Some Lessons from 'Steve Jobs' by Walter Isaacson

Reading Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson motivates you to follow your passion. When you read Jobs views like - intuitive understanding over logical analysis, it makes you question conventional wisdom, but the check point is everyone can't have intuitive thinking like Steve Jobs.

I have put down notes on some key things from book. They are not detailed but very short pointers which will serve as a quick reference:

Products:

• Care about details of the parts you don't see, something Steve learnt from his father. He ensured even the circuitry you don't see is a beauty.
  
• Make products so simple that they don't need manuals. This was his takeaway from Atari games, since the did not come with any manuals.
• Art/ design and engineering can go hand-in-hand and it is when they do, that great products are made. Follow this with terrific marketing and you have a runaway success.
  
• Simplicity is the ultimate perfection. God is in the details

Companies:

• Apple started with this marketing philosophy - Empathy, Focus, Impute
• A very important thing for lasting companies is to know when to 'Reinvent'
• Deciding what not to do is an important as deciding what to do
• If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will
  
• Figure out what customers want, before they themselves do.

Personal Growth:

• Pursue your passions. The fact that death is inevitable makes you realize that there is no reason not to pursue your passion. You don't have anything to lose.
  
• Pretend to be completely in control and people will assure you are
• Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish
• The early Zen influence made him to do things for passion rather than materialism. His personal drives and ego needs made him build innovative products and lasting companies. This is something which is professed in many eastern philsophies.
  

His commencement speech at Stanford is a not-to-miss. Even if you don't read the book, the speech is a must watch.

5 tech trends to watch out in 2012

As 2011 draws to a close, here are some trends which will top the trending list in 2012:

1) Mobile payments and NFC
This year saw the success of Square's iPhone dongle and that seems to be just the start of mobile payments. 2012 will have NFC change the mobile payment landscape. My earlier post talked about this more.

By 2013, 1 in 5 cellphones are expected to be NFC enabled. This trend is by far going to be one of the biggest and impact our day-to-day life.


2) Siri and beyond
Siri feature in iPhone 4S might still seem like in an alpha stage but it is the advent of sophistication in the voice control field. While voice control has been around since many years, it was not until now that it seems intelligent and futuristic. There are also talks that Apple might use this to replace the remote control.


3) Spatial gestures
While voice will thrive in 2012, spatial gestures will also have early adoption. Microsoft Kinect has started this trend and its going to get more and more popular in the coming year.


4) More Tablets
2011 was the inflection point for tablets. With the Kindle Fire selling like hot cakes it is expected to give some serious competition to the iPad. The different in price points would make this play more serious.


5) HTML 5
2011 already saw the start of many apps in HTML5 and even hybrid in native wrappers. With the biggest advantage of multiple platform support, this is definitely going to be explored by many more companies who are considering mobile apps for their businesses.

NFC would be game changing

I saw the demonstration of NFC and image recognition in Grocery IQ iPhone and Android apps by the CTO of Coupons.com and it led me thinking to how this would change the future. The possibilities are immense and NFC has barely been launched.

NFC or Near Field Communication allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in proximity to each other, usually by no more than a few centimeters. Many smartphones currently on the market contain embedded NFC chips that can send encrypted data to a reader located within a short distance, for instance, next to a retail cash register. The smartphone or tablet with an NFC chip can serve as a credit card, id card or key card.

Lets take a deep dive into some of its applications:

(1) Coupon codes: The Demo of this app got me thinking so I will start with this. The smartphone will store all your coupons and then you can just use NFC to transfer coupon codes to avail discounts. This not only saves time at the cash register but a lot more time from clipping, emailing or printing coupons.

(2) Payment Gateway: This is probably the biggest and most talked about application. With Google Wallets already in action on some Android phones and usable across many stores, many other companies are likely to follow soon. Both handset and point-of-sale manufacturers are investing in this.

(3) On-to-go virtual shopping: Many shopping experience has been transformed using QR codes already. Tesco has already implemented grocery shopping at a subway station in Korea. Watch the video here. Sears and Kmart among many others are using posters to encourage virtual shopping. In both the stores, you scan a QR code of displayed merchandize, add to your cart and pay. The goods get delivered to your home. With the launch of more NFC enabled phones this process will become even quicker.

(4) Identification and Tickets: It would be used by hotels to replace key cards. You can check in on your mobile, download a virtual key on your phone and use it to enter your room with a tap at the NFC-enabled door. It can also be used to replace boarding passes, concert or movie tickets or basically any place where you have a possibility of forgetting your physical ticket.

(5) Advertising and User engagement:
Kraft Foods has used this in a Halls Campaign in Chicago to promote new products and get user feedback. Read more on this link. Besides serving the intended purpose this is sure to generate a lot of buzz at this stage of the NFC lifecycle.

The possibilities are endless and we will see many more uses as more NFC devices are launched.

Top Smartphone OS in US: Android

According to a report released by Nielsen today, Android is still the number one smartphone OS in US in Q3 of 2011. As per the data, Android accounts for 43% of the smartphones OS in US. iOS is a distant second with 28%. Android has jumped from 39% in Q2 of 2011 based on the data released by Neilsen in July. iOS has maintained its 28% share since last quarter.

While Apple holds a second spot on the smartphone OS front, it is in the lead as the smartphone manufacturer. The obvious reason is the fragmented Android manufacturer market. RIM's Blackberry OS has fallen from 20% to 18% in Q3. Windows Mobile has also fallen from 9% to 7%. It is interesting how the share lost by RIM and Windows Mobile has been picked by Android with iOS reamining constant. However with the new hardware and OS version announcements, Q4 will definitely show some more changes.

Brands in App Stores

As per a report released today by the mobile analytics firm Distimo, a mobile 91% of the top 100 brands have a presence in atleast one mobile app store. This is huge increased compare to only 51% having a mobile app around 18 months back.

Most brands have free apps and look at the app stores to establish a presence of their brand rather than making money.

The average number of apps per brand is 24! Some of the most active brands are Disney (636 apps) and Sony (285). The 3rd on the list if BMW at 63.



It doesn't come as a surprise that Apple’s App Store is the number one pick. 86% of the top brands have a presence in Apple’s iPhone App Store, 66% are in the Apple iPad App Store, 59% have a presence in the Android Market and a low 26% are in BlackBerry’s App World.

Apple's Latest Stats!

Here is a consolidation of all sales numbers disclosed by Apple in yesterday's event. Some of the number are mind boggling!

iOS devices
(iPhones, iPads & iPod Touches):

• 250 mn devices sold (and NOT shipped) till date
• iPhone 4 makes more than half of total iPhones sold
  

App Store

• 18 bn downloads till date
• Current rate of 1 bn download per month (compare this with the 9 months is took to download the 1st billionth app in April 2009!!)
  
• 500,000 apps out of which 140,000 are made for the iPad
• $3bn has been distributed to 3rd party developers

iPods

• 300 mn iPods sold in 10 years (compare to quarter million cassette players sold by Sony in 30 years)
  
• 45 mn last year itself (July 2010-June 2011)
  
• 20 mn songs on iTunes
• 16 bn downloads

iPhone has 5% of mobile market share world wide - "An Enormous Opportunity" according to Tim Cook.

Siri for iPhone 4S: Your new PA

It was a big disappointment not to see the iPhone 5 launch today and the Wall Street also made this clear. However, the announcement of Siri for iPhone along with a few other features reduces this slightly. This is the name of the app Apple bought for $200 million a couple of years ago.

Siri launches with a long press of the home button, just like Voice Control, but after that the options are huge. Some questions for the demo today makes this interface much awaited in the new iPhone 4S. “Wake me up at 6 a.m." “What time is it in Paris?” “Set my alarm for…” “Find me a great Greek restaurant in Palo Alto.” “Do I have any meetings this Friday at noon?”

One Q & A gives away the deal on what Siri is exactly:
“Siri, who are you?” Siri responds: “I am your humble personal assistant.