Google Android on Thin Ice with Developoers

I read over at ARS that Google is managing to piss off its own staff, as well as 3rd party developers by being tight lipped regarding Google Android progress.

Anyone who's read Wikinomics will know that many companies like IBM have managed to harness the power of open-source technology to improve their businesses massively by:

a) reducing their R&D budgets

b) improving products at a much faster pace by opening up business problems to minds who aren't on the company payroll.

Open source encourages meritocratic hierarchies where useful, and regular contributors to the community are rewarded with respect (and quite often highly paid jobs within technology companies). But more importantly, it also encourages an agile eco-system of innovation, problem solving and fast moving product improvement (which sadly is often lacking in any corporate environment despite the number of 0's within their R&D budgets).

Google in some ways is seen as a big player in open-source technology due to the freely available API's which developers can download and then use to build tools for Google products, such as these useful Google Map mashups. These allow users to create value by overlaying different types of information over Google Maps to produce a new product with new functions like seeing easily what crime rates are like in local areas, or where new flats are coming onto the market for sale or rent.

So what are they doing to piss off developers and their own staff internally? They're going quiet is what. Open source communities are built on transparency - where some IP is kept secret for business sensitive purposes, but where much IP is made transparent to add value to the community, in the hope that the community will in turn create even more value from that IP than you are able to do so on your own.

Android developers are pissed that Google is prioritising getting a working handset above and beyond the release of an improved SDK (this allows developers to make stuff more easily for Android). But more over - Google aren't communicating with the very community that will in fact be making Google Android a valuable product. Without keeping your community of developers informed, you risk losing them to another mobile platform... like the newly made open source Symbian software which Nokia is looking to capitalise on.

Why is this bad you might ask? Well think of Android as a superstructure; building blocks that provide limited functionality, but at the same time make it very easy for other architects to slot their own rooms into.

Think of a big skyscraper with only big empty rooms in it... not very useful is it? Well the developers are the people who will make the easy access shopping malls, the fantastic hotel rooms and lush restaurants (maybe I'm taking the imagery too far?).

The developers are the makers of ideas and applications - these are the things which will ultimately make a mobile phone desirable. A handset with potential isn't desirable to consumers, a handset with a fantastic UI and a wealth of useful applications is.

So... Google - wake up and smell the coffee. Don't screw this up. Talk to your developers, and treat them as equals - you are in a horizontal relationship with these people who are making your mobile environment valuable - act as if you're grateful rather than pushing them away and remember the whole time that they're putting in hours of labour at no cost to make Android more useful, desirable and valuable.

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... and another one - I'm on a roll

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I makezd a lolcat!

Media Cat















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WoW originally planned to be ad-funded

I just read on Wired that Blizzard had planned on WoW being a free to play, ad funded game - even to the point of doing some research to see if the game could be supported through ad funding.

Well with 10 million active subscribers each paying £8.99 per month to play the game I bet they're pretty glad that the idea didn't go any further. It would be a brave global sales team who'd take on sales targets of £90 million per month. Not that I think this amount is impossible to achieve. But when you look at the numbers, you can see that Blizzard is definitely on the smiling end of their decision.

WoW came to market in 2004 - now consider that in 2006, the entire in-game ad spend was estimated at around $692 million globally. Just so we don't get mixed up in conversion rates, the £90 million per month that Blizzard make out of WoW = $177.4 million. This makes it pretty clear that the total global in-game ad spend in 2004-2006 doesn't total how much Blizzard earn in a year from paid subscriptions, so whoever made the call at their end to make people pay for the product is probably pretty damn pleased with himself that he did (or she).

Anyway - from a gamer's perspective - and someone who although isn't himself a part of such culture - is able to understand and recognise people who take fantasy lore seriously. World of Warcraft, not too unlike the Lord of the Rings, has a big backdrop of thousands of years worth of history, politics and what not. To introduce any form of branded advertising within what is classified as a role playing game (especially one which is fantasy based), would sure no doubt destory the fantasy and the role playing aspect?

Would there not be dozens, if not hundreds of people who would complain that their fantasy has been destroyed by the company selling out (I may quip at the numbers, but in reality tens of thousand of people play on special Role Playing servers where you aren't allowed to break character - those people take their RP seriously lol...).


As I posted as a commend to the original Wired article:

"Dearest [insert name here], wilst thou join on an epic quest to defeat dragons and fiends?"

"Sure - I just need to get to the vendor and buy some Coke for mana regen"

/fail

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Happy Birthday Faris

Happy birthday Faris dude! Sorry this is a bit late - I had to re-learn how to use Sony Vegas and Adobe Audition which took me a little while! Laith did the networking side getting people to send in their bits - I did voiceovers where needed and the vid/sound editing.

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Don't be fooled by Apple's cunning knavery!

Don't get me wrong - getting a new and improved iPhone for about half the price it originally launched at isn't a bad deal. Especially when this particular mobile device has been described by a number of positive adjectives such as 'revolutionary' and so on. It is indeed an amazing piece of kit, no doubt made massively better with 3G access etc.

But - I'm pretty certain the timing of its release, and the farce that has surrounded it (i.e. leaving mobile shops around the world without stock for many weeks) is in some way related to the threat posed to Apple's dominance by Google's Android mobile platform. As the aware of you might know, this is due for release later this year.

"Hold on Ramzi... The iPhone isn't just software though, its the beauty of the software and hardware combined that makes it such a fantastic product"

Ok ok... I realise this, and I also realise that Mr Jobs has done a great job at combining exclusive software with exclusive hardware in the past. This is illustrated very nicely by the small fact that ipods make up 71% of the entire MP3 playing market. But there's a couple of massive differences between Apple's domination of the music playing industry, and the mobile phone industry.

1. MP3 players generally have their own software i.e. they don't use a commonly shared OS.

2. Although Apple wasn't first in the MP3 game, it did get to market before said market was anywhere near mature.

"But Dr. Nick! Why does any of this matter?"

Well Billy...

1. Because a large number of handset manufacturers will be producing handsets using the Google Android OS - its' just a matter of time before they figure out how to get the software/hardware combo right.

"But PC's have been around for years and PC manufacturers still don't get it right with Windows!"

Quiet down lad... Windows is a clunky piece of sh*t - and don't forget that even though it doesn't feel right even now - windows based PC's still account for about 92% of the market share of personal computers. For the moment, it looks as if Apple is planning on keeping the number of apps and games for the iphone relatively limited, and none of them look like they're going to be free any time soon. Android has the advantage of a large number of developers all able to access the code and bring many things to Android in much quicker time than Apple is able to (Flash player anyone?). Also bear in mind that Android is open-source - the code is freely available for any software developers in the world to see to allow them to produce applications for it at no cost. This also means that the mobile phone manufacturers won't have to pay for it - which ultimately should make your handsets even free-er than they are now.

2. There have been at least half a dozen established mobile handset producers in the world for some time now and so have a slight edge (even if it seems they've been blown out of the water by Apple's first product which puts them all to shame). We've already seen them try to break through into this millenium with handsets like the Viewty etc - and although none of them are great at the moment - there's no doubt the consumer choice will be flooded when Android is released with about 4 different manufacturers bringing out beautiful new phones using it at the same time.

So my advice to you is ... WAIT. With Android's release, at the very least you'll see big cuts in the iPhone/tariff pricing - and at the very most - you'll see free (with contract) handsets which better the iPhone, and will have a huge amount of potential with access to 3rd party apps and such like at no doubt much lower prices (if not free for the most part).

I know iPhones are shiny and whatnot.. but unless you have the kinda money that lets you cancel contracts and pay £100+ cancellation fees just because you fancy a new handset - then you really should wait. If you do have that kind of money though... go nuts and buy them all if you're that way inclined.

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How long before...

advertisers start throwing together flash microsites without the costly aid of creative agencies?

The reason I ask is because I discovered a new online service called WIX which allows anyone (who can get a hold of a login) to build a flash based website for free. It uses a simple drag and drop interface which lets pretty much any idiot put together a decent looking website with good funcionality in hours (perhaps days if you really want to make an effort).

This tool should be a vital resource for some ad campaigns which could really do with having their own microsite, but dont have 5 figures in cash to get a creative agency to build them one. Anyway... who's to say that some creative agencies might not use this service themselves for quick turn around projects where the finished product only needs limited functionality?

Below is a screen shot of a potential future homepage for this blog. I did it in 20 minutes. I reckon though if I seriously do want to have a flashy shop front, that after a couple of days I could produce something great.

I think this tool would be most powerful however in the hands of SEO specialists (WIX claims that its creations are search engine friendly) who could carve out a slice of the industry for themselves. Why pay a creative agency to build a site, and then an SEO agency to optimize it for search when you can go to an SEO agency who can build a good looking, easy to use website which is optimized for natural search from the ground up?

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Where is my mojo?

Sorry for the lack of inspirational digital commentary recently. I seemed to have lost my mojo for some reason.

If you find him - please point me in his direction by leaving a comment which leaves instructions as to how to locate him. Use of Google maps would be appreciated as 'directions' are so 1990s.

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An hour before Reading Festival Lineup is announced

With little under an hour to go before Reading Festival 2008 starts taking bookings - the website is unreachable. Good luck to everyone trying to get a hold of tickets - I would guess that phone bookings would be the best bet considering the website is already crushed under the weight of web traffic.

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Predictable Commerce

This was the scene in a massive shopping center in Newcastle this Saturday. It was manic - everyone having been paid the day before. This Saturday in particular was extremely busy because it is also marks the first weekend after a payday that there was money left over after paying off the Christmas debts.

After being walked into for the 10th time, I recollect all the articles I've read over the last year about how e-commerce is killing offline shopping slowly but surely, and I think to myself "God bless the internet". Hopefully it'll reduce the traffic burden in these meat markets of £5 pairs of shoes side by side with endless mobile phone shops and make what offline shopping experiences there are left a bit more pleasant.

The good news is, if the offline shops really do nosedive over the next decade, then hopefully real estate prices will come down and people like myself might be able to find a decent 1 bedroom flat for less than a grand/month in areas of London that don't have crime rates that are double that of the national average.

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Why do I need Blu-Ray?

I just spotted this on Amazon UK's 'Blu-Ray Store' and thought to myself that the question being asked in the middle of the image is a funny one indeed.

I had a look at the explanation which could be found on the click through and it explained at length how Blu-Ray offers superior video and audio quality as well as more than 5 times the capacity of a standard DVD (because the average consumer really gives 2 shits about how much space their newly bought copy of the Fifth Element has on its new disc?) and lots of other swishy things.

Nowhere however did it explain why I needed one.

Be warned folks - this is simply a cunning ploy from the people at Amazon to make you think that you need Blu-Ray in the same way you need basic essentials such as food, water and shelter to lead a happy life. For those of you who might be susceptible to such perversion of language, I suggest you go out and buy yourself a copy of 'Stumpling Upon Happiness', and 'Affluenza' (links to which can be found on this very blog on the right hand side, if you scroll down a bit), to find the difference between needing things and wanting things. Within these texts you'll discover that when you realise that wanting things doesn't make you unhappy, but having unrealistic divisions between needing and wanting stuff does. They say a bit more than that too, and a bit better than how I just said it - so worth a read.

I certainly do want Blu-Ray goodness in my life. Will I be forever destined to live an unfulfilled and empty life without it though? Not so much...

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GTA Coke ad really is awesome

Over 1 million people in the UK would have seen the above ad today. The creative work for the site 'skin' and the advertising formats took MSN 8 weeks to build (trust me that is a long time), and they did so based on a bunch of assets including the absolutely awesome TV ad which some of you might have seen recently.

The TV ad is a whole other story in itself to be honest because I found it to be one of the most pleasant ads I've seen in a long time. I know I almost certainly fall into Coke's target demographic being a ABC1 (I hope..) male aged 16-24, so maybe I'm just falling into line with what the people in Coke's marketing department want me to think. I say that I believe that demographic to be the one they're aiming for with this ad because it is clearly a type of parody of the popular video game 'Grand Theft Auto' as a basis which is very much a 16-24 male targeted game. Although having said that the emotive power of the lyrics "you're gonna be remembered for the things you say and do" probably hit home a bit more to the older end of that category because I reckon its not 'till you're a bit older that you start thinking about such morbid thoughts. I do find it funny how the song does make me feel happy but has that twang of morbidity through the use of the word 'remembered'. Thanks for reminding me of my fragile mortality by the way.

It uses GTA as a concept, and then illustrates how Coca Cola creates antithetic feelings to those inspired by playing GTA. In the game, you run around butchering prostitutes having slept with them and stealing all their money, not to mention stealing police cars and generally running around making people pretty unhappy. The Coke ad effectively implies that the introduction of Coke into even this most heinous of envinments can reverse all that negativity by 'giving a little love' as the catchy tune instructs. It doesn't hurt that its beautiful to look at either.

Despite the plethora of negative facts about Coca Cola as an organisation such as how it takes about 2 litres of pure water to make just 1 litre of Coke, and the various accusations about many of its manufacturing plants (especially in developing nations) doing pretty nasty things like dumping badness into local water supplies which drains the local water of oxygen (thus killing the fishies) - I see ads like this and still feel overwhelming love for the brand which rots my teeth on a daily basis.

Also - in case you haven't seen it - watch the video here and try to tell me it doesn't inspire 'joy joy feelings' (anyone get the Demolition Man reference?) in you?

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Learning from nature

Watch the video below and think to yourself.. if cats and dogs can do it - why can't Israel and Palestine?



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Ocarinas are cool

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MySpace feels the love

************ Warning: may offend the extremely sheltered ************

I thought I'd put this here because its a nice example of the clique-iness which is present amongst the social networks. The chap has a few good points, but like myself is quite fond of his expletives so be warned that some cussing does take place.

/discuss

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