Microsoft’s original mantra was also their best, clearest mission statement, and one they pretty much accomplished: “A computer on every desk, and in every home”. As you can see from the shadows cast by the people in the bathroom stalls in the photo above, the age of mobile devices is all about “a computer in every hand, and in every can”.
It’s a great time to be in mobile technology, whether you’re building apps, providing services or selling mobile device antibacterial screen wipes.
If you’re in Toronto and you’ve got some time to spare tonight — that’s Tuesday, October 15, 2013 — you might want to check out the Lighthack! BBQ-and-beer event taking place tonight at their office in the King/Portland area. As event organizer Nathon Gunn puts it:
Attention developers and entrepreneurs. Lighthack! is a new hackathon event series that pairs entrepreneurs with developers…. and accelerates their ability to build products rapidly with Lightning Platform. Think LEAN start-up meets hackathon meets founder matchmaking. Tonight is a BBQ and beer for curious devs to learn about the upcoming hackathon and what our software actually can do!
Nathon showed me the Lightning Platform earlier this year. I found it pretty intriguing’; it’s got a lot of the functionality in Parse, plus even more goodies that make it simpler to get better usage analytics and demographics from your user base. If you’re building community, social, game-based, or some other type of multiuser sites or applications and need a good back end and analytics, Lightning might be right for you. And I know that a BBQ and beer is definitely good for you. So c’mon down to their event tonight and find out what Nathon and company are up to!
Want to join tonight’s event? Sign up on the EventBrite page!
Specs don’t tell the whole story about a device, but it’s important to note that the gap between the things we think of when we say “computer” and “smartphone” is getting smaller and smaller. It’s a bit of an “apples and oranges” comparison, but the specs of one of the pricier 2013 smartphones aren’t all that different from those of one of the pricer 2009 laptops:
| 2009 Laptop (HP Envy 13) |
2013 Smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S4) |
|
|---|---|---|
| Processors | 1.6 GHz dual-core CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo SU9600) and DirectX 10-capable 16-core GPU (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330) |
1.6 GHz quad-core CPU (ARM Cortex-A15) and DirectX 9_3-capable 3-core GPU (PowerVR SGX544) |
| Active Memory | 2GB DDR2 RAM | 2GB LPDDR3 RAM |
| Storage | 250GB 4500 RPM hard drive | 16, 32 or 64GB solid state storage |
| Display | 1600 * 900 | 1080 * 1920 |
| Networking |
|
|
| Powerful enough to run a proper and complete port of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City? | Yes | Yes |
2009-era computers are the machines of choice for producing TPS reports.
We all know that a lot of today’s work is still done on computers with specs similar to the 2009-era laptop shown above. They’re used in offices, banks, airports, retail stores, factories, schools, and any place that has to produce TPS reports every day. Now imagine that computing power, but with these qualities:
Whether you write apps for mobile devices or administer them for an organization, don’t think of them as just phones that happen to be able to run applications. That was the mistake made by Motorola, Nokia, RIM, and Palm — the top mobile vendors in 2006 and now the subject of “Where are they now?” conversations.
The top 4 smartphone brands of 2006: 1. Nokia: died today. 2. RIM: dead soon. 3. Motorola: dead sooner than you think. 4. Palm: long dead.
— Michael DeGusta (@degusta) September 3, 2013
Think of them as computers that fit in your pocket and just happen to make phone calls.
Take a look at this:
If you work in technology, and especially mobile technology, you should draw at least two lessons from this photo.
Take a look at how the kid is pressing on the screen: with his thumb.
Next time you’re in an elevator or outside someone’s house and about the ring the doorbell, make a note of what fingers people use to push buttons. You’ll find that as a general rule, older people and those who don’t use technology much tend to use their index fingers, while the younger set and those who use mobile devices or play console games favour their thumbs. This trend was observed a decade ago, well before today’s era of ubiquitous smartphones and tablets. As Dr. Sadie Plant of Warwick University’s Cybernetic Culture Research Unit observed:
“The relationship between technology and the users of technology is mutual. Discovering that the younger generation has taken to using thumbs in a completely different way and are instinctively using thumbs where the rest of us are using our index fingers is particularly interesting.
The photo also reminds me of a 2008 presentation by Clay Shirky, which is often referred to as the “Gin, TV, and Cognitive Surplus Talk”:
In the talk, he tells the story of a four-year-old girl watching a movie on television:
I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter, watching a DVD. And in the middle of the movie, apropos of nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs behind the screen.
It seems like a cute moment. Maybe she’s going back there to see if Dora’s really back there, or whatever. But that isn’t what she was doing. She was rooting around the cables.
And her dad said “What’cha doin?”
And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said “Lookin’ for the mouse.”
Here’s what four-year-olds know: a screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Media that’s targeted at you — but doesn’t include you — may not be worth sitting still for.
Touchscreens are the “new” mice, so Shirky’s statement can simply be amended to “A screen that ships without a mouse or touch sensors ships broken”.
Enterprise Mobility Exchange describes itself as “an online community for global mobility professionals and business leaders who are leveraging mobile technology and services to improve operational efficiency, increase customer acquisition and loyalty, and drive increased profits across the entire enterprise.” They recently contacted me and pointed me to their video, The Mobility Revolution, which describes mobile technology as “the biggest technological shift since the internet”, an opinion that I happen to share with them:
While the video’s main goal is to encourage people to become members of the Enterprise Mobility Exchange, it’s got some juicy data points that you can use in your next mobile technology presentation or when you’re trying to convince decision-makers at your company (or your customers’ firms) to invest in mobile technologies and applications and to put together a mobile strategy, including:
I’ve joined Enterprise Mobility Exchange, as it’s the sort of thing that fits in with my line of work, which itself is evolving. If the following benefits sound like something that would be useful to you…
…then you might want to consider joining too.
Click the photo to see it at full size.
If you find yourself constantly reaching for the Calculator app, you might find this iPhone case useful — assuming those apple-shaped beads slide easily.
Your app may be a unique and special snowflake, but with about a million of them in each of the stores that matter, it’s a snowflake in the middle of a blizzard. Without a way for your potential customers to find out about your app, no matter how great or beautiful it is, it will never be found or bought.
Luckily for you, the app developer, there’s Harry Lucas’ handy ebook, App Marketing Secrets Revealed. In a breezy 56 pages that won’t waste your time, it lays out a series of steps that you can take to ensure that your app gets seen by people, and more importantly, purchased. As the book itself says in its preface, it will explain:
App Marketing Secrets Revealed has these chapters:
Oh yeah — App Marketing Secrets Revealed may be written with iOS developers in mind, but after reading it, I can say that most of it is equally applicable no matter what mobile OS you’re developing for.
App Marketing Secrets Revealed is a great deal at a mere $5 for a lot of useful advice, but Harry Lucas got in touch with me with an offer for you, the Global Nerdy reader. If you use the code iphonedev when you check out, the price will be discounted 40%, meaning you’ll only pay $3. This deal won’t last forever, so you’ll want to get the book as soon as possible!