2014년 1월 28일 화요일
2014년 1월 27일 월요일
State of Digital Marketing 2014 [Infographic]
Webmarketing123.com recently surveyed more than 500 marketers about their digital goals and challenges. They found that while digital gets the most lip service, it receives only 1/4 of the budget. Not surprisingly, mobile is a priority. Eighty-eight percent of marketers report difficulty in measuring ROI across social channels and understanding which channels are generating the most leads and revenue. Oh, and don’t use the term ROI, marketers hate it.
2014년 1월 23일 목요일
South Korea spending $1.5 billion for '5G' network
(CNN) -- Is the era of 5G connectivity upon us? The
government in South Korea says so, and it's sinking $1.5 billion into upgrades
it says will make mobile communications there 1,000 times faster than they are
today.
But not so fast. Literally, not so fast. As was the case
when smartphones and other mobile devices first started having 4G slapped on
them, the term 5G is as much a marketing slogan as anything else -- at this
point, anyway.
And if technophiles in the United States are hoping Korea's
announcement means warp-speed data connections are coming their way in the near
future, they're going to be disappointed.
Regardless of the network's capabilities, any wireless
carrier wanting to take advantage of them also would need costly upgrades to
their systems. Users would have to purchase new devices that could access it.
And even then, there's no guarantee that Netflix or similar companies would
make their own data available at speeds that live up to the Korean government's
tantalizing vision of an entire movie downloading in a single second.
All that said, don't count Korea out. Arguably the most
wired country in the world, South Korea has led in mobile adoption since the
1990s.
"We helped fuel national growth with 2G services in the
1990s, 3G in the 2000s and 4G around 2010. Now it is time to take preemptive
action to develop 5G," the nation's science ministry said. "Countries
in Europe, China and the US are making aggressive efforts to develop 5G
technology ... and we believe there will be fierce competition in this market
in a few years."
A worldwide high of 82.7% of South Koreans use the Internet,
and 78.5% of the nation's population is on smartphones. Narrow that down to
18-24 year olds and it's dangerously close to full saturation -- 97.7%.
The science ministry's plan is realistically measured. A
trial 5G network is due to be rolled out in 2017, with full rollout in 2020.
The country's telecom companies, as well as native mobile
companies Samsung and LG, are on board and plan to be ready to take advantage
of the network, according to the government statement.
Eventually, of course, 5G will hit the U.S. and elsewhere.
Remember, the difference between 3G and 4G and 5G is somewhat semantic.
Significantly upgrade what we have now and you can add a number before the G.
But we'll no doubt be behind. Korea's compact geography and
existing wireless infrastructure mean that upgrades can happen faster and
cheaper, and will reach more of the population than in geographically
spread-out countries like the United States.
The increasing number of smartphones and tablets used in the
United States is already beginning to tax existing communications networks. Add
an emerging wearable tech trend and connected appliances like smart
thermostats, refrigerators and smoke detectors, and experts expect the U.S.
will need a serious upgrade by 2020 as well.
Each generation of network technology has enabled a new set
of features: 2G was about voice, 3G was about data and 4G is about video. 5G is
expected to be about creating intelligent networks that can handle those
billions of connected devices.
Twitter Launches Analytics For Twitter Cards
Users can better understand how their Twitter cards are performing thanks to a new analytics tool the company announced today. Twitter cards expand tweets with photos, videos and links.
The new analytics tool will let users see how many people click or retweet their card, and in the case of cards that feature apps, how many installations resulted.
Reality Mediators wearable technology by Ling Tan punishes laziness
These wearable devices by designer Ling Tan cause unpleasant sensations when the wearer becomes inactive or stops concentrating (+ movie).
2014년 1월 21일 화요일
Data, Data Everywhere: Mobile APIs Act As A Spur To Innovation
If we replace the Coleridge Mariner’s “water” with “data,” you have the lament of today’s mobile apps. Our world may be swimming in data, but little of it is optimized for mobile consumption.
Mobile poses a unique challenge for developers to acquire and activate data. What worked in the era of Web 2.0 will not necessarily work for the new era of ubiquitous mobile computing, especially for enterprise-oriented business. Companies need to learn how to tap into this data and create flexible application programming interfaces (APIs) that ultimately give developers a platform to do something amazing.
Want Mobile Innovation? Unleash Your Data
As touched on earlier in an earlier piece for ReadWrite, the standards for middleware and backend data access that defined the Web era don’t work for mobile. There are a few reasons:
- Mobile has seen an explosion in data sources. Previous generations of middleware were concerned with orchestrating data from a subset of enterprise systems that lived behind the firewall; good mobile apps need access to those systems as well as corporate software-as-a-service data (Salesforce, for example), public data (eFacebook, Twitter), and whatever may come next from the Internet of Things.
- Mobile apps consume data in a different size and format than Web application predecessors. Where SOAP and XML are the principal API formats of the web, mobile apps lean primarily on JSON. Because mobile apps must operate within smaller confines of screen real estate, bandwidth and battery life, their data sets must be boiled down to an essential payload size. For instance, if a traditional Web API returns 20 fields, the mobile variant might want only five.
- Mobile users expect full data access from almost anywhere—the grocery line, airport terminal, the in-laws’ Thanksgiving table and so on. This changes usage profiles dramatically, in both transaction volumes and time of access, which means the elastically scalable architectures that have been important to Web become mandatory for mobile.
- Mobile devices can’t count on an uninterrupted connection. This requires apps to function offline and a data exchange intelligent enough to synchronize to the backend when the connection is restored.
Given these differences, consider the plight of the mobile developer: they want to focus on building the best possible client experience, but instead find themselves bogged down in server-side “plumbing” to get the data they need in the right size, the right format, with the right resiliency, piped into the app.
Forrester Research argues, credibly, that the scalability and data integration requirements of mobile are different enough from Web that enterprises will need a new tier to their architectures. If so, consider the benefits awaiting the companies to get their first.
Companies that will win the mobile race are those that make it as simple as possible for developers to access the data needed for transformative apps. This is where mobile-optimized APIs come in.
APIs are the lifeblood of mobility. Good mobile APIs act as a spur to innovation. Think of them as Lego blocks: the better and more varied the collection of blocks you make available, the better and more creative the objects people build. An enterprise that makes mobile-optimized APIs widely accessible to developers is positioned to make terrific innovation leaps, at a pace that would never be achievable by top-down planning alone.
Beyond these, companies would also publish new, mobile-optimized APIs built to interact with corporate data stores—Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Salesforce etc. Again, “mobile-optimized” is the key word here: these APIs would orchestrate data from multiple sources, convert it to the right mobile format (JSON) where necessary and boil down the payload to its essential size.What are examples of the kinds of APIs developers need? For starters, there are the commonly required capabilities of most mobile apps, such as the ability to manage push notifications and geo-location services, or readily access a NoSQL database for on-demand storage of app data, or seamlessly integrate with social media services.
Seeding an App Ecosystem
A good mobile API inventory will appeal to more than just internal developers. With it, companies can designate APIs that are appropriate and relevant to third parties, encouraging external developers to create innovative apps around a company’s business.
NPR has been famously successful with their API strategy, but a commitment to mobile APIs isn’t restricted to social or media companies. Walgreens recently published a prescription scanning API to encourage developers of health apps; Alaska Airlines has been pushing APIs for traveler check-in, flight status, seat assignments and the like. Aetna and Kaiser Permanente have entered into the API equivalent of an arms race, to see which company can attract more third party developers.
Developers anticipate even more in the coming year. In a survey conducted jointly with IDC, we at Appcelerator found that nearly 90% of developers felt it was “likely” or “very likely” that in 2014, enterprises would invest in building mobile-optimized APIs for external builders and third parties. These developers are betting that more IT departments will embrace the role as innovation enabler—to the point of opening up new markets for the business
.
Summary; Making sense of your company's data and creating intuitive APIs is one of the next steps in creating smarter, enterprises.
2014년 1월 20일 월요일
Is your mobile app making it to the “Top 10 Best” lists?
The usability of your app indirectly talks about how much you care for your customers and the value they gain from your services
At a recent software conference in Bangalore, a co-speaker shared his first experience trying to “mobile check-in” for his flight to Bangalore. Not knowing if he would make it on time to the airport for his flight, he decided to save some time by avoiding the check-in queue at the airport and tried out the airline’s mobile app to self check-in. He summed his first encounter with the app, saying, “I’d recommend this airline to all my contacts! All it took me was three clicks and less than a minute to get my job done. And, of course, I gave this app a 5-star rating right away and dropped in a review as well!”
What he did at that forum, was turn every attendee into a potential customer. Not only that, he also left a 5-star rating for the app online, which meant every visitor looking at the review would strongly consider giving this service provider a chance. A smooth, even pleasantly favorable experience with a product not only goes a long way in maintaining customer loyalty, it turns the customer into the coveted role of an influencer, or what sales folks would call a “reference”.
This was a short anecdote of how mobile apps, though not usually charged, have a significant impact on a product’s branding. The usability of your app indirectly talks about how much you care for your customers and the value they gain from your services. The account above also brought home a few facts common to many of the apps that make it to the coveted “Top 10″ or “Editor’s Choice” lists. These factors are not very different across apps, whether mobile or otherwise. Let’s look at some of these factors:
* Intuitiveness – most used features are most evident
What a user almost always wants out of any product, they use or purchase, is a simple way to do the most used function. In the case above, it was the ability to “self check-in”. In another example, using the same app, it could be the ability to check the availability of tickets or purchase tickets. How intuitive it is for a new user to perform these functions determines how effective or usable the app is. Having never worked with a similar app earlier, if one can effortlessly and quickly navigate to complete one’s task, one gains a great sense of confidence. That definitely is a good thing while trying to woo new customers.
* Predictability – avoid any unpleasant surprises
Every user likes to forecast the outcome of an action performed. In short, users like predictability. A recent recreational app that I used, deducted much of my in-app credit, only because the placement of their icon to purchase services was uncannily close to an icon to queue tasks that were uncharged. I noticed in a few days, that all my credit was exhausted although I had not intentionally purchased anything. Now, that sure is a recipe for disaster!
* Speed – less is more
With users turning to mobile apps to avoid having to login through a PC or laptop, speed surely differentiates an app from it’s web counterpart. Does the design of your app or the usage of images come at the cost of speed? Does your back-end not scale well with increase in traffic? Do your target customers experience restricted or limited bandwidth issues? It pays to cut down on the style factor, at times, in exchange for better performance and reduced response times for your app.
* Connectivity – online vs offline
Restrictions at the workplace related to security or accessibility of 3G / wireless networks could be an issue for your potential customers. It pays to consider if it is absolutely necessary for your user to be online in order to use your app. Can the user work in an offline mode, with the ability to sync when they get online? This, of course, does not work in all cases. A limited bandwidth version could be an alternate route if the economics of scale does not work in your favor.
* Customization – one size does not fit all
When it comes to mobile apps, one size just doesn’t work. Users like to customize and change settings to suit their specific needs. From layouts to fonts and colors, sounds and notifications, updates and reminders, users like it their way. The ability to cater to these myriad combinations might just be the factor lacking in your app. While at work, a user might be interested in breaking news and subscribe to regular updates from a news app, but he might be quite annoyed with such a service from a travel app. While vacationing though, this might be just the thing he needs.
* Security – protecting the user
Despite the disclaimers and notices, an app that needs the least user data to function well is the most trusted. New reports surfacing everyday are making users increasingly paranoid about the apps they install. If it is absolutely necessary to access a user’s data, letting them know the exact information that the app accesses and the reason for doing so, would make them a lot less jittery and retain their faith in your app.
The factors that determine the success are by no means written in stone. What works in one case, may prove fatal in another, depending on the context of usage. The key is to understand your users and do what suits them best, even if it proves to be more challenging to implement. What works in favour of companies building mobile apps, is that app developers today, are also users. This exposes them to the same pain-points that their customers would experience and hence, puts them in a better position to create better applications. Though there are many factors to consider and multiple challenges to overcome while creating a usable mobile app, there is also hope for improvement due to the increased awareness of customer usage patterns and usability metrics. Here’s to a year of more enlightened app development!
- Swetha Ghosh, Development Lead, Rational Functional Team, India Software Labs
Disclaimer: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.”
Google Now: Coming Soon To A Desktop Near You
Google Now, the search giant’s intelligent personal assistant for mobile devices, will soon be coming to your desktop according to the latest test version of the company's Chrome browser.
Google Now is being tested in Chrome Canary, the test sandbox that Google uses for new builds, features and functions in forthcoming versions of its browser. (To enable Google Now in Chrome, visit this page and click the radio button for the Now experiment to “Enabled.” Once you do so, a menu item will pop up at the bottom to relaunch your browser.)
You will need to be signed into Chrome for Google Now to work, but the experimental desktop version of Google Now will still be pulling information from your iOS or Android smartphone to inform your location. You can set location settings for Google Now for multiple devices by changing your system preferences within iOS and Android.
Once you are signed in, you can see Now-based notifications from your notifications bar in Windows or the top tool bar on Mac OS X. The little grayed out bell is for Chrome and Google Now notifications.
If you use Google Now on your mobile device, you can see certain Now cards on your desktop computer if you're signed into Chrome, including weather, sports scores, commute traffic, and event reminders cards. Some of these cards may be based on the location of your mobile device.
Google Now is an important part of Google's vision for the future of search. One of the reasons Google wants to know so much about you, get you to use Google+, Android smartphones, Chrome, YouTube and Google Play et al. is so it can serve contextually relevant information to you—yes, sometimes this includes advertisements.
Google Now is the company’s attempt to serve you information it knows you probably wanted anyway, such as the weather and sports or interesting news, before you can even search for it. Are you a sports fan living in Boston? Google will send you a Google Now notification to your smartphone—and soon on your desktop—about the score of the game.
When it comes to a variety of its consumer features, Google is an equal opportunity developer. It wants to be on your Windows and your Mac, your iPhone and your Android. Chrome is now one the most popular browsers in the world because Google has spread it to nearly every single operating system, first on mobile, and now on the desktop. Google Now is a very important piece of the feature set that Google wants to spread everywhere.
So, while Google Now for Chrome is officially in experimental mode, there is no reason to think that Now won’t eventually make its way to every piece of computing that touches Google.
Summary; It was only a matter of time before Google started spreading its intelligent personal assistant to every device it could possibly touch.
2014년 1월 16일 목요일
Net Neutrality In Danger: U.S. Appeals Court Invalidates The FCC's Open Internet Order
A federal appeals court ruled that the FCC exceeded its authority in attempting to enforce "network neutrality" rules aimed at preventing Internet providers from favoring certain types of traffic over others.
The crux of the ruling is explained in this key passage from Tuesday's decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia:
Even though the Commission has general authority to regulate in this arena, it may not impose requirements that contravene express statutory mandates. Given that the Commission has chosen to classify broadband providers in a manner that exempts them from treatment as common carriers, the Communications Act expressly prohibits the Commission from nonetheless regulating them as such. Because the Commission has failed to establish that the anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules do not impose per se common carrier obligations, we vacate those portions of the Open Internet Order.
Net neutrality is a policy intended to support efficiency and freedom on the Internet requiring its backbone providers to move data packets across the network without favoritism, thereby making the Internet as a whole "neutral" in a sense.
By forcing governments and Internet service providers to treat all Internet data equally, net neutrality allowed consumers to access any Internet data via PC, phone, or tablet without restriction. Internet service providers couldn't arbitrarily slow or block traffic data, which companies like AT&T have done in the past for the sake of managing traffic congestion or experimenting with new business models to increase demand.
In 2010, the FCC introduced the Open Internet Order, which officially attempted to regulate Internet service providers (ISPs) from preventing access to competitors or certain websites that required heavy bandwidth, thus preventing those telecom companies for charging more for faster access. A year later, the FCC released itsfinal net neutrality rules for “Preserving a Free and Open Internet.”
Tuesday’s ruling was a response to Verizon’s challenge of the Open Internet Order—not the order itself, but the FCC’s “affirmative statutory authority to promulgate the rules.” In the end, the appeals court cited a variety of court cases including a 2002 decision in Ragsdale Vs. Wolverine World Wide, Inc., to support its decision that the FCC doesn’t have the jurisdiction or authority to enforce the Open Internet Order, thereby invalidating several key portions of the rules. Furthermore, the court said the FCC’s restrictions are unnecessary since consumers have a choice of ISPs.
The decision to invalidate the Open Internet Order, and thus, several key facets of net neutrality, has major implications for business. The decision is a major victory for telecom companies that have fought tooth and nail for years to overturn net neutrality restrictions."Regardless of how serious the problem an administrative agency seeks to address … it may not exercise its authority in a manner that is inconsistent with the administrative structure that Congress enacted into law,” the appeals court said.
The ruling may also impact the general freedom of the Internet and the way in which it’s used—to access information and entertainment, to innovate without meddlesome regulators, and to give a level playing field for all companies to compete equally. The court's ruling doesn't necessarily kill the concept of net neutrality—just the ability of the FCC to enact laws and policies that govern net neutrality. Which may be enough.
Summary; The dicision to invalidate the FCC's net neutrality rules could have a major impact on the future of the internet.
The Best Of CES 2014
Urb-E
My favorite gadget at CES was the Urb-E electric scooter. The company promises that Urb-E is the most compact electronic vehicle in the world, as it folds up to the size of a small roller-board suitcase. The idea behind the scooter, which can run for 20 miles on one charge at around 15mph, is to get commuters through the last leg of their trip. But setting aside utility, the Urb-E is simply fun to ride around on. I can still feel the wind in my hair.
Instant Onboard Image Post-
.
My favorite things at CES were mostly under-the-hood improvements, or around tech that pushes the boundaries on stuff I already use regularly. That’s why Qualcomm’s mobile processor improvements, which make smartphone-based photography even more convenient and effective, take the cake. Another favorite was Sigma, which continues to put out amazing new lenses, and which is also making the concept of a DSLR lens which is fully customizable to an end user via software an accessible reality.
Oculus Rift Crystal Cove Hands On
.
For me, the definite highlight of CES was a demonstration of the new Oculus VR prototype. When I tried Oculus out a year ago, my excitement came from the product’s potential, not the experience itself. Now, with the addition of new technology, as well as game demos that take advantage of that technology, it really did feel like I suddenly found myself inside the game world. I had so much fun that I didn’t care how goofy I looked leaning forward and backward in those big goggles.
The Pocket Drone | Hardware Battlefield
2014년 1월 15일 수요일
Rebooting webOS: how LG rethought the smart TV
Things never went very well for webOS. Between its blockbuster launch at CES in 2009 and its relaunch on LG's smart TVs today lies a history of failed ambitionsand a lost history of never-released products. When LG acquired parts of webOS in February of last year, we had two questions: what exactly did LG plan to do, andwhy did it need webOS to do it? We finally have answers to both of those questions, and they're unsurprisingly simple and straightforward. webOS turned out to be a flexible platform that could be repurposed for the TV and — more importantly — the team behind it had a vision for how a smart TV should work.
On the eve of LG's launch, I sat down with webOS’s head of product management and design, Itai Vonshak, as well as Colin Zhao, director of product management for LG's Silicon Valley Lab. As they demoed LG's new interface to me, I was by turns intrigued, bemused, and doubtful that it was up to the task of convincing people that it would be worth buying a new TV for. Most of all, I was impressed by the clarity of vision behind the new interface. For better or worse, webOS has an opinion about how smart TVs should treat their users, and by all appearances that opinion is executed very, very well. LG is better known for pretty schizophrenic Android skins on its smartphones, so to see the company produce something this coherent was a shock.
Over half of LG's TVs next year will run webOS TV, so it's a significant effort but LG isn't quite all-in yet. Zhao says that "the war cry that we started with was to 'make TV simple again.'" To pull it off, webOS smart TVs start with the metaphor of the line. Instead of a grid of apps, everything you want to do is arrayed horizontally. "There's nothing simpler than understanding a line," Vonshak says. "You have your past things, you have your present, and you the future."
The key difference between this and other smart TVs is that LG doesn't create a distinction between smart TV apps and regular TV and inputs. They're all just cards. "We wanted unity. Everything is the same, be it your Xbox, your source, or some apps," says Vonshak. "If you're watching Netflix and want to switch to see what's happening in a game, then go back to YouTube, it should be all the same thing." In fact, LG's TVs can automatically identify new inputs and label and name them for you — so if you plug in a PS4, it will appear as a PS4 card, not just "HDMI 2."The "present" is the home screen, which appears as an overlay on top of whatever you're watching instead of kicking you off to a separate screen with a grid of apps. The line gives you a list of your favorite apps — stuff like Hulu Plus, Netflix, YouTube, and so on — along with a card that represents your last app and another called "Today" that can make content recommendations.
You navigate with LG's motion-enabled remote control and a small on-screen cursor. If you want to watch something that isn't on your home screen, you can select overflow buttons on the left or the right. The left is the "Past," which gives you a history of your last apps or channels in a big list of cards. On the right are apps — and LG will have an app store to fill that list up — and as you hover over each of them, app makers can give you a big, full-screen preview to entice you to click.
Of course, there are settings and even a notification system for apps to alert you about new episodes and the like, but the core of the webOS experience on LG's smart TVs boils down to that single line of cards and apps. It's very restrained, but with flourishes of animations in the transition that are fast enough to not be overbearing and provide just a little bit of whimsy. "A lot of the challenge that comes with flat design is that it gets really boring," says Vonshak. "We have a lot of tension between different parts of the design. There's strong lines, and then they move sort of like jelly, in an unexpected way."
There's one place where the whimsy might be too much — or at least too easy to compare to Microsoft Bob. It's the "Bean Bird," which is part of LG's "Cinematic Setup." It walks users through the first-use experience: setting up time zones and Wi-Fi and the like. Flitting about on the screen, Bean Bird is meant to encourage users to actually finish their smart TV setup — too many just don't bother, Vonshak says, and there's little point in spending the extra money on a smart TV if you don't take advantage of its features.
To tell the truth, I found Bean Bird a little charming — but the approach is definitely an easy target for snark, and if LG isn't judicious in using the little guy (or gal?), Bean Bird will earn a well-deserved place alongside Clippy. Watching the bird wave a surrender flag to protest your attempt to skip the Wi-Fi setup once is amusing — having to live with it all the time would be the exact opposite. Luckily, LG tells me that it's just a first-use experience.
Still, once you get into actually using the webOS interface on LG's smart TVs, you'll be struck by the consistency of the experience. Vonshak says that the design was inspired by the same "war cry" of making TV simple. "The strong colors, and the lines, really come from old TVs and how even the 'no signal' used to look," Vonshak says. "We really found that as a great inspiration source to how to focus specifically on content, on TV itself, and what that thing is."
TV first is a good philosophy, but creating (and branding) the interface with webOS doesn't necessarily seem, well, necessary. Why webOS? Vonshak clearly still has faith in the mission of the open web. "We really believe that the web is the right path forward and the web will win because it's the right ecosystem," he says. Missionary zeal aside, using HTML (and Enyo) makes very good sense for smart TVs — many of the core apps that consumers demand are already available in HTML on the web itself, so it's relatively trivial to get them working on LG's smart TVs.
Earlier I called webOS on smart TVs "a smaller ambition for a bigger screen" and after seeing how webOS works now, that assessment still stands. LG hasn't solved any of the truly thorny problems in the living room. But executing well on a smaller ambition is still to be commended — and my initial impression is that LG may have pulled it off. webOS will never achieve the goals its original creators had set for it. And, to be honest, it won't generate massive consumer demand for LG's TVs. But what it could do is make your next smart TV a little less painful to use. Five years ago at this very show, webOS dreamt big. After seeing those dreams burn in up a conflagration of missed opportunities, even that small victory is a pleasant surprise.
Smart TV Apps Are Going To Drive The Next Big Shift In How We View Our Media
Why is an apps-enabled living room so exciting?
Consider the market:
- There are some 800 million pay TV households worldwide, according to MRG.
- In America, the average person still spends more than four hours per day watching TV, and more than five hours per day engaging with all screens, according to Nielsen.
- TV also still represents the majority of worldwide ad spending: $350 billion last year, or 63% of all ad spending, according to Nielsen.
Innovation in the TV space is inevitable:
- Consumers want it: A survey by Nielsen and YuMe found that 17% of Internet connected TV users plan to decrease or cancel their cable subscription in the coming year.
- TV is ripe for app-led innovation: The old guard, represented by cable and entertainment conglomerates, will not be able to fend off improvements and user experience innovations like those that apps are bringing to mobile phones.
- The devices are there: the Smart TV revolution will not just be led by new TVs with built-in Internet connections. Consumer will also adopt less expensive game consoles and set-top boxes like Roku and Apple TV, which transform traditional TVs into Smart TVs with access to app stores. At least 20% of U.S. consumers already have their TVs connected in one of these ways.
- The operating systems and app stores are there: TVs would offer mobile-based apps a new screen to conquer. Apps would be able to sync across PCs, tablets, smartphones, and TVs. Smart TVs and set-top boxes will likely run on mobile operating systems, iOS and Android.
- The players are in place: Apple and Google seem like logical smart-TV leaders — Apple through its skill of designing and marketing great platforms, and Google through its prowess in digital video and advertising. Also, pay attention to Samsung and Microsoft, among others. But consumers won't gravitate to smart TV apps until the app stores are stocked with well-curated collections of great software.
But there are plenty of barriers to a successful TV-based app ecosystem:
- The existing smart TV app market is way too fragmented between a half-dozen or so immature platforms, and worse — most of these are very difficult to develop for.
In full, the report:
- Looks at data on Internet connected TV adoption among consumers
- Digs into new video consumption behavior and explains how an app-centered TV will leverage the trend toward digital video
- Discusses the cast of characters — from media and cable conglomerates to manufacturers and software giants — trying to get into the smart TV space, and who will likely win
- Looks at what consumers are doing on their app-enabled TVs
- Juxtaposes alarming trends in the pay TV market, with healthy growth in Internet-enabled TV usage
- Examines what needs to happen for smart TVs to emerge as a key app development platform
For full access to the report on Smart TV Apps as well as our archive of over 100 in-depth reports and hundreds of charts on mobile computing, digital video, and the Internet, sign up for a free trial subscription today.
2014년 1월 14일 화요일
Android Developer Interest Is Catching Up To Its Market Share
http://readwrite.com/2014/01/14/tablet-developers-now-target-android-but-wheres-the-money#awesm=~osYF6Dh2IR9tvC
Android dominates market share but not yet developer wallets. This may be about to change.
Android dominates market share but not yet developer wallets. This may be about to change.
2014년 1월 12일 일요일
5 Gaming Trends To Watch In 2014
The year has only just begun, but there are already plenty
of exciting hints at what the gaming industry has in store for 2014.
At the intersection of powerful hardware and game developers
unafraid of experimentation, the following trends are setting the stage for one
of the most interesting years for video games in recent memory.
1. Inventive Hardware
Gaming hardware will follow software into more experimental
territory in 2014. The Ouya bucked the three-party system last year, but at
this year's CES, Steam’s small fleet of Steam Machines are set to sail and
other inventive takes on gaming hardware have bubbled up, too.
The new Oculus Rift prototype, known as “Crystal Cove,”
builds out the virtual reality head-trip of its forebear by adding an OLED
screen and positional tracking, among other refinements. (In a press event,
Sony showcased its own Oculus Rift VR knock-off too.) Meanwhile, PrioVR is
taking the idea of wearable gaming to the next level with full and half body
motion suits.
2. Gaming In The Cloud
In the virtual world woven together by syncing and streaming
services, the gesture of placing a disc in a tray feels downright prehistoric.
Video games are a booming business, so why should playing them be any less
modern than streaming a song on Rdio or syncing a movie across iCloud?
Well, Microsoft considered ditching the Xbox One’s optical
drive altogether this generation, but eventually reversed that decision as well
as abandoning its other strict DRM policing policies in the face of massive
consumer backlash. Sony-side, PlayStation Now—a cloud gaming service that syncs
games across devices—will merge video games with the cloud in a decidedly
gamer-friendly direction. Expect these tensions to play out over 2014 as
companies nudge their platforms toward the cloud without kicking the hornet’s
nest.
3. Indies Flourish
Indie games once existed in defiance of the mainstream
machine. Now they’re alluring to console makers and major game publishers
alike, as both try to buy goodwill with gamers. Nostalgic indie shooter
Resogun, published by Sony itself, stood out among the new PS4’s handful of
launch titles. By showcasing the buzzy indie exclusive Witness (the latest from
Braid’s legend-in-the-making Jonathan Blow) and allowing indie devs to
self-publish, Sony is positioning itself to be the indie gamer’s console of
choice.
Microsoft played catch-up by announcing “ID@Xbox,” its own
program to support smaller developers. Expect to see huge indie hits enjoying
support from major publishers across both consoles in the coming year, not to
mention more indie gems popping up on mobile, PC and on Steam.
4. The New Consoles Will Become Worth Buying
Laptops and phones get annual updates like clockwork,
whereas new consoles only roll around every eight years or so. At launch, both
the PS4 and the Xbox One had barren game catalogs, making it hard to find a
compelling case to upgrade at launch. Droves of next-generation titles will
launch in 2014, making Microsoft and Sony's brand hardware beasts worth
considering. Every major console launch year is a truly special occasion—and a
lightyear’s worth of hardware evolution.
5. Storytelling Transcends Genre Conventions
With rote refreshes of mindless shooters like Call of Duty
growing stale, inventive, narrative-driven games will have even more room to
shine in 2014. Last year, completely unconventional games like Papers, Please—a
game literally about stamping passports—topped “best of” charts.
The Last of Us, another chart-topper with more than 3.5
million units sold, was lauded not for its survival horror mechanics, but for
the intricately emotional relationship between its two protagonists. Even the
violent sandbox of Grand Theft Auto V relied heavily on the cycling stories of
its three main characters, exploring gritty and at-times mundane
hyper-realism—and even following one of them to yoga class.
These aren’t the only gaming trends we’ll be watching into
the year—Twitch and casual gaming are two others that spring to mind—but
they’re definitely a few areas for gamers to keep a close eye on over the next
12 months and beyond. Gaming is more mainstream—and more lucrative—than ever,
so with new consoles added into the mix, 2014 will be an exciting year no
matter which way you cut it.
Summary; Between brand new consoles and blossoming indie development,
this is a year to watch the gaming industry.
2014년 1월 10일 금요일
2014년 1월 8일 수요일
CES 2014: Connected Home And Wearables To Take Center Stage
The Consumer Electronics Show is an annual pilgrimage to the deserts of Nevada to find an oasis of gadgets. Next week we will make that pilgrimage again, this time hoping to find the future of computing in screens we hang on our walls, wear on our wrists and everything in between.
CES has lost a bit of its luster over recent years. The most important technology companies on the planet—Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, etc.—have no tangible presence at the show any more. CES is no longer the panacea of everything and anything tech, but rather a proxy that serves and illustrates the undercurrents of the massive worldwide gadget industry. CES has become the metadata of the technology world: it informs everything else that is going on even if it is not exactly the main story.
This year at CES, the ReadWrite team will be looking for some specific trends. We will be highly interested in fitness and wearable technology (which we expect to find in droves). We are on the lookout for interesting uses of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities to inform the connected home. We want to find the next-generation of content devices, be they innovative streaming services or gadgets as well as the future of smart 4K Ultra HD televisions. There will be robots. We will be monitoring the big news and laying the groundwork for our research on how the mobile industry will evolve in 2014.
CES offers a great opportunity for us to monitor and study all of these trends that will be gaining traction in 2014 and beyond. While we will be sure to be up to date on the major news announcements, we also like to go off script a little bit at these types of mammoth trade shows. CES is so big that there is a certain amount of serendipity baked into the format. What’s the weirdest thing at CES this year? A Bluetooth paper airplane? Maybe that gadget that tries to translate your dog’s barking into English? Death ray goggles? We will keep our ears and eyes open to find out.
At the same time, we like to approach a conference like CES with a certain amount of, shall we say, finesse. Instead of broadcasting every minute of CES with a video camera strapped to our backs and writing about everything and absolutely everything we lay our eyes on, we will be focusing on the spaces in between. Call it our own version of journalistic metadata. These are the conversations that people have in bars and on buses, what people are saying on the show floor and how they react to the latest news. These conversations usually never make news or headlines, but they tend to inform the world of technology better than a press release or a booth demonstration. When you read between the lines, often times you get a better sense of what is actually happening than when you sit through a litany of briefings and press conferences.
This year CES will be defined by a burgeoning amount of wearable technology, really fancy televisions, some new smartphones and tablets that will look a lot like last year’s smartphones and tablets and an endless supply of accessories and cases. We expect to find wireless chargers and nifty stylus pens and lots and lots of robots.
Make sure you join us next week by following ReadWrite on Twitter as well aseditor-in-chief Owen Thomas, mobile editor Dan Rowinski and reporter Adriana Lee as we traverse the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center for the most interesting tidbits at CES 2014.
Mobile Advertising Projected to Increase 64% in 2014
http://mashable.com/2014/01/03/native-mobile-advertising/#!
Korea’s Mobile Phone Industry
http://www.koreana.or.kr/months/news_view.asp?b_idx=874&lang=en&page_type=list
Early on, the mobile phone industry in Korea basically imported parts from foreign suppliers, and assembled them into finished products. But, over the past 20 years, the mobile phone has become the face of Korean industry, with cutting-edge technology. The industry is now preparing for a new leap into the popular smartphone market.
In 2005, Korea became the first to offer DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) service, which enabled users to view terrestrial-broadcast programming on their mobile phones. And in 2006, Korea launched the world’s first video telephony service that allowed callers to see each other. Even more impressive is the fact that these applications were available on a standard mobile phone, and did not require a high-end model, thus demonstrating the innovative technology of Korea’s mobile communication sector.
The Samsung Electronics mobile phone facility in Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province is the production base for Samsung’s top-of-the-line mobile phones, including the recently released Galaxy S. This is also home to the “five-second production line,” that is capable of producing a mobile phone in only five seconds. In 1998, the production time per unit was 23 seconds, but by 2005 the time had been reduced to a world-record 5 seconds. After the inspectors on this line pick up a phone, in a matter of five seconds, they press the keys, check the vibrate mode, look for flaws on the exterior, view the colors of the LCD screen, and confirm that the camera function works properly. These inspectors are as quick with their hands as any magician.
Workers on other assembly lines go about their work with equal quickness and dexterity. Unlike the production plants for automobiles or large appliances, such as refrigerators or washing machines, the mobile phone facility does not utilize a conventional assembly-line process. Instead, a module method is adopted, in which one to three workers independently carry out ten or so assembly processes at a worktable. The workers take less than ten seconds to fit circuit boards packed with components into the phone body, which is secured with five or six tiny screws, measuring only 2 millimeters in diameter. In this way, the Gumi production facility churns out some 55 million mobile phones a year, which represent an aggregate value of 18 trillion won (about $16 billion). The facility is less than one-tenth the scale of an automobile or large appliance factory, but in terms of annual sales and profitability it is without a doubt the leader of Korea’s manufacturing industry. If you visit a mobile phone facility, it might be readily apparent that the mobile phone industry is ideally suited to a Korean workforce, which can use their natural dexterity and delicate touch to full advantage.
Early on, the mobile phone industry in Korea basically imported parts from foreign suppliers, and assembled them into finished products. But, over the past 20 years, the mobile phone has become the face of Korean industry, with cutting-edge technology. The industry is now preparing for a new leap into the popular smartphone market. Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have managed to surpass such prominent global makers as Motorola and Sony Ericsson, rising to No. 2 and No. 3 in the world rankings. Samsung Electronics, with a 22 percent share of the global market, is steadily gaining ground on the world’s leading mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia of Finland. The success of Korea’s mobile phone industry can be attributed to an exquisite harmony among Korean entrepreneurship, the guiding hand of the government, diligence of local manpower resources, and the Korean consumer, who continuously seeks out the latest IT devices, but also demands flawless product performance.
Launch of CDMA
The success story of Korean mobile phones began in 1996 with the world’s first commercialization of CDMA (the U.S. mobile telephony standard). The protagonist of the Samsung mobile phone’s success, former Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Ki-tae, noted: “If Korea had not adopted the CDMA technology, the mobile phone industry would not have been able to grow as much as it has.” Korea’s adoption of CDMA technology was the result of Korean innovation, which brought in the original technology from abroad and created the world’s finest products through Korea’s unique ability to react to change and quickly apply solutions.
In the early 1990s, the Korean government began preparations to shift from analogue to digital mobile communications. First, a particular technology needed to be selected. In Europe, the GSM system was being commercialized and gaining acceptance. But the Korean government selected the CDMA as its technology standard. CDMA was the proprietary technology of a little-known venture firm, Qualcomm of the United States. Various experts and members of the media criticized the government’s decision, arguing for the already proven GMA standard, but the government panel was impressed with the CDMA’s superior call quality and frequency efficiency.
This decision was also fueled by Korea’s pride and patriotism to commercialize its own digital communication technology and to foster a domestic mobile phone industry, as well as the confidence that came from its independent development of a full-scale electronic switching system. But if you take a close look at the reality of the CDMA story in Korea, you would notice that the process was fraught with a succession of serious errors and technical obstacles. The project managers had to travel to every corner of the country to double check the connections, due to Korea’s mountainous terrain, while it is known that the Qualcomm consultants worked throughout the day and night during the Christmas holidays in order to meet the January 1, 1996 deadline for the launch of CDMA service.
In less than a year, the Korean government’s gamble paid huge dividends. Samsung Electronics and other Korean mobile phone makers quickly gained control of the domestic market with their technologically advanced digital mobile phones. By the end of 1996, Samsung Electronics captured over 50 percent of the domestic market, while Motorola, which had dominated the Korean market during the analogue mobile era, saw its market share plunge to less than 20 percent. The originator of wireless mobile communications and manufacturer of the world’s first mobile phone, Motorola had miscalculated the impact of Korea’s conversion to CDMA and did not move fast enough on its digital product line, resulting in disastrous market consequences.
Tech-savvy Consumers
After the launch of CDMA, the number of domestic mobile phone users literally skyrocketed, from 3.18 million in 1996, the first year of CDMA’s adoption, to 6.83 million in 1997, 23.44 million in 1999, and 29.05 million in 2001, an exponential increase in a matter of just a few years. Korean mobile communications providers, such as SK Telecom, KTF (now KT), and LG Telecom (now LG U+), offered subsidies to mobile phone purchasers, as part of a fierce competition to attract new subscribers, which also served to boost the market’s explosive growth.
Another factor was the Korean consumer, who was constantly on the lookout for the newest IT products. Korea is known the world over for purchasing a variety of high-priced mobile phones, while the turnover rate for mobile phones among consumers is incredibly short, about 18 months or so. In Korea, this tendency is related to the fact that consumers think of their mobile phone as a kind of social indicator, which reflects their sense of fashion and ability to keep pace with technology trends. As a result of this consumer demand, Korean mobile phone makers adopted a business model under which they pushed for the development of as many models as possible for continuous introduction to the domestic market. And based on consumer response, the most popular models would then be exported abroad. Moreover, the Korean consumer’s penchant to complain about even the most minor flaw forced the domestic manufacturers to implement stringent quality-control standards.
The effectiveness of this process enabled Samsung Electronics to achieve a milestone of 10 million sales of its SGH-T100 model. Released in 2002, the mobile phone was said to reflect the ideals of Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, which led to its being known as the “Lee Kun-hee phone.” In particular, this model was revolutionary for its unique design, which enabled the unit to fit snugly in the palm of your hand, and its application of a full-color LCD screen, a world’s first. There were those who questioned the wisdom of including a then-pricey color LCD screen in a mobile phone, but this Samsung innovation led to a consumer craze for the color-screen mobile phone in Korea and worldwide, which helped to vault Samsung into the ranks of the world’s top three manufacturers of mobile phones.
Another advantage for the Korean mobile phone industry was the large number of makers of electronic components in Korea. For example, for the supply of semiconductors and displays to produce mobile phones, Samsung Electronics, Hynix Semiconductor, and LG Display were all recognized for the global competitiveness of their products. As such, the domestic makers of mobile phones were especially well positioned to develop innovative products that could be brought to the market in the shortest period of time.
In addition, Korea’s mobile phone industry has been highly responsive to market trends, and the professional dedication of its product engineers has made a great contribution as well. For example, the No. 1 global maker, Nokia, will introduce about 30-40 new models in a year, but Samsung Electronics is likely to develop and release up to 100 new models each year. Korean engineers immerse themselves into product development, even working seven days a week, in an effort to develop products that respond to rapidly changing trends. This effort has led to a number of hit products, such as the previously mentioned “Lee Kun-hee Phone,” as well as the Blue-Black Phone, which features a slide-top body, and the stylish Chocolate Phone, which appealed to younger generation consumers. Former Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Ki-tae was known to conduct his own product testing by stomping on a brand new phone or tossing it into a washing machine. Prior to concluding a business contract with the CEOs of foreign communication enterprises, he would hurl his phone against a wall as a live demonstration of the durability and reliability of Samsung products.
World-class Mobile Phones
The consumer popularity of Samsung’s mobile phones helped to establish a global image of Korea as a maker of top-quality mobile phones, which provided a boost for other domestic mobile phone producers, such as LG Electronics and Pantech. All the while, Korea’s
mobile phone exports soared, setting record-high sales year after year. In 1996, Korean mobile phone exports amounted to some $1.22 billion, but this figure swelled to an incredible $13.62 billion by 2002, a 10-fold increase in export revenue in less than 10 years. After the launch of the third generation of mobile communications in 2000, the growth rate of Korea’s mobile phone exports further accelerated.
Within a year after releasing the slide-top Blue-Black Phone, Samsung Electronics recorded sales of more than 10 million units. Despite the fact that the Blue-Black Phone was marketed as a luxury-price phone, with an unheard of $500 price tag, it enjoyed especially strong consumer demand in the advanced markets of the United States and Europe in spite of weak demand for mobile phones in general, making its success almost beyond expectations. The Blue-Black Phone started a worldwide trend for the color black, in contrast to the previous tendency for silver or white mobile phones. As such, the Blue-Black Phone earned 3GSM’s “Best Mobile Handset” award, a kind of “Oscar” for the mobile phone industry, in 2005, while the U.S. business magazine Fortune included a full-length feature article that described the entire development and marketing process of the Blue-Black phone, as part of its 75th anniversary edition.
As for LG Electronics, its own meteoric ascent began in 2005. LG Electronics struggled somewhat when its development of mobile phones based on the European GSM standard encountered delays, but with the launch of the third-generation mobile phone market, it became Korea’s second-ranked manufacturer of mobile phones, behind only Samsung Electronics. The first product to herald LG’s global emergence was the Chocolate Phone, released in 2005. This hit product, which combined stylish design with its distinctive chocolate color, became LG Electronics’ first model to break the 10-million sales mark. In March 2007, LG followed this up with the world’s first touch-screen phone, the Prada Phone, which was designed in cooperation with the world-class designer, Prada. Five models of LG Electronics mobile phones have become 10-million sellers thus far, enabling it to unseat Motorola from the No. 3 ranking in global market share.
First in the World
Korea’s mobile phone industry has been the driving force behind the development of its mobile communication services, as well as the growth of the IT parts and content industries. For example, Korea launched the world’s first video telephony service in 2006. In June 2010, Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated video calling as a key innovation of the iPhone 4, but Korea had already adopted its own video calling service in 2006. Moreover, Korea also introduced the world’s first DMB (digital media broadcasting) service in 2005, which enables users to view terrestrial-broadcast programming on their mobile phones, along with countless other “world’s firsts,” such as ring-back tone and wire-wireless music portal services.
Even more impressive is the fact that these applications were available on a basic mobile phone, and did not require a high-end model, thus demonstrating the innovative technology of Korea’s mobile communication sector. In all likelihood, if Korea was an English-speaking country, the landscape of today’s smartphone and mobile content markets would be completely different. The failure of Korean communications enterprises, such as SK Telecom and KT, to make noticeable headway in markets abroad despite their cutting-edge mobile phones and services, is due in large part to an inability to surmount linguistic and cultural obstacles, rather than technological constraints.
Smartphone Era
There is no doubt that the smartphone era has presented the Korean mobile phone market with a new challenge. In the six months after Apple’s iPhone arrival in the Korean market, in late November 2009, it has managed to garner some 700,000 users, far exceeding people’s expectations. Domestic firms predicted that iPhone sales would amount to about 100,000 units, but this was well off the mark. The Korean consumer’s tendency to quickly embrace the latest IT products and to regard the mobile phone as a fashion accessory clearly contributed to the iPhone’s widespread popularity. Of note, the iPhone introduced Korean consumers to not only the smartphone’s
new hardware but also its diversity of mobile content. Apple’s
App Store has provided Korean game makers and other content providers with potential access to the worldwide content market. On the other hand, the smartphone proved to be an abrupt shock and unexpected challenge to Korea’s telecom providers and mobile phone industry, which had failed to advance beyond voice calls and wireless Internet access.
Although the iPhone’s success has been surprising, Korea’s
mobile phone makers are just as quickly preparing the launch of their own smartphone models. Only six months after the iPhone’s debut in Korea, Samsung Electronics released its Galaxy S model, a smartphone that is fully comparable to the iPhone, while LG Electronics and Pantech are preparing to release their own cutting-edge smartphones, with features that will dazzle overseas consumers. Korean mobile phone manufacturers have adopted the OS software developed by Google and Microsoft, but they intend to optimize the software applications in an effort to differentiate their smartphone models, based on user-friendly features. Korea’s mobile phone industry has learned how to adapt foreign-developed technology and to add its own innovations to create an even better product. Together with its proven ability to respond quickly to market developments, the Korea mobile phone industry seems well on its way to turning a crisis into another opportunity.
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