Small Screens Present Less Challenges for Gen Y

One of the things that challenges tired old eyes like mine is that the screens are too small and I struggle with glasses and  what I perseve to be bad lighting to squint and read things on a small screen.

Not so it would appear Gen Y. According to eMarketer they are embracing the use of video on a small screen. OK so this has impact for conventional media but it also has a big implication for the apps we are putting out there. Gen X and Boomers prefer large screens and are more comfortable with large screen formats (aka a PC). But Gen Y don't care.

Thus the adoption of apps on a small screen is very natural for this class.

In my view this will have big impact on the use of devices. Thus the battle of the OS on the small screen is taking on more importance. For Travel based Apps - this means in my view that we can pack more onto those small screens. So less data traffic and more data packed on a small screen is better.

Think about it

Cheers

Big Brother Facebook IS Watching You - Just Like Google

I used to think that Google was Big Brother.  But in recent months I have started to see that both Apple and Facebook are doing the same to me.

There seems to be an open season on my privacy that Google, Apple and Facebook (F.A.G.) believe that I have to modify my behaviour to opt out of their control. The FAG Triumvirate seem to believe that they and  they alone - are the the new domain rulers of the universe - known and unknown

In my view this level of control and intrusion into my privacy should not be an automatic opt in but an automatic opt out.

The issues of Like and Unlike and how users are interacting with them and this is modifying human behaviour online - and presumeably off line as well - is important to our whole social intercourse. Have a look at this article in eMarketer for some statistics.

Apple understands now my taste in music and this is a surrogate for my persona. Google knows so much about me its scary. But now Facebook is doing the same. If you would like to see an example - read this blog: http://nikcub.appspot.com/logging-out-of-facebook-is-not-enough

Nik's supposition is born in fact. Interestingly Facebook's response was to determine that there was a bug that he had found. If you are a suspcious type like me - you have to think why did they not before? And I think that comes down to the crux of the matter. They are not looking because they dont want to look.

My point is that now these entities are so big and so important to our daily lives that they have a moral responsibility to address these sorts of issues.  Google's advertising revenues are now projected to massively increase. When they don't then they are failing the standard of care. A standard that should be held in the same regard as say product safety.

So let me know what you think

Cheers

Farewell Steve And A Deep Sense Of Thanks

Steve Jobs announced his exit from the management but not the soul of Apple. Notwithstanding the appalling pictures of him on TMZ (if they are to be believed) Steve’s impact on our lives has been deep and far reaching. I wont dwell on his many accomplishments but take from his work one thing.

Innovation is fundamental to our being.

Innovation and true advances are not achieved by consensus and SWOT analyses. They are driven by people who think and work hard. Who are contrarian. They are delivered by passionate people who believe even though perhaps every ounce of their being tells them it is – well wrong or worse even stupid. Something drives innovators. Steve was the epitome of someone who can make that happen. What Steve did was to be truly his own man. He made his own rules. He didn’t care about standards. He didn’t care about what people thought. He only cared about what his ego drove him to do. And this in our homogenized Googlesque world was iconic and – well different.

So from the bottom of my heart – I just want to say thanks for inspiring lots of people, me included.

I am not an Apple lover. I still use a WINTEL based PC. Sure I have an iPod and an iPad, I hate many of their commercial terms – don’t get me started again on the iPhone’s business model. But I respect and admire Apple enormously.

Steve – get better soon and again, thanks

iAds. The Peak of Apple Hubris

Can the house that Steve built do any wrong?

Well it seems that Apple may have another Lisa on its hands. Adweek picked up a story from Business insider.

Seems the faithful are going to have to work a bit harder. The asking price of iAds going in put it out of reach of all but the VERY VERY BIG brands. Even content aggregators would find it hard with a carousel type product.

Fortunately while Apple seems to be following Google and Facebook in their pursuit of the very big brands, there are some savvy folks out there who have developed tools to place social ads into the Apps world.

This doesn't mean that Apple has failed (yet). But they have slashed the ask in price by 50%. And uncharacteristically - Apple has open Ad sales positions.

This could be the peak of the Apple Hubris... yes? no? Well I guess we shall see.

Cheers


With thanks to dipity for the image of an Apple Lisa computer. Steve's last big bomb.

Are Microsoft and Yahoo Still Relevant?

Yahoo has had its share of troubles lately and is still struggling from a degree of missteps combined with neglect and a smattering of hubris.

So let's consider things in context. Let's just look at email. With Facebook entering the fray - Yahoo still has more subscribers than the other two closes competitors (Gmail and Hotmail) combined.

But Yahoo is struggling to redefine itself in a world where search is dominated by Google and where the portal concept is slowly dying. People want more than just a gateway to content. They want to get there faster with less clicks. And Yahoo just doesn't hack it. The Social web is just so big that just by concentrating on it - as Facebook has - that the value can be mined. So Yahoo can be ignored by those who matter - the users and the advertisers.

Microsoft's value is harder to ignore. It owns several platforms not least of which is XBox. But the de-emphasis on the brand Microsoft has made the uber-brand less relevant. Of course it still carries its relevance in the corporate arena but even here it is under attack. The upsurge in Bing has clearly allowed them to stay in the game. But its a hard fought battle. But look at the brand cemetery from Redmond. MSN is probably about as relevant as Yahoo.

It is of course easy to go for the media darlings - Google and Facebook at the top end, with strong showings from Apple (iEverything) Groupon and Twitter. The long term winners must continue to make their brands and value proposition relevant. For this you have to be relentless at making your brand topical.

Good luck with that!

Rabid IPad Owners

So no new news for iPads in Apples fun day today.

However buried deep inside was a bit of new news... iOS4.2. This should have the fixes you have all been waiting for - but wait a little longer it will be November before it sees the light of day(glo).

So what have you little iPad users been doing with your machines, what is your usage profile and well how sad are you really?

I did a little digging and found some research on the subject.

Firstly let's be real clear. Like the iPhone before it - an iPad is best used as a consumption device. it is better as a creation device than its smaller siblings but it follows Apple's very clear philosophy. Consumption devices and Creation devices are mostly separated. The MAC was always seen as a good content creation device. It became its role in life. As 1:Many content creation has become more important so to has the Mac's growth and adoption mirror'd the trend. This contrasts with Microsoft's philosophy of a 1:1 communication device with content consumption via the web browser. Apple made their hardware devices optimized for one or the other NOT BOTH. So thus the iPad is indeed a very cool consumption device.

This somewhat goes against the grain of an "all in one" device. But who knows. It comes down in my opinion to not form over function but a unique mix of both. For that Apple needs a good pat on the back.

And of all the failings that Microsoft has - this is perhaps their clearest one. They didn't understand that personal consumption is individual. The parallels in how Apple got this right and Microsoft got it wrong becomes so obvious with hindsight.

Another observation is that Apple understood - or its just happened that way - that the iPad is not really a device for toting around. It is just ideal as the device for the home. Because people don't like creating stuff at home - they like consuming.

The iPad in my view is personal TV. Its form factor really does a great job in that score. Again Apple got this right and everyone else got it wrong.

What is interesting is that this actually may be the saviour of general media. With the demand for short form content exceeding that of long form but not having to make the choice - traditional media should feel happy.

But this is not just my view. A study by cooper murphy webb shows how the device gets used. It shows a usage preference that mirrors print. But remember the audience who was asked... early adopters. In my view this will give some significant usage pointers for the future use of the device.



So maybe you are not so sad at all....

Does this mean the Professor will breakdown and get an iPad... not just yet... but maybe when they refresh the device.

Cheers

A Free Case For Your (i4) Boat Anchor

Steve – aka the Dark Lord – has come out fighting on the issue of the iPhone 4’s er connection issue.

He says it has been blown out of proportion and that the media is to blame (sound like anyone else we know?).

Well Steve – this is life. Suck it up.

Apple has like almost every tech company – including many that I have been with – had its share of misfortunes. It is part of the way technology is. What works for some doesn’t work for others. Users expect computers to be infallible. To know the perfect answer. An iPhone is a work of beauty but it has to work as a basic function. Namely it has to work as a telephone. The issue of the antenna – which is among several other issues is that it needs to work normally. I believe from several iPhone 4 users I have spoken to – that the issue is sporadic. For one old time iPhone user – he explained he is as frustrated with the problem as when the iPhone 1 first came out and would disconnect in mid call when moving between towers. The Apple faithful have flamed me a few times for making an issue of the iPhone. Just the facts ma’am. For an empirical assessment of the iPhone from Consumer Reports which confirmed the issue – please visit their website.

I think the iPhone is a work of art and a marvelous thing. I hope Apple gets it right. My objection to it remains the business model and the fact that it is a license to print money. Given the money Apple is making from the iPhone – I believe they have an obligation to get it right.

So through the end of September you can have a case for your iPhone boat anchor. Hopefully after that the next batch will have a better antenna. I should point out that some analysts are reporting more issues with the iphone. But you can figure this stuff out for yourself.

Cheers

Apple to Face EU Probe

Seems like its the Government's turn to focus a little this week. It also seems like someone was listening or they are just plain smart. I will take either!

The EU is going to launch a probe into Apple’s iPhone business practices. Specifically they are going to investigate two of the 4 revenue streams and possibly the others as well.

The App Store is one, the other is the interoperability of iPhone and other phone systems. This is likely to extend into the Admob/iPhone dispute.

For a detailed read – go here:

Click here to read full story...

Cheers

So Apple Steps up and Acknowledges Too Fast Too Soon... But....

The iPhone has suffered what could be seen as a pretty hefty hit to its credibility. And for once the Professor didn’t have to harp on about it.

The complexity of the system integration causes it to – well become pretty useless as a device for which its primary purpose is – er – communication. I have been somewhat aghast at the poor quality of Smart Phones. I am a Crackberry user but in general do not like using the device as a phone. My preferred mobile is very much a phone but the swapping of sim cards and having to be very careful about how I use it drives me nuts.

In Apple’s case it’s highly oiled black turtle necked spin machine could not stop the huge groundswell about the set of problems that users had with the new device. As one new (and very unhappy) user told me – it was an interesting small desktop computer.

If it’s all the same to you – I will pass.

Cheers

More iProblems For Steve - This Time The FTC

Be careful who you pick your fights with Steve... now it seems that the Feds have iPhone well and truly in their sights. According to the Wall Street Journal, The FTC - US Federal Trade Commission are investigating Apple's Advertising system for the iPhone.

And the Feds are not being slow about jumping into the fray. Within literally hours of the AT&T security breach involving iPads becoming public - the FBI jumps in and announces a criminal probe. I guess exposing the White House Chief of Staff's email address was not a particularly good thing to happen

But wait - there's more.

Apple's attempts at opening up a whole new avenue of cash cow milking machinery - iAd- (aka Apple forcing advertising into the iPhone infrastructure) only a few days old and Google coming out swinging on that front (because they can't stand competition) the FTC steps in.

What seems to be so weird about this is that it took a long time - literally years - before the Feds stepped into the whole bundling thing at Microsoft for bundling the OS with the web browser - is that this is about hard cash. Whereas the Microsoft Windows/IE battle was about harming potential competition (as in whose free product was disadvantaged) , this is about how fat the spigot should be. And boy do they move faster now.

These are definitely not your father's Feds. The government cash sniffer nose has become a little more sensitive.

Now who/what else could they investigate. Here are some examples:

Apple vs Adobe over Flash
Google vs Just about Everything

I could make some comments about certain companies in the travel distribution food chain but I am keeping this more focused on Apple at the moment.

Apple's normally vaunted reputation for "it just works" also seems to be coming in for some scrutiny.

Steve Job's WiFi troubles in announcing the iPhone are just one of a host of issues that apple's smaller (but wildly more profitable) services are having. The iPad has significant issues on WiFi - just troll the web for some of this. For example this one.

Those of you who were early iPhone adopters will recall that when it first came out - the device seemed to have a teensy weenie problem with making - phone calls!

So now the world's second most valuable tech company (after Google) is going to understand what it means to have a degree of scrutiny.

I bet Obama is laughing all the way home. His special Blackberry doesn't have to be called the Devil's Instrument...

Cheers

The Devil Strikes Again - Apple iProblems

Oh not a great day decidedly mixed for those of you who sniff the Apple glue, and a salutatory warning for those of you who don't.

First off - I have to tell my loyal readers that I purchased a Macbook today. It is for a family member. I felt like I had sold my sold to the devil..... and probably did. As a result I ended up with a 32GB iPod Touch. It came free with the Mac. As did the printer... they must really want to off load these things.

On the positive side - the iPhone OS will go out starting probably 21st of June and this includes the OS4 for the iPad. I suspect that even before that there will be hacks on bit torrent out there. But wait till its official. Trust me on this one - not a good idea to mess with this stuff.

On the iPhone upgrade - AT&T have loosely said they will expand the pool of people who are eligible for the upgrade. I foresee that Apple will bring its policy of full price upgrades rather than discounting upgrades to the iPhut market.

A further piece of good news yesterday is that those of you who signed up for unlimited data plans at AT&T will be grandfathered. The only downside is that ... you wont benefit from the cost reduction that everyone has. So you will have to navigate the byzantine rules for figuring it out. Ditto similar bizarre and complex rules for figuring out if you are eligible to upgrade.

Now the bad news...

Brace yourselves...

AT&T acknowledged Wednesday that a security hole had exposed iPad users' email addresses, a breach that highlights how corporations still have problems protecting private information.

Gawker Media, which reported the breach earlier Wednesday, said 114,000 email addresses were revealed.

AT&T said it had fixed the security problem by Tuesday. The company also said it would inform all the customers whose email addresses and iPad IDs may have been obtained. By my calculation that's about 5% of all the iPads sold out there. Hmmm that could be significant because it is probably a large number (read just about all of the 3G ones out there) who bought the 3G version.

Not a pretty sight!

Now for the worse news... Apple has decided to declare all out war on just about everyone. Not content to try and crush Adobe, and waving at Microsoft in its rear view mirror - now Apple wants to take on Google. At stake is the mobile ad market. Apple wants to add yet another revenue stream (on top of the 3 already it makes from its iPhones) advertising built into the OS. Well folks that's Google's purvey. They don't like competition for grand theft auto. Google is pushing back - hard.

So take that sniff now... might as well get used to it. You are officially addicted. The Apple a Day now becomes the Apple (kaching) multiple times a day. And you are not hallucinating... you will not be able to give it up either. With acknowledgment to the great Lloyd Bridges.

Cheers

Apple! Time To Pay The Piper - Addendum

Sorry for the additional post.

I was researching something else and came across this article in the WSJ.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704133804575197723800822504.html

So Apple is going to pursue this type of growth and in fact be a more aggressive player.

Oh dear... what happened to the kinder gentler people in Cupertino?

Apple! Time To Pay The Piper

A milestone in our society and culture occurred earlier this month. Apple became worth more than Microsoft. So now Redmond which used to be castigated as the Evil Empire is now 3rd behind Google and Apple.

Apple has largely arrived in its much vaulted position by avoiding such issues as security and integration into the corporate world. Here is a great article from Infoworld. (How I miss the print edition!)

Well - now it has to step up to that challenge and it better start do it pretty fast. So since I have your attention this far let me have my say on the subject of the iPhone.

I think it is an amazing piece of technology. But I have a very hard time with its model. Unlike the traditional players in the mobile space - they blazed a new model and have been very successful at it. All at the expense of the consumer.

Normally the network operator guys keep their revenues and the handset guys get paid a fee or sell direct. Mostly the former. Thus the network operator has been in control of the market. This was not good enough for Apple. The asked for AND managed to get it - a share of the network revenues from the first customer AT&T. In exchange AT&T got exclusivity. But the price was high. But Apple wasn't content with that - they wanted additional revenue. So they simply applied the iTunes model and created the App Store thereby creating an additional revenue stream.

And just to make sure that they MADE enough money - they ensured that the design of the network usage required additional data access for even basic services such as email and texting. Thus when you are online with your mobile device - the amount of network traffic can be high. Pity the poor people on the Pay as You go model billing schemes. But it is FAR worse if you roam into a different network. Then you pay $$$$ for network traffic. I have seen some staggering bills from people who roamed for just a short time in a foreign country.

Sloppy design by Apple makes this the default state rather than an option. So those Apps might be free to download or low cost but they can COST YOU BIG TIME. King Gillette is probably laughing his head off in the great pantheon of business ideas.

If you hear me speak at conferences - I call the iPhone the devil incarnate for this reason. (In fairness to Apple - Google's Android does much the same thing). I don't just stick with my crackberry because the device is better - no - its because I can manage the cost of the device AND the network.

So Apply - time to start playing nice and being a good corporate citizen. No more cavalier behavior.

Do you think they will listen to me? Naaaaa..........

Cheers

Microsoft's Failed Future - A Chance For Redemption

Of late things have not been good for Microsoft. In the past week they have lost two of their stellar chaps. They are spending a lot of time looking failure in the face. We could catalog these - Mobile, Search, etc.... Indeed the ignmony was palpable - Apple the arch rival became a bigger company by stock value than Microsoft.

But what could the company do to fix things. I will give my thoughts at the end of this piece.

But let's examine why Google and Apple have beaten the former tech giant into pieces. These may not be things you want to believe...

1. They don't listen to customers. Apple and Google definitely do their own thing. If they didn't the Mac, the iPod and the iPhone would never see the light of day
2. The closely tie the software and the hardware together - none of this open stuff especially if its from other people
3. They don't care about taking other people's ideas
4. Proprietary is the order of the day - their proprietary.

So for a good few ideas of what MS could do check out this article.

And what do I think they should do?

I already dumped most of my stock a long time ago. So I have no ax to grind at my alma mater. But here is what I think they should do. SPLIT THE COMPANY into smaller units.

Looking at Microsoft which has become big fat and ossified. I don't care how energetic Steve can be to rouse the faithful - he has become largely irrelevant to the world of technology. He should have looked into the crystal ball and seen that indeed Microsoft became - well just like IBM. Maybe even more so.

So SPLIT the company and let them compete in the market as much as they could compete against themselves.

And perhaps we should consider what companies in travel are guilty of the same sins - maybe even a former relative?

So that's my opinion - what's yours?

Cheers

The End Of The PC As We Know It

Apple quietly unveiled a new tool as part of iPhone OS4. It is its new ad targeting delivery vehicle. iAd.

Thanks to Professor Ben for alerting me to this.

Clearly I missed the whole hoopla and was just happy that Apple recognizes that people actually can chew gum and walk at the same time (aka multi-tasking). What is somewhat scary though is that the new platform has an area of secure functions that the user has no control over.

Within the new OS4 - a number of functions will now operate independent of the owner/user. Some of these are valuable features to improve the quality of the User Experience (UE). For example the geolocation services will not require apps that use them to be turned on. the apps can be off and the geolocation service will update/sync as necessary. Indeed the OS will now wake up an app if there is something interesting going on. Think of Facebook staying constantly on and being aware of where you are at all time. To me the scary thing is that the user has no control over it. Rules of use and access will be controlled by some geeks in Cupertino.

Thus iAd will become the standard for the delivery of geo-targeted ads. Indeed in Ben's Opinion and I concur - this will challenge the whole notion of ad targeting. Move over Google here comes Apple. I think I am losing track of who has control over the real Death Star

This will create a whole new class of always on services that stay with you. Indeed the initiative will make mobile the pre-eminent interface between the user and the eworld. Thus in my opinion the PC will decline as the primary interface to the web.

Wait did I say that???

Yes - this is a challenge to the PC centric world that we know and love. We are headed towards the world of the Star Trek Communicator. However the device will not be tied to a Ship's Computer it will tied to the web with all its idiosyncrasies.

So going back to my theory. We have a new world emerging. 5 years ago who would have thought that the innovation to drive a sea change in mobile would have come from Apple. But they have managed to do it. I would have put money on Blackberry and would not have lost any (I did back their stock by the way). But now the convergence that we have heard for so long will likely come from the house of Steve. Thus I nominate Ocelot for the next named Apple OS X software. I think they should skip the whole 10.x and go to 11. OS X-11 Ocelot will be the slimmer version of the OS that merges all the OS4 of the iPhone with the Mac OS. Combine that with a clamshell tablet and then I would be very interested. (I just can't bring myself to say I would purchase an iPad).

Hello Redmond, Santa Clara, Mountain View - anyone home?

Cheers

iTablet or iSlate?

In a few hours Steve will get up and announce one of the worst kept secrets - Apple's Slate/Tablet.

We know a few things from this morning's press reports.

1. Its going to be based on the iPhone OS - thus ensuring a wide number of Apps to be supported on day 1.
2. It comes with an eReader
3. its going to be called the iTablet (OK so I was right the first time).
4. Steve WILL announce it today.

Am I right... check in tomorrow or look at the news reports

Cheers

Travel M-Commerce - Still Birth Pains

I am a fan of the whole idea of M-Commerce. Particularly how it can have applications for the whole Travel Category.However my enthusiasm is tempered by (now more than) 10 years of experience in trying to get Mobile Apps off the ground without any noticeable success.

So I was very interested in reading the latest M-Commerce Report by eMarketer.

In particular there are two contrasting elements to their study.

Travel was one of the highest categories of product that people SAID they would be willing to purchase via a mobile app. However there is a huge gap between the desire and the execution - early adopters don't even rank travel apps on their radar.

So we have a chicken and egg situation. Further the obstacles to success of M-Commerce are many and varied. Of these the largest percentage are not going to get solved - in my humble opinion - any time soon.

So take a look at the list the ones that consumers in the report detailed this is illustrated on the top here. However consider both the small sample size and the audience.

I spent much of the summer roaming around Asia Pacific and Europe testing 3G networks and interactions. (OK this was a by product of what I was doing - I really am not THAT sad - even though the SFR shop in St Gilles Croix de Vie was getting pretty sick of me by the end of August). I found a lot to commend it. The networks in general are now reliable and robust. But the applications are clearly lacking. So the red hot market at the moment is the marriage of the Netbook to a 3G network and the corresponding Carrier sponsored products. EG Lease a Netbook for X Euros a month and get the device and the data included.

Steve Jobs - not so secret - iTablet project will hope to capitalize on this trend when it emerges likely at CES or MacWorld in January 2010. But by its nature this is likely to be a further obstacle to the deployment of robust Mobile applications. Namely the splintered client side applications environment.

In the various projects I have undertaken on Mobile - I have found that the stumbling block has been both the technology (lack of ubiquity of Client side application environment), the commercial model of making money. (This was usually the greed of the Mobile Operators who refuse to share the data usage revenue or alternatively at the very least figure out a way not to penalize the application with a surcharge). We long ago figured out solutions to the other problems.

The promise of Android (and son of Android aka Chrome) as well as other multi-hardware platform services such as Windows Mobile, Linux and Symbian has all so far proved to be a figment of the developers imaginations.

However I remain hopeful that this will eventually sort itself out. But as you saw from my post yesterday about Skype on Blackberry - the proprietary nature of the vendors and the networks seems to be at the root cause of the issue. However I am not holding my breath in the short term... So I am still bearish on this regardless of the optimism of others such as PhocusWright on the subject.

Thank you and have a nice day.