All I Want for Christmas is….

By Mark Evans in Main Page No Comments

I’m blessed with a beautiful wife, three lovely children, family and friends so I’m wanting for nothing. Here’s hoping all of you health, happiness, hope and the joy that comes with anticipation of what lies ahead. Now, if I did need anything from a tech perspective (and this is not a demo call out), the following would be on my list:

1. Blackberry 8800 (a Pearl with a QWERTY keyboard)
2. Linksys Wireless-N Router
3. Video iPod
4. Roboform for Mac
5. FeedDemon for Mac
6. Behringer C-1 microphone (for podcasting)
7. Wireless speakers
8. Bow-Flex SelectTech 552 dumbbells (not exactly high-tech but a very cool approach to dumbbells)

Can Jimmy Wales Crack the Google Puzzle?

By Mark Evans in Google, Main Page, Search Engines 1 Comment

Flush with Wikipedia’s success and obviously not busy enough with Wikia, Jimmy Wales now has ambitious (fooldhardy?) plans to create a new search engine called Wikisaria to take on Google and Yahoo (with some financial assistance from Amazon and a few Silicon Valley investors). “Google is very good at many types of search, but in many instances it produces nothing but spam and useless crap. Try searching for the term ‘Tampa hotels’, for example, and you will not get any useful results,” Wales told the London Times. (Actually, if you do a Google search of ‘Tampa Hotels” you get some solid results – the first one being Tampa Guide – so perhaps that’s not the best example of what Wales wants to do, as well as a sign his PR folks need to do a better job).

So how is Wikisaria going to be different than Google? Well as Time Magazine made clear earlier this week, Wale is depending on “you”. Huh? Rather than use mathematical algorithms to come up with the best search results, Wales wants to use the Wikipedia model and have humans actively involved in creating the best search results. Sounds a lot like Prefound, et al are trying to do so perhaps Wales has different tactic.

As much as user-generated content was one of the major themes of 2006, Google’s continued dominance of the search market continues to be one of the most compelling elements of the Web’s evolution. What almost as fascinating is there are no lack of people and investors willing to take a crack at building a better mouse trap. Let’s see how Mr. Wales – and Amazon – make out. For more, check out Deep Jive Interests (who believes Wales’ ideas shouldn’t be quickly dismissed), Mathew Ingram, Peter Cashmore and Niall Kennedy.

Update: Just thinking about a comment I made about Wales’ PR people. It’s two days since the news emerged, and the story is still atop Techmeme. Maybe his PR folks knew what they were doing.

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E-Commerce? Sorry, We’re Canadian

By Mark Evans in Main Page 4 Comments

It’s two days before Christmas and according to Visa, millions of people will be shopping this weekend for last-minute gifts. I ask you: why battle the crowds and traffic if you can do it all online from the comfort of your own home? Well, a new eMarketer study suggests the Canadian e-commerce market is “stagnant” because many shoppers complain retailers aren’t serious about selling online, while retailers claim they can’t make a commitment because not enough people shop online.
It’s your classic chicken and egg situation, which is hardly a surprise to anyone who has been following the Canadian e-commerce market. Apparently, we’re online browsers, not shoppers.
In the spirit of the season, here’s a sad example of why the e-commerce market is struggling and how many Canadian retailers have yet to start drinking the Kool-Aid. As an avid hockey player, I’m keen about the new composite sticks being used these days. (Anything to improve a miserable slapshot!) These sticks can be expensive so I went online and discovered a small Ottawa-based company called Ballistik that sold sticks and blades at reasonable prices – and they did it via e-commerce.
Over the last six months, I’ve bought several blades from Ballistik. A few weeks ago, I discovered they had spiffed up their Web site but closed their e-commerce store because they wanted to grow distribution (and, in the process, raise their reasonable prices) by going through retailers. The problem is no retailers in downtown Toronto carry Ballistik’s products – not surprise given the competition hockey market. So, I called Ballistik to see how they could help me, and asked why they were no longer selling online. The answer was they don’t want to compete with their retailers, which is a strange response for a little company looking to connect with consumers. But, they, this is Canada and apparently we’re a country of browsers, not buyers.
The silver lining is eMarketer expects e-commerce sales in Canada will climb 25% in 2006 to C$9.4-billion and by another 26% in 2007, which hardly seems stagnant. Hopefully, companies such as Ballistik will catch the e-commerce bug.
Update: Rob Hyndman has his own views on the Canadian e-commerce scene.

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Remember Blue Mountain?

By Mark Evans in M&A, Main Page No Comments

Tis the season….and someone sent me something I haven’t in ages: an e-card from Blue Mountain. Remeber them? It was a start-up without a solid business plan (sound familiar?) that was purchased by Excite.com for $780-million in cash and stock. Here’s a quote that in hindsight seems strange.
“It is a critical juncture for Blue Mountain,” said Drew Ianni, senior analyst at Jupiter Communications. “Excite@Home does have to be careful and not over-commercialize the site, nor can they be too aggressive in trying to pitch Blue Mountain users with other services.”

No Penguins but Hot Pearl Sales

By Mark Evans in Main Page, Wireless/Research in Motion No Comments

Sadly, Jim Balsillie will not find Sidney Crosby or the Pittsburgh Penguins under the tree on Christmas morning but he can console himself that sales of the Blackberry Pearl are propelling Research in Motion’s sales these days. In the fiscal third-quarter, the company sold 875,000 Blackberrys – 10% higher than management expected – and sales could be close to one million in fiscal fourth-quarter. As for the latest in the “As the Penguins Turn” soap opera, hockey legend Mario Lemieux has pulled the team off the market, while the Globe & Mail reports Balsillie held talks with the NHL earlier this year about moving the franchise to Hamilton, Ont. Meanwhile, Red Herring has a story on why the Pearl has rocked while Palm’s Treo has struggled.

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Wireless Service for the Seasoned Consumer

By Mark Evans in Main Page, Wireless 1 Comment

Not to suggest my mother is nagging me but….she’s been encouraging me to find out why her cool, new Virgin Mobile phone hasn’t been activated yet (Note to self: stop acting as family’s technical support staff). Anyway, it got me thinking about how “more seasoned” consumers are a relatively untapped market for wireless carriers, who have been focusing their marketing campaign on people with high ARPU or younger consumers, who could grow into consumers with high ARPU. Meanwhile, older consumers (let’s say +55) have arguably been under-served. In North America, this may change as penetration rates get into the 70% range given most of the low hanging consumer fruit will have already been snapped up.
For a creative carrier, the market is ripe for the picking with the right service plans and phones. Granted, these consumers will not be the most lucrative but they will likely be loyal. The key will be offering a no-frills service (a.k.a. minimal calling features, low-cost phones that don’t have to be subsidized) that is also user-friendly. These consumers don’t need to access e-mail, text-message, take pictures or surf the Web. All they need is a phone to, well, make phone calls. Rumours have it one of the big Canadian carriers was hot and heavy about rolling out such a service but the entire project was mothballed after a new COO came onboard and killed it.

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