Company Love

by CHRIS RIVARD :: SEP 16, 2008 :: COMMENTS (0)

Quick link to a BusinessWeek book review "How Great Design Makes People Love Your Company". I've been gravitating toward the concept that traditional marketing is (dare I say) dead. And the age of customer/user experience is upon us. Philosophically, I cannot think of any slice of marketing or business strategy that cannot be absorbed by big User Experience.

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No Nike+ for iPhone (e71 musings)

by CHRIS RIVARD :: SEP 13, 2008 :: COMMENTS (1)

Looks like some people are a little bit upset about this. My attitude has been changing toward Apple a bit over the past few months. I'll try to get a longer post up about where I think Apple is headed. It's quite an interesting time for service design. I think companies like Apple and Nike are definitely forging new ground.

I recently did my due diligence and settled on a Nokia e71, running the Symbian s60 platform. I replaced a Blackberry Curve which was working out okay, but like many users, I just wasn't feeling that I was getting everything that I wanted in my smartphone.

What to say about the e71 without gushing. It's been like an extension of my hand for the past three weeks. What have I been using it for specifically? Here is a short list:

• email of course - there are two modes, so when i check out of work (rarely), I can switch over and check my personal accounts, and not work. Simple, but it's actually a nice to disengage from the office sometimes... sometimes.
• internet radio - that's right. the e71 is 3G, GSM, WiFi, so i'm when I connect through a WiFi hotspot, I'm streaming music down. Connection management is not so great, but there is Psiloc Connect to take up the slack.
• following up to the WiFi and 3G, I can use JoikuSpot to set up a WLAN hotspot that other users can connect to - can you say - KILLER!
• Bluetooth syncing with iCal - right now in the office we're using Daylite as a CRM, synced to iCal, and Spanning Sync to sync iCal with Google Calendar - everything is on my phone. If I haven't synced, I can just check Google Calendar through the browser. The benefit of syncing is that I have alerts on the phone home screen.
• Fring - again, can you say KILLER! I'm making Skype out calls over the phone when connected to a WiFi network.
• Google Maps - GPS is baked in. Works fine for free.
• The browser is passable when reading nytimes and cnn for mobile. Flash will run through the Flash Lite - Realplayer is also built in and there is a mobile version of YouTube if you need to get your G4 fix. (not to fan the flames, but Apple is being sued for claiming that all web content is viewable through the iPhone - the e71 closes the deal on that claim)
• Media player is way ahead of the BB media player. Moving away from iPhone/iTunes will really make you think hard about all that DRM music you bought from iTunes. Yes, I'll admit it. I'm crying in my beer.

Those are the big benefits that I see of the e71 so far (other obvious ones being full qwerty keyboard and a massive replaceable battery). To bring this hurried post full circle. I recently downloaded Nokia SportsTracker. I'll post in a few weeks once I've used it on some runs and share my thoughts.

Some links:
http://sportstracker.nokia.com/
http://www.skyfire.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4VkGs_pXm0
http://www.joiku.com/
http://www.s60.com/life
http://www.fring.com

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