What’s this? Manufacturing plants being built in the US?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/16/us-apple-samsung-idUSTRE7BF0D420111216
The US a net exporter of energy in Q4?
http://online.wsj.com/article/APf917509ee61344a38638e2c08bc47090.html
Once again the conventional wisdom of the US being dead is, well, dying. As I always say about conventional wisdom: always bet the other way.
If I could have invented any business over the past 15 years, I think it would have been Kickstarter.
We are a nation that was built on the promise that a single person could make a huge difference, that you have control of your destiny. But too often businesses are built to prey on our weaknesses, court us with tabloid-like sensationalism, or scare us with FUD [1].
Kickstarter embodies everything that is good about the American spirit. It is an enabler of ideas, making it possible for individuals or small companies to bring those ideas to market through revenues (not debts or capital). And this — helping ideas become products — is a noble endeavor.
There are other ideas out there that are wonderful and uplifting, too, but it is Kickstarter that captures my imagination.
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[1] FUD: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt
Interesting quote from Clayton Christensen (via Bryce.vc and this presentation):
Not only are the market applications for disruptive technologies unknown at the time of their development, they are unknowable.
A couple of days ago Chris Dixon wrote the following:
New startup ideas are all around you, in the improvised behaviors of people you know. It takes a keen product eye, however, to notice these improvisational behaviors and recognize which ones are worthy of being developed into standalone products.
He referenced how Instagram, which had both filters and sharing, ate Hipstamatic’s lunch, which only had filters.
Dixon’s comment, though, suffers from hindsight and surviver’s bias. We only know Instagram is more popular because we know Instagram is more popular. Rewind a year or so and who really knows what the outcome will be.
To paraphrase Christensen, no one can know whether the technology will be disruptive before it is.
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UPDATE: I suggest reading the comments. Andy and I have a pretty good conversation there that extends the post nicely.
In my last post I commented that the restrictions imposed on iOS beta apps tilted the balance to Android development if I was doing both and didn’t have a reason to release iOS first.
Not an hour later, some device info comes out that drops an elephant on the iOS side of my scale. Time frames generously provided by MG Seigler, these numbers should make any Android developer cry:
And here I was, on iOS, debating whether to keep supporting an operating system version that came out mid last year.
App Developers Skirt Apple’s Limits With Work-Arounds
If you didn’t know, Apple restricts developers to 100 beta devices per year. That isn’t 100 per app. That’s 100 per company per year. And deleting devices doesn’t give you back devices until the next year. Infinity Softworks has 10 apps plus two new ones in development. That means a very restricted list of beta testers.
I can kind of understand why Apple did it. They didn’t want developers “side-loading” apps by using an open-ended beta program. But Apple doubled the devices — adding the iPad — without increasing the limit. I feel like I am constantly juggling projects and requirements to see who gets devices. And that is time wasted, as far as I’m concerned.
I will say that the detail and attention that Apple gives to their end-user programs never seem to be given to their developer programs. Besides this 100 device limit, I have spent hours trying to get re-authorization certificates working correctly after they expired last night, something that worked perfectly fine for the last year.
There are very few reasons I would develop for Android over iOS at this point. But if I had a mobile app I was writing for both and didn’t have a business reason why iOS should come first, this restricted beta program would tilt the scales toward Android.
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p.s. It was pointed out via email that we could technically use an enterprise account. It costs $299 and opens up the users, although technically to employees only.
p.p.s. Another thought: this program must be changing. With iOS 5, Apple deprecated UDIDs. Without the UDID there is no way for us to assign a device in the profile. Makes me wonder what Apple has planned.
Elia Insider 