Archive for: October, 2010

Android and the future of software

Oct 30 2010 Published by Ben Chong under Business, Marketing, Product

The Register had an article about how Microsoft is trying to hold back the open source tide by levying royalty payments on Acer and Asustek for their use of Android.

The article also talks about how Microsoft is failing to come out with a business model to compete against open source projects/products like Android.

I think though, that the question is not really one of open source versus proprietary or closed source.

The real Microsoft vs Android question is what is today’s new business model?

Is it one whether the software product itself is the end to itself? Or whether it is a means to an end? Whether or not the product uses open source is irrelevant.

For traditional Microsoft products (Windows, Office etc), the software is the end. Microsoft gets its revenue at the point of purchase of the software.

For Android, the software is the means to the end. Google does not get meaningful revenue when you buy an Android device. Rather, Google gets its cut when you use the device.

This difference reflects the economics of the new millenium: the product itself is no longer the major part of the business model. It is only a means to executing on the business model.

With the old approach, the consumer lifetime value is limited. Once the product is sold, there is no additional revenue. That is why companies like Microsoft come up with frequent and sometimes useless version upgrades: to get additional revenue from existing users. A subscription model is a variation of this.

With the new approach, the consumer lifetime value is practically limitless. As long as the consumer is using the product, she is generating revenue for the company. Since the product is basically “free”, there is almost no barrier to user upgrades and continued usage.

As a product manager, this new approach presents its challenges. You can no longer just focus on the product itself. The latter is now part of a larger ecosystem: the business/revenue model. This will mean integration with other services and products.

On one hand, you have to make sure that your product is usable, that consumers want to use it. On the other hand, you also have to make sure that the product is sufficiently well integrated with your company’s monetization products and that the users will use your product in such a way that they will generate meaningful revenue.

The upside is that the revenue potential is enormous. Just look at Google.

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T-Mobile G2

Oct 20 2010 Published by Ben Chong under Gadgets, The Daily Geek

I am a long time T-Mobile subscriber and was able to sign up to pre-order the G2.

Unfortunately, probably because I am not eligible for an upgrade, I was unable to actually pre-order the G2 until the day before it was released in the stores. Other T-Mobile customers were able to pre-order a week in advance.

If you have not been able to follow the frenetic pace of releases of new Android devices, the G2 is one of T-Mobile’s latest Android phones. It is a Google-experience device. This means that it has an almost stock version of Android 2.2 (aka Froyo). Other devices like the Samsung Galaxy S or the various Droids, are built with custom graphical user interfaces e.g. HTC’s Sense UI.

Unboxing: The few photos below show the unboxing of my G2. I bought it at a Radioshack store for a $50 markup over the T-Mobile price. Ouch!

Box view

Another box view

The phone in the box

View of the phone

Accessories: AC adaptor, USB cable, headset

Battery, battery cover...

I upgraded to the G2 from a MyTouch Slide. I like the available of a physical keyboard. It allows me to enter text faster and with fewer errors. An onscreen, touch keyboard is also available for occasions where I am using the device in portrait mode.

The pics below so the differences in size between the Slide and the G2.

Left: G2, Right: MyTouch Slide

The G2 is slightly thinner

With the keyboards out, the G2 is definitely thinner

Again, overall, the G2 is smaller than the Slide

The other big deal about the G2 is that it is HSPA+ capable. HSPA+ is T-Mobile’s 4G-ish network and is meant to compete against Sprint’s WiMAX-based 4G and (in the future) Verizon’s LTE.

On the MyTouch Slide, you get a little 3G symbol when you are using the HSPA network and an E symbol when only EDGE is available. On the G2, you get an H symbol (see picture) when HSPA is available.

H symbol -> HSPA

I installed the SpeedTest app to test the network connection speed.

HSPA+ is supposed to be available in the San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley, but where I work and live, I was only able to get download speeds of less than 1Mbps. Ouch.

The only place where I was able to get the advertised HSPA+ speed was while sitting outside the Borders bookstore in download Palo Alto/University Avenue. There, I got something like 4Mbps download, even faster than my home DSL!

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ZumoCast

Oct 06 2010 Published by Ben Chong under Business, Marketing, Product

If you have been reading this blog, you will know that I have been trying out ZumoDrive and Dropbox.

Both of services are, at the fundamental level, file caching services where you want to access the same files from different devices (PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Androids etc). Both ZumoDrive and Dropbox keep a copy of the files online (in the “cloud”) and you can either use their proprietary applications or a web browser to access these files.

Zecter (the folks behind ZumoDrive) launched their new ZumoCast streaming service recently.

What ZumoCast does, is not so much as cache a copy of your files in the “cloud”, as stream your files through the “cloud”, with a focus on video and music streaming.

The downside, compared to regular ZumoDrive or Dropbox, is that the computer where the files reside, has to be powered on and running, along with the ZumoCast application.

The upside is that to stream music or video to the device that you have at hand, all you need to do is to go to zumocast.com (via a web browser), sign into your ZumoCast account, and select the music or video you want to listen or watch. The selected media file will playback through the web browser without the need to install a player application.

I use a MacBook Pro for both work and home. I have a separate user account for work use (along with a Windows VM running on VMware Fusion) and another user account for personal stuff. My iTunes library is stored within my personal account.

Before ZumoCast, I could not access my iTunes music when I am on the work account.

However, with ZumoCast, I log into the personal account and start the ZumoCast application. Then I do a user switch and log into the work account. Now, I start up a web browser, log into zumocast.com, and then before you know it, I am streaming music from iTunes!

This may not have been the original intended usage, but it works pretty well and I am really happy with it.

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