February 2013
2 posts
Kissmetrics vs Mixpanel : Start-Up Metrics
You’ve tried Google Analytics (GA) and now you’re looking for a tool which provides you with other ways to provide more actionable insights. Mixpanel and Kissmetrics are the tools you’ll likely come across. Both have a free version based on the number of events you’ll likely use, so they are ideal to test out, but which one is best suited for you?
2 of the main reasons...
2 tags
The Evolution of the First Waterproof Phones
Sony recently announced the Xperia Z, a phone that can be used in the shower and recoverable even when dropped in the toilet. But is it the first waterproof phone? No… is it even the first waterproof smartphone? No.. the first waterproff smartphone was made in 2006 but previous waterproof phones needed extra bulk to keep the water off, did this make them undesirable?
So above we have...
January 2013
1 post
4 tags
How Football Manager Can Get You a Real Career
That’s right, a computer game about football management can help you to develop skills that are useful for your career.. and I don’t mean getting a job as a Football Manager. For those who don’t know what it is, Football Manager (FM) is a simulation game, developed by Sports Interactive (SI), that puts you into the hot-seat of managing a football club.
So how can you weave...
October 2012
1 post
4 tags
Why it doesn't make sense for Google to be a...
In 2008, Google bid in spectrum auctions in the US prompting speculation that they wanted to become a carrier, actually this was focused to unlock open-access rules which allows any device or application to connect to the spectrum used by the carrier, effectively enabling OTT applications (Google voice, Skype, Whatsapp etc. However, rumours and speculation have continued to be persistent about...
September 2012
1 post
8 tags
4 Ways That AT&T Screwed All Carriers with the...
The iPhone was a ‘great success’ for AT&T initially, but they made a couple of crucial mistakes that changed how all carriers are perceived and all the carriers negotiating power. Pre-iPhone, carriers were in control, they could accept and reject any phone, push out requirements to manufacturers and control the whole process.
Want VoIP in your phone? AT&T the carrier could...
June 2012
1 post
6 tags
How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value with...
I was looking around the web to see how people calculate Customer Lifetime Values, one thing became painfully clear. Most websites have an assumption that you already know your customer lifespan, or the customer lifetime… aka How long an average user will use your mobile app (or website or service).
Well, there’s an easy way to calculate it, and I’ll show you how. You can even...
May 2012
1 post
4 tags
Does a facebook phone make sense? How about a...
Rumours a plenty that there will be a facebook phone with claims that they are hiring ex-Apple engineers who worked on the iPhone. Other suggestions that they should acquire a hardware arm in a similar way to how Google acquired Motorola.
The reason for these rumours are that Facebook users are increasingly moving to mobile with almost 500 million people using facebook via mobile. Whilst...
March 2012
1 post
6 tags
What was the strategy behind the Nokia 808...
Technology
The technology used for oversampling, and the inspiration taken from satellite imaging techniques is the main innovation. It needed a 41MP sensor to be able to create high quality 5/8MP photos. Strategically, this makes perfect sense, where everyone else in the smartphone battle has been focused on screen size, CPUs and other iterative minor improvements, this implementation has made...
February 2012
4 posts
10 tags
Evolution of the Cameraphone: From Sharp J-SH04 to...
Nokia recently announced the 808 Pureview in Barcelona at the Mobile World Conference and have drawn excitement to their pureview camera technology. They’ve re-imagined how zoom works by working backwards from a large Megapixel picture and focusing in on an area of the sensor. Zooming in expands the area of the sensor which you are looking it, which means a bulky optical zoom mechanism is...
4 tags
The Skype Paradox : Killing Telcos Will Also Kill...
Skype will kill the telco, you’ve probably heard it many times across many tech blogs. Well, they’re wrong. There’s one fundamental problem with this logic.
Skype needs telcos for it to work.
Without the telco, whether that is a mobile carrier or a fixed line provider, Skype need their infrastructure. How else would you be able to Skype someone if there wasn’t a data...
6 tags
Google Wants $1.7 Billion from "unfair" iPhone...
The royalty rate that Motorola Mobiity wants from Apple for using its patents is 2.25% and Google are stating they will not change the policy. Cries of “unfair”, they are of a FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non Discriminatory) nature, so is 2.25% excessive? Even Samsung are demanding 2.4%!
Apple have complained to ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and Microsoft are...
6 tags
How to forecast active user growth in your app...
One of the most important things when developing your mobile app (or web app) is determining how many people are returning to use it and how to measure if the changes you are making is really improving it for the users. The number of registered users is not a great measure of how your app is engaging users. You could have 1 million users signing up but none of them may return to use the app...
January 2012
5 posts
Why Blackberry is dying and what they should do
Blackberry is dead! Not enough Apps! Actually, part of the reasons for their demise is because changing enterprise and carrier trends caught up with RIM’s previous decisions, so let’s begin by delving into RIMs history
History & Strategic Shift
RIM focused on enterprise early, originally a 2-way paging device, they created push email and transformed into a smartphone company...
4 tags
The Last Decade of Smartphone Design (Photos)
There was a time when smartphones had different types of form-factors sometimes iconic, sometimes innovative, even crazy designs. However, in the past few years designs have become boring. Almost every new smartphone in the past 3 years years is either a black/white touchscreen slab or a QWERTY keypad.
I will look back at some of the designs that made people look twice at your smartphone, maybe...
6 tags
How to use Flurry for split testing and engagement...
In my previous post. I talked about getting retention and engagement metrics out of split testing.
Here’s a practical example of how to do A/B testing using Flurry.
Create an App_Launch event that happens whenever your app is started or brought back from the background
When you log the event, pass it with a parameter A(name of split test) or B(name of split test). You can decide in...
11 tags
How to get retention & engagement numbers out of...
For most people, A/B testing analytics (or split testing) is all about conversion. How can I redesign this webpage to get more people to click through to my goal? How can I get more people to sign up. It’s all about acquisition, acquisition, acquisition… actually there’s more to it than that.
For mobile app analytics, A/B testing tools generally support campaign or content...
7 tags
Android and Apple have NOT won the smartphone war.
Techcrunch made this claim (for the US market), but it’s far too early to call and history tells us that mobile and PC industries are not the same. Android and iOS has only been around a few years and has been swinging around wildly in its young history. If we look at mobile market share for the ‘top end’ in the past 20 years, there has probably been 5 different dominant...
December 2011
1 post
5 tags
How to use analytics and segmentation to find...
I was reading this blog post by Fred Wilson and it occured to me that engaged users are not just about people who create accounts, regularly log in and contribute. But also about the different cross sections of people who are engaging with your app on their first visit, or returning visits on a passive level. The gist of the linked blog post is about twitter and how many people visit it in a...
