Results of an interview

Before I start, let me first state that this is NOT a representative sample of Americans. Nothing could be further from the truth. This would be results of a convenience sample of americans and possibly bulgarians who have chosen to come work in yellowstone for the summer.

I had an informal interview with Kevan Kimm of Washington yesterday, and the interesting thing was that Personal usage was the most important reason why he had a mobile phone. He didn't bring it up to yellowstone because the network operator did not have coverage in yellowstone. Apparently, in my area the only operator with reliable coverage is Verizon and possibly AT&T. Another reason for having a mobile phone was for "official purposes" e.g. to remain contactable should he have to travel away from home for long periods and a prospective employer calls.

Features used on the mobile phone: Almost purely voice.
He knows of some of the features available e.g. sms, downloading ringtones etc but seldom uses them.
Also, he is aware that newer phones have cameras, web surfing ability etc but price is an important reason for not getting the phones.

As it was purely an informal interview without any set questions, I shall have to leave it at that, more another time as I try to get my survey questions emailed to me.

In the middle of Yellowstone

Internet addiction takes on a whole new meaning here.
Internet time is carefully rationed out, and people sign up once every three days, for half an hour each time.
Staying here makes me appreciate how "connected" life in Singapore really is.
Although I do see people talking on their mobile phones, I haven't heard a single handphone go off during my 2 weeks here.

Had a chance to talk to Preston who's an American and the only reason he got a handphone was because he would be working in Yellowstone until October. I have a feeling he's not representative of the general American population but then again, America's a large country with many people and the "average" American might not really be that "average" after all.

In the meantime, the book "The Inmates are Running the Asylum" is pretty interesting and makes me further appreciate the idea of pattern design., which I have already blogged about.

I'm waiting for Jessica to finish the other book so that we can swap around and I can get started on the other book about M-commerce which I feel is probably pretty relevant as to how technology can be used.

Also, I've already gotten another person to agree to a short interview for research purposes, but I've got to find questions to ask Eddie first.... Time to get the brain working again. More stuff about OoBE, user experiences and expectations, willingness to pay etc etc...

Oh well, my half an hour's pretty much up, so I guess I'll post some stuff from the interviews when I get the data.

Thoughts from Pacific Coffee @ Citylink

Telecoms think that they are winning by increasing # of connections as evidenced by regular reports of growth measured by market share and the # of new subscribers. They might even use this "method" of measuring success for 3G. A reliable source (Joanne's Sister) informs us that among the 18+ age group, 3G is a "sure to happen thing" and in fact, most of them intend for their next phone to be a 3g phone. Joanne's sister has one, if I'm not mistaken. So here's my prediction. Soon, we will be seeing "3G succeeds" as claimed by the telcos. New signups and "converts" to 3G are likely to come in large numbers.

But does mere possession of a 3G sim card & 3G phone automatically classify one as a 3g user, or even a profitable customer? After all, SingTel has priced video calls at the same rate as normal voice calls. Sure, 3G is supposed to be more efficient than 2.5g, but it’s hard to believe that the efficiency gains will be enough to fully offset the additional "space" required by a full video call.

Also, I haven't had the chance to use 3G yet but I'm guessing that with continuous video, battery life probably won't be fantastic. It’s already crappy enough with just voice. And yes, I'm one of those people who will just feel "weird" without a handphone. I have no idea how I'm going to survive 2 1/2 months in Yellowstone National Park. Guess I'll try to get a prepaid card. Reception ranges from good to non-existent so I just hope I'm lucky enough to get a work location with respectable reception.

Internet Access is also limited; it’s not like Morey's Piers with its wireless LAN. This means fewer updates for this blog, although research will probably carry on in the form of readings & discussions. Also, I might be able to get some "international data" as many students from different countries will be working there as well. Results will probably be posted here, albeit with a FYP-ish view. Yes, assuming ceteris paribus, I'll be in my final year once the new semester commences. My "term" as a URECA scholar will have ended, but as it is up to now it’s been great. Wouldn't have missed it for anything although juggling URECA & a minor was hell at times. Oh well, URECA's ending and on the 19th of this month I'll know if my minor has been successfully completed... All in a sem's work. Wish me luck!

Exams are over, back to business...

Well, kind of. Spent almost 2 hours at Orchard Kinokuniya yesterday at the IT Management pillar. Moved over to the IT pillar for awhile but thats too techie for me so I went back to IT Management which is a pretty new section (I think). Picked up 4 books:

1. Conquering the Wireless World - The Age of M-Commerce
2. Business @ the Speed of Stupid
   
3. The Get-Started Guide to M-Commerce and Mobile Technology
4. The Inmates are Running the Asylum (Recommended by Hilda)

Of which, 1 & 2 are pretty old (2001 Material) so they aren't really that relevant right now, but some of the segmenting mistakes etc are well documented. Also, it helps to see where people wanted to go at the time. Some still holds true though.

3 Is a Book about how to get started, including some of the important stuff businesses must make use of to be successful, and 4 is an interesting book on design errors.

I actually was interested in another book about Technology Misalignment but that isn't really that relevant right now. I browsed through and it was about how businesses should stop using technology for the sake of using technology. I guess most businesses should have realised that by now.

Oh well, I guess I'll post more when I start reading seriously.
Til next time,
Ivan

Motorola and iRadio

To justify my claims and prove that I HAVE been reading all I say I have, heres a post on iRadio...

Well well, what a surprise. iRadio is supposed to let customers download songs from their computers to their mobile phones and play the songs using their car radios. Supposedly, we'll be able to get 10 hours of music that way. Brilliant. Or is it? Kind of reminds me of an article I read earlier about how profits move upstream as products get commoditized.

But I digress. More about the iRadio first. Instinct tells me that the telcos probably aren't going to be too happy with the new Motorola phones. On one hand, they're trying to push 3G. However, in transferring music from their computer, users get to bypass telcos completely. Which probably isn't too healthy for the telephone company's profits.

Oh well, back to the main thing... so Motorola has identified a potential market in that almost everyone has a phone. Who DOSEN'T know that? The thing is, whether they consciously realise it or not, they have also considered the fact that almost everyone in their target market with a phone also has a computer and the clincher would probably be unlimited internet access.

If you give consumers the choice of channels to receive their media from, would they choose the free one or the one they have to pay for? Of course, in this case the one consumers have to pay for grants convenience in the fact that they can choose their songs while on the move. Why specifically for cars in this case then? Well... last time I checked you weren't supposed to use your mobile phone while driving. Imagine the following scenario where a TP (Traffic Police, not Toilet Paper) pulls you over:

TP: "Why were you SMS-ing while driving?"

You: "But I wasn't! I was downloading music to my mobile phone!"

TP: "Oh that makes it alright then, go along now..."

As if that's ever going to happen in real life. But the thing is, if you can store 10 hours of music, barring battery life considerations I'd trade in my mobile phone and mp3 player for a new motorola phone even though I rarely get to drive (Dad if you're reading this I'm not complaining.)

Also, while mobility is great, do we really WANT to choose songs on the move? perhaps a songlist compiled beforehand and streamed directly to our 3G handsets would be more appropriate. Why not an uncontrolled playlist of random songs according to your liking? Oh wait, they already have that. Its called Radio.

Online gamer stabs another for selling his online weapon.

Supposedly, A & B jointly won a ''dragon sabre" in an online game & lent it to C, who promptly sold it for US$870. Which begs the question: why would anyone lend someone (least of all a competitor) something that valuable without having at least some sort of guarantee?

But I digress... What has this article got to do with my research anyway? Well, consider the following facts.

"A went to the police to report the "theft" but was told the weapon was not real property protected by law"

essentially, this means that C was stabbed to death over something which isn't even recognized as property by the law. 1's & 0's generated by a game server somewhere actually have a value of $870? Even enough to kill for? Why?

Which brings up the idea that value is a human construct. Cost can be measured in monetary terms, but value? Thats a totally different basket of (insert preferred seafood here). Lets take the purchaser of the dragon sabre as an example. The actual cost to him/her is US$870(Surprise Surprise). What did the buyer receive? Well, a bunch of 1's & 0's stored on a game server Somewhere which can be accessed when the buyer feels like it. The value derived isn't that easy To quantify Though. the enjoyment & fun derived from gleefully murdering other online gamers can probably be summed up in a parody of the advertisement:

• · Setting up new game account - $65

• · Purchase Dragon Sabre online - $870

• · Killing your irritating neighbour in an online game - PRICELESS

Value, dear readers, is something exceedingly difficult to grasp.
Which is something I'll probably elaborate on further as I foresee plenty of long bus trips in the near future.

Podcasting and Skypecasting

Having picked up the idea of pocasting from mrbrown's website, CNet introduced me to a new phenomenon-skypecasting. Apparently, certain skype users have been using skype To record "skypecasts" which they then distribute using the skype network. While this may sound fun, it means that somebody could be recording those calls you made on the net without having to go to the trouble of physically tapping your phone line. It gets worse if the other party has paid for skype's net-phone service that allows calls to regular phones. While having someone tape your conversations is nothing new, not everyone owns a telephone recording device. A computer? Now we're seeing a jump in numbers. Invasion of privacy it may not be, but the next time I get a skype call I just might not answer. Anyone up for a nice old-fashioned FTF (Face 2 Face) conversation over a kopi ?

Results of the Poster Design Competition

Oh well, thought I'd write about the URECA experience.
Dinner wasn't too bad, you can see all the NBS poster designers plus Carol and Joseph below. (Guess which one's me? haha...)

The NBS Poster Designers at the Appreciation Dinner

Well... I managed a 32nd Position! Not too bad considering the prize is a $250 phone plus $125 cash for Prof Lee Gilbert. And its out of 108 entries too.
And yes and you can see I've finally managed to get pictures up. Picasa2 and hello bloggerbot are great programs, recommended anytime. Mobile blogging on a PDA is great, but these 2 programs take the html editing hassle out of everything. Just a small comment though.
#1. If you publish directly from Hello, the time will be the default server time and not your local time.

#2. You'll have to get back to blogspot in your browser to edit any posts or they'll just end up as photos.
Ah well, more on that another time

Convergence

So yes here I am again blogging. At the MOELC (Ministry of Education Language Centre) where there's no wireless network, so saving this stuff into memory's going to have to suffice for now. Just read an avantgo cnet article on convergence with respect to the gaming market in the shape of Sony's new PSP. Supposedly, it brings convergence to a whole new level, saving pocket space by integrating games and media into one device. With built-in wireless networking capability, theoretically there's so much more the PSP can do. However, the article closed off by noting a barrrer to adoption in the form of Sony's proprietary media format - UMD. To watch movies on the PSP, users will have to pay about US$20 because the standard DVD is not supported. Which brings to mind this: what do users really want from their converged devices? Perhaps its because I stay in Singapore where commute time rarely if ever exceeds 3 minutes. In larger countries where commute time is longer, this could be a great device. However, there are a few problems which might crop up. Battery life for one. If a converged device has a battery life of 5 hours, would you accept that 5 hours of battery life from your handphone? I think not but there are always exceptions. Secondly, just try watching a movie on a crowded bus/train...