iPad – I want it, but do I need it?

via apple.com

Steve led up to the unveiling of iPad with a few statements about HOW to create a third category of products between a mobile phone and a laptop. His key point (and one I’ve made before; self high-five) is that a Tablet must do the things it does BETTER than a smartphone or a mobile phone.

It’s early, and I don’t expect to have a chance to play with an iPad for months, but I think I can say a few things. Here are the things it does better than a laptop and/or smartphone.

Web Browsing – Multi-touch is pretty much made for it.
Connectivity – AT&T deal (despite network issues) is pretty great
Apps – They are great on iPhone, they don’t exist on Macbooks.
Ebooks – Perfect form factor for it. Will be great for students

But there are a lot of things that laptops/smartphones do much better.

Communication – typing at length seems to be awkward here, email/no telephony (right now at least)
Portability – Like it or not, you will need a separate bag for this
Music – This is tied a bit to the size, but iPhone crushes it for this

Jury is still out on

Multi-tasking
Productivity (Exchange, etc.)

There is simply too much overlap. I don’t want to speak in absolutes so soon after the launch of this product, but I don’t see incremental benefit enough in this tablet to stray someone away from a Macbook or an Smartphone. It’s sexy as hell, but is it meeting any needs that are not met in my life? Right now I’m in a coffee shop on my Macbook using TMO wifi with an iPhone for everything else. In this scenario, there is ZERO need for anything iPad is bringing to market.

Unless you are a student of course (textbooks will be huge). And until they launch Microsoft Office for iPad (for professionals such as myself). But I already spoke about that.

-Joenandez

January 27, 2010. 1. 1 comment.

Appcelerator: Survey Adds To My Business/Education Tablet Theory

via mobilecrunch.com

Since rumors of the Apple Tablet started picking up speed, I’ve been confused as to its purpose. What place in my life do I have for a device in between a smartphone and a netbook/laptop? I just don’t see it. The ONE use case I continue to cling to (to the point of getting my hopes so high that anything else announced tomorrow will be a crushing disappointment) is that the Apple Tablet will be primarily directed at replacing Notebooks (like, the written kind), Textbooks, Print-outs at meetings, and other business/education related functions.

This to me, could be the device that kills Blackberry’s domination in the enterprise space, and finally catapults Apple’s Educational ambitions beyond the long-term business objective its been to date.

I won’t go into detail on the use-cases, but things like taking notes in classes and meetings, editing powerpoint/word docs, sending out slides during a presentation, all come to mind. Sure you can do these things with a laptop/smartphone, but they become much easier with a lightweight, internet connected, multi-touch, 10inch diagonal (about the size of a written notebook) tablet.

Can’t wait for tomorrow.
-Joenandez

January 26, 2010. 1. Leave a comment.

Kindle To Get Apps – Why?

Why would Amazon do this? Increase the attractiveness of the Kindle vs. other E-Readers? Sure, that I can understand – and it would definitely change my purchase interest if I was in the market and trying decide between a Nook, Sony Reader and Kindle. 

In classic tech-blogger fashion, the rest of the tech-world seems to think this is somewhat useless defensive posturing against the mythical Apple tablet. Kindle is a dedicated E-Reader for book lovers trying to compete against an influx of dedicated E-Reader's for book lovers. Will a tablet-like device from Apple carve into market share? Certainly. But it might do that for the entire E-Reader market… there will however, still be a market (for a while at least).

I could be wrong, but I see this as a purposeful offensive posturing against other E-Readers, not defensive against a made-up gadget. 

-Joenandez 

January 21, 2010. 1. Leave a comment.

Someone Please Fix Contacts

I use the following services/methods of communication on a daily basis. 

Twitter

Facebook
Foursquare
Outlook
Gmail
SMS
Phone Calls

I have contacts or friends list for each and every one.

There are certain contacts or friends that I communicate with more than others, on each individual service.

I have many overlapping contacts, people in Twitter AND Facebook AND Gmail…and I have many that aren't in those three services, but ARE in my phone.

If you take the actually services out of the equation, all you are left with is the human beings I interact with, and how often I interact with each one of them.

Add in the method of contact (service), and you get a people centric view of frequency and method of communication. BY PERSON.

I can't believe nobody has spent time to make this work well yet. Many have tried, but noone has come close – specifically around using contact frequency data. 

I wish I had unlimited resources and a team of engineers to do this and do this right.

-Joenandez   

January 19, 2010. 1. Leave a comment.

Original iPhone Keynote Is Inspiring – Some Thoughts…

I watched the original iPhone keynote over again last night. I had a few observations.

I was overcome with a sense of awe as Steve Jobs introduced the phone for the first time. I witnessed again an amazing paradigm shift in mobile computing with the introduction of the iPhone. This happened 3 YEARS ago. And people are still playing catch up to the ease of use and completeness of the ORIGINAL iPhone. To me, Nexus One is the first phone I've used since the iPhone that just works. Don't have to worry about battery, or # of apps running, or lag, etc. iPhone still trumps Nexus on Ease of Use, IMO.

Steve Jobs mentioned several times that he had been waiting to share iPhone publicly for 2.5 years. That means Apple first began work on iPhone in June of 2004. 2004!!! Nearly 6 years later and OS are just starting to catch up conceptually.

Jobs seemed to have his talking points down about specifically WHY they chose some of the designs/features they did. They (Apple) definitely had a solid understanding of how and why people use their mobile phones, and what the pain points are. Because iPhone is built on a fully functioning computer OS (OS X), they were able to design easy to use and beautiful interfaces to solve many of the problems. The converse was true of the mobile industry at the time, people building experiences with mobile OS's that weren't designed for simplicity, flexibility and prettiness. Mobile OS's from RIM and PALM were functional, utilitarian, do-it-all, damn the simplicity types of platforms. Apple came in, took the concept of phone OS and flipped it on its head. The next best OS didn't arrive for another year and a half in Android, and it was half-baked at that. In summary, they knew how people used phones, they specifically picked out the things that were painful, and went about solving every one of those things. 

They did it In 2.5-3 years.

The average development cycle for phones around these parts is 12-15 months. 1/3 the amount of time it took to design the user experience on iPhone. BUT, (and I am guilty of this) we just continue to chase the iPhone. Catch up! Catch up! We can beat it! But we need to launch next holiday, no wiggle room. This is such a faulty mentality.

Maybe we should be thinking how we can compliment it. Or live along side it. Or be better at specific things that specific people (consumers) need in there lives. Or go back to the drawing board and go back to what people hate about cell phones to begin with. Maybe innovation isn't on the software or hardware side anymore. Who knows?
Sometimes I like to metaphorically throw my arms up in my quest to compete with iPhone. No, it's not healthy. Competition is exciting, and healthy, and if the introduction of the iPhone has changed anything, it's the drive and personal ambition of Product Managers such as myself.  

-Joenandez

January 19, 2010. 1. 2 comments.

Another iPhone vs. Android Post

Opening an incoming email on Android:

1. Hear and feel the unique notification you’ve set up
2. see the notification from the lock screen
3. Unlock the screen, pull down the window shade and press the notification icon
4. View the Email (same for exchange, gmail, yahoo, etc, etc)
Total Time – around 3 seconds from phone in hand to viewing message
Opening an incoming email on iPhone:
1. Maybe hear, maybe not the slight “bing” sound signifying a received email
2. Look at lock screen which doesn’t provide visual cue for new messages
3. Open screen, than navigate to screen panel with Mail app
4. Look at the little red badge and try to remember if you had 16 or 17 unread mails last time, how many were from your Gmail account, how many were from your Exchange account, and how many were from your Yahoo account.
5. Open the Mail app, guess that new mail was Exchange, then wait for messages to load – try again if your guessed the wrong account
Total Task Time: Long enough to know that the email experience on iPhone is complete garbage and if Android beats iPhone on anything, its on a landslide victory in the communication department.
Its about user experience people – Google clearly knows how people use email, and didn’t just add the feature because that is what people do on smartphones. It seems more and more likely that Apple didn’t think past “account access” on the email use case list.
That said, you know what just kills me? iPhone is so, so, so much more FUN than Android.
-Joenandez

January 12, 2010. 1. Leave a comment.

Weekend Observation: Moto, please fix the Cliq

It's Monday, and I've ceremoniously removed my T-Mobile SIM card from the unlocked iPhone 3G and placed it back in its "home" in my Motorola Cliq. In my mind, the Moto Cliq is the best phone I've ever owned. Never before have I used a phone that was so clearly targeted at someone like me… young professional, social fanatic, communication nut. In every way this phone works for me, the design, the color material and finish, the keyboard (which I love), the BLUR software and Android's general customize-ability. But, what seems too good to be true probably is. The Cliq gets me about 8 hours of battery life. Enough to go on the charger the second I get home from the office, but never enough to last a weekend night out on the town (hence, the iPhone usage). For the self admitted "first phone with social skills", the Motorola Cliq behaves more like a 45 year old father of 4 then a single 28 year old professional on the weekends. It is such a shame. Moto – give me a sexy Blur device with battery and processor and you have yourself a loyalist. No, Droid is not it. Too angular, too "techy".   

The challenges that Moto and other OEMs face with the Android platform are significant. The problem may sound familiar, as it is one in the same with Microsoft's Vista disaster. Android is an amazing platform, but there does not exist the technology to properly power and run the software. Vista got better as processor, battery and other tech improved, as Android has. This isn't a new observation.

Regardless, I for one will continue to be an Android loyalist, and I anxiously await the day Android runs on appropriately powered phones. Moto, HTC, please stop shipping mediocre hardware. The experiences of your customers are suffering, despite their loyalty. 

-Joenandez  

December 7, 2009. 1. Leave a comment.

Your job vs. Their Job.

I don’t care how empathic, intuitive, and all knowing you are. You could be the Sigmund Freud of Marketing or Product Development. Nothing, and I mean nothing is more refreshing than listening to how consumers actually think about your category.

You may be the guy with a golden tongue; everything you say sounds good and people believe you because you have the pulse of the trend setters. Your Google Reader is always at 0, and you could read every tech article the second it is published. There is nothing those blogs and those trend setters will tell you to help you understand how your least common denominator customers think.

I am no longer a market research manager.  But I hope that what makes me successful at my new job is the understanding that I need to be grounded in the beliefs of my users as often as possible. They will shock you, surprise you, make you think differently and ultimately lead you to smarter business decisions than you ever would have thought of yourself.

Never underestimate the beliefs of your consumers, but always beware guiding products by the beliefs of your users. They may tell it like it is, but they will never be able to tell it like it will be. Product Managers: that is your job.

-Joenandez

November 9, 2009. 1. Leave a comment.

Garmin Nuvifone G60 “overpriced”, missing features?? Ummm… no.

via google.com

AT&T has announced that they will be offering Garmin’s first attempt at a mobile phone with the Linux based (and very cool looking) G60 for $299 per month starting October 4th. Consensus in the blogosphere has been: 1- Finally. 2- Overpriced, underfeatured.

This has to be my number 1 pet peeve of gadget reviewers everywhere: everything and anything with a touchscreen and a 3+ inch touchscreen display gets compared to an iPhone. Hello folks, there are 250 Million wireless consumers out there in the US alone, not everyone is looking for the end-all-be-all gadget.

Garmin is a well know GPS unit provider, who have banked on consumers with a willing interest in highly accurate, points of interest based turn by turn directions in their cars (and other venues). This is a market of consumers where I would guess at least 90-95% carry a mobile phone. Garmin is taking advantage of the age of convergence and hedging their bets in the mobile market, leveraging their brand awareness, reputation on product quality to expand to new areas. Smart competitive move.

They also know that mobile consumers who want a Garmin-esque experience on their phone that DON’T want an iPhone (and even those considering one) will be interested in a device like this. Interested enough to buy one for $300 dollars.

Remember, pretty much every product has a market. With smart promotion, smart placement and appropriate spend, Garmin will do well in the space. They aren’t going to sell millions and millions of units, create a robust developer network and take over the mobile space. But they will make Garmin loyalists and those looking for a PND experience in their phone very happy.

It is ok not to be an iPhone, and it’s ok to challenge pricing trends that iPhone sets. Every product has a target market and goals, and maybe Garmin’s goal is simply to be the best PND phone. Last I checked, iPhone couldn’t compete with that without a $200 TomTom accessory/app bundle.

-Joenandez

September 29, 2009. 1. Leave a comment.

Hey touch tablet makers, psssst: Kindle DX sucks at “interacting” with text

via google.com

Gizmodo: DX pilot students dislike Kindle

I’ve posted about this before, but a tablet (specifically Apple’s) that would allow you to take notes, and interact with text in an e-reader application would be HUGE. If the the tablet replaced note books, text books and print outs, allowing me to “write” notes with a “pen” on the touchscreen itself, I would camp out for it.

No more printing out 26 page power points so I could take written notes… no more dragging around a laptop and/or a notebook to meetings.

And on top of that convenience, I can browse the web, watch videos, listen to music and use apps??

Jackpot.

Wishful thinking?.

-Joenandez

September 28, 2009. 1. Leave a comment.

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