Luke Janssen

Jumping off stuff

Archive for mobile

Eating my words about QR codes

October 8, 2008 at 10:46 pm · Filed under Work Related Stuff and tagged: , ,

Sometimes I have to eat my words. I know I am often down on QR codes, but here is why they will be succesful outside of Japan one day. Courtesy of the Sun newspaper. The worst part is that I don’t even know what she has in her hands!… I couldn’t do the 4 steps it takes to find out!

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The USA behind in Mobile?… don’t bet on it

September 9, 2008 at 5:32 pm · Filed under TigerSpike Innovation Lab, Work Related Stuff and tagged: ,

I have been living in New York (well half my time at least) for a few months now, talking to various companies about mobile (still sounds funny when the Americans say it), and while some of them still think that ringtone and logo sites are a good idea, most know their stuff.

People always say that country ‘x’ is behind or ahead of coutnry ‘y’ with the most popular sledge (Australian word meaning to ‘take the piss out of’ [english saying meaning "to put down"]) going to the USA. Well I have news for everyone with that viewpoint. You are all wrong. The USA has not only caught up with Europe and Australia, in many areas is has gone past them. USA has more 3G handsets than Europe now, and alot more higher end devices. Nice work American consumers!

Many say this is fuelled by companies like google and Apple, but as far as I am concerned the main driver is money.

  • Budgets in the USA are simply bigger than other parts of the world. The market is bigger, so the marketing is bigger. Deals that mobile companies are making are bigger. Some of our American competitors like Crisp wireless for example started after us, but are way bigger now.
  • The second reason is that venture capital ensures that even the dumbest wireless startups get funding (don’t get me started on some of the inane companies that have received funding). The Australian VC market is such a retarded cousin to Palo Alto, New York, Boston or London, and it really matters. For exampe I have spoken to some really good, innovative guys in Australia, with a great idea who have received no funding, while the mediocre equivalent in the USA is on an express train past the more advanced Aussie thinkers because they just didn’t have the money.
Yes Asia is still ahead (more on that later), but if I hear someone at a conference saying that USA is behind Europe I’ll take that as confirmation that they don’t know what they are talking about (now insert Ultimate Fighting style chants of “U… S… A…. U…S…A….”)

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Convergence

September 5, 2008 at 4:39 am · Filed under TigerSpike Innovation Lab and tagged: , , ,

I am really liking the move to give away laptops with 3G cards that the carriers are doing at the moment. A few key thoughts of mine about convergence are:

  • PCs are getting smaller. And will continue to do so until it becomes annoying to type or look at them. I have an 11″ sony Vaio which I love (especially as I fly alot and so get to laugh at anyone trying to use a full sized laptop (I travel in Monkey Class – still can’t justify the cost, plus I am sure I am saving carbon from extinction or something). Anyway… laptops are getting smaller and therefore more mobile and therefore more in need of internet connection anywhere, which is why the bundling of the PC and 3G card is a good one, and a big growth area for the carriers in my opinion
  • I use my iPhone way more for data and email and other non voice services than voice (in fact I still use my Samsung for calls) I realise that I am using my computer less and less as a result. Just now I lined my iPhone screen up to my screen and my PC screen is only about 5 or 6 times bigger than my iPhone screen, soon it will be less than a third. Also when in monkey class, the movie plays on a screen thats only about twice as big as my iPhone
  • PCs are getting dumber. Soon PCs will become thin clients with all the processing done on the web, (accessed at ever increasing speeds by sim cards). Apps that I use that have moved on line are lead by Google, with Salesforce also having all the data and processing done on line and Basecamp which we used to use, a great collection of Apps from 37Signals (a company I have lots of respect for).

So Where will convergence stop?

Two things:

  1. The size of my pocket and whether my device feels uncomfortable in it will make a difference. Attention to jeans manufacturers – soon pockets for bigger devices will become useful. The iPhone (sorry to bang on) is big, but also slips nicely into a pocket as its edges are rounded. 
  2. Size of fingers / hands. I have thin girls fingers, so typing on my Vaio is not too difficult. But if you have fingers like my cousins (about 4 times the size of mine) then you are in trouble if you go too much smaller than the smallest Vaios or EPCs.

As I have said in previous posts, plugging devices into brains and projecting them will help this, but that is a little way off yet…

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My new iPhone

August 15, 2008 at 11:45 am · Filed under Observations and Ramblings, TigerSpike Innovation Lab and tagged: ,

I have just bought an iPhone (my own one, not one that the developers can play with), and I have to say I am very impressed. Having played with it for 10 minutes I can see how it is going to be such a useful device for me. The best things are (and excuse me if I haven’t found the rest yet, this is my first impression, which we all know is the most important thing – as my Oma used to say “I only need to see my first 5 cards in Bridge to know what I am going to bid!… which used to really piss my Opa off!)

So, main good first impressions are:

  • email is good, but I only have my personal gmail in there at the moment, I will have to wait for Johnny Makkar (our iPhone man in New York) to get to work and tell me how to set the rest of my iPhone sorted
  • downloaded (and paid for!!!) 3 Muse albums from iTunes (including one I already own on CD – yeah I know, but who cares, I like Muse so they can have my money). I was about to buy a Nano, but this has saved me from having to do that
  • set up world clock so I can tell the time at all our offices – Sydney, London and New York (believe me this will save me massive headaches, and I am watching it like a hawk so I know when Johnny is in)
  • Google maps – just a good app that I liked. I get lost alot
  • Carling’s iPint. Which is very cool. Simple. Good branding. It got so much good PR that I wish it was us who did it for one of our beer brands!

So those are my first impressions.

Luke

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