Posted by on

Why I Hated the iPhone, and What Amazon Can Learn from It

Ten years ago, Apple launched the iPhone. Not long after, Apple offered to loan me an iPhone for review. I hated it.

By this point, I was a few years into smartphone ownership. Not only that, I had helped to launch a smartphone that was pretty revolutionary in its own right.

Working on the marketing campaigns of a range of tech firms, I had attended the enormous Mobile World Congress conference for probably five or six consecutive years. One of our clients there provided the OS for a new smartphone from a Finnish start-up. This phone combined a full touch display, gyroscopic controls, and a browser that neatly handled full web pages. So many of the things that would go on to form part of the iPhone story.

This was 2003.

For all our efforts, the MyOrigo MyDevice, as it was called, flopped. It couldn’t get approval to run on enough mobile networks (a slow and painful process then) before the start-up ran out of cash. But it set my expectations for what a smartphone should be.

Without this device, I stuck with Handspring Treos. Bulky, but very effective business tools. There were even a few games for them thanks to their extensive Palm heritage.

Then the iPhone arrived.

By 2007 I was used to having two key features on my smartphones: 3G connectivity and the ability to add new apps. The iPhone I tested had some clear benefits. The touch screen was great, the software was slick and the design was slim. But no apps? No 3G? This seemed like a massive retrograde step. I was happy to stick with my chunky Treo, and later chose a SonyEricsson P1 over the iPhone because of the lack of these — to me, at least — core features.

Of course, eighteen months after the launch of the first iPhone, Apple had introduced the 3G version and the App Store, not just addressing my objections but crushing them. The App Store particularly has been revolutionary, giving anyone a simple, trustable experience in installing additional software.

Steve Jobs initial assertion of ‘desktop class’ apps may have been slightly overselling it. But from that point the iPhone became a serious productivity tool and entertainment device. And now the smartphone, that has always followed this initial template, is the primary platform for all our computing interactions.

What’s next?

It’s interesting to examine Amazon’s Echo/Alexa in the light of these objections. What needs to be added to take Echo from an interesting and clearly popular product, to the template for a class of device that may reach smartphone scale?

I think there are three problems to solve.

1. Connectivity

This time it’s not about data, it’s about interaction. The smart home is a very clunky construct at the moment. If Amazon can smooth the interactions with a wider range of devices, it would be welcome. This is not unconnected to…

2. Apps

Alexa seems to be reaching the scale where everyone will want/need to be part of its app/skill store. This would be hugely beneficial to users. Finally, there will be one interface to unite the disparate devices around the home. And the many services we have become used to accessing through distinct apps.

3. Discovery

Of course, none of these capabilities have any value unless people know they are there. How do you discover skills and interconnection options on a screenless device? It feels to me like there is an Alexa-initiated conversational element missing here. It would need to know who is in the room, not just that someone is there. But imagine a conversation like: “Hi Tom, I’ve detected a Fibaro home automation system on your network. Would you like me to connect?” That would be much more satisfying than the current app-driven controls.

Posted by on

Facebook Facing the Same Challenge As Every Media Owner: Editorial Integrity vs Advertising Revenue

Facebook Facing the Same Challenge As Every Media Owner: Editorial Integrity vs Advertising Revenue

So Facebook’s results are out and they are largely positive — at least as positive as the previous quarter’s. Which just goes to show fickle the stockmarket can be: last quarter Facebook’s shares took a hammering, whereas this time around they’re up 13%.

Personally I’m more interested in the business than the vagaries of the stock market, and particularly in the challenge that Facebook is now facing. Because it appears to me that this very modern business is facing a very old challenge.

Newspapers and magazines can very rarely survive on the cover price alone. So they take in advertising. This advertising sometimes comes in very innocuous forms that can be of great value to the consumer: for example, small ads. Or it can be rather more insidious: poorly flagged ‘advertorials’ for example, adverts masquerading as independent editorial content.

At worst, the wall between editorial independence and advertising revenue can be demolished altogether and when that happens, the ‘news’ is defined by whoever pays the most money.

Now take a look at Facebook. It may be we who generate the editorial content, rather than a team of journalists, but its business is not that different to that of a newspaper or magazine. More than 80% of its revenue comes from advertising. And as it tries to grow that revenue, it is going to be pushing the boundaries of our editorial independence.

Take for example, Promoted Posts: the ability for advertisers to bump up the visibility of their posts to those who have liked their page — and their friends. This is an explicit manipulation of the feeds we receive from our friends, confusing what might be important/valuable to us, with what someone else wants to be important.

Likewise with mobile: with limited screen real estate, how is Facebook going to insert ads without squeezing them into the streams that we really want to read?

These are my concerns for Facebook, because I think many users are already reaching the limit of their tolerance with the platform. Privacy breaches and unwelcome redesigns have already tested people’s commitment. And in the last couple of years we’ve seen growth rates slow and even temporarily reverse in some territories around the world.

As ever I’m not saying Facebook is going to fail tomorrow. Or that I don’t like the platform: I am one of the billion active users. But I think it has a serious challenge on its hands to sustain its position in the market, and I don’t fancy its chances in the long term.

We’re just not that tied to Facebook. The more it infringes on our editorial control, the more we will move away.

Posted by on

Future language: precision matters

Life is (sadly) not like an Aaron Sorkin script. Whatever we may like to think about our own linguistic abilities, not many can spar with the wit and speed of his characters. Maybe Stephen Fry. But not most of us. We always think of the perfect retort three hours later.

Perhaps in the future we will be more Sorkin-esque. We certainly might wish we were. Because two things are happening that will raise the value of efficient, effective verbal communication.

Speaking machines

Firstly, our interface with machines is increasingly going to be based on natural language. We will talk and the machines will listen. And vice versa. The greater the speed, accuracy and range of our verbal communication, the higher the bandwidth of our interface to the machine.

This could take us in a number of directions. Witness the rise of txtspeak, a rich and highly efficient form of communication, even if it offends the eyes of the preceding generations. Or look at the syntax of really powerful web search terms, a mixture of human language and computer code. Constructing them well requires great skill.

I like to think that the depth of our long-evolved languages will prove superior to these hybrids, but future language will doubtless evolve in response to the new needs, as it always has.

The end of low-value interactions

The second thing that’s happening is that our low-value interactions are disappearing. For people like me who hate, and I mean HATE, administration, this is a huge bonus. Less and less will we need to fill out forms, interact with call centres, deal with post, or scan receipts. Because we will either allow institutions sufficient access to our personal data to let them find the answer. or we will have an AI assistant who handles these things for us.

There are serious issues with both these steps, around privacy, security and employment. How much do we want institutions to know about us — particularly states? How much are we willing to trade or risk in order to eliminate many of life’s major irritations? How many jobs will be lost as a result of the falling friction in our interactions — friction previously smoothed by human intervention?

Personally? I am concerned about just how much I might let go in order to never have to fill out a form again. For all my principles, I would give a lot for that.

Future language

As low value interactions diminish so the the importance of being skilled in high value interactions will grow, whether they are with machines or people. The better we can express ourselves, the higher the bandwidth of those interactions. I’m not saying every conversation is going to be like a Sorkin-script. But we might all start to place more emphasis on the quality of our repartee.