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Re: First impressions of the Samsung H1 360

smstextnews — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:17:25 -0000

I certainly understand that limitation -- but with 280m customers, I reckon Vodafone's well placed to do-a-deal with Facebook to sort that out, surely?

Re: VoIP on the Nokia N900

danlane — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:01:09 -0000

Yes, you can do exactly that. Because VoIP over 3G can be a bit unreliable you can also set your VoIP number to divert to your mobile number if you aren't online. That way you can use VoIP over WiFi on the N900 (or any other SIP device) at home or, if you're offline, you'll receive the call on your mobile (you'll have to pay for the divert charge but it's very cheap compared to international calls from your mobile or landline). Your relatives in the UK won't know the difference and will just be charged as though they were calling a normal UK landline.

The guys at VoIP.co.uk should be able to set this up for you.

Re: What’s the best backpack a geek can buy?

smstextnews — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:11:20 -0000

Hi Team Targus thanks for taking the time to contribute! I'll take a look -- very cool!

Re: Do you know anyone who’s bought the £1k Motorola Aura?

smstextnews — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:05:01 -0000

Does that mean you're in good company... or ....

Re: The future is dire for Nokia & Symbian applications: Dead by 2012?

smstextnews — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:26:43 -0000

And you don't see any problem with the 'head space' issue?

Re: Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday

smstextnews — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:47:52 -0000

I really appreciate you helping me work it out Chris. I'm going to sit back and have a think then I'll publish some more ideas for critique. What do you think about the forum concept (below)?

Re: Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday

smstextnews — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:34:45 -0000

I actually think that the Fresh-to-MIR people will come from recommendations and forwards of the email. That means that we can't immediately capture a ton of new readers or be 'scobleized' (i.e. 50,000 people visit, read, then leave, within an hour). For other sites, there's a critical requirement to be as publicly available as possible.

What I'd rather have is fewer people, thinking better. I'd rather have 2,000 of the world's most influential mobile executives and fanatics reading the newsletter, than a nominal 300 or 400,000 readers who:
a) can't dedicate the time to read most of what we're producing
b) aren't in our target demographic of executives or fanatics
c) are transitory

Last year we connected about £3 million quid's worth of venture funding. In the last month alone I reckon we've connected about £150k's worth of business (readers doing business with other readers via MIR).

I'm concerned that in it's current guise, the MIR service is continually diluted. You can't help but think 'wow, isn't it brilliant that all those folk watched our N900 videos' and then unconsciously start chasing views. I don't think it should be about that.

This will be put in front of the right faces -- by email.

I think we'll need to RSS. Gahhhhh. I think we need to give the email a shot and see what folk think. Quite a few people I've spoken to have said words to the effect of 'I don't read long emails any more' -- indeed @moof commented this on Twitter just a few moments ago. I think that's a minority opinion for those hyper-connected with social media. A lot of the executives reading rely on email.

Re: Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday

smstextnews — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:06:20 -0000

I see what you're saying Chris -- and I particularly understand your 'semi-aghastness' at the concept of the content being in email form. Over the weeks whilst I've been considering this it's been my biggest issue -- the fact that the stuff we publish is now going to be only immediately consumable by those who've subscribed to the email. But then I like that. I like the exclusivity of it.

The big problem with writing for a wider audience is that you invariably are forced to change. For example I published the N900 videos for the core MIR audience and then -- with so many others piling in to watch -- felt I needed to produce even more. Ridiculous. The core audience want to have a look, want to read a bit of perspective, want to see the odd video. But they don't want 15 videos on the N900. Whereas if I was properly responding to the audience feedback (and the bucketloads of Youtube comments) I'd have published an N900 vid every 10 minutes for a week.

Perhaps there's a third way? Maybe I could archive the newsletters here on the site, on a delayed basis?

Re: Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday

smstextnews — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:05:21 -0000

Chris, I completely agree with you on this point:

'I'm sorry that you and the sender are the only people getting to read it'

It's a frustration I share. I often ask if I can quote parts of the feedback on a post -- and most readers are usually happy for this to happen, sometimes on an anonymous basis. But then I run out of time and I'm back to having to deliver the next day's update. I think the real challenge is that the MIR audience doesn't generally like public discourse. When we get a load of readers together at our events, the conversation is fantastic. But it doesn't replicate on to the web, mostly I think, because people are concerned about or unwilling to make their comments 'in public'.

I was originally going to avoid putting any newsletter content on to the site. I was going to make the site frontpage a subscribe form (but ensuring that old content can still be accessed as before).

Re: Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday

smstextnews — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:41:57 -0000

I've been thinking a lot about the feedback Paul. I was wondering if I could place a link at the bottom of each section that takes you to a page for that function. I do have a Twitter feed specifically for anyone 'atting' me with @ew4n or @mobileindustry so it's rare that I miss anything on Twitter.

That said, the ratio between readers and those posting comments is crazily, crazily low. Just as an indication -- we had about 14,000 readers on the site yesterday and (I'm estimating) no more than, what, 20 comments?

What do you think of the likes of FriendFeed?

Re: Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday

smstextnews — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:37:14 -0000

Thank you for taking a chance and subscribing, Chris.

I'd like to fatten-out your 'large value comes from the discussions in the comments' point. The MIR audience isn't a commenting audience. I actually took a look back at the posts vs comments ratio and it's very low. In the anecdotal evidence I've been compiling through chats with readers, this explained by:

a) Insufficient time to digest what I've posted
b) Insufficient time to post a comment
c) Too many posts leading to judging the content by it's headlines (in an RSS feed) and skipping everything but the most entirely pertinent
d) Concern about commenting (from an corporate policy perspective). A good example is Reda posting on behalf (or not, as it turns out) of Nokia Siemens Networks.
e) "I've never commented"

I like your idea of 'this is what Ewan's finding interesting' feed. Perhaps I could use Facebook or FriendFeed for that kind of 'immediacy' perspective. That would also allow easy commenting. What do you think?

One final point: I've got quite a lot of email from readers already. One of them comments, "great how you are keeping an open communication with your community." In theory, email is actually 'closed'. But I wonder if readers will feel more 'connected' to me by email as apposed to on the web?

On the 'thanks for subscribing' email reply I say 'tell me what's on your mind' -- and folk are replying to that right-away. Which is simply fantastic. When I do this on the web, it's rare -- ultra rare -- to get any feedback at all.

Re: Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday

smstextnews — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:29:43 -0000

I do agree with Stefan's response Ross -- but I also think I'll be able to deliver greater value with a newsletter, rather than a site. It's an experiment. I don't entirely know and I'm reliant upon (and will act upon) feedback from everyone.

Re: Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday

smstextnews — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:28:02 -0000

I don't want to be rushed, ARJ. Life does get in the way -- big time, I've got a ton going on, but having to sit down and panic every morning about what I'm going to be posting (because I haven't got enough time to think) is not good.

Your comments about email are well made. I'm going to give that some thought.

Re: Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday

smstextnews — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:01:31 -0000

Oh I like that idea Olly... Sunday. Hmmm. I'll canvas opinion!

Re: Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday

smstextnews — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:10:46 -0000

I've tried that ARJ -- the challenge is if I haven't posted something by, say, 11am, I start to get emails from folk wondering what's happening. So even though I could schedule posts, it gets a bit crazy. I'd sooner do a better job, once a week and see how that goes!

Re: Battle of the MiFis… Round 1

bensmith — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:06:14 -0000

That's great feedback... Thanks for letting us know!

Re: Spotify and Hero on 3UK

danlane — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:59:51 -0000

PLEASE tell me you recorded that conversation?

Re: Nokia’s legal action potentially massively damaging to their reputation

smstextnews — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:00:59 -0000

So it'd be fair to say that Silicon Valley is as influential as, say, Belgium?

Re: Nokia Siemens Networks accuses me of bias toward Nokia

smstextnews — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:18:48 -0000

Thanks for making that clear, Reda

Re: Nokia Siemens Networks accuses me of bias toward Nokia

smstextnews — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:16:48 -0000

I'm clear now that Reda's not necessarily speaking on behalf of his employer!

Re: Nokia Siemens Networks accuses me of bias toward Nokia

smstextnews — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:26:03 -0000

Woops Dan you're absolutely right -- I was trying to keep the headline as short as possible. I'll make the changes.

Re: Nokia’s legal action potentially massively damaging to their reputation

smstextnews — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:22:35 -0000

Reda, I'm always delighted to hear from Nokia Siemens Networks. Thanks for taking the time to post.

I'm definitely not biased against Nokia per se. What you're reading here in this post is my opinion. I would have thought that patently clear given the fact I didn't reference any specific sources and I frequently used generalisations and wide descriptions.

I see you had a look at the last 7 Nokia posts. Indeed that's a heck of a lot of time that you've spent cutting and pasting headlines. You missed this one:

http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2009/10/abs...

That's the highest trafficked post on the site this month by far. And it indicates I'm a massive, massive fan of Nokia (if occasionally a frustrated one).

And I think Nokia Siemens Networks does a pretty good job too.

Re: Nokia’s legal action potentially massively damaging to their reputation

smstextnews — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:11:07 -0000

I'm thoroughly enjoying your responses Alex and I really do appreciate you taking the time to put down your thoughts.

First question: Where do you think the centre of the mobile industry then, Alex? Berlin? Paris? London? Seoul? (and, er, leave out Japan... as they're in another dimension)

My contention is that Silicon Valley is now extremely, extremely influential in the mobile industry. Just 2 years ago, I'd have said it was a glint in the milkman's eye.

Apple's iPhone and Google's Android are just some flipping massive examples of the influence the region is wielding. There are tons more.

Upsetting the 'proud Americans' as you're describing them, changing their attention from disinterest to ire, no... that's not a good strategy at all. These are passionate people with extensive resources and a penchant for thinking big and relishing the Gordon Gekko attitude of simply demolishing your competition.

If it's a genuine patent dispute and not a misaligned attempt at public relations, great. If it's anything else, ridiculous.

Re: Shopping at the OVI store…

bensmith — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:31:13 -0000

I'm not sure that's the type of video they're after Mac :-)

Re: Going shopping at the Nokia Ovi Store: Dire

smstextnews — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:44:03 -0000

Totally agree with you Ben