Commentary – Page 66

Nokia: the plan before 2012

Mikael Ricknäs of Infoworld has an opinion on what Nokia must do to remain relevant in mobile. Nokia was getting complacent and its first mistake was not taking the iPhone and Android seriously early on, says Nick Jones, a vice president at Gartner. … Two years later, the move to open source has proved to … Continue reading “Nokia: the plan before 2012”

Mikael Ricknäs of Infoworld has an opinion on what Nokia must do to remain relevant in mobile.

Nokia was getting complacent and its first mistake was not taking the iPhone and Android seriously early on, says Nick Jones, a vice president at Gartner.
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Two years later, the move to open source has proved to be a miscalculation that is slowing down Symbian’s development.
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To attract more developers Nokia will also have to fix its application store, Ovi Store. The launch of Ovi Store — criticized for having poor search capabilities, slow provisioning of new applications, and a cumbersome interface — will go down in history as one of Nokia’s biggest missteps.

And he’s right that they only have two years to get it right or they will have to be content with owning only the low end of the market.

Now…that’s not saying you can’t make a lot of money in the low end – and the developing countries may provide a lot of that profit as ‘mobile’ is more capable than ‘internet’ in many of these nations.

But will Nokia be happy with that, will they be happy with the position of being the company that was the mobile giant?

I don’t think so.

Selling Thin Air.

OK, I have decided to sell the Air. Though my MacBook Air is a thing of beauty, my iPad, iMac and MacBook Pro are providing more than enough computing power. The unit still has 2 years AppleCare and an external Superdrive if you’re interested. Related posts: Powerbook Woes! AppleCare? You Betcha. Selling three bits of … Continue reading “Selling Thin Air.”

OK, I have decided to sell the Air.

Though my MacBook Air is a thing of beauty, my iPad, iMac and MacBook Pro are providing more than enough computing power.

The unit still has 2 years AppleCare and an external Superdrive if you’re interested.

Apple is not the dominant player in any market that matters

How significant is Apple to the mobile market? Mobile Review writes: Before the Digital Agenda anti-competitive investigations centred on companies with dominant market positions, this initiative would change that to companies with a significant market position e.g. Apple. It may result in Apple being forced to allow Flash on their iOS platform amongst other things … Continue reading “Apple is not the dominant player in any market that matters”

How significant is Apple to the mobile market?

Mobile Review writes:

Before the Digital Agenda anti-competitive investigations centred on companies with dominant market positions, this initiative would change that to companies with a significant market position e.g. Apple. It may result in Apple being forced to allow Flash on their iOS platform amongst other things like allowing 3rd party devices to sync with iTunes e.g. the way Palm tried to do with the Pre. Apple has built a closed eco-sysem for itself that delivers a first rate user experience in terms of interoperability, a situation not totally dissimilar to what Microsoft was trying to do with bundling its own products with its Windows OS, a move that ran foul of the EU’s competition commissioner.

As much as I would like to say that Apple is dominant in the smartphone market, it’s simply not true. Apple is behind Nokia, Samsung, RIM and others in their share of the overall mobile market – and they’re not even dominant in smart phones. Apple does, however, have significant mindshare – which isn’t the same thing. The comparison with Microsofts EU ruling regarding anticompetitive practises with their monopoly is unwarranted – Microsoft had a 95%+ market share at the time. Apple is not even out of single figures in their share of the mobile market.

Adobe has been crowing about being present on 97% of Internet devices and yet they’re bleating to the DoJ and the EU to allow them to increase this market share? It’s plain who has a dominant or significant market share here and who is trying to force their will upon the market.

What is it about Apple doing well which sends competitors into unreasoning panic? Why do we have Microsoft fumbling with Windows Phone 7 and then undermining their own efforts with the Microsoft KIN and then undoing all that work after selling just over 500 devices? Why do we have Adobe tripping over themselves to get Flash onto a couple of devices when they themselves lay claim to 97% of the content framework market? Why is Nokia stumbling with half-baked attempts like the N97 and their own hubris regarding signal/antenna issues when they should be working to make something truly great. Why is Google lying and rewriting history to suit their new paradigm where they are the only freedom option against Apples alleged iron grip of the market? You have to remember that in each of these respective markets it is these companies, not Apple, who is the dominant player. Apple is, in every case here, a distant minor player. So why are they so worried?

It’s plain to see that not only have these companies lost their cool but they’re also out of ideas. Apple is a niche player. Their own dominance, in digital downloaded music, is what they consider to be a break-even business. It enabled the rise of the iPod but in itself it doesn’t make a huge benefit to Apple’s bottom line. When companies have to lie, cheat, plead with the authorities – then you have to acknowledge that something is rotten.

And it is blindness that motivates them. Microsoft has a successful OS launch with Windows 7 and some neat new innovations with Windows Phone 7. Notable because they haven’t copied the iPhone. So why are they pissing about with Courier and KIN and all the rest? Why squander that advantage? And what the fuck is Ray Ozzie doing?

Adobe used to be a great company with great product. Now all I see is posturing about Flash on iPhone. Flash, a recently acquired technology, is being pursued at the expense of their own self-regard. Give it up, make Photoshop, Acrobat, Illustrator even more kick-ass! (and make them as good on the Mac as you do for the PC and see if Apples attitude softens) Stop making me roll my eyes at every douche move you make.

Nokia. Stop fucking about. The last good phone you brought out was the N95. Move the fuck on. Stop whining. Stop over promising and under delivering. And stop wasting effort on Symbian. No-one likes working with it. And anyone who says they do just doesn’t want to lose a dominant position on a dying platform. They’re stupid and you need to ditch them.

Google should know better that the Internet stores truth better than any other medium before it. We know you didn’t buy Droid to save us from Apple. We know your OS is a ‘little bit open’ but getting access to it requires signing away your first born. Stick to what you’re good at. You’re a shit liar.

These mega-corporations will gut themselves rather than see Apple win – even when Apple isn’t trying to win. They’re being distracted from making good products. They’re declaring Apple to be a winner when it ain’t true and they’re suffering because of it. And it needs to stop.

Wells-Fargo, SAP…on the iPad

Rachael King writes at Businessweek: Wells Fargo spent two years studying the iPhone before letting bankers use the device at work. Apple’s iPad, released in April, took just weeks to get cleared. This time around, safeguards against security breaches are stronger from the start, according to Megan Minich, a senior vice-president at the San Francisco-based … Continue reading “Wells-Fargo, SAP…on the iPad”

Rachael King writes at Businessweek:

Wells Fargo spent two years studying the iPhone before letting bankers use the device at work. Apple’s iPad, released in April, took just weeks to get cleared.

This time around, safeguards against security breaches are stronger from the start, according to Megan Minich, a senior vice-president at the San Francisco-based bank. Her colleagues used two of the first shipment of 15 iPads to demonstrate financial products at an investor conference in May. More are on the way, Minich says. “We’ve got a bunch ordered that we can’t get yet,” she says in an interview.

While banks may not be the flavour of the month with right-minded individuals in the western world, the adoption of modern technology is welcome. Many of the websites at the bank where I worked would only function with Internet Explorer 6 and there wasn’t much movement to update them to modern, secure browsers.

Apple has a real opportunity here to gain even more mindshare. And it starts to prove a point that I believe is crucial to the adoption of platforms in the modern world. The platforms will be pushed by the users not dictated by IT experts.

The same goes for Rob Enslin, North America president at SAP, the world’s largest maker of business-management software. Enslin says that when he travels, the only device he carries besides a Research In Motion BlackBerry is the iPad. “It’s allowed me to almost run a paperless office,” says Enslin, who uses it to access business applications, briefing documents, customer information, and other data.

This is the sort of soundbite which Apple loves – one that could only be improved on by the executive gushing about videoconferencing with FaceTime. I’ve been using the iPad as a main machine for a few weeks now and while there are times I enjoy a keyboard and a massive screen with multiple visible apps, I can cope well with the iPad as is. I still believe that some of the insanely great software for the iPad is still to be developed but these reports from Wells-Fargo and SAP show that the software may exist – but it may not exist on the AppStore if they can secure enterprise app distribution with their customers. And why not.

Some companies may also be reluctant to entrust their data to the iPad after a breach on the AT&T website revealed the e-mail addresses of as many as 114,000 iPad users.

This sentence ruins a nice piece. A breach on the AT&T web site has nothing to do with the security of the iPad itself. I have asked the author to amend this because, frankly, it’s nonsense.

What would I do if I set a curriculum for a school?

Steve Jobs on US Education system (via 37Signals) Most of the stuff they study in school is completely useless. But some incredibly valuable things you don’t learn until you’re older – yet you could learn them when you’re younger. And you start to think, What would I do if I set a curriculum for a … Continue reading “What would I do if I set a curriculum for a school?”

Steve Jobs on US Education system (via 37Signals)

Most of the stuff they study in school is completely useless. But some incredibly valuable things you don’t learn until you’re older – yet you could learn them when you’re younger. And you start to think, What would I do if I set a curriculum for a school?
God, how exciting that could be! But you can’t do it today. You’d be crazy to work in a school today. You don’t get to do what you want. You don’t get to pick your books, your curriculum. You get to teach one narrow specialization. Who would ever want to do that?

This makes me think of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland “Tech Camp” which is usually covered by AlanInBelfast but I can’t find out much info about the 2010 delivery as the PCIYouth web server seems to be down. Bing has this:

Alan himself writes:

For all its wires and wizardry, PCI’s Tech Camp forces me (and probably the other leaders too) to annually re-evaluate what it is I’d like the campers to go home having experienced, learnt and understood.
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What if fourteen campers all ended up voxpopping, making videoing, animating, blogging and ringing out their PA systems to eliminate feedback in each of their congregations?

This brings out a sense of envy in me. PCI Tech Camp (religious connotations aside) is a model for something that could easily be replicated as an addition to school – either during the summer months or in the evenings. But is this not what the Digital Circle community already does with Refresh, XCake, Code4Pizza and even OpenCoffee and BarCamp? Is this not what the clever folk over at the Trans Urban Arts Academy manage each year?

We may not be able to easily manipulate the curriculum of the state-run school but we can certainly manage to enrich the extra-curricular. We should make all of our events not only accessible for those less physically able but also restrict our use of bars and locations which are not open to the young. Speaking with Paul McLean (@eightlab) about the educational exclusion that some young people experience – it reminds me of the exclusion we are working to resolve with LiveNet (part of Mencap) and the mentally- and physically-disabled (and therefore excluded).

What couldn’t you do armed with the right people, the right skills, the right passions?

I want him in the Game until he dies playing. End of Line.

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain we see an example of Playbor, as through salesmanship, Tom Sawyer convinces others to do his work for him and enjoy it. Playbor Playbor is a term I got from Wired but as you can see, it’s a widely used neologism which covers social participation, self-expression … Continue reading “I want him in the Game until he dies playing. End of Line.”

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain we see an example of Playbor, as through salesmanship, Tom Sawyer convinces others to do his work for him and enjoy it.

Playbor
Playbor is a term I got from Wired but as you can see, it’s a widely used neologism which covers social participation, self-expression and the ideology of play in order to derive value. In truth the social aspect is easily present in events like Code4Pizza where smart developers and designers get together to build something. This is work but it’s enjoyed. There’s a very strong social element both in the cheer and good company but also in the end results which, for the most part, have a public service benefit as well as a possibility of commercialisation by the participants.

Games as Life
I’ve mentioned this before but Jesse Schell’s talk at DICE2010 illustrates the ‘gamification’ of life. Adding gaming elements to everything causes people to participate more and provides a reward mechanism which may only be worthless points but can be integrated into multiple levels of society.

E3 2010

Games for the Greater Good
Jane McGonigal’s TED talk on how we can use the millions of hours spent in playing games to solve tough world problems is another excellent example:

The game industry has spent the last 30 years optimizing two things: how to make people happy and how to inspire collaboration on really complex challenges…
Games support happiness … by giving us more satisfying work or concrete tasks that we can accomplish…. Studies have shown that playing a short game — having something concrete that you can accomplish — actually gives you the motivation, energy and optimism to go back and tackle real work.

Games as Loads
But when you’re asking someone to do this work, you’re putting a load upon them. Writing computer code is a tough mental activity and it’s surprising that some people do it for fun. But then some people do crosswords or Su Do Ku for fun as well as are these also not tough cognitive loads which must be managed? How can they be fun?
UX Magazine touched on this with this article:

A traditional human factors concept is the idea of loads. A load refers to how much work you are requiring. In human factors terminology, we talk about cognitive loads (thinking, memory), visual loads (perceiving, noticing), and motor loads (keyboard, mouse, pointing). When you are designing to make something easier or simpler, you want to lower these loads.
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If users are trying to get a task done, then lowering the loads is what you want to do. But interestingly, when you lower all the loads you are also lowering engagement and entertainment. Think about gaming—a game is interesting and engaging because it creates loads on the user. Some games require good motor control, so they have a high motor load. Some games require visual acuity, and they have a high visual load. Some games require you to think or remember, and they have a high cognitive load. And some games increase more than one load; they might be both cognitively and visually challenging, for example.
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So when you design for engagement or entertainment you might not want to lower all the loads.

Funemployment
I think we all should be striving for Funemployment – The condition of a person who takes advantage of being out of a job to have the time of their life. I’m not saying we should all give up the day job and mooch off the state handouts but we should be working towards a time when we are able to use our leisure constructively. To do what we want to do. I’m lucky enough that the work I’m doing now is not a million miles away from the work I was doing before they hired me to do this job. In the future I want to be employed for less hours but work for more hours – if you understand my meaning.

So, for the remainder of 2010, I’m going to be working to find ways where I can increase the amount of high value fun stuff in my life and reduce the amount of low value unfun stuff. And I’m happy to work with others to figure out what this all will turn out to be.

Me-Too Products

From Geekpreneur …me-too products that differentiate themselves with unique customer benefits and superior value enjoy on average, five times the success rate, four times the market share and four times the profitability of the competitors that lack that key ingredient. Read more. Related posts: Contentment. To be both avoided and strived for. Kirkisms: Funding by … Continue reading “Me-Too Products”

From Geekpreneur

…me-too products that differentiate themselves with unique customer benefits and superior value enjoy on average, five times the success rate, four times the market share and four times the profitability of the competitors that lack that key ingredient.

Replying to John Battelle

I replied to John Battelle’s question “Is Apple’s iWorld the Web” If everyone at FOOcamp managed to mix up the AppStore and Apple’s congtibution to the open web so badly, it has me questioning who are these smart, eclectic people and who pays their salaries. I am an ‘Apple person’. I have drunk of Windows … Continue reading “Replying to John Battelle”

I replied to John Battelle’s question “Is Apple’s iWorld the Web”

If everyone at FOOcamp managed to mix up the AppStore and Apple’s congtibution to the open web so badly, it has me questioning who are these smart, eclectic people and who pays their salaries.

I am an ‘Apple person’. I have drunk of Windows (in about 8 flavours), Solaris, HP-UX, Ultrix, IRIX, Linux and BSD (and about a dozen of their popular WMs) and time and time again the only solutions which slake my thirst for both power and experience are ‘Designed in California by Apple’. This happened with the Mac, with Newton, with Mac OS X and most lately with iOS.

Be very clear, John, iOS is most definitely the best way to experience mobile and, with the iPad, I am committed to the hype that it is the best way to experience the web as a whole.

What your peers at FOOcamp seem to be conflating is the development and hosting platform (which will forever remain the domain of Mac, Windows, Linux etc) and the consumption platform. The needs of a developer cannot be met by these lovely lustworthy devices which pave the way for the industry to copy. But equally, we cannot forever expect our tech-illiterate cousins and grandparents to forever maintain a machine capable of advanced software development and multiple-core computation when they only want to surf the web for last minute holiday deals and funny pictures of turtles.

What I find most startling hover is how much power and credit you have given Apple. There are billions of devices out there. About a billion iPods and 100 million iOS devices. This is a tiny percentage of the market at large yet the media and your smart and eclectic peers waste so much breath on the underdog – and Apple still is the underdog – with so much unreasoning hatred.

You are giving Apple mindshare and heartshare where it lacks marketshare.

Sent from my iPad off the coast of Algiers (037.3127N, 002.4932E)

Hiatus

Just a quick heads up. Due to an impending vacation, this blog and my email address and twitter ID associated with it will be for all intents and purposes dead for the next two weeks. If you want to get in touch, try my mac.com email address. If you don’t know it then, tough tootie! … Continue reading “Hiatus”

(of course there will be times when I’ll post surf and pick up stuff but don’t rely on emails from me being read or being replied to)

Going Live

LiveNet is a project by Mencap to help “children and adults with learning difficulties and their carers to use ICT to improve health and wellbeing, gain access to information, connect with their community and help achieve their full potential” OpenLiveNet aims to involve the wider tech community in Northern Ireland in the production of some … Continue reading “Going Live”

OpenLiveNet aims to involve the wider tech community in Northern Ireland in the production of some of these solutions by providing MenCap with some much needed technical expertise, some development muscle and to provide something of a “many hands” approach to the aims of the project as well as much needed awareness in the wider community.

What’s the end goal here?
The creation of user interfaces and software which are easily learned, provide meaningful feedback and can help provide an improved quality of life for individuals with learning difficulties and their carers. Such as (but not limited to) these:

new models for web-based social network creation, interaction, identity and privacy
mobile apps which will help with development of independence, communication and personal safety
touchscreen applications to help with communication, creativity, learning

This project, plus my interest in the presentations by Jesse Schell at DICE 2010 and Jane McGonigal at TED were a primary influencer in my ideas for Alien Salvage. The company, which I announced a few days ago aims to create experiences which align with much of this – with the additional remit of compelling design for the wider community as well.

For OpenLiveNet we still need some technical experts and development and design brains to help shape the future. There is a commercial angle on this and savvy individuals will be able to see the opportunities here. If you’re interested, enter your details on the OpenLiveNet page or drop me a line.

The first meet-up I plan to hold in July if you’re interested.