Five Internet-Explorers for Testing Websites

TredoSoft has created a progamm so programmers and designers can test websites at one computer on all InternetExplorers at the same time: http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

Applications – the new multimillion dollar business?

It all started with Apple’s App Store and it turned into an avalanche almost unstoppable.
Today you can get all kinds of applications for an ever growing number of different phones. Or even cars!
Rumor has it that BMW is working on an own application store where you can download apps to implement in your car. Yes, I mean it. At this year’s IAA automobile fair in Frankfurt, BMW presented a small glimpse of what is yet to come.

BMW onboard app

BMW onboard app

Based on BMW Connected Drive, this new new technology could enable you to download local maps on the go (or rather on the drive), update your car’s operating system with whatever application is useful. Stay in touch with friends – no problem with facebook on board. Or Twitter the most recent traffic jams right to the global web audience. You could also access personal music libraries while driving miles away from your home.

Applications are everywhere, and they grow at an enormous pace. You will barely be able to surf on facebook or myspace without encountering Farmland, CastleAge or some useless cookie surprises. But if you thought this was just the output of second-rate developers or bored geeks, you may find your facebook account the center of a multimillion dollar industry. In recent times, purchases of such app businesses have reached triple digit millions. Electronic Arts acquired Playfish for up to $400 million and now the creators of blockbusters such as Farmland and MafiaWars are estimated at almost a billion dollars. Bloomberg reports that “if the IPO [for Zynga] were timed to price around mid-2010 or later, our expectation would be for a billion dollar or greater valuation.” As cute as the Farmland animals may be, this is serious business, almost billion dollar business. Let’s see how classical game producers such as EA, Ubisoft, or Nintendo react to this. One solution seems promising: Buy them now while they are still available at a fair price. Whatever a fair price may be….

Image source: BMW Deutschland

FEED: The Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Report 2009

, , ,

NSeries Nokias Say Goodbye to Symbian, Hello to Maemo

Here’s a bold statement: Symbian S60 is simply not good enough. I’m sure that many Nokia owners and analysts who know that Symbian currently holds around 50% of the smartphone OS market would disagree. But I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the new generation of smartphones – primarily Androids, the iPhone, and webOS based devices – are simply better than Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile (up to) 6.5 when it comes to doing what the today’s users want from a smartphone: browsing the web, using Facebook and Twitter, gaming, and finding simple apps that will satisfy their specific needs.

And now, at the official N900 meet-up in London, Nokia has pretty much admitted it. Nokia’s NSeries devices – i.e. most of their high-end smartphones – will all be powered by Linux-based Maemo by 2012.

While this doesn’t mean that Symbian is going away completely, it’s a major focus shift from a platform that Nokia has been pushing for so long. Nokia has probably recognized that Symbian will not be able to compete with Android (Android) and the iPhone in the foreseeable future, so they’ve decided to build their own Android (Maemo, just like Android, is Linux (linux)-based) and push their flagship devices on it, while Symbian will probably keep powering the video and photo focused X and E-series devices.

Furthermore, Nokia will first run its Maemo app portal, Maemo Select, alongside Ovi Store (Symbian app store), but plans to merge them into one later on. While we’re thrilled to see more Nokias on the powerful Maemo platform, running two mobile smarpthone OSs and two separate app stores will definitely cause confusion to the customers.

NSeries Nokias Say Goodbye to Symbian, Hello to Maemo

Posted using ShareThis

The A-class equal to the 1-series or the A3? Never if you ask me

Mercedes Benz and its small-car dreams

Posted by: David Welch on November 13 on BusinessWeek The Auto Beat

The Mercedes A-class

The Mercedes A-class

American seems to be obsessed with small cars these days. Not American consumers, mind you, but policy makers and executives at the companies who must bend to their will. First, we had General Motors and Fiat-Chrysler rushing small cars to market as part of their argument for federal assistance earlier this year. Ford has a few of them coming in response both to high fuel prices and new fuel economy rules. Not to be outdone, Daimler AG CEO Dieter Zetsche says Mercedes may export some small cars to the U.S. Luxury buyers still want luxury, he told the Wall Street Journal, but some may want to make a less ostentatious, low-carbon dioxide statement.

This is wrong on so many levels. The article says that the Mercedes compacts will take on the Audi A3, BMW 1-series and BMW’s Mini Cooper brand. As for the A3 and 1-series, yes the Baby Benz will take them on, battling for all 12,000 cars worth of sales that the two models have sold this year. That’s right. Audi has sold about 2,900 copies of the A3, one-tenth the sales of its A4 sedan. The 1-series has done a bit better, selling almost 9,500 cars. That pales next to 3-series sales of 75,500 cars. Even if Mercedes gets a piece of that compact luxury biz, it will be small potatoes. As if Mercedes needs another model that sells fewer than 10,000 cars a year. The company has about half a dozen or so right now. By the way, Mercedes once shelved plans to bring its small B-class (pictured above) to the U.S. because of currency problems. Well, the dollar is still pretty weak. That will make the car either expensive to buy for consumers or profit-challenged.

And what about taking on Mini? The brand has sold almost 40,000 cars through October and just keeps growing. But it has everyone fooled. First of all, the brand has an incredibly unique image that blends modern technology of BMW’s vaunted engineering with the British styling and heritage of its past. And it is quirky. Mini stands alone unlike any brand in the car market as accessible exclusivity, though not traditional luxury. Will its buyers look at a Baby Benz? I doubt it. One BMW marketer once told me that in their research, they found that Mini owners view BMW owners the way most people view Ferrari owners. Loosely translated from the original profane description, Mini owners seem them as men with more money than confidence. I doubt Mini owners will see the Mercedes brand any differently.

I’ll give you one more practical reason why small cars won’t sell as fuel savers or as a green statement. Take a four-cylinder Chevrolet Malibu. It gets 26 miles per gallon combined and costs $1,526 a year to fuel up. A compact Chevy Cobalt gets 27 mpg and costs $1,482 a year at the pump. Who will sacrifice the passenger space of a Malibu to save $44 a year in gas? Answer: The buyer who can’t afford the Malibu.

Translate that to the luxury market where buyers are less concerned about gasoline prices, and there is even less incentive to go small. As for the low carbon statement, that won’t wash either. By the time Mercedes gets its compacts to the U.S., there will be Chevy Volts, plug-in Priuses, Fisker plug-in hybrids, Tesla electric sedans and plenty more expensive greenery for well-to-do do-gooders. Isn’t this idea just a wee bit silly?

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/autos/autobeat/archives/2009/11/mercedes_benz_a.html

SOM Marketingberatung:

Folks,

in no way does the A or B-class Mercedes compare to any of the models mentioned. They all have what the Mercedes lacks: they represent young, dynamic drivers who can afford to buy a small premium car and are willing to pay a markup for a strong brand. The typical A and B-class drivers – in terms of perceived and actual age – are seniors. Of course there are also some younger drivers whose parents drive a bigger Mercedes model and who want „to stick with the brand.“ The same is true for the C-class. The average age of drivers still ranges somewhere around 50. That is in the home market of Germany. For long, there have been discussion whether to finally stop these two models: they are simply not profitable enough. And here’s another one: guess which vehicle is currently the most hated rental car in all of Germany: yes, the B-class.
So dear friends down in Stuttgart, you are in need of action now. Define your brand! Either find a new profitable positioning for these two models or combine them into one car. As of today, both are too expensive and do not offer what a Mercedes represents. And do not compare the current A class with a 1 series BMW or an Audi A3. Event rental companies rank these two higher than the A-class.

New Models for Engaging Consumers: A Report from Opportunity Green

The business and sustainability conference Opportunity Green, held this past weekend in L.A., was an amazing experience. As we watched the various films and presentations, my wife and I moved from fear (How will the world survive?) to guilt (Look how we’ve polluted our planet!) to the hope that we can all work together, connected by the belief and passion that we will find a better way.

The Story of Stuff

One of the presentations that struck me most was when sustainability expert Annie Leonard shared her film, „The Story of Stuff.“ The animated work takes a hard (yet humorous) look at the pitfalls of our consumer society. It has developed quite a following, with more than 7 million views to date. After watching it, you come away wondering if it’s possible to have a consumer-based economy and achieve true sustainability.

This is something that both industrial designers and their clients have to consider. Traditionally, we are dependent upon consumers to buy the things we create. Shifting the consumer paradigm has to begin with a fundamental shift in the way we think, the way we do business, and the way we all live our lives.

This syncs up well with a point cognitive anthropologist Dr. Bob Deutsch has been making for years now. According to Deutsch, we need to do a „search and replace“ in the way we speak, and to move from talking about „consumers“ to talking about „people.“ Perhaps this is the first step on the path to finding ways to thrive in business without consuming ourselves and our world into oblivion.

There are many aspects to consider in building a new paradigm for sustainable products, practices, and business models. But perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle is creating sustainable experiences. The experience is where we connect with people. If we create products or services that are terrific for the environment, but which fail to empower and delight, people will not use them. To truly be sustainable, a product or practice must feel more like a reward than like something we „should“ do. If it feels like penance, we may do it once or twice, but it won’t become a part of who we are.

The viral videos of The Fun Theory (a Volkswagen initiative) are a terrific example of how appealing to key emotions (in this case, joy and surprise) can be used to create positive change in behavior. In the videos, a staircase is turned into a huge piano keyboard to encourage people to take the stairs, the „world’s deepest bin“ encourages people to use a trash can instead of littering. In the video below, the simple act of recycling is turned into a fun arcade game. In each case, people were enticed to change their behavior not because it was the right thing to do, but because it was a more fun and engaging experience.

Opportunity Green showcased several fine companies who understand the power of emotion and who know that empowering people is the first ingredient in finding a better, more sustainable way. Still, it’s clear that we are at the beginning of this paradigm shift. And it is equally clear that to make a shift of this magnitude we will all have to work together to find new ways for companies to continue making money while making a difference.

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ravi-sawhney/design-reach/opportunity-green-shifting-consumer-paradigm

Posted using ShareThis

Google Poised to Become Your Phone Company

found at wired.com

Google is set to become your new phone company, perhaps reducing your phone bill to zilch in the process.

Google has reportedly spent $30 million to buy Gizmo5, an online phone company. The service is akin to Skype — but based on open protocols and with a lot fewer users.

Gizmo5’s founder Michael Robertson, a brash serial entrepreneur, would only say that he could not comment on rumors when asked by Wired.com about a story TechCrunch ran Monday reporting the acquisition.

Google ignored a request for comment from Wired.com about the reported acquisition.

It’s a potent recipe — take Gizmo5’s open standards-based online calling system. Add to it the new ability to route calls on Google’s massive network of cheap fiber. Toss in Google Voice’s free phone number, which will ring your mobile phone, your home phone and your Gizmo5 client on your laptop.


Meanwhile you can use Gizmo5 to make ultracheap outgoing calls to domestic and international phone numbers, and free calls to Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo and AIM users. You could make and receive calls that bypass the per-minute billing on your smartphone.

Then layer on deluxe phone services like free SMS, voicemail transcription, customized call routing, free conference calls and voicemails sent as recordings to your e-mail account, and you have a phone service that competes with Skype, landlines and the internet telephone offerings from Vonage and cable companies.

That’s not just pie in-the-sky dreaming.

Ask longtime VOIP watcher and consultant Andy Abramson, who introduced the idea of integrating Gizmo5 and Grand Central (now Google Voice), long before Google bought either.

“Google is now the the uncommon carrier,” Abramson said, punning on the iconic 7-UP commercials and the phrase “common carrier.” That refers to phone companies that operate on the traditional publicly switched network — a status that gives them benefits and obligations.

“If AT&T is Coca-Cola, Google is now 7-UP,” Abramson added.

“All of a sudden you have something that offers more than Skype,” Abramson said, saying the combo could now put Google in competition with phone and cable companies, IP telephony companies and Vonage. “But now you can do everything with Google and pay nothing and have a platform where engineers can build new things.”

In fact, Gizmo5 offered a rogue version of that service for $6 a month until last week.

On November 2, Gizmo5 abruptly canceled the two-month old “residential service,” (.pdf) which paired the free phone number available through Google Voice with Gizmo’s internet calling service to provide the equivalent of a home-phone replacement like Vonage.

Now, that service has been wiped off the internet and, more intriguingly, Google’s cache of the page disappeared the day after the acquisition was reported. (Note, this could through actions of either or both Google and Gizmo5.)

For $6 a month, Gizmo5 residential users got 300 minutes a month of outbound calling anywhere in the United States, unlimited incoming calls on their home computers or even home phones (using a broadband-to-phone network conversion box) and E911 service (which means 911 calls work like landlines calls do once you register your home address).

It’s not too surprising that offer got taken down.

For one Google is already trying to steer clear of U.S. regulators by making it clear that Google Voice isn’t a replacement for a home phone since you have to have phone service from some other company to use it. You can forward calls from a Google Voice number to your Gizmo5 number, but you must have a mobile or landline number as well.

Google doesn’t say it but clearly it hopes that restriction will keep the service from incurring the common carrier obligations attached to the regular phone system (PSTN), and the 911 and wiretapping requirements that apply to internet telephony and to traditional copper wire phones.

AT&T has already tried to sic federal regulators on Google Voice because Google is blocking outgoing calls to a handful of shady calling services — mostly free conference-calling services that exploit federal rules that let rural phone companies charge high fees to connect calls to rural areas.

AT&T itself has sued similar services that play this arbitrage game, and complaining to the feds may have only brought more attention to an issue the FCC has procrastinating fixing for too long.

Gizmo5 will also help save Google money on phone-call termination fees as users start to use computer-based clients to connect to Google Voice. That would allow Google to recoup the purchase price of $30 million in little time, if only it saves even a few dollars per user per year.

Google also gets Michael Robertson, a troublemaker with technical chops. Robertson made millions from MP3.com in the dot-com boom, despite drawing lawsuits from major record labels for creating innovative services. He was later sued by Microsoft for his startup Lindows, which made Linux installations for cheap PCs. And his current music venture, MP3tunes.com, is being sued by EMI.

Though still in invite-only mode, Google Voice has about 580,000 active users and nearly 1.5 million registered users, according to a Google filing with the FCC.

If you are interested in the combination, you might want to sign up for Gizmo5 before the acquisition is formally announced, since Google often freezes new registrations at companies it acquires until it figures out how to integrate the technology.

Source:http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/11/google-gizmo5-phone-company/