Red Zen Marketing

Dateline: November 13, 2008 - Slashgear - "Mojo Mobility develops near field power charger prototype"
Dateline: January 12, 2009 - Slashgear - "Palm announces webOS Mojo SDK"  (hmm, that name sounds familiar)
Dateline: April 13, 2009 - Slashgear - "Palm Pre Touchstone Charging dock $69.99"



Perhaps it's just me, but reading through the Mojo Mobility website it's very interesting to note how similar their technology appears to be to the implementation of magnetic induction charging in the Palm Pre. The charge circuitry is apparently in the back of the phone and/or the battery pack, as these are apparently sold with the Touchstone kit. Sounds like what has been shown and discussed about an embodiment of Mojo's product. This is similar to a patent that has been for sale on the 'Net here.


Palm Pre sits atop the Touchstone charger.

The Touchstone charger - solo.

In addition to Mojo Mobility's stated 15 filed patents, including one covering charging multiple devices on their mojopad, did they possibly purchase this aforementioned patent and assist in the development of the commercialized Pre/Eos Touchstone accessory? They appear to offer OEM services...

We may have to wait to learn more. My speculative bet? Yes--Sunnyvale-based Mojo provided the mojo behind Touchstone. 

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OK Symbian, and we should listen to your predictions of the future because?...

There's one thing I've learned in my years working in product development. You can't predict future consumer receptivity to products based on what engineers are dreaming up today.  And, sadly, that applies by an order of magnitude more to anything from Symbian, the folks responsible for creating the foundation for the largest selling (according to Gartner) debatably mislabeled, smartphone operating system - the one used in Nokia's S60 feature phones.

So, when the Symbian Foundation says that Netbooks won't inherit the earth (after all, their OS doesn't drive any of these devices), but we should expect to see (...their OS, in Nokia-scented embodiments showing up in...) wearable smart electronics that listen and talk to us, I'm more than a little skeptical. It's just a bit self-serving, and really just represents the discussions that are trickling back up to them from OS licensees like Nokia and others--likely just drawing board stuff with no customer validation research to back up receptivity or acceptance at this point.

I wish I were not so skeptical. I can imagine a world in which device firms actually do the customer/consumer work far earlier in the process and integrate these customer voices more effectively into their creations. Sigh. Look in your sock drawers -- it's easy to see this is not true. No, even though these firms typically have solid marketing minds and strong research departments, the silos created within their development processes somehow seem to keep the information they do have--or could gather--from being effectively put to use by the team making decisions. So, even if the engineers start with a promising seed of an idea that seems perfect in an elevator pitch, since the customer perspective is sought and/or integrated so late in the product development lifecycle, the product is doomed to suffer from flaws like usability shortcomings (How do I turn this on/off?), or technology tunnel vision (You want me to leave my PC power on 24/7 to use this thing?).

So this ZDAsia article envisions a future in about five years in which the 10+ year old OnStar technology becomes wearable, presumably running on Symbian-based OS devices. Yawn. Wearable electronics-- seems I recall seeing that some time ago somewhere. Oh yeah. I just seem to think whatever Symbian's folks have seen is likely to look more like Picture A, than Picture B...

Wrist Computer for ruggedized field work or inventory management (?)

Pic A: Wearable computing envisioned by military contractor - April 2009 || Pic B: Wearable annodized earpiece designed by Reskin Labs

Here's one example of another approach: When Reskin Labs gets involved in wearable technology, they are starting with the user. They start with creating an artistic form and look to have technology serve the consumer within that framework. It's a very different approach to the typical 'technology push' seen in device companies.

I'm not saying Reskin Labs has nailed it. But, their approach of starting with the customer and remembering that emotions and product personality will be important to utility for anything that will be 'worn' are key. I wish Symbian and Nokia well. Their OS, by now extremely robust from it's years of development and improvement, is likely well suited to wearable tech. The key to whether their solutions will end up in our closets and in our jewelry boxes and in our drawers in 5 years will depend upon how well they understand their customers, NOT how well they understand their technology.

(And, yeah, I can help with that...)

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Blog post over at the Mobile Marketer today attempts to provide "10 things you didn't know about mobile Internet users". You can catch the entire blog post at the link, but what caught my eye and got me thinking was the time period for this surfing and where it's happening.

According to the 3000 mobile user dataset used by the nameless Mobile Marketer (who is this guy? not a clue) 70% of those heading online on their mobile are doing it at home. That's the same home that likely also has a PC tucked away on a table somewhere or a laptop folded up on a shelf. What's more, usage begins to peak in the evenings and extends well past midnight according to the post. That is extremely illuminating since it means that these users are choosing a more limited Internet experience deliberately.

I theorize this is driven by comfort-- the same reason we "curl up" with a paperback in bed.  Now, my wife has no qualms about sitting in bed with the laptop perched in front of her, but I find it excruciating--not a pleasant experience at all--and I can't even think about stretching out with the laptop in front of me on a couch or the floor. However, based on my own observation of my teenage daughter with her Centro, I would wager that this is exactly what is driving this data. The iPhone and other larger screen mobile devices has finally brought the Internet into our 'cozy zone' and, thanks to highly personalized social media channels like Facebook status updates & messages, ubiquitous mobile IM access, texting, & Twitter (with it's obligatory flood of links) we now have great reasons to extend use of this all-in-one communications appliance even deeper into our lives.

It just might be that the assumptions that have been made by businesses about what people will and won't user their mobile phone for are all wrong, or at least outdated. Changing technology is changing behavior. Opportunities are created when customer behavior changes. What nuggets can be taken away about your business from this?

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500M Smartphones by 2012? Samsung thinks so...

With the market created by the Palm Treo, Windows Mobile Smartphone and Pocket PC now dominated by devices like RIM's Curve, Bold & Pearl and Apple's iPhone, and device appeal successfully having crossed over from 30-something male geek technophile toy to de rigeur college student and mom-about-town tool, the 'castle' of the mainstream market is now believed to be at risk by some planners at Samsung.

Touchscreen devices, long appreciated by PDA users for their intuitive capabilities, came into their own with the advent of the iPhone. It was not specs that won the day--it was taking intuitive interface to the next logical level. Apple created a phenomenon in the mobile phone market by cramming lots of 'old, last years' specifications back behind a skin that shouted "I gotta have that!" to millions. Just as the iPod crushed Creative's MP3 player market, the iPhone rewrote the rules for mobile interface.  Palm, for all their Apple legacy and chatter about 'zen of Palm' simplicity, took years to get past themselves and understand the inherent differences of the mobile phone experience, and is only now about to release the Pre, the device built on an OS that they should have been working on 4 years ago.

Will Samsung prove to be right? Very possibly. Innovation coming out of the Blackberry Storm, the Palm Pre, and the next generation of the Apple iPhone will continue to push the market further and should keep helping 'ordinary' consumers find reasons they can't be without their mobile phones. More innovative applicaitons, more business solutions, and deeper market penetration that taps into broader trends like social media usage and Internet browsing behavior will make mobile access to these new tools even more indispensible.

Bring it on. And have fun stormin'! (Oh, btw, who's bringing the holocaust cloak in case things don't work out for Palm?)

Mike Compeau
www.twitter.com/mikecompeau
www.linkedin.com/in/mcompeau

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Belly Up To the Buffet?
Ever since the legitimization of Napster and the introduction of the Zune (put jokes back away, we're moving on), why have smartphone makers failed to see the elements of success in business models used by these adjacent markets? Now, I grant that these folks have not overturned the iTunes/iPod market share dominance, but that is not to say that the lessons to be learned could not help. Rhapsody, Napster, and the Zune all took a different approach to their market in order to compete, and it bears some examination.

Think of it as not a one-at-a-time app store, but an AppBuffet, in which owners could try out (there's a concept, Apple!) the full inventory of applications available, and simply pay a tiered monthly fee based on how many applications they leave installed after X number of days.

The iPhone AppStore has shown--through 990,XXX,000-odd app downloads to date--that there is revenue to be found from getting customers engaged in other uses for their phone than simple voice, texting and checking sports scores or news headlines. So, this shows the power of a single location, and on-phone app browsing. But there is so much potential for competitive advantage in taking on Apple by approaching the question in a different way, and moving beyond what has already been done to foster an even more thriving developer base.

Making it Happen -
What would need to be done by a device maker and carrier to create this scenario?  A few obvious things occurred to me:

1. Think about the full solution. This is what makes the iPod/iTunes/iPhone/AppStore product offering so compelling to so many. It's simple. It's integrated. Too often, third party developer support is something that is thought about far too late in the game, and rarely is the ecosystem creation, maximization of developer revenues and full business model design something that is discussed at the point of device product development. If it's true that the more developers supporting your platform, the stronger your position, there's room for competitive advantage here in taking a different tact.
2. Incorporate great categorization and search capabilities to allow customers to find solutions they would like to try out on their phone. Anyone who has struggled to find a particular application for a particular need in the iPhone AppStore understands the value of this. There are lessons to be learned from Handango.com in this respect.
   
3. Incorporate the subscription and DRM protection technology layer as a part of a systems thinking approach.  For those applications that participate in the AppBuffet, there is full control of the user sales/installation experience and the business outcomes are shared, within a Darwinian approach that rewards the best participants. Those developers whose products don't measure up will drop out based upon their business requirements. The desired uniform sales experience for customers is preserved--as provided by Apple--but a much larger number of solutions gain exposure as a result.
   
4. Build the necessary community for owners to share their experiences with apps, make their comments known, and ensure this is available on the PHONE. Excitement about a new cool phone and the things that can be done with it is the perfect reason for people to want to share their experiences with others. Heck, Amazon taught us long ago that it's a best practice to allow peer testimonials to help drive sales. Apple has completely ignored this aspect of their marketplace for some reason. There is a real opportunity to bring Social Media elements to this part of the user experience.
   

It's my expectation that a potential outcome of this approach would be a) more applications and greater variety of applications tried, b) revenue shared to a broader array of developers, making the platform more attractive for solution development, c) facilitated word-of-mouth and greater niche identification of great solutions, and d) a higher quality of applications being achieved, sooner than via other mechanisms.

What do you think?  What device maker and/or carrier would take this on? What would stand in the way?

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