Bad News If You Have A Microsoft 7 'Swiss Army' Smartphone

The smartphone is getting smarter and and as we all migrate to the platform its usage changes significantly such that a recent survey of O2 customers claims users spend twice as much time browsing the web, and also they spend more time checking social networking sites, playing app-based games and listening to music than they do making calls. Checking Emails now follows making calls followed by text messaging, watching TV and films and reading books and taking pictures. The smartphone is becoming the device that now not only connects people but is rapidly becoming even as important as your wallet which it could even replace soon.

However it is still an evolving technology and no one can claim that they have found the mobile solution for the future, just the one for today. We are all aware that Blackberry is going out of fashion and running out of puff. It had a good run, created the mobile email world we now all live in, but somehow never moved on. Apple continues to be the design icon and tablet solution to have and despite all the denials, looks to be on the path to converging the iPhone and current tablet with the first step being a smaller tablet later this year. Android is no longer a contender, but the player who is the winning the marketshare and claiming just over 50% share. And then there is Microsoft who promises lots and just delivers confusion.

The issue often in the marketplace is fragmentation. This is were the underlying operating system is not uniform across the market and this is exacerbated by devices taking a specific release and developing on it and so potentially restricting their ability to be upward compatible with future releases. Amazon’s adoption of Android is an example of this. However trying to keep all devices, apps all compatible with a rapidly developing OS can be a challenge unless like Apple everything is from the same stable and brings other issues.

The company that once again appears to be lost is Microsoft with its mobile OS offer. First there was a company desperate to catch up with the others and with windows 7 to launched their platform to compete. They even got the other lost soul, Nokia, to effectively drop their OS hot-potch of an offer and come on board. Nokia Lumia was heralded as the new benchmark, the new platform, the new dawn. Now Microsoft have dumped Windows 7 and started again with Windows 8. Its not upward compatible and so those who bought the Windows 7 package effectively bought a pup that would always stay as a pup.

Windows Phone 8 is a clean break with Windows Phone 7, which only launched in autumn 2010 as a clean break from Windows whatever. Importantly for developers and users it has a completely new kernel and no forward compatibility for apps and built specifically for Windows Phone 8 won't run on 7.8 devices. Microsoft obviously could wait until windows 8 so brought out windows 7, but the question is, how long Microsoft knew that they were effectively selling a dead end road, as its certain that Windows 8 didn’t drop out of the sky overnight!

So as we all get more hooked on our smartphones and as they become the true mobile ‘swiss army knife’ we only need to be careful that our attachment to any one device or OS is limited to our contract term and expect to change sides as loyalty will not to always be rewarded.

Magic Town: A Place Where Stories Live?

Destination websites have always been attractive to those searching for that one place where they can find everything they want under one roof. The challenge is often to get competitors to collaborate and realise that working together often makes more sense than duplicating cost and effort. Often it needs a third party to pull the competitors together and present the range in a neutral and compelling place.

The Magic Town platform is being launched by Mindshapes with the aim of creating a compelling online site, where children aged from two to six can find interactive classic fairy tales and children’s ebooks. Mindshapes envisage that the parents of children do not want to spend all day trawling the app stores and web looking for suitable and engaging stories for their children and by offering a one stop shop they will capture the growing market. They have got the support of publishers such as Hachette, Penguin and Simon & Schuster and are reportedly in discussion with more. The Magic Town, will also be available on the iPad and is planning to operate on part free part subscription model with some 20 titles available free and subscription access to the full catalogue costing £7.99 a month, or £49.99 a year. They estimate that some 200 stories will be available on the platform in the first year.

  

Mindshapes was founded in 2010 and last year it raised £3.1m in a Series A funding to launch two destination hubs; Magic Town and Language City. Magic Town is accessible via an app and web browsers whilst Language City is browser only. The business model mix of free and subscription, is a logical and one that could resonate with busy parents who may be happy to subscribe to a single and  trusted service.

The challenges we see are not huge but are significant. The model is not one that is easy for publishers and especially ones which carry heavy development costs and hold potentially significant secondary rights. We are reminded of the Jesuit maxim, "Give me a child for his first seven years and I'll give you the man". The target age group is itself relatively small, some 3 years and where do their readers go then? Can they extend the offer or create a follow on offer as the children grow or that can be shared with their older siblings? Will the offer be extended to cover all books in the target age range or remain with just web and app offers and will that be enough to satisfy the needs of the parents? Finally will publishers embrace Mindshapes as just another digital ‘experiment’, or see it as a serious strategic channel and direction?   

We watch with interest at this venture into the world of Spotify for books.

Apple, Apps and eBooks

In the current series of the reality TV show, ‘The Apprentice’, Lord Sugar, set his would be entrepreneurs the task of developing an app and marketing it. The winner was not decided by the best app, the best launch pitch, or the work that went into the app. The winner was be the team that got the most hits in 24hrs and the factor that decided the result was down to one pitch to the leading app endorser, as they promoted the best new app each day to millions of consumers. The teams didn’t know that this was the ‘kingmaker’ ,but it did decide the winner. The moral being was that it is simply down to getting the backing of the man that matters, who influenced in biggest market and hey presto, you can have a hit even with a dog of an app.

Apps however aren’t for every ebook. Some publishers appear to want to use technology for technology sake, whilst others are happy to simply pour the print content unaltered into a digital jacket. However, digital often offers much more than these two extremes, but all too often it is the extremes that appear to be concerning many in the market today. We believe that digital is not constricted to the size of work and that 300 print pages may not be appropriate and that digital also offers new serialisation opportunities that may be far more appropriate to a digital work. Some would suggest that digital is not just about stuffing the unsuspecting book with games, interaction, video and technology in order to make it just ‘fatter’. After all, in many cases it’s the same book, same blurb and same stuff.

A major trade publisher we talked to recently has adopted a similar approach to developing apps as Lord Sugar. Perhaps they are followers of ‘The Apprentice’. This time the kingmaker is Apple and the do what Apple say they want to see in an app and to work with and exploit their technology. They the work with Apple to get their endorsement and hey presto, a frog can becomes a prince. So if you want success; forget what the market wants, forget what the author wants, forget the publishing input, forget the reader and do what Apple wants in order to show off on their iPad platform. This may be a simplified take on what was being advocated, but it is close enough to revive many ‘CD Rom nightmares’. It also begs the question, whether the dog is wagging the tail, or the other way around?

We found ourselves asking how many publishers had used focus groups on their digital developments, or were the simply listen to what the likes of Apple said they wanted and looking for their endorsement to push sales. Perhaps Sir Alan is right and the actual content and marketing doesn’t count nearly as much as being kissed by the likes of Apple.