HTC Desire Review: The Digitall and the Digicool

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Scott Gould

I spent some time recently with the HTC Desire with my new reviewer hat on, not just wanting to say how I feel products are, but also how they affect our lives. Right now, I am using an old style phone, you know – the ones without predictive text, internet, and touch screens – and it is amazing to see how many habits I have picked up because I’ve been using the iPhone for two years.

So I think it stands to reason that by reviewing technology, we’ll get a better handle on how it’s changing how we communicate and how our minds are working.

The Digitall and the Digicool

I did two reviews for this phone, one with me (a Digitall), and one with my friend Anya (a Digicool). If you don’t know what I mean by these phrases, check out this post where I lay out four profiles of digital users. In short, a Digitall is someone who users the latest digital devices for all they do – your typical innovator and early adopter, like me. Digicool is someone who uses new digital technology because it’s cool, it’s current, and makes financial commitments based on lifestyle and the fashion status of digital devices. So let’s being:

The Digitall Review

So let’s deal with the elephant in the room: as I held it for the first time it felt like an iPhone clone. This of course isn’t true – Apple didn’t invent the touch screen, and the app based view has been around for at least 10 years with the Nokia Communicator – but the iPhone did make touch popular and they canonised many of the ‘laws of touchscreen’ like the gestures, how it should feel and respond, etc.

This is undoubtedly an issue for any touch screen smart phone, because the moment you being to use pinch and zoom, you feel like you’re copying the iPhone. So with the Desire, I felt that whilst some things were similar to the iPhone, others were totally different, as if they on purpose said “let’s make that different so that we’re not the same as the iPhone.” (This is detrimental, and part of the reason why I’m excited about Windows Phone 7 which appears to have created a new UI and way to engage with your phone.)

Another example of this is the fact that a touch screen phone has 5 physical buttons, which confused me beyond belief. I can’t understand why we have to be confused like this – either make it all on the screen (even the iPhone’s top button confuse some people), or make it buttons. Don’t confuse us.

On the other hand, what I really liked when using the HTC Desire for the first time was the beginning tutorial – genius. Helping someone quickly learn how to use your phone is an excellent idea. Trouble is, there are no online videos to back this up (or if there are, I couldn’t find them in 2 searches.) What I totally lacked is a support network to get into this phone. This is an important point for anyone these days. The product is not enough. We need warmth as well as light.

The Digicool Review

So Anya really liked the HTC Desire. What she didn’t like was how long it takes to learn it. After over a week with the phone, she still wasn’t comfortable with it. Having said this, she was fond of the customisable home screens.

The big selling point for the HTC Desire is how customisable it is. Considering I couldn’t find any videos on HOW to customise the phone, HTC have failed in my opinion. My friend Tendai tells me that “if you read the manual, you’ll learn how to use the phone.” You don’t need to say how much that statement tells us about the poor usability and support. If you need a manual or guidance, then the product won’t last in today’s market - a lesson I’ve learnt recently with Like Minds this month.

Anya seemed happy to plug away with it – in a trail and error kind of way – but she didn’t read the manual. I guess I had forgotten about trial and error because I haven’t had a new phone in so long. Now that I have this awful little £10 phone (because my iPhone broke), I’m seeing how horrible it is to have to learn how to use a device again.

What both Anya and I both liked was the Google integration. Our contacts, calendars and email were all synced with one entry of my email and password, without any further options. This is a beautiful thing, and it’s a shame that the rest of the phone doesn’t employ this same ease of use when it comes to settings.

The biggest clincher for Anya though was the price. It’s a very competitive option (both on the price of the handset and the monthly tariff) when compared to the rip off price of the iPhone. If HTC do win, it’s because they’ve done a good job here and they tie into people who just can’t afford £50+ a month on a contract or a £500 handset.

Bonus: A Pirate Review

If you want a far more in-depth review from someone who really knows there stuff, check out the review by my friend Glenn Le Santo. Glenn’s a bit of a pirate and a fantastic writer, and his take is very insightful and useful if you are considering the Desire as an option.

Your Leading Thoughts

First of all, if you do own an HTC Desire feel free to speak now and balance this review out. By no means is this complete at all and I’m sure I’ve missed a lot.
Secondly, what do you think in general about phone user interfaces? Think back to how phones were to how they are now. How you would you like them to ideally work?
Thirdly, how has your phone changed your habits and defined your life?

Your Business, Ubiquitous

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Scott Gould

The idea of having your business everywhere might not be the ideal for everyone, but for businesses that are building communities, offering servies, or leading tribes, we have to discuss ubiquitous business.

With the virtual/physical, online/offline worlds becoming so merged together, not only through the mobile, but through other home media devices, advertising, in store displays, and so on, there are new opportunities for your business to be at the water cooler – to be where conversations are taking place, capture and showcase those conversations and make something out of them, and actually provide your services to your customers when they are using these devices and be ‘the elbow of the deal’.

Where are People?

To do this, we need to answer the question, where are people? Not just “which social networks are they on?”, but where are people online, offline? For example, football fans at a game. People on the bus. In fact, where are they offline, like on the underground, where they can take what was gotten online, offline with them?

Where is not just a spatial term, it is a time term, an emotional term, a participatory term. We need to deeply understand our customer to really know where they are.

Once you know where they are, how can you get there? How can you socialise the channels that you use in order to get your content and service there?

A fine example is Absolute Radio, who take their Baddiel and Skinner radio show and turn it into a podcast, live stream, iPhone app, Nokia app, Sony Ericson app, etc. It’s a great move by them, because when someone can’t be online, the content has been put offline on their mobile device, which they use to listen to the podcasts in all those empty spaces throughout the day.

I consider their app-driven approach all the more pertinent as apps will take over browser use on mobile devices. When you’re using the iPad, you’ll quickly note how much nicer it is to use an app in many cases, than using the browser version, even on a desktop. (Full review of this here.)

Another way to be where people are is by having a platform that is trans-platform, i.e., it cross all other platforms. Absolute Radio touch on this above by having their content on multiple channels, however those channels are fixed. I’m really talking about the concept of a hashtag as a platform.

I was quoted in AdWeek last week, in a peice called ‘Learning to Speak on the Social Web‘ (penned by my friend Neal Rodriguez), where I described that the hashtag is a trans-platform platform, that means the platform exists where ever it is used. Ubquity comes through this, because we can tag anything that we say or do with “#likeminds”, and it becomes part of the platform.

What About Location Gaming?

There’s a big discussion to be had here (my fiend Carl Haggerty most recently adding some interesting thoughts), and many of the points are obvious: “people can check into your locations”, “people can see you exist when visiting your town”, etc etc.

Let’s answer the where question on this instead. Where are people? They are on their phones, when they go into any area that warrants a check in.

Do these people use it to find new places? No. They only use it to check into places.

Your Leading Thoughts

Let’s begin by asking ourselves the question: where are you?
What kind of services to you want to be ubiquitous? Do you want services to be with you, where ever you go?

Photo courtesy of ViaMoi

The Problem With ‘The Last Tweet Of 2009′

Posted on December 28, 2009 by Scott Gould

I’ve been seeing lots of Businesses on Twitter saying “this is our last tweet of 2009″, mostly around December 22/23 – before the office closes for two weeks.

Given that Twitter is more about augmented reality than blogging (it’s even changed in some circles from ‘micro-blogging’ to ‘micro-media’), then isn’t saying “this is our last tweet of 2009″ like saying “this is our last conversation of 2009″?

Whilst you might say “this is my last blog post of 2009″, blogging isn’t the same as conversation, so when I see tweets like this, I realise there is a fundamental misunderstanding about Twitter’s use as a platform for ongoing conversation.

In my opinion, this suggests that conversation ends for special occasions, that we cease to talk to one another because it’s the New Yew, or a bank holiday. But the reality is that it is on holidays like Christmas that we talk more, so then why put Twitter away?

I faced this challenge myself on Christmas Day. Should I tweet, or not? Well, if tweeting is like work, then yes I should consider not tweeting. But if Twitter is augmenting my reality, and extending my relationships from just being those in close proximity, then why not wish Merry Christmas to people around the world through Twitter and Facebook?

Do you not use a mobile phone to text people on Christmas, or even call them? I’m not saying you don’t pay more attention to the people you’re spending the day with – but I wonder why many of us have this rather inconsistent and incongruent view.

The future is not set for less augmentation, but more. I certainly felt a few years ago that texting on Christmas day was somewhat rude, but now it’s common place. Should businesses, then, begin thinking like this too?

Perhaps you have a thought to add here?

Lift The Restrictions

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Scott Gould

Last week I attended the launch night of Carluccio’s in Exeter. I got to talking with the PR guys who had handled the event about my freshly released New PR in 2010 framework, and to illustrate the point, I conducted a little test. I quickly tweeted if anyone had anything to ask the people at Carluccio’s, and within seconds I had responses that kept coming for ten minutes or so. I was able to show to the PR guys that there had firstly already been a conversation about Carluccio’s taking place earlier that day, and that I was able to obtain instant reviews and carry out realtime customer service, with very little effort. You can see the tweets here.

Today I want to show why real time micro media is so important, using my framework from last week.

The model above illustrates the link between spreadability and relevance, measured from static to dynamic. My point is that as technology advances, existing technologies become more static. This means that the difference between static and dynamic is comparative between old and new technology.

As I did last week, let’s take TV as our example. Initially, TV was exceptionally dynamic in comparison to radio and/or theatre. Theatre was fixed to a location, and radio was fixed to a single sense. Television lifted these restrictions by providing entertainment and information without the need to be at the source and instead allowing access from the comfort of your own home, and without the need to supplement what was heard with images produced in their own imagination. Previously, location was governed; now location was guided because individuals could be entertained and informed wherever the user desired (to a certain degree.)

As tapes, and later DVDs, were introduced, this newer technology made TV in its existing form more less dynamic and more static. The medium of tape allowed people to record programmes and play them when they desired to, as well as hiring or purchasing other recorded videos. This lifted the restriction of time, because the viewer no longer had to watch when the programme was aired. Time had previously been governed, but now it was only guided. And so it continues:

Cable and satellite increased the number and therefore lifted the restriction of channels, and increased variety. At this point, terrestrial television became, like, so last season. And again, the number of channels means that the choice is less governed and more guided.
Built in DVD, VCR, Freeview, etc, lift the restriction of dependencies, because they are built into the device.
Hard drive recording on satellite and cable devices lift storage restrictions.
IP TV lifts device restrictions, as you now watch the programmes on your laptop, mobile phone, etc.
YouTube lifts even further time, device and channel restrictions.

Track back over each of these iterations of television and you will also note that each advancement increases the spreadability (ease of access, ease of use, ease to share) of television by becoming more dynamic, more customised, and therefore, more personal. And with each restriction that is lifted by the enabling of new technology, the less governed and more guided it becomes.

The more dynamic and therefore personal a technology is, the more spreadable it becomes.

Applying This To Small Business

I’ve said it again, and again, and again, that mobile technology will merge offline and online together. Recently the User Experience consultant Darren Smith wrote about Foursquare and the ubiquitous world of the future, and how social media technology is enabling real life interaction. I totally agree.

As in Darren’s article, as per my test at Carluccio’s, as well as the recent Exeter Tweetup, and in running Like Minds, real time micro media is a shinning example of guidance over governance, and the resulted spreadability, and the convergence of two opposites of on- and off-line becoming one.

This isn’t for everyone. But for the innovative few out there: by customising your offering through being more personal and more dynamic, by lifting the restrictions that your static competitors fix their customers to, you gain market differentiation and offering a far more compelling experience by creating an alternate, dynamic reality from the existing static one.

Phew! Quite a statement. To illustrate, consider the following restrictions pertaining to micro media and how they can be lifted:

Location. How can you provide high level of support wherever your customer is? Your static competitors require a phone or website – they haven’t even considered a tweet or facebook from a mobile phone.
Time. What happens when your customer is frustrated and it’s out of hours? Your static competitors are sleeping, not tweeting.
Device. Do you have mobile friendly portals for all devices? Your static competitors, if not friendly to none, are friendly only to the device they use.
Channel. Can you be found on whatever social network and micro media your customer prefers? Your static competitors, if they don’t just snub social media right out, probably only have a dead Facebook group at best.
Dependencies. Do you offer a simple and complete service, from start to finish? Do you have procedures to get the info you need in a few 140 messages? Your static competitors require signups, feedback forms, and long processes – all of which just frustrate an already frustrated customer.

By lifting static restrictions, you increase your ease of access, ease of use, and importantly, ease of shareability. As in the Carluccio’s test, realtime reviews come hard and fast, and a dynamic, personal experience will produce positive reviews that will be instantly shared.

Making It Personal

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Scott Gould

Last month, as part of Aaron+Gould’s first birthday, we gave away 3 experience consultancy sessions. On Monday, I had the opportunity of spending one of those sessions with Rick Timmis, and hear all about what he’s doing with making Customer Relationship Management (CRM) more personal and more friendly.

Other than the Exeter Tweetup I held in August, this is the only other time I’ve met Rick, but thanks to social media, we were able to build upon the conversation that we’d been having online for months and get straight into things. I don’t want to divulge the details of the consultation, as in short, we built a plan for Rick to take over the world, but I do want to harp on the one thing that we kept coming back round to: making it personal.

A shift is upon us, as we as enter the two-thousand-and-teenies, from the brand machine to people. In other words, people are despising the great awe and wonder and distance that big companies have, that once upon a time were considered the marks of success. This old school thinking went along the lines of “The more people between the CEO and the customer, the bigger, and therefore better, the company is.”

Not anymore.

Now, the more people between the CEO and the customer, the more bureaucratic and out-of-touch the company is. CEOs are tweeting and brands are becoming ‘Olivia at Coca-Cola’, ‘Rick at Abazander’ and ‘Michael Hyatt at Thomas Nelson’. Personal doesn’t just mean you give me your name – it means I can contact you personally. Hear that? I can contact you personally. In other words, the relationship is no longer you telling me what do to. It is about you and me having a conversation. You listen to what I have to say, take it on board, and I in turn listen to you, and when you are unable to deliver on something I’m fine with it – because we have a relationship.

Relationship. The beginning of business. Adam Stone was telling me yesterday about a keynote he had attended by behavioural economist Roger Martin-Fagg, who was boiling business down from economic grandeur to the level where it began: relationship, tribes, identity, and felt need.

When you begin to talk about getting personal, many businesses step away. They are afraid of personal, either because the people in their organisation are money hungry wolves with no care for the well being of the customers, or because they don’t want to make mistakes, or both. Me, I have no time to work with these companies, nor these people. I’m onto more relevant things than money. Businesses that invest in being personal will win in the future – they will help more people, make the world better, and yes, they’ll increase their revenue because their customers will be telling their friends just how much this company cares.

Of course, this won’t be mainstream for years to come. But do yourself a favour and think innovatively for a moment. My predictions:

The wise utility companies (Phone, Gas, etc) will start having personal reps. No longer does John from Vodafone call me but I can’t call John back and am instead stuck with Sally. In the years to come, I will become a client of John, my rep for Vodafone, just as much as I am of Vodafone.
The wise high streets store will start cultivating personal name based relationship with their customers, as opposed to only the few that currently do like independent retailers and the innovative Gap and Starbucks.
‘Removed’, as a mark of stature, will be replaced by ‘In Touch’. The ‘In Touch’ CEO will nurture a more emotionally connecting brand, and will command greater respect than the ‘Removed’ CEO.
Mobile Phone numbers on websites will no longer be a mark of being ‘shoddy and can’t afford a landline’, but be an expected way to directly get hold of the person you need to talk to.
Websites, then, without the names of the people who are running it and the people you want to speak to, will become essentially worthless. Average Joe loads the webpage, can’t find the person he needs to speak to, and figures ‘why bother?’ I don’t know about you, but business websites without names make me think they’re fake.
Company Twitter accounts, unless they are brands that have thousands of followers, will make you look small because why follow the company when you can follow the CEO? Hence, Company Twitter accounts will become CEO Twitter accounts.
Twitter, social media and realtime personal customer care – i.e. ubiquitous business – will boom as people flock to their mobiles for the internet. A quarter of Facebook’s 250 million users are mobile, for example. Decisions can finally be made in a moment – by checking on your mobile.
An extension of the above, reviews and rating of products and service has become real time and will continue to become more intuitive. For instance, HSBCreviews.com is a realtime monitoring of HSBC tweets, creating an overall rating of how good / bad they are.
The current clumsy nature of getting train time updates, for example, will be replaced by digital personal assistants – a merger of the Google voice activated iPhone app and ReQall – only far faster. If I had the capital, I’d be investing in this technology. It’s Star Trek in action.
Mass personal customisation – a hallmark of the experience economy – will become increasingly more mainstream. Think about the personal card greeting market that is increasing, and then imagine it across over markets and products.

Is all of this new? Not at all. As our friend Roger Martin-Fagg points out, it all goes back to year-dot behaviour, just with modern technology. Hairdressers, shopping in upmarket stores, small businesses and coffee houses, as well as others, have been doing relational, personal business for years. It is now time that the big companies scale down and get personal. Big used to be an advantage, but now, consumers are wanting names – and the companies that are flexible enough to offer them will win.

Fast forward to Tuesday night as I’m putting the final touches on this post and talking to Dave Thomas over the phone. Dave was telling a story of contacting his clients and receiving referrals from them. The point was, that unlike the ‘Removed CEO’, Dave had built relationships with his clients, was in touch with them, and could personally ask for a referral without the fear of embarrassment – because, hey, friends ask each other for favours, don’t they? This takes me to the final punch for making business personal…

The old method of doing business – the one that’s currently struggling to survive in the face of the social media revolution – is based on fear. I, the customer, fears the business. The IT agency knows all, and I fear their knowledge. The web host mysteriously holds all my files, and I fear they’ll switch my hosting off. British Gas serves my utilities, and I fear their bills when they don’t reflect our monthly arrangement. I fear the big successful CEOs and Creative Directors, especially compared to my small budget. It’s all fear.

Making it personal means trading fear for friendship. I don’t fear the IT company who are friends with me (and incidentally, that’s Dave’s company down to a T). I don’t fear the big CEO because through Twitter, I’ve made friends with her. Sure, I’m not inviting the CEO over for dinner, but there is friendship and relationship in the place of fear and the unknown. Alistair Banks (@banksy6 ) put it like this:

People buy people and that is so important – without being personal you simply don’t get that.

The ball is in our court. As innovators, Executives, Directors, Pastors and thinkers, we’ve got to take the first step of friendship towards our customers. I know full well that if you went onto the high street and asked people if they wanted their mobile phone company becoming all personal with them, they’d say ‘no’. But what I gleaned from Steve Jobs and Henry Ford is this: you need to tell people what they want. If Henry Ford had made what people wanted, he’s just have tried to make horses faster. Thankfully, he saw beyond what others saw. And that’s the point. People are so used to customer sacrifice that talk of customer surprise seems alien to them. (BTW, for a great slideshow on this subject, check out this.)

The challenge, then, is for business to grow some kahunas and be the first to do it. Because second place just sucks.