BBC News - Patent wars: Stripping the iPhone bare
The battle for content over style plays out in the increasingly bland looking devices.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Is email dead?
Mark Zuckerberg has suggested that email's time is nigh, this pronouncement came not surprisingly at the launch of one of the most significant developments on the Facebook platform for some time the new Messenger system through the messaging centre, something he hopes will ensure that his 750 million users dumps email in favour of Facebook.
The fact that you have to have an email address to have a Facebook account somehow seems to have been lost somewhere in the announcement, but that aside is Zuckerberg right? Well certainly there is evidence to suggest that email is on the wane. A research study by Comscore suggested that in the 12-17 year old age group usage was down 59%. This is well supported by the fact that last year 25% of US universities did not issue emails to new students but instead chose to run all communications through Facebook or other social networks.
So within the consumer population email usage is down but I don't believe email is anywhere close to dead in both the consumer and the B2B space, but there are a number of factors that are going to impact on the efficacy of email in 2012.
Multi-channel distribution complications
Social media platforms have meant that content can now be distributed in multiple ways. We don't see Facebook and Twitter's existence as a the death knell for email distribution. There is a time and a place for relevant information disseminated by email, the key though is ensuring what you are emailing is shareable through social networks to ensure that your valuable content is disseminated using these channels.
Smarter inboxes
Email inboxes have got smart. Users can now automate filing, and use 'sweep' options to ensure mass inbox clean ups. Marry that with the fact that email inboxes such as Boxbee can now deliver email based on previous behaviours it puts the onus back on brands to ensure they are running more effective campaigns. That means users will keep them listed as a preferred sender or 'starred' as a sender users want to hear from. If brands are keen to continue receiving consistently high open rates and prevent their message being deleted en mass with other senders content needs to stay high quality and relevant.
Portability
Up to 30% of email is now received on smartphones whether that be Blackberry, iOS devices or Android. It's therefore absolutely essential brands are optimising your email campaigns for mobile receipt.
Email will become more valuable
Opted in email lists are more valuable than ever before. Studies show that an opted-in email list is 23% more likely to convert to sale than other online communication channels. That means keeping lists recent, clean and relevant has never been more important.
Click thru rates up but open rates down
All of the above factors will most likely mean open rates will start to decline, however if brands ensure the quality, timeliness and relevance remains high we predict Click thru rates will increase and if the social sharing options are improved from each email the potential distribution possibilities become far greater than ever before.
The fact that you have to have an email address to have a Facebook account somehow seems to have been lost somewhere in the announcement, but that aside is Zuckerberg right? Well certainly there is evidence to suggest that email is on the wane. A research study by Comscore suggested that in the 12-17 year old age group usage was down 59%. This is well supported by the fact that last year 25% of US universities did not issue emails to new students but instead chose to run all communications through Facebook or other social networks.
So within the consumer population email usage is down but I don't believe email is anywhere close to dead in both the consumer and the B2B space, but there are a number of factors that are going to impact on the efficacy of email in 2012.
Multi-channel distribution complications
Social media platforms have meant that content can now be distributed in multiple ways. We don't see Facebook and Twitter's existence as a the death knell for email distribution. There is a time and a place for relevant information disseminated by email, the key though is ensuring what you are emailing is shareable through social networks to ensure that your valuable content is disseminated using these channels.
Smarter inboxes
Email inboxes have got smart. Users can now automate filing, and use 'sweep' options to ensure mass inbox clean ups. Marry that with the fact that email inboxes such as Boxbee can now deliver email based on previous behaviours it puts the onus back on brands to ensure they are running more effective campaigns. That means users will keep them listed as a preferred sender or 'starred' as a sender users want to hear from. If brands are keen to continue receiving consistently high open rates and prevent their message being deleted en mass with other senders content needs to stay high quality and relevant.
Portability
Up to 30% of email is now received on smartphones whether that be Blackberry, iOS devices or Android. It's therefore absolutely essential brands are optimising your email campaigns for mobile receipt.
Email will become more valuable
Opted in email lists are more valuable than ever before. Studies show that an opted-in email list is 23% more likely to convert to sale than other online communication channels. That means keeping lists recent, clean and relevant has never been more important.
Click thru rates up but open rates down
All of the above factors will most likely mean open rates will start to decline, however if brands ensure the quality, timeliness and relevance remains high we predict Click thru rates will increase and if the social sharing options are improved from each email the potential distribution possibilities become far greater than ever before.
Friday, 18 November 2011
Google+ launches pages
So five months after it was promised, possibly the most anticipated social platform launch of the year, the great hyperbole that is Google+ pages finally arrived last week.
It met with the now expected polarised coverage from:
"Why Google Plus Pages (Will) Beat Facebook. And Twitter"
to
"Google+ Is Dead"
Frankly how one can make predictions this early on (we smell linkbait) is beyond us.
So the facts are that Pages provide organisations with the ability to broadcast and interact with their customers in much the same way as Facebook pages. As Robert Scoble points out though they currently appear to be more suited to small companies or companies with a small social presence rather than large corporations, as the management options for multiple logins are currently absent meaning companies with advanced social strategies touching many parts of an organisation will find the management tough at present.
These types of tools will arrive over time but for now the key benefit (which is why we can't understand the ‘Google+ is dead’ headlines) is the baked in search boosting tools, which is where Google+ really has an advantage over other social platforms.
Companies that are serious about natural search rankings have the opportunity to really consolidate through their presence on the platform and this is where we think the real growth will start. The attraction of improved natural search will inevitably attract companies to set up stall (61% of the top brands already have) and if they start to run promotions through the platform the users will follow, which means there will be a natural activation of what is currently a relatively inactive Google+ consumer base. Interestingly this is the Facebook growth model in reverse.
So after 5 months of wondering we now know what Google’s ambitions are and the next year is going to be a fascinating spectacle.
Monday, 3 October 2011
The true price of free
If you've visited Facebook or read any business or technology pages in the past couple of weeks you will be well aware that facebook has made one or two changes.
The changes have been discussed at length so we're not going to explore them in any great detail, but instead consider the furore that has engulfed the user community. A survey of 1300 users noted that 84% of the base didn't like the new changes. But so what.
As Adrian Short pointed out last week if you haven't paid for the service then you have no real say. Certainly you don't have rights. As a facebook user you're merely a tenant, you don't pay anything to be there so you need to expect things to change. If you want to control your web experience then you're going to need to be prepared to pay. facebook answers to its advertisers and those advertisers are the ones looking for more time online, better targeting, greater engagement and that is what the interface change is designed to deliver.
The radicalism of the change is something that brands have to be vigilant about. For years facebook has provided a free platform to develop your brand space on. If this is the decision you're making, you need to be prepared for the unexpected. You don't get anything for free and if there is a decision in the future to change things this could affect your wall, your apps or any tools you build in and fundamentally the brand experience you're building. With a long rumoured IPO in the near future, monetising the site has never been more important for facebook and one thing we can expect is more of these types of changes in the future. facebook has been a fantastic innovation for brands, but its best to remember facebook are doing it for facebook not for your brand.
The changes have been discussed at length so we're not going to explore them in any great detail, but instead consider the furore that has engulfed the user community. A survey of 1300 users noted that 84% of the base didn't like the new changes. But so what.
As Adrian Short pointed out last week if you haven't paid for the service then you have no real say. Certainly you don't have rights. As a facebook user you're merely a tenant, you don't pay anything to be there so you need to expect things to change. If you want to control your web experience then you're going to need to be prepared to pay. facebook answers to its advertisers and those advertisers are the ones looking for more time online, better targeting, greater engagement and that is what the interface change is designed to deliver.
The radicalism of the change is something that brands have to be vigilant about. For years facebook has provided a free platform to develop your brand space on. If this is the decision you're making, you need to be prepared for the unexpected. You don't get anything for free and if there is a decision in the future to change things this could affect your wall, your apps or any tools you build in and fundamentally the brand experience you're building. With a long rumoured IPO in the near future, monetising the site has never been more important for facebook and one thing we can expect is more of these types of changes in the future. facebook has been a fantastic innovation for brands, but its best to remember facebook are doing it for facebook not for your brand.
Monday, 5 September 2011
Is it milliseconds or days that count?
In 1986 the financial sector's Big Bang saw the explosion of the industry. It was the end of October 1986 when the Stock Exchange Automated Quotation system replaced the trading floor. This screen-based quotation system was used by brokers to buy and sell stock rather than meeting face to face. It's been the technological advances in the sector that has kept it competitive and continues to do so.
Work has just got underway on the Hibernian Express a 6000 mile fibre optic cable that will cost over £300 million and is being justified by the fact that milliseconds will be saved in trading transactions providing the edge that companies need to ensure they stay competitive.
However, increasingly it is not just the huge infrastructure projects that are necessarily giving the edge, but easily accessible and free platforms. Analysts at Derwent Capital Markets have launched a £25m fund that makes its investments by evaluating whether people are generally happy, sad, anxious or tired, because they believe it will predict whether the market will move up or down. How do they do that? Well it's Twitter. The millions of tweets posted on Twitter are being analysed by their hedge fund managers in conjunction with a research team headed by Professor Johan Bollen, they have developed a predictive modelling technique for the Dow Jones with 87.6% accuracy.
Paul Hawtin, Derwent's founder and fund manager, has an exclusive contract with Bollen to use his technology. Mr Hawtin told the Sunday Times "Investors have always accepted that markets are driven by sentiment, mainly fear and greed. When people are greedy the markets go up and when they are fearful they go down.
"When sentiment dropped, and people tweeted about feeling tight on money, were worried or anxious, the markets would crash two or three days later."
This is not the only tool on the market, but increasingly small houses are looking at investing in social technologies at a fraction of the price of large infrastructure projects and in some cases predicting market shifts far earlier than the milliseconds that may be won by the Hibernian Express.
Work has just got underway on the Hibernian Express a 6000 mile fibre optic cable that will cost over £300 million and is being justified by the fact that milliseconds will be saved in trading transactions providing the edge that companies need to ensure they stay competitive.
However, increasingly it is not just the huge infrastructure projects that are necessarily giving the edge, but easily accessible and free platforms. Analysts at Derwent Capital Markets have launched a £25m fund that makes its investments by evaluating whether people are generally happy, sad, anxious or tired, because they believe it will predict whether the market will move up or down. How do they do that? Well it's Twitter. The millions of tweets posted on Twitter are being analysed by their hedge fund managers in conjunction with a research team headed by Professor Johan Bollen, they have developed a predictive modelling technique for the Dow Jones with 87.6% accuracy.
Paul Hawtin, Derwent's founder and fund manager, has an exclusive contract with Bollen to use his technology. Mr Hawtin told the Sunday Times "Investors have always accepted that markets are driven by sentiment, mainly fear and greed. When people are greedy the markets go up and when they are fearful they go down.
"When sentiment dropped, and people tweeted about feeling tight on money, were worried or anxious, the markets would crash two or three days later."
This is not the only tool on the market, but increasingly small houses are looking at investing in social technologies at a fraction of the price of large infrastructure projects and in some cases predicting market shifts far earlier than the milliseconds that may be won by the Hibernian Express.
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
10 things Google+ has done for me
So straight off the top of my head here we GO...
1. It's cut out the noise of Twitter
2. It's helped me discover interesting content more quickly
3. It's facilitated better conversations
4. It's made me feel innovative again
5. It's made me be more rigorous about how I'm presenting myself online again
6. It's started me blogging again
7. It's helped me choose who and how to share better
8. It's made me like people I'd started to go off
9. It's sparked my imagination back into life
10. It's bumped me out of a bit of a lazy hiatus
1. It's cut out the noise of Twitter
2. It's helped me discover interesting content more quickly
3. It's facilitated better conversations
4. It's made me feel innovative again
5. It's made me be more rigorous about how I'm presenting myself online again
6. It's started me blogging again
7. It's helped me choose who and how to share better
8. It's made me like people I'd started to go off
9. It's sparked my imagination back into life
10. It's bumped me out of a bit of a lazy hiatus
First campaign on Google+
It's a bit clunky (and the spelling leaves a bit to be desired) but it's good to experiment, it's why I like hackers and hats off to these guys for finding the first hook
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