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One Giant Leap for Cable
Apr 10, ’11
10:01 PM
If you had asked me whether or not the big cable companies would ever allow streaming content to anything other than through their tightly controlled cable boxes, I would have been skeptical. They’ve shown time and time again that they’re extremely conservative about adopting new distribution channels that could potentially disrupt their existing business models. While I don’t necessarily agree with that thinking, it’s a mentality that hampers innovation and ultimately puts your company in a non-competitive position. A few years ago, that thinking would have been fine, but not anymore.
Google’s Social Imperative
Apr 7, ’11
11:39 PM
It feels like just a few years ago that Google held an an unassailable competitive advantage with its AdSense system. It is unquestionably the most successful online advertising system and has enabled Google to reap tremendous value. Coupled with its proprietary PageRank system, the two components were and still are the core of Google’s business DNA.
But a new and arguably simpler way of targeting ads using the social graph based your personal connections is proving to be more effective. Facebook has not only taken over Google’s lead in visitor traffic, but has very quickly become fertile ground for advertisers to reach switched on prospects. In addition, they’ve been able to undercut other sites’ CPMs, going as low as $0.60 (compared with $2.50-$10 for competitors) making it even more attractive from an advertiser’s perspective.
Feature Quality vs. Feature Quantity
Apr 3, ’11
9:37 AM
It used to be that a product’s success depended upon how well it differentiated itself on the basis of what it was able to do. In the world of software, that generally meant the more features something had, the better off it was deemed. For the hundreds of features Microsoft Office has, it turns out that the vast majority of customers only used 10% of the total features, leaving 90% to a very small, very long tail of users.
Reductionism took hold in recent years, with Apple’s approach to music players. While competitors took the tack of adding FM tuners, video codec support and other ancillary features, Apple focused on simplicity of operation and music acquisition. The rest is history.
As the software market evolves and integrates social media and mobile expectations, we’re seeing a similar phenomenon where the best apps are those that focus on feature quality rather than feature quantity. One of the hot new apps is Instagr.am, the mobile photo sharing network. Combining funky photo filters (like Hipstamatic) and enabling sharing and discovery, the developers have created an overnight sensation with now over 3 million users in just 6 months. The experience couldn’t be simpler. The bare-bones functionality forces users to get creative in its application, just as Twitter’s 140-character limit encouraged brevity and efficiency. Just as Twitter is known for microblogging current trends, Instagr.am has now become known for photo storytelling. Whereas most photo apps focused on the image transformation aspect, Instagr.am made images look great, made them instantly shareable and made it fast. They never set out to do so, but by focusing on doing a handful of key elements well, founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have managed to create not just an app, but an personal experience that defines their brand.
Infographic: Smartphone Market Share
Mar 4, ’11
5:29 PM
This is a fantastic breakdown of smartphone market share in the U.S. from Nielsen.The first thing that jumps out at me are the large blocks covered by Apple and RIM, which collectively have 54%. We also see long, tall columns for HP/webOS and Symbian (which despite its weak showing in N.America, is quite strong in other regions).
Where things get interesting is how Android and Windows Mobile split out between vendors. HTC made smart bets and leads Android. Motorola has made a comeback of sorts, carving out a healthy 10% of the market and Samsung has also made clear its future is with Android. Whether or not either of these companies will try to expand share by adopting Windows Phone remains to be seen. From what I’ve read, Motorola is betting on Android, though Samsung may adopt WP7 in the near future.
The last piece is whether or not HP has the clout to make webOS a real contender. I’ve always felt that their deep experience in the healthcare and imaging space would be a great place to dominate, and it seems ripe with opportunity. Imagine a complete vertical vendor for health care professionals from back office to medical imaging and communication.
I’d love to see this same graphic a year from now, as each of the players stakes their positions. Moreover, once the tablet wars begin in earnest, I imagine this landscape could start to make some interesting shifts.
