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At m-trends.org: Carnival of the Mobilists #03
Great stuff here. Read it.
Link: m-trends.org: Carnival of the Mobilists 03.
It is a great pleasure to introduce you to the third Carnival of the Mobilists. The more I get into the concept the more I believe it’s really great for everybody involved. Not only for the bloggers writing about mobile but especially for the readers who, not only get a compact weekly overview of the most important mobile blogging news, but above all, it’s an overview of qualitative, original and diverse opinions about what’s hot in mobile. And that’s what it’s all about!
I’m in San Francisco next week – 7-11 November
Looks like I’ll be in the Bay Area next week – Monday 7 Nov to Friday 11 Nov (I’m still waiting for my itinerary).
While there, I intend to go to the MoMo meeting.
brandchannel.com on: Niche Brands in Consumer Goods Market
Hmmm, a Global Microbrand, maybe?
It is important to find a niche, says Dolak, and he argues that the days of mass marketing are over. "It is healthy to see any market as a collection of niches," he says. "I feel that mass market appeal to hundreds of millions of consumers is over. Consumers want products they feel are customized to just the way they want it. Focusing on a niche, at least at first, is the preferred way to go. You can find an under-served segment and specifically address its unmet needs."
Video is not a mobile application
Makes you think of foreground and background:
– listening to music – background
– watching video – foreground
But, video could use help by being more protable. And that’s what the iPod does.
Link: Video iPod : Page 4.
The question of the hour is if one could be expected to sit and watch 45 minutes of video on the iPod’s LCD. My answer to that question is "yes" with one caveat. I walk to work and today I tried watching some video on my commute.
Result: disastrous.
I nearly ran into several people and almost injured myself in an accident involving those rows of news paper stands. My recommendation would be to enjoy these video treats on the safety of a bus or train, and please refrain from catching up on your favorite episodes on the walk to work. I would go far as to extend that warning to car commuters as well. Remember kids, friends don’t let friends use their video iPod while driving.
Russ on Making Money
A very good lesson in business based on first principles. Together with his other post, gives me pause as to the choices I am working on.
Link: Russell Beattie Notebook � Making Money?.
Okay, extending my thoughts from the last post, I think we should have a conversation about how to make money if you’re a startup. Help educate me if I’m wrong on this: The basic concept is pretty simple, right? I create or obtain something of value, and I exchange that something for money. If the cost of creating or obtaining that something is less than the amount of money I get for it, I make a profit. Pretty straight forward. Everything stems from there, right?
Russ on ‘Where’s The Ambition?’: about all these new start-ups
A great analysis, mislabeled as a rant. I don’t even consider it opinionated. It’s based on a great intuition for what works in this space, experience, the ability to see through all the present data, and written very well. I don’t mean to fawn, I just get upset when folks think strong statements mean a rant. 😛 to you.
Of course, it warmed my heart when Russ spoke of the dearth of mobile products (below). I can always count on Russ for highlighting this. Unfortunately, most of the folks who commented on mobility are mentally restricting themselves. I’ve met a ton of people, and mobility, while hard in many ways, is bubbling healthily. We just need more.
I highly recommend you read this and all the comments (link below). Great discussion.
He also posted a follow on article (link in my next post) on basic business principles. Go read that, too. Both have given me a different perspective and some things to think about.
Link: Russell Beattie Notebook � Where’s The Ambition?.
And finally, where is the goddamn mobility? This is what most depresses me most about these new sites. Not being able to use my mobile to sign up and use any new site or service that’s launched now is completely inexcusable. I don’t care what you’re doing, you’re wasting your time and the 20 seconds I spent even checking out your site. The future is so obviously in mobiles, why the hell are so many startups still screwing around on the desktop? Morons.
Russ – 500 Million Camera Phones in 2005
Boom. Boom. Boom. Here’s thumpin’ good.
Link: Russell Beattie Notebook � 500 Million Camera Phones in 2005.
Time to thump the drum again.
There’s going to be over 800 million mobile phones sold this year, and over 500 million of them will have cameras, according to this article over at InternetWeek. The numbers are projected to climb to over 90% of the 1 billion phones sold a year in 2009.
Think about it. A half a billion network enabled multimedia handsets sold this year alone. Compare this to the roughly 800 million PC Internet users out there and you start to see what’s happening. Yes, many of these phones are only 2.5/2.75G with 40kbps – 100 kbps data speeds, the phones aren’t very powerful or use closed systems and their users are saddled with expensive cellular data plans. But that’s not going to last for long – in fact, it probably won’t last another 18 months.
metacool Thought of the Day
Indeed.
Link: metacool: metacool Thought of the Day.
“If you have any talent, or any occupation that delights you, do it, and do it to the hilt. Don’t ask why, or what difficulties you may get into.”
– Richard Feynman