Happy birthday, Instagram!

6

October

2018

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Happy birthday, Instagram! Today, it is Instagram’s eighth birthday. In the past eight years, many has changed about the app. It has transformed itself to become one of the biggest, most popular social media platforms in the world. What has made the app so significantly big?

On the 6thof October 2010, Instagram was launched, solely being available in the App Store yet. One and a half year later, it became available for Android as well. Its initial purpose was allowing users to share pictures with family and friends, and its competitive edge was the ability to professionally adjust photos by giving filters and frames. (Otto, 2018)

Ever since, Instagram has grown significantly, due to its network effects. Being a platform, Instagram gained great value by its community, i.e. the users of the app. The positive same-sided network effects came at play when an increased number of users attracted an ever-growing number of users. When one did not have Instagram yet, he or she would become very curious what kind of pictures, and later on also videos, users of Instagram shared. Soon, they would start using the app as well.

Currently, Instagram has become a platform where ‘normal’ people can become famous and a role model for many; they become so-called ‘influencers’ and have numerous followers. However, this had led to much critique as well: the lives of influencers seem ever-perfect. They seem to travel nonstop, are always very good-looking, are extremely fashionable, and experience many cool events. One may wonder how ‘true’ this depiction of reality is. Despite their many followers, many users of Instagram may also become annoyed because of the ‘overload’ of Instagram influencers. This, in turn, may lead to negative same-sided network effects: users may stop using the app, because they feel annoyed by those influencers.

What do you think? May the overload of Instagram influencers lead to negative same-sided network effects? Or do you believe the option to ‘unfollow’ those influencers will diminish the negative same-sided network effects sufficiently?

References:

Otto, R., 2018. Acht jaar Instagram: ‘Normale mensen kunnen rolmodellen worden. Nu.nl. Retrieved from: https://www.nu.nl/apps/5498408/acht-jaar-instagram-normale-mensen-kunnen-rolmodellen-worden.html

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AR in the US army: are they ready?

23

September

2018

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Augmented reality (AR) is a disruptive innovation that is entering many, if not all, industries globally. Many apps as well as AR glasses and headsets are already marketed commercially and thus available to the individual customer. For individuals, this is mostly just for fun, such as the famous Pokémon Go app. On top of that, AR can sometimes already be useful in professional industries. It is, for example, increasingly being applied in the healthcare industry and it is expected to continuously transform this industry in the future.

Now, AR has touched a new industry: the army. Multiple companies, amongst which Microsoft and Magic Leap, are said to be willing to give AR-headsets to the United States army. By using these AR-headsets in the US army, they can be used for combat training, which will aid in optimizing the trainings. With the program, the US army says it is intending to become more effective: enemies should more quickly be recognized, and the army’s readiness to act should be increased as well. They are intending to gain an edge on the battlefield by incorporating these AR headsets in their trainings. The collaboration may eventually lead to providing over 100,000 headsets to the US army and the agreement would be part of a program worth over 500 million US dollars. (Brustein, 2018)

If this collaboration indeed continues, a whole new area of technology should be developed: the headsets should be made compatible with new sorts of environments, which may vary from the jungle, to the arctic, or the desert. Currently, the AR headsets that are marketed commercially to individuals, still have their bugs and are far from optimized yet. Therefore, one may wonder whether technology is ready to take on such a challenge. What do you think? Should they wait until technology is more ready for this challenge, or should they take the risk?

Reference:

Brustein, J. (2018). Magic Leap is Bidding on an Army Combat Contract. Retrieved September 23, 2018, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-21/magic-leap-is-bidding-on-an-army-combat-contract?srnd=technology-vp

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