Archive for October, 2009

Navigation (and maps) the killer app for LBS and Google Maps Nav potential to disrupt the whole Nav systems market

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

     

Yes, navigation and maps is the killer app for LBS.

Now it seems that Google Map with support for navigation has the potential to disrupt the whole Nav systems market. And if Google decides to make this new app available across different handsets beyond Android, wow, all the Nav vendors are going to be hurting.

And how can others compete?

Google Maps Nav is a free app, the traditional Map app but now with real-time always up to date maps and nav info, turn by turn directions, live traffic information and even street view and other goodies such as Layers of information! You can see the video, and read TechCrunch’s article Google Redefines GPS Navigation Landscape: Google Maps Navigation For Android 2.0.

(Side-note: Nokia paid $7.7 billion for NAVTEQ and yet I can’t recall anything from that deal with as much impact as this Google Maps Nav solution)

How can Google Map/Nav disrupt the whole Nav system’s market? Let me give you an example using TomTom since I’m more familiar with TomTom’s Nav system…

TomTom’s Nav app for iPhone cost $100 and if you add their $120 cradle the whole thing is $220. And I bet there are other “hidden” costs for things such as map updates; that is their cash cow.

Let’s now look at TomTom car nav system. Like 2 years ago my wife gave me a TomTom ONE XL as a present. I love the gadget I must say and it has saved my neck a couple of times already. My wife paid like $200 for it. Now, if I want live traffic (or other kinds of data) I have to pay extra (if I recall correctly, for each). And the big one – if I want to update my maps, I have to pay for new map content. Paying for new content is fine, it cost like $75 if I recall correctly. But, because I haven’t updated my maps in a while they want to charge me $75 for the next release after the one I’ve on the device, plus another $75 for the latest one. In short, they want to charge me twice! I felt that they were taking advantage of me by charging me for a version I won’t be really using and I realized map updates is their cash cow; I didn’t upgrade.

And now Google releases Google Maps with Navigation support, a complete solution, for free, for your smart-phone. Can’t wait to get my hands on it (seems I may have to wait for Android 2.0 or upgrade my phone).

You would think that after everyone gets hooked that Google will start charging after the Beta release, don’t you think? Maybe their business model remains search and advertising based, or they will have a new model around charging business to appear on their maps and layers.

…and once again, the mobile handset is at the center of disruption…

Google Maps Nav features:

  • Search in plain English (watch video). No need to know the address. You can type a business name or even a kind of a business, just like you would on Google.
  • Search by voice (watch video). Speak your destination instead of typing (English only): “Navigate to the de Young Museum in San Francisco”.
  • Traffic view (watch video). An on-screen indicator glows green, yellow, or red based on the current traffic conditions along your route. A single touch toggles a traffic view which shows the traffic ahead of you.
  • Search along route (watch video). Search for any kind of business along your route, or turn on popular layers such as gas stations, restaurants, or parking.
  • Satellite view (watch video). View your route overlaid on 3D satellite views with Google’s high-resolution aerial imagery.
  • Street View (watch video). Visualize turns overlaid on Google’s Street View imagery. Navigation automatically switches to Street View as you approach your destination.
  • Car dock mode (watch video). For certain devices, placing your phone in a car dock activates a special mode that makes it easy to use your device at arm’s length.

And yes, there is also a cradle coming for the Android-based phones that automatically will activate the Nav mode.

See the official Google Maps Nav website.

ceo

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Android | 3 Comments »

Motorola announces DROID, the world’s first smartphone powered by Android 2.0

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Today I received this from the Motorola marketing folks, here for your reading pleasure:

Motorola today announced DROID, the first device powered by Android 2.0 and features the brainpower and breakneck speed of a modern smartphone. DROID is designed to outperform where other smartphones fall short. It features a solid exterior, intelligent interior and is one of the thinnest full-QWERTY slider phones available. DROID delivers high-speed Web browsing, voice-activated search, a customizable large touch screen and access to thousands of apps and hundreds of widgets from Android Market.

Key features of DROID include:

  • OS: Android 2.0
  • World’s thinnest slide-out QWERTY keyboard
  • 3G Web and full HTML browser
  • Cinematic 3.7” high-resolution display with more than 400,000 pixels
  • Powerful and fast Google voice-activated search
  • Run up to 6 apps simultaneously and customize the homescreen with thousands of apps and hundreds widgets from the Android Market
  • 5 megapixel camera with flash, DVD-quality video capture and 16GB memory card included
  • Integrated work and personal email pushed right to you
  • Google Maps Navigation (Beta) with free turn-by-turn directions

DROID by Motorola will be available Nov. 6 online and in stores from Verizon Wireless, nation’s largest and most reliable 3G network.

For more information, product specifications and images of DROID, please visit Motorola Media Center Fact Sheets. For multimedia assets visit DROID Press Kit.

To stay up to date with the latest product news and promotions, you can also find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Very nice piece indeed, and I can’t wait for such a device to be supported on T-Mobile. Note that it comes with native support for Exchange (which will give Android a big push in the Enterprise) and the new Google Maps Navigation application will definitely disrupt the current Navigation system market (with players such as TomTom, NAVTEQ and others; ouch!) with this new free app. More info below:

DROID by Motorola with Google™

Talk and Standby Time4

TT: 385 mins/6.4 hours

SB: 270 hours/11.25 days

Form Factor

Capacitive Touch; Full Qwerty Side Slider

Band/Modes1

800/1900, CDMA EVDO rev A

OS

Android 2.0

Weight

169 g / 6 oz

Dimensions

60.00 (x) x 115.80 (y) x 13.70 (z) mm

2.4 (x) x 4.6 (y) x 0.5 (z) inches

Browser1

Webkit HTML5 based browser; Flash 10 ready

Email Support1

GmailTM, Exchange, IMAP, POP, Macmail, GmailTM, MSN Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL®

Battery

1400 mAh

Connectivity1

Bluetooth® v2.1+EDR, 3.5mm Headset jack, USB 2.0 HS

Display

3.7”, 480×854 WVGA

Display Resolution

WVGA display houses 400,000 pixels

Messaging1

SMS/MMS, Full HTML5 Browser

Audio

AMR-NB/WB, MP3, WAV, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA

Video

Advanced Video record/playback at D1 resolution (720×480) with up to 24fps capture and 30fps playback, MPEG-4, H.263, H.264

Camera

5.0 megapixel, AutoFocus, dual LED Flash and image stablization

Memory

16GB card included in phone, Up to 32GB microSD expandable

Location Services1

aGPS, sGPS

Extras

802.11b/g, 3-axis accelerometer

ceo

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Android | No Comments »

RIP my good friend Alberto C. Rafols

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

This past weekend was very hard for me. I learned that my very good friend Alberto C. Rafols had just past away.

Rest in Peace my good friend…

Alberto was more than a good friend, he was my best friend, like a brother, the Godfather of my daughter. We grew up together back in Puerto Rico; same neighborhood. And great times we had together. We spent a lot of time together, had great times together, at school, at the beach, cycling, the girls, doing crazy things, and playing freestyle and Ultimate Frisbee and hacky sack; we were pretty good at it at a time when the sport was very new, and we even won competitions and appeared on local TV. We had so much fun together. And the many times that got in trouble together too. We were kids.

Life can take unexpected turns…

And while I haven’t seen him in years, here I’m remembering the good and bad times that we spent together. Over the years we grew “apart” as I moved to the USA, where I’ve been so heads down doing what I’ve been doing for many years now. And sometimes we forget of what is important. But Berto you always be on my mind. And I wish I could take it all back, and had been there for you, when he needed me the most. I’m sorry.

And I remember and I cry. And I remember the good times, and I try to comprehend why? And I think and write, which helps me comprehend a bit more about this very sad event and about life.

As I try to comprehend the loss of Alberto, I scramble to find pictures of him. And I found a couple, including the one below from 9 years ago. There they are, Berto and Luis, my two best friends, both lawyers, husbands, parents… and darn good friends. I wish I had more photos of him, of them, but I guess we just spent the whole time having a good time and forgot to carry a camera. I will ask my parents to see if they have more photos. Tomorrow I leave for Puerto Rico and will spend time with my parents and with my friends, and remember Alberto.

Berto y Luis

Life is way too short… let’s never forget about what really matters.

And as finish writing this, listening, I remember all the good times, and I smile. Love you my good friend, my brother… You will always be with me…

ceo

Posted in Personal | 8 Comments »

On Android, Distribution, Buzz, Pre-insalled apps and Crapware

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Responding to Tomi’s thread on ForumOxford, where he wrote: “The best phone in the world cannot take the mobile phone market, unless there is distribution.”

Yes. Which is exactly why Android seems to me that it will be widely adopted. And it will be widely adopted because for device manufacturers it is cheaper this way to develop a high-end handset — OSes are complicated (and thus expensive) things that are at the center of the handset. I expect handset manufacturers to leverage all that investment and research by Google; then add their touch via the UI.

Then there is buzz which drive sales opportunities. And buzz has a timing-window associated with it. iPhone has buzz. Android has buzz today. It is my impression that Nokia (and Symbian) missed that buzz window of opportunity.

Last, pre-installed apps are so year 2000. App stores are the new deck. As we are witnessing, app stores are very important for all smart-phones (and handsets that run apps). And as users get more educated and thus more sophisticated, users won’t settle for apps they don’t want. (Expect typical apps such as YouTube, Gmail, exchange, camera, etc. to be pre-installed though). And related to this, and something Jason (Paxmodept) wrote on his blog, is the anticipated “new” issue that will pop-up: Crapware — I’m afraid handset manufacturers will force pre-installed apps that are Crapware *and* that can’t be uninstalled unless breaking into the OS.

ceo

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Mobility | 1 Comment »

On the the rise of open mobile

Friday, October 16th, 2009

While looking for information on how CTIA 2009 in San Diego went, I found an article by Richard Wong (who is a venture capitalist with Accel Partners) titled on “The rise of open mobile (and congratulations Android team)“.

A good article by Richard, he reminisces on how mobility used to be in the early days of apps (i.e. year ~2000) when operators were in total control — I do remember those days very well and all the unnecessary control and FUD that literally pushed innovation back about 10 years. Richard then compares that past with what he observed at CTIA 2009 and the lots of noise related to Android — the shift from an operator-controlled mobile world to “Open Mobile” players such as Android.

I have written about this before, on how “control” have been and will continue to shift from the operator and to the ecosystem — the developer and community where developers create (and add) value via their software innovations in applications, where the ecosystem, open systems and common sense will be the drivers for success, where the new deck is the “deck that is on the cloud” and users drive which application succeed or not via simple “application demand”, ranking, recommendations and comments.

For this shift that we are (finally) getting to see we have to thank Apple and Google, but these are recent players. We must recognize the impact made by the Mobile Web and also what triggered it all back in 1999 — Sun with their mobile Java technologies as well as the good old WAP.

I do believe the Android market is going to explode globally becoming a predominant mobile platform together with the iPhone, and that native/local apps will continue to rule for quite a while.

Update Oct 21: Days after I wrote the above, TechCrunch wrote a piece validating my post above on Android; see Android Avalanche: A Complete List Of The Android Phones So Far.

ceo

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Mobility | 5 Comments »

On Physical and Web Interactions

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

I’ve updated my page on Physical and Web Interactions…

Physical and Web Interactions

…where the topic that “Everything around us can be made interactive (and thus is data) and at the center of this is the mobile handset”.

See Physical and Web Interactions.

ceo

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Mobility | 2 Comments »

Concepts and Technologies behind Real-time Demand Data – A Consumer, Mobile and Business Perspective

Friday, October 9th, 2009

A continuation of one of my favorite research topics, the mobile context and the meaning of interactions, below is my latest as presented at the 2009 Demand Analytics conference — this time with focus on real-time demand data, the consumer and businesses. The audience was mainly category and brand managers for big consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies.

Concepts And Technologies Behind Real-Time Demand Data – A Consumer and Business Perspective
View more documents from C. Enrique Ortiz.

See the related presentation Mobility and People’s Context, Interactions and Data, which was originally presented at Design4Mobile 2008.

ceo

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Mobility | 3 Comments »

On hardware vs. software-based handset differentiation

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Is mobile handset differentiation based on hardware coming to an end?

Back in 2007 I wrote a piece on my blog titled: The future of handset design: from hardware to software. And today this is getting more real (and validated) than ever.

When it comes to mobile handsets the rate of innovation introduced via hardware (HW) vs. sofware (SW) is and will be mainly on the SW side.

Differentiation, especially on common platforms (such as Android), will be primarily driven by SW, this is: Innovation on UIs and interface paradigms (on Android we can see this with the introduction of Moto Blur and HTC Sense), better applications (developer ecosystem adding lots of application that in turn adds to the usefulness of the handset), and better services (some phones will be very good at social things, while others at music, and so on). At the end it is SW what makes the handset more dynamic and useful and different.

Today is a great time for those doing R&D in the areas of Human-Computer Interactions (HCI).

Differentiation is necessary. But typically differentiation drives fragmentation. So the follow-up big question is on the fragmentation introduced by the different UI paradigms. Will applications need to be adapted to each new paradigm (i.e. as in many versions?). Yes, very likely.

Developers writing SW for the iPhone only have one paradigm to worry about. On the Android though, as expected we are seeing different UI paradigms (with related APIs) but fortunately the rest of the platform should remain consistent across manufacturers so fragmentation is hopefully localized to the UI only. For mobile Java (beyond Android) fragmentation is yet to be solved. For mobile web and widgets, the same although I am seeing a lot of noise around the JIL Widget SDK.

Fragmentation across platforms will continue. Fragmentation within a single platform shall be localized to the user interface (or the user interactions). Allowing for the UI to be redefined/reconfigured allows for incredible innovation on human to machine interactions which basically redefines the perception for a given handset. The next best thing is re-configurable software and hardware, but for that you will have to go play with platforms such as Bug Labs (which BTW is an extremely cool platform).

ceo

(Images sources: PopSci, Nokia, HTC Phones, Benzinga)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Mobility | 2 Comments »