networking breakfast

networking breakfast

Good morning, All,

First, our networking breakfast is tomorrow morning, May 14th. Register here and hope to see you there!

Some interesting information we’ve come across lately. A number of publications have been touting the death of the web. As Mobile Roars Ahead, It’s Time To Finally Admit The Web Is Dying. The Web is evolving. Smart phone screens are getting larger. Minis are outselling iPads. A mobile browser was the Battlefield winner at TechCrunch Disrupt last week.

There’s no doubt that mobile usage is on the rise, but that’s not to say that there isn’t a flaw in the argument, and therein lies the opportunity. More factoids for you: 70% of AOL users are still on dial up (that number was bandied about at Disrupt and, for the record, it hasn’t changed: it’s AOL’s cash cow). And what is the younger crowd primarily using mobile for? Snapchat, Vine, app, Instagram, Whisper. They’re not sending emails. They’re certainly not writing their papers there. Is anyone asking why? Facts only give us the ‘that’ – the fact that they’re, or we’re, doing it, not why.  A friend of mine wanted to find out more about kids and tablets, and so bought his teenage daughter’s entire class their own tablets – one per student – and they weren’t all iPads. He mixed it up to see if there were any preferred platforms. Of course the kids (high school juniors) were thrilled. At first. Then they returned to their regularly scheduled programs and used the mobile devices the way they use all of their mobile devices, and their laptops for the heavy lifting. That never changed. Why?

We personally love our mini. Wouldn’t go to a conference without it. Why? We have a permanent hand injury and literally can’t read our own writing, when writing quickly. At Disrupt, we sat next to a friend who bought her first iPad the day it came out – and never leaves home without it. It was with her, along with her MacBook Air, as she had work to do. Why did she need both?

The keyboard, stupid (not you; it’s just an expression). There are external keyboards available – and a reason why no one uses them. They’re horrid. Note to self and to you out there who are disrupting whatever: are you paying attention to the basics? The mobile hardware developers took their eyes off the ball, and are not paying attention to the most human of interfaces – how are we going to use the damn thing, for what and why? Which is why laptops won’t disappear any time soon. Not until someone figures out the keyboards. It’s fine that companies eat their own dog food. But they should also be required to try to open the cans first themselves. Onward and forward.

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