pinch/zoom

We're Hiring

2011-12-19T08:12:42-08:00

Come help us create the next generation of mobile products. We have a very busy year ahead and are looking for a variety of roles, including Mobile Designers, Mobile Developers (iOS and HTML5) and Account Directors.

If that sounds like you or someone you know, please email hello@pinchzoom.com and let us know!

Mobile in 2012

2012-01-03T11:27:50-08:00

Chetan Sharma has compiled a list of mobile predictions for 2012 from various industry thought leaders. Some very interesting insight into the year ahead. I’ve listed the top answers here:

What will be the biggest mobile stories of 2012?
- Continued growth of mobile data around the world
Who will be the most open player in the mobile ecosystem in 2012?
- Google (who has the reality distortion field now?)
What applications will define 4G?
- Video
What will be the breakthrough category in mobile in 2012?
- Mobile Payments
What will be the most popular consumer mobile applications in 2012?
- Mobile Payments & Commerce
Which will be the most dominant (unit sales) tablet platform in 2 years?
- Nearly a tie: iOS 45% Android 44%
Who will make the biggest mobile acquisition in 2012?
- Microsoft
How will the “Apps vs. Mobile Web” debate shape up in 2012?
- Mobile Web will start to become more relevant
Who will define the mobile payment/commerce space?
- Financial guys (e.g. Visa)
Which solutions will gain the most traction for managing mobile data broadband consumption?
- 4G
What will help mobile cloud computing gain traction in 2012?
- Enterprise, Storage & Media
Which enterprise segment will mobile impact the most?
- Retail
What will be the dominant revenue model for apps in 2012?
- Combination of revenue – in other words, no clear consensus
What mode of mobile payments will get traction in North America and Western Europe in 2012?
- Proximity based
What will be the most successful non-mobile-phone category in 2012?
- Tablet
Which of the following are likely to happen in the near future?
- Tablets become the leading Enterprise IT device
Which areas will feel the most impact from Regulators in 2012?
- Net Neutrality & Competitiveness
Who was the mobile person of the year?
- Steve Jobs

Over half of all Mobile Browsing happens on an iOS device

2012-01-03T08:42:59-08:00

iOS is still the titan of mobile browsing. Down from 54% in November and 61% in October. 25% coming from iPhone, 24% iPad and iPod touch just 2%. Android is just 16% coming mostly from phones.

Next month should be telling to see if holiday sales gives iOS a larger lead. And we’ll see if the Kindle Fire boosts Android’s overall web browsing percent.

Source: NetMarketshare

Joe Wikert interviews me about our new HTML5 mobile publishing...

2011-12-22T08:08:10-08:00

Joe Wikert interviews me about our new HTML5 mobile publishing platform pinch/zoom Press that we created to make mobile publishing easy.

Some of the highlights of the interview:

The platform consists of three different pieces of technology – A native app for iOS devices, a layout tool and a content management system. [Discussed at 1:50]
Why choose HTML5 rather than EPUB 3? – As flexible and powerful as EPUB is, it’s still not as platform agnostic as HTML5. Plus, every device comes with a web browser but not necessarily an EPUB reader. [Discussed at 2:56]
But it’s really “not about EPUB or HTML” – Don’t focus on the end client. It’s about understanding how your content is managed and about how your content is presented in a mixed platform world. [Discussed at 5:07]
Portability introduces some limitations – HTML5 is wonderful for portability and knowing that your product will render well on all platforms but it also means you might not have access to sensors, cameras and other potentially important device features. [Discussed at 7:20]
Native apps are here to stay – Yes, that means we’ll have to invest in apps across at least two platforms. The simple truth is the native app will probably always offer the best user experience for that particular platform. [Discussed at 10:40]
Pricing – pinch/zoom is leaning towards only charging for the content management system, and that’s likely to be a monthly fee. [Discussed at 19:45]

Hire "10x Teams" not 10 times the people

2011-12-19T10:20:10-08:00

A great post on the value of hiring “10x Teams” or teams that can scale beyond themselves, not just 10 times the people – or “butts in seats” as I refer to them. The idea is five of the right people is better spent than building one team of ten. That extraordinary people can do far more than regular people. And you should hire for the extraordinary.

My favorite part of this post is this diagram, which shows the qualities you need in a 10x Team. From my experience, this diagram is spot on for creating the perfect team that can solve really hard problems and create some pretty amazing shit.

I think we see this at a lot of great companies, but most clearly at Apple versus Microsoft or Google. Apple has created far better products with less resources than the competition. And now the market reflects that – Apple created 10x the value by hiring 10x Teams. Clearly the 10x Team model works.

Building a strong core team has always been a core principle of mine at each of my companies. That it is better to be focused, specialized and boutique rather than a big crank-it-out app factory. The problem in advanced markets like mobile, customers don’t always know what they want, so it can be hard for them to see the value of one versus the other.

So your small boutique firm ends up doing a bit of everything, because they are ethical and believe in building great products. But this also means while you have your A-Team, you’ve given them B-level work. So it doesn’t take long for your A-Team to feel like a B-Team.

This clearly doesn’t work, but fortunately goes away as the market matures. I think 2012 will be that year as we’ve already seen the signs in 2011.

Today I posted that we are looking to add to our family at pinch/zoom but let’s be clear: we are looking to continue to add to our existing 10x Team, we are not looking for 10 times the people.

We're Hiring Mobile Designers

2011-12-19T08:13:33-08:00

We are looking for mobile designers to help us create tomorrows amazing apps for some of the biggest brands on the planet. We are seeking designers based in Seattle with experience in creating pixel perfect designs, that can communicate creative strategy and approach, has experience working in a fast paced, agency environment and has an eye for interaction and usability.

We offer a great salary, health benefits, unlimited time off, profit sharing, generous time allotted for education and personal projects, learning opportunities aplenty, super flexible schedule, family friendly workplace and an unrivaled team of passionate people, dedicated to making great mobile products.

If that sounds like you or someone you know, please email hello@pinchzoom.com with your job history and links to work that you’ve done.

BBC iPlayer available for iPhone

2011-12-07T15:52:17-08:00

The pinch/zoom designed – and now award winning – BBC iPlayer is now available for iPhone in Europe, Australia and Canada:

Watch a selection of the best classic and contemporary British shows on demand, including Doctor Who, Top Gear and Gavin & Stacey. Subscribe today for unlimited access, offline viewing and AirPlay.

Now you can watch the best of British television pretty much anytime anywhere… except in the United States.

When I was making the series How TV Ruined Your Life, we went out and...

2011-12-02T10:29:50-08:00

When I was making the series How TV Ruined Your Life, we went out and asked members of the public to comment on a new invention we were claiming was real: a mobile phone that allowed you to call through time, so you could speak to people in the past or future. Many people thought it was real: not so much a testament to gullibility, but an indicator of just how magical today’s technology has become. We take miracles for granted on a daily basis.

Charlie Brooker on the dark side of gadget addiction.

Winner of Best Mobile App at Gizmodo Awards 2011

2011-12-02T10:25:47-08:00

We’re really excited that the pinchzoom designed BBC Global iPlayer app has just been awarded the Editor’s Choice award for the best mobile app of 2011. They commented that the interface is slick and easy to use, which was one of our goals throughout the design process. Congratulations to the BBC and the pinchzoom design team.

iOS vs. Android: Lots of stats, little clarity

2011-11-14T08:56:56-08:00

CNET seems about as frustrated as I am about iOS and Android stats:

There are lots of metrics you can use to compare the two platforms, with new factoids arriving daily – some of them direct from Apple and Google, but more from research firms and other third parties. I decided to gather some recent competitive numbers to see if considering all of them at once helped to clarify the competitive situation.

Here is the breakdown from his research:

Total devices in the field
- iOS: 250 million
- Android: 190 million
New devices sold daily
- iOS: 367,000
- Android: “a half-million” activations
Total smartphone ownership (US)
- iOS: 27.7%
- Android: 43.7%
Tablet sales (US)
- iOS: 66.6%
- Android: 26.9%
Web usage
- iOS: 58.5%
- Android: 31.9%
Available apps
- iOS: 500,000
- Android: 250,000
App downloads (this one seems fishy to both me and the writer)
- iOS: 31%
- Android: 44%
Smartphone Profits
- iOS: 52%
- Android: Unknown

Read the full post for sources

Hear Brian thoughts on what's next in Mobile

2011-12-18T12:05:28-08:00

I will be a guest speaker at Chetan Sharma’s upcoming Mobile Breakfast Series along with Mark Anderson, Satya Maliya and Laura Marriott. We will be talking about the highlights of 2011 and what we can expect from the mobile world in 2012.

Join us on December 14 for breakfast, here in Seattle

Book #2

2011-11-12T18:09:42-08:00

I have begun writing my second book. After I finished Mobile Design and Development I didn’t think that I would ever write another book again. It is a long and painful process with marginal rewards.

But something has changed.

When I wrote my first book I felt I had a duty to share my knowledge and experience in mobile. I don’t know to who exactly, but I wouldn’t say it was for me. Don’t get me wrong – I stand by my work and what I wrote – but there is a greater message that I wanted to convey back then, but didn’t feel I was in the place to communicate it.

I’ve debated writing a second book for two years now. I’ve learned a lot since writing MD&D and founding pinch/zoom and there is plenty of good stories and techniques to share. I have a lot of notes and ideas on how to write that book. But that still feels like scratching the surface to a much broader thing that is happening all around us.

For this book, I will continue to tackle the topic of mobile. But I have no desire to write another technical book. This book will be for people like me, who are trying to understand how mobile fits into the world we live in – what to do with it – how to harness mobile to change the world.

I believe that it is the greatest medium invented since the printing press. In this book I will explore why.
I believe that a new kind of art movement is happening as we speak. I will try to explain what it is and how it works.
I believe that most companies do not know how to innovative. I will explain how to use mobile to change that.
I believe the precepts of doing business in the information age are no longer relevant. I will explain a better way.
I believe that there is a new social currency in business today – a way to connect with customers. I will explain how to use mobile to take advantage of it.

At the heart of all of these transitions is mobile. I’ve seen it have a transformative impact on some of the biggest and oldest companies on the planet. I’ve seen geniuses become dumbfounded. I’ve seen great intentions fail miserably.

I want to explore and share those stories. I do not talk want to talk about the virtues of native apps or HTML5 apps – or any other irrelevant discussion that revolves around the technology of today. Mobile is no more about the technology, as the printing press was about paper.

Instead this book will be as much a manifesto of 21st century experiences as it is a guide to using century old tools to solve the problems of today, even the ones we may not be able to define yet. Or to use the words of Steve Jobs, to empower people to “stand at the intersection of technology and the humanities” for themselves.

I’ve decided to write this book in its entirety first before I decide on how to publish it. I may go back to O’Reilly. I may self publish. I just don’t know yet.

But for now all I do know is I have a lot of writing to do.

The Apple Bubble

2011-11-11T11:51:45-08:00

As I was reading this article this morning I came across this statement:

Apple has had a few knocks: the stock has been in decline on reports of lower unit sales in the next quarter, and user disgruntlement over ongoing battery issues with the new version of iOS.

Statements like this piss me off.

Asshat comments only help people lose perspective about how important the iPhone is to mobile. It completely ignores hard data. And gives people a false sense of understanding the goings-on within the mobile market.

Not a day goes by that I don’t see a link to an unfounded attack on the iPhone, iPad or Apple. Even though the data just doesn’t support these arguments. For example Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, said this in a statement

iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend—the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days.

4 million in the first weekend, from just the launch markets like the US. These are hard sales, that equals firm revenue, not activations or some other trumped up stat that doesn’t equate to anything but a self-serving press release. AND we are about to go into the historically biggest phone shopping season. AND there are still a lot of places in the world (like the largest markets of China, India and Brazil) that the iPhone 4S isn’t available yet, so the true sales potential of the iPhone 4S really hasn’t even been tapped yet.

This means that the iPhone 4S is the fastest selling phone… ever. In under a month Apple has sold more iPhone 4S’s than the most Android devices do in their entire lifetime!

If the iPhone 4S follows the same sales curve as the iPhone 4 (75 million so far) it is on track to being the best selling phone ever – the current record is 150 million which Nokia did with four devices – but unlike Nokia, it is entirely possible Apple can beat this record within a year of release.

However none of this phenomenal success or history-making sales seems to be understood by the press, which sadly has a direct impact on both the stock market and the perceptions in the mobile industry as a whole. It is like we have bubble economics around a single company instead of a market – fueled by speculation, uncertainty and lack of rationality in the face of clear and indisputable data.

The press seems intent on reporting on minor issues with the iPhone – that every device maker deals with – and blowing them completely out of proportion. We saw it with iPhone 4 Antennagate debacle. And now we are seeing it happen again with the iPhone 4S implying that battery issues is going to somehow spoil the iPhone 4S’s ascension, despite that Apple has always been incredibly proactive about replacing broken phones. Or speculating on iPhone sales numbers that for a quarter that hasn’t even happened yet? In what business world does that makes sense? Come to think of it aren’t there laws against doing that?

So why do I care? Why should you care?

Mobile isn’t cheap – native, HTML5, it doesn’t matter. Mobile is a hard problem to solve and therefore it can be very costly if not done properly. A lot of companies want a mobile solution, but simply can’t afford it. Cost has always been an obstacle of adoption for the last 10 years. The iPhone’s success changed that. It dramatically reduced the cost to get to market.

The iPhone is the perfect mobile design and development platform – meaning you can do a lot (again natively or with HTML5) very fast for not a lot of money. I’m not being biased, I’m just stating my professional observation from being in this industry a lot longer than most people. You are don’t get to be successful in mobile if you ignore the facts on the ground or only look at hard problems with rose-tinted glasses.

iHating, bad journalism and questionable data has created a perception in the market that other platforms and devices are equals to iOS – and they simply aren’t. At least not in anyway that you justify in business like customer demand, cost of development, time to market, market size, addressable market, etc. (again not trying to be biased here, just a little homework and Business 101).

This effect actually has a name in economics. It isn’t a bubble, it is actually called a market distortion:

A market distortion is any event in which a market reaches a market clearing price for an item that is substantially different from the price that a market would achieve while operating under conditions of perfect competition

In other words, bad press can make companies believe that there is “perfect competition” in the mobile market – that all the players have an equal chance of being successful – that the market will eventually be a two, maybe three horse race with nearly identical offerings. But there isn’t really any data to suggest this – at least not yet. This creates a market distortion-like effect where false perceptions become reality.

This means companies are spending money that they probably shouldn’t. They are diverting valuable time and resources to areas that are not likely to make a substantial contribution to the business. And worse of all, they are making sacrifices to the customer experience on false hopes, promises and without proper justification.

This pisses me off. Not as an “Apple guy,” or as an industry expert, or an agency owner, but as a person that believes the mobile medium is the greatest invention mankind has seen since the printing press. I spend every waking hour trying to push the medium – one small step at a time – to reach its full potential.

Every time I see dumb-ass statements like the one above, we take a step back.

-Brian

Flash for Mobile is Dead

2011-11-09T10:29:32-08:00

It looks like Adobe has finally killed Flash on mobile devices:

We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations.

They state that they will however continue enabling Flash developers to package native apps use Adobe AIR.

Back in 2005 my sources told me that Adobe (a pinch/zoom client) purchased Macromedia for $3.4 billion largely to acquire Flash Lite, hoping to build it as a platform for the next generation of mobile devices.

In the six years since no device maker has been able to meet the increasingly high consumer expectations of mobile experiences using Flash. Leaving Adobe with an expensive investment that the tech of the day couldn’t support.

But given that Adobe has recently redoubled their efforts toward HTML5, I think this move makes complete sense for them and for the industry. This will allow Adobe a greater focus on HTML5 publishing and tools, which the industry is sorely lacking.

We are clearly seeing a shift towards consolidating the mobile platforms of the ecosystem. A good thing for brands, developers and consumers.

Good onya for Adobe to take the lead here. It couldn’t have been an easy decision for them.

Android math just doesn't compute

2011-11-07T08:02:30-08:00

What if I told you that you shouldn’t support Android?

…that there isn’t a single Android device that maintains double digit marketshare?
…that less than 20% of your customers will use an Android device?
…that over half of all Android devices are out of date before they hit the market?
…that 85% of all Android devices can’t run the most recent version of the platform?
…that you should not use the same HTML5 mobile app for both iOS and Android?
…that supporting even a small subset of Android devices can triple the time it takes to get your product to market?

Let me put it another way…

For an unknown multiplication of cost you can have a solution – for the minority of your market – that maybe works about half the time.

Let me even put it yet another way, in mathematics…

((effort x cost) x market share) ÷ addressable market = Android

What if after you calculate the formula that the Android math just doesn’t compute, would you still choose to support Android?

I have my own data and my own answers, but I urge you to find your own.

Designing Mobile Experiences @ SIC2011

2011-11-05T09:14:58-07:00

Had the fantastic opportunity to speak at the Seattle Interactive Conference (SIC2011) this week. It was really awesome to see a big interactive conference hit Seattle again!

I tried a different tack with my talk this time. I started by defining mobile experiences as not just design, or Photoshop, but the holistic experience that the user will encounter in wildly different contexts. I explained that the traditional tools of interactive design (wireframes, comps, even Basecamp) are no longer sufficient to communicate the complex concepts that mobile presents the business and the user.

I explained the challenges of mobile design from the perspective of the innovators dilemma and how to use the diffusion of innovation model to bring customers along with you on your mobile journey, instead of focusing on the challenges of technology.

From there diving into a few examples of how some companies are using my golden triangle (business, technical and user needs) to solve the mobile problem, as well as sharing some of the intimate and tough life lessons I’ve learned along the way.

But I will let you take a peek at my slides for yourself…

I don’t rehearse my talks, and I often put my slides together about 12 hours before I go on stage. For this one I assembled my presentation about two hours before. Most people think I’m crazy for doing it this way, and it has bitten me in the ass more than once. But my process allows me to improvise my talk a bit more. Adjusting pacing and content while on stage to draw the audience in, which can be vastly different per event.

So for a first time talk, I ended up being about 10-15 minutes short (and even then I think I ran long), so I had to speed through the last part (basically it is an 60 minute talk, not a 45 minutes).

But I was really pleased with the positive response from attendees and on Twitter. The mix of shared expertise, industry examples, and an honest deconstruction of effectiveness seemed to worked well. Everyone was very respectful and focused on the presentation (very few open laptops).

At a time when I thought I was starting to be going too deep (or not deep enough) on the mobile topic, it was great to have such an awesome connection with the audience …a reminder of why I love Seattle so much.

…and I only dropped two F-bombs! A personal best!

Here this what some of the attendees had to say about my talk…

@neocam Deconstructing Mobile Design Experiences – Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication –@fling
@JoeDucksUO “Mobile is really f*cking hard!” -@fling Appreciate the passion
@TChillous “Users expect a lot more” -@fling
@thejuliest Phones are about the simple task, typically no more than 5 minutes. –@fling wish there had been more time!
@cmoller really loved the SIC2011 presentation.
@divinefusion Best presentation yet at SIC2011
@PamLamon Great presentation. So much great info! Wish the presentation was longer.
@lonnon Fantastic presentation by Brian Fling on designing mobile experiences. Wish he’d had more time for the bits he skipped.
@divinefusion I could have spent all day in his session
@SydneyChase Excellent mobile design experience session
@AbdullahDiaa AWESOME presentation about Designing mobile experiences
@con_car loved the triangle feat. business, user and technical goals for the mobile experience
@DesignEpiphany Very nice! One of my favorite sessions at SIC.

Thank you to everyone who attended for their kind words online and off. I can’t tell you how encouraging it is to hear.

(Photo by @JoeDucksUO)

Apple's Supply-Chain Secrets

2011-11-04T11:45:20-07:00

Great Business Week article on how Apple used amazing supply chain tactics to become one of the most valuable companies in the world:

Apple’s enormous profits—its gross margins were 40 percent last quarter, compared with 10 to 20 percent for most other hardware companies—are in large part due to this focus on operations, which is sure to remain a priority under Cook. The new CEO is known to give colleagues copies of Competing Against Time, a book about using supply chains as a strategic weapon in business. According to Martin, the logistics executive, Cook uses a catchphrase to hammer home the need for efficiency: “Nobody wants to buy sour milk.”

Mobile Platform Marketshare for October 2011

2011-11-04T08:00:50-07:00

When looking to understand mobile platform marketshare and what devices to support, forget press releases about device sales and activations. The only number that matters is actual usage. App usage data is often unreliable, so actual devices accessing the Internet is always the best indicator of actual platform usage.

For October 2011 here is how each of the mobile platforms fared according to NetMarketshare

61.50% iOS
18.86% Android
12.81% Java ME (aka old Feature Phones)
3.47% Symbian
2.48% BlackBerry
0.23% Windows Phone
0.20% Windows Phone
0.18% Samsung
0.14% Bada
0.10% BREW
0.03% LG

In other words if you had $100,000 to spend in 2012 on a global mobile strategy:

$62,000 should be spent focusing on an iOS strategy
$20,000 dealing with Android
$18,000 on a simple mobile website (not an HTML5 mobile site)

On the Brink of a Networked Society

2011-11-04T07:08:19-07:00

Ericsson has released a beautifully produced video on future of connected society and what that means, told through the lens of several modern day companies and thought leaders.

It is a long video, but worth a watch for those interested in where everything is going.

Some of the notes & quotes I pulled out of the video:

We’ve just seen the beginning of the connected society
Anything that can have a chip in it, will have a chip in it
It is going to be a very very different world
We are the last generation that grew up in a dumb society
Suddenly anyone can reach the end consumer via their mobile phone
If you see a four year old child with a television, they will pinch it. Because that is their expectation on the screen
57% talk more online than in real life
48% of 18 to 34 year olds check Facebook first thing in the morning
1 out of 6 married couples met online
Kids aged 8 to 18 spend more than 7.5 hours a day with mobile devices
One in five global mobile subscribers has access to fast Mobile Internet
Mobile searches have quadrupled in the last year
By 2014, Mobile Internet will take over desktop Internet usage
By 2020, more than 50 billion devices will be connected
All of the devices that we make today have the potential to communicate with each other and have a reason to do it
Instead of having tools that are dumb and we just use, we can give the tools instructions and the tools can then be independent more easily. [The tools] will understand a bit about the world around them
We are at the lightbulb stage of the Internet. The implications of a connected world is just beginning
Think how far we’ve come in just 15 years of the Internet
It will change much more in the next 10 years than it did in the last 50 years
Buckle up. It is going to be an interesting ride.

Can you outsource obsession?

2011-11-01T13:04:23-07:00

Our good friends at Creative Good (who we worked with on the BBC iPlayer) make a great statement of the importance of user experience today:

To succeed today, with a mobile app or otherwise, you’ve got to be obsessed with what your customers go through. Call it the user experience, the customer experience, the ideation-info-architectural-construct, whatever: it’s that delight-or-plight of your users that you must obsess over.

However I disagree with the conclusion that obsession can’t be outsourced:

Sure, you could outsource it to someone else – on the team, or outside. But it won’t work. You can’t outsource obsession. If the very future of your company depends on delivering a good experience, then you have to care about it as much as – no, more than – anyone else on the team.

I think obsession and perfectionism has to be taught. Some of my most successful client products were the ones where I was more passionate and obsessed about the product than the client. That I – as an outsider – obsessively drive the client to do better. And rightly so, I know what their product could be, they don’t. It was my job to help them see it.

I don’t think the craft of user experience is not unlike the sculptor that sees a sculpture trapped within a block of granite, or an artist that sees a masterpiece on blank canvas. We create a behavioral and cognitive experience that didn’t exist before. It is an art form.

However unlike artists, it isn’t enough to just do, it is our job to teach others how to see the product the way we do. They need to understand what is possible, what to look for, what makes it good? what makes it bad? Chances are when it comes to mobile, they honestly don’t know.

Clients need to learn in order to become obsessed.

Just as the role of user experience is changing – or more specifically is becoming more defined – so is the role of the consultant/agency/vendor what-ever – we need to be great teachers, not just great do-ers.

Helping to clients to both see the masterpiece in the granite as well as listen to what people think about it.