David Meerman Scott speaks about the second most important communication revolution
in history; obviously the Internet.
He believes the most important one to be the printing press.
I agree with that position as well. It brought education and knowledge to the man in the street and the Internet has done the same, although it is still in its infancy.
Read his preamble here and then watch the clip.
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The world is definitely going mobile
It’s obvious that the world has changed forever with the explosion in mobile devices; not only phones but also with tablets and e-readers.
This article is well worth reading. It relates to American stats but if anything, the figures here in Australia are even more eye opening.
1) Nearly half of all American kids want an iPad for Christmas…. Durrrr… A quick look shows that almost half of Aussie mums want an iPad for Christmas.
2) Globally, mobile traffic represents roughly 13% of Internet traffic. Three years ago, that figure was 1%. In Australia, we are the 4th best in the world for 3g penetration (76%). The only countries with better penetration than us are Japan (95%), South Korea (85%) and surprisingly Portugal (78%).
3) Nearly 1/3 of American adults own a tablet or e-reader. In Australia, that figure is already at 38% and an amazing 76% have smartphones.
4)There are now 5 billion mobile phone users in the world but “only” 1 billion smartphone users. Smartphone users are growing at the rate of 42% year on year, globally. Watch out for India to disrupt the mobile world in the next 3 years or so. They already have 44 million smartphone users but that represents only 4% of their market.
5) Android is growing faster than anything. It is growing at 6 times the rate of the iPhone and 3 times the rate of the iPad.
The full report is available here and I think it makes for fascinating reading.
by I think Amazon is going to find it very hard to beat Google. Google is a concern because they are going to be the “go to” for everything; not just books and music but right through to travel as well http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/amazon-google-on-collision-course-in-2013-20121226-2bvqs.html
by At this time of the year, I guess we all wind down and have a look back at the year we’ve just had and think about what we could have done better. It’s also a time for us to look ahead to next year and see if there are ways we could improve over what we did this year.
I know I have plenty of things to change. One of mine is to plan better so I don’t continually feel that I don’t have time to do things. I also need to be thankful for the things I have. I’m surrounded by wonderful friends and family. Some of my family are still sleeping peacefully while I know others will have been up at the crack of dawn.
I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas Day. I hope these 9 habits will help to make a good year, great….
http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/9-daily-habits-that-will-make-you-happier.html
by The statistics in this article are amazing. I thought Bloomberg was a bit of a nutter banning XL soft drink and trans fats but maybe it will catch on. We could certainly do with more people watching their health in this country. The article shows that aspirin not only lowers heart attacks but dramatically reduced the incidence of many cancers, by as much as 47% http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/opinion/the-2000-year-old-wonder-drug.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
by I say “good on them”for taking a principled stand. Too rare these days…
TOO many puppies end up on death row, so we will not sell them at Christmas, pet store says.
by My first modem was 2.4kbps. When the 14.4 k modems came out, they were so expensive, I had to sell one of my children for scientific experiments so I could buy one.
When I finally got my hands on a 56k modem, it was like Christmas. We had an ISP business way back then called Hotkey Internet and the arrival of 56k meant we had to upgrade a lot of our equipment.
You have to feel for the poor kid in the commercial below. How embarrassing… only having a 28.8 modem at home!!!!!
The good ol’ days
by I liked this article because it seems that all of us had a challenging year this year.
What will 2013 bring us?
Some of us personally, some from a business perspective and many of us faced challenges on both fronts.
As always, I’m excited about the new year and the opportunities it will bring.
This article is written by Mat Rayback, Marketing Content Writer at StorageCraft
People always say that December is slow. I do not know what they are talking about. For me, December is always ultra-crazy, both personally and professionally. For example, this year, I had to buy a new car because I was in a car accident, plus my wife and I just had our third child, and now we are in the midst of buying a new house, selling our old house, and somehow making sure Christmas comes off without a hitch.
In spite of the controlled chaos, however, I find December to be an invigorating time. It is a bridge, a horizon, the meeting place of the dying year and the year still waiting to be born, and for me, there is a significance to that. I like to somehow carve out a little bit of time to consider the departing year, to look at my successes and my failures, and to figure out what I have learned. Or maybe to figure out what I should have learned.
Annual reviews are important for us both as individuals and as businesses, but I think we can use many of the same strategies to harness the momentum of the past and use it to propel us into the future. For what it is worth, here are a couple of tricks I use in both my personal and professional lives.
1. Think about the most interesting conversation you had this year
We all interact with hundreds if not thousands of people in any given year and many, if not most, of our conversations with them are completely inane. But somewhere in there, there is going to be some conversation that changed your life, even if you did not realize it at the time. The question, however, is did you let?it change your life, or did you just tuck it away?
In your business, this may be an interaction with a customer, an experience with a partner, or maybe something as innocuous as a passing comment from a friend. The point is, what did you hear this year that opened your eyes and helped you see things in a different way. If you have not already, now it is time to think about what you can do differently to acknowledge that difference.
2. Revisit your darkest hour
It may be painful, but I find it important to remember the moments during the year when things were the worst. Maybe you were super stressed, maybe your job stank, maybe you were struck by a true tragedy. In any case, take the time to remember all the various influences that led to feeling that way and then consider what has changed. Have you resolved those influences? Have you learned from them? What defenses have you put in place to protect you from them in the future?
I have found that it is way too easy to slog through some serious muck and then to just keep slogging. It does not get any better, I just get used to it. By taking a minute to consider the things in the year that really caused me pain, I can start making plans to improve things next year.
3. Consider what you know
One of the biggest challenges that any business faces is getting a handle on what is going on at any given time. Who is visiting your website? What are they doing? What do your customers need? What do they already have? How effective was this promotion or that sale?
In our own lives, however, we run into the same trouble. How is my family doing? Are they happy? Are they stressed? Am I doing everything I can to take care of them? What have I accomplished this year? Did I make any goals that I did not meet?
By taking an audit of what you know, you can make a plan next year to tackle that information you do not have. Keep in mind that this is not necessarily a goal-setting exercise. The point is not for you to focus on the things you did not get done, but to try and understand what you can actually reliably measure and then consider if that is enough, or if you need to do more.
The End
Standing on this doorstep between 2012 and 2013, take the time to think about the past and let it help you define the future. You do not have to use my strategies, but I encourage you to do some kind of year-end review, both of your company and of yourself, so you have the information and experience you need to succeed in 2013.
by Part 2 of Samsung’s intro to the Premium Suite for the Galaxy S3. Can’t wait for Telstra to release the upgrade….. http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/?p=20742
by There is a Premium Suite upgrade coming for the Galaxy S3. Some of the features sound very enticing. Multi Windows, contextual actions (plug in your earphones and the music player opens). I wonder how long Telstra will take to roll it out in AUS?
http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/?p=20717
Apple need to lift their game. So much hype about the iPhone 5 but really a bit disappointing when it arrives. Now there’s already talk of an iPhone 5s or even iPhone 6. Will the loyal Apple following keep stumping up the cash?
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