THE COTTAGE GAMING ECONOMY

Posted on March 14, 2012 by michaelweening

I was in the Motorola booth (I think) at WMC where a number of developers were showing off their applications. I was interested in the company escapist games.

The founder was there showing off his Starchart application, which he built with his young son in mind. The app (which I need to buy) allows you to point your phone’s camera at the sky and it gives you information on the star cluster you are looking at. Ingenious.

Somehow he mentioned that he lived in Vancouver years ago, worked for EA and left to start his own company. In his case, he started the company with the low cost game in mind. From his point of view, the $50 console game requires big companies and significant investment to make reality with a high chance of failure. As he put it, many gamers have spent the big dollars on a game and been disappointed. However, the low cost gaming model that is overwhelming the smartphone market provides a unique opportunity – if you buy a $3 game and you don’t like it – it doesn’t matter as much. You move on to the next game and that means a booming industry.

He then mentioned two key facts:

They are a company of 10
They have sold 2M copies at $3 each

Do the math. Low cost of production, significant rewards, an industry that will continue to flourish.

PERSUADE

Posted on March 8, 2012 by michaelweening

From Wired – Persuade Someone:

There’s a science and an art to persuasion. Researchers at the U of Michigan analyzed the speech of 100 interviewers as they tried to persuade people to participate in a survey. Here’s what they learned.

TALK FAST: Researchers found that optimal persuasive speed is a little faster than normal – about 3.5 words per second. Hyperspeed can sound shady, and slow-talkers come across as dull or didactic. (Note: Odd – Seems everyone coaches … slow down)

TAKE A BREATH: Interviewers who spoke perfectly were the least likely to hook a listener. It’s best to pause about every 20 seconds.

MIND YOUR PITCH: Get enthused but be wary of being too boisterous. Men who varied their pitch a lot were less persuasive that those who didn’t. But women who varied their pitch were more successful that those (women) who didn’t. As with men, a lower pitch also helped slightly, which was a surprise, because research has shown that higher female voices are viewed as more attractive.”

Interesting.

EXCELLENCE IN A SALES ORGANIZATION

Posted on March 6, 2012 by michaelweening

I was asked for suggestions on a workshop a colleague was running called “Demand excellence in your sales team”. He was looking for content and opinions on how to shape the day. Here were my suggestions:

Leaders who must revert to demanding will fail. It is a strategy that only works for a short while. I would call it “Building excellent teams” or “Coaching for excellence”. A notion that Daniel Goleman put forth in Primal Leadership … the pacesetting style sets you on the path to failure and what you call the meeting will set the tone and expectation.
My themes would be:

Set clear expectations with the team (Performance, development, teamwork, etc.)
Follow up with regular 1:1s that are quality meetings. Not just a review of the funnel, but development and coaching events. Set the expectation of the leadership team.
Managers need to be in the field (so do executives). Participate with your sales team so that you can coach based on first hand experience. Participate in pre-call planning, sales calls and team activities.
Sales success and failure is a team event. Lead by example and invest in the success of your people. A personal motto – “I don’t think about how I will be personally successful. I spend all of my time thinking about how to make my teammates successful knowing that if they succeed, my success is guaranteed”

My 2 cents.

KINDLE

Posted on March 6, 2012 by michaelweening

I finally bit the bullet and bought a Kindle Touch – 6”. It arrives Wednesday. Why? My Samsung 10.1” tablet is amazing – with the Kindle and Zinio (magazines) apps – but it simply doesn’t work in the sun. I find myself burying my head under a beach towel or seeking shade; and even then it is a super strain to read. Don’t even try it with polarized sun glasses.

With a few trips on the very near horizon – a beach capable reading device was needed. Someone needs to invent a tablet LCD that works outside. Although it seems to be getting closer.

NTT INTERESTS AS ALWAYS

Posted on March 5, 2012 by michaelweening

Every year I make a point of getting over to the NTT booth – there is always something “way out there” and someone who can barely speak English ready to try and explain it.

This year’s interesting item was a series of sensor cases that you insert your smartphone into. A ‘breath sensor’ (for halitosis and alcohol), a weather sensor and a body fat sensor.

I had to try out the body fat sensor. You start by adding in parameters (Which was harder than it should of been as I still think of height and weight in Imperial – not metric) and then you put 4 fingers on these mental contact points on the sensor. Basically you hold it like a point and click camera. He explained that it sends a current through the body and by measuring resistance they make the calculation. My measurements are below … who knows if it is accurate.

Right beside it was the NEC booth and the marketing display caught my interest as it was profiling people as they stood in front of it. These have been popping up over the last couple years and it is pretty clear that they have some additional work before they hit primetime … look down the left panel and my multiple ages/impressions. I did not move from the same spot and it just kept re-profiling me, and of course I am not female (smile).

The last one that caught my attention was a docking station for your mobile phone. It caught my attention because I still can’t figure out why I would want one?

Congrats to GSMA, another great show. Learned a ton.

MY FIRST PROTEST/RIOT (Later in the day)

Posted on March 2, 2012 by michaelweening

While I was in Barcelona I had the opportunity to experience my first ‘protest’. I was standing with a man from Columbia and he observed that the protest was around government cuts to education (They were University students – facing bleak prospect in a country with 24% unemployment and 40-50% unemployment if you are under 25 (depending on which news outlet you read)).

The fellow from Columbia was amazed that the students kept away from police saying “Look at the way they do not approach the police”. I commented that it isn’t that odd. He stated that isn’t the case in Columbia – in his country the police fear the people, not the other way around.

Moments later 20 paddy wagons came rushing in and riot police moved in. The crowd didn’t stick around.

AUGMENTED REALITY

Posted on March 1, 2012 by michaelweening

There is a lot of talk about augmented reality and how mobility can provide depth to static media. I happened to be walking by the HP booth and there were a few people demonstrating the Aurasma application with a phone and iPad (Available on Android – iOS). Simply download the free application, point it at a Aurasma enabled item (Like an ad) and voila ….

The commercial value is enticing – I watched a John Lewis catalogue demo where you point it at the cameras and it brings up mobile ads and a ‘buy now’ button to take you to their website. The newspaper application is also interesting. And the creative opportunities are pretty interesting ….

And of course, you cannot go wrong with dinosaurs.

WINNER OF THE SHOW: SAMSUNG 10.1” NOTE

Posted on March 1, 2012 by michaelweening

In my eyes, the winner of WMC has to be the Samsung 10.1” Note (Tablet). I still remember getting my first tablet back in 2002 – the Compaq TC1000. The notion of finally having your notes recorded digitally – truly no more paper – was very appealing. Unfortunately, the battery life and speed (It was so slowwwww….) were not up to expectations and it never really took off.

Last year HTC came out with a 7” tablet with a pen. I was very excited. Fantastic integration into applications, but the screen size was too small.

This year, Samsung brings out a 10.1” tablet with a pen and they seem to have got it right. The only thing missing is some deeper application integration (Specifically – native support for Evernote). But I am sure that will come.

CNET review here.

They were demoing Adobe Ideas on the Samsung – very impressive tablet based art and editing. The creative possibilities are very interesting. I can imagine our boys going to school with this tablet and no paper, drawing on it, taking class notes, watching videos, surfing the internet, reading books and on and on.

The tablet finally becomes what it was always meant to be.