[UK] Now this is getting a little silly. Snippa, another UK-based Groupon clone launches today, this time from two experienced entrepreneurs: Tim O’Shea, founder of Blurtit, and David Hobart, founder of PureContent. The company is self funded by O’Shea and Hobart from their existing businesses, operating with a six person team headquartered in North Walsham, Norfolk.
Snippa, which is focusing on London initially, pretty much follows the usual group buying model: Each day various deals are on offer for things to do in the city, with a minimum number of buyers required for the deal to go through. If not enough people sign-up within the allotted time period then the offer is withdrawn and no money changes hands. The idea is that those interested will spread the word via email and social networks so as to increase their own chances of getting a bargain.
Although it’s here where I’m beginning to question the Groupon model as a whole, whereby the perception may be far more important than reality with the tipping point required, arguably, nothing more than a marketing gimmick designed to make the offers go viral – see below.
Snippa says its main differentiator from the plethora of competitors, including the extremely well funded US-based Groupon, along with others such as Berlin-based MyCityDeal or the just launched UK-based Groupola, is that it runs deals for more than one day, and has more than one deal live at any time. It also claims to have invested more heavily in securing the best deals for its users.
On launch day, the deals on offer include an £80 Super Car experience worth £160 plus a free 4X4 Fun Experience at Vision Motorsport, with a tipping point of 96 buyers. Or a Champagne Afternoon Tea for two for £35 (RRP £60) at Eric Lanlard’s Famous Cake Boy patisserie, with a tipping point of 30 buyers.
So what about the accusation that the Groupon-model is nothing but a marketing gimmick. I’m basing this possibility on the fact that many of the offers being advertised on group buying sites require as little as 25 people to sign up to make the offer stand. That’s not a huge number to back up claims of economies of scale to provide room for a 50% discount. So what exactly is going on?
Naturally, Snippa’s COO Hobart refutes these claims, although he says he can “understand people drawing this conclusion with the current influx of startups into the group buying space, most of whom seem to be operating deals with low tipping points, but in turn the offerings are not deals we would choose to publish.”
In other words, competitors might be using group buying purely as a marketing gimmick but not Snippa – although he would say that: “Tim and I truly believe the tipping point is inextricably linked with the best deal that we can offer to our customers. In our experience the minimum buy-in is in place to protect the merchant more than anything.”
Perhaps more noteworthy to the growing number of UK-based and other European Groupon clones is Hobart’s different experience in dealing with American merchants compared to British ones.
“From my experience with Purecontent.com, American companies are more comfortable to experiment with new marketing channels and are happy to operate break even or loss leaders for ‘customer acquisition’. This in turn offers companies like Groupon the ability to get great deals whilst achieving high commission rates. We have found the UK market place is not as open in this respect. In this difficult business climate merchants are reluctant to offer large discounts without the promise of a significant uplift in footfall and a guaranteed minimum return.”
Hobart isn’t saying that the viral aspect is unimportant to the group buying model’s success but argues that from a web user’s point of view, they are just as likely to send an offer on to their friends if they think it’s a great deal regardless of whether the tipping point is set low or high. Additionally, he says, in the UK Twitter seems to be much less significant at this stage.
“… a Twitter search for a Groupon deal vs any of the UK clones reveals a large difference in tweet volume, the UK deals are not getting as many Retweets. I think time will tell if the reason for this is the UK isn’t so addicted to Twitter yet or that the current UK deals just aren’t that attractive.”
Looking to get your slate fix on but don’t want to watch the first iPad television commercial on Apple’s web site or your DVR? HP is happy to oblige with two new videos showing off the HP Slate that was first introduced by Steve Ballmer at the Consumer Electronics Show. Both vids are worth a look in order to get a feel for the device thickness, ports and such, but they also show the custom user interface on top of Windows 7 — can you say Origami Experience, part III? — as well as some applications.
The first video is more promotional than anything else, but for me it does raises the following question: Will the device be this peppy in terms of performance? My concern is that it won’t, but that’s purely speculative on my part. Well, maybe not “purely” speculative — I’m basing the thought on several years of UMPC ownership as well as on the performance of today’s netbooks.
Why compare the HP Slate to a netbook of today? While there’s no official announcement on what’s powering the HP Slate, we know several things that tell us what’s likely powering it. Given that the device runs on Microsoft Windows 7, I’d guess that like new netbooks, it runs on an Intel N400-series Atom CPU with integrated Intel graphics in addition to a hardware accelerator solution — that last bit is mentioned in the second vid, as pointed out by Engadget. Could HP surprise me and use a different x86 processor? Sure it could — at the cost of battery life — something I don’t think will happen.
The second video focuses on a key differentiator to Apple’s iPad — the ability to run Adobe Flash. I’m still wondering if Microsoft is skating to the puck while Apple skates to where the puck will be on this one. I believe that Flash and HTML5 can easily co-exist in the world, but Flash won’t control nearly as much of the video and gaming web that it does today. And Flash isn’t the only big function difference here — Apple’s iPad won’t natively handle inking and handwriting recognition, although some third-party apps can help out that deficiency.
I’m excited by the HP Slate simply because it appears to be the closest product yet to the exciting and original Project Origami vision from 2006. Once the device hits the market later this year, there’s bound to be plenty of buyers who need that full desktop computer compatibility with a mobile device. I’m just not sure that I’m one of them, given my reliance upon the cloud for nearly all of my work activities — a full desktop operating system on my mobile device adds overhead that I don’t think I need for a device in this class. I’ll have to ponder that a little bit more though. Thoughts?
Image courtesy of HP
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Handwriting Recognition: A Killer App for the iPad?
GoldSpot Media is one of a small army of companies looking to deliver video ads within mobile applications. But unlike its cohorts, it’s also trying to ease network congestion — by delivering its ads at very particular times.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based startup launched in 2006 with an eye to delivering ads within streaming video, but that opportunity fizzled as broadcast companies like Qualcomm’s FLO TV failed to gain traction with mobile users. So it turned its technology to applications, creating a drag-and-drop offering called miApp that enables publishers and ad agencies to add various types of video ads to their apps and deploy them across app stores and devices. The offering is the foundation of an interactive ad network that will launch “pretty soon,” according to co-founder and CEO Srini Dharmaji.
GoldSpot pocketed $3 million in a Series A round of funding two years ago from Exa Ventures and hopes to close a second round in the third quarter of this year. While mobile video advertising is still a very small space, established players like AdMob, which was purchased by Google, and Millennial Media already loom large on the field. But Dharmaji claims a key differentiator for GoldSpot is how it delivers ads: while the bigger ad networks stream video ads from the network, GoldSpot uses what he calls “opportunistic downloads” to download campaigns in ways that minimally weigh down cellular networks.
“We detect when a device is connected to Wi-Fi, for example, and opportunistically download the campaigns that are running for the month, so we don’t tax the 3G network in the process,” Dharmaji told me. Meanwhile, an app running on the cell network could receive the ad in the background and cache it on the phone to be presented later. “The app is released into the app store and is downloaded by the user. He starts the app and doesn’t see any ads in the first run, so the next time the user comes back he sees it.”
The technology also delivers content during off-peak times, “waking up” devices to cache ads overnight or during other periods when network congestion isn’t an issue. That strategy enables GoldSpot to deliver higher-quality video, according to Dharmaji, and to play ads quickly once they’re cached. The technology supports a variety of video ads including split-screen and interstitials, giving advertisers and publishers the freedom to choose the best type for their apps and pitches.
At this point, just how much opportunity exists in mobile video advertising is far from clear. In-app advertising is very much a new space where revenues can be hard to come by, and ads can be intrusive and off-putting. That’s especially true of video ads that can seem out of place and even jolting in non-video applications. And GoldSpot has its work cut out for in competing with entrenched, deep-pocketed players like Millennial and AdMob. If GoldSpot can present higher quality video ads, though — and if it can help carriers address increasingly important congestion concerns — it may be able to compete with the Goliaths in the space.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Why Android Could Fuel Mobile Advertising
Image courtesy GoldSpot Media
The music subscription market may be unproven, but it sure has seen a lot of action over the past few months. And today, with the launch of its mobile app on BlackBerry devices today, Thumbplay became the latest company hoping that anytime-anywhere access to on-demand music will make consumers pay a flat fee for an all-you-can-eat service — in this case, $9.99 a month.
As it enters public beta, Thumbplay’s music subscription service becomes the first to launch simultaneously on desktops and smartphones. The company’s deep mobile experience is one key differentiator that sets it apart from incumbents such as Rhapsody and Napster as well as upstarts MOG and Spotify, the latter of which hasn’t launched in the U.S. yet.
CEO Evan Schwartz told me half of Thumbplay’s installed base is now using smartphones, and the company already counts hundreds of thousands of customers for its existing mobile entertainment subscription service, which offers ringtones, wallpapers and other goodies. Online radio provider Pandora, for one, has shown how mobile phones can drive user adoption of a music service, and Thumbplay may have some advantages as a result of its presence on smartphones.
As an iPhone user, I wasn’t able to test the mobile app, but I did get to survey the desktop version (screenshot below), an Adobe AIR-based client that was up and running quickly after a brief installation. Thumbplay’s library, said to comprise 8 million songs from all four major labels and numerous indies, showed some gaps (no Arcade Fire?), but I found that the songs loaded quickly and played without interruption. If it can replicate that experience on mobile devices — and early reports suggest that the BlackBerry app may still be buggy — Thumbplay will have a real contender, given that Rhapsody ($14.99) and Spotify (€9.99 in Europe, or $13.56) are charging more for the anywhere-anytime experience. Thumbplay also offers smart playlisting built on the Echo Nest’s music brain, delivers instant syncing between desktop and phone, provides offline caching on mobile devices — good for airplanes and train tunnels — and allows users to import iTunes playlists.
Schwartz said Thumbplay reached profitability around the middle of last year, and has reportedly raised $61 million from venture investors. The company’s expansion to include a full-track music service is in line with forecasts suggesting that the market for ringtones has already peaked, and that consumers will soon expect a more complete music experience from their mobile phones. Spotify’s imminent U.S. launch will probably still make the biggest splash, but given its large installed base and understanding of mobile behavior, don’t count Thumbplay out.
Aimetis Corp., a Waterloo-based provider of video surveillance technologies for the retail and transportation markets, has raised C$5 million in VC funding. Backers include Covington Capital.
PRESS RELEASE
Covington Capital Corporation (”Covington”) is pleased to announce the completion of a CDN$2.5 million investment in Waterloo-based Aimetis Corp. (”Aimetis”, the “Company”) as part of a total financing round of $5 million.
Established in 2003, Aimetis (www.aimetis.com) is a provider of network video surveillance technologies designed primarily for the retail and transportation markets. Aimetis’ key differentiator is that they offer an innovative product solution that provides video surveillance software combined with artificial intelligence base video analytics technology.
It is this unique integration of both video-surveillance and analytics technology that allows their clients to receive alerts in real-time as well as review and analyze activity almost immediately. The speed with which Aimetis’ software is able to capture, store, and provide for review of detailed video data is tremendous. The Company’s technology is extremely valuable to both small and large scale enterprises requiring flexible, efficient, and reliable surveillance systems. The Company’s client base includes both local enterprises and global leaders such as the City of Oshawa, Loblaws, Munich Airport, Netherland Railways, BMW, and Mercedes.
“Given the size and expected growth rate of the global network video surveillance market, we are pleased to invest in a Canadian company that has established a solid reputation for innovation and reliability within this burgeoning sector,” states Phil Reddon, Managing Partner, Covington Capital Corporation.
Adds Marc Holtenhoff, CEO of Aimetis, “We are extremely pleased to have Covington as our partner. With Covington’s solid standing as a venture investor that acts as a true business partner, we look forward to expanding our development of innovative network video solutions, accelerating our market expansion, and continue with providing exceptional client care.”
About Aimetis
Aimetis Corp. is a software company offering integrated intelligent video management solutions for security surveillance and business intelligence applications. The company is a global leader in intelligent video technology and is propelling the adoption of video analytics as an integral component of video management solutions. Aimetis products are based on innovative, open technologies that provide customers with a single platform for migrating from analog video to intelligent IP video solutions.
Aimetis Corp. is a Canadian-based company, recognized by industry analysts for its product innovation and growth strategies. The company has distributors and certified partners in 89 countries. More information is available on our website www.aimetis.com.
About Covington Capital Corporation
Founded in 1995, Covington Capital Corporation (www.covingtonfunds.com) is one of Canada’s largest and most experienced venture capital fund providers. Managing approximately $300 million in venture capital assets on behalf of institutional and retail investors, Covington invests in small-and-medium businesses throughout many industry sectors. Covington Capital Corporation is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.
In the past decade, firms have been praised for ideas. Experts have celebrated the power of brainstorming and idea-generation techniques. Eureka light bulbs have populated the covers of many books. Businessmen have been asked to improve their creative attitudes. And 2009 was named the Year of Creativity and Innovation by the European Union.
One consequence of a decade focused on idea generation is ideas are now more easily accessible, which has also made idea generation less of a differentiator in competition than it has traditionally been. When more than 30% of the population belongs to the creative class, as Richard Florida suggested in his 2003 book The Rise of the Creative Class, ideas are not in short supply. And with the diffusion of open innovation processes, ideas competitions, and the like, executives are increasingly exposed to a wealth of ideas.
What is in short supply, I'm afraid, are visionary thinkers who will be capable of making sense of this abundance of stimuli — visionaries who will build the arenas to unleash the power of ideas and transform them into actions.
Could the next decade be the decade of vision building? If so, we will witness a significant shift in the way we think about innovation, creativity, and leadership. Popular studies of creativity have suggested that the fast generation of numerous ideas (the more, the better); in contrast, visionary leadership requires a relentless exploration of one direction (the deeper and more robust, the better). Idea generation values a neophyte perspective; vision building is based on research and deep understanding. To generate fresh ideas we have been told to think outside of the box and then jump back in; vision building destroys the box and builds a new one. It does not play with the existing paradigms; it changes them. Studies of idea generation have lingered on variety and divergence, but vision building is based on convergence, on bringing others onboard. Ideas are culturally neutral as long as they help solve problems; visions are intrinsically ideological and biased towards a clear aspiration of how the world should be: They strongly reflect the personal culture of the thinker.
I'm certainly not questioning the essential value of ideas. They will still ignite the innovation process. Tossing around a large number of ideas will still be important, especially for incremental improvements. It is not one or the other. It is a shift in the most rare and precious asset that will drive competitive advantage: visions. It's time for thought leaders to move beyond post-its and embrace a more advanced form of creativity. A radical form of think-action that somewhat resembles that of researchers and entrepreneurs fighting to implement their vision.
What do you think? Is it time to call for a new form of creativity? If last decade was the decade of idea generation, will the new one be the decade of vision building?
Roberto Verganti is the author of Design-Driven Innovation. Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating what Things Mean and has pioneered research on the intersection of strategy, design and technology management. A professor of the management of innovation at Politecnico di Milano, Verganti also is a member of the board of the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management. He has served as an executive advisor, coach, and educator at a variety of firms, including Ferrari, Ducati, Whirlpool, Xerox, Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, Barilla, Nestlè, STMicroelectronics, and Intuit.
OMG...another one on Tablets calling Dell Mini 5 category killer :-) http://bit.ly/97zQra
It’s the most important product launch for Dell this year. Maybe in the company’s history. And if you ask Neeraj Choubey, general manager of tablets within Dell’s Communications Solutions Group, the Mini 5 isn’t just another slate. He uses words like “category killer.” And that’s because the device that he’s bringing to market will be the first 5-inch Android tablet in the U.S. that can also make calls. Yes, the Mini 5 is a phone, as well as a mobile Internet device, camera, camcorder, GPS navigator, and media player. You could call it a tabletphone.
Choubey, who spent five years at Motorola and created Yahoo’s mobile search product before becoming a VC, also feels pretty strongly that the Mini 5 won’t be swept away by the iPad hype. And that’s because the two devices have different target audiences. In fact, Choubey told us flat out that the iPad isn’t really a mobile device, saying that it’s best for those who “have a handbag or a murse or whatever.”
Here are just some of the other highlights of our interview:
Even with all of these tidbits there’s still a lot of other great stuff Choubey shared during our in-depth conversation. So dig in and tell us if you think the Mini 5 has what it takes to be a hit.
Do you think consumers are ready for a device that sits between a traditional smart phone and netbook?
I think we had the same conversations about netbooks a few years ago. Do you really need a netbook if you have a laptop? And the netbook was pretty disruptive because of the price points. How successful it was for long-term productivity gains I’m not sure, but here was a lot of chips sold on it. I think the tablet device coupled with some of the innovative things that carriers are thinking about as far as pricing, it will be something we’ll continue to look at. Right now my users are saying this is interesting enough, please tell me more about it. And once we get the device out there we’ll continue to listen to them, and if they say we don’t like this or we do like this, we’ll take that feedback and put it into the product development process.
Why are you calling the Mini 5 a Tablet if you can use it as a phone?
Yes, there’s a phone in the device. We’re working with AT&T and when you get this device you stick a SIM chip in it and make phone calls the normal way. And, yes, you can hold it up to your head or use Bluetooth. But the flip side is that we’re trying to make a device that developers will get excited about.
Other than the screen size and Market support, what features will make the Mini 5 stand out?
The number one thing a lot of developers have told us that’s a unique feature for this device is that we have a front-facing webcam on it. We’ll be able to do peer-to-peer video conferencing, and we’re talking to a number of partners about that right now. There are probably a bunch of people out there thinking about augmented reality and different things you can do with a person and their face and how to present that in a mobile context. My job as a general manager is to make sure that I stay on the forefront of technology, listen to my users, and make sure that I not only keep my users happy but make a platform that developers are going to be excited to develop on.
What is the target market for the Dell Mini 5?
I’d say it’s definitely a more tech-savvy generation of people that understand the value of using alternate devices. There’s a use case that says my phone is really good at making phone calls, but in order to get the true Internet experience, being able to see a website in the shape and form that the original content publisher meant you to implicitly means you need a larger screen device. We’ve listened to customers and customers are dissatisfied with how they’re experiencing the Internet on their devices.
If you’re Apple, Apple would say go make an app for every service you have. The New York Times, traffic, whatever it is, which fits their business model great. But there’s a lot of developers out there doing Web-based content, flash-based content, and asking them to go do an iPhone app is kind of an onerous thing, whether you’re a mom and pop shop up to a large publisher. We’re all about bringing Internet content as it’s meant to be to a form factor that doesn’t require you to squint at your device. It’s a much more realistic and natural way for you to view the content.
Doesn’t that also mean that the Mini 5 might appeal to an older demographic, too?
There is bifurcation that we found in the research. Ostensibly there is this quintessential soccer mom, and she has an e-mail device, a cell phone and a PND device for the car and she also has a video camera and a point and shoot. You can consolidate all those devices into one device. This device is better than a Flip video camera, it’s better than a lot of the point and shoots out there, it’s better than the GPS navigation device that’s probably in the car, especially if it’s an in-dash one. In the use case that you’re in the car this has Bluetooth, it’ll connect, you can use a headphone, you don’t have to hold the device up to your head. When you’re walking you can hold it in your hand, and while you’re on the call you have a great device that you can do other stuff on as well.
Can you tell me if the Dell Mini 5 will be able to access the Android Market?
Yes, we are compliant. The initial device that we have has been blessed by Google and will have Google Mobile Services. You’ll have Gmail, you’ll have Marketplace, and you’ll have all the stuff that you would normally expect.
What percentage of the apps in the market do you expect the Dell Mini 5 can handle?
We’re in the middle of testing and I can’t share what that testing has shown but my expectation is that if it’s in the marketplace, it should work. Mind you, some apps may not be written to Google’s coding guidelines, and they may break for whatever reason. But if we find those apps and work with the developers, I’m sure that there’s no reason why that everything in the Google mobile marketplace will not work on the device.
We need to transform the business conversation the same way Facebook has changed the consumer conversation. Market shifts happen in real time, deals are won and lost in real time, and data changes in real time. Yet the software we use to run our enterprises is in anything but real time. We need tools that work smarter, make better use of new technology (like the mobile devices in everyone’s hands), and fully leverage the opportunities of the Internet.
Stand by for some confusion this Thursday morning, as a Nokia exec apparently confirms that Ovi Maps will be ported to Android or Windows Mobile. The company launched the latest version of Ovi Maps – with free turn-by-turn navigation and other hitherto premium functionality – back in January, but Nokia’s general manager for the Alps and South East Europe, Greig Williams, told Austrian paper Die Presse that porting the app “will be the next step.”
Now, we’re working from a Google-translated quote here – Williams actually said “Das wird der nächste Schritt sein” – and there’s certainly a possibility that something has been lost in the process. Our skepticism stems from the Ovi launch itself; Nokia made it very clear at the time that they viewed Ovi Maps and the accompanying service to be a true differentiator between their devices and those of rivals, and so to publicly suggest that such a differentiator might be diluted seems entirely off-script.
Of course, there’s now speculation that Nokia are planning an Android and/or a Windows Mobile device, neither of which seems likely what with their regular and vocal commitments to S60 and the new MeeGo platform. We’ve got a request in with Nokia’s PR team for more clarification, and will update as soon as we know more.
Nokia Ovi Maps demo:
[via Electricpig]
Relevant Entries on SlashGear
Just as netbooks eventually settled to a common spec, so nettops have proved uninspiring with their capabilities; that said, there’s always room for something unusual, and so Lanner’s new LEC-7020 certainly has appeal. The company are positioning the compact PC as an embedded device, but with an Intel Atom N270 processor, GMA 950 graphics and up to 2GB of RAM it’s really no different from other nettops we’ve seen. As for that differentiator, the LEC-7020 has an integrated 3G modem with GPS.
That means that you’re not limited to WiFi or wired ethernet – both of which the LEC-7020 has, in fact there are dual gigabit ethernet ports – and can get a 2G or 3G connection anywhere there’s coverage. Other connectivity includes four USB 2.0, VGA, COM and DIO, while the modem slots into a mini PCIe bay and there’s an internal SIM reader.
Since it’s intended for industrial applications, the side panel opens easily and you can choose between a standard 2.5-inch HDD or a CompactFlash slot. Supported OSes include Windows XP, XP-embedded or Linux kernel 2.6.16 or above, and the whole thing is only 42mm high. No word on how much it’ll cost – we’re guessing it’ll be a lot more than your average nettop.
[via Linux for Devices]
Relevant Entries on SlashGear
How open source licensing’s decisions are taken depend on legal issues, business strategies and costs structure.
IP lawyers as well as specialized firms are probably happy to help with the first ones, but let’s talk about the implications in the area of Value Configuration and Key activities looking at some real cases (Day Software, MySQL).
Day Software few days ago released the latest version of CQ5, its flagship product. CQ5 is proprietary software built atop of Apache components. David Nuescheler, Day’s CTO, told me:
In terms of a rough estimate I would say that in the infrastructure the percentage of open source used it is probably around 90% of the code, and on the application side it is probably a bit lower, in the 60% range including libraries and other commodity code.
The majority of the code that we ship comes from open source, the apache software foundation more specifically. Some of those projects are key to our products and as the major differentiator we are amongst the main drivers and contributors for these projects at the apache software foundation.
Why should we talk about Day Software? Actually they don’t pretend to be an open source vendor, but they do contribute a lot, both in terms of code and open standards definition and support. Simon Phipps’s score card would probably penalize them, but the problem here is that the score card is - quite wrongly in my view - about products instead of projects. Checking out Day’s contributions to open source projects on Ohloh gives a clear picture of why talking of Day makes sense in this context.
Day has (unique) value proposition: a CMS/ECM/WCM platform enabling the “everything is content” vision. Key activities to deliver such value proposition include participation to more than 25 different open source projects (not products!) and to some body standards (CMIS and others).
MySQL is now part of Oracle’s strategy, but for a long time MySQL has been at the center of a European discussion around GPL suitability or unsuitability for economic reasons. While I guested opinions of both opponents, at that time I refrained for making comments. Sonatype’s explanation about going GPL is of great help to understand why companies go GPL, and it reflects a clear view about both value configuration and impacts on key activities.
MySQL takes advantage of being the only vendor that could double-license and go open-core. Even if double-licensing wasn’t and probably won’t be the only source of revenues, is an important one and it would be foul to stop monetizing it. So said, MySQL never took the chance to reduce maintenance costs (Key activities) by strongly involving an external community.
Mårten Mickos talking about the MySQL ecosystem wrote me:
What few commentators are saying (or realizing) is that the MySQL ecosystem is massive and continues to grow. The economic size of that ecosystem should probably be measured in billions.
Given such a strong ecosystem, I keep thinking that a foundation may well find its way to maintain it independently. Monty himself suggests CTOs to put some development resources in open source projects. Looking at how would cost to create MySQL from scratch it seems like if - just in case - it would be possible to collectively take care of it.
Info-products and funnel-marketing might help, peraphs.
Glossary Note: Value Configuration and Key Activities are 2 of the 9 building block of a business model as described by Alex OsterWalder.
Acer GD235HZ and Alienware OptX AW2310 do battle in 3D HD monitor faceoff originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tom's Guide | Email this | CommentsAcer GD235HZ and Alienware OptX AW2310 do battle in 3D HD monitor faceoff originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsIt may seem obvious, and perhaps it’s also a bit self-serving, but TomTom co-founder and CEO Harold Goddijn says it isn’t the hardware that fuels the explosion in global positioning, or even the ubiquitous mobile internet which has put GPS in your pants — it’s the software, the maps to be specific, and his company has the best.
“We need to get away from the impression that the various navigation platforms are competing with each other,” Goddijn told Dow Jones in an interview. Free navigation on mobile phones is “as old as the road to Rome,” he said, while the strategic value of Tele Atlas “is still as big as it was” and the quality of the maps “hard to match.”
TomTom completed its 4.3 billion acquisition of Tele Atlas, a digital mapmaker, in 2008. The took car-navigation market by storm about a decade ago, giving Garmin and Magellan new competition. Since then it has has expanded to offer an Iphone app, one of the most expensive at $50 to $100 depending on what region you buy.
Another 800-pound gorilla in the map game is, of course Google (who don’t they compete with anymore?) And any way you slice it, maps-are-the-differentiator is a tough value prop sell against the very-bare-bones, and yet free, Google directions on the iPhone. And an even tougher sell on the sophisticated (and also free) voice-enabled, turn-by-turn mapping Google offers on the Droid and other Android devices.
On the other hand, TomTom had about $2 billion in revenue last year and is the market leader in portable navigation devices, so it must be doing something right.
It’s true that the map overlay turned handheld GPS devices from a outdoorsy niche product to a consumer must-have in no time flat. And anyone who has cursed their GPS for taking you to heaven-knows-where knows Goddijn is at least partly correct to emphasize that the map’s the thing.
The original Xperia X10 in all it’s Android glory has yet to launch, and it’s family has already been officially announced today at a conference held at Mobile World Congress. The X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro are significantly smaller than their predecessor. Both devices sport a 2.5-inch (320 x 240) QVGA displays, GPS, WiFi, Android OS 1.6, 5-megapixel cameras (with flash and geo-tagging), and of course, Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE)’s custom user interface, Timescape.
The main differentiator between the two Mini’s is that the Mini Pro comes with a slide out QWERTY keyboard, which looks relatively spacious for such a small size. Both devices will come in multiple colors and will be available in the second quarter of the year. No pricing or carriers have been announced yet, but when looking at the specs of the devices you can clearly see that the X10 Mini Pro supports the 850 and 1900 MHz band for HSPA, which may be a sign that it could be on it’s way to AT&T (NYSE: T). Let’s hope at least one of these comes Stateside.
X10 mini and X10 mini pro supports HSPA 900/2100 and EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, HSPA 850/1900/2100 and EDGE 850/900/1800/1900. The X10 mini will be available in selected markets from Q2 in the colours Pearl White, Black, Pink, Lime, Red and Silver. The X10 mini pro will be available in selected markets from Q2 in the colours Black and Red.
And, not to go too heavy on the Android side, Sony Ericsson also announced the Vivaz Pro, which adds a full QWERTY keyboard to the original Vivaz that was announced last month. The Vivaz Pro offers some impressive specs – 3.2-inch screen, HD video recording, GPS, WiFi, 3.5mm headphone jack - and the slide-out QWERTY keyboard looks fairly comfortable. Unfortunately, SE took the original’s 8-megapixel camera, and shaved it down to 5.1-megapixels. That shouldn’t make someone want to stray from the S60 device, the pro version comes with a VGA port, which you will find not on the original, so you can show off your amateur photography and video on your TV. As with previous Sony Ericsson announcements, they were nice enough to add a video spot showing off the features of the device in ways you will probably never use it! Enjoy!
Expect to see this bad boy out in the second quarter as well.
[via : Phandroid , SonyEricsson]
Related News from IntoMobile:
Bloomberg is reporting that Verizon is planning on adding official support for Skype to its handsets. The two companies are expected to announce a partnership at the Mobile World Congress on February 16, which will allow Skype calls to be made from Verizon phones using the provider’s 3G data plan.
This would be a shrewd move on the part of Verizon. Voice calls are becoming a less and less of a profit center for wireless carriers. Look at the big price cuts that both Verizon and AT&T introduced last month: The biggest area of price savings is in unlimited voice plans. Data is still a premium, and in the case of Verizon, there are still data caps for mobile data usage.
For consumers, having Skype pre-loaded on a phone — which Bloomberg says is to be on a range of low and high-end handsets — might mean that instead of paying for a voice plan (or a more expensive voice plan), the option to get a better data plan and just use Skype when making calls might make more sense.
Bloomberg quotes IDC analyst Rebecca Swensen:
“What’s important is that Verizon understands that, at some point, they are going to be losing voice minutes to the data world. This makes their platform more valuable for end-users. It could be a differentiator for Verizon Wireless.”
Although Verizon is the largest wireless carrier in the US, it faces stiff competition from AT&T. Although AT&T’s service is pretty universally reviled, AT&T has the iPhone and that continues to drive customers to the carrier. While AT&T is expected to lose exclusivity at some point, it is unclear when or if Verizon will get to carry the device. As it stands, AT&T will be the 3G data provider for Apple’s iPad this April.
Skype works on AT&T’s WiFi network and a 3G version is in the works as well. Depending on which carrier can offer 3G access to Skype first — and on what phones — could depend on how valuable this feature is.
If given the choice, would you drop your voice plan and just use Skype over 3G data for making and receiving calls? Let us know!
Tags: 3g data, mobile voip, Skype, verizon, voip
