Key To Success – Not What You Think

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I returned from vacation to a whole lot of work. But a week away did me good. I needed to clear my head. If you didn’t know, Infinity Softworks celebrated its tenth anniversary in January. That’s a mighty big accomplishment, given the flameout of much bigger and better funded companies than ours, and given the turbulence in the mobile space.

A few years ago I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what success is and how it is accomplished. There are all kinds of measurements: stock price change, units sold, number of customers, revenue. They are all legitimate measurements but none satisfying enough.

I was looking for the uber-measurement. You know — the measurement that summarizes all the others and brings a clarification and classification to the rest. But I was struggling with it.

Look at the breadth. My father has run his own business since the early 1980s. It’s a sole propietorship — my dad tunes and re-builds pianos in NE Ohio — but it is small and inconsequential compared to an Oracle or Microsoft, which started around the same time. He never had a stock offering and has mostly serviced the same customers for the past two and a half decades.

What separates Johnson+Johnson from Pets.com? Why has Microsoft made it 30 years when a lot of far more interesting companies have lasted only a few?

It was about five years ago that the most important measurement dawned on me. It has nothing to do with revenue or stock price or market focus or customers. Or, maybe better yet, it had to do with all of these things.

The one measurement that matters most is time.

Think about it: to continue a business for a long time, all of these items have to be there. There has got to be a solid business model that generates more cash in than cash out. There has got to be the right combination of revenues and expenses. There has got to be customers and some product that customers want has to generate that income.

But it is rarely a straight line or a hockey stick growth curve. Infinity Softworks’ growth chart looks more like a rollercoaster — some quarters are exceptionally good and some are exceptionally bad. Some years have been wonderful and some have been so bad I wondered why I bothered.

Look at Nokia. Okay, so now they are a powerhouse in telecom, the largest mobile cell phone manufacturer in the world. But Nokia was founded in 1865 as a pulp mill. This almost 150 year-old company has, at one time or another, manufactured paper products, bicycle and car tires, personal computers and footwear. How, you ask, did Nokia end up being the kings of cell phones? In the 1960s and 1970s, Nokia started manufacturing cables and digital switches (used to route calls). By the 1990s it was cell phones. It took Nokia 130 years to find a big market where they could be leader!

I am sure, in that history, Nokia had many successes. I am also sure they had many failures. But Nokia succeeded in one area better than most — they managed to hang around. Nokia managers consistently lived to fight another day, keeping their eye on new opportunities, waiting patiently for the right time and right product.

And that’s the real key to success.

Picking a Smartphone: 7 Criteria To Help You Out

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I leave on vacation tomorrow, my first since December…. Apple releases the ridiculously hyped iPhone today. I have heard reports that it cures cancer… we launched our first BlackBerry product last week… Infinity Softworks’ web site or email system has been a headache for two straight weeks now… Palm and RIM announced quarterly earnings yesterday (my how fortunes have changed) and RIM has more new BlackBerry customers than Palm shipped Treos…

I have spent quite a bit of time during this maelstrom of activity thinking about what drives my purchasing decisions for mobile devices that fit in the pocket. Now I specify like that because I think there is room in most bags for two mobile devices — one that’s pocket-sized and another that’s notebook sized. I will talk about the differences and the future that I see later.

The pocket-sized device is one many of us are using today. It is what is popularly called a smartphone. Here’s the basics: it will be small enough to fit in your pocket, it will be easy enough to type emails and basic, personal information, it will include web browsing via multiple methods, it will help you stay in touch with people you need to stay in touch with.

Okay, we have that today, don’t we? Yes and no. Sure we have devices that do all these things — Palm Treo, Motorola Q, Samsung BlackJack, BlackBerry smartphones, iPhone — kind of. The kind of key word here is trade off — and I don’t see any single device that satisfies every need.

The critical factors that everyone thinks about are battery life, form factor, and device size (we’ll call these Market Factors). But I think it is just as important to consider carrier issues, cost to value ratio, available software and something I call flash (we’ll call these Elia Factors).

Market Factors:

  • Battery Life: it’s never long enough, no matter what. I expect my cell phone to last a week of heavy usage. Since I won’t find that today and get internet, email and the rest, I am satisfied with a day and the ability to charge over night. But if you travel multiple days at a time, the need is completely different.
  • Form Factor: tall screen and full keyboard, wide screen, reduced keyboard, no keyboard, rotating screen… they have all been done. If you send a lot of email or do a lot of typing, forget reduced keyboards or no keyboard. If you mostly answer calls then you can handle reduced size keyboards or no keyboard. Rotating screens, as far as I am concerned, is a gimmick because the screen is still too small to see anything well anyway.
  • Device Size: does anyone ever really want a bigger, fatter and heavier device? I don’t think so.

Notice that these are all trade-offs. Smaller devices mean smaller batteries and smaller screens.

Elia Factors:

  • Carriers: we don’t spend enough time thinking about the carrier’s impact on our device. When you have a problem, does the carrier provide relief for that problem or run you through the mill? Can you actually get and keep a signal when you need it? Is access to the web and email fast and simple? Does the carrier bother the snot out of you trying to get you to upgrade to their latest features? After a lot of research over the winter, I think you would have to be foolish not to go with T-Mobile or Verizon in about 90% of the US given what I read.
  • Cost-To-Value: is the device bringing appropriate value to make the price worth it? Does the product lock you into a carrier that charges excessive fees? Does it come with the basic features you want and how expensive is it to add these on? Are you paying for the features you don’t? And is it flexible enough to do tomorrow when you don’t know what you will need? I read somewhere over the last few days that purchasing an iPhone will cost close to $3000 over two years. This includes service, phone and replacement battery in two years when Apple expects the battery to need replacement.
  • Available Software: I mentioned flexibility in Cost-To-Value and software to me is such a critical factor. Is there a wealth of third-party and device manufacturer software available that makes this device really useful? Is there enough going on in the development community to know that as my needs change that accessories will be available to match my needs?
  • Flash: let’s face it, most of us want a device that is functional and works, but our nature as humans is to also have a device that’s flashy, that’s cool and hip, and does some tricks. All you have to do is watch the commercials to see that iPhone will score very high on this factor.

If this is my criteria, then what do we have today? A lot of weak options, to be honest. How do the devices stack up:

  • Palm Treo: 2.5 of 7 criteria met. wealth of software available, cost-to-value is solid (although data plans are expensive), works with all carriers so take your pick, battery life is poor, form factor is inflexible (meaning there are no options if you like everything else but hate the layout), device is too big, not very flashy anymore.
  • Motorola Q/Samsung BlackJack: 3.5 of 7 criteria met. almost no software available, cost-to-value is solid, a variety of carriers available, battery life is mediocre, form factor is inflexible, devices are pocket sized and won’t pull your pants down to your ankles, sexy for a Windows product — which makes it not very flashy. 
  • BlackBerry: 5 of 7 criteria met. very little software available (but growing), cost-to-value is solid, a variety of carriers available, battery life is decent, a couple of form factors available offer some flexibility, devices are pocket sized, nothing flashy about these machines at all.
  • iPhone: 2 of 7 criteria met. no software available — in fact none even allowed, cost-to-value is low, only works with one carrier, one form factor — better hope not having a keyboard works out, devices are pocket sized, flashy and Apple go together like football and Sunday, email and BlackBerry… enough said there.

So based on my criteria, BlackBerry rates best and iPhone rates worst. Surprise! Even I didn’t expect iPhone to rate that poorly.

Picking a device is far more art than science. The entire process reminds me of buying a car. Do a bunch of research, talk to people that use one, test drive it for a few minutes, spend a ridiculous amount of time signing papers, and finally make a multi-thousand dollar committment that locks you in for years!

BlackBerry… Meet powerOne

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I spent years trying to steer Infinity Softworks out of mobile computing.

When the stock market crashed in 2001 and then the terrorist attack later that year, people stopped buying handhelds. We spent years trying to prop ourselves up in the market. We tried to go vertical, developing products for real estate and education, but our attention was split and not enough devices were being bought to be successful. Then we tried to leave handheld computing and move to the web with an educational product. Ugh! While we had some success there it didn’t work out well.

It’s not that we left completely. We have had products for Palm OS, Windows Mobile and Windows computers and have continued to talk with clients and watch progress. But I didn’t see the momentum building for mobile computing again until recently.

Now the BlackBerry smartphones are selling well and out of its traditional enterprise niche. A couple of popular Windows Mobile devices have come out that have revived interest. And of course the iPhone has made a lot of chins drag (sight unseen, mind you).

Our customers are starting to buy connected devices, smartphones if you will, instead of the disconnected handheld computers of yesteryear. And it struck me that with connected devices there is so much more we can do than with the disconnected ones.

With that, I am proud to introduce powerOne for BlackBerry devices. Our customers have gotten used to the ability to quickly and easily perform what-if analysis but we have added an extra dimension here. For the first time, we have made it possible to quickly and easily embed that calculation in an email report and send it from the device. No more waiting to go back to the office to send that quote. No more evening sessions of sending out the “thanks for meeting with me” messages. Now it can be handled quickly, easily and painlessly right from the device.

I hope this product is well received and is the beginning of great things we can do for mobile professionals everywhere. I know that I am brimming with ideas!

Flash: It’s Not Just For Naked People Anymore

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I opened the business section of the local newspaper this morning to find something quite interesting. It seems that Hewlett-Packard announced laptops with flash memory instead of hard drives. This announcement, along with Palm’s Foleo announcement, is very interesting. It is the opening salvo in the battle for the next generation of mobile computers.

I am going to take a crack at explaining this whole memory thing to you. Memory is your desk and bookshelf. You can keep lots of books on your bookshelf but in order to use one, you have to take it off the shelf and open it on your desk. This is exactly how your hard drive and RAM work on your computer. The hard drive is the number of books (i.e., applications, files, pictures, videos, etc.) you can store at any one time, the same as your bookshelf. RAM is the number of books you can have open on the desk at any one time. Run out of space on your desktop and things move slow — you have to move books around to see them. Same on your computer. Close a book to put it back on the shelf, gaining desktop space, and you lose your place. Same as closing a running application on your computer.

The closest analogy I can make for flash memory is bookmarks. When you use a bookmark, you can close the book and then quickly and easily open to the same place you were before, whether it is on your desk or on the shelf. Flash memory does this also, keeping markers for which applications are running and where you were in them, whether the computer is on or off. You may already use flash memory. Those little cards you stick in your handheld computer, smartphone, and camera are all flash memory.

So why is flash memory in mobile computers important? Four adjectives sum it up: faster, smaller, lighter and rugged.

  • Its faster: it takes no time to start using it so you don’t have the lag time between hitting the on button and seeing the screen. It also doesn’t close down your applications but suspends them instead. Its like turning off the screen instead of shutting down the machine.
  • It smaller: flash memory is smaller than a postage stamp and barely thicker meaning that computers can be as small or as big as we need them to be without restriction.
  • Its lighter: a big chunk of the laptops weight is the screen and hard drive. With the hard drive gone and screens about to get really light, we could be looking at laptops that weigh as little as your cell phone.
  • Its rugged: hard drives have moving parts that damage easy; flash memory doesn’t.

Why should you care? Because your next-generation laptop could have the best qualities of your cell phone combined with the best qualities of your laptop: instant on, fast response, rugged enough to take a beating, large enough to do real work, and light enough to carry without needing a chiropractor.

The Skinny on BlackBerry Smartphones

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I have talked to a number of customers and seen a number of blogs where people are asking what device they should buy next? [One example here.] I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about devices based on operating system and my opinion of each.

My first entry is on BlackBerry devices.

The Good

  1. Simple design: screen and menu. Outside of shortcuts, there are very few “hidden” features.
  2. Easy to control with a single hand to look up a number or appointment.
  3. Tight integration between address book, calendar, browser and email to make phone calls and send email.
  4. Nice form factors on the new devices (Pearl, Curve, 8800 series).
  5. Easy to sync data with Outlook via USB.
  6. Standard USB connection for both charging and syncing.
  7. Solid battery life.

The Bad

  1. Improved BlackBerry Internet Service to sync contacts, calendar and tasks to Outlook wirelessly.
  2. Better calendar, address book and tasks integration.
  3. Wider breadth of third-party software applications.

Comments

I hadn’t worked with a BlackBerry device until January, when Infinity Softworks started writing software for it. I always saw them as a bit bulky and as an email device for corporate folks. To be honest, I saw the BlackBerry as a step backward. No touch screen? No handwriting recognition? Ugh!

Boy, was I wrong. I have found the devices to be quite nice. I have worked with most of the recent models, while I carry a BlackBerry Pearl myself. I picked the Pearl (8100) because it is the right size for me. I was tired of carrying bulky handhelds and wanted something all-in-one. While the SureType entry method is adequate, it is not as consistent as the QWERTY keyboards on other models. Given that, I understand some trade-offs must be made for the smaller form factor and, after years of writing Palm Graffiti, that is one I am willing to make.

From a software/OS perspective, it is very straight forward. You use a small trackwheel to navigate around and select it to go to a screen, there is a menu button to display the menu, and a back (escape) button to go back to where you were before. There is tight integration to make phone calls and send emails. When any software application detects text that is a telephone number, email or web address, it underlines it. To call, scroll to the text and hit the phone’s send button. It makes the call. Selecting an email or web address pops up the appropriate application as well.

The areas where I can see some improvement is really in the way the core personal information is handled (calendar, contacts, tasks). These three could be integrated better. For instance, I should be able to see today’s tasks in the calendar and be able to click them off as I complete them. If I enter a contact name into a task or appointment, I should be able to click on that contact to see their details and call them.

In addition, I would like to see better email, contact, calendar, task and note synchronization with Outlook. Yes, it synchronizes the latter three when you connect via USB. I would like to see them sync wirelessly. I make a change on my BlackBerry it should show up automatically in Outlook next time I open it. The same is true when I make a change in Outlook. It should automatically show on my BlackBerry. And I should be able to “file” emails and have them sync to the desktop as well (I have had to blind carbon copy myself to get copies of the emails I have sent to others from my device.)

These, though, are minor announces that I have partly solved with existing third-party applications and partly solved with some work-arounds provided by BlackBerry.

To be honest, BlackBerry Pearl is the first device I have found that got me to use an all-in-one device. The biggest complement, though, is what I have seen from others. Customers who use BlackBerry devices seem to keep buying BlackBerry devices. Loyalty: the holy grail of mobile device manufacturers. And RIM, the makers of the BlackBerry, seem to have it.