Twentysomething

Vista Launches - Blogosphere Ignores

After many, many delays, Vista and Office finally launched this week. By and large, the blogosphere was hohum about the whole thing. The only articles I found came from Robert Scoble and another obscure article that's not even worth noting.

This is symbolic of how the OS has lost it's significance in this day and age. More attention seems to be paid when a new version of Internet Explorer or Firefox launches. This is a far cry from the mad rush for XP and 95 back in the day.

The highlight for me was Bill on the Daily Show:

The Daily Show, 29 January 2007
Uploaded by TLNNL

Features vs. Technology

Features vs. innovative technology. Which one leads to the development of a successful web app? Some may see feature set and innovative technology but I think their is a distinction that is pretty simple to follow. For instance, Google has always built it's applications based on innovative technology.

Google Search is light on feature set, in fact, it started with just one - search, but through the usage of their innovative technology, they've made a winner. On the feature set spectrum, the easiest examples to use are the social networks. MySpace became viral largely because it offered a variety of features, none of which were incredibly technical or innovative.

LinkedIn is another example of such a company. LinkedIn has been growing in popularity largely due to their feature set. Again, they are not reinventing the wheel here, just releasing enough functionality to keep people interested and modeling them in an interesting and addictive way.

For instance, when they launched their answers functionality, nothing about it was fundamentally difficult. As a user, you can ask a question, and get answers from the community. You can then pick  the best response of the bunch. The reason it caught on was that they chose to feature it prominently on a users profile. In fact, it's the first thing you see when you log in.

Spreading the questions through the network by making those that pick up steam easy to click into, and rewarding the users that answer with the most accurate response was a great way to add stickiness.

It seems as a web app you typically need a good combination of innovative technology and addicting feature set. The successful companies of web 2.0 have all been able to master this.

2007 - Year of IPTV

2007 is lining up to be the year for IPTV. Microsoft got the most recent round of buzz started at Bill Gates CES announcement of IPTV for Media Center. Microsoft has been in this game for awhile, ever since the inception of WebTV a few years back.

Apple reintroduces AppleTV, with Jobs discussing IPTV for what seemed like an eternity as the rest of us awaited the introduction of the iPhone.

The story to get the most press/blog time for this week seems to be the Joost (aka the Venice Project). Joost is the latest venture from the Skype guys. I had a chance to try out the beta last night, and although I was thoroughly unimpressed, the idea is novel in itself. Joost is an application that runs independently of a browser, and hosts a variety of online channels through a slick interface.

Today Netflix introduces it's own free product to download and view tv shows and movies online to rival Blockbluster's latest attempt to take them down. Blockbusters service is basically a Netflix clone, only you can bring the movies back to your local store and they will match that movie to a free rental instore.

It looks like its come down to this for Netflix:
"Netflix is budgeting $40 million to cover licensing and overhead costs of the service over the next year, which will, by the way, wipe out most of their operating profit of $17 million or so per fiscal quarter. Unless of course this service results in millions of new subscribers."

Wow, we've come a long way since 2005, when the networks and the MPAA wouldn't even discuss online distribution. It seems the catalyst for this change is due to the hype and numbers YouTube created.

How the iPhone should help innovation

Steve Jobs keynote was worth staying late for (over here in Asia). The man is the best business orator on the planet and continued to shine yesterday morning. The delivery was impeccable, the cameos were from none other than Google's CEO and Yahoo's cofounders, and the product looks amazing.

Steve's oral skills were highlighted when Cingular's CEO stepped on stage, and looked as he is an old telco chief, spouting unoriginal rhetoric and stats.

Will this mean the beginning of an innovative streak in cell phone development? Jobs did mention they had a lot of patents, and no one has really been able to recreate an iPod, much to Microsoft's discontent.

This should motivate Microsoft to update Windows Mobile and add some sort of matching functionality but that's unlikely to happen for a couple years.

I do expect the second gen Zune to provide some sort of real competiton. Peter Moore did mention games will be able for the Zune in '08, and that's a market Microsoft has cornered.

Steve's demo is one of the best pitches I've ever seen and it will probably be remembered and studied in the future. I know I sure will next time I'm looking to pitch!

As Valleyway noted, Steve managed to introduce a revolutionary new product and steer all attention away from CES, not disclose any new information about current Apple products (that are most likely late or delayed), and still wow the crowd. There has been some backlash regarding the lack of updates for Leopards development, as well as any other Apple products, but overall this was a strategic masterpiece.