The Supremes vs Section 230; Toyota Changes Management to Move into BEVs; iPhone Grip on Gen Z a Challenge for Android; Metaverse ‘Not’ Real Estate

The biggest story in and possibly affecting tech happened this morning. The US Supreme Court heard arguments about Section 230. That’s the part of Title 47 of the US Code that has protected big internet platforms (in the case just argued, Google) from liability when an algorithm serves up a video or post and then a user that sees it then harms another person or persons. Theverge.com reports that a key point is the allegedly ‘neutral’ algorithm…that serves up stuff based on your search or wanderings on the net. Should the Court decide to eliminate protection for platforms or seriously reduce it, we will have a fundamentally changed internet…with some of it quit possibly being unusable. 

Justice Sotomayor noted that the court is “uncomfortable” with a line that says “merely recommending something without adornment” could constitute defamation. Justice Kavanaugh remarked to one of the attorneys for the party bringing the case: ‘I don’t know how many employment decisions are made in the country every day, but I know that hundreds of millions, billions responses of inquiries on the internet are made every day. … under your view, every one of those would be the possibility of a lawsuit.’ This decision…likely not due out until June, will be one to watch closely. 

As has happened at a couple other car makers, Toyota has made a change at the top as they ramp up to build more Battery Electric Vehicles by 2030. The Grandson of the Founder, Akio Toyoda, has been kicked upstairs to Chairman, while former Lexus Boss Sato takes the reins as CEO. Arstechnica.com notes that while Toyota has been a leader in hybrids, they have been slow to embrace fully electric cars. Sato, who is an engineer, said that perhaps Toyota has been too deep into motorsports and hasn’t paid enough attention to regular people. They are looking to build EVs in Georgetown, Kentucky, where they already have a factory. Toyota is also setting up a battery factory in Liberty, North Carolina. The company is shooting for a million Lexus BEVs by 2030 and 3.5 million electric Toyotas.

Android has a Generation Z problem…and it’s Apple. According to macrumors.com, people born after 1996, the Gen Z folks, far prefer iPhones over Androids. In fact, Gen Z accounts for 34% of iPhone owners in the US, while that generation only makes up 10% of US Samsung users. In older generations, there is a pretty even split between iPhones and Androids. the Gen Z users are also buying more Apple Watches, AirPods, and Macs than the older generations. (Full disclosure-as is visible from the video, I am a Boomer…and except for AirPods…which don’t stay in my ears well…I am pretty well all-Apple and have been since before Gen Z first appeared.) Research from Financial Times also picked up that Gen Z users spend more time online than any other age group…up to 6 hours a day on their smartphones! You can be sure that there are teams at Samsung, Google, and other Android phone makers that are burning the midnight oil trying to figure out how to crack Apple’s hold on Gen Z.

Crypto was supposed to be the next big thing in finance and investment…until it crashed. Although it’s still around in a big enough way, the volatility and ephemeral nature of crypto has put a lot of people off from trading and investing in it. Now, we have another next big thing….the Metaverse housing market. Yep, the New York Times reports that you can buy your dream house in the Metaverse, and the market is expected to grow by $5.37 billion by 2026. One contractor bought a $10,000 parcel in the Sandbox, an online world and is ‘building an 11,000 square foot mansion there. All the transactions are in crypto, of course, and built on blockchain. As with crypto, NFTs, and the rest…buyer beware. You aren’t going to be able to record a legal deed to your virtual property, and values fluctuate constantly. If you’re a third generation contractor with family money to burn…hey, go have fun!

I’m Clark Reid, and you’re ‘Technified’ for now!