Sergio Gonzales

Apple Hates Business Users

2010-05-06T22:16:04Z

I love my iPad. It’s fantastic as a content consumption device. I walk around the house with my iPad watching videos, web surfing, and playing games. And for those who say, yeah, but I can do that with my laptop. No you can’t. Not with one hand. Not without that stupid hinged screen flip-flopping around. Not really.

I’m also grateful for the iPad legitimizing the tablet form factor. I’ve been a long-time tablet owner (I’ve owned several ranging from Motion to Samsung to OQO) but I always felt disappointed by the hardware–overheating, poor battery life, and heavy weight. Application developers also failed to innovate on the tablet. Say what you will, but the iPad has been the singular device able to push the market interest back to this form factor by delivering a beautiful device, with truly usable touchscreen apps, and at a price closer to what the mainstream can bear. This year alone over a dozen tablet devices from different makers will make its way into the market.

As a consumer device, the iPad rules.

As a business user it sucks. That’s because Apple hates business users. Worse off, it’s a malicious and deliberate effort by Apple to make it so. We wouldn’t want to cannibalize Macbook Pros and Macbook Airs, would we? Pssst, Apple…I don’t use those for my work either. They might be cute for the musicians, photographers, and graphic designers out there, but as a casual developer and full-time business manager, Mac gets no play at work. Not to mention the fact that most Corporate IT teams will not officially support Macs on their network. I know, it surprises me too.

I found it funny as I stood in line to pickup my iPad that they had business development managers visiting people in line asking how they planned on using the device for their business. I told them I’m not. Nor do I see most business owners planning on it. That’s because Apple has intentionally crippled anything in the device that would actually make it useful for a business user.

OUTPUT TO SCREEN/PROJECTOR: FAIL!
Great, Apple will happily sell you a VGA adapter for $29. Guess what? You can only output a handful of apps to the screen/projector. WTF? Why? Clearly, the device can do it because Steve used that very same capability to show off his shiny new gift to the world. So why disable it in the production device? ‘Cause Apple hates business users. Any thought of using the device to easily display docs or display websites to an audience is out the window. Don’t get me started on the limited options I have to show docs via iWork. And all those great apps on the iPad? Yeah, can’t show those to an audience at work either. Incidentally, this pisses off app developers too because recording help and promotional videos for your app with the sorry emulator is just weak sauce.

WIRELESS SYNC: FAIL!
Zune has it. Kindle has it. No iPod, iPhone, or iPad has it. Damn, even my old Pocket PC could do that. Good luck, WiFi Sync, I truly hope you get approved in the app store.

SEAMLESSLY WORK WITH DOCS ACROSS DEVICES: FAIL!
Why can’t I take files from my Mac, iMac, PC, network drive, and easily put it on my iPad? And vice versa? Why can’t I easily pass docs between my iPhone and my iPad? No, I shouldn’t have to pay for a third party app to do that. And I shouldn’t have to launch that app in order to access it, either. Apple once prided itself on “it just works” and the fact that its products so seamlessly integrated with each other. Hey, Apple, when I plug in my iPad (and iPhone) it should just show up as a USB storage device. Even my cheapest Blackberry can do that. Guess it doesn’t matter, ’cause I can’t do jack with the doc once it’s on my iPad anyway.

PRODUCTIVITY APPS: FAIL!
We totally re-worked Calendar and Mail so it’s so great to use! Yeah, right. Maybe for people who get 5 emails a day. But for a business user, my Blackberry will pimp slap the iPad (and iPhone) up and down the block. Two times. Where is “go to next unread message?” Copy-paste that isn’t a joke to use? Auto-fill that actually assumes I know what the hell I mean to type and not some asinine suggestion it keeps forcing me to explicitly cancel? What do you mean I can’t forward a meeting invite? Are you serious? I can’t even create a meeting invite and connect to my corporate exchange server to add a meeting room to the invite. I can’t add attendees unless they’re already in my address book or I have their corp email memorized. Wait a sec, I have to get a third party app in order to print? My camera can print directly to a printer, but neither my iPhone nor iPad can do that natively? Huh?

3RD PARTY APPS: FAIL!
Let it go, Steve. Let us install the apps on our device that we want. Any great app that business users have come to love has poor prospects to ever make its way onto the iPhone OS platform. That’s because enterprise-level app developers, the guys who have talents beyond a simple to-do task list, beyond another sad notepad app, the guys who actually make useful things like OneNote, PersonalBrain, Firefox, Team Box, Pivotal Tracker, and Skype don’t want to gamble on developing an app that’ll just get rejected.

So while I love my iPad as a consumer, it is destined to be a hand me down to my little nephew because Notion Ink Adam, WePad, and ExoPC will all surpass the iPad for my business use. Or perhaps I’ll celebrate the beautiful work from Spirit, Dev-Team, and Saurik’s Cydia. Microsoft, HP, and others, are you taking notes?

The really sad part is that there really is nothing technically that prevents any of this functionality on the iPad or iPhone. It would be a simple matter of a firmware/OS upgrade. Apple just hates business users. Is it really all that much to ask? Output full UI to screen. Transfer files and docs. Wireless sync. Productivity apps that are actually productive. Opening up to more apps. That’s Business 101. Tell that to your business development managers.

10 iPhone Apps for Ads, Sales, and Marketing

2010-02-23T13:01:10Z

Quicksense – track multiple AdSense accounts for page views, CTR, CPM, and CPC
Quick AdMaker – simple ad creatives using templates; nothing fancy but easy to use; would like to see a way for user to add their own template files
iDCRM – full implementation of Microsoft Dynamic CRM without an infrastructure investment
Pictomobile – image recognition based on magazine, print, and outdoor advertising; no need for barcodes
AdBox – monitor AdMob network earnings
Azoogle Ads – monitor Azoogle ad network earnings
CHI & Partners – allows clients to view and manage creatives
Inwindow Outdoor – outdoor advertising firm’s news, videos, and latest campaigns
DialogCentral – allows users to provide immediate feedback based on location; has application for user reviews as well; similar app is Survey On the Spot
iYell – broadcast multimedia and text messaging to your app users

10 iPhone Apps for Your Car

2010-02-23T12:53:13Z

RepairPal – quickly get a repair estimate based on your auto MMY and find a nearby mechanic
Drive Safe – driving exam preparation guide
Dynolicious – car performance diagnostics tool
iLease My Car Pro – loan and buying calculator
iWrecked – manage auto accident info as well as the ensuing police reports
FYI Mileage – tracks your mileage
Car Spotter – GPS tag your parking spot location and the app will lead you back to your parking space
Cartopia – auto shopping app
Cars.com – Cars.com iPhone app
Learn Parts – Cars – reference guide for car part maintenance

10 iPhone Apps for Developers

2010-02-23T12:45:49Z

Box.net – file sharing and collaboration
Citrix Receiver – mobile Citrix Receiver
IPEToolbox – network engineer’s toolbox
Cisco SIO To Go – network security notification
Mocha VNC – VNC on your iPhone
Network Utility Pro – check website server status
Snap – check what else is on the network with your iPhone (servers, routers, other iPhones)
TouchTerm Pro SSH – SSH terminal
Source Code Viewer – view web page source
FTP On The Go – FTP client

10 iPhone Shopping Apps

2010-05-06T22:00:52Z

My Mall Shopping – create your own virtual mall from your favorite sellers
Woot Watch – flash sales app
Coupon Sherpa – mobile coupons app
CardStar – track your rewards cards
Red Laser – scan barcodes and retrieve product info including prices
QuickPing – uses the Ping.fm network and API to broadcast updates to multiple social networks; you can imagine how this might be used as notifications between users
SnapTell – already an iTunes store classic this great app just gets better with time; quickly take a picture of a movie, video game, cd, or book and it will find it for you; that’s right, not the barcode or ISBN but the actual cover itself! unfortunately, this is just the US catalog for now but they’re promising to expand their catalog
How To Videos – learn how to do just about anything by viewing videos from the howcast.com network
PhotoNote – quick and simple; snap a pick and add a note; that’s it! app would be better with a default configuration to optionally upload to a preferred photo hosting service
iGarage Sale – find nearby garage sales including a keyword search that will return nearby garage sales with that item

10 iPhone Fashion Apps

2010-02-23T11:57:51Z

TrendStop TrendTracker – track the latest fashion trends just as they’re hitting the runways
Stylish Girl – virtual closet to catalog your outfits; share with friends and shop online; if you liked this, you may want to check out their Cool Guy app for the fellas
ChicFeed – photos taken from the latest fashion blogs; fashion is meant to be seen and admired; this app gets that and features great photos from popular fashion blogs; now imagine you overlay a shopping component to it
Social Mall – shopping malls in the palm of your hand that includes social group shopping features; I liked this app because they captured an important essence of shopping IRL (in real life), the social aspect! you can send invites, track who’s coming, chat, and even find each other in the mall by location; this app’s creators get it, and I look forward to more enhancements from them
myFendi – Fendi brand mobile shop; there are lots of great brands coming online as iPhone apps, so be sure to check them out; included Fendi here because I appreciated the restraint to keep the app simple and easy to browse through the Fendi product line; didn’t have a chance to go through all the other fashion brand apps, but I can guess there are others that will have even more engaging features
Sales Buddy – what shopaholic doesn’t like a sale?! track how much you’ve spent; better yet, how much you’ve saved!
Closet Friend – I wouldn’t buy this app, but I wanted to show an interesting idea that didn’t quite live up to implementation; track when you last wore that outfit and where; that by itself is lacking but you can quickly imagine where you could go with this app if you integrated it with a shopping and social aspect; note: links to developer website and support are dead links; listed here as concept only
ChicWalks – this app differs a bit from all the other “near me” shopping apps in that it focuses on a walking shopping trip; stores as well as places to eat or grab a refreshment are included with helpful GPS maps; trips were chosen by fashion and shopping journalists, bloggers, and professionals; really like this app, great way to explore a city if shopping is your thing
ShopStyle – gorgeous photos take center stage as this app focuses on a few well-chosen fashion categories; links to retailer; bonus: save favorites and send to friends by email and Twitter
iShoes – shoes take center stage as this mobile app lets you do searches on shoe style; detailed shoe attributes are returned, along with links to webshop; bonus: save favorites; you may also like myShoeBox

How You Can Save Your Company $2,000,000 in Just 5 Minutes

2009-12-13T10:41:53Z

In my last article, I wrote about kaizen, a Japanese business philosophy of constant improvement. I’d like to follow up on that discussion with a brief demonstration of how even seemingly small changes can have a huge effect on your business.

How can you save your company $2,000,000 in just 5 minutes? Follow along to see how.

It takes my laptop 14 minutes to startup. That’s from the moment I press the power button to the time I am able to launch my first email in Outlook. Even if you subtract for XP itself, that’s a long time. I am not your typical user: I defrag my machine often, explicitly shut off non-essential services, map only one network drive, have wifi explicitly disabled, and put nothing in my startup folder except for the aforementioned Outlook. Oh, and I’ve done most of the recommended tweaks to get XP to boot faster. So where does the rest of the time come from? All the stuff my company does to make sure my laptop is secure, has its updates, and whatever else is in the standard image.

Don’t get me wrong, this is important stuff and I support it whole-heartedly. But consider this, what if a VP walked over to the IT department and said: “Guys, find a way to shave 5 minutes off the system boot times while keeping the systems secure and I’ll pay you a $5000 bonus.” Watch how fast those minutes disappear.

14 minutes. Big whoop, right? Chillax, press start, go grab a cup of coffee, and when you come back you’re ready to go. Okay, smart guy, what if I’m in the middle of a critical 30-minute meeting with the CFO and my laptop requires a restart? ‘Cause that never happens on Windows, right? So there goes half my meeting there.

What would happen if IT just shaved off 5 of those minutes?

Embed the Kaizen Calculator on your site by copying the code below:

That’s what 5 minutes means. Backup for a second, Serge, that’s great for large companies but what about smaller companies? Okay, take a 25-person outfit, with an average of $15/hr:

Cancel one unnecessary 30-minute meeting each month ($2250)
If half are parents who usually leave 15 minutes early to pick up their kids, provide onsite daycare (still at the employees’ expense) ($11250)
Save 2 minutes by reducing just 5 emails ($3000)
Provide computers that boot just 1 minute faster ($1500)

That’s $18000 right there.

Yes, yes, it’s a bit of a leap to say that this saves the company in real terms because you won’t actually see that in the bottom line. Okay, so quantify for me how much work-related stress does cost the company. What are the recruitment and training costs of retaining and having to re-hire talent due to attrition? What is the value of being recognized as one of the best companies to work for? Measure for me the lost opportunity costs of all those minutes added up when said employees could be working on other things in a state of peace and tranquility.

That is the point of kaizen. A relatively simple idea of reducing the amount of time it takes for a computer to restart can create a culture capable of constant improvement. This is the type of environment that nurtures employees who will think of that huge cost savings or that next multi-million dollar revenue stream.

Have time-saving ideas for your company? Share in the comments section below. Play around with the Kaizen Calculator to see how much your company could be saving.

Oh, and you probably could have read this article 8 times in the time it took me to restart my laptop.

Kaizen, The Japanese Art of Continuous Improvement

2009-11-27T20:45:39Z

It seems I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my time in Japan. Usually it comes about when I’m thinking about technology or gadgets. But lately, I’ve been reflecting a bit more on Japanese culture and specifically the culture of the workplace.

In the early 1980s, Japanese business was the dominant global player, easily trouncing the US and its western brethren on profits and efficiency. The seemingly impossible advances and pace set by the Japanese automotive industry and electronics manufacturers became the blueprint that many companies tried desperately to duplicate.

In fact, many modern practices in business find their roots during this period of business growth and change. During our current period of economic difficulty, business uncertainty, and low employee morale, I’ve been thinking about one practice in particular:

kaizen (改善) – Japanese for improvement; comes from the words kai, meaning to change or break and zen, meaning good or better

Kaizen is a system of employee-driven suggestions to improve every aspect of the business. But even this definition falls short. Kaizen is a state of mind, it is ingrained in Japanese business culture. It asserts that all employees are responsible for the quality and profitability of a company. Masaaki Imai is known as the father of Continuous Improvement (CI) in the workplace and recognized as the inventor of kaizen. This practice of employee suggestions dates back much further though, when in 1721 the shogun Yoshimuni Tokugawa issued the following proclamation: “Make your idea known. Rewards are given for those that are accepted.”

Focus on the word “accepted.” In the West, we tend to reward ideas that are “implemented.” In Japan, merely making a suggestion is met with a reward, albeit a very small financial one (something like $5 per idea). A large reason why suggestion programs tend to fail or are ineffective is this emphasis only on ideas that are implemented. Management has the most significant impact on whether an idea is actually implemented, and yet the individual employee only gets recognized (rewarded) if Management actually does something with the idea. Pretty soon, you train the employee to not bother.

Yes, yes, we can talk about establishing programs that empower the employee to take action, but that will be the subject for another article. I leave it for now with the assertion that such an approach is all well and good, but it has to start from the top, from defining the system, allocating the budget and time, and actively engaging in the program. This is one instance where “delegating” or “empowering” downwards is a bit of a cop out.

The National Association of Suggestion Systems (NASS), now known as the Employee Involvement Association (EIA), reports that the average employee suggestion returns about $7000 to the company in profit or savings. In the US, the implementation rate for employee suggestions is about 35%. In Japan that number is more than 70%. The total savings/earnings for companies and state agencies which have employee suggestion programs is in the billions. That’s billions with a “b.” Yet only 3% of companies in the US even have a suggestion program. Successful and sustainable ones are a fraction of that.

There are many spectacular stories of employee suggestions–American Airlines bought a Boeing 757 from the $55M in savings its annual IdeAAs in Flight program delivered–but thinking small in this instance has another positive effect…it creates access. From the Managing Director all the way down to the housekeeping and maintenance staff, anyone can submit an idea. A Managing Director may not be bothered with $5, but a janitor will submit tons of ideas if it means it’ll pay for lunch. Shoot, I’d submit an idea every single day!

Consider what just a few of the following ideas might save your company:

switch to mugs instead of disposable coffee cups
change to long-life lightbulbs
change printer defaults to double-sided printing
meeting moratorium Fridays
onsite car wash (vaccinations, oil change, etc)
workplace dry cleaning and laundry delivery services
onsite child daycare

Do any of these ideas directly impact your product or service? Probably not. But ask your COO or CFO if they care about their impact on operating margins (they will). Also consider that these handful of suggestions alone mean employees can focus on their work instead, which does impact your product or service. It also instills a culture that every employee has a chance to make a difference and it encourages creativity, which will translate in the way your employees approach their work.

Estimating the impact of such a program on morale and employee retention is extremely tricky and not likely to convince Management on the value of the program. So let’s say such a program retains just one employee. One single employee. I don’t think you’re asking anyone to make too much of a mental leap in accepting that this sort of program could save one employee. Estimating very conservatively, the cost of interviewing, hiring, and training an employee would easily be $50,000. For $50,000, you could fund 10,000 ideas (at $5 each). If ideas average about $7000 back to the company, that’s an additional $70,000. That’s already $120,000 right there.

Here’s my proposal, start an employee suggestion program at $5 an idea. Reward implemented ideas with an additional 0.5% of the total return back to the originating employee. Don’t be greedy, give a half percent back to the employee. You’d rather have 100% of 0? (that’s still zero) Or would you rather have 99.5% of the more than $2B which came from employee suggestions last year? (that’s still $1.99B).

For more reading on kaizen, check out these presentations:

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This post was inspired by an article forwarded to me by one of my team members. Thanks for jogging my memory, K.

EX Marks the Spot in Japanese Classifieds

2010-02-26T18:57:14Z

I lived in Japan for a few years and still maintain a few networks there. For a little while I even had some fair facility with the language. Well, at least enough to understand the original Dragonball anime (Dragonball Z was still manga at that time). This by no means makes me an expert–indeed I’m far from it–so please excuse the few liberties I take in generalizing my experience there.

Consider the five pillar categories of Classifieds: goods, autos, jobs, real estate, and services. Win any two of these, and you’ll probably win your Classifieds market. Let’s talk about goods and autos.

Goods in Japan = Electronics and Media (books, music, movies, and video games). Most mainstream users in the West will change technology every 2-3 years. Early adopters perhaps 6-9 months. Innovators 3-6. In Japan, technology changes every 30 days. 30 days! The Japanese consumer wants it compact, personalized, and jam-packed with every feature imaginable even if they aren’t going to use those features. It’s just good to know that biometric scanner is on your toaster if you ever need it.

The electronics mainstream in Japan is shifted to the left, closer to the early adopters and innovators. So there isn’t much of a market for second-hand electronics goods. By the time you tire of it and get around to selling it, next month’s crop of hot, new gadgets will be out and no one will bother with an old model.

The majority of used cars from Japan are actually exported. Some 1.5M cars were exported from Japan in 2007 (ref: Japanese Used Motor Vehicle Exporting Association). These are mostly to neighbors, namely Russia, New Zealand, and South East Asia.

So if second-hand goods don’t play well locally, what might a Japanese Classifieds strategy take? I can think of three:

exports
exchange
expat

Providing a Classifieds experience that simplifies the export process, for electronics or cars, will position that player well in the lead. These would include considerations like: payment escrow, car inspection/verification, export duties, and shipping. Further, this kind of play will require local expertise and a local sales team to bootstrap the business.

Video games rule. 32% of Japanese play video games regularly and spent about $2.5B in 2009. 64% of Americans play video games regularly and spent about $22B in 2009. (ref: Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association, Enterbrain magazine). That’s a whole lot of gaming. There are opportunities for an export market here, but this is complicated by compatibility issues as well as language translation problems in the games themselves. So perhaps an exchange/swap model is a viable Classifieds play.

Finally, there are about 2.2M registered expats in Japan (ref: Ministry of Justice). 40% of surveyed expats in Japan have income in excess of $200,000/year (ref: Expat Explorer survey). This is a potentially large and loyal market. Imagine a local offering available in several languages. This would be uniquely positioned to win loyal expat customers.

Traditional local Classifieds have not done well in Japan. There are several niche plays that could be an interesting play for a local Classifieds player in Japan: exports, exchanges, and expats.

Lost and Found in Tokyo

2010-02-26T18:57:51Z

If you lost $250 or your shiny new iPhone on a train in New York, what chance do you think you’d have of getting it back? Air-bound swine and Hell-popsicles come to mind. In Tokyo, I’d be shocked if you didn’t get it back.

That’s because Japan has an old culture of turning found items in to a government official. The law dates back as far as the early 8th century, and has been updated several times since, the most recent in 1958.

My information is very old–I have a call into the Tokyo Metropolitan Lost and Found Center, but translations are a bit tough–but more than 2 million items pass through the Tokyo Metropolitan Lost and Found warehouse, with more than 7500 items being turned in every day. Somewhere in excess of $35M in cash is turned in each year. Yes, that’s million with an “M.”

Items can range from bus passess, to umbrellas, to cellphones (their most popular item). Each item is meticulously catalogued and archived in the system. After six months, unclaimed items can go back to the finder or sold. Tokyo makes something between $4M-$5M each year from the sale of unclaimed items.

Don’t quote me on these exact numbers. My Japanese is pretty rusty (read: non-existent) and the clerk or officer helping me (can’t tell which) seemed a bit shaky on the numbers himself.

Part of the reason for this imprecision is that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department seems surprisingly low-tech. I mean no disrespect here. Perhaps this is simply the low-tech site they show to gaijin like me: http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/foreign/submenu.htm.

It seems to me that Tokyo Metropolitan is prime for a player to come in and create a national database and website to better catalog, track, and manage this vast inventory. The upside for such a venture? A tidy little Classifieds business for unclaimed items.

Future Directions
This model could easily be packaged and sold to metropolitan transit and police authorities anywhere. Take it a step further and integrate it with pawnbrokers to help police catch thieves at the point of sale. In Georgia, pawnbrokers are required to catalog items pawned/sold to them and report this in to the police. You know how this is done? Via spreadsheets and printouts. Now imagine a system where this is all online. A thief comes in to sell his stolen goods, as the pawnbroker enters the item into the system–via serial number presumably–it triggers an alert that is sent to a nearby squad car. As the thief steps out of the shop? Busted!

Now extend that same wonderful database into your SYI flow. I think that’s a pretty compelling feature that no other online marketplace currently offers.