Persistent rumors that Google is launching a mobile “platform” based on open business models could culminate tomorrow, November 4, 2007. Here’s the link “href=”http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20071103/tc_pcworld/139240″ I found. Bunches more online this afternoon so I have to believe that something BIG is going to be announced tomorrow. ONE big implication: we have now two amazing companies going [...]
Archive | Tech & Trends
Marvel Story
Marvel Comics used to sell comic books. That was their business. They created comics, they sold them in the form of books. Then, one day, they realize that the real asset isn’t the publishing business. Which is what they had directly built. What they had indirectly built is characters that had stories. And those were assets.
SaaS vs. Web Applications
Last year I wrote about the communication gap between the saas (software as a service) and web application communities. The quick summary of the gap is that they’re both dealing with the same technologies — hosting an application on a server and accessing it over the Internet — but from completely different perspectives and even [...]
Security Fears Limit Growth of Web Apps
The rise of web applications — websites that replace the functions of a software program that was traditionally installed on a personal computer — is one of the hottest topics in the tech industry. Huge numbers of “Web 2.0″ startups are competing for user attention, and many observers predict rapid growth for web applications.
But most of the analysts refer to web application growth as something that’s going to happen in the future. The reality is that web app usage has already stretched far beyond early adopters, and is moving rapidly into the mainstream of US home computer users. A recent survey, conducted by Rubicon Consulting, showed that more than a third of them already use at least one web application on a regular basis. Students are moving especially fast, with more than 50% using web applications.
Standing Apart: How a Blender Creates Affinity
The central goal of online marketing isn’t awareness, it’s engagement. And the five key tools to produce engagement are affinity, personality, community, co-creation, and advocacy. Engagement at the broadest level is getting the customer involved with your company, with your products and often, with your people. You want your customers to get to know your organization, its values and services. When customers like what they see and experience, the relationship deepens and it leads to affinity. Thus what was once a distant relationship becomes personal. Another way to same thing perhaps is to say that “Personality replaces traditional brand marketing”
Mobile Commerce, Really?
A colleague recently bent my ear regarding mobile commerce and how she can barely wait for some of the new services (like this one) to become available in her area. I love a good gadget as much as the next guy, but having lived through electronic wallets and many of the other “great ideas” on the front-side of the dot com boom, I’m a bit skeptical.
For those that are willing to learn, failures teach us more than successes, so this got me thinking about what the past can teach us about these new service offerings. I’m not talking about ringtones and wallpaper; I’m only talking about stuff you buy with your phone, not for your phone.
Impact of Amazon Flexible Payments Service: Computing as a utility
The announcement of Amazon FPS made my whole week, on a lot of different levels. I’m excited about the service itself, I’m excited about what it means for the development of web applications, and I’m excited about what it’ll eventually do for the mobile data world.
Okay, I’m just excited.
In a bar fight, what are you prepared to do?
Competition in the tech industry is a fundamental. Without it, we would never have seen the innovations and incredibly cool stuff that have informed, transformed, and improved our daily lives. Think about search and how much we use it to find anything, anytime. Or email tools that allow us to be connected and exchange ideas. [...]
The boxing match begins: Amazon, Google, and Paypal
This is one getting seats for: Reported here, but summarized with this starting point: Amazon, in its bid to become the underlying utility of the new web world, today confirmed what had been rumored earlier: a payment service that will compete with PayPal and to some extent, the nascent Google Checkout services. Just to be [...]
CMOs: Align Yourself to the C-suite
Is Marketing considered a a Corporate Performance Contributor? From conversations I’m having around the Valley, I’ve come to realize that marketing and its relevancy to the C-Suite is (in cleaned up language) not-so-good. Marketing is no longer considered contributing to the corporate performance of a company; not in any strategic kind of way. It hurts [...]