Hand Held Mobile Devices Rule

Personal computing has given way to digital communications and connectivity, on whatever platform is the most convenient and robust at the moment.

Most of us have a "base" desktop computer at home or work -- where we store our personal and business data that is not already in the cloud. Our "personal computer." This machine is also where a lot of our heavy-metal applications reside. It is no longer, however, where most of our actual work gets done. That would be on our mobile devices, hands down. As the editor of Java.net said in an April blog post: "...as computers grow smaller, they are 'disappearing' into the devices that they power, everything from automobiles to netbooks to mobile phones."

That trend will intensify, with the addition of new hardware (think: tablets) and a storm of new, low-cost applications. The battle to watch, therefore, will be between iPhone and Android-based devices - rather than the continuous and familiar struggle amongst chip-makers or OS providers. They are so "last century."

Part of this generational revolution in technology is the convenience and functionality delivered by the new model. Need to do...anything? "There's an app for that." This emphasis on meaningful, new functionality is driving the market. It impacts traditional notions of web communications and has implications for designers, marketers and managers.

I've been reading a lot of "mobile marketing" articles recently, and though I agree it is an important and exciting new market communications and design professionals need to serve, I've not been reading much about the evolution of the model that is driving the explosion in mobile communications and connectivity. I would argue that it is the "functionality," not necessarily convenience or portability that is the engine of this change. There's a reason that the revolution is being sold with the tag line: "There's an app for that." Ultimately, this trend will change the face of computing and impact even the biggest players - like the search engines. As Clint Boulton put it in e-week,

For example, instead of using Google, Yahoo or Bing to search movie times and buy tickets online, users can download the Fandango mobile app and buy tickets.

But first-things-first. Businesses and organizations need to immediately pair their traditional web sites with new sites optimized for mobile devices. That is a given, and an urgent mandate. We've all experienced the frustration of dealing with sites that are not optimized for our hand-held devices: the unintentional linking, new windows launching, and navigational nightmares. No one should be surprised.

User interface design is a science involving human factors engineering and ergonomics. Platform-based behaviors, size constraints, hardware challenges and opportunities are all part of the equation. The best and most effective corporate and organizational sites feature mobile device-optimized versions. It's that simple.

Savvy business strategists will also be looking at leveraging the enhanced functionality offered by mobile, hand-held devices. These devices can communicate; display information in stunning HD color with multiple scrolling options; store Gigabytes of digital audio, video, image and application files; and effectively serve as a mobile office and connectivity hub. Most have cameras, many now offer GPS. The most successful mobile sites and applications will leverage these capabilities and address all of these roles, by providing meaningful new functionality. I'm pleased to be a participant in the industry at this moment, and look forward to contributing to this technology and market evolution.

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Mozilla's FireFox 3.0 Sets Download Record

Browser users everywhere made a statement yesterday, downloading a world record 8 million copies of Mozilla's FireFox 3.0 browser rev. Servers were swamped as the download rate went through the ceiling. The company had set an optimistic 5 million single-day download goal, and burned through that number in short order. The new record is, in fact, a shoe-in for the next Guinness Book of World Records. Read about it on WikiNews here. Props to Mozilla. Bah Humbug to the Ruffians from Redmond.
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Mozilla

Google kicks some Microsoft Ass

Google continues to surprise me. They so get it. I totally understand why the company's stock just passed the $700/share mark.

Microsoft's expensive investment in Facebook got a lot of press last week. So the prospect, raised in a commentary by John C. Dvorak in PC World, that Steve Balmer and crew were "duped" into making the high bid for Facebook is especially delicious. Early reports cited the ruffians from Redmond as having "won" the bidding war. Not. In a stroke of dissmisive brilliance, Google followed up the announcement by releasing their OpenSocial platform and API, signing up almost the whole A-list of serious web 2.0 players to their team including MySpace, and then; a day later, highlighting 3rd-party apps that were already coming in to support the environment. Slam-dunk. And so well done, it takes my breath away. Gives a lot of credence to Dvorak's point-on hunch. Now I admit I've got a dog in this fight. I watched quite helplessly during the late 80's as Microsoft crushed and consumed a number of my clients. Just ate em right up, with prejudice.

The high-tech industry would be far better off had Microsoft failed in attempts to stave off anti-trust constraints. But they were too big and too vocal an opponent for the Feds - who declined to break up the company when it made sense to do so. Now, the marketplace is taking care of that piece of business. And let me go on the record right now: Google has already won, and Microsoft has lost - regardless of their recently reported profit from forcing Vista down the throats of their closest partners. And the GooglePhone, which promises to change the model for wireless voice communication forever, hasn't even hit yet. The anticipation for that launch is palpable and growing.

The world is moving, as well it should, to open systems and web-based software, storage and communications services. It's a good thing. Google gets that, and is facilitating the migration - making itself invaluable in every area of web 2.0 (and beyond) in the process. It's has the air of inevitability about it at this point. Microsoft's continuing relevance to this process is not clear, and certainly not inevitable as in the past.

I've posted about Google Apps before, here. I use many of Google's useful services, including: iGoogle, Google Apps, AdWords, Blogger, Picasaweb, Google Earth, Google Maping, Google Check-out, Google Page Creator and Google Alerts. What's really cool is that by combining the free and efficient services in creative configurations I can actually architect and build my own personal system, dashboard and communications platform from a single point. I love this stuff. And if you've still got confidentially worries, there's always the Open Office Suite running on the latest Ubuntu rev. as a viable Microsoft alternative. As the various flavors of Linux mature, developers respond with more applications and Open Systems gain market share. The ultimate effect of this trend seems pretty obvious to me. And I'm sure the scenario is creating indigestion on the fabled Microsoft campus. An image I confess to enjoying.

Torvalds Lauds Open Solaris - Gets Invited to Dinner

Open conversations, like "Open Source" communities, are a wonder. There's an intriguing conversation going on right now online between Linux author/guru Linus Torvalds and Jonathan Schwartz, president of SUN Microsystems around Open Source Solaris. Solaris is, of course, SUN's wonderfully robust operating system.

For background, Open Source refers in this post to software that is by design open to public modification, enhancement and updating. Thus, Open Source code is generally released with very few copyright restrictions and collaboration is presumed. Torvalds is responsible for the LINUX kernal in the popular LINUX version of UNIX open source code.

Back to the story. Torvalds, a legend in the coding community, recently posted an article about Open Source Solaris from SUN where he expressed considerable enthusiasm, and some reservations about the company's future plans for making their services truly public. And, he made a couple of cynical predictions. Read his post here.

Not to be outdone, and ever mindful of the power of public discourse, Jonathan quickly responded with this post, and invited Linus to dinner. Sweet. It *is* important for these guys to talk. At least to users, managers and IT professionals everywhere. Read the posts for yourself and decide: Solaris, really open? Or not? Leave me a comment.

As with many of my peers, I confess that SUN is a particular interest and sentimental favorite of mine. I've posted about the company and its products before, here and again, here. We're all depending on Java a lot these days, and I often wonder if users really appreciate the role that SUN had in making that important technology widely available. Sure, they're competitive (What successful company isn't?) but the company also has made substantial and long-lasting contributions to the industry.

Global Warming - Street View & New Software

While the most senior White House aide since Reagan (interesting juxtaposition) is declared a felon and sentenced to 30 months in prison, president Bush is in Europe trying to convince a skeptical public and colleagues in the G8 that he is serious about finally recognizing global warming and doing something about it. He's not, of course. Not this president. He's all about image and PR, sticking to his reactionary guns, and never listening to advice that doesn't come to him from his trusted inner circle of yes-men and yes-women. So his conversion is immediately suspect.

We are well advised to critically examine what Bush is actually doing while he's posturing for the press. One recent revelation puts his conversion in some perspective. While he calls for new "studies" (god forbid we should have actual emission targets), his administration is practically eliminating the country's ability to track global warming with its array of weather satellites. Now that's intuitive, don't you think? Give me a break. Check out James Hrynyshyn's great post on the subject here. This president is all about oil, coal, consumerism and he's more than willing to live with the consequences.

The Germans appear to have him figured out. Der Speigel calls attention to "The Emperor's Green Clothes" here. And speaking about Germany, the same source has a fantastic article about what really is possible. A farming village collects its waste products, converts them to methane for power, then transfers the resulting heat to a variety of local settlements for free or very low cost. Read about it here.

Another controversy appears to be unfolding around Google's new Street View app. I know I'm coming late to this, following posts on Boing Boing and a firestorm of opinions, comments and net conversations. I submit, however, that the focus of these conversations is misplaced. Street View is not the issue, the images are in not in real time and the convenience of having 3-D views of areas mapped is profound. Again, Google is very good at balancing access to data with reasonable privacy concerns. They've built-in flagging capabilities and have a very easy procedure for removing offending images. The real issue here is around privacy in the digital age, the utter loss of anonymity and the ability of large commercial concerns to build deep profiles and share intimate personal data about customers. The National Academy of Science explores the issue here. So let's leave Google alone and take a look at the Pentagon, large corporate data-mining practices and archives, and the kind of "interception" that may be employed to grab our email correspondence, net-surfing patterns and personal data without our knowledge or permission.

Finally, some real competition for Microsoft Office and the new Google online office apps. Robert Scoble's post first attracted my attention to Zoho and their new suite of surprisingly robust office apps. Check out this hot new desi company and their equally hot software.

Google Offers Web Apps

Today, Google announced the availability of a web-based, premium suite of office applications targeted to businesses. For a flat, $50 fee per user, per year, the zero-footprint software can be rapidly scaled up or down - depending on business needs and personnel configurations. The trend toward rich Internet applications coupled with the emergence of techniques like Ajax, could threaten the market share and strategic directions of Microsoft - which has just shipped Vista with a new suite of office applications at a much higher pricing point. While Intel continues to rely on founder Gordon Moore's model of ever bigger, ever faster microprocessors; companies like IBM are experimenting with a new breed of CPU that is optimized for speed and efficiency, rather than raw computing power. What kind of environment suits such a chip? Web-based computing and communications that wraps across multiple platforms. Investors bold enough to include tech stocks in their portfolios would be well-served to take a look at which companies they hold that are well-positioned to benefit from this new, Internet-driven direction, and which ones still don't "get it."

Related Anecdote: I once worked with the greatest writer of serial communication drivers on the planet. That's all he did, serial communications. He was so good that a major chip maker, that will remain un-named, contracted with his home-based consultancy for a lot of their really difficult driver work. He told me on one occasion that he received a spec. for some really bloated code that provided the necessary functionality in the clunkiest, most inelegant way possible. Thinking the spec. was in error, he called his contact - only to be reminded rather abruptly that his host was in the business of selling ever-more-powerful processors to folks who really thought they needed them. "Write the driver just as it was specified," concluded the conversation. Surprised? I didn't think so.