I see Motorola are prepping 20-30 models for release in 2008; this comes days after Nokia announced plans to release about 30 models in the next 6 months.
How many models will they release in 2009?
Archive for November, 2007
Recently, I’ve noticed a lot more discussion about the mobile space. That’s understandable, a lot is happening. Thanks in part to the Android platform and the iPhone, the notion of the mobile as a computing device is becoming mainstream.
Mobile devices will become a dominant computing platform; but instead of simply taking the word of market reports, or my word, I’d like to take you back in time to shed some light on the future.
Just over a few decades ago, the world’s computing was largely provided by mainframe computers - the sort that look like white goods, only they weren’t white and you needed so many that they filled a whole room. By today’s standards, there weren’t too many mainframes about, probably because they cost so much and were so big.
Technology advanced, and for a lot less, you could buy a mini computer. Mini computers were a lot like mainframes except they were a lot smaller and a lot cheaper. You could afford to put one in every department in the university, in each branch of the bank, in each regional office in the company. More mini computers than mainframes were sold and I hear the 70s was a great time to be in the minicomputer business.
Mini computers were soon followed by the introduction of the personal computer, by companies like Apple and IBM. Being so small and so cheap, every household could afford one, and companies could afford to put one on the desk of every employee. Personal computers were everywhere, and all this cheap computing power meant mini computers were less important. Consequently, fewer and fewer mini computers were sold (until finally, none were sold.)
PCs are great, but you can’t take them with you. You can’t take them to your lecture, or away from the office to work at home. Maybe it’s for these reasons that notebooks outsell desktop PCs.
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In many ways mobile devices address the shortcomings of notebooks. Mobile devices fit in your pocket and are always on. You don’t need to carry your laptop everywhere to reach the web and email. Moreover, they make it more convenient to contact other people - there’s a phone built in!
Mobile devices are smaller and cheaper than notebooks. Just like notebooks influenced PCs (they outsell PCs) and PCs influenced mini computers (mini computers are dead) mobile devices will have an appreciable impact on notebooks and PCs in the years ahead.
Maybe that’s why I’m not surprised by the forecast that the size and growth of the smartphone market will exceed the notebook market for the next five years.
Here’s a cool technique I recently learned to make writing business plans easier, called Break It Down. It clarifies the tasks needed to execute your plan and the order you need to do them. In fact, you can adapt it to any project where you can’t keep all the parts in your head at once.
Kudos goes to the Frank Team for teaching this at their ACTIVATE workshop.
Begin by getting your team together to brainstorm all the tasks that lie ahead - shout them out as you think of them and write each task on its own card. It doesn’t matter what order you write them down, what matters is that you think of as many tasks as you can.
For instance your list might start like this: register the company, design the logo, obtain legal advice, set up the website, talk to potential customers to validate the idea, write a customer support policy etc.
When you’re done, write each milestone below on a separate card. (Your list of milestones might vary.)
- Idea
- Research
- Resources
- Design
- Develop
- Register
- Project
- Service
- Make
- Sell
- Growth
Line the milestone cards across the top of a table/white board/wall, and place the task cards underneath the most suitable milestone. For extra points, try to logically order the tasks underneath each milestone. Having everyone in a group agree in this step is easier said than done!
There you have it. You now have a visual plan that outlines the milestones ahead and a the tasks needed to reach each milestone.
We’ve been busy developing Gleemy for most of 2007, and in a few weeks, we’ll be inviting interested folk to begin using the BETA. If you’ve signed up already, then you’re on the list for the first round.
So, what is Gleemy?
Gleemy is an easy way to create, share, and find interactive media for mobile phones. Gleemy offers you online tools to customize and create your own unique piece of interactive media. We’ve made it easy for you to share your creations with friends. Browsing and installing content made by others is pretty simple too.
We’ll be blogging a lot more about Gleemy in the coming weeks, especially as the BETA approaches. Aside from Gleemy talk, expect us to chime in on mobile & web happenings, J2ME development, entrepreneurship, and anything else that blips the radar.
