Link: work life balance | gotomobile.
At the 3GSM conference held in Barcelona this week, the results of a survey on work/life balance was released by Visto, a US mobile email company. The survey was conducted in three countries and was focused on how mobile is affecting the lifestyles of mobile professionals. The theme resonates closely with gotomedia’s mission statement "exeed expecations and take vacations."
Ah, the war between strategy planning and gut feeling, existing markets and unknown markets, your customers’ needs today and new customers’ needs tomorrow.
Boy, do I have a lot of stories here.
Link: All Good Things…. – Innoblog.
Disruption is hard. That’s why so many companies fall victim to the forces of disruption. The case of Western Union demonstrates just one reason why. When evaluating new and unknown markets, traditional methods of analysis fall short. Western Union’s evaluation of the telephone was perfectly logical. Their business model was built around long distance communication – reporting news and conducting business. In that model, there was no need for a technology that transmitted a very low quality voice signal over short distances. Even assuming some technological advances, the managers at Western Union could not envision business uses of the telephone.
Traditional analysis failed. An approach built around low risk market tests – planning to learn – was required. Such an approach allows for strategies to be developed and business models to be adjusted as more is learned about the market. When the market is unknown, the only guarantee is that initial models will be wrong. Adopting a process that recognizes this fact is one of the keys to being a good disruptor.
Read the list of user-design suggestions.
Link: Different Things � Blog Archive � Everyware : The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing.
Adam Greenfield’s book “Everyware : The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing” is about to be released.
I’ve known Adam for a number of years (he was an early advisor of mine while WINKsite was being conceived), enjoying many engaging conversations over many a cup of coffee. “Everyware” is the culmination of his life experiences, thoughtful explorations, and beliefs. I for one can not wait to get my hands on my pre- ordered copy.
Link [via Phil]: AAS Feature: The Twenty Five Coolest Things To Do With Your S60 Smartphone.
Steve Litchfield and Ewan Spence brainstorm the 25 coolest things you can do on your Series 60 smartphone. There would have been an order, but fisticuffs couldn’t produce a consensus, so in the end we picked the order out of a hat!
Sow’s ear or silk purse?
Originally uploaded by schickr.
What are you chewing?
Tea for one and one for tea
Originally uploaded by schickr.
Happy Valentine’s Day
Originally uploaded by schickr.
Tue 14.02.2006 13.55 Image (121)
I read these guys every month. They have very through reports on different consumer trends, all written in a cheeky and breathless style.
If you need to follow consumer trends, which you should, then these guys are for you.
Link: TREND UNIT | Tips & tricks on how to become a better trend watcher.
Let’s face it: never before has knowing about emerging consumer trends been as important as it is now. Luckily, finding out about trends has become much, much easier. In a world that’s fully connected, where tens of thousands of smart professionals and amateurs are spotting, observing, thinking, and innovating, and putting their findings online for all to see, insanely valuable resources are up for grabs.
BTW, I read Intelligence Group’s newsletter, as well. Small snippets of what’s hot or up and coming. Useful for keeping a finger on the pulse of emerging culture and styles as it happens. Also, highly recommended.
I read Matthew Maier’s latest newsletter (it’s now via CNNMoney and called ‘Third Screen‘) titled ‘Is that a PC in your pocket?’ Of course, it was about shoving PC apps into phones. It was a bit starry-eyed in how phones are becoming more like PCs. Ok, so he does briefly mention that it helps to think of how folks use the mobile to develop good apps. But, he does focus too much on the mobile computing experience.
The article promoted me to finally take a look at OperaMini (point your phone at mini.opera.com). It’s decent, but I was able to quickly test it and prove that improving mobile browsers is not going to solve all our problems.
Here’s a test:
1) Use your favorite mobile browser to view Bloglines at www.bloglines.com
2) Now use Bloglines via bloglines.com/mobile
Of course, and I’m not stating anything new, the mobile version of Bloglines has the better mobile experience.
What I mean to show is that, yes, it’s great to have more fully featured phone browsers. It fills a gap in access. But, let’s call a spade a spade – the browsing experience will still not be as effective as any site that has a mobile device in mind.
And that’s not only because of the usual layout and content issues. To me the real thing is that PC-centric sites are designed for the PC, broadband, two-handed, mouse-and-click, two-eyes, sitting-on-my-butt, I-have-time kind of experience. Mobile sites or PC sites that keep mobile in mind, remember the one-handed, strawband, one-eye (if any), on-the-go kind of needs. In short, they need to cater to the mobile lifestyle and not just the mobile layout.
I think the mobile computing mentality is fooling everyone into thinking that phones are turning into PCs. Eh, that’s not right. Yes, phones are turning into powerful computing platforms that can have rich applications – but those applications must be relevant to the way folks use their mobile.
And that’s what most folks miss.
