Why Android Will Make me Eat My Words...A long time from now!

Last week I wrote with some disappointment about Google's new phone OS, Android. Sometimes I just don't like half-baked technology. Usually, Google technology is an exception to this, because while Google technology is often half-baked, it's also often free. Can't argue with that.

I also can't argue with Android. Not because it's free (I'd never endeavor to install it on my own phone), but because it's open-source.

My friend Jason Karas (CEO of Carbonrally.com) took me on a tour of his Android Phone and the Android Market the other day, and it's actually very exciting.

Like the iPhone, 3rd parties can create applications for Android. But unlike Apple's API, Android is completely open source and access to 3rd party applications is unrestricted. Being completely open source, Android applications can alter fundamental properties of the underlying system software. This promises to make Android a constantly evolving solution, and the Android Market an ecosystem of innvation that could ecplise Apple's admittedly slick devices and operating systems.

Who knows where Android will go? Only the "collective" knows for sure.

How can the web marketer use Android or the Android Market? If yous business is in the mobile telecoms or web media spaces, and your customers are techies, you might add an application to the Android Market. It's cheaper to do so than for the iPhone, and you can design without Apple-imposed limits on function.


Thanks for reading. Please let us know what you think!
Share on Facebook

Subscribe to Porter-Kendall

I Road-Test the Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu

I've been working with a K-12 school in Cambridge to implement a laptop program for their 6th grade class.

Apart from concerns over student safety, network security, and other logistics issues, the cost of laptops is a big issue. For that reason, and a host of others I won't mention here, I was happy when Dell released its new 9" laptop, the Mini 9 (pictured right).

I ordered on, and it took four weeks to arrive since the Mini 9 is on back order due to demand.

It's pretty amazing that Dell can get a computer to market at this price point at at this level of performance. Compared to the other $400 laptop I purchased recently (an Everex Stepnote running a terrible linux distribution dubbed aspirationally gOS), the Mini 9 is awesome.

The one I ordered runs Ubuntu. Windows Vista is an option, but given the limited CPU and ram in the Mini 9, I couldn't see how it would be fast enough for even basic tasks. As it is, the Mini 9 with Ubuntu is slow to repond to commands and - occasionally - keystrokes. But the applicaitons do eventually open.

The desktop on the Mini 9 is a modification of the normal Ubuntu desktop and built for tiny screens (the Mini 9 has a 9" screen). They did a good job of managing screen real-estate and the most popular applications.

Unfortunately, the Mini 9's keyboard is also 9", which is just too small for an adult to type on. Yes, you could plug in a USB keyboard, but then what's the point? I would hate to write an essay on this thing. In fact, I wouldn't use this computer for anything - sitting uncomfortably between my 13" Macbook and my 3" iPod Touch.

This could be a great computer for 6th graders, or possibly the professsional who finds herself often without a laptop because her regular one was just too big to lug around. But who is that? I don't know her.

In spite of the keyboard, which is the deal-breaker, the Dell Mini 9 is way cool and is yet another brilliant size/power/cost compromise from Dell. The Mini 9 also represents the best of what's on offer in the world of subnotebooks/netbooks.

Watch out for the upocoming innovation that will put the Mini 9 over the top: interntal 3g broadband. Rumor has it that feature will be avaiable around Christmas.

Thanks for reading. Please let us know what you think!
Share on Facebook

Subscribe to Porter-Kendall

Why Android and Chrome are less promising than Gmail and Gdocs

My friend and CEO of Carbonrally.com - Jason Karas - called me yesterday on a phone running Google Android to discuss some upcoming meetings. He was excited to be talking on one of the first Android Phones, but I had to ask if it was really as cool as he expected.

"A little cludgy" was his review. Not too glowing. But Google has a habit of releasing products WAY before prime time, and in a lot of ways that's good for users, especially if the offer's free. For example, I think we are all grateful for Gmail and Google Docs, and those of us in the SEO community have certainly benefitted from Analytics.

But Google's style of public Beta testing presents a challenge for web marketers who want to use Google's services to their advantage. So far, the main way marketers reach customers through Google is via Google Search. Higher-level interactions - such as building applications for Android or Chrome - are too risky to promise a decent ROI. Now Slashdot reports that Google has opened Android's source code.

This may make Android more popular with techies, but I ask you this: has any Google product besides Google's various storage/search solutions ever won a large market share? Take a look at gmail's market share here, and Chrome's unfortunate tale here.

Will building applications for Google's operating systems (Android and Chrome) ever be profitable? Probably (as long as Google follows through on making them great, complete, products). But they need to get a lot less "cludgy" first. So far there is little evidence that Google follows up on its Beta tests. Has Google docs gotten any better since its indroduction? Not that I can tell. Same goes for Gmail.

This is okay for Gmail and GDocs, since they're mainly used as parts in a user's diverse productivity architecture. for example, I use Gmail, but my Gmail account is routed through Entourage, along with several POP and Exchange accounts. Likewise, I use GDocs to collaborate with colleagues, but Word and Pages to create final documents.

Android and Chrome are meant to be the foundation for productivity, since they are operating systems. And in this way they are fundamentally different from previous Google offerings. And i can't use a Beta test as my operating system! Maybe the versions of Chrome and Android we have today really will be updated and made whole...but maybe not. Google' record so far doesn't give much hope that either OS will be widely adopted.

Maybe Google should take a closer look at Apple's strategy with their iPod OS and API: a great, solid platform with a flexible API for third parties.

Thanks for reading. Please let us know what you think!
Share on Facebook

Subscribe to Porter-Kendall

YouTube surpasses Yahoo in monthly searches

According to the most recent Comscore Data Report - You Tube got more searches than Yahoo in September. Video campaign, anyone?


Thanks for reading. Please let us know what you think!
Share on Facebook

Subscribe to Porter-Kendall

Amherst College: Today's Customers are Wired to the Gills

In case you had doubts, or you need some data to convince a doubter, the future of marketing is here, and its mobile social networking. Here are the Data to back it up, form a survey from Amherst College on this year's incoming freshmen. Of the 432 freshmen:

• 98.6 freshmen had Facebook accounts, and accounted for 3,225 posts
  
• By the end of the first day of class, 370 students had registered 443 devices.
• Only 3% of freshmen registered desktop computers
  
• The study predicts 50% of freshmen will have an iPhone by 2012. (!!!!)
  
• only 1% of students set up a landline.
  
• Students from the classes of 2011 and 2012 are more likely to have Macs than PCs. [of course - Amherst College students probably don't care much about the price of their laptop! - ed.]
  

Here's a related anecdote that shouldn't be taken lightly: my cousin Tias, 17, says that he only uses email to "talk to adults like teachers". For everyone else, his Facebook friends list is his contacts management tool, and Facebook messaging is how he communicates online.

Whoever you market to today, these people will soon be your customers. Ignore their habits at your own risk.


Thanks for reading. Please let us know what you think!
Share on Facebook

Subscribe to Porter-Kendall

The State of Location-Based Social Networking On The iPhone

Here at Porter-Kendall, we normally scour the web for news on new web media technologies, and then give you summary & opinion from a web marketer's viewpoint. But in this case we just have to pass on a link: here's a great article in TechCrunch reviewing the six major location-based mobile networking applications for mobile phones.

Mark Hendrickson does a great job of profiling each app, and comes to a conclusion that we share here at Porter-Kendall: that none of these apps is ready for prime-time.

If you're a local business that wants to play in the web marketing sphere, location-based social networking may be very attractive. It might be worthwhile to create profiles of your business on these networks. but don't spend a ton of time just yet. Keep up with your local marketing efforts, but keep an eye on these tools to see what develops.

Thanks for reading. Please let us know what you think!
Share on Facebook

Subscribe to Porter-Kendall

Tiny URLs & Analytics -You Need Cli.gs!

I'm pretty sure most web marketers have heard of Tiny URL and Dwarf URL - two services that let you convert really long URLs into short ones, so you can include said URLs in your Twitter and other SMS messages. These URL-shortening services are indispensable for Twitter.

A new player on the block - cli.gs - gives you short URLs as well as analytics. If you already use another analytics tool on your site, you might not need cli.gs's - but you might, depending on if your analytics tool recognizes traffic coming from SMS-embedded links.

Even if you do already use another analytics tool that tracks traffic from phones, we recommend using cli.gs's analytics. Why? Becuase in our expericence no two analytics tools give the same results. To boot, there's no evidence that the typical tools such as Google Analytics give accurate cell-phone traffic data.

So use cli.gs instead of Tiny URL or Dwarf URL, and set up analytics for each URL you send throuh SMS & Twitter. Here at Porter-Kendall we do not believe that data for data's sake is valuable, and we don't recommend spending hours poring over analytics. Nevertheless, good data ARE important. And good mobile traffic data are hard to come by.

I created a small URL with cli.gs for this post: http://cli.gs/gZ1v5E. I discovered that Cli.gs does track some important data: traffic, referrers, links from blogs, and hits from Googlebot, Google bot Mobile, and Yahoo slurps.

Thanks for reading. Please let us know what you think!
Share on Facebook

Subscribe to Porter-Kendall