Disruption Matters

Are Handsets with a TV Tuner Killing MobileTV?

LG launched a few months ago the LG HB620T, a mobile phone that includes a TV tuner for DVB-T, the most extended standard for terrestrial digital TV. Many analysts predict that this kind of phones will kill broadcast mobile TV standards such as DVB-H/SH or proprietary MediaFlo. Why do you need a standard for mobile TV when you can already have regular TV in your phone?  Leaving apart that DVB-H/SH technology is fit for mobile (limited battery, processing, authentication with SIM card) the answer is because it enables Pay-TV.

One of the advantages of DVB-T is that it is already available in many countries offering a wide number of channels free-to-air. And this is good news for users and for Mobile TV too. Educating the customer to new services is always the most challenging part of new technology adoption.

Free TV on the handset is the mandatory first step for Mobile TV to take off.

Cable, IPTV and Satellite Pay-TV did not succeed well after we all had first a TV set in the living-room. For Mobile TV, DVB-T on the handsets is the best thing that can happen to get users familiar with TV on their mobile phones. Once there, it will be less disruptive for users to pay for premium channels for which DVB-H/SH and its OMA BCAST smart card or DRM profiles will be required.

Posted in Digital Lifestyle, Telecom | No Comments »

iPhone Rocks or a Rock?

A funny, different view of the iPhone found though webtown. Although the iPhone only outperforms the Stone in the touchscreen, why does it still rock?

Leave aside the iconic cool factor (which matters a lot). It is not about the number of features, but about having the key features with a simple, fast and engaging user experience.

Who cares about MMS, when you can send emails easily? Apart from making calls, the iPhone is about listening to music, watching videos and above all a rich online experience: web, email and mobile apps. And mobile apps are about location, always-on and being connected.

To avoid the online experience to be ruined by a nasty data bill is why Apple has forced telcos to sell the iPhone tied to unlimited data plans. Focus on the core and remove any show-stopper to deliver a complete experience.

Video calls, video recording on iPhone?… it will come. MMS and memory cards, forget it. MMS is almost dead. And why a slot for memory cards if Apple is going to launch a new generation model each year. Before you need to expand with a memory card you will be buying the next model.

Posted in Digital Lifestyle | 4 Comments »

Guy Kawasaki on Venture Capital

Highly recommended videos for anyone planning to ask funding from venture capital. Guy Kawasaki is one of the star entrepreneurs and venture capitalists of Silicon Valley, and if you listen to his speech you will understand why.

I extract from the talk the ten slides Guy advises when presenting your idea to a VC:

1. Title. Add contact info.
2. Problem. What pain you solve.
3. Solution. How you solve it.
4. Business Model. How you make money.
5. Underline Magic. Why you will succeed.
6. Marketing & Sales. How you go to market.
7. Competition. What you can do they can’t do. What they can do you can’t do.
8. Team.
9. Projections. Show the metrics behind.
10. Status & Timeline. Where you are.

Guy’s 10-20-30 rule: 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30pt minimum font size

There are plenty of books about how to prepare a business case for a start-up. These ten slides are the best summary I have ever seen.

Posted in Entrepreneurship | 1 Comment »

Converging into Clouds

Online players, such as Google and Amazon cope all bets to reign over the Clouds, benefiting from their global reach and huge experience on web scalability. Others foresee IBM -talking about utility computing for decades- or HP, after acquiring EDS, as strong contenders to put IT systems on the clouds.

But what about Telcos? Wouldn’t they want to play too? At then end, operation of network services is what they have been doing for ages. Telcos own the connectivity, which is a key element in cloud computing. They can promise their business customers a guaranteed bandwidth and latency, that other on-line Internet players, simply can not commit. And they are close to their corporate and SME customers, to whom they already sell PABXs, internet access, leased lines and mobile phones. So telcos know their market in their local countries better than Google. Do not underestimate the power of the Operators. They have the strength to being able to gather an ecosystem of partners they can bring to their enterprise customers.

Internet giants, IT players and telcos, they all want a place in the cloudy sky.

SingTel to package SaaS offerings
IBM launches four new cloud computing centers

Posted in IT, Internet, Telecom | No Comments »

Searching for the Mobile Killer App

Apple App Store and Android App Market are bringing more spotlight than ever to the applications for mobile handsets. Though a vast number of applications already exist for Windows Mobile, Blackberry or Symbian, developers are working hard to write the next killer app on the iPhone and Android platform.

What criteria should guide developers when designing the next mobile killer app? Here are some suggestions of the ingredients a mobile killer app better have:

• Useful. There must be a clear value to the user. What problem does the app solve? How is people impacted? Who/how many are impacted?
• Usability. User experience first. Simple, fast and engaging.
• Immediacy. Must be useful here and now, where and when I need it.
• Context-Aware. Intelligent enough to know where are you, with whom, what are you doing (on a call, or a meeting) , your weather, and have the app behave accordingly.
• Viral / Social. Know your community and your friends.
• Coolness. Beautiful, elegant and enjoyable.

To these criteria, add this principle: “The innovation [...] is not that they let us do something new, but that they allow us to do what we already do better, more often, in more places and more quickly.” -Joshua Porter

I let you test which winners of the Android Developer Challenge I do not have these ingredients nor follow that principle:

cab4me: “Ever been looking for a cab? cab4me is the answer. Anywhere. Anytime.”

CompareEverywhere: “Shop smarter using your phone. Compare prices, read reviews, and connect with local stores.”

Ecorio: “Ecorio automatically tracks your mobile carbon footprint, suggests transit and carpooling alternatives and lets you stay carbon neutral by offsetting your trips easily.”

GoCart: “Scan a product’s barcode with your phone’s camera and view all the best prices online and at nearby, local stores.”

Life360: “From major natural disasters to little things like your child wandering away at the mall, there is a lot you might worry about. Life360 can help.”

Locale: “Locale is an advanced settings manager that automatically changes your phone’s settings based on conditions, such as location.”

PicSay: “Easy to use image editor that enables you to quickly personalize your pictures and share them with friends or photo sites.”

Softrace: “Turn your workout into a thrilling race and challenge the world in real time.”

TuneWiki: “TuneWiki Social Media Player, is an advanced player, featuring synchronized lyrics for audio or video, translation, music maps and a social network.”

Wertago: “The mobile application nightlifers have been waiting for. Find the hottest parties in town and connect with friends and others all night long.

Compare to the the top apps downloaded from Handango for Blackberry, Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian, and judge where is the future and where the past. No wonder Nokia is setting a Symbian app challenge.

Two links to nice mobile apps videos and the latest of TechCrunch on App Market:
GoCart clip
Google Maps for Mobile
A Sneak Peak At The Android App Market
What Is The Deal With This Stupid Lighter iPhone App?
This Lighter App shows the powers of location and social network combined. It is a successful App and the only ingredient that is missing from the list above is “useful”!

Update: Six iPhone applications that combine location and social networks, in TechCrunch

Posted in Digital Lifestyle, Telecom | 1 Comment »

Google Inspires Engineers to Change the World

Google is re-investing the revenues they get from ads on projects to improve our world. Following google.org initiatives (RE<C, RechargeIT and others) Google is now calling for ideas from outside to make them happen in Project 10 to the 100.

Googlers are brilliant people and you can notice that from the great products they bring to market.
Still the major innovation of Google is their business model. Most of what google does is free for the user: Gmail, Docs, Picasa, Earth, Maps, etc. They are masters of the economics of free, and this is yet another great value for the user. At the end, Google is changing our world, and we do not need to pay for it.

Posted in Inspirational, Media & New Economy | No Comments »

Is the G1 Googly?

Yesterday was a great day for America as T-Mobile launched the awaited first Android phone. Plenty of coverage for the announcement in NYC, but is the G1 up to the expectations?

On the good side: the anticipated powerful processor with touchscreen, qwerty keyboard, camera, GPS and full integration with Google applications (calendar, docs, gmail), plus the fancy accelerometer and compass that enable cool experience such as Google Maps with StreetView. (See reviews from TechCrunch, RWW and GigaOM)

On the bad side: no Video player (except for YouTube), no headphone jack, contacts only sync with Gmail (no Outlook or Exchange), no multi-touch (yet) and T-Mobile 1GB cap after which you are downgraded to 50Kbps. (See Gizmodo’s Obnoxious flaws of G1)

So how does the G1 score on the ten principles for Googley designs?

1. Useful: Mobile Web, maps with location, Android Market… and you can even make phone calls. 
2. Fast: Powerful processor, Wifi, 3G. It is fast (until you reach T-Mobile’s cap)
3. Simple. Touch-screen simple interface and even one-click Amazon ordering
4. Engaging.  According to the hype generated and with thousands of apps to come, I would tick it as engaging. And it includes Pacman!
5. Innovative. In compass mode the scene moves as you do. It might be useless, but isn’t it cool and innovative?
6. Universal. Hopefully we will have Android worldwide soon
7. Profitable. What is the price of controlling the mobile web experience
8. Beautiful. Well… the G1 is not yet up to the stylish iPhone… but new models will improve it
9. Trustworthy. Open source and who would not trust Google’s ”don’t be evil”?  But… why would they forget the MS Exchange sync?
10. Personable. Well… it seems you can have only one Google account, can it be more personal? Beware, if you have two Gmail/Google Apps accounts you will not be able to switch easily.

Overall ya, we can say it is googley… but improvement is expected with new models.

Posted in Digital Lifestyle | 5 Comments »

Telecom at the Speed of Moore’s Law

While the IT industry has Moore’s law in their DNA, the Telecom industry (both telcos and vendors) have not yet been able to embrace the concept and many analyst keep raising doubts about the sustainability of Telecommunications decreasing margins.

Microprocessors, hard-drives and memory cards double its performance/cost ratio every year. The price of an 8GB SD card was $50 last year. Now you can get a 16GB SD card for the same money. The price of a mid-range laptop has been just under $1000 for many years, only that each year you get a substantially better machine.

The Telecom industry has not been able to find the trick. Voice has been the key revenue generator service for ages. With voice revenues clearly declining, the industry is only now, beginning to switch to fix monthly fee models with a cap on voice minutes. People use the phone more and more. So the focus of telcos is now to keep the monthly fee price level, but give more minutes for the same fee, instead of reducing tariffs. The model also applies to broadband. Mobile broadband is capped, but telcos will aim at sustaining the monthly fee price, and focus on adopting more performing technology that will enable to increase the volume cap every year while slightly increasing the monthly fee. On fixed broadband the game is not capping but increasing the bandwidth. If you plot the increase of broadband bandwidth over the past years the growth is also exponential, and telcos should not focus on capping, but on making sure the technology enables them to increase bandwidth every certain time.

Moore’s Law is the self-fulfilling prophecy that keeps the dynamism of the IT industry and a sustainable market. Consumers and enterprises are now used to renew their PCs even before those are 4 years old, so in mature markets the demand does not seem to decrease, but at least sustain. Add the next billion of PCs in emerging countries like China, India or south east Asia and judge if the industry is still healthy.

As IT and Telecom converge, can Moore’s Law bring the same dynamism to the Telecom vendors and operators? Will they be able to keep the pace?

Posted in IT, Telecom | No Comments »

What could make SlotMusic Succeed?

The news of the day is that SanDisk has just launched SlotMusic. The memory chip maker will distribute music from the four major labels on microSD cards. Music tracks will be  encoded in MP3 at 320Kbps, DRM-free and pre-loaded on a 1GB microSD card that will sell for $7-$10.

Blogs unanimously anticipate disaster. Mike Arrington cynically shows admiration for SanDisk to have convinced labels, and Om Malik simply predicts failure.

Obviously the tiny memory card as a format to distribute media is a big improvement compared to the CD. It is smaller, it is erasable and it can “play” on most smartphones that have microSD slots, including Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola , HTC and Samsung to name a few. If the format succeeds, expect car stereos and DVD/music players to adopt it. But how does a physical card compare to online download? People love mp3, among other things, because it has freed us from the constraints of a physical disc. What was the last time you played a music audio CD on a CD player? I do not recall it myself. The last CD I bought was played only once on the PC while ripping it to the hard-drive.

So why SanDisk and the labels are coming back to physical distribution?

1) To overcome people reluctance to pay for intangibles, by selling music again as a tangible good that people can pay for and buy at Walmart (impulsively maybe)

2) To make microSD format THE standard for memory cards, and translate it into royalties for SanDisk.

Are those arguments enough to appeal teenagers to buy music on tiny cards? Not the second one, for sure. What else could make SlotMusic succeed? Here is my advice:

1) Go 2 or 4GB cards and do not sell just one album, but discographies: Queen’s discography, Mozart’s Piano Concertos or Puccini’s operas

2) Go for 2 or 4GB cards and sell video too: Movies and soundtrack together. Or TV series.

3) Get Apple to include a microSD slot in the iPhone and iPods. (Good luck)

What is the only chance of success? Points 1 and 2 above are based on the old principle, updated: “Never underestimate the bandwidth of a truck full of micro-SD cards”. It might be faster (and cheaper) to buy a card with all Madonna’s albums or the last movie from Woody Allen than downloading them from iTunes or BitTorrent.  It is a matter of making it more convenient. So SlotMusic, you’d better go fast before we all get 100Mbps fiber-to-the-home, and can download movies in tens of seconds.

In summary: Who wins?  The user, that will get cheaper microSD cards. SanDisk that will give an extra boost to its format.

Who loses? With few chances of success, one would say the labels… but wait, they have nothing else to lose by this time…

Posted in Digital Lifestyle, Media & New Economy | No Comments »

Why is Google building a Browser?

The clip from Google answers the question in its first part. “To take the Web to the next level”. Web browsers were designed for web pages much simpler than the web interactive applications we enjoy today, such as Gmail, Google Maps or Google Docs. JavaScript executes extremely fast in Chrome, taking web application to run at speeds comparable to native Windows applications.

“Chrome is focused on speed, stability and security.” After weeks of intensive use, Chrome has exceeded my expectations. It is really fast, and it has not crashed a single time yet.

Google is making a good investment of the billions its on-line ads business generates, to make sure the Internet keeps open and evolving to support more and more applications on-line. They already did a good job with the wireless auction months ago. Now Google is making sure not only it is not constrained by the limitations of Internet Explorer and other browsers, but it is pushing developers to bet on JavaScript rather than on Silverlight or AIR proprietary technologies for the web interactive applications.

Posted in Internet | 1 Comment »