reach, has proved at least as satisfactory as any other supply chain with far better stock availability! At the other end of the spectrum my 8 year old has used it very shrewdly to expand his collection of pokemon cards and thereby his credibility in the playground. When he can buy 20 cards for 70p in postage stamps and save me a trip to Douglas into the bargain I'm not complaining.

Another area of technology which seems to have made a step change this year is the whole spectrum of consumer multimedia. In this market a number of things have come together to significantly increase the scope of, and access to, digital media. This is partially a result of the inexorable improvement in the price / performance of standard components such as memory chips, hard disks and so on. But the real impact comes as new technologies make the transition from expensive luxury to standard commodity. This Christmas it is possible to buy a decent digital camera for under £100 on Strand Street and a standard £1000 consumer PC should have the capacity to store your entire music collection on disk, edit video and write the results to DVD.

The only sour note here is the continuing inability of the electronics industry to get its act together with regard to DVD formats. It may all be very simple and I may just not have been paying attention (a not uncommon occurrence so I'm told) but I still don't really know the difference between DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM etc… The truth is it probably doesn't matter that much because most devices end up being compatible with most formats but it still makes me nervous when I am contemplating spending money, or worse still, advising my parents in law on how to send theirs.

Wireless networks and broadband internet access are two more technologies which seem to be achieving a critical mass. As well as being very useful in their own right, they combine well in the home to give permanent shared internet access at reasonable speeds to any suitably equipped PC anywhere in the house (or office), without the need for any cabling and without engaging the phone line.

On the other hand a downside of improved internet access is the continuing growth in Spam or Junk emails. Someone out there seems to think we are all under insured middle aged men who need to lose weight and recapture their youth in various unprintable ways. Complete rubbish obviously, but still a waste of time deleting it all.

Progress in the development of financial services on-line has also been a little disappointing particularly in terms of providing better information and a more joined up approach to financial planning. Given the consolidation that is happening in this sector I would expect to see far more innovation when it comes to meeting the insurance, investment, borrowing and banking needs we all have in an innovative and user friendly manner. Maybe this will be the theme for 2004.

On the whole it has been a good year for the consumer, a down turn in the technology market seems to have spurred the industry on to produce some real improvements in the products and services available and the continued growth in take-up of online services has helped the market to mature as the internet becomes part of the mainstream of business. Maybe 2003 will go down as the year e-business lost the 'e' and got on with the job.