PRIVATE CITIZENS SET TO VISIT THE MOON, NOKIA 3310’S COMEBACK, IKEA’S HOME GARDEN

The last week of February 2017 has been a very interesting one. While the American and other stock markets are doing record-worthy well with the FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange) 100 hitting a new record high and the Dow Jones Industrial Average also hitting 21,000 for the first time ever, it’s a good time to be buying and trading in the stock market. But, these days stockbrokers aren’t the only brokers in the world; there are now “data brokers” as well, making tons of money by selling data, both public and personal as the data craze continues to grow in our “millennial age”. In contrast, however, one theme that seems to be resonating throughout this past week is reintroducing the old as a new thing.

The owner of Tesla, Elon Musk, plans to send two private individuals to the moon, making the first lunar mission with humans on board in 45 years. So does a car company have the technological expertise to send people, especially people who aren’t already trained astronauts, to the moon? Well, besides being the owner of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk is also the owner of a company called SpaceX that has developed a new rocket model called the Falcon Heavy. For the flight, SpaceX intends to use the Falcon Heavy rocket along with a Dragon 2 Capsule that will undergo testing this Summer. In the meantime, the individuals are undergoing serious physical and mental training to prepare them for the moon mission. Could this be the catapult that could lead to individuals living in space altogether?

Meanwhile, while Samsung busily drops hints of its new Galaxy S model, a company that we have relegated to the archives of phone-use history, Nokia, is introducing an improved version of its old 3310 model to the world. The original Nokia 3310 was a massive hit in 2000 preceding the smartphone hype that followed the release of the original iPhone. It sold 126 million units worldwide. This newer version has the original design of the old phone with a keypad and the quaint little screen. It also has all the old javascript games we originally fell in love with, Snake, Snake II, Space Impact and Bantumi. However, the user interface has advanced a little, offering better quality graphics, brighter color models and it’s also a bit lighter and a bit slimmer than the original headset. This is because the new 3310 is not running on javascript but is a Windows 8 phone. With so much hype for smartphones that have inbuilt AI technology and full touch technologies, will Nokia’s new 3310 model be able to bring back strength to the now Microsoft-owned Nokia handset division?

In other news, the hoe-gardening trend might be making a comeback as Swedish-owned furniture giant, Ikea has introduced a flat-pack indoor garden. The garden is actually a spherical, plywood-made, piece of furniture that can easily be assembled inside the house. Actual plants can be grown inside of the spherical invention. It is called a Growroom, and is meant to encourage home gardening but literally providing people with an indoor garden. This interesting invention was created by a company named SPACE10, a “future-living lab” that is an external innovation hub supported by Ikea.

Within just one week of the year, all of these exciting products have come out. As the year has just begun, we are optimistic to find out what other surprises this year has in store for the world of business. Do you have any predictions for the rest of this year? Let us know your views.