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.

Andru Edwards says goodbye

Andru Edwards, founder of Gear Live Media and the Seattle Mind Camp Events has a very moving online eulogy of sorts to his father, George Budabin. I met Andru at his last mind camp and he seemed like a very stand up guy. My thoughts and prayers are with him at this time.

Social Shopping

Read/Write Web has a great article on the different Social shopping sites out there today.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_shopping_faceoff.php

The most notable portion of the article is the conclusion:

"Most notably, there is still big room for innovation in this market. Kaboodle has nailed the basic feature set, but much more can be done based on the power of masses and technologies like RSS. We expect to see many more innovations in 2007, such as personalized recommendations, product alerts and interactive chats based on where you are shopping."

Entering Startup

Starting a business is tough work. I've decided to use my blog to track my process as I go through it. This'll give me a way to write about lessons learned through this crazy startup I'm working on. The title for this post, comes from my friend Hans blog, which is similar to TechCrunch but dedicated to Seattle tech start ups and the entrepreneurship mindset.

So far here's what I've learned, some from those who have been there before like Guy Kawasaki, some from experience :

1. If you don't try it, you'll never know. This is a lesson a good family friend once taught me. If you don't try it, you will never know. This not only applies to going from conceptualization of a business to implementation but also applies to all other aspects of a business. It's important to always ask for what you want because at the end of the day all you're losing is time.
   
2. Hire people that are smarter than you (thanks Guy). It's also important to make sure you have a plan for a replacement in case someone decides to take off or you have to let someone go for whatever reason. The life of startup isn't for everyone and when you need to replace a crucial position, you want to have someone ready to go asap when you're in an early stage business.
   
3. Create a board before you need it. My board of advisors have been an invaluable resource whom will not be soon forgotten. Listen to your gut first, then your advisors and see how they fit in.
   
4. Read. This means reading blogs, newspapers, books, anything and everything that will help you think ahead of anyone else. In this day and age there are no excuses for not doing so. Although I don't always agree with him, I'm in total agreement here with Mark Cuban, who has an excellent post about this on his blog.
   
5. "Be prepared to be hit over the head with a hammer multiple times." One of my favorite quotes I've heard so far courtesy of Charles Higgins, a serial entrepreneur and local angel investor who had those words of wisdom to share with me.
   

Who's up for a buyout?

Now that the media fanfare over YouTube has died out to some degree, except for the Time article, it's time to look ahead to 2007, to the next company to buy out.

Front runners are Facebook and Digg. They've both received an incredible amount of press, their user base is increasing and their scope is ever increasing. I think Facebook will go before Digg though, as their monetization seems higher than Digg's.

What a mess

It's been an interesting month in Seattle. After reaching record rain fall last month, this week was the worst storm in over a decade! It's very interesting to note what happens in these chaotic situations. Here's the most notable introspections I found:

1. Coffee is like Seattle area people's crack . All other stores were closed around town except Whole Foods. Thinking it would be nice to grab a coffee, I made my way over to their cafe. Power was out throughout the city of Bellevue, which meant all other Starbucks were closed. The line at the coffee stand was no less than 40 people deep. I decided I didn't need a chai that bad, and later asked the clerk at the grocery cash register about the line. She mentioned the wait time was 45 minutes. Wow.
   
2. Panic sets in without power. Most gas stations around the area have ran out of gas, as panic set in and the desire to absolutely fill up your tank spread. Most gas stations that DID have power/gas had a line of around 30 cars at all times.
   
3. The internet is an addiction. Being unable to check my email for the past few days has been difficult. I'm so used to bringing up my feed reader to get my news, and I felt cut off from the world. Cable is still down but luckily Starbucks here in Issaquah has hotspots.
   
4. Overall, people are much more patient on the roads when disaster strikes. Typically, when a traffic jam occurs in this or any other city, residents become frustrated and anxious to get going. I constantly fall victim to this. The past few days have been a drivers worst nightmare, and almost everyone seemed extremely patient, realizing that slow downs are imminent. If only we could stretch this thought pattern to our day to day lives.

It's amazing how a couple days in the cold and dark will make you appreciate a warm shower. I'm not sure if this has any relation to global warming, although I'm sure some local pundits will make the assumption, but I do know that if disasters like this persist throughout the United States, climate change will become a huge issue in 2007.

Apple is still cool

A few months before the Zune launch, I predicted in a previous post that Microsoft would have a lot of trouble competing with Apple, due to Apple's coolness factor. How did they upstage Microsoft this time?

Not by unleashing a new iPod with tons of super neat features, but by reinventing their least popular one, the Shuffle and making it look cool again. As soon as I saw this commercial, I knew who it was, and it wasn't just the white headphones. Apple makes it look easy to be cool.

So the Shuffle is now the hot item of the season, and meanwhile the Zune looks like a far second.

Bob Lefsetz has even more here.