hoi

Carriers don't mean squat. They are the king makers.

They control a section of the market that every smartphone mnnufacturer relied on. The Radio frequencies. This gives them power via their marketing subsidies, and it was this power they leveraged before they screwed up and ceded control to the platform. It used to be the case that the carriers controlled your wallet. Every single thing you did on the phone, the money went to the carrier, they held your credit details. AT&T screwed up and gave up consumer power.

Article is fine but misses a few salient points.

Appstores did exist, Docomo created the first appstore and any phones that were released by the carrier had to comply to Docomo's requirements. Nokia created an appstore with N-Gage, it didn't work and created a carrier backlash.

What Apple did was to stealth in their app store. It was all due to a strategic mistake by AT&T. Sure the Apple was a great device, but remember, the first version was 2G with a crappy camera and an amazing UI/UX and already seen as obsolete in developed 3G markets like Japan (I was working at Nokia in Japan at the time).

AT&T's mistake? Unlike any previous carrier or vendor relationship, AT&T ceded control of software updates to Apple. Apple could update the phone any way they wanted. They already had enough market power in the US that would prevent carrier boycott. At the time, all the carriers were trying to copy Docomo and push out their own appstores, and this decision by AT&T killed it.

In terms of smartphones being a commodity, it already is, anything that sells int he hundreds of millions is effectively commoditized, that doesn't prevent new players from coming in to try and disrupt the market. This is probably the third disruption in mobile phones, from dumbphones -> feature/early smartphones -> current smartphones, however it may be 'too soon' as each cycle has been around for about 10 years each.

I also used to live in Japan. Construction has to follow guidelines to ensure they comply to earthquake standards and Japan is one of the leaders in earthquake - proof technology. Part of this may come in the compromise of 'thinner walls'.

This in part also explains why tearing down a house and building a new one is desired, as you would want the most modern earthquake proof property.

I haven't lived in a place in Japan that wasn't double glazed and central heating is not really required since most of the year heating is not required (at least in Tokyo).

Without trying to sound 'patronizing', you sound a bit like a foreigner who hasn't yet fully adapted to Japan.

Yeah, that's why I no longer use US or European manufacturers ... ;)

Hong Kong - I'm sitting here in my sandals, shorts, football top, TV on high up on the 32nd floor in the office :)

A good example is the docklands light railway in London, already automated railline that serves the financial district - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docklands_Light_Railway

One of the reasons for such high housing costs is the influx of investment money. For example, this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hills apartment complex is mostly empty. Most of the houses bought up by rich mainlanders looking to park their money somewhere that would still grow their investment.

Secondly, there are cheaper alternatives. Living in teh New Territories can be tremendously more cash efficient. I live in the hills in a house, 2 floors, 3 bedroom, with a garden, and pay less than $2500 USD per month.

That's being facetious since you're now using morally questionable examples and rohypnol wouldn't fit the example of buying something that relies on willpower to stop you.

A better example would be, an exam revision/study website that affiliates themselves with energy drinks/bars. There isn't a requirement to buy the energy drinks to continue to use the app, but would be interesting to see if people are more inclined to buy the energy foods.

Alternatively a bakery/cake website, whether they can increase conversions.

Nope, not being facetious, it's a perfectly valid monetization strategy to test and pursue, in some ways, it's similar to a gaming mechanic... spend energy doing things that interest you, then pay to replenish energy, except the energy your depleting is cognitive.

My take on this, is that you can create an app/site that is engaging and depletes self/control or willpower and then monetize that at the end by selling cake or equivalent.

Can test if the conversion funnel for cake (or low self-contro) goods) sell more after a more 'intense' work out on the site/app.

Flights from almost all airports Google flights doesn't even supprot some of the major international hubs, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong all not available.

Why does "underage" alochol purchasing require law enforcement officers to draw a gun?

I Only semi-agree.

To truly understand if your product has hit the mark, you need to have the metrics/analytics to be able to assess those factors, look for tipping points, know what to remove etc. Sure, don't do premature micro optimization.. but massive optimization to get product market fit is still a form of optimization that needs to be done, for example, A/B testing different landing pages to discover what people are actually looking for, each page with different subsets of 'features'.

The article has a bit of American Bias towards it (probably because it's the NY Times).

Xiaomi have developed their own UI (with some similaroties to Apple) called MIUI which you can download and install on your Android if you wish. They are galvanizing the market in China because they are pushing home the 'China-built, High standard' message. In other words, they are playing the patriotism button and in the main, it's working.

The main issue is whether they can push beyond China.

Very true that the lifecycle of an app can be very short due to the need for the app store economy to constantly unleash new blood. However, couldn't he have used his momentum to build a base of loyal users to help his future apps, rather than (as the article tends to suggest)(, start from the beginning again each time.

The successful app, should have yielded him a customer base of which would make it easier to seed a new app, rather than fstarting again from zero? More interestingly, more analysis into the cost benefits of when to do further updates, and when to release a newer version would be insightful.

they're adding hurdles, the more friction involved in the process the lower the conversion rate for the amount of people who will have the template.

Seems like a logical move. Since there is supposedly a dearth of A* developers at Yahoo, since it appears many left in the previous years. This has made it a less desirable place for great developers to work for. To change this image and negative spiral, acquire good development teams. The products are secondary. Yahoo becomes a more attractive place to work again. Looks like its the early stage of rebuilding the team, before kicking it on to develop products into growth mode.

All the Symbian UIQ smartphones were touchscreen, as mentioned, outside the US, smartphones were much more common. iPhone changed the game with its UI and because you could use your finger making touch easier. But the biggest factor that changed the game were the concessions AT&T made to Apple.

only in America... where they forgot Blackberry was already a smartphone that was popular there,

He also disregards that touchscreen smartphones have been around since the 1990's and there were plenty of people outside the US who used such devices. If he mentioned that it could be used with just your finger, accurately, then he maybe right.

Locker rooms will never be the same with Google Glass. Peeping at ATMs when someone is using it... I can already see the criminal class thinking up a multitude of uses for it.

On the plus side, it would make an excellent exercise companion. Heart rate monitor, current speed, calories burned etc.

If google glass becomes popular, I'll expect to hear this phrase more - "Please take your glasses off before we proceed.."

ZX Spectrum all the way!

Most of the people I know in the UK use Viber. Likewise most people I know in Japan use Line, Lot's of people in the CHina region use Wechat. It's still a fragmented market and SMS is still the only service that is common. With operators looking to disrupt the market with RCS, it will only fragment it more.

It truly is shit. Japan's isn't great either. UK's probably the best I've experienced in all the countries I've lived in. Hong Kong comes a close second.

Other issues such as immigration process is a major cause of discontent at US aiirports when compared with other countries immigration workflow, particularly for non-locals.

Useless outside of N.America

I'm sure he wouldn't have 'hacked' the system if he hadn't already had 650K youtube followers that took him 5 years to grow.

Right, hence why it's taken this long to get a new version up and running. Jolla (Sailfish) imost resemble Meego the most since it's virtually the same team.

All depends on the carriers pushing the phone. They may say they support the device, but if they give it no visibility, no one will buy it. Even if there is visibility, the carriers need to actively sell the phone in the store. The nokia windows device is a great example of carriers taking the marketing money and not 'selling' the phone because their sales rep would rather push an Android or iPhone to you instead.

Conversely, compare that to Bada (Samsung device) which sold 20M units last year, good carrier relations go a long way.

In this respect, I don't thinik carriers care all that much about Firefox OS, sure they will support them, but they are more likely to support Tizen with their marketing dollars because - a) Previous good press from the Nokia N9 which Tizen was borne out of b) Samsung are a excellent counterweight to Apple and can supply the marketing dollars to back it c) Intel iare helping to push Tizen d) No major conflicts of interest with carriers (e.g. Microsoft own skype which is a conflict, Apple directly updates software.. something carriers don't like)

One of the simplest and most accessible forms of coding that most people will encounter in their working lives is the spreadsheet.