Thought Starters Archives

THOUGHT STARTERS: CONTENT THAT HAS GOT ME THINKING 13

There’s been a fair amount of coverage over the last week looking at the mobile web/mobile app divide. Matt Gemmell provides four different classifications of mobile apps running from web apps (explicitly running in a general-purpose browser) through to fully native classifications (without an HTML/CSS user interface). He goes on to look at the pros and cons of the different options.

What really kicked things off though was Flurry’s release of statistics which point to mobile apps taking a greater share of the time Americans spend on their mobile phones.

Microsoft has released an infographic which give you an idea of the mobile browser and app split as well as giving an indication of which of the major Western countries are heavier users of their smartphones.

Chris Dixon has used Flurry’s figures to raise concerns about the trend as signalling a move away from a more open web, with Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store acting as potential gatekeepers.

Steve Schlafman looks at the ‘Uberification of the US service economy’ as startups deliver app based business models that bring together discovery, order, payment, fulfillment and confirmation in a closed loop.

Benedict Evans looks at the rapidly evolving mobile environment, pointing to the issues of discovery and identity as areas that we are still looking for solutions to evolve and/or mature.

A less mobile centric picture of the online landscape in the UK is provided by the following infographic, again from Microsoft.

Both Forrester and We Are Social are giving a plug for the sometimes neglected Google+ as part of brand’s social strategy. Engagement levels are good, even if the user population is dwarfed by that of Facebook.

Mobile will drive growth in media usage worldwide, with television and PC based internet access showing respectable increases, with print advertising being the major loser according to ZenithOptimedia’s forecast for global media quoted in Econsultancy.

The release of the Amazon Dash is a great example of Amazon’s continuing quest to reduce consumers’ barriers to purchase.

The world is seeing increases in inequality in income and wealth with Occupy Wall Street’s drawing attention to the top 1%. Priceonomics looks more closely at the figures and finds that it’s the top .01% that are really taking the cake.

The featured image is by eko

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In Carlos Paz, Argentina

The following provides a roundup of some of the articles, thought pieces and content which have got me thinking recently.

Organisational intranets are too often where content goes to die. SmallWorlders look at how to get colleagues interacting more with their organisational intranets.

The Atlantic looks at the difficulties in choosing metrics that give a true representation of website traffic – no one measure is going to provide a cure-all.

Russell Holly gives his verdict on Google Glass – good but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

The rapid growth of the mobile based social network Secret (currently iOS only) has seen a growing interest in user anonymity online. Wired and PandoDaily profile Secret and the the anonymous trend (and Secret’s pseudo anonymity) whilst Chris Poole and Sam Altman give arguments for and against anonymity.

Wired profiles Amazon’s Flow mobile app which uses image recognition to reduces the hurdle to purchase for mobile users.

The New Yorker takes an extended look at Amazon’s effects on the book industry for consumers and for the publishing sector.

Maserati’s Superbowl television advertisement didn’t exactly send a stampede of customers in the direction of their local Maserati dealerships. Advertising Age has done an interesting analysis on what else Maserati could otherwise have bought with their media budget.

Bitcoin payment solutions are looking less and less like science fiction, so it’s valuable to hear from an ecommerce retailer about their experiences in using the alternative currency.

McKinsey reviews the growth in mass customisation which has been given a boost by various technological innovations and is allowing companies to better engage with their audiences.

Europe’s stalled economic performance has prompted a lot of hand wringing, with the region often criticised for its lack of innovation. INSEAD’s Bruce Lanvin puts this idea under the microscope and provides a rather different conclusion.

Featured image comes from French artist Nelio.

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The following provides a roundup of some of the articles, thought pieces and content which have got me thinking recently.

The startup sector continues to get a lot of attention in the news media, positioning itself as an engine of innovation. A contrary view is given by Mariana Mazzucato in The Economist who points to mid and larger sized enterprises as being stronger drivers. Am not sure this gives a full reading of the situation, but its an important reminder that innovation isn’t monopolised by any one part of society.

Jana Mobile point to various developing markets as evidence that Windows Phone has a potentially viable opportunity as a third smartphone operating system. Beyond Devices takes a much more bearish view, pointing to the growing stranglehold that Android and iOS have over the smartphone market.

Zal Bilimoria suggests in re/code that we may be moving towards a post tablet world as consumers look to consolidate around PCs and phablets. Too early to tell, but an interesting hypothesis.

It has been interesting watching the changing tone of conversation around Chromebooks as better hardware and improved web services make the platform ‘good enough’ for an increasingly large population of users. Cases in point are David Gewirtz’s recommendation for civilians and Andrew Cunningham’s more luke warm review for users with greater technical requirements. TechWorld points out that Chromebook remains an outlier in the enterprise sector, but it is beginning to emerge as a realistic alternative for some.

WeAreSocial have released a valuable presentation looking at some of the key social and mobile metrics from Europe that goes well beyond the EU5.

The appointment of Satya Nadella as Microsoft’s CEO and the emergence of Bill Gates from behind the curtains has prompted a lot of commentary on the company’s current fate. Tech.pinions is among the more positive commentators but a gloomier view is head by John Gruber (never a Microsoft fan at the best of times). It’s also worth reading Ben Thompson’s commentary on the reemergence of Bill Gates at Microsoft.

The media sector has taken a bit of beating lately with many organisations hit by declining print advertising and sales with online revenues failing to fill the gap. Marc Andreessen sees a rosier picture with plenty of opportunities with new business models emerging.

McDonald’s has taken a lot of flak over the years over the quality of its food. Given potential consumer misgivings, so it’s interesting to see McDonald’s adopt a more transparent attitude towards the products it sells…definitely not something to file under food porn. More information over at AdWeek.

If you are in London this weekend and prepared to brave the gale force winds, Phlegm’s show at the Howard Griffin Gallery is well worth a look. The featured image at the top of the page comes from Marcus Peel’s photography of the show which can be found on Phlegm’s blog.

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The following provides a roundup of some of the articles and thought pieces which have got me thinking recently.

Pratik Dholakiya profiles different scientific studies into social media, highlighting some important findings. Among the conclusions are the following: consumer to consumer interactions on Facebook assets that are particularly important in influencing sales; the development of viral content should be framed in terms of retaining as well as expanding your audience; and community activities (eg forums) have a crucial role in contributing to sales when compared to traditional media.

GlobalWebIndex have produced a short report looking at the global penetration of different social networks, which are growing fastest, with regional and age breakdowns.

Epidemiological methods are used to predict the future decline of Facebook (apparently significant between 2015 and 2017) by researchers from Princeton University. More information on the research over at AllFacebook although there are some dissenting views.

David Meyer points to over eager social marketers as handicapping the newly launched social network Jelly before its even had a chance to build up a decent audience.

Joy of Tech provides a wry take on Google’s recent acquisition of the Nest Labs home automation company.

Matt Cutts looks at the demise of guest blogging as it becomes more and more associated with spammy SEO.

Marc Andreessen wrote an essay in the New York Times which gives a welcome introduction into the wider potential of Bitcoins particularly in terms of payments. Glenn Fleishman who has already written an article on Bitcoins for the Economist, wrote a response in Medium to Andreessen’s essay calling out various inaccuracies and/0r inconsistencies. Both are well worth a read.

Whilst there’s been a lot of attention on the monetisation strategies of Line, WeChat and other mobile messaging platforms, WhatsApp continues to grow at a rapid rate according to the latest Mashable report.

GigaOm looks at the case of a business person who was outed as transgender in a investigative report in Grantland which may have contributed to her committing suicide. Aside from the ethics of disclosing someone’s gender, it also points to the ability for stories published online to have a much greater reach and impact than the print equivalent. Christina Kahrl has written a follow on piece in Grantland looking at the mistakes made in the publication of the piece vis-a-vis which is similarly worth a read.

Chris McKinlay took an extraordinarily analytical approach to finding a match on OkCupid. The Wired story makes for an interesting analysis of how big data can be used in a more personal setting.

For those of you who have caught Spike Jonze’s new film Her (which I thoroughly recommend), New York magazine has had a look at how far off we are from having a Samantha like virtual assistant.

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Architectural Density by Michael Wolf

The following provides a roundup of articles and thought pieces which have got me thinking recently.

It’s over eight months since the launch of the Google Glass Explorer programme and we have some more considered reviews of their use now available. Marco Arment doesn’t so much as review Google Glass as argue that it doesn’t offer any real enhancement beyond that provided by computer internet connectivity and smartphone (although arguably people said the same about tablets when they launched).

Robert Scoble paints a rather negative picture, pointing to shortcomings in the number of apps, user interface, battery life and lack of Facebook functionality among other things.

Mat Honan in Wired strikes a more optimistic tone seeing the form factor as something we’ll see a lot more despite negative reactions on the part of other consumers to Glass wearers and poor quality of third party apps available (although Google Now is described as amazing).

Bitcoin is also a subject area that’s been getting a lot of coverage lately reflecting its soaring value (with the odd wobble) through 2013.

Stephen Mihm writing for Bloomberg points to the threat that governments pose to Bitcoin’s viability, pointing to historical examples of where alternative currencies have been shut down by the state.

Brad Delong looks at how competition from Bitcoin alternatives could put an end to the enviable returns for investors as investors jump ship to Namecoin, Litecoin, Peercoin or even Dogecoin.

Chris Dixon provides a rather different perspective, arguing that Bitcoin (and other associated cryptocurrencies) provide an important enabler for digital enterprises, given the brake the payments industry is having on emerging digital practices and models.

Mike Bracken looks at gov.uk project and how responsive digital delivery sees delivery informs policy rather than simply being dictated by it in an agile development environment.

Interesting article from Chester Ng hypothesising what it would be like if Microsoft forked Android which would would provide Microsoft with access to the rich environment of apps that is currently lacking with the Windows Phone.

Craig Mod writing for the New Yorker looks at how advances in smartphones are making most cameras obsolete, particularly as we share photography digitally across our digital networks.

Thoughtful essay from Nathan Jurgenson on how disconnecting ourselves won’t lead us to a more authentic self. Taking a more satirical approach is Ethan Kuperberg’s look at deactivating your Facebook account in the New Yorker.

Print publications are facing a hard time with declining readership as people spend more time with their digital screens. Bruce Handy and Dasha Tolstikova look at how print can reposition itself to increase its allure.

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street art by nuria mora / Plenty of Colour

The following provides a roundup of articles and thought pieces which have got me thinking recently.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the declining reach of Facebook as the company increasingly takes on the role of toll gatherer for brands looking to reach their audiences. Being Practical looks at this phenomenon and warns people away from using it as a means of reaching their audience given the miserly 2% engagement rate.

Om Malik in his first for Fast Company writes about anticipatory computing, and how this is reshaping our relationship with technology.

In another piece from Om Malik, this time for GigaOm, he argues that 2013 has been a good year for technology (revelations about the NSA aside) in a retort to a recent article in The Atlantic.

BuzzFeed’s John Herrman looks at the growing dominance of Facebook and Google in our online lives and how this curtails our freedom and creates a subservient role for many other operators in the digital sector.

JWT provide their latest round up of trends to watch for in the coming year spanning from technology and media through to food and drinks.

Luke O’Neil takes a critical look at contemporary journalism which is increasingly driven by an accelerating news cycle. Understandably, this hasn’t helped the quality of news as editors feel the need to ‘publish or perish.’

Wall Street Journal’s Ethan Smith reports on the growth of streaming music services such as Spotify and argues that this is likely to lead to promote music with staying power.

Interesting article on The Awl on the rise and fall of Grunge typography. As we move towards a more mobile centric world, typography tends to follow function rather than form.

New York Magazine’s Maureen O’Connor looks at the effect technology is having on our interactions with our exes, with Facebook, Gchat, Snapchat and text messages all potentially complicating attempts to make a fresh start.

Emotient now provide analytics that can assess the emotional state of filmed audiences, providing brands with the opportunity to tailor their messaging to the mood state of their audiences.

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Gehry's Children #9 by Andrew Prokos

In the space of two days this week, we saw the launch of Instagram Direct and Twitter’s enabling the inclusion of photos in direct messages. This can be seen as their response to the encroaching presence of mobile messaging services by upgrading their one to one communications.

Ben Thompson also looks at the importance of being one of Apple’s featured apps and the growing importance of marketing in the app economy, with more than million now available in the App Store now.

Xiaomi Hugo Barra talks through some of the more interesting innovations in the mobile and ecommerce sector in China.

Having a mobile optimised website is only going to grow in importance as Google factors in load times for mobile devices in the ranking of its search results according as reported in Econsultancy.

Eurostat figures point to the European countries where social networks are more popular, with UK coming out near the front.

The MIT Technology Review has an interesting infographic which points to Twitter’s multicultural profile and the countries where it has the largest presence.

Gmail has traditionally has traditionally required users to enable images when viewing their emails as a means of protecting their privacy. This is about to change as Google caches images within consumers’ emails which prevents the tracking of emails beyond the first opening and their location according to Econsultancy.

We Are Social look at strategies for how to deal with social media when things don’t go quite to plan for organisations and their brands.

Keep Calm and Deal With It, We Are Social

We Are Social along with Tablexi have also looked at where to employ responsive design as opposed to native apps. Definitely a case of judging situations on a case by case basis.

Wired looks at the array of mobile interactions offered by Apple’s iBeacons, enables richer location based services and bringing Bluetooth to fore. We just need to ensure that brands use this mode responsibly or we’ll see consumers shutting closing off this new channel.

It’s that time of year where we have commentators looking backwards at the year that’s been and forward to the year that is coming. Contagious provides one of the better year reviews with case studies on a range of interesting innovations from around the globe thoughtfully curated.

For a more forward looking guide, you might want to try Carat’s 10 Trends for 2014, which looks at smart devices, push notifications, bluetooth beacons, frictionless payments, location & local, deliveries and health & wellbeing among others. Then again, if this is all proving too much, you can turn to Soap for a more light hearted approach.

New Republic looks at the disruptive effect that Netflix is having on mass culture, creating smaller but potentially more passionate communities of interest.

Community lost can be community gained, and as mass culture weakens, it creates openings for the cohorts that can otherwise get crowded out. When you meet someone with the same particular passions and sensibility, the sense of connection can be profound. Smaller communities of fans, forged from shared perspectives, offer a more genuine sense of belonging than a national identity born of geographical happenstance.

The article also makes the valid point that mass culture only really arrived with television in the mid to late 20th century and its decline shouldn’t be seen as the threat that some people would have us believe.

Image recognition technology keeps on getting smarter with recent advances enabling software to identify consumers cultural affiliations by their style of dress (raver or rockabilly). This will enable further targeting opportunities based on the images and videos consumers share.

Computers Can Now Automatically Stereotype 'Hipsters' and 'Bikers', The Atlantic — Computers Can Now Automatically Stereotype ‘Hipsters’ and ‘Bikers’, The Atlantic

Counter Notions looks at how digital automation is encroaching into print journalism as computers are able to write standardised copy. Whilst the likes of Jeremy Paxman might not have anything to worry about, it is likely to impact on the demand for more basic journalistic roles.

Can robots write sports previews? CounterNotions

It is apparently the season of goodwill and design agency Raw have developed Let’s Talk Turkey to get us all to consider the fall guy for many of our Christmas dinners. The site provides simple graphics to explain how turkey came to dominate our Christmas meals and the poor conditions that many turkeys face before landing on our plates.

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Algorithms have the potential to surround ourselves with like minded people and information that supports our viewpoint in what some people call a filter bubble. Given these concerns, it is great to see innovations that bring together people with alternative views together. Hopefully we’ll see more of this in the future.

Horace Dediu tracks the growing role of smartphones and tablets in online purchasing in the US drawing on the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark study. GlobalWebIndex provides a view on how PC, mobiles and tablets are used during the purchace process. Ecommerce is not a PC monopoly particularly as we see PC sales decline.

Ben Bajarin looks at the increasingly diverse world of Android ecosystems in which Google is a player but my no means the only beneficiary.

Benedict Evans looks at the BBC figures for iPlayer which points to the online service making up a fraction of overall television viewership for now, although growing tablet penetration of tablets may see this change.

Nicholas Carr in The Atlantic provides a thoughtful piece on some of the negative aspects associated with automation as we rely increasingly on machines.

GlobalWebIndex give their view on what are the most used social services worldwide.

Frank Chimero’s meditation on the role of the screen and interactive design is worth spending some time with.

Diesel makes Tumblr friendly animated GIFs in its latest experiential campaign.

Patagonia has long had a socially responsible image and has created a lot of noise with its recent calls for people to buy less. Worn Wear is the brand’s latest initiative celebrating the clothing that lasts you for years which it has supported with a short film contrasting its position with other retailers during Cyber Monday. The strategy has apparently been successful with growing sales for the outdoor brand.

Gallery Analytics is an installation for exhibitions that’s able to generate data about behavior of visitors and present this data in a Google Analytics-like environment. By setting up a mesh Wi-Fi network and combining it with custom-made software, Gallery Analytics is able to track every Wi-Fi-enabled device (such as a smartphone) moving around in the area in real-time. I can imagine we will see more of this kind of thing as iBeacon comes into play.

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Yusuke Moritani a.k.a KARE (2012)

There has been some interesting analysis surfacing looking at the different mobile and tablet platforms and their respective audiences. Benedict Evans raises the important point that Android tablets encompass a broad array of devices making comparisons between Android and iOS tablets very difficult. Daniel Eran Dilger expands on this, pointing to IDC, Gartner and Strategy Analytics’ failure to properly unpick the tablet and smartphone market leading to a situation where apples (iPads and iPhones) are compared with oranges (low spec Android phones and tablets). The ecosystem of mobile apps and their respective community of developers has a vital role to play in the success of any mobile operating systems (no apps > no sales). In North America and Western Europe, iOS dominates the developer community, but Mark Wilcox points out that this isn’t the case for Asia and Latin America. Something to bear in mind as Asia becomes a growing source of innovation in the mobile sector.

Ben Thompson has taken a valuable look at the different channels consumers are using to interact with online. It’s well worth reading his commentary on the roles of the different channels.

Whilst Silicon Valley may no longer have a near monopoly on startups, it still provides one of the driving forces for the tech sector. In this presentation, Loic Le Meur looks at some of the organisations and innovations that have gained a profile in the region. Wearable computing has been getting some renewed attention with a preview of the Glass Development Kit for developers. Thomas Claburn explores some of the myths currently associated with the wearable computing sector. The Guardian continue their great work on data visualisations with a look at which corporations have made a major contribution towards global warming.

I moved from an iPhone to an Android device a couple of years ago. Whilst the Android app ecosystem is moving towards parity, every so often you come across an app that you wish there was an Android equivalent. The latest one is I PIXEL U which enables users to pixelate particular aspects of their photographs.

Google has created a charming pair of binoculars to celebrate the Sydney Opera House’s fortieth anniversary, giving consumers a window to other inspirational places.

A 24 hour music video has been created to support Pharrell Williams’ song Happy. Beautifully executed promotion of music outside your standard Youtube container. Google profile Doctor Who with their latest doodle and when activated, leads users through to an online game. Find out more about the Whodle over at the Guardian.

Thought Starters: Content that has got me thinking

Hopare

Smartphones are taking an increasing role in consumers’ lives. The following infographic looks at how American smartphone consumers (Android and iOS) use their mobile through the course of the day.

Always Connected: How Smartphones And Social Keep Us Engaged, Facebook

Further evidence of the growing importance of smartphones can be seen in the movement of Apple’s iTunes revenues from music to to one App payments with a seemingly unstoppable growth trend.

Horace Dediu’s Twitter stream is a great for those of you interested in technology and its impact on consumer’s media usage. One of his more recent postings points out the rapid growth of mobile consumption among consumers in the USA which is happening at the expense of television, radio, print and even online.

Apps overtook music in less than five years—all of big media is next

Google has launched Google Helpouts allowing individuals or organisations to offer free or paid one on one tutorials. You may well find brands using this channel as a means of reaching consumers such as Home Depot are trying in the US.

I recently profiled new formats in web journalism. One of the concerns that critics have raised is the failure of media owners to integrate advertising. Polygon’s recent profile of the launch of Sony’s PS4 provides an interesting example of integrating relevant advertisers into a richer web media format.

On the subject of online media, Felix Salmon looks at the issue of consolidation in the online media sector, particularly where the new acquisitions can be aligned with the parent company’s content management systems.

We are still waiting for the mobile payments juggernaut to arrive, but in the meantime the soon to be launched Coin provides a nice solution to managing your different cards (and accidentally leaving them behind).

The Open Data Index provides a ranking of countries by how open they are in their treatment of public information. UK comes first, comfortably ahead of the USA.

Feel free to chip in with your thoughts on any of the above.

Tag: Thought Starters

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