if connected

As I tweeted earlier, at 4am this morning I caught someone getting into my car in front of the house. I knocked on the window of our front room and he ran. I bet he was extremely surprised someone was awake.

I thought about taking a photo. But the camera phone I had on me — an iPhone — was no good in the dark and my good camera was upstairs and I didn’t have to the time to find it: I’d have missed the opportunity. Late last year, someone hit my car coming out of a sideroad. I reached for my iPhone to take a photo of the other car and its number plate, but by the time I was ready the car had driven off.

“Make the most of now” is Vodafone’s smart slogan for mobile. It hits the rationale for mobile perfectly: Doing virtually anything costs more using a mobile, from making calls to sending emails, but the immediacy of now makes that higher cost worthwhile.

The speed of now is equally important. Mobile devices need to be really quick to use to make them usable “in the moment.” Mobile phones have a tremendous speed advantage over virtually any other device as they are often already in someone’s hand. If not, they’re placed in an easily accessible pocket, rather than in a bag, or left behind at home.

Good enough speed is rarely enough in those tight moments. And, this is one of those rare situations where subjective speed isn’t sufficient.

It’s actual sheer utility that’s essential. Mobile phones need to be fast as well as feeling fast.

Catching up with blogging….

Almost two weeks ago we were driving back into London on the A40 — three lane urban motorway with no hard shoulder to stop safely — and we suddenly lost all power. I made it into the slow lane, just, and we sat on the grass verge.

Camera fail: I had a real camera with me in my bag, which I left the car with. But the shots below were taken using the cameraphone I had even closer to hand. In the moment, I simply didn’t think to reach for the good camera.

Mobile phones are great. I didn’t need to walk down the carriageway and GPS + Google Maps gave me the name of the road of the turning we’d just passed… which helped the highway patrol people to find us.

The AA were poor to begin with: I started the call saying we were stopped in a dangerous position and had a baby with us. But *after* taking all of our details, only then did they say they couldn’t help and we should call 999 to get the police to tow us somewhere safe!

More car tech fail: When the AA did show they were good, and ended up towing me home. But the AA man’s computer completely refused to talk to the car’s computer. So, the AA could tell one or more coils had blown, as had a fuse, but couldn’t be sure there wasn’t more damage.

Car politics: Apparently we were on the Met’s turf, not Highway. So, there was a delay while we waited for the police to give the OK for the Highway people — who actually turned up — to tow us:-

Way back when, every mobile gadget aimed to fill in little gaps in people’s day: dead times like waiting for a bus, walking to a train, or perhaps when out at lunch.

I’m struck by how the dead time opportunity no longer exists. Every morning I take the tube to work. Ten years ago people read newspapers, or books, or just stood and avoided eye contact. The latter may be just a London thing. Now, everyone is fiddling with their phone, tapping emails on a Blackberry, listening to music on mp3 players, or playing games on Nintendos. I even saw someone with a Sony Ebook reader on the way home last night. Result: There is no dead time left to fill. People already have multiple fun or work options that help them to avoid boredom.

So, 2009′s new mobile phones, other devices or mobile software have to displace an existing digital activity. In fact, they have to compete with multiple digital options as well as books, newspapers and the ubiquitous freesheets. This is hard. For Londoners, it’s never been easier to avoid eye contact underground.

We’re in the run up to MWC, when the great of the mobile industry will make their major 2009 product launches. To succeed, these products have to be: attractive to persuade people to buy them; be easy to take along all the time (so are light, small and have a long battery life); and deliver a compelling enough experience that people reach for that device or launch that application/game/music/movie/website/social network on a regular basis.

The death of dead time means that to succeed, companies have to father the birth of excellence.

Apple has repeatedly acted as a magnet for criticism with its trend towards offering hardware with non-user replaceable batteries. First with the iPod range, then the iPhone, and more recently with two of its MacBook laptops.

Rechargeable batteries do wear out. Each recharge has less capacity than previously. Typically, after 18 months of mobile phone use the battery will last for 70-80% of its original life. Hence the flak Apple has attracted.

But I’ve been pondering whether I’ve ever bought a replacement battery for any device I’ve owned: mobile phone, laptop, camera, mp3 player, games console or anything else. Or, if I’ve ever been issued with one by my employer for any of the various work laptops I’ve used.

I can think of only one instance, and it wasn’t for the Nokia mobile phone I used for four years, or for the two work laptops that managed under an hour of battery life by the time I gave them up.

Ironically, it was for my first generation iPod, which was shipped with a supposedly sealed in battery. Regardless, I bought a third party replacement, prised open the case, and fitted it.

Additional batteries are typically very expensive, hard to source, and the new batteries only become useful when most gadgets have been superseded by cheaper newer models of the gadget. Very few devices have a usable life of more than two to three years.

I really wonder if this is a case of most people’s perceptions being different from reality. Apple may be right here. But if our perception is at odds then Apple will still suffer reduced sales because of a perceived problem that doesn’t exist for most.

Postscript – Despite the above, I bet my iPhone will be the next device that needs a new battery mid life!

This year I learnt a pile of new things:

At least one hospital cares little about mobile phone use. As my son was being born, a phone rang in the corner of the operating theatre. My other half started blaming me, but the consultant answered her phone so ending the argument.

Hospital walls are too thick for good 3g reception. I spent many a night browsing online with my laptop in a hospital room on mobile broadband, but it kept falling back to 2G.

Some cameraphones really do have good enough cameras. On an increasing number of occasions I have left my real camera at home, instead taking a mobile. I even went to a wedding with just my cameraphone.

Working for a company that is bought by a larger competitor has plus sides. Can’t talk in detail here.

Flash/SSD drives for laptops transform the convenience of using laptops. It’s their quietness as much as their speed that makes them a pleasure to use. Hopefully in 2009 I’ll be saying how much better their reliability is as well. It’s too soon to say now.

TV set-top boxes are becoming louder than PCs. Plus, they crash about as often, based on my experience with a UK pay TV DVR supported by a little Google searching.

Babies can be distracted from using your laptop with a fake keyboard. But only a real mobile phone will satisfy them.

WiFi works better for location finding in cities than GPS. Mobile handset GPS’ have particularly poor reception indoors. Even dedicated GPS units struggle.

Dell’s next day on-site repair is less convenient than a drop off service. Having to wait at home for several days in succession during a repeated failure to repair a PC is a much greater waste of time than using a repair centre.

I’ve just written a new entry on the day job blog about Nokia’s announcements at Nokia World and why the most important story is about mid-market mobile Internet and mobile data. Read the piece here.

That Jupiter blog doesn’t allow comments, so please add them below, and I’ll reply here.

When Apple launched iPhone in Europe it bucked traditional wisdom. Rather than striking short term exclusive deals with an operator in each market for 3-6 months, it chose to sign multi-year relationships. Matthew Key, then O2 UK CEO, confirmed this time period at the UK launch.

The press coverage, discussion and hype around iPhone was extensive, even before the iPhone officially launched in Europe. But the initial deals with O2 UK, Orange France, and T-Mobile Germany had only modest success during 2007 and early 2008 in converting that into sales.

While Apple secured an initial pr boost — but one which Apple could have secured with shorter exclusive periods — over the medium term Apple is completely dependent on a single operator to deliver a good network, customer service and brand experience that matches Apple’s brand promise. If an operator fails, then Apple and iPhone suffers.

Long term exclusive operator deals may make more sense in the US. There, no single handset will work on all mobile networks so there is less to lose with an exclusive deal. The GSM/3GPP iPhone is compatible with either AT&T or T-Mobile but won’t work on Sprint, Alltel or Verizon’s networks. AT&T has certainly performed well for Apple in pushing iPhone. By contrast, going non-exclusive in Europe leads to vastly greater reach than any single operator could possible match as all operators use the same mobile standard and so all can offer the same handset.

In 2008, when Apple launched the iPhone into a swathe of new countries, Apple changed strategy and supplied multiple operators. Apple will have the data to compare the new batch with the exclusive deals from 2007.

Those operators sitting on exclusive multi-year iPhone deals must make sure they up their game if they wish to renew. Apple may decide it no longer needs their help and is strong enough to switch. Poor customer service, poor sign-up processes, patchy network performance, arbitrary restrictions on speeds, and so forth will destroy their case to be a partner to the Apple brand with its promise of quality and simplicity.