Paluu työn  helleaallon jälkeen on raakaa. Hyvää on se, että meillä on Dedictossa työn alla mielenkiintoisia projekteja; huonoa se, että ulkona on ollut lähes mahdoton tehdä töitä kuumuuden, ötököiden ja läppärin näytön heijastavuuden takia. Olen tyytynyt huonosti jäähdytettyihin sisätiloihin. Nyt näyttää siltä, että paluu “normaaleihin” työoloihin on jo tapahtunut.

Tämän hetkisten projektien perusteella voi sanoa, että Internetin ja sovellutusten älykkyys on lisääntymässä. Projekteista suurin osa kohdistuu ennen manuaalisten prosessien automatisointiin tai käyttäjäkokemusten parantamiseen laajalla kontekstin tai metatiedon ymmärryksellä. Näiden projektien perusteella on helppo nähdä mihin ollaan matkalla. Web x.x (en pysy näiden perässä) tulee ymmärtämään käyttäjän taustatiedot ja käyttötilanteen taustat paljon paremmin kuin nykyiset “tyhmät” sovellukset. Tämä tulee asettamaan vaatimuksia sovellutusten tekijöille ja portaalin pyörittäjille: käyttäjistä on kerättävä tietoa. Ja tämä tieto pitää tehokkaasti käyttää hyväksi tarjoamalla käyttäjäkohtaisia valikoita ja näkymiä. Kun sovellus on sitten portaalista hankittu niin sen on käyttäydyttävä paremmin kuin käyttäjä voisi kuvitella. Sovellukset, joista ikään kuin puuttuu vaiheita (koska se on niin nerokas) koukuttaa käyttäjät maksamaan.

–matti

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People see different things when they look at iPad. Most see the georgeous hardware and the great platform for all kinds of media consumption (well, maybe not portable music but…). When I look at iPad, I see a massive revenue generator for really smart software companies.

There are some limitations on the platform but we Finns always tend to get too focused on limitations and ignore opportunity. Americans (and some other more entrepreneur minded countries) look at the opportunity every day for a month and then they will spend a day with limitations. We do the opposite. Here are the limitations or better yet: here is the framework:

- You can only get software into iPod through Apple’s application store; and
- You have to develop the application using Apple’s development enviroment (no Flash, no Silverlight).

Actually from developers’ points of view this is good news: you know exactly how to develop and you have an immediate market place – sales channel.

Now, if nobody does anything, what will happen is that we will have a few dozen mostly current iPhone game developers doing one application at a time for iPad. Because of the lack of resources and continuity, they succeed in creating occasional top 10 placement in the store fading away fast when new applications fill the space. None of these companies will have presence in the Valley; none of them will ever be a house hold name. And, that is fine if your ambition level is set there.

What we should do in Finland is gather a bigger team of the smartest user problem identification people, iPhone developers, user experience designers, server developers and experienced management and start an iPad application factory, not around one application but a continuous flow of visually, functionally and cerebrally engaging experiences. This company would release about half a dozen applications a year, it would have an office in Silicon Valley in a year and it could raise serious capital (if needed). It can easily be argued why this kind of model is difficult to set up. But for once, let’s put our individual ambitions aside and create something large and lasting.

Finland is a small country. The only way we can create succesfull international businesses is to pool the best resources under one roof. I am not saying that one of these small iPad software companies will not be a success one day but it is a long and rocky road and there is no hedging risk in one application at a time type of operating environment.

If you are interested in this idea, please contact us.

Written by Matti Airas

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For years I’ve been a profound opponent of everything Microsoft. Our company and my private productivity runs on Mac/Google/Web apps -environment and for years, since leaving a large company (where I did not have a choice), I have been sticking to non-MS world. However, lately listening to the Apple vs Google battle and seeing what kind of (high) walled garden Apple is creating I am not so sure anymore. And greed has gotten deep into the Google’s value system also even if they do everything to nurture the more socially conscious and great place to work -image.

I guess that most of my animosity comes from the lousy user experience of most MS Office applications and the dismal Live Meeting (which I have to admit have not used in over two years i.e. I am sure it is better today – or not). Especially Word is unbelievably bad compared to Apple’s Pages or the ultra simple GoogleDocs document. But Word does have one killer feature and that is support of even obscure languages including my native Finnish. And, I have to admit that I still love Excel even if some of the visual and usability issues in Apple’s Numbers are done way better. Unfortunately Excel is embedded deep in my cerebral cortex.

Bill Gates is the world’s largest philanthropist. He does it in smart controlled way that the money is used where it creates the biggest positive impact and not to build bureaucracy or lost in individual countries political layers. He has also been able to engage other powerful and wealthy people to contribute. Compared to Larry Ellison who puts his money on sail boats, Gates’ endeavors are truly commendable.

Why do I then hate Microsoft so much. The shocking realization this morning is that actually I don’t. Well at least I don’t as much as I used to. And as said above Apple and Google are pretty good at creating the evil empire clout around them nowadays too. I have heard great things about Windows 7 and that the usability of Word has improved by REMOVING features from it! Unfortunately their licensing model and cost make testing them impossible. I have done a rough estimate and using Microsoft environment in our company would increase the software cost about ten fold. Because the calculation was a bit biased, let’s say five fold.

Maybe the question then is whether Microsoft’s working environment is five times better than the alternatives. We know that that is not the case. The challenge comes from the relative cost of MS tools still being a very small percentage compared to the totals cost of running a company. And, the embedded cerebral cortex is a real issue.
issue. It is very hard to change the way people do things and it is even harder to introduce new tools to them.

I wish people were more open minded: Google Docs Document is so incredible simple that anybody can learn it in an hour. And the fact that you never have to worry about version control and backups and that it enables a whole new way of working real time in a team is an enormous bonus (I have heard rumors that you can do the same in SharePoint but can not test and see it). And Google Docs are free. Are people so afraid of change or is it the IT departments that are terrified. If more people knew and understood that there is a great innovation system outside Microsoft and that producitivity can be increased by different ways than SharePoint and Outlook improvements then more companies would consider the alternatives. Unfortunately IT departments will keep them from doing this. And, if Microsoft would offer their services free or very low monthly subscription cost like Google, I would be willing to try and even use them. But only if they tickled my mind and improved my productivity.

Matti & Juhana

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