According to some recent research, women with smartphones are nearly twice as likely as their male counterparts to have NEVER downloaded a single app. Apparently, this is because the choice of apps is overwhelming, the Apple App Store alone has more than 225,000 apps.
Now, I’m a woman (I appreciate that might take some of you who thought I was the famous ‘Father and Son’ singer by surprise) and I LOVE choice. I love walking into a shoe shop and umming and ahhing over my options. That said, when it comes to technology I’ll walk into a shop and invariably walk out empty handed. Why? The choice does actually overwhelm me. I know what I want – but I hadn’t considered this feature or that function, and nor did I realise it was available to me. I get shoes, I know the options, but technology changes more times than Katy Perry hosting the MTV Awards. I panic I’m not up to date, and I need to go away and research it some more and who really has the time for research?
That said, once I know what I want, I’ll go online and make a purchase straight away.
And I guess this is what happens with apps. Although personally speaking there is certainly still a fear factor – how many times have you downloaded something to your phone (or even PC) and it’s ground the whole system to a halt?
But apps are the future right? It’s the essence of personalising the phone, something we’ve all been doing since clip on fascias, wall papers and downloadable ringtones.
I read that younger consumers are seeing increasing value in buying virtual goods. And there are some apps that go beyond gimmicks which you would put your hand in your pocket for – life changing ones like SlingPlayer mobile (yes it’s a client, but who wouldn’t want to be able to watch the World Cup on their mobile whilst they’re stuck at a trade show #shespeaksfromexperience). But so too could something like the Ocado shopping app become invaluable. Online shopping and me fell out some time ago because I could not be bothered to boot up my computer and sit there choosing stuff. After a day at my desk it was worse than actually going into a store. However, to be able to do this on the go and add things to my virtual shopping basket as I run out of them so it’s all there waiting for me when I do want to make an order sounds ideal for my lifestyle. Well it was too good an idea not to happen:
So it surprises me that so few women are downloading apps – I have a plethora of iPhone-friends all loving their various apps, from calorie counting to navigation – each person’s take is their own.
The big question is really what does this mean to the handset lifecycle – I’m really not going to want to part with a handset that is so personalised to my daily life. What if it gets nicked?? For anyone who has seen Surrogates – please make me a surrogate handset. That is the future surely?
Kate
Kate is guest presenter on the latest Lady Geek TV App Show
{Glowface v to burry ones face in ones phone whilst texting or browsing [glohfeys]}
The first generation of Glowfacers were all about speed texting competitions, thumbs sliding across the keys like Michael Flatley’s feet. Parents went mad at their kids with their faces buried in their phones and new texting etiquette emerged; it is rude to text at the dinner table. But it was always easy to pretend; text your friends under the table to get them to call you so you can escape from an awful date, send a sly message to a colleague when you’re stuck in a meeting – no one need ever know.
Until the touch screen BOOM! Try navigating your way around a touch screen keyboard without looking and you end up telling Bob in accounts that “Uliikke ..>moojeee tfff”
I used to have major issues with touch screens. Capacitive touch screens don’t respond to fingernails. I’m not a witch with talons, but I do sport lady-like long nails. But I’ve seen more and more devices using resistive touch screens. These little puppies are a doddle, but you still have to look at the screen when typing.
You can’t feel your way around a touch screen, despite its touchy name. It’s either going to kill illegal texting whilst driving for good – because people can’t feel their way around the keypad – or it’ll make people take more risks, looking at the screen to type the oh so important “I’m running late” missive that may well end up in them not getting there at all.
Personally I like buttons, there is something satisfying about hearing a click clack as your message gets penned, and I can use it no matter how long my talons get. However, I can’t shy away from the touch screen takeover, blame Apple – the iPhone has pointed to the future and where Apple has gone others will follow. Touch screens offer a sleek experience on most devices , regardless of OS, and the great user interface is very likely going to make touch screen the norm.
So long live the touch screen and long live the Glowface. I’ll just have to hope my friends realise that “ktkl.,f” means “help me”
Is it just me or are our beloved technology companies trying to own the alphabet? Not the whole thing –just a few individual letters.
The worst offender is of course Apple, with whom the letter “i” has become synonymous. But they are not alone…
IBM spent many a year attempting to dominate the letter “e” with constant refrain of e-business, e-servers and e-suite……..resulting in that joke about the processing system they sold into Yorkshire Water; the E-Bygum.
Not far behind is Sun with the letter “S” as in Sparc and Solaris. While Citrix and Intel seem to be having a bit of a squabble over the letter X.
I could go on, but you get the idea. What intrigues me though is what would happen if these big companies with their armies of lawyers were to succeed in getting their way and patenting the letters they love so much?
First, I have a confession to make; I am an unashamed iPhone fan. A junkie of the App Store. A worshipper at the alter of Mobile Me.
That was, I should add, until about 30 minutes ago when I set my eyes on the new Dell Streak. Now I am a convert, a believer in the new light, a Saul on the road to Damascus.
Now I should add here that we work with Dell and so my views could be somewhat influenced by that – but let me state that my views on this device would have been the same if it had come from HP, Nokia, or Samsung.
The Streak is undeniably and unbelievably brilliant. Somehow Dell has managed to take a not-too-scruffy mobile OS and render it in the most perfect form factor imaginable. It has the features, the sleek design, the well-thought through interface and a decent camera (take note Apple!). But what really, really stuns you is the speed of web browsing. The first time I used it I genuinely believed that the Streak was on the company wireless LAN – but no, it was hammering out web page after web page on plain old 3G.
Now the HTC Android phone is also pretty sharp –but it has always been a bit on the geeky side; more James May than Jeremy Clarkson if you know what I mean. And the iPhone has all the Hammond style in the world, and I love the apps and the very disruption that they have caused, but as a device it is lacking the punch needed for real mobile internet applications and browsing is definitely reserved for the more patient souls.
So maybe Dell has just done it and come up with a category killer. What is fascinating is that Apple is already sponsoring Adwords against searches for the Dell Streak to push the iPad. So someone in Cupertino is definitely getting a tad anxious and maybe shares my judgement on the potential for the Dell Streak.
It’s irony time. An observation just struck me of how strange it is that a nation of legendary taciturnity should give rise to the world’s largest mobile company. It must have been a strange meeting at Nokia’s headquarters when someone suggested the idea of portable devices so people could actually talk to each other. It was probably met by the deathly silence of total disbelief, although how this could be differentiated from any normal Finnish conversation would have been difficult to deduce.
Anyway all of this is just really just a segue for me to repeat my favourite Finnish joke:
Three Finnish brothers have gone fishing. It’s early morning; they see the sun rise over the horizon when the youngest brother says: “It doesn’t seem like the fish are biting”
They keep on fishing and around midday the middle brother states: “It really doesn’t seem like the fish are hungry”
Night is coming, and the sun is setting when the oldest brother angrily scoffs: “Of course, the fish aren’t biting when you just keep on chatting!”
The FT once described Web 2.0 as the only under-hyped development in the history of the IT industry. With its tail between its legs after the bombing of the dot-coms, the marketing folks mis-calculated and mis-communicated the significance of the web moving from a static display to a participatory and transactional medium.
While most of the world is just getting to grips with the realities of services as a web property, we have to contemplate today the potential for where the web will lead us next in its 3.0 iteration. What is already clear is that certain motifs will be there: it will be personalised, it will be semantic, it will be mobile, it will be organised.
All of these inter-relate, but the facet that fascinates me is how the next generation of the Web will filter, manage, manipulate and present information. Personal information, meta information, business critical information will be acted on by the applet mash-ups of tomorrow to give us the viewpoint we want as individuals. Unlike its predecessor, your Web 3.0 will not be my Web 3.0 – and even my Web 3.0 experience will vary by context.
And a final prediction; just as Web 1.0 was never known as that (it was just called dot-com), so the next generation of the Web will not be known as 3.0. What will it be called? The Semantic Web? The Organic Web? I have no idea – but someone, somewhere does.
OK. I know a blog post should not be a rant. But this is a rant.
One of the things that has caused me to start foaming at the mouth in sheer frustration at the ineptitude of muppets who fane to be PR professionals is the “Pseudo Playbook”.
What I mean by this is the planning document that is created with no intention of implementation but that just exist as a means unto themselves. Like the Tartarus punishment of drawing water in leaking jugs that are empty by the time they reach the table.
These Pseudo Playbooks, put simply, are a ruse whereby a PR agency who really hasn’t got a clue what to do to make a client’s story even tolerably interesting, much less compelling, will persuade the client contact that the right approach is to build a “PR Playbook”; a series of half-baked ill-conceived ideas for how to get coverage that wouldn’t tempt the most dipsomaniac journalist even if accompanied by a litre of Grey Goose. But since the PR flack knows that there is zero chance of the plans ever being enacted, they will never be found out.
So why, you might ask, if it is so useless would any agency do this? Well, think of it as a timeline; the agency has won the account and can then put in a good three to four months building the “PR Playbook”, then they get to execute it (yes, I know it sounds like a bad line from The Godfather) which in turn can take up another three or four months. When all of this fails to metamorphose into any actual results, there will be the great revision of the “PR Playbook” and that will take……..well, you get the picture.
By then the client may well have settled down into thinking that all of this actually constitutes good PR. They do have the “Playbook” after all. And Sebastian and Simona seem like nice young things. So it goes on.
As client fraud goes it is pretty ingenious; a gentle lulling of the client into a catatonic state through the soothing rustle of the Pseudo Playbook pages.
The latest successful IPO by Sensata Technologies reinforces suggestions that 2010 could see a return to strong IPO
Territory across the US tech, med-tech and clean-tech markets. Increasing confidence in the future of the key economies is playing a part but there may be another factor hiding in the wings.
One reason for the hesitance of US companies to IPO in recent years has been that Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) reporting requirements for US-listed companies were considered to be onerous both in terms of the sophistication of the work required to comply, and the cost of compliance. As much as three percent of turnover had been suggested as the cost, complicated by a constant shortage of well qualified SOX practitioners.
Over the last few years though, CFOs and their teams across the US have come to terms with SOX reporting and audits, at the same time as hundreds of thousands of finance personnel have built up their SOX-compliance skills and experience.
Is it a coincidence that IPOs are increasing at a time when the pool of SOX-experienced personnel has finally been filled, and that no company now need fear the SOX shadow?
Today is Ada Lovelace Day, an international day of blogging the purpose of which is to celebrate the achievements of women in science and technology. In the UK we certainly need to encourage and inspire more women to pursue a career in technology where just 23% of the IT workforce is female.
So my shout out today goes to Hedy Lamarr. Hedy is best known as a very beautiful film actress in the 30s and 40s. She acted in more than 25 films including Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah (1949). But Hedy was also an engineer and inventor. Working with a composer friend George Antheil, Hedy invented and patented a method of frequency hopping. She called it a ‘Secret Communications System’ and it was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect. In fact the system was never used for this purpose and was first deployed by the US military in the 1960s to provide secure communications between ships. Lamarr’s frequency-hopping idea is one of the inventions that laid the groundwork for modern spread-spectrum technology used in mobile telecommunications .
Something really must be done about the unjust and unfair treatment of socially media minded Germans. While we merrily Tweet to the limits of our 140 character allowance, the poor Germans find themselves cut off in their prime by the Twitter guillotine.
A simple experiment proved the case. My simple 135 character statement:
This is a test to see just exactly how many more characters it takes to translate something into German to prove that Twitter is very unfair to our Teutonic friends
Becomes a Twitter-busting 152 characters in German
Dies ist ein Test um zu sehen, genau wie viele Zeichen, die er braucht, um etwas ins Deutsche übersetzen zu beweisen, dass Twitter ist sehr unfair gegenüber den germanischen Freunde
Now some would unkindly say that the Germans have only themselves to blame for using overly long words where short ones would do (for example the simple word “pen” becomes a “kugelschreiber”) but it is not only the Weisswurst eaters who have problems.
The Greeks are even worse off with my simple phrase taking up 176 characters while in Tagalog (that’s Filipino to you and me) it is a staggering 207 characters. With character inflation like that it is not hard to see why we see so few Tweets from Athens or Manilla.
At best this is language discrimination, at worst we are seeing a conspiracy to silence the social media voices of verbose and complex languages……..which on reflection may be no bad thing.
