Ann: Buddy partners with Digicel to sell and distribute Buddy Ohm, page-68

yes - and has found it a relatively slow sales cycle

it will grow over time esp as BUD's brand profile lifts - but I think it shouldnt be a priority unless the natural demand (ie people are knocking on the doors for it) starts lifting

the challenge with specific company solutions is they want everything customised - almost infinitely. and decision making tends to be slow and very precious - internal gatekeepers in companies tend to think their business is more valuable to the provider than it is - because they are so slow in approval and adoption.

the challenge with mass market consumer electronics is high competition and difficulty of differentiation

both solvable. both 'challenges' reduce the more of them you do - but its slow and low%

not like its all totally mutually exclusive.

we are after all talking largely about monitoring data, streaming it back to big blue, crunching it and then giving decision makers real time decision making - preferably with decision making execution triggers in the package so its end to end find, point and click

reason i like smart cities - and figure this may be MD's reason though dont know - is that
- decision makers want relatively similar things - so low customisation - but
- large numbers of them so its got efficiencies of scale similar to consumer electronics
- but its B2b primarily - so it can be large buyer cost benefit and so larger margin business
- there's a tightly connected 'virtuous circle' of buyers who will provide 3rd party endorsement on solutions that work

i also tend to think energy efficiency is the no 1 issue of our times at a social economics level - tax take falling but energy costs rising

but anyway - each to their own. everyone's entitled to their own views.

this is just based on my own experiences