While Apple maintains a 'cool' factor, last week's earnings missed expectations. Can Motorola step up to the challenge, with its new SB1 smart badge, and be a real contender for mobile devices in big box, grocery, and other segments?

Retail is a huge industry that impacts everyone. The recently departed Barry Wise was a guy that impacted everyone he knew. For those of us that were fortunate enough to know him, we can honestly say that we won’t likely have another person like him in our industry.

RFID's applications continue to grow and as I learned at a recent Tyco conference, they are creating value that is hard to ignore, in areas including markedly improved inventory accuracy, faster and more frequent cycle counts and as a strong deterrent against internal theft.

As in so many other areas of retail technology, opinions about Big Data vary widely in the "hype vs. value" discussion. Even though the term itself sounds like something used to teach a child a concept on Sesame Street, I agree that it is real, and, if harnessed properly, can bring tremendous value to the industry. A just-released Edgell Knowledge Network study offers retailers five key steps on the road to Big Data maturity.

A fascinating session at NRFtech identified five 'tech titans': Amazon, Apple, eBay, Facebook and Google. Despite marked differences, they each move quickly, continue to innovate – and most, if not all, serve as both friends and foes to traditional retailers.