The beginner today will be the expert of tomorrow

Latest column from Bruce Tognazzini is well worth the read. Who is Bruce Tognazzini? I’ll let him tell you.

Bruce Tognazzini was hired at Apple by Steve Jobs and Jef Raskin in 1978, where he remained for 14 years, founding the Apple Human Interface Group.  He remains a major Apple fan, which is why, when they’re doing wrong, he feels compelled to talk about it.

Bottom line?

Apple needs to take a fresh look at all of their products across the board, specifically looking for where old decisions favoring new users are now dragging those same users down. Of course it’s a good idea to avoid complexity, including hierarchies, where possible, but some tasks are inherently complex. Go for visual and behavioral simplicity where it works, but be prepared to back off.

I could think of a few Apple products that could possibly fall into this category. You?How about you? What would you like to see Apple update or refresh?

The best way to read the NY Times on a mobile device

As an experiment and also because I like to read when I am out and about, I’ve tried  all the different official ways to read the NY Times when I’m mobile on my phone. None of them work as well as Dave Winer’s NYT River of News. It’s actually a pretty good way to read the Times on a PC as well but it really shines on a phone. Works on just about every mobile browser. Highly recommended.

Note, The NYT iPhone App is particularly awful. It’s slow to update on a fast WiFi connection and totally useless on any other connection. The AP, Bloomberg and USA Today all have great iPhone apps, why is the Times stuff so bad?

 

UPDATE – Omar Shahine – recommends the NYT Article Skimmer. Cool on a PC but doesn’t work at all on mobile devices.

Start Me Up (again)

I’ve told this story before, the definitive history of the Rolling Stones, Start Me Up and how that song became part of the Windows 95 marketing campaign. By request, here’s the tale once again as told by Brad Chase who was a key part of the Windows 95 effort (and one of the best war time consiglieri that Microsoft has ever employed). So what song would you pick for Windows 7?

 

Background

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We were struggling to find an ad campaign that worked. The agency WK (Wieden+Kennedy) was well briefed, had a good understanding of our goals, was working hard and had alot of creative ideas but we kept asking them to go back and try again as they just were not hitting the center of the bulls eye. I am sure we were hard clients. Finally they presented the idea of a campaign based on the song “Start Me Up”. I immediately loved the idea (as did Brad). Without going into details it was on strategy, creative and catchy (commercials based on famous rock songs were not done then as i recall) but then WK told me that they had been unsuccessful negotiating the rights for the song so the campaign was a non-starter. The Stones wanted us to pay $10M to sponsor their next concert tour and then they would consider the rights to the song. WK knew we would not do that. That created a pretty big debate as I wanted to know why they would finally present a winning idea if it wasn’t possible to do. They told me that the reason they pitched it was to see if I could negotiate with them myself – they figured we had nothing to lose.

Amsterdam

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Time was at a premium at that time as the launch planning and execution was a whirlwind. WK set me up with sort of an entertainment broker who set up a meeting in Amsterdam with key Stones personnel. The key contact for the Stones at that time for this negotiation was Michael Cohl the promoter and organizer of their concerts. The Stones were performing two “unplugged” concerts May 26/27 at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. Some of the tracks on the Fall 95 Album “Stripped” came from the May shows. Someone on Amazon claims Richards said those concerts were the best the Stones have done. I flew out to meet their team and discuss things on May 25th but had to return on the 26th. I don’t remember the hotel name but it was an old elegant posh European hotel and we sat in a big ornate conference room discussing the details. Outside Stones fans huddled hoping to catch a glimpse of the rock stars. Cohl had a litany of folks with him and we discussed the deal for a few hours. We did not make substantial progress. Cohl asked me if I could stay the next day to discuss the deal more and attend the concert. Since I could not, he instead invited me to the dress rehearsal that night. The dress rehearsal was fantastic. I was one of only two nonStones personnel even in the place. They played for two or three hours. They were tight. They would stop periodically to discuss something and joke around. I remember Jagger giving Ron Wood a hard time about all the cigarettes he smoked but mostly they talked about the music. It was very cool.

Back & Forth

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For a good month we continued negotiations mostly on the phone. I had only so much I would and could pay and that made things easier on our end. The fact that we had to fish or cut bait to get our TV ads done in time for the August 24th launch served as a forcing function and eventually we agreed to terms. They rushed WK the “Start Me Up” recording as we were already working on the ad. The next day I got a frantic call from WK saying that the Stones had sent a later live version of “Start Me Up” that wouldn’t work. I called up Cohl and told him that I had to have the original version or there was no deal. Eventually they agreed. I found out later that the reason they gave us the live version was that it was recorded after Bill Wyman had left the band. Giving us the original meant that Wyman got his allocation of the deal which of course meant that giving us the original version of “Start Me Up” meant that Jagger, Richards and the rest of the band got less.

Jagger & Richards

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I also found out later that Jagger and Richards did not always see eye to eye on the deal. As Brad indicated, Jagger was less inclined to commercialize their music in this way. I was told he was especially ready to just forget the deal when we made it clear we needed the original version but that he did not want to piss off Richards over it because Richards wanted or needed the money.

Prince Rupert

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After the deal was done but before the launch, Prince Rupert Lowenstein the manager of Jagger’s and the bands money who had been involved behind the scenes (Cohl had to clear things with Rupert as well as the band members) decided he should come out and visit Microsoft. We had to have a limo pick him up at the airport and bring him to the campus.

Prince Rupert was smart and funny. He was an investment banker and came dressed on a baby blue suit. He talked with a strong wonderful British accent. For example he said sometimes at the end of a concert tour bands like the Stones would get “naughty.” He was a Prince because he was a descendant of some royalty (I read on-line that he was a descendant of the Rothschild family). He explained that in the 70’s he got a call from a friend saying that a musical group called the Rolling Stones were in a financial mess. Rupert was told the Stones were stuck in a bad deal they had done with their manager Allen Klein, they had tax problems etc. His friend asked if Rupert would take them on as a client. As Rupert explained it he asked his friend to hold for a moment, put his hand over the telephone and yelled up to his wife, “Honey who the heck is the Rolling Stones? They want me to be their manager” Rupert said that his wife immediately told him to take the job so he did.

The ad

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Meanwhile of course the team was frantically working on the ad. WK and the person running advertising on the team for me Cynthia Krass were on locations shooting and then editing etc. I remember when they came to preview the final ad to me and how impressed I was with their work. I gave them only one material comment and that was that they had to fix the end of the ad. It needed the compelling emotional ending that fit the aspirational nature of the ad. The little girl who turns to look at the camera was added after that point. The team did a great great job. Even today folks tell me it is the best ad Microsoft has ever done and one of the best ads they have seen. I recall analytically that it scored very very high on the advertising testing that we did.

The $14 Million

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After it was announced that we did the deal with the Stones a rumor (started in a British paper) started that Bill had called Mick and asked for the rights to the song. According to the rumor, Mick through out a crazy high number – $14 million figuring that Bill would say no but that Bill suprised Jagger and immediately agreed to the $14M. We all laughed uproariously when we heard this (we paid a fraction of this). In fact, when one a reporter called us to get our comment our PR person just laughed and laughed. As I recall, the story quoted that the Microsoft spokesperson just busted out laughing when asked about the rumor. Though never confirmed, as Brad said, it was believed that some Stones personnel made up the story to help them with future negotiations with other vendors. The story is still quoted (often as “legend”) on the web to this day.

In terms of the overall marketing Windows 95, the start me up ad was a small though visible component of strategy. The overall strategy itself is very interesting to look back on and I should write it down at one point. But when it comes to stories around Windows 95, and there are many, “Start Me Up” ranks up there.

Windows Mobile 6.5 – First Take

It’s been a long time coming but Microsoft finally unveiled the long awaited update to Windows Mobile, called Windows Mobile 6.5. It’s a nice update of the core UI and it makes the overall Windows Mobile experience something that not only can compete from a technical perspective but from a UI perspective as well.

 

 

Windows Mobile started life in 1996 as Windows CE, with the first clamshell device coming from Casio. Over time, it’s evolved into a stable platform, with both enterprise and consumer appeal with devices from multiple vendors available for carriers around the world. Despite selling 20 million devices last year, there’s a still a lot of negative buzz about the platform. Bloggers, analysts and journalists have all called the platform’s future into question (while still believing in a mythical Microsoft branded phone) and in some cases, raised the question of platform viability. I think 6.5 addresses many of those issues along with strong support from OEMs who are still committed to the platform.

Let’s be clear, while Windows Mobile’s UI is not as flashy or fluid as the iPhone, it certainly stacks up well against offerings from Palm, RIM and Google. This week’s UI enhancements along with innovation from licensees HTC, Sony Ericssonand LG have also helped put a little chrome on the UI as well. The key is that the core of the product works rather well in my experience and for synchronization with Exchange, there’s simply no better solution (or more cost effective solution, as pointed out in TCO study after TCO study).

It’s nice to see a richer browsing experience and Microsoft’s made it clear that’s part of 6.5 but let’s not get too caught up on that. Most website are simply not designed to be read on the small screen and miniature renditions of sites like the NY times make for great demo but lousy usability. Email, the other main mobile activity for smartphone users works just fine as is and in fact no only supports Exchange but multiple email accounts supporting IMAP and POP.

Media and entertainment are also relatively strong on the device and a Zune software client would help add to the richness of the platform (interestingly, Zune subscription content already plays just fine on Windows Mobile). No word on that this week as part of 6.5 I expect that it’s coming soon enough.

Bottom Line? Reports of Windows Mobile’s death have been greatly exaggerated. While there’s room for improvement and Microsoft must update Windows Mobile and bring it in line in terms of users experience and features with other platforms, Windows Mobile is a strategic initiative for Microsoft that’s not going to be abandoned any time soon.

As always, making the right choice of platform and device is a decision that has many factors for both business and consumer users, Windows Mobile should be on any of those decision short lists.

Microsoft also introduced two new services this week as well. One for synchronization and one for selling mobile apps. From the press release.

My Phone Service Connects the Phone to the Web

The free My Phone service will enable people to access, manage and back up their personal information on their device to a password-protected Web-based service, making it easier to upgrade phones without the worry of losing important information. With automatic syncing and backup, users can count on their contacts, appointments, text messages and other information being kept up to date and easily restored should they lose or upgrade their phone. Consumers also will be able to wirelessly update photos and video from their Windows phone directly to the My Phone service, making it simple to share content that, in the past, would have lived and died on the phone. The My Phone service is currently available in a limited invitation-only beta.

Rich and Integrated Marketplace Service Will Offer Easy Access to Mobile Applications

The new operating system features Windows Marketplace for Mobile, a rich and integrated marketplace for searching, browsing and purchasing mobile applications from Windows phones or from a PC by simply using a Windows Live ID. The new marketplace will ship inside all Windows phones based on Windows Mobile 6.5, which will allow consumers to easily find, install and experience those applications that fit their needs and make the phone truly personal.

Developers, who have already built more than 20,000 applications for Windows phones, will be able to offer applications to customers through the marketplace via a simple security and compatibility check from Microsoft.

Not too much to add here. I’ve been testing My Phone and it works pretty well as a sync and backup solution but it’s no competitor for services like SugarSync. The app store is a long time coming and given the news this week from other players, it’s now simply table stakes to have store integration as part of the OS experience.

Bottom line? a pretty good week for Microsoft. They did what they needed to do in introducing the new OS to the market and starting to make some noise about services and applications. The work’s not done here and given a lot of reaction to the news, there’s still a lot that needs to happen in terms of marketing and messaging going forward. It is clear that mobile is a core strategic initiative for Microsoft, the key will be messaging and execution with partners over the next 18 months.

The Myths of Apple and Business Users

With the growth in popularity of the iPhone, there’s a lot of questions about how suitable it is as a business tool. That question alone has once again raised the issue of how suitable Apple is in the Enterprise in general. Most IT departments are not deploying Macintosh systems in large numbers and those that are are deploying are usually in niche spaces such as graphic arts, multimedia and publishing. The truth is that Mac OS has changed quite a bit in the last few years and today’s Apple systems offer a reasonable alternative for Windows systems for many mainstream uses OS X Leopard is rock solid UNIX at the core with Apple’s elegant user interface on top. Once again, I’ll address the three biggest myths that still surround Apple and the platform.

The first myth is that Apple’s computers are expensive relative to their PC cousins. While Apple is certainly not a discount brand and will almost never be the cheapest computers that can be purchased, they are certainly price competitive with most PCs coming from tier one vendors. While we can debate the specifics of pound to pound pricing, there’s really not much of an “Apple tax” these days. Yes, there’s some premium for both the Apple brand and the innovation that goes into Apple’s often hardware and software designs, the premium is not out of line with that users already pay for name brand systems from vendors such as Sony, HP or Lenovo. In many cases, comparable Apple systems are priced similarly or in some cases are even cheaper than their competition. And yes, sometimes they will cost a little more.

The second myth is that there is a lack of software available. While OS X does not offer the same sheer number of titles that Windows offers, there is an abundance of business software for Macintosh. In some markets, such as content creation, there is actually more software available for the Mac. In addition, Microsoft offers a complete and compatible version of Office for the Macintosh so knowledge workers can easily share documents and communicate with colleagues across platforms. Apple’s support of web based Internet standards mean that most Internet base applications will simply run without modification. While there might be a specific application lacking that can hold back some deployments, most organizations might never hit that wall.

The third myth is that Apple architectures are based on proprietary protocols. While that was certainly true in the past, it is not an accurate portrayal of Apple today. Today, Apple is one of the most standards driven operating systems you can purchase. From MPEG 4 support in Quicktime to full TCP/IP support for networking and WiFi protocols for wireless access. (Apple was actually the first OS vendor to bundle TCP/IP support into a commercial operating system).

Apple systems can be a seamless fit for many organizations. Time to get over the myths and take a closer look.

HTC understands how want people use smartphones

HTC came out with a few new handsets this week, a new version of the Diamond Touch, a new Android based phone for Vodafone and my favorite, the Touch Pro 2. Here’s the quick overview of the specs.

• Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz
• OS: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
• Memory: 512 MB ROM, 288 MB RAM
• Memory Expansion: microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
• Dimensions: 4.57 X 2.33 X 0.68 inches (HxWxT)
• Weight: 6.17 ounces (with battery)
• Display: 3.6 inch TFT-LCD WVGA (480×800) touchscreen
• Camera: 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera
• Battery: 1500mAh LiIon

What I really like about the Touch Pro 2 (in addition to that very nice, very high resolution screen) is that HTC (like Palm) really understands how folks are using these devices. HTC calls this Straight Talk. As they describe it.

The new HTC Touch Pro2 leverages voice in a new way to create one of the most sophisticated communication experiences found on a mobile phone.   HTC’s new Straight Talk technology delivers an integrated email, voice and speakerphone experience. Users can transition seamlessly from email to single or multi-party conference calls and turn any location into a conference room. In addition to the new simplified calling experience, Straight Talk includes an innovative mechanical and acoustic design that features a sophisticated speakerphone experience similar to those found in corporate boardrooms. Straight Talk delivers a high-fidelity voice and sound experience enhanced by asymmetric speakers and advanced noise suppression with full duplex acoustics. When the Touch Pro2 is flipped over it automatically turns into a conference room speaker phone system.

I had a chance to play with this a few weeks ago and the implementation is downright brilliant. Need to see a contacts history in terms of email, messages or other interaction? It’s all there. Want to call a person instead of emailing them back a reply? It’s one click. Want to make a conference call to all the folks on an email list? No problem. Favorite feature? Turn the phone upside down on a flat surface and it automatically engages in speaker phone mode. There wasn’t a whole lot of innovation this week at MWC, but the Touch Pro 2 delivered quite well. This is one handset to look for when it hits later this year.