are comments even warranted?
(via thenextweb)
Very neat tool to help you collaborate with others by sharing your screen. Introducing http://join.me. I’ve tested both in Windows 7 and Android…it works flawlessly! It’s also inter-operable with Mac and iOS. Check it out and post your feedback.
LogMeIn, who provides the software as a service, is a Nasdaq-traded company with a reported revenue of $101.1 M. I wonder if this company is on a short list for Google to acquire for Google+ integration. Does anybody know?
My Next Smartphone: Android vs. iPhone
Goodbye, old friend
With each passing month (which might as well be a decade in digital technology time) since my smartphone purchase in 2009, my BlackBerry 9700 has slowly become obsolete.
No matter how frustrated I get with my crackberry though, I remind myself it’s not the phone’s fault that it was designed and sold in a time before today’s popular technologies; I’m referring to everyday staples like location-based services (LBS), augmented reality (AR), group couponing, and social networking.
To compound the issue, many of the above technologies are required to simultaneously take advantage of the “wired,” multi-threaded, app-switching, power-user smartphone experiences (cudos to RIM: app-switching and QWERTY typing are some of the fastest functions you can perform on a smartphone, hands down).
For some time now, I’ve been in and out of AT&T (née Bellsouth, Cingular, T-Mobile), Verizon, and Apple stores trying to compare/contrast my next smartphones.
I would have liked to see a BlackBerry that fit my needs, but even BB’s most advanced phone, the 9900, doesn’t entirely impress me. The 4G, improved processing + memory,720p video, magnetometer, and NFC is promising though.
OS7 seems a lot like OS6, which is a good operating system, but did the OS feature-set improvement earn a whole single digit upgrade? This reminds me of the Windows Me rollout, which was essentially Windows 98 with new packaging. So if this phantom OS7 release is any indication of the type of innovation and leadership at BlackBerry, I don’t want anything to do with it. That’s why I’ve already made arrangements for my 9700 to be adopted by a low-tech family member, who’s currently using my old, deodorant-ball 9000.
As much as I love my crackberry, BlackBerry is out of the game. Goodbye, old friend.
Fork in the road
The BlackBerry brand has lost its shine, which has reduced my choices down to Android and iPhone. Because technically, these phones are strikingly similar + there are so many flavors of Android phones + three different carriers to choose from, I have been stuck. Here’s a small list I’ve gone through as I tested the smartphones:
- GUI UX / UI
- Form-factor (QWERTY keys, weight)
- Carrier reception
- App Store (quality and quantity of titles, pricing)
- Interoperability with other platforms
- Hardware (processor, memory, secondary memory, battery, camera, compass, wireless circuitry, etc.)
- Annual price-point
The apple-cart upset
My ultimate decision would not come from a gut feeling, careful pound-for-pound analysis, nor a recommendation from a friend. It came from experience, followed by an a-ha! moment. The experience was not my own but rather a family member’s—let’s call her Jane.
Jane recently received a brand-spanking new Mac Book Air. This morning Jane discovered that her Mac Book Air was “damaged.” The damage came in the form of LCD breakage. Not the kind of breakage that happens as a result of FoxConn ”defects” but the kind that “accidentally” happens. Jane was extremely upset and so were those close to her because the Mac barely had a month of usage and was facing a $300 repair, which is a third of the cheapest model you can purchase. Very disturbing as you can see.
As Jane was on the way to get a shot of reality at the Genius Bar, poured by a resident Genius, I was running the different scenarios through my head: Jane begs for a discount on the repair, Jane stays and washes the dishes and the floors until repair is paid for, Jane offers her first-born, Jane sacrifices her right hand, etc. However what happened was entirely “magical” as Steve Jobs would say.
The Genius looked at the broken Mac Book Air and wrote it off as a “defect”. Why? Was it because he saw that Jane had an iPhone? Was it because the Genius had bigger fish to fry since it was a Saturday, one of two of the busiest days at the Apple store? Or perhaps because Jane is cute? I don’t know and frankly don’t care, because Jane is dear to me and I didn’t want Jane to pay $300…this would contribute to an already bad day she was having. [I’m not suggesting that you spin or destroy your iStuff and then go the Apple store trying to get it replaced for free…this was definitely a fluke]
Solution found at the orchard
When I heard that Apple will replace the screen free-of-charge…in 5-7 business days, I felt very happy for Jane and then I had a light-bulb moment. I asked myself: When I have an issue with my next smartphone, what kind of individuals will I seek help from? Who will reach out to help me? Will it be a Verizon clerk that has to “check with his supervisor”? Or will it be an AT&T rep that’s “not for sure”? Or will it be a Google user-supported, self-help message board? Or will it be an Apple Genius?
Verizon and AT&T are in the business of selling bandwidth and subsidized phones from a myriad of manufacturers; they’re in the business of selling “features” which is why you always see a list of them neatly displayed by each phone. Apple, on the other hand, is in the business of selling “experiences” and “benefits”—this is infused into the DNA of the company and engendered into Apple reps. Look past the hype-machine, adjective-laden addresses, the spaceship super-office, and the delicious kool-aid that Coopertino serves daily, and you will see a culture that actually wants me to feel happy about purchasing their product and tell their friends about it—isn’t this what I’m doing now?
The bottom-line is that I’m time-poor, so when I need support, I don’t want to compound my frustration, I want to talk to somebody now that is enabled and willing to help me…even if I have to pay for the service. Apple is just so irresistibly easy.
So unless the mobos and the hardware manufacturers hire Ron Johnson and Steve Jobs to lead retail, customer experience, and product innovation (under one roof), I don’t think we’ll see any major cultural shifts within these organizations, so don’t expect to see me sporting an android anytime soon. There you have it.
These are not the droids I’m looking for.
The Social Butterfly: State of The Mobile App World 2011
(Graph courtesy of Shoutem)
I am interested to see the the google platform is way above the apple and how that will change when more people have access to apple products (referencing how Verizon got access to the Iphone, who else will pick it up?)
Also, its seems crazy that our smart…
Mobile Barcodes Coming To A Dumb and Smart Phone Near You
Mobile Barcode Background
Mobile barcode technology, specifically the QR code has been around since 1994, but American marketers have been slow to adopt. Then came the smart phone that was not only equipped with a camera but the capability to download a qr code reader app. Of course, both “smartphones” and “apps” are now at the core of our digitally-enhanced culture and it’s not uncommon to see mobile barcodes (mostly QR and Microsoft tags) on billboards, in magazine ads, on television commercials, Internet, food products, etc. But how are mobile barcodes used?
QR Usage
According to a recent study by the Austin & Williams Agency, 28% of the respondents had scanned QR codes before with their smartphones. The majority of these scans (62%) linked to a website. 6% of respondents actually bought something as a result of a QR code scan. But are purchases the only thing brands are after? Of course not—especially when it comes to social media.
Brands & Social Media
Not all brands are built equally. Some brands sell directly to the consumer (and some of those can transact on their website or fanpage), while other brands use social media marketing to build brand equity by fostering community and brand loyalty—that lead to the eventual sale of the product/service through a retailer. Then there are brands that focus social media efforts on pr and customer service. But in one way or another, brands want to engage consumers using social networks.
Connecting Brands to Consumers With Social Networks & Mobile
US mobile phone penetration hovers around 80%; US smartphone penetration is around 37%. So what? With 92% of mobile social networkers visiting Facebook there’s a clear opportunity for brands to connect and interact with consumers using social and mobile. How do we do this?
We Need A Mobile Social Networking Platform That Works for Smart & Dumb Phones
I was already familiar with a company called Social QR Code that promised to “place a digital ‘like’ button on any physical product” but after testing the technology, though it was pretty easy to use there seemed to be an intermediate (SocialQR-branded) landing page and the platform was geared exclusively for smartphones. But after reading a piece from AdAge Mediaworks that promised to simplify consumer interaction with brands and their Facebook pages with smart (or dumb) phones, I decided to investigate further. In this article SnapTag, codes that look a little more friendlier than the Borg-like, generic QR Code and feature the brand’s logo, were described as the greatest thing since sliced bread. So after digging around on SpyderLynk’s website (distributor of SnapTag services), I found that, you don’t need an app to use it (like QR) but brands will need to pay for (unlike QR).
How does a SnapTag work?
All you need is a camera phone, smart or dumb. You take a picture of the SnapTag and then SMS the pic to the advertised number, that is if you have an AT&T or Verizon phone, otherwise you can email the picture to the provided email address. I tried to experience SnapTag by using the “Try It Now” feature on SpyderLynk’s website using my T-Mobile Blackberry Bold. I emailed two different pictures…no response yet. This could be user error, my bb, tmobile, gmail, junk filter, or the type of monitor I’m using. I’m waiting to see a magazine SnapTag so I can try with a printed version of the mobile barcode. I would imagine that SpyderLynk or another 3rd party vendr will come out with a BlackBerry app reader as well (iPhone app is currently available and the Android app is coming soon). I’ll update this blog once I had more interaction with this technology.
SnapTag vs. QR
Here’s how SnapTag compares its technology to QR codes.
Here’s another visualization that SnapTag provided to me:
SnapTag: The Bottom Line
Big brands have used it (see case studies), the interoperability feature among smart and dumb phones is appealing for maximum audience penetration, no application is required (not sure if this is a benefit to smartphone users), touts dynamic response capabilities based on “consumer behavior or campaign parameters,” allows the use of brand’s color logo with less technical limitations than QR, and my favorite: allows for automatic “liking” without intermediate pages or actions. When I reached out to SnapTag here’s how they described this feature:
A smartphone user can scan with a SnapTag reader to automatically like a product or fan page….no stop in between! But, our new offering will also deploy snap and send functionality…meaning it can be done either way….no app and only a camera phone or an app and a smartphone.
My buddy Tony Kinard wrote about the “physical like button” back in a February blog post and as we discovered, it was possible to do back then what SnapTag is describing now: snap and automatically “like” the fanpage without any intermediate steps. I cant’ wait to “experience” this for myself.
What do you think about SnapTags? Have you used them? What was your experience? Has your brand used the technology in a campaign? What were the results?
