Category: iPhone

Generating “Buzz”

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With the Consumer Electronic Show just having been completed I think it is a good time to talk about one of those things that every technology provider strives for which is to generate a certain amount of “buzz” around a future product.  It is so very important to the success of any new product that people begin  to talk about it before the product is released.  Certainly out of this years show there was a lot of noise generated around Google’s Android platform, with companies making a big push to showcase upcoming releases of both phones and tablets.  Companies like Verizon, Samsung and Motorola did a lot to push the new releases of Android based tablets, pinning future success on the release of the product.

There are some good historical examples.  The “buzz” generated around Microsoft Windows 95 or the “buzz” created around the Apple iPhone.  In each case you had people lined up at midnight to get the product.  This is great stuff, but there is another type of “buzz” that gets created underneath all that and that is creating the excitement in the developer community.  The people who make the cool apps for the Apple app store or Google store.   Without developers extending and creating a market place an application can have a very short life span

My last role at Microsoft there was a commitment that everyone had to sign up about creating “buzz” in the development community for Microsoft Developer tools .  To clarify for those with no Microsoft background every employee signs up for a “commitment”, which is a goal that will be either fulfilled or not fulfilled come review time at the end of the Microsoft fiscal year.  This determines salary increase, bonus and promotion.  Anybody reading this probably has the same question is what the hell does “generating buzz”  mean?  Being developer land, my first thought was “good luck…with that”.  How are less than 100 people out in the field going to generate excitement around Microsoft Developer technologies, especially when there are so many dependencies? 

To be fair to create buzz goes beyond assigning a few people it really takes a commitment beyond a few individuals, to multiple organizations to external partners.  One of the keys to Apple’s iPhone success was not just the whisper campaign they were generating.  They also had a behemoth like AT&T behind them and they were fully bought in, up to their neck.  Not like the dipping their toes into the water effort they did with the Windows Phone 7 launch.

Another key success factor is just having a product, because it is the end game , it is where you are trying to take the consumer.  When the product launched there is a certain level of satisfaction in having got there.  Sometimes tech companies are guilty of trying to generate excitement without really telling the end customer what to be excited about.  Usually it is to try to get people excited about the company.  Coming from my background at Microsoft the last years seemed to be spent trying to recapture the glory of yester year.

Having a certain level of “buzz” is the difference between having momentum and not having momentum.  When you have the ear of the consumer and the press then a new phenomena sets in, which is “what is next?”  In todays world Apple certainly has tha momentum.  They have the iPod, iPhone, MacBooks,i Pad, Apple Store…they really are in the zone right now here they are setting the industry direction.  Google now is starting to get beyond just being a search company with first Android and next Chrome. Facebook maybe has more momentum than anybody as under their CEO Mark Zuckerburg, they have that “it’s a young mans game” syndrome going.  Similar to what Bill Gate’s had back in the 80’s and 90’s.  It’s the difference between rolling the boulder up the hill or down the hill.

Finally with regards to CES and why it has become what it has. A big reason is that technology is pervasive in everybody’s lives today.  It is not restricted to the “nerd” or “geek” or “hobbyist”.  We all have technology in some capacity of our lives.  It is our cell phones, flat screen TV’s, Tivo, game console’s, Roomba’s, etc.. The Consumer Electronics Show is about showing off how technology is going to further enhance our day-to-day lives in the near future.  Any company participating better not be showing off what is already available.  Attendees want to see the coming years Christmas purchase, not what they already have.  They want the participating companies to wow them.  In short they want some “buzz”.

Good Night and Good Luck

Hans Henrik Hoffmann January 10th, 2011

Video, Video, Video

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It has become clear that we are entering an age of ubiquitous video content. we want our content everywhere, anywhere, we want it now, and we want in entertaining.  If you think about where we have come from on the internet it is a natural evolution.  We started with rather static content which was just a fancy word document with pictures.  Then we started incorporating basic display ads, followed by more lively content that eventually led us to YouTube.  Now that same YouTube content is available everywhere – I could be on Facebook, iPad, iPhone you name it, it will be shared and made available.  Now we are entering the Netflix era. We are no longer viewing just uploaded content but live streaming of content.  To be clear this has not been new this year, we have been doing it for a while we view our news outlets online, like MSNBC.

Going back in time I remember 10 years ago I tried to view a live concert from New York at my office in Redmond.  It was Madonna doing some party in New York.  I tried and it was awful.  It was hard to connect and when it did, it streamed for a few seconds before it cut out.  It was a very frustrating experience and I am not even a Madonna fan.   Around th e same time iw as working with a ISP in Green Bay, WI doing a test with voice over IP (VOIP) with streaming video.  Again an awful experience and I realized to do any quality video you basically had to own your own studio. But that was 10 years ago and how far we have come.

Today we get video through a number of sources and in different formats.  With the release of the iPhone 4 we now have the ability to do voice and video phone calls.  The idea of a mobile device, be it an Android, iPhone or iPad without an available Netflix application is a non starter for the device that does not have it.  Netflix is becoming the prime example of making high-end video content (movies, television shows etc..) available  whenever you want it and now it ois going global.  The market believes as well as at last glance Netflix (NFLX ) is trading at over $196 – to think that a year ago it was under a $100.

There are issues that are starting to come to the forefront.  When the internet first came of age we had a number of companies laying a lot of fiber in the ground.  Most of it was not used.  It just sat there idle.  We referred to it as dark fiber.  However that was because what we were sending over the net was small files and video was not really that big at the time.  Today we actually are sending large files (not entirely true as streaming technologies take video files and break them down into small chunks..but as a whole the file is large).  We are also streaming live content so you start to see a web with constant and massive traffic flows.

With the rise of mobility and content on the go we are now entering the last great phase and the holy grail of device interaction: the television.  In recent years television has  undergone, popular, but what I view as small steps as we transition to something far greater.  many people have either a LCD or Plasma flat screen TV.  A Tivo device connected for recording.  A lot of road warriors had sling boxes enabling them to view there local Seattle programs while in Orlando, As has been mentioned we can stream movies via Netflix or the xFinity services from Comcast.  Our televisions are becoming more interactive.  The game consoles we connect to our TV are becoming media hubs, the best example being the XBox.  With what they can do with Wii or Kinect they will become home fitness devices. There has been a recent slew of new products around TV.  Both Google and Apple have announced appliances for the television.  Microsoft has been trying to tackle this game for nearly 20 years.  It’s an exciting time.

There will be challenges moving forward.  Mainly from the incumbant service providers either cable companies like Comcast, Cablevision, Cox Communications or the traditional telco’s AT&T and Verizon.  They have one asset cherished above all…the last mile.  That is literally the cable or phone line that runs from the curb into your house.  It’s how we get access to the internet through DSL or Cable Modem.  It’s how all those great services mentioned earlier are delivered into our home.  It is the holy grail. When companies devise plans to sidestep them they fight back.  In the market place, but more importantly on Capital Hill.  They are in the offices of your congressperson or Senator.  They bring in their heavy hitters to do the work:  Lobbyists and executives.  I witnessed this first hand on a trip to DC as a bus was loaded and paraded around the hill, clearly labeled “Comcast Executives”.  They were not there for consumer benefit, though they would say they are.

If one thing is certain, the future will come.  There will be those who try to stop it.  However with the advancements made in wireless bandwidth with 4G and then 5g coming down the road in the next 5-7 years things will start to change very quickly.  We are now seeing satellite services propping up again.  The last mile will die and we will be temporarily free.  We will get our content and human interaction wherever we want it when we want it.  It’s a very exciting time in the industry as things only dreamed of 15 years ago are now on the verge of becoming reality.  Just think on some Saturday morning on my 40″ LCD I will be able to view all my favorite soccer games with my 3 boys in my pajamas at once while having my morning coffee, now for me that will be heaven.

Good Night and Good Luck

Hans Henrik Hoffmann November 30, 2010

I bought an iPhone…how could I!?!

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It is one of those things that there was a time when the idea of getting any non-Microsoft product was just not part of the equation.  I was there for 18 years during the good and the bad, we had a pretty deep relationship.  But on the very day that Microsoft launched its evolutionary Windows Phone 7, I walked into my local AT&T store and purchased my first Apple product ever.   Even though the store had a nice display and the AT&T rep even gave me a quick walk through of the Windows Phone 7 (and some slick Android devices), my mind was set.  I was breaking ranks.  I was on a mission.

How does such a loyal soldier become a deserter?  I mean have I really lost all my faculties?  Living a life on the run cannot be all that much fun.  Well to those who question my motives I shall take you to task with but one statement…mid-life crisis.  I am over 40, rapidly heading towards the middle part of that decade. I mean it has to be,  doesn’t it?  Luckily there are more factors to consider.  Some obvious.  Lingering bitterness over how my time at Microsoft ended? Sure, I would be a liar if I did  not allow my stubborn pride to show through just a little bit.  A desire to step  out of my skin and do things differently?  You bet, but that is also my nature to want to experience new things so it’s not much of a stretch.  If I have a flaw it is a desire to want to see, learn and experience too much in life.  It’s a flaw I am willing to live with.  Getting back to my midlife crisis, just because I am getting older it does not mean I have lost my desire to be hip or cool.  But getting back to my iPhone decision let us move forward.

Kevin Turner, Microsoft COO, would often get asked by internal employees, “Why can’t Microsoft be cool like Apple?”. He would always reply, “I would rather have 90% market share than be cool”.  All I can say is its dangerous to use the past to justify the future.  It has been an interesting twist of events to get to this point and by all accounts great product execution by the folks at Apple.  It shows a certain innocent stupidity on Microsoft’s part to not realize the necessity of making technology make people  feel good about themselves.  When people feel cool they tend to feel good about themselves.  The second mistake made by Microsoft was not realizing the power of the younger generation.  They completely ignored them, and they made the worst criminal offense, they did not listen.

A few comments regarding my iPhone.  I have the 3g with the new 4.01 OS.  Since I was really going to the store to add  minutes to my plan and since I could get  the “honor” of extending my contract I could get the phone for $99 (A 4g would have cost $199).  As far as the phone goes I shall make this not so much a review as most people either have or used the iPhone.  The brilliance of the iPhone is an idiot could use it.  The user interface is colorful and intuitive.  Finally and probably most importantly is, it is fun.  Since fun is a form of addiction in the sales and marketing world, that is a good thing…for Apple.

Moving forward with my technology purchases I can’t say what my next thing I need will be (ok..it will be a 42″ Flat Screen…don’t tell my wife).  Do I feel bad about moving away from my Windows Mobile Phone after having had every iteration there was through v6.5?  Not really, they were not all that good.  Have I left the Microsoft mother ship, no, but it’s not my mother either. I am just trying to get by and enjoy life and in the end isn’t that what matters?  Even if Apple does profit off of it.

Good Night and Good Luck

Hans Henrik Hoffmann Nov 9, 2010

Looking back upon a year gone from Microsoft

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It came so quickly when it all happened.  A calendar request from my manager the night before just saying we need to have a meeting at 9am the next morning to discuss organizational changes.  Considering my manager lived in Delaware and having read a lot about Stalin’s purges in 1927-28 and then again in 1936-37 I understand the meaning of short and unexpected requests.  Funny how Kevin Turner kind of looks like Stalin, but that’s another blog ( I promise not to throw anyone else under the bus during this blog, but for the record I enjoyed that jab).

When I got to the office I knew it was coming.  I was pulled into the conference room my manager was there and a woman from human resources.  It was short and sweet.  My manager said next to nothing.  The HR person just issued directives. Here is your paper work please read and get back to us.  Now go home.  It was November 4th, 2009 and at 9:15 my 18 year career at Microsoft was over.  I started at Microsoft on November 4th 1991, the irony.

With the sad and cold part of the blog over let the light begin to let light shine once again.  How Microsoft handles letting people go is very gracious.  You get a severance package that takes into account your years of service.  They get you set up with an employment councilor.  Get you on COBRA for health care coverage for a specified amount of time.  And for the first time in my life I started collecting unemployment.  It was a lot of paper work, but all in all it went pretty smoothly. 

Probably the most asked question for me since I departed is “What is life like outside of Microsoft?”.  It is a fair question after so many years inside Microsoft’s walled garden.  At Microsoft your are indoctrinated into Microsoft’s view-point of the world of technology.  Especially early on when the vision was sound and the direction clear.  The last 8 years I cannot say the same.  There are significant cracks in that wall.  When I left on the corporate network there were 7000 iPhones and finding people who owned and used a Zune was difficult.   As I have said before in a technology company having technical visionaries is important.  There are lots of them outside of Microsoft – in fact I rarely here any type of visionary statement from Microsoft.  The exception being Ray Ozzie, but he is leaving.

Are there jobs?  Yes.  There are a lot of companies hiring.  Locally Amazon is big however I have yet to talk to anyone who likes working there.  Other companies of note are SalesForce.Com, VMWare, Google, Facebook etc..Then there is the contractor route.  Many former colleagues have gone back in this capacity but I never considered it an option.  However it is a good deal.  You get better pay for jobs with less stress.  Not challenging work but a good lifestyle change.

Another benefit was I had was the 7 months where I did not work and I loved every moment of it.  I walked my kids to school everyday. I got involved in their school.  I visited my mom a lot (she has Alzheimer’s, but time well spent).  I worked out a lot and got in good shape,  I even did some of the classes available at my local YMCA.  I started this blog, which I continue to enjoy writing to this day.  I got caught up on a lot of reading.  Visited with friends over coffee.  I took my youngest son with me to Denmark with stops in Iceland and Sweden.   I got my Soccer National “D” Coaching License.  Life was great.

Is there a downside?  One word…healthcare.  If you have not followed the healthcare debates in this country when you leave Microsoft you will understand far better the sheltered life you have been living.  For 18 years as both a single individual and married with children I simply provided the hospital my card and was pretty much done.  I did not have huge premiums come out of my paycheck.  It was simple and I and my family were taken care of.  Once you are gone you have to pay.  My Cobra payment had I had to pay everything out of my own pocket (MS and the government were helpful here) would have been $1700 per month.  Today I pay about $450 a month out of my paycheck and the coverage is not nearly as good.  I have talked to others who have thrown out numbers as high as $750 per month per paycheck.  If I made 40k per month I would have to pay at least 10%-15% of my paycheck for healthcare.  Cost will continue to rise and the percentage of our paychecks will either go more towards healthcare or we will have to accept less.  There is no end in sight.  We live in a country where healthcare is not a right, but simply a fear to feed our nightmares.

I cannot tell you what my post Microsoft life holds for me, even though I am a year removed from it, but lifes adventures move me forward.  After 18 years at Microsoft I knew what each day would hold, despite its fast pace, when game changing events occurred there was a certain formula behind how to react to it. Having been gone a while I am enlightened by day-to-day life’s challenges and emboldened and inspired by the people doing the simple things in life but enjoying them immensely.    Maybe that is what life is about, not the protection of the big corporate walls, but living and exploring the uncertainty of it day-to-day.  Just try to enjoy the ride and take it all in.

Good Night and Good Luck

Hans Henrik Hoffmann Nov 4, 2010

Windows Phone 7 – A brighter Future…maybe

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I have been pretty hard on Microsoft Mobile and rightfully so as they have been a rather stagnant organization and as I posted in my earlier blog (A Microsoft Mobile Disaster) one that  has failed to listen to the market place.  It now seems with the launch of Windows Phone 7 that Microsoft has decided to compete.  Some at Microsoft would say they have always competed and others say they have never competed.   I side with the marketplace on this one.

When I look at Windows Phone 7 everything I read is this is a consumer phone.  It seems stupid when you hear it.  Why wouldn’t you have  been making a consumer mobile phone?  A little history may shed some light. I was on vacation for a couple of weeks and when I got back I received an email that SteveB had sent to the Windows Mobile  Team.  While I was away he had come to Bldg 117 and spoke to the Windows Mobile Team.  At the time Pieter Knook was Sr VP of Mobility.  During that time within te team they were focused on the business professional.  One of the least sexiest segments, if not the least sexiest, in the mobile industry.  It focused on the suits of the world, and frankly since they no longer do martini lunches they lack personality.  Steve told the audience in a moment of wisdom, “You can focus all you want on the business Pro, but unless you have a consumer play the numbers will never add up to greater market share”.  Unfortunately the email I received was not about that.  Apparently the troops were a little down trodden after his talk, so he apologized.  Steve…why!?!?!  For whatever reason Steve did not trust his instincts on this one. This set off another 5 years of sub par performance.

When the iPhone launched and Billg saw it he said, “We have set the bar too low..”.  The iPhone really ripped the Microsoft Mobile team to the core and with the latest quarterly results from Apple it may be a juggernaut too great to catch, but to my old companies credit a technical challenge is something that will never be shunned.  My old team had VP of Development Scott Guthrie present once.  Scott said it was painful to get the Windows Mobile team to scrap the old code base, but it was realistically the only way that Microsoft was even going to have a remote chance of catching up with Apple.  But it was interesting to hear how many opposed this idea.

Now that the phone is in the market (in Europe) a bigger challenge will be to get application developers to write cool apps for the phone.  The goal was to have 10,000 applications at launch.  To put this in perspective Android and the iPhone have over 100,000.  When you are asking internal people at Microsoft to write apps so you can make your number a certain amount of sadness comes over me to hear  that company needs to issue that directive.  If you cannot excite the developer then it is time to pack up and go home.

At the end of the day the market will decide and it is already a pretty crowded field so what does Microsoft Mobile 7 offer that separates it from the rest of the mobile crowd?  Having seen it and test driven a little, not a whole lot.  Don’t get me wrong the touch screen  UI is nice and responsive.  But as far as I can tell there is no “wow” moment.  Those type of moments are hard to come by.  Even Android does not have a “wow” moment but it was out way earlier than Windows Mobile 7 was, so it had a head start.  Plus i think the open source driven development model had a “sexy” appeal to developers.  The interesting change in mobile is  the need for application’s and both Google and Apple have high marks in getting developers to write these “cools” apps.   Getting back to the Ray Ozzie final memo it demonstrates the idea of technology as part of an appliance.  No longer is one chained to the desk, sitting and watching their waste line expand.  In todays new world everything is mobile. 

We have come along way in mobility and though Microsoft jumped on at the midway point it is just now starting to understand the battlefield.  Is it too late?  When you have $40 billion in the bank you have weapons that others don’t you have a chance.  The reviews so far has been mixed and Microsoft has been working hard to get developers to write Windows Phone apps.  The market was tough when Microsoft entered but now the landscape has completely changed.  It is no longer RIM they are after, but Apple and Android.  I will be honest I am really skeptical on this one, but maybe a catastrophic defeat is just what Microsoft needs, for a brighter future…maybe.

Good Night and Good Luck.

Hans Henrik Hoffmann Oct 27th, 2010