iPad 3 and iPhone 5 rumors are already out there. I guess Foxconn and Pegatron are already preparing themselves for the official launch, even after Apple has increased its order for X-Mas/Q4 sales – especially on iPhone 4s largely. Despite the fact that some market players have corrected their sales forecast with less sold units due to the economic downstream in some regions. Some experts have said that Apple could not continue their smartphone success story, as Android´s market position is getting stronger and stronger. Honestly: it seems to be that Apple is probably not the world´s best smartphone, but it´s beloved user-friendly eco-systems still drives the highest profit margins to Cupertino. Which was a 40,3% in this Q4 in Apple´s fiscal year 2011.
One is enough, two is too much, three is dangerous!
Facebook, Twitter, Google+? Is three at least one too much?
Who is next? Who would die? Where is it going the social network eco-system?
1st = as long as there was only one, the world was easy to handle for all of us users. Everybody was happy just to increase fans & followers and to post user generated content or links, vids and stuff
2nd = after a little education, getting common and increased functionality knowledge consumers intent to have multiple accounts for different activities in their life (e.g. private, business, fake, junk and testing/more)
3rd = with more (cross)-related-Apps running on those social media plattforms for extended services such as foursquare, yipit, instagram, rating functions and more the complexity of handling your posts, status and contents starts to driving you nuts. Every single one of them! And that is only your part of the story and your perspective. How to handle this on different accounts simultaneously?
Beside all that you will never find all your contacts on one of these platforms. Maybe nearly all on Facebook, but you still have people who are reluctant and unconvinced to join this garden party. So at the end you still need your Phonebook/Outlook/Mac contacts database to ensure interaction with all your social contacts via Phone and Mail. And this shows as long as potential competitor Google+ will not have critical mass of users combined with permanent/regular user interaction Facebook will still be the No.1 and the major place to be! Even if you dislike the forthcoming Timeline-Feature, as I do. But just for a single moment, just a twinkle in the eye: what is next? Intelligent Search with recommendations that are cross-checked and combined with your Friends ratings and tailor made for you? The timeline function – everything compressed in a story of your life? Your individual One-click online Store of your favourite brands? TV, Books and Games online based on your likes? Woo-hoo.
And: will the giant Microsoft get the job done? Sync/Cloud, mobile OS and Social Media? Imagine: from about 95% of every online connections that have been operated with Microsoft Windows OS a few years ago to nearly under 50% this year. Every second internet connection to the internet is without Windows OS. Forecast: still decreasing. Thank you, smartphones and tablets.
All you Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards – where do you follow in the future?
Six ways to save the internet.
A really great lecture from Roger McNamee!
(c) TEDxSantaCruz
On Sale: 11.11.11
BMC´s Magic 11 – Ladies and gents! I´ve written a marketing conception in 2010 for tomorrow 11.11.11 dd-mm-yy 11.11.11 hh-mm-ss because I thought that this magic date was something special for retailers and promotions. I am completely surprised how many companies don´t care about such opportunities. A crazy world, we all live in.
Retention, Retention! And watch your NPS.
89% of all actual Apple iPhone Users will stick to their smartphone brand a research from UBS Analysts says. Surprised by the fact that others device manufacturer such as Samsung will reach a roughly thirty-something percent? As long as you communicate with your customers in the old school way I guess not. You have to manage your communication differently. And be aware of your NPS or other measurement system.
I want myTV!
HD Plus, 3D, 4D, EPGs, Hybrid TV Internet Hardware, Hulu, Netflix, Google and Apple TV, YouTube with 200 new Channels, Time Shift and Advertising free channels? Every day a new announcement that probably changes our learned television behavior.
And the EU Commission is changing the legal environment, no more closed shops. Even on Soccer Rights Holding.
And where is the mobile app?
So many questions. So many answers.
Casino Royale?
Can infrastructure make the pace of hardware & software/apps/cloud companies development speed? Look at the R&D facts and figures of all the interviews from conferences such as AsiaD in Hong-Kong and Disrupt 2011 in Beijing, China.
You are using multiple devices nowadays on the go and on travel to get your individual workload done. Old school multitasking was yesterday, just running your different software pieces on your PC/Laptop. And you have been lucky if the hardware and the OS worked out properly.
Today and in the future you are using a WLAN/WIFI Hotspot in a bar, cafe or hotel and you probably do it in the new school multitasking way – quite different to the past. You maybe have your smartphone, Tablet and your Laptop online in the same timeslot working on several devices. You are using intensive data simultaneously and you want it all at the same time. And you don´t care about the data traffic running over the air. Even if the service provider´s hotspot couldn´t handle this to fit your performance expectations or the hotel/public workplace business model will be ready for the future.
Consumer, Enterprise and Carrier Ecosystems are changing every day. New competition everywhere, game changing new business models like Amazon´s approach. With own devices (Kindle), own online book stores and new contractual environments/revenue share models. Imagine that Amazon is now dealing directly with book authors and therefore by-passing traditional publishers. Controlling as much as they can of their entire value-chain!
What is the future for the big network operators? Where is the new value chain and added value?
Faster, lighter, more – and ubiquitous!
We are so close to the next level of connected life. Worldwide LTE (Long term evolution/4G) cellular networks will give us a lot more opportunities as of today and enable us to do more data intensive applications, even by multitasking. The future is wireless – no doubt. And no matter how much up- or downstream you need.
For sure you use your Ultrabook, Tablet-PC or Smartphone as well with the next level software and apps. No wonder: with intuitive touchscreens and user-orientated/centric operating systems. You organize yourself in a new way in the enterprise 2.0 as well as in your private environment. Via Evernote, Wunderlist, Dropbox and Dragon you are everytime available on duty. Dragon for instance is giving you the freedom to record your voicememos instantly and converting them directly into written text for usuage by email, Twitter, Facebook and more. Siri from Apple, feature of the brandnew iPhone 4S, goes a few steps further of this scenario by converting and understanding your textmemo, if you want to set appointments and more. The phone does exactly what you want it to do – the perfect companion.
Can you imagine the next landmarks in commerce, mobility, smarthome, learning and health? Let´s get ready. The future is bright.
RIP, iBoss!
Performance of broadband worldwide:
Great overview from Mashable/Pando about the broadband performance and penetration:
(c) by Mashable/Pando Networks