iphone

To 4S or Not 4S, That is the Problem

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod No Comments Tags: , , ,

Apple, Apple, Apple. So brilliant, seductive and alluring.

The hits keep coming and the new products keep on getting released, even if they are just minor upgrades to the previous product such as the iPhone 4S.

Even though there was disappointment, the 4S wasn’t a iPhone5, it’s still something new from Apple, which is always a good thing for the growing Apple Nation.

The question is whether we’re strong enough to resist the temptation to upgrade. Is getting the new thing irresistible, or should we live with what we’ve got.

The iPhone4S called out to me yesterday when, coincidentally, my battered and bruised 3GS fell on the floor. The glass panel shattered, bringing on agony but, at the same time, the ecstatic realization that it had created a window of opportunity to get a 4S. It was like a spiritual Steve Jobs had lightly pushed my 3GS off the shelf.

So what to do, what to do? Spend $300 or $400 on a 4S, or hold onto the 3GS given saving money seems to a good thing these days. Or should I buy an iPhone4 that the carriers have slashed prices on to move out excess inventory?

The back and forth when considering Apple products is agonizing. One minute, a 4S is a slam-dunk; the next minute you decide not to jump on the bandwagon.

In the end, I got the 3GS fixed. For now, I have a functional iPhone again, which will suit my needs and, as important, provide some more time to decide whether to get the 4S.

Did a Web Browser That Sucked Kill BlackBerry?

By Mark Evans in Wireless 7 Comments Tags: , , ,

As Research in Motion struggles to regain its equilibrium following another quarter of terrible results, there is going to be a lot of conjecture, speculation and finger-pointing on what went wrong.

It could be the dominance of the iPhone, a failure to execute strategically, weak leadership, products that failed to resonate with changing consumer tastes, or a market that shifted away from the BlackBerry.

The Web Browser Sucked

But if you want to get down to the heart of the BlackBerry’s woes, it’s the browser. For years, the BlackBerry excelled at e-mail and it had a pretty good phone but the Web browser sucked – and that would be a polite description.

Even as the mobile Web gained more traction, the browser on the BlackBerry was terrible to the point of being unusable (and some would argue it is still unusable!). Everyone knew it but expected RIM to eventually fix it so they could surf the Web in the same way they did on a desktop. But, for whatever reason, it took RIM a long, long time to improve the browser. But by that time, it was too late. The iPhone had hit the market with a Web browser that worked, making the BlackBerry’s browser look that much more antiquated.

So while the iPhone captured the market by becoming a mobile computer, the BlackBerry became a niche product with limited functionality – something that it is still struggling to overcome.

….but BBM Delights

What’s ironic is that while the BlackBerry’s browser sucked, it had a service, BBM, that delighted users, and, in many respects, has become the feature that has kept the BlackBerry relevant and popular.

Unless a miracle happens, RIM as we know it is cooked. As much as it would be terrible to see Canada lose yet another flagship high-tech company, it seems like a matter of time before RIM is sold. Then, we can start to scrutinize what went wrong, and then we’ll discover it was the browser that proved to be RIM’s Achilles Heel.

What’s Next for RIM Other Than Not Surrendering?

By Mark Evans in Wireless 2 Comments Tags: , ,

Amid the debacle of Nortel Networks’ slide into a telecom has-been, the most shameful chapter was that CEO Mike Zafirovski and the board conceded defeat rather than using bankruptcy protection to remake the company into a smaller and viable telecom supplier. Sure, creditors and bondholders are a happy bunch now but it shouldn’t wallpaper the fact Canada’s flagship high-tech company has disappeared.

With this lesson front and centre, the worse thing RIM could do in face the wake of many challenges is wave the white flag. There is no doubt RIM is struggling given pressure from the iPhone and Android, as well as the weak-ass, half-baked PlayBook that has failed to create even a small ripple in the tablet market.

But the answer for RIM is not to surrender or take major steps backward but to battle on. One truth about the high-tech market is the landscape can turn on a dime. One minute, you’re the star of the show; the next you’re forgotten. Many people forget, for example, that Apple nearly crumbled before Steve Jobs returned to orchestrate its miraculous comeback.

This is not to suggest RIM will enjoy a similar rebound but it would be a mistake to assume that just because RIM is currently struggling, there is nowhere else to go other than downhill.

That said, RIM needs to pull the trigger on some important moves over the next year to avoid becoming irrelevant.

1. Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie should lead the business but not operate it. While there has been calls to appoint an independent chairman, another more significant and bold move would be appointing a new CEO to replace Laziridis and Balsillie. This would be a major move given RIM is their baby but at some point every founder has to step back to allow fresh blood into the mix.

2. The BlackBerry doesn’t have to reinvented or overhauled but it does need to become more of a Swiss Army knife that does a variety of things well rather than an e-mail client/phone device. At the very least, the BlackBerry needs a fantastic Web browser, as well as user-friendly and accessible video and music players. At the same time, BlackBerry World needs to have a strong portfolio but doesn’t need 100,000 apps to be successful.

3. RIM shouuld not only push ahead with the new QNX operating system but start to educate the marketplace on why it will a big leap forward, and how it has the potential to not only bolster the BlackBerry but also wireless devices as well.

4. RIM has to completely overhaul its marketing efforts. It needs to take a completely fresh approach to the consumer market where its efforts have been as awkward as a teenager at a high school dance. RIM’s consumer marketing seems forced rather than playing on its strengths. It is like RIM has adopted a new personality that doesn’t work. The campaign for its BBM service, which the young’uns love, fails to hit the market because RIM isn’t effectively reaching out to the target audience in a natural way.

5. RIM needs to focus on opportunities in international markets but avoid being Friendster-ized. For those of you who remember, Friendster was the leading social media network before it was shoved aside by Facebook. While Friendster is still alive today, its only exists in a handful of Asian countries. While RIM is seeing strong international growth, North America is a big, important market so it needs to create the right devices, marketing plans and, as important, relationships with carriers to stay in the game.

How Many Apps Do You Really Need?

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod, Wireless 3 Comments Tags: , ,

On the 37Signals blog yesterday, Niall Larkin’s post on how many mobile apps people really struck a chord.

Larkin argues he only needs 10 apps, mostly because the iPhone comes with many of the apps (e.g. Safari, photos, weather, Mail) he uses all the time. It’s a great point that talks to one of the dirty little secrets of the mobile world: most people only use a few apps but they really like the idea of having thousands of options.

It’s one of the reasons for the iPhone’s massive appeal, while the BlackBerry gets roundly criticized for the shortcomings of BlackBerry App World. Truth be told, BlackBerry App World likely has most of the apps people really need but it gets pounded for not offering thousands of more options.

It’s probably not unlike going to Denny’s, which features a menu with dozens of choices. I suspect the majority of people eat a small number of items, which lets Denny’s offer multiple options with the knowledge that many of them will not be selected.

In the technology world, however, perception is often reality. Consumers like the idea of choice, options and features even though they many not use many of them. It’s the same reason why consumers upgrade devices, hardware and software when what they have is perfectly good.

When it comes to my personal use of apps on my iPhone, most of my time is sucked up by TweetBot, Safari and the camera. Once in awhile, I’ll use Yelp, Dialvetica, Tweeb, AroundMe, Tumblr and Angry Birds. In total, that’s nine apps so I’m clearly in the same camp as Larkin. That said, there are 81 apps on my iPhone, which means most of them collect a lot of digital dust.

So how many apps do you really use or need? And if you had to pay for apps, how many would you have on your device?

Do the Number of Mobile Apps Matter?

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod, Wireless 5 Comments Tags: , , , , ,

If you listen to Apple, size matters when it comes to the number of mobile apps offered to iPhone users. It’s seen as a strategic strength compared with rivals such as Android, BlackBerry and Microsoft, which have smaller but growing portfolios.

But in the scheme of things does size really matter? Does it really offer a distinct competitive advantage? Here’s where I’m coming from: On my iPhone, there are about 50 apps – many of them downloaded on a whim because they’re free. Of these apps, you know how many I use on a regular basis? Less than five, and I suspect that most people fall into the same camp.

It means if every mobile platform offers the same small group of must-have apps (let’s aggressively assume 250 apps will account for more than 80% of total usage), then having more than 100,000 or even 50,000 apps doesn’t matter.

Yes, I accept the argument that having more apps offers the opportunity to serve the needs of many niche markets. And I recognize there’s marketing mojo in having a large app collection. But if push comes to shove, size doesn’t matter at all as long as consumers have their “basic” needs covered.

I’ve been thinking about this thesis for awhile but it was thrust into the spotlight after reading Randall Stross’ column in the New York Times yesterday on Nokia’s use of Windows Phone 7. One of the people quoted was Thomas R. Eisenmann, a professor at the Harvard Business School, who said:

“What is often missed is the diminishing returns after 1,000 applications. If a platform attracts the thousand-most-popular apps, then it provides almost anything a reasonable person would want to do with a smartphone.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

A Perfect Approach to Business Cards

By Mark Evans in Product Reviews 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

Maybe I’m old school but in my world, the business card is still alive and well. Although far from sexy or digital, a business card still has clout. It’s something tangible that can be given to someone to establish a relationship. And the upside is accepting a business card is quick as opposed to having to slowly type contact details into an address book, or “bump” someone, which seems fairly intimate if you’ve had just met someone.

But what happens with all these business cards after they’ve been collected? They can be manually imported into an address book or, in many cases, they pile up on your desk and collect dust. There are technology solutions such as CardScan that are designed to make it easy to deal with business cards but they can be expensive, which seems strange for a small piece of hardware.

There are services such CloudContacts in which you send business cards so someone else can digitize them. And there are iPhone apps that claim to capture business cards by taking photos of them.

As someone who has spent far too much time trying to find a user-friendly solution, I haven’t discovered anything elegant and cost-effective to capture business cards….until now.

The answer is CardMunch, an iPhone/Web app that has, so far, blown me away. CardMunch consists of a free iPhone application and a Web site to manage business cards. The service used to have a cost but it’s now free after being bought by LinkedIn. Even if CardMunch wasn’t free, I’d still use it.

After downloading the iPhone app and registering for an account, you capture a business card by taking a photo of it using the CardMunch app. The business card is sent to your CardMunch account and, after logging in, there’s a list of pending and completed cards.

The most impressive thing about CardMunch is how well the details of each card have been captured. I’ve used several business card iPhone apps but the picture quality and information captured has been far from ideal. CardMunch, however, does an amazing job. To send the details of each card to your address book, you click on “Export Contact”, which downloads a VCF file that can added to an address book.

CardMunch is one of those “gems” that does a straightforward job in a simple, user-friendly and effective way. Now that it’s free and owned by LinkedIn, it should attract a lot of people who still use business cards. Even if it weren’t free, CardMunch would be difficult to resist.

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