Decoding the new economy

The Smartphone wars

Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 system means there’s much more competition in the smartphone market.

The mobile phone market has become a lot more competitive this morning with Microsoft’s launch of their new mobile phone system, Windows Phone 7, which will be appearing on new phones in the shops over the next few weeks.

For the Australian market Vodafone have announced they will make Window 7 available on the new HTC 7 Trophy model while Telstra are offering it on the HTC 7 Mozart and LG Optimus 7Q.

Interestingly, Optus haven’t announced what handsets they will be selling Window Phone 7on while parent company Singtel are offering the same handsets as Telstra in Singapore which, depending on exclusivity agreements, might mean Optus will have some suprises at today’s Australian launch of the product.

Should you be looking at buying a phone, you’ll find there will be a big push on the Windows 7 models as the telcos and phone sellers are desperate to have another smartphone alternative to the iPhone alongside the Google Android models.

Last week before the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce Telstra chief executive David Thodey described some of the challenges his organisation has with Apple and that frustration is shared by all the telcos and retailers who hate seeing the bulk of the profits going back to Steve Jobs.

So if you do set foot into your local phone shop before Christmas expect the hard sell on the Windows and Google Android phones as the dealers will be seeing better commissions from those devices.

As well the obvious incentives to salespeople, Microsoft’s always impressive PR machine has been rumbling away on this for several months after Windows 7 was launched at the Barcelona World Mobile Congress last February showing off early versions of the phones so we’ve had a chance to play with the devices and they certainly behave nicely.

It may be that the Windows 7 phones may well be the right thing for you. A play with them finds them fast and responsive with built in support for standard Microsoft features such as Exchange and Office applications along with consumer attractions such as XBox Live.

Where the Windows phone sits in the market is going to be interesting — we’ll almost certainly see the Microsoft and Google phones selling at cheaper price points than the Apple iPhone — however Apple tend not to respond to price wars so the battle is going to come down to features.

The real battle ground will be in the applications space as we now demand more from our phones. For most smartphone users, actually speaking on the thing is a small part of what they use the device for. US technology writer Robert Scoble points out Google’s Android system has over 100,000 apps available while Apple has 270,000. That’s a lot of catching up for Microsoft.

Although if any organisation can do this, it’s Microsoft as they have a well established culture of supporting developers for Windows applications alongside a massive army of resellers and support companies which all have an interest in the success of Microsoft’s latest product.

The biggest player, Nokia, isn’t taking this lying down with at least one new product launch coming up in the next few weeks. So the run up to Christmas is going to be fun for mobile phone resellers.

If you are shopping for a new phone, it might be worthwhile nursing the old one along for a little while, let the early adopters deal with the teething problems and seeing which product meets your needs and budget when the hype settles down.

The innovation smugglers

Those dissenters sneaking new tools into your business are the future. Your organisation needs to embrace them.

“Sales staff have bought a pile of iPad’s!” wailed a senior executive last week “they didn’t get authorisation through IT, there are all sorts of security and business risks!”

This echoed the comments I’d heard a few weeks earlier while doing a workshop on cloud computing, that people were running software as a service applications alongside their businesses’ software without telling their management what they were doing.

All of this is reminiscent of the spread of personal computers in the late 1980s where IT departments, such as they then were, banned the use of IBM compatible or Macintosh computers because they were outside the control of the organisation.

The prevailing view was that computer systems were the domain of a select few, running the payroll and doing complex calculations in batches at two in the morning. There was no reason why the average worker should need this sort of technology.

Eventually, managements realised those subversive personal computers running programs like Wordstar and VisiCalc improved productivity and made businesses more flexible. Within five years few businesses didn’t have computers on the desks of every office worker.

We’re at the same stage now with cloud computing, social media and portable devices as many of today’s managers see them as at best toys and a threat to their organisation’s integrity. Quietly though, groups within are using theses tools to improve their teams’ effectiveness while not letting IT or senior management know how they are doing it.

These dissenters are an organisation’s innovators and in a perfect world they would be embraced by managers, directors and shareholders alike as the future of the company.

Many large organisations though don’t see it this way, as their view of the workplace is that innovation and new ideas have to be signed off by seven layers of management after being cleared by legal, HR and the facilities department.

This is where the opportunity lies for the smaller, smarter companies. These tools make organisations faster and more responsive to threats and opportunities which is perfect for the nimble and flexible enterprises.

If you have staff who are smuggling in these tools and devices into your business, consider sitting down with them and getting them to show you how these products improve their work. You may be surprised and it may save you some time in writing stern memos which will be ignored anyway.

The beauty of these tools is you don’t need to throw out your existing equipment and methods as often these new innovations sit happily alongside the legacy stuff. Cloud services are good example of this where services such as Salesforce and Google Apps work with and often plug into the older, established tools.

Because they play nice with existing business tools it’s easy to introduce or evaluate new systems by encouraging the innovators to set up groups or pilot projects within the organisation, which is probably what they are doing anyway without telling you.

In a competitive world, your dissenters are one of your greatest assets, by questioning how and why we use the tools we do, these folk are figuring out how businesses will run in the connected economy.

The question is, do you want your business to be succeed in this new economy?

Why I won’t be buying an iPad for now

iPad hysteria is in the air. But the smart buyers are waiting for the next version.

This week the Internet is alive with tech journalists and Apple fans breathlessly describing how the iPad is going to change business and the world. All of their predictions may well be true, but it’s best holding off buying an iPad until the hype cycle runs its course.

Right now, iPad users are in classic bleeding edge territory as the early adopters explore the neat features and the disappointing drawbacks of the new device. There will be joy and tears as they make their journey.

It’s great they are making those discoveries as this knowledge will make life easier for the later adopters and Apple will address many of the disappointments in their next version, which is the main reason for holding off buying the first version.

We saw this with the iPhone — the early adopters rushed into buying it even though it wasn’t a particularly well featured device. A year after the original iPhone release, the new 3G model addressed most of the dissatisfaction with the original model. It was a better, cheaper product.

Exactly the same thing will happen with the iPad, and that’s why you should save your pennies. Almost certainly the next version of the iPad will include multitasking, without which you can’t be talking on Skype while editing your LinkedIn profile and will probably prove the biggest headache to iPad users.

Where the iPad may really change things is in the retail, logistics and medical industries. All of these sectors have seen some adoption of tablet computers, but the clunky, overpriced Windows based tablets have held the market back. The cheaper, lighter and better designed Apple device will probably accelerate the take up of tablet devices and the business methods that work with them.

The retail angle shouldn’t be understated. We recently looked at how iPhone products like Redlazer are changing the retail industry and Smart Company’s Craig Reardon recently described how Australian retailers are being left behind by the net.

It’s no coincidence one of the first business applications for the iPad is a point of sale application. Should the next iPad version be released with a rear mounted camera, it will be more than a glorified cash register and deliver some serious power to smaller retailers.

The iPad further illustrates just how pervasive computing and the internet is capable of challenging established business models. If you’re ignoring how tools like the iPad, mobile Internet, cloud computing and social media are changing your business then your company probably isn’t going to be around in a few years time.

While it’s best to hold off buying an iPad right now, you can’t ignore the changes it presents to business. By waiting you make sure you get the best return on your technology investment.

Twitter is like CB radio and this isn’t a bad thing

Of all the predictions we can make for 2010 one good bet is social networking is approaching, if not past, the fashionable peak of the hype cycle. Particularly Twitter which we’ve seen pronounced dead by various writers over the break.

Last week’s Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show illustrates the Hype Cycle we discussed just before the Christmas break. If there’s one thing for sure, we can say tablet computers, 3D televisions and Google phone are racing to see which will be the first to the “peak of inflated expectations”.

Funnily, we’ve been here before with mobile phones, tablet PCs and 3D entertainment so it will be interesting to see where these are in 18 months or so.

While it’s entertaining looking at the new gadgets, the interesting action is happening on the other side of the peak where real uses for technology and gizmos are found after the hype moves on to something newer and prettier. When the bored fashionistas move on from a product that’s no longer the newest and shiniest we see if something is genuinely useful or just a pointless fad.

My favourite comment was from an weekend newspaper entertainment columnist stating the Twitter hype was driven by “Boring Old Farts Suddenly Discovering Technology” and the whole thing is now dead because an MTV host declared she was over Twitter. The Luddites are crowing that Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the entire Internet thingummybob can join CB radios in history’s discount bin of overhyped technology.

Citizens Band radio is a good lesson of what happens as a product moves through the hype cycle. In the mid 1970s peak, songs were being written about it and the media was awash with spookily similar stories of how CB radio was ushering in a new era of participatory democracy. Within a couple of years, the hype had passed and those who had a use for it, such as truckies, farmers and service people, got on with their work without the kids and newbies hogging their radio channels.

Exactly that process is happening now with the various online networking tools. The naysayers will crow they were right all along about a fad for boring old farts while unknown to them entrepreneurs will be figuring out ways to make money from these tools and smart businesses will be using them to stay ahead of their slower competitors.

As well as the trendies moving on, the social media snake oil sellers who’ve traded on the social media hype over the last two years will also move on to the Next Big Thing or go back to selling multi level marketing schemes. The honest consultants and genuine experts who survive the shakeout will be able to genuinely add value and help their clients achieve more with the tools.

So a product or technology passing the peak of the hype cycle is an excellent opportunity to use it do great things for your business without the fashionistas and snake oil merchants distracting you. Don’t be afraid to experiment just because the PR machines and fashion victims have moved on.

Riding the hype cycle

Despite the Google Phone only existing in a couple of photographs, the device is making headlines as the new “iPhone killer” and there’s no doubt early adopters are asking “should I wait for this new phone?”

It’s a tough life on the bleeding edge – the life of an early technology adopter features long days breathlessly waiting for the next hyped up product with short periods of extreme disappointment when the latest uber toy fails to live up to the marketing promise.

To explain how hype works in the tech sector, the consultants at Gartner invented the Hype Cycle. The cycle explains how a typical product is released in a wave of publicity that drives it to the “peak of inflated expectations”.

Eventually the bubble pops and the widget plunges into the “trough of disillusionment” where users either abandon it or suffer the taunts of their friends and workmates.

Over time, those persistent fans find what the widget does well and it begins to crawl up the “slope of enlightenment” as the believers convince others the product really is good for something.

When enough people accept the widget as the best tool for a certain job it settles on the “plateau of productivity” where it happily sits until a better mousetrap comes along.

In reality some widgets move faster than others and not all make it over the peaks and plateaus. A look at the 2009 cycle shows some products that have taken a decade to approach the peak of inflated expectations while others have simply been abandoned by their makers or the market before they’ve completed the journey.

For business owners, most focus on the tools that have reached the plateau of acceptance. This is partly because wasting time on a new device that doesn’t do what it’s supposed to squanders an entrepreneur’s scarcest asset.

The other main reason for avoiding hyped products is they carry risk and most business owners have enough risk in their lives to satisfy even the most adventurous tech warrior.

None of that means we shouldn’t be looking at new gadgets and ideas – the world is moving fast and those who don’t adopt new technologies and concepts will be left behind. But just be a bit careful of the hype and unrealistic expectations of what the latest new thing can do for you.

The basics of service

Cathy’s saga shows how people skills are as important as competency when you’re running a service business. You need manners and respect to match your skills.

Of course, if you don’t have any skills to start with, you might want to consider doing something else.

Recently I wrote about the things you should look for when choosing an IT service provider. Shortly after writing that column I caught up with Cathy (names changed to protect the guilty) and found out what happened in her search for a tech.

The results weren’t pretty and the reasons why are a lesson for anyone in a service industry. Let’s start with the most fundamental.

Respect
I find it hard to believe I actually have to write this, but I’ve seen it too often myself. Cathy’s first computer tech treated her with contempt and didn’t listen to her problem and needs.

You might think your clients are beneath you and maybe you are right. After all, that dumb customer doesn’t know how to use a mouse, fill in a BAS, fix a cistern or carry out root canal therapy.

But that dumb customer also pays your wage, so quit the attitude and show some manners and respect.

You should also respect your competitors, a point I forgot in last week’s column. Scoffing at the previous guy’s work is bad form and good clients will show you the door if they have any sense.

Competence
Don’t take on jobs you don’t understand. This is particularly common with computer techs who have a habit of saying: “yeah, I can fix anything” when a client calls.

In Cathy’s case she had a Windows 2003 Small Business Server which superficially looks like Windows XP but is a very different beast under the bonnet. The tech was experienced enough to know better.

Funnily, the tech I referred to Cathy declined the job because he felt her requirements were outside his skills. If the first guy Cathy called had shown the same humility and competence it would have saved everybody a lot of distress.

Appearance
In an industry known for cowboys, wearing boots that would look straight out of Rawhide is a big mistake. Clients are conservative creatures and many will turn away if you are too different to their expectations.

Dress how a customer expects you to dress- an accountant wears a suit, a computer tech has the blue shirt, dark pants combo and a bricklayer wears a pair of stubbies revealing more than you care for when the brickie bends over.

When you’re in an industry where people are afraid of being ripped off, showing up in a flash car confirms their fears. Leave the Porsche at home and show up in a cheap hatchback, the things are easier to park anyway. As you’ve probably guessed, Cathy’s tech drove up in a Mercedes.

Billing
Last week I advised avoiding the “no fix-no fee” crowd. However, that’s different from standing by your work.

If you’ve screwed up, as Cathy’s tech did, then bleating: “I sweated for you” is plain silly. If the customer is unhappy, waive or discount the bill.
Sure, sometimes you end up copping the pain when an unreasonable customer complains but billing issues are a reliable early warning a client is going to be a major pain. Refund their money and get them out of your lives.

The story does end well though. Finally Cathy found someone who was polite, competent and barely raised an eyebrow when they saw the mess made by the first tech.

Cathy’s saga shows how people skills are as important as competency when you’re running a service business. You need manners and respect to match your skills.

Of course, if you don’t have any skills to start with, you might want to consider doing something else.

Category: advice

The Smartphone wars

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