Wireless mobility - Innovation - Digital convergence - mobile web 2.0
Awesome documentary from Discovery Channel – Discovering Ardi 
As the strapline says – Darwin could only dream of this .. 17 years of investigation based on a global collaboration of scientists. “Ardi” is now the oldest skeleton from our (hominid) branch of the primate family tree and a million years older than Lucy
Official press release for Discovering Ardi more at Discovering Ardi
A short intro clip as below ..
This is an extended version of the opening talk I gave as the chair of the CTIA mobile appstores event in San Diego.
(Note: You can now download presentations from all the speakers using a free registration at The Mobile applications business network - register for free and go to the downloads section)
The iconic Intel Inside campaign was one of the hallmarks of the PC era. As we enter into a more complex era spanning PCs, Sub netbooks and the Web, it is interesting to see that Intel now has an appstore .. Which is the inspiration of this blog/article ‘From Intel Inside to Appstore inside’
The blog is not about Intel or indeed of the Apple Appstore .. But rather it is about a deeper trend that I see today .. Which I can call as ‘Appstore inside’ and the wider implications of this trend.
What started off with the iPhone is becoming a key part of all of computing including mobile, netbooks, traditional software and even hardware.
If we demystify the word ‘Appstore’ and we separate it from the success of the iPhone, the Appstore converts all that it touches into a ‘platform’. Appstores recognise the importance of the Long Tail and the unpredictable use of a particular product. It enables the product to have a ‘software layer’ if you will – and allows third parties the freedom to change the product within some parameters.
That’s what I mean by ‘Appstore inside’ and it is a pervasive phenomenon .. And the success of the iPhone appstore may well be in educating the industry about the significance of third parties(something I have long advocated on the OpenGardens blog)
Some observations about the disruptive implications of this trend
a) The trend affects hardware and software .. Let us see the Intel appstore announcement in a bit more detail. It says ..
Intel recently revealed that it intends to offer its own application store. Intel indicated that it will offer applications to devices such as netbooks, cars, mobile phones and others. Intel’s apps store will behave and appear similar to Apple’s iPhone Apps store. Intel’s PC-manufacturer partners have already said they will participate. The apps store will launch some time in 2010.
This means .. Hardware vendors are using the Appstores to add a software layer to their product
b) It is also affecting traditional software .. The latest version of Quickbooks from Intuit (a mainstream accounting software) has a (guess what??) .. Yes an appstore!
Intuit QuickBooks 2010 Includes App Store
c) Why is this a differentiator? It means that more developers/third parties adopt apps for a specific platform, the richer it will be and the greater the competitive advantage of that product
d) Netbooks and sub notebooks .. are the logical next stage for apps .. Watch this space ..
e) What does it mean for mobile devices?
Here are the implications
1) Mobile devices are becoming cheaper and non differentiated. At the mobile apps event at CTIA Rob Riordan from a Wisconscin based carrier called Nsight had an interesting observation.. To summarise .. That the definition of ‘King’ is changing .. Originally coverage was king, then content was king (ringtones). Now social features and apps are king. This means, the more you are able to attract developers to your platform, the more you should be able to differentiate and create ‘stickiness’ around your product
2) An era of very cheap hardware ..
Horrifying as the prospect sounds, phones could become very cheap .. This is already happening with the rise of the Bandit phones/grey phones in the Chinese market. I know that the regulatory, compliance issues are still present but the trend is clear.
3) Imperfect phones ..
As phones become more like PCs, they will be come unpredictable …
This can be illustrated by a recent statement from the CEO of Research in Motion, Jim Balsillie who admitted to the Washington Post that the recent release of the Blackberry Storm was buggy, and they knew it and yet they pushed it out. Rather than waiting for ‘perfection’ – Jim Balsillie admitted that shipping with imperfect software was the future of electronics. This differs from the prevailing ‘consumer electronics’ mindset
4) Imperfect phones will be adopted by the younger generation but will create a new generation of ‘Mobile grandpas’
It reminds me of a cartoon from Dilbert where two late 40s Unix gurus were bragging how they operated under constrained computing resources .. One said .. in my day .. we coded everything in 1s and 0s(binary). Another said .. That’s nothing .. in my day, we coded only in 1s to save resources even more
So, look out for relatively young people bemoaning the loss of their simple, closed locked down handsets .. Back in the good old days of 1999 .. In my generation .. My XXX handset could do .. etc etc etc … Now with all these new apps … it’s all too complex for me .. You get the picture ..
I call these the Mobile Grandpas .. Paradoxically young in age but older in mindset ..
To conclude … whichever way we look at it .. the trend is very clear. Let us not get bogged down with the iPhone appstore .. it is the concept of ‘Appstore inside’ into hardware, software, mobile devices and netbooks which can be truly disruptive
Any comments/ feedback welcome
(Note: You can now download presentations from all the speakers using a free registration at The Mobile applications business network – register for free and go to the downloads section)
Image source: Intel
Last week, when I chaired two sessions at CTIA in San Diego , I had the pleasure of meeting many interesting people.
I always make it a point to meet start-ups where possible and one such start-up talked of their product to me …
It was well funded and thought it had a great product ..
My feedback was .. it needed a ‘social change’ for viral uptake .. i.e. a behavioural change which people may not make .. and I said Twitter is so successful because it mirrors our behaviour ..
At which point ..they quickly pointed out the oft repeated statistic .. that Twitter is 40% babble ..
Although I was tired and jetlagged .. this was my response ..
I asked them if they had seen the movie Pulp Fiction ?
The question caught them by surprise .. but they said yes .. they had ..
Ok .. then I asked them did they remember the Mc Donald’s scene? (‘Royale with Cheese’ or ‘Le Big Mac’) i.e. the scene when John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson are driving at the beginning of the movie ..
Yes .. they said .. still not sure where this was going or how it was relevant to their start-up ..
My point it: That conversation has nothing at all to do with the REST of the movie .. but it is exactly the way REAL LIFE works i.e. small talk … (aka ‘Babble’). Babble it may be .. but that succeeds exactly because it mirrors existing social behaviour
And Quentin Tarantino is a genius to recognise this .. and I see almost no OTHER instance of such small talk in movies ..
So, this has everything to do with their social media service .. their product will be successful if it mirrors real life .. else .. its going to need a lot of money or a lot of luck and it is not likely to be ‘viral’ since that’s not the way people live ..
And that by the way is why Twitter is successful but some don’t get it and never will in my view because they are so focussed on a specific niche they understand but miss the big picture ..
Also, when people say .. something is babble .. they mean from a commercial/advertising perspective .. and I have a HUGE problem with advertisers having an inflated sense of their own importance ..
And .. how much of advertising is really relevant??(Babble?)
And here is the scene I refer to below ..
By the way, it has some strong language (After all this is Pulp Fiction – not the Sound of Music! Ha ha!) ..
But seriously, this advice is unorthodox but probably accurate .. there is a lot you can learn from it ..
Shane and Lauren were kind enough to send me a complimentary copy of their book on Android for review.
Firstly, I am a great fan of Android and it’s potential and if you doubt the commercial significance of Android, don’t miss this great blog from my good friend C Enrique Ortiz where he discusses the article from Richard Wong(Accell partners) on why Android is so revolutionary
I found Android wireless application development to be a great, comprehensive book primarily for a developer audience but also beyond.
The book asks 12 questions as below
It covers the development aspects in great detail with a pragmatic mindset including APIs ex: data storage, networking, location. Multimedia, telephony, 3D and optional hardware apis
I especially liked Ch 18 mobile software development process and Ch 19 Developing and Testing Bulletproof Android Applications
The author’s blog is HERE and I also found Lauren Darcey’s personal blog interesting with travels in Africa, getting stuck between a herd of rampaging hippopotami etc. I have covered similar wildlife themes on this blog but with a little less personal adventure
One caveat – the book does not really cover the commercials of selling Android apps in great detail .. and to be fair .. that’s an evolving process which you can see from the presentations at the CTIA mobile applications conference which I chaired last week in San Diego
To conclude, – I recommend you read the book and you can buy it from the Amazon link above
Our friend Jonathan McDonald has made it in the news with his coverage of a London underground Tube worker ..
This is all good .. And is a good example of citizen’s media .. However .. I question .. The suspension of the worker over this incident ..
A caution, yes – but not a cause for suspension in my view.
Media and social media should be taken in context.
The short clip shows us nothing of the context and of the ‘little old man’. It also comes at a time of fare rises which is never welcome.
But I question the trial by ‘social media’
I thought social media was above such mass media tactics
I don’t condone the actions of the worker .. I just want to put it in context ..
CTIA Mobile apps event presentations are now available for free download (registration required)..
as per my previous blog
The mobile applications event at CTIA was great and thanks to all who attended and participated in it.
One comment from an Operator attendee said it all: He said that the people speaking at this event were ‘crème de la crème’ in the apps space – and by that he meant .. Many people had dabbled in apps but the speakers had actually done deployed real apps (for instance for Business week, Games etc ) and thus earned their stripes. Speakers also spanned the ecosystem from Operators to device manufacturers to entrepreneurs.
I could not agree more ..
The event had a very high quality of speakers and indeed they were crème de la crème – and it took us a lot of time to find them!(and there was no shortage of people who wanted to speak!)
Free download at the link below. you have to register for free and then go to the downloads section
Mobile applications business network. As a bonus, we also added presentations for Mobile web strategies event (also on the download link on registration)
Enjoy
The mobile applications event at CTIA was great and thanks to all who attended and participated in it.
One comment from an Operator attendee said it all: He said that the people speaking at this event were ‘crème de la crème’ in the apps space – and by that he meant .. Many people had dabbled in apps but the speakers had actually done deployed real apps (for instance for Business week, Games etc ) and thus earned their stripes. Speakers also spanned the ecosystem from Operators to device manufacturers to entrepreneurs.
I could not agree more ..
The event had a very high quality of speakers and indeed they were crème de la crème – and it took us a lot of time to find them!(and there was no shortage of people who wanted to speak!)
We will be uploading the presentations free on the Mobile applications network
(but you have to join the network).
Many of the speakers will also be continuing the conversation on the Mobile applications network
Thanks again for the event
Happy to say that Robert Riordan EVP, Director of Corporate Development Nsight Nsight joins us at CTIA for the Mobile applications store .. this is shaping up to be a great event and continues to get lots of traction .. I look forward to meeting you there
Use link above to register!
speakers include
Tom Angelucci – Orange-France Telecom
George Linardos – Nokia
Mike Lurye- Amdocs Interactive
Robert Riordan EVP, Director of Corporate Development Nsight
Dr. Alex Jinsung Choi – LG
Ilja Laurs – GetJar
Jouko Ahvenainen – Grow VC International
Tim Haysom
Mike Merrill – Smartphones Technologies
William Volk
Remco van den Elzen – Distimo
Kunal Gupta – Polar Mobile
Tarang Shah – SoftBank Capital
Open Gardens is published by futuretext
Recently, the OpenGardens blog was rated amongst the top 10 mobile blogs as per technorati stats.
Rated 8/10 on Blogged.com
