Millenium Marketer

Finally, Amazon launches the mp3 Cloud Player. I had wondered when this might happen. With the launch of their mp3 store, it was surprising that they did not include an easier way to purchase and save files for easy access at any time. After purchasing some mp3′s on Amazon, I noticed that .amz files not be opened at a convenient time once they had been purchased. This was certainly a great frustration from a usability standpoint. It meant having to email customer service and waiting for an answer.
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As witnessed by some accidental browsing on Borders, it looks like the mobile devices market is getting more dispersed.

Mobile devices, by the way, used to be cell phones, period. But that market has expanded greatly to include cell phones, laptops or netbooks, tablets and eBook Readers. All of that just twenty years ago was like science fiction. Amazing.

Anyway, if Android-based mobile phones (28% in sales vs. 21% of iPhones), then Android on tablet devices is a natural progression.

Now, it’s up to the classic hardware makers like Sony (among others) who are lagging behind to stay ahead of the game, because clearly this market is going to get noisy and fast. The interesting thing about Sony is that they were the first to come out with an eBook reader (I have seen these devices at Borders stores way before the Kindle was born) but they did not grab the market in the same way.  When I speculate on this, I think of it this way: new internet players such as Amazon and Google have an edge because they are the companies people aspire to be like in this millennium age. I don’t know why, but they are definitely “cooler” than a company like Sony, which has been very savvy in many electronics in the 90s.

By the way, let’s not forget that eBook reader devices came about as a reaction to other kinds of mobile technologies. As a result, book publishers and newspapers are scrambling to innovate and sell through this new, more efficient channel. Technology often has its way of creating a net effect on other industries and causing massive change.

As fate would have it, while I’ve been hoping to do more investigative on this subject, I have to just put it out there.

Netbooks, are they going to take over the mobile market? I’ve been rooting for Palm for quite a while and now that the Palm Pre is coming out in the future, it’s clear that the mobile market is in great need of new innovators.

But are Netbooks mobile? According to Intel’s social media-ist, Ken Kaplan, Netbooks will see their way into their market as a companion to the mightier laptop, when you’re in need of nothing else but email and a little bit of internet surfing.

Sounds like a good bet for catching up on bill pay online.

Supporting this line of thinking is a hot new fashion piece on the technology block, the Vivienne Tam-designed HP Mini which promises to accessorize the wardrobe of tech chicks and gadget guru-esses, (and possibly fashion-conscious gadget geeks). And even more tiny and sleek is the Intel Atom Processor inside.

So, who will win? Granted, netbooks are now spreading fast since the OLPC, but once newer portable phones come out, what will that say about consumer behavior?

In other words, who’s the hot gadget on the block come Summer 2009?
Palm Pre or HP Mini?

Even in a recession, we can still drool.

I am writing you this e-because I really, really want to see the Palm Centro do better. While I, like many others, am a big fan of the iPhone and even the iTouch for its amazing native touch screen capability, I really think it is time other players in the smartphone market give Apple a run for its money.

Of course, your company doesn’t have the ever-perfectionistic Steve Jobs as your company founder, but really, I like to cheer for the underdogs because without them, where would Apple be?

In your next release of the Palm Centro, please include the following:

1. A larger keyboard that pulls out. My hands are small, but not that small. Or, maybe the option to have a touchscreen keyboard.
2. A better camera. I just found out that Nokia and Samsung won some prestigious awards from a well-known photography magazine. I usually think of Nokia and Samsung phones as “utility” phones, not super-productivity phones where I might Flickr my pictures. Come on, help me and my friends out.
3. Lower the barriers with the web and give us more web integration. If WordPress is having trouble integrating with Palm software, then this says to me that the open source model is biased towards the iPhone. Get out there and outreach to software engineers. Get them excited about the Palm and let’s see cool software emerge like it used to…way back in the 90s.

If Palm can do these things, then maybe, just maybe I can stop hearing about the iPhone where ever I go. Until then, you’re just OK, but you’re not cool yet.

Oh yes, and you can certainly tell McNamee about this. Thanks.

Earlier this year, I noticed an odd phenomenon at the mall. Um, it’s been a long time since I have last been at the mall, but maybe that’s why the difference was so huge to me.

Personal shopping is now a well-emphasized service at the mall, especially with online shopping on the rise.

Enter Tobi.com: a high-fashion clothing website that offers 1-to-1 personal shopping on demand. It’s a genius idea that lets you ask those all important questions, like “Does this shirt wrinkle when worn, or what do you think goes well with the tuxedo top I am looking at?”

I’m loving it as I’m talking to a personal shopper rep, Lisabeth, in the comfort of my own couch, who is already showing promise with a sunny attitude, but every time I click a new link to browse, the IM program threatens to crash.

It’s promising, but this is looking like an amazing business opportunity for Meebo.com in case they haven’t figured it out yet, E-Commerce is in need of a serious chat make-over.

Creativity is so important although we don’t always give it enough space to breathe and grow. As I recall, although I don’t quote correctly, it was Mitchell Baker at Mozilla.org that pointed out that software engineers (and others) have the duty to create products that will best suit the lifestyles of people today.

With so many apps out there, and there being increasingly more, you can’t solve real problems without taking down conventions and structures that people are most used to.

Negativity cancels out creativity

The first rule of brainstorming is to bar out criticism. This means if you brainstorm individually like one Microsoft Chief who goes away for vacation to create “white space,” or if you are brainstorming in a team, negative comments, such as “That won’t work” should not be allowed until the brainstorming session is over.

The same rule applies to supervisors and higher-ups: standing in as a threat to employees is counter-productive to solving problems creatively.

It’s too often that brainstorming and approaching ideas creatively gets a bad rap or is not executed well enough. That takes technical skill, but it’s those who succeed in creative brainstorming will produce elegant solutions for new & existing markets. White space is closer to Blue Ocean Strategy than most people realize.

Frameworks

The second step in creativity is to develop frameworks, such as the “Reframing” approach or a mindmap. The reframing approach attempts to look at a problem from a various number of perspectives, for example from the perspective of a marketer, an engineer, a potential consumer, etc.

Third, don’t let your hard brainstorming work fall away–create action items that get results. If you or your team are not sure exactly how to do this, check out David Allen’s definition of Getting Things Done (GTD) and translate tasks into results. In other words, if you decide to write a document, consider the impact it will have, otherwise known as “So What?”

By thinking through your end goal, you should be more likely to want to work towards the result.

What frameworks have you tried that have worked successfully to break barriers and create new and interesting products, ideas or conversations?

Why do people still love the iPhone? Apple is one of the greatest innovators right now with a loyal following.

Just one year later after the launch of the generation One iPhone, Apple offers the 3G iPhone, which you would think would enrage early adopters for getting the short shrift because they paid to see the earliest model for a higher price than on the new 3G.

Still, people flock to Apple stores, bringing in the original early adopters who purchased First Generation iPhones last year and a second wave of customers that chose to “wait and see.” Even after a year later, the scene at Apple stores upon product launch date on July 11, the lines outside of Apple Stores is much reminiscent of anticipated movie screenings, such as Independence Day ten years ago).

How does Apple do it? Some argue that Apple’s branding is one of the best in the world, as referenced from a 2002 Wired article. Others say it is the sleek design, which is a clear differentiator from most clunky mobile and home computing products that won’t be named because you know who they are.

Both of these are true, but most tend to think of Apple’s approach as entirely a brand strategy, or absolutely an industrial design approach, but people forget that strategy is complex and by no means one-dimensional.

Apple is also the rule breaker that pays no attention to common conventions, adds new value to existing markets, and opens up new channels for other markets that would not otherwise have existed. Apple is not content with being the first mover, as there will be imitators that will follow.

They have done well in three markets: Entertainment (iPod), Productivity(iPhone) and Desktop Computing and it seems to me that by identifying the weaknesses of their competitors, they have turned the entire consumer gadgets industry on its head.

Now that’s something for entrepreneurs to scratch their heads about. If you have a product that works, you have a current success. But that doesn’t mean your product will rise above the noise, will be remembered and most of loved–an important trait for a brand if you are to forgiven later on for product fiascos.

How would you do it? Let’s take a banal product like a computer mouse. How would you turn something like that into a revolution?

Now, I’ll turn the question over to forum, because it’s certainly a complex topic that requires some discussion.

At the risk of being wickedly evangelical, I decided I needed to figure out what kinds of mobile apps are out there for my Palm Centro to stay social. Most apps seem developed for Blackberry or Windows Mobile platforms, although there are easy workarounds.

My tolerance for a 4 lb Dell form factor has been reduced to a spoiled few ounces in a Palm Centro, a small sacrifice to a tinier screen just so that I can be more impulsive and share “of-the-moment” thoughts and keep on top of the latest news where ever I am. Like, yeah, I need to be more ADD.

The best will be during huge events where I can Flickr with the camera, Tweet, e-mail blog while on a train or other moving vehicle, and remember stuff without searching frantically for wireless networks or pray for battery power.

My posts may be much shorter and more frequent after this one, and here’s how:
Flickr
The Centro’s specs say that the camera phone has 1.3 pixels

When I go to Flickr Mobile, it tells me I can email my photos to a designated address.

Your subject line will be the title of the photo, and the email body becomes the photo description

Tweet
Yeah, I know. I can easily receive text messages on my device and I don’t have to worry about downloading program clients. But what is the fun in that?!
So, MoTwit is the application for Palm users.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?

E-mail Blog
Wordpress has a workaround to blog posts from your mobile device. The FAQs can be found here. As usual, WordPress claims that the process is easy: set up a dedicated e-mail address for blogposts and then configure your settings.

The disappointment for the average user sinks in when I see things like:

When you are done creating the new e-mail account , return to the Writing Options panel and fill in the name of the mail server and port number your web hosting provider uses.

Oh damn, I don’t know what that means. WP, can you give me an example?

7/10/08 Update: Setting up a new e-mail address is easy, but I wasn’t too clear how to get WordPress to synch with the new e-mail address.

Remember Stuff, or I mean, the Milk…
Oh and most important, here’s another use for Twitter that is rarely mentioned. Productivity. So, now I can send Tweets to my calendar and tasks to Remember the Milk. That’s uber-social and fun, too. Makes me want to put tons of stuff on my tasks list, although it would be nice to SEE what is on RTM. When RTM gets around to developing a Palm mobile app, then I will be in heaven–Girl Geek heaven.

07/04/08 Update: Tweeting to Google Calendar turns out to be a really nice way to make quick reminders on-the-go since the Google Cal Mobile doesn’t have an update function.

Since this is just the start and I am only learning about all these apps, I’ll say it’s about time to have some discussion on this from more advanced users. What apps have you found really useful for mobile?

While there’s nothing absolutely new about it (since it was announced on TechCrunch earlier today), Drop.io and Scribd today announced integration of iPaper and Drop.io.

Anything you put in a Dropio box will be easily opened up in Scribd, and there is no need to sign in or sign up for an account. Interesting–it addresses the issue that is most often complained about, which is having to register for an account yet again on another application.

Dropio’s PR says that the drop box has been historically used to share photos from family events and auctioning farm animals.

It’s like mailbox meets online library. While I like the Scribd function to see all files in PDF, which avoids storing things in my cache, I would stay tuned to see if this has changed anyone’s life yet.

This and other apps like Box.net are good indicators that storage is moving online as well, which can quickly make 2 GB USB pens obsolete. This is also good news for the server and storage folks, as data clustering in the cloud becomes the upcoming trend.

I’ve been away for the Memorial Day weekend getting engrossed into a new dimension of social media that I had not considered before. These days, I’ve been doing less writing and more listening, so if it seems like I’m a little bit silent, it’s probably because I’m silently listening.

Twenty five dollars last weekend got me Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff’s latest edition of Groundswell, and I am so excited!! This is money well spent.

To do this, you can start by searching through keywords and tags on De.li.ci.ous, Digg or StumbleUpon and find out what people like. De.li.ci.ous has so far proven to be the best search engine, and StumbleUpon is also good for sending messages and coming across random websites that you wouldn’t really know about otherwise. This takes a lot of time, so be prepared to take out about an hour, and commit to limiting this time and coming back to it later. Otherwise, you will find yourself entangled in the Information Spider’s web.

Social bookmarking sites aren’t just another form of ratings and reviews, and it really boggles the mind that there is such a fine detail in understanding your target audience. You can actually see who is digging, stumbling, delicious by checking out their profile, their gender, age, and where they are located. Of course, I knew this was true for marketers, such as those who target profiles on Facebook, but it hadn’t really occurred to me that bloggers could use this in the same way.

For example, I found Divedi on StumbleUpon. He lives in Bulgaria and he is a huge fan of social media. I now know what he is interested in which confirms my thoughts that people do want to know more about social media marketing. Thanks, Divedi!

These days, I am doing less writing and more listening. Who’s out there and what do they want to know? After all, there’s not much point in me speaking if it only contributes to the noise. This is a gap that is not often addressed on the web. Social media bloggers often say, “listening is the first step to blogging.” It’s often been a vague concept for those unfamiliar with the context that social media is a “conversation.” Plus, they don’t tell you how to listen.

Go out there, listen and let me know what you find! I’ll be sharing more on the Groundswell when another poignant moment strikes me.

Addendum: Wrapping It All Up

Three benefits to social bookmarking

(Just remember this is not the end all be all without a compelling message to broadcast)

Listening Power
You know exactly who likes what, what’s hot and what’s not. Sometimes people like videos that are outrageous and silly.

Will It Blend is hypnotic: it turns things like granulated sugar into powder sugar and beats credit cards into a fine powder.

Hunting & Gathering Power
In a traditional tribe, everybody works together to get what they need to support the tribe. This is the Information Age and now you can get others to work with you to get the information you want or need.

A friend, Travis, sent me a link from StumbleUpon that I would have never even found myself. Another blogger friend sent me a bunch of cool links, such as this smartmouth one for blog critiques, called Ask and Ye Shall Receive. After a study abroad year in the UK from 2004, and my trained British sensibilities are ruffled by the Blogspot title.

Friending Power
This is the potential to make friends out of strangers, and this can be super important! Sometimes it’s not the masses that matter, but the quality of the conversation. (There’s that word again. We now need new words in social media.)

Stumble It!