Mavista Blog

I have used a fair number of mobile phones since the 90’s, from all sorts of different vendors. Nokia is a prominent one (from the 6110, to my current one E71), and I have also used Ericsson (Sony or no Sony) ones (the one with the long antenna that you can use to pick your nose with [in private of course], and the T68). The Palm Treo was a bit of a ground breaker and I loved it until the antenna fell apart and the screen went yellow (yes, I dropped it about half a dozen times). There was one that stood out like a sore thumb though, and that was the Dopod C730 – yes, and it was the only Windows Mobile phone that I have ever used (it was equipped with the latest WM 6 at the time). Suffice to say that I would not touch another WM device anytime soon.

So, it seems like I have made a sound decision judging by the travails that I have read about what is/will happen to Windows mobile experiences (and I would not use the word “premium” with their stuff). I won’t repeat them again here, but let me just say I will not be recommending any of my friends/family to buy another Windows mobile powered device (be it WM, Pink, Danger, or whatever). My recommendation as of today will be if you have money, go get an iPhone. Otherwise, get a Nokia E71, especially if you use it as a business phone.

Sidekick outage casts cloud over Microsoft

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10372525-56.html

Exclusive: Pink Danger leaks from Microsoft’s Windows Phone

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/10/09/exclusive_pink_danger_leaks_from_microsofts_windows_phone.html

You can take the Appleinsider article with a pinch of salt, as the general consensus is it is a bit bias against MS. However, at the same time, I would not believe all the facts are fabricated either. Go search on the web for other related info and judge it by yourself.

I read an article on CNET this morning about IE6 refusing to die despite being totally archaic. This led me to recall what could turned out to be a defining moment in IT history.

It was 1998 and I was on a training course at IBM learning Java. News had just came in that the US Department of Justice has brought an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft claiming anti-competitive behaviour. The class broke into a little applause as the general consensus was this would be good for choice, for some of the other “interesting” technologies to thrive such as Java (Applets), Real Player, Linux, network computers and what not (Apple was just coming out of the doldrums at that time with the return of Steve Jobs). I began following this line of news very closely.

One of the central tenet of the case was on whether Microsoft was allowed to bundle Internet Explorer with Windows (since this practically killed off Netscape Navigator). Microsoft defended itself vigorously claiming this was merely a result of her innovation, which of led to some major debates between the two sides. The case was “won” by the Justice Department in 2001 as the judge ordered the breakup of Microsoft into two companies. The “joy” was short lived as Microsoft lodged an appeal and the decision got over turned, and case just ran out of steam and an out of court settlement was made (this, conveniently, coincided with George W Bush winning the election and it was alleged he was not keen on the case).

Hind sight is a beautiful thing, and if you have been a personal computer user for the last 10 years, do you see Microsoft as an innovator in the technology space? Consider the following:

A) IE6 came out in August 2001, and it hardly set the pulse racing as it mainly fixed many of the instabilities of IE5.x and had PARTIAL support for web standards (e.g. CSS,  DHTML, XML/DOM, …etc). IE7 was not released for another 5 years and in my opinion, only happened as a result of competition from Firefox. Where is the innovation?

B) In Sept 2002, the first version of Firefox came out (called Phoenix at that time, rising from the ashes of Netscape I guess). It introduced tabbed browsing, themes, pop up blocker, has tiny footprint, was lightening fast, stable and more secure. Subsequent versions then introduced themes, plugins and anti-phishing protection – all of this before Oct 2006. Now that’s innovation. Oh, did I mention it’s support & adherence to web standards were light years ahead as well.

C) Fast forward to today, and whenever I read about there are still tons of people using IE6 it makes me laugh and cry. Laugh at the folly and excuses about not able to upgrade (the IT department said it will break our OS setup), at the fatal nature of browser vulnerabilities that exposes the heart of the Windows, and how her own “innovation” is biting her up the backside big time. Cry at the countless hours that me and my colleagues sweat over fiddling obscure CSS directives just to make a webpage look right, and the non-standard JavaScript that breaks practically every other browser. I have used Firefox since 2002 and never did I have any trouble causing a conflict with IE or Windows after installing it.

D) The iPod is an innovation, Firefox is an innovation, the Palm Treo is an innovation, the Mac is an innovation, the iPhone is an innovation, Playstation is an innovation … can you spot the common theme – none of these came from Microsoft. It is all about embrace and extend!

Just to finish up, can you imagine what it will be like if Microsoft did get broken up into 2 companies (one selling the OS and one selling Office software) back in 2001? I will probably not have the “privilege” in using Windows ME, XP and Vista. I’ll probably be running my favourite Linux and my Mac with the latest Microsoft Office, complete with MS Project and Visio. We wouldn’t have to code websites using proprietary extensions, and programming environments such as Java, PHP, Flash and Ruby will have access to simple yet powerful APIs to manipulate office documents.

Now the thought of that brings a little smile to me when I wind down for the day …. until the next morning when I realize it had all been a dream.

We are in the midst of developing a Facebook application for a client to exploit social media as a marketing vehicle here in Hong Kong. This is the client’s first foray into new media and we are naturally very excited about the project and also very eager to see how well it will turn out given that is focussed on a local business (admittedly with an international feel to it).

Then today, when I logged onto my Facebook page, I saw something that made me cringe, but at the same time, made me felt very good (and no, I do not have self mutilation tendencies). I saw a friend who posted a link to a local baby clothing retailer, who in turn gave away a 20% discount coupon – great stuff, and the clothes do look nice! Problem is, the company got it a bit wrong on how the coupon will be delivered to the participants – it claims you just need to post the link and the company will be able to send the coupon to your Facebook mail account. I don’t think this is actually feasible, and many mums probably found out as well, so I guess one of the smart ones decide to join the page as a fan and then also proceed to leave a message on the fan page with her email (ok, may be she was told to do this, I do not know). Before you know it, many other mums followed suit and now the fan page is full of people’s email addresses – (oucch, privacy 0 hackers, cringe! cringe! )

Now, I don’t want to reveal the name of the company cos it’s a bit unethical, and I am not here to diss the company either. What interests me a great deal is to see that the rise of the social networks has really turned the tables upside down on marketing (and I am no marketing guru). This company has over 1000 fans on the Facebook company page, and it managed to garner a great response to her Facebook 20% discount campaign – that is she has managed to generate over 50 leads in about 2 hours! I think for a small retailer, this is pretty astounding. I also think the conversion rate is going to be very high, as the mums look mega keen to get the coupon.

As a side note, an interesting analysis of the 50 or so email addresses that are on the fan page reveals 32 belongs to a Yahoo Mail address of some sort! Just goes to show that Yahoo is / can still be a major player locally in targeting the 30 somethings (assuming most mum with a young child will be in this group).

Well, enough of my rant, I am going to take away 3 things from my little exercise

1. Selling online + marketing though social media is going to be awesome! Even for local businesses!!

2. Better solutions are needed to help businesses large and small to use these media properly, so I do not get to harvest the emails of 50 mothers.

3. Trying to come up with something funny to do with 50 mums but that will probably put me in a bad light so better leave it at that … and I have total respect for mums … honest.

Until next time …