Mark Kolier’s Blog

Archive for the ‘Mobile Communication’ Category

Steve Jobs has ceded his CEO status to Timothy D. Cook. Apple aficionados (I do not count myself among them) were more than eagerly awaiting what they thought would be another watershed event – the unveiling of the iPhone 5. On Wednesday October 4th Mr. Cook introduced….the iPhone 4S. Huh?

Virtually indistinguishable from the iPhone 4 but billed as a ‘new’ version, the iPhone 4S comes with a so called virtual assistant ‘Siri’, that recognizes voice commands. I looked at Siri and thought – Iris spelled backwards. What does that mean? Having voice commands does not seem all that new or revolutionary to me.

Apple says it is packed with better technology, including a more advanced camera. It also includes a more powerful chip known as the A5, the same microprocessor that acts as the brains inside the iPad.
The company also said the new phone would run on two kinds of cell phone networks, GSM and CDMA, allowing it to operate worldwide – which is only something new for Apple since many other smartphones have been able to operate on both networks for years.

Thankfully Mr. Cook did not try to copy the black mock turtleneck and jeans look displayed by Mr. Jobs. The ‘new’ phone will be available on A T & T, Verizon and Sprint. Maybe the bigger news is that the now ‘older’ iPhone 4 will drop in price to $ 99 from $ 199 if customers commit to a two-year contract.

Apple has come out with a new version of the iPhone each year since its initial release in 2007. So Mr. Cook HAD to come out with something to stave off what would be inevitable questions of how different things would be ‘post’ Mr. Jobs. Unfortunately there were many more questions raised by the release than were answered. The iPhone remains the most important product for Apple as it is responsible for nearly half the company’s total sales.

There’s no question Steve Jobs will be sorely missed at the world’s largest company (measured by market capitalization). However, I can’t help but feel a little sorry for Tim Cook’s desultory debut as the lead dog. Mr. Jobs is very sick and his sudden departure no doubt caused a huge ripple effect as well as a change in plans for future releases of Apple products. I cannot imagine Steve Jobs having a press conference to announce such a boring and ho-hum upgrade.

Agree or disagree?

I have made no secret of my disaffection with QR (Quick Response) Codes. You know them as the funny looking little square that you’ve noticed popping up in advertisements in print, billboards, the web and even on television. Although the technology is new to many Americans, it has actually been in use since the 1990’s having been used in Japanese automobile manufacturing factories as an inventory control tool.

In my experience QR codes are clumsy, and don’t work as often as they do work. The smartphone QR code readers are not great and I frequently have to shoot a QR code multiple times in order to get it to ‘register’. For marketers and companies that wish to more deeply engage current and potential customers, QR codes can end up being more harmful than helpful. And asking your prospect or customer to make excessive efforts in order to get information on your company or offer is hardly a path to a consumer-friendly experience. I’m not saying QR codes do not work at all – just that they do not work well.

So if QR codes are to meet their demise something has to be there to replace them – and it has to be better. Near Field Communications (NFC) very well could be the answer. From http://www.Wikipedia.com: ‘NFC, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in close proximity to each other, usually by no more than a few centimeters. It is expected to become a widely used system for making payments by smartphone in the United States. Many smartphones currently on the market already contain embedded NFC chips that can send encrypted data a short distance (“near field”) to a reader located, for instance, next to a retail cash register. Shoppers who have their credit card information stored in their NFC smartphones can pay for purchases by waving their smartphones near or tapping them on the reader, rather than bothering with the actual credit card’.

David Pogue in his excellent column Thursday in the New York Times discusses the relationship between NFC and Google Wallet – http://nyti.ms/nPdh7C. It’s interesting that NFC technology is nearly ten years old and is still being finessed. In fact in the U.S. the current generation of NFC technology is only available on Sprint’s Google Nexus – and admittedly this is NFC 1.0.

For those of you that prefer Katie Boehret’s video review (she also has a written column from Thursday’s Wall Street Journal) that can be found here – http://on.wsj.com/oK7we8
But there have to be many people who like me would welcome the day when we could use a digital wallet and have our phone (which is with us all the time anyway) be able to do so much more when it comes to purchasing goods, receiving timely offers, as well as to request information easily and in a timely fashion.

It’s the wave of the near future. Are you ready?

I try to follow the developments in the videogame industry since my son is finishing up his course work to become a video game developer and designer. Much of the talk of the past week (aside from hurricanes) was about Steve Jobs and his monumental contribution to the way people live their lives. A small article over the weekend did a nice job of summarizing the impact – http://nyti.ms/qM62BEOne could argue that traditional video gaming systems are becoming obsolete – at least in terms of mass appeal. Mobile gaming platforms are improving and while I initially had doubts about people’s willingness to play games on a small screen I have concluded that I greatly underestimated the power of mobile gaming. Inexpensive iPhone apps have inexorably altered the course of the gaming market.

It also has me wondering about overall the impact that the new mobile life will have on behavior and commerce. Movie attendance continues to slide even if the overall dollar take is slightly higher (due to higher ticket prices). Will enough people still be interested in sitting at home and playing Xbox, Playstation and other console games to have those companies continue working on the platform?

From the L2 blog over the weekend it appears gaming in China is changing rapidly as well and yes attributing this to Mr. Jobs is not far-fetched. http://bit.ly/nMx65e

‘China is fast-becoming the second-largest market in terms of downloads for many developers including companies like Rovio, but it lags behind in terms of monetization. The country came in just behind the U.S. in page views on Google’s AdMob advertising network in July, according to statistics the network shared at an iOS developer conference in China this past weekend.

The promise is there, but how do mobile developers take advantage of it?
Over the past two weeks in Beijing and Shanghai, I’ve had the chance to talk with several mobile developers like High Noon-maker Happylatte, PapayaMobile, PopCap Games and other companies being incubated in former Google China head Kai-Fu Lee’s incubator Innovation Works.

It’s an incredibly complex and different market from the U.S., but here are a few insights into developing and marketing iOS and Android apps there. (Inside Mobile Apps)’

Many videogames are based on the effort to hit a constantly moving target. My son has learned a great deal about computer programming and coding. But what may be the most important lesson is learning how to hit that moving target when it comes what to develop next. At least that’s what I am hoping.
So who out there plays console video games? And if you do, are you playing more or less? How about mobile video games?

Our office was without full power in our office for nearly 48 hours following the aftermath caused by Hurricane Irene. We had lots of company. Local municipalities have gotten smarter about communicating with residents during major local events like snowstorms or hurricanes. I wish I could say the same for utilities.

In no way do I mean to knock the efforts of all the great linemen that have come to help restore power after the hurricane. But these people are seemingly forced to run around like chickens with their heads cut off to help wherever it’s needed. Why are things done the way they are when it could be so much better? It’s not like they did not know a hurricane was on the way.

For example – crews came into the Northeast both in advance, during and after the storm. I asked one of the crews near my office how they were receiving information on what to do and where to go next and he shook his head and said that he received many different contradictory messages from various levels of authority. Now it was my turn to shake my head. Today’s technology allows for the lightning fast creation of small topical websites, mobile distribution lists and even groups that could act as an aggregation platform for local community, county and state communication for officials and crew before, during and even following significant events.

It cannot be a question of expense. The cost/benefit of having a centralized communication platform for disaster relief is tremendous and at times could be life-saving. With all the money available for state and federal disaster relief I cannot believe that the cost of creating a simple website combined with a small team to aid in administering it to monitor and send out messages would more than pay for itself in helping teams be more prepared as well as efficient.

Adding a mobile site would be a great way to communicate since SMS texts could be deployed to communicate with everyone in the field or sent to individual people or crews on demand. Every lineman on every crew has a mobile device that would support SMS campaigns. For those that have smartphones they could easily be directed to the mobile site for more information.

I don’t expect my thought here is anything revolutionary but I am amazed that it’s not already SOP – standard operating procedure. Maybe it is SOP in some locations but it should be universal.
Do you agree?

Being a regular user of Foursquare I have been wondering for quite some time when the ‘Beta’ emblem would disappear. Last week that happened along with a host of other reported changes (Lists, events, photos – all of which I am not likely to use but are kind of cool in and of themselves). Betabeat wrote about it last week – http://bit.ly/oCgLRj. Unfortunately, the GPS is still fairly inaccurate and you can still check into places that you have not entered – this has to be fixed and Foursquare is working on it.

The offers at nearby places on Foursquare are slowly getting better and more frequent. Yet in the lighting fast world of the social web I am surprised at how long it is taking for a truly enhanced version of Foursquare (for users) to be offered. CEO Dennis Crowley seems to be focused on creating value for merchants – he would be wise to keep in mind that the users might be getting a bit impatient with the slow rate of progress toward what I think is still a good platform with strong legs.

One big question I have is how much more social Foursquare will get. Aside from checking into places where friends might ‘meet-up’ and offering nearby potential customers a reason to come into a particular establishment I am not sure people will embrace and interact with yet another social media platform. Mr. Crowley and his team are counting on that – what do you think?

While Foursquare was making its changes location based Yelp.com made a few changes in its application as well. I use Yelp when looking for nearby eateries, bars, or movies wherever I am in the United States (it does not work outside the U.S. nearly as well).

Last week an update to the application popped up and I installed it but since then the application has suddenly lost its ability to recognize where I am currently located. Good thing I am not depending on it. And before you go asking – all my other GPS based applications are working just fine and I changed nothing in my Yelp profile. Not good. In fact I ended up using Bing to find a restaurant near me this weekend and it worked out satisfactorily. For Yelp that is also not good.

In order for social media applications to continue to gain in value they have to deliver the basics – they have to work (always), be fast and accurate. Once users lose confidence in a social media app’s ability to enhance their lives the downward spiral is underway. I hope that Foursquare and Yelp respectively fix what ails them.

Are you using Foursquare or Yelp?