The Coolness Factor Spring 2013

Some developers erroneously  think that they can easily improve their apps by making them more dense and complex. Occassionally a talented development team will dig deep to improve their apps interface and general functionality and in turn wind up discovering whole new markets and hordes of loyal and committed users. Development should not be a static process. It must be dynamic enough to incorporate what works. It should also be innovative enough to explore new ways. The real problem is that most developers play it safe and follow the leaders and in doing so they avoid the risk of charting new paths.

I have been at this very place in Digital time and space before. It was at the precipice of change on the very verge of a landmark shifts in everything we thought we knew at the time.

Then It would eventually come to be known as called Social Media.

Fast forward two years. Social Media has run its race now it is getting a little long in the tooth if not outright annoying and boring.

Its about time for something else to evolve out of the muck and mire to steal our attention and our hard earned money in our attempt to jump on board the new wave. Whatever it is there will be gurus, consultants, webinars, apps, and website dedicated to it. All of the influencers will scramble to claim that they either invented it or at least saw it coming.

The outstanding and overwhelming success of apps is leading to a problem of the kind of glut and hording that early on negatively affected the Internet when there were too many good sites to bookmark or see.

We intended to revisit these bookmarks or favorites but never returned to over 90% of them.

One skill that can and should be developed by each of us is intentionally honing down our choices down to a unique set that does exactly what we need.

There is no advantage to having more apps than one can effectively use. There is a sort of “app OCD” that sets in leading to a sort of inertia and a gross underutilization and waste of resources.

It is getting increasingly difficult as t6he days and months roll on to decide exactly which devive platform/OS or Smart device to select and use and which is really best for our specific needs. The choices many: Smartphone V. Tablet, Apple v. Android, iPhone or Samsung S?, HTC?, or something totaly other.

Hey, I’m not complaining, on the contrary, I think this type of competition is exactly what we want and truly need. However, for diligent consumers out on the edges looking to make the best decision for themselves it can be quite difficult and extremely confusing.

Today I came upon a post that promoted Wifi enabled light bulbs. It helped me realize that the key to our fiture everything-connected world is here now surrounding us. Sure things will change. Maybe it will settle at higher rates than WiFi but for now that is a start. As intelligence continues to be built into every appliance, device and gadget we see emerging a navigatable connected ecosystem full of potential possibilities and opportunities aplently.

As forward-thinking innovators we must begin figuring out exactly what we can and need to do in such a world. In fact as I complete this short post I am sitting down to map out how clothing can complement this emerging ecosystem. Imagine WebWear. Curved display are my first component.

Google Glass now makes enormous sense to me.

In a very clever move that closely resembles Google’s braintrust turning iGoogle a service said to end in November into a CMS solution like Joomla and a homage back to the good old days of do-everything portals and highly personalized web start pages Google is attempting to update and redefine iGoogle into a new thing. iGoogle now straddles those previous types by making and grouping many of those tools that were once freely available in Google Labs as widgets and gadgets. It is sort of a mashup start page and is quite clever and smart.

They define the features you can add as Gadgets.With them you cab build a powerful page full of Google inspired features.

If you are the customising type take a moment to look into iGoogle and see what you can come up with.

As if we really need yet another smartphone platform to muddy the waters here comes Mozilla Firefox with their bid to become a desired Smartphone platform destination for the future.

As a developer I would be very cautious and exacting before committing to FirefoxOS because they Firefox once held sway over the browser market and then lost it big time.

Maybe they can bring something new to the mobility game that Google’s Android may have missed or overlooked. It will be very interesting in the months to come to see exactly how app developers and leading device manufacturers take to it.

There certainly is room for something better than iOS or Android but Mozilla will have to go some to get back in this game. As I said there is room and a serious profitable opportunity for Firefox to score a hit that works.

We shall see!

It must be very difficult for companies that once held the fate of an industry or segment in their hands to realize that they are no longer the standard by which all things are judged.

This is the fate of companies as big as Microsoft, Dell and RIM and seems to now be the direction that companies as innovative and powerful as Apple and RIM are leaning.

Sometimes this shift is the prodiuct of the force of change and disruption or the impact of competition. Often it can also result from simple complacency. Some companies simply fall asleep at the helm and allow other companies the time and opportunity to catch up during their lull.

It seems Apple is falling victim of these forces combined in addition to the loss of its leader. Samsung has stolen Apple’s thunder and is now the technology leader for now and into the forseeable future. That could change. It would be premature to count Apple out as has been done countless times before only to see Apple rebound and land on their feet even stronger than before.

It will be very interesting to see how all of this plays out. In fact it could be the most compelling story of our times. The result could hold the future for whole nations as well as industries.

There are many of both types out here in the cyberworld.

Developing the inate skill to be able to sort between each is a primary key in figuring out exactly who to study, pay attention to and learn from.

You can use this to sort email. Put the idiots pile in your e-mails spam filter so that any mail from or about them is instantly trashed. This could actually be a very useful new app or utility.

Everyone is waiting for the next big trend so they can throw up a shingle claiming mastery and sacks full of secrets.

The plain truth is no one really knows what to expect. I have my ideas but it is only in hindsight that I can be sure I am correct. To drop a hint will enable others to claim they predicted or invented it. That is the blessing or curse of the web. The tiniest seed of an idea cast out here instantly explodes into full blown plans, products, patents, protections and promotions.

After the holiday rush to new powerful mobile devices there will be a mad scamble for apps to enable users to do important things. That is about as much of a clue as I’ll drop for now. Put on your thinking caps and come up with ideas of your own and if you have the chops prototype it, look for funding and support and you could be the next steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg. The window is open and the opportunity is out there all you have to do is reach for it.

Vision+Passion=Innovation

I woke up from a deep fitful dream earlier this week and struggled hard to try and remember it or make sense of it. Still I can only reach back and pull up bits and pieces none with the detail of the dream.

There was a major theme. It was that we stumbled onto an area of innovationthat was right before us, but that everyone missed. Once we found it the doors opened up and became as important as the Internet has become to our society. It was just laying there in the nooks and crannies.

Once uncovered it led to the realization of things we once thought were impossible. We utilized the innovation to improve the schools, resolve deseases, rebuild economies and balance the inequities in society.

In the coming weeks it will be hard to ignore the push over this new device. The ads and messages are in our email and peppered throughout our favorite TV programs, they are even lurking in popups throughout our daily web siurfing excursions.

The main message of the pitch is that the Samsung Galaxy Note II is “The Next Big Thing”.  I think that is not something that marketers can just cliam. That is a boast has to be earned and garnered by reviewers, industry pundits, analysts, and millions of users not marketing wonks hoping to sway opinion and drive sales. It may indeed be a worthy device but there is value to letting the market decide if it really is the next big thing. Apple’s new iPad Mini would have to be considered as well as a handfull of other slate-type manufacturers.

Someone or others will have to come up with criterea and factors that determine when some particular device or type of devices has moved the mark or raised the bar and steps up a new level to create a new space.

The jury is still out on this and probably will not decide until we see the bottom-line financial returns of the 2012 Holiday shoping season.

Samsung with the Galaxy Note II has entered their bid for the title but must line up against a whole host of device alternatives like iPads, iPods and Ultrabooks if it wants to be declared “The Next Big Thing”

The stakes are high. If successful Samsung could leapfrog past merely competing with Apple’s iPhone by introducing a newer form factor into the race and attracting new markets such as education and enterprise into the rapidly emerging marketplace for pad-type devices.

There are trend watchers and industry pundits that think they know what the next big trend is or will be. Chances are they are going to be wrong!

When the trend appears and gains traction they will all swear they invented it or at least saw it coming and knew it all the time. Some very agile programmers and developers will swoop in and build apps and tools to support the emerging trend and consultants will create specialized courses, webinars and white papers claiming to expose the trend’s deepest secrets which they swear will lead to millions.

Agile companies will form alliances and make acquisitions to position themselves in the trend’s pipeline in attempts to dominate the feeding frenzy and control the trends influence. Trend-chasing lawyers will look for aspects they can harness with the potential to yeild protectable patents and intellectual property rewards.

After all this is said and done the public be bombarded by messages hinting that if we do not jump on board the new wave it is all over for us.

My guess has been voiced in my post about Smartphones as controllers of our Digial Worlds.

I am not being overly dramatic when I declare that yournSmartphone is your Interface to and Controller of your digital world.

To start you use it for every form and type of communication. It doubles as the source of all of your news and information. It is the best recepticle for most of your media and entertainment. Lastly its ecommerce capability puts your supermarket and favorite retail store in your pocket. It also serves as a virtual business office at the end of your arm.

As time passes it quickly and dynamically evolves and morphs to incorporate every other need you may have. This means that your smartphone is or can be the source of your education and training.

Shortly new ways and means will emerge to turn our smartphones into actual controllers for all forms of physical devices, equipment and appliances.

As voice command and recognition improves we must prepare for the capability of  being able to control our real/analog world through our the spoken word.

Samsung will probably dig deep into its mant resources and assets to respond to the recent Apple-favored verdict.  I think all this motion will wind up forcing Samsung to “get on the stick” and seriously explore pioneering new into new innovations to in essense  leapfrog past this roadblock and zoom ahead of Apple and others that are gleefuly mocking Samsung at this time.

Samsung, thanks to the success and popularity if the Galaxy SIII and Nexus 7 tablet has in their favor momentum, capacity, and the technical braintrust of all of Asia and now they clearly have the insiration, motivation or reason to use all of those means at their disposal to pull a rabbit out of their hat and wind up rubbing Apple’s face in it.

Although it won’t exactly be easy Samsung can aggressively and successfully scratch their way to the very top of the emerging technology mobility race.

Then again I could be wrong. However I predict that Apple may soon come to regret the current state of affairs having inadvertebly lit a fire underneath a very powerful and prideful sleeping dragon. It may also be a bit of a cultural “face-saving” thing for Samsung also.

Apple’s greatest challenge isn’t coming up with a another iPhone better than Samsung’s Galaxy S III. It is fending off surging Samsung, a company like Microsoft of old intently focused on knocking Apple off the throne even if that means copying almost each and every Apple innovation.

Recently we have learned that this may have overtly been Samsung’s complete battle plan from the beginning. Being a major Apple supplier helped Samsung see deeply into the guts of Apple’s newest product designs. The rise of the Android platform helped Samsung get in the game without the added burden of having to build and maintain a mobile OS platform or in recruiting and supporting thousands of developers.

All Samsung had to do is design and manufacture a really good smartphone if not come up with one superior to the iPhone. No easy task that! It has taken a long time but it seems that was exactly the successful formula that has managed to catapult Samsung’s Galaxy SIII as well as the company to the top of the heap. (recent reports indicate that the S III is now outselling Apple’s iPhones).

The two companies can and will continue wrangle in court over patents and protections however the real battleground is in the hearts and minds of consumers. Apple now has the task ahead of coming up with a new iPhone that takes things up to a new level. Moderate changes have served them well until now but that is no longer enough. Apple will have to “pull a rabbit out of their hat”. They have the talent and have done it before only this time they cannot afford to fail. Failure is not an option! One misstep at this crucial junction could spell doom to all the momentum Apple has built up.

Of course there we should expect thousands of rumors about what the next iPhone will be. Most rumors will be just wild-assed guesses or fanciful speculation. Either way Apple had better dig real deep into all the innovative and financial resources before them to pull off a bit of a miracle that creatively and innovatively shuts the door on or slows up competitors content to merely imitate the leader and eat Apple’s lunch.

Like a football team in the Super Bowl with their best player sidelined Apple must do all this without Steve Jobs at the helm. We will learn the depth of talent at Apple that may have been hemmed in or held back. This is when they may get their best opportunity to shine. As pinch hitters they have to step up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and knock one out of the park. A triple would also be great but a double off the wall will do.

We wish Apple all the best because it will benefit us the consumers and users. It will also benefit the industry that should bow down and worship Apple for breathing new life into technology industries that were lingering stale until the dawn of the era of the iPod/iPhone/iPad trifecta.