Blogger's URL: http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/26/habits-are-the-new-viral-why-startups-must-be-behavior-experts/
The blogger I've decided to review is Nir Eyal. He has founded and sold two companies since 2003. Currently he works on behavior design, market strategy, and agile development.Nir Eyal also works for several Silicon Valley incubators, and on top of that collaborates in lectures with Dr. BJ Fogg's Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab. He typically blogs about technology and behavior design.
In Nir Eyal's blog- Habits Are The New Viral: Why Startups Must Be Behavior Experts, he blogs about how in order to attain status as a well ran company then that company should study consumer behaviors. Since after all most people have habits, why not make money off of that? He speaks of that habit/ itch that one has to constantly check their email and Facebook page. It even goes so far to saying that if someone were to say something as ordinary as "book" the words "Amazon.com" may automatically come to mind just because your mind links those two together so tightly. He argues that at the start up of a company consumer behavior analysis should be built into the very DNA of the company in order to keep it running because the company has to constantly know how the consumer is changing and therefore be smart enough to figure out what the consumer wants.
I like Nir's blogging style, it's very to the point on his issues. This article also can be easily understood because it relates to my life personally. I definitely know that "itch" he is speaking of when he mentions Facebook and email. I also agree with him that consumer behaviors should be built right into a company's DNA because there wouldn't be a business without customers and in order to keep customers you have to keep them happy. I wish he had more pictures or used other more familiar things as examples in his blog; such as how Apple has built "Genius" into their system so that it can gather anonymous information on consumer playlists and "genius-ly" make playlists for that specific consumer. Other than that I thought this was a very informative and interesting article to read. If I ever were to build a company I would probably refer to this article on consumer behavioral patterns. Keep up the good work Nir!
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Technical Improvements
Entrepreneurial Idea: "There's an app for that." Or so they say, but
there's no app for changing the language interface on an Android phone.
We are forced to go with an Iphone or a weird unresponsive smartphone to
get the language setting we want. Android is getting better and better
every passing day, but they are still losing out on a lot of customers
because of no option to change the language setting like one can do on
an Iphone. My idea is for an app that can do that. The day we can all
have ANY phone of our choice with the language we understand will be the
day cellular devices take a great leap into the future.
So I've been thinking. Perhaps after successfully making a program that can convert the internal language of a cell phone we can expand outward, literally. What I mean by this is to also translate whole passages and other materials outside of the cellphone. How cool would it be if a person just had to point their camera at something and hit the translate button or translate texts in other languages to their own? This is where Cloud Computing may come in handy. After something is translated by our program and you wanted to keep the translation (because of course it would be an awesome translation) instead of it taking up memory on your phone you could save it to our cloud and access it from anywhere in the world.
Oh! Another idea! Speech for the translated material! How cool would that be? Think about it, if you were on the streets of a foreign country and you couldn't pronounce the word your cellphone could do it for you and of course sound like the actual natives. Want to keep that conversation also for future use? No problem that can be done. If we use things like Lossy Compression (take the sounds that the human ear cannot hear and toss it-for lack of a better word) then the file that you save onto the cloud or your cellphone won't take up as much space. You will have more space for other things. Don't worry the file even after being compressed will still sound good. Using this you can maybe use it to practice your actual conversation skills.
The idea just keeps expanding because of the needs of society these days. We just want to make this product as consumer friendly as possible. The improvements that can be made to this app to make it easier for anyone to use seems endless. The only limitation for improvements is how far technology can take us. Hopefully one day this idea will come to light and the world will be more connected through mutual understanding of each others' language.
So I've been thinking. Perhaps after successfully making a program that can convert the internal language of a cell phone we can expand outward, literally. What I mean by this is to also translate whole passages and other materials outside of the cellphone. How cool would it be if a person just had to point their camera at something and hit the translate button or translate texts in other languages to their own? This is where Cloud Computing may come in handy. After something is translated by our program and you wanted to keep the translation (because of course it would be an awesome translation) instead of it taking up memory on your phone you could save it to our cloud and access it from anywhere in the world.
Oh! Another idea! Speech for the translated material! How cool would that be? Think about it, if you were on the streets of a foreign country and you couldn't pronounce the word your cellphone could do it for you and of course sound like the actual natives. Want to keep that conversation also for future use? No problem that can be done. If we use things like Lossy Compression (take the sounds that the human ear cannot hear and toss it-for lack of a better word) then the file that you save onto the cloud or your cellphone won't take up as much space. You will have more space for other things. Don't worry the file even after being compressed will still sound good. Using this you can maybe use it to practice your actual conversation skills.
The idea just keeps expanding because of the needs of society these days. We just want to make this product as consumer friendly as possible. The improvements that can be made to this app to make it easier for anyone to use seems endless. The only limitation for improvements is how far technology can take us. Hopefully one day this idea will come to light and the world will be more connected through mutual understanding of each others' language.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Us vs. Competitors
Entrepreneurial Idea: "There's an app for that." Or so they say, but
there's no app for changing the language interface on an Android phone.
We are forced to go with an Iphone or a weird unresponsive smartphone to
get the language setting we want. Android is getting better and better
every passing day, but they are still losing out on a lot of customers
because of no option to change the language setting like one can do on
an Iphone. My idea is for an app that can do that. The day we can all
have ANY phone of our choice with the language we understand will be the
day cellular devices take a great leap into the future.
I bet you are wondering how is this company different from all the other ones out there. Here are two examples of other companies who are similar to us, but aren't quite as unique as us and why.
Competitor 1.) https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nuance.nmdp.pro&feature=more_from_developer#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwMiwiY29tLm51YW5jZS5ubWRwLnBybyJd
-As you can see both of us use translation technology to make the world of many languages a more connected world by letting us understand a different language. That's where the similarities end. Nuance's app is an app that needs to be spoken to in order to work. It doesn't translate the phone interface just words and conversations. How does that make using a foreign country phone any easier? The answer is it can't because you still can't read the screen on the phone.
Competitor 2.) http://www.languageline.com/
- Language Line also translates languages. However it translates more personally-there is another person on the other side. They do everything from business translations to translations for a doctor visit. There it goes again, the ending of similarities. First off it doesn't specifically deal with phones, its not an app and it can't be put on a phone interface. Second, it only translates documents, but not the language of the phone itself, so here we are again; stuck with a foreign phone that we can't even use for simple commands.
The competitors have nothing on us. We are entirely new and different. Where as the competitors are trying to focus on translating speech and documents we just want you to have a phone you are able to use without language frustrations. No other company it looking to do that because they just assume it's not as needed as a regular translator. They are wrong we do need a language translator for the phone interface so that we can use our phones to the fullest extent.
I bet you are wondering how is this company different from all the other ones out there. Here are two examples of other companies who are similar to us, but aren't quite as unique as us and why.
Competitor 1.) https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nuance.nmdp.pro&feature=more_from_developer#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwMiwiY29tLm51YW5jZS5ubWRwLnBybyJd
-As you can see both of us use translation technology to make the world of many languages a more connected world by letting us understand a different language. That's where the similarities end. Nuance's app is an app that needs to be spoken to in order to work. It doesn't translate the phone interface just words and conversations. How does that make using a foreign country phone any easier? The answer is it can't because you still can't read the screen on the phone.
Competitor 2.) http://www.languageline.com/
- Language Line also translates languages. However it translates more personally-there is another person on the other side. They do everything from business translations to translations for a doctor visit. There it goes again, the ending of similarities. First off it doesn't specifically deal with phones, its not an app and it can't be put on a phone interface. Second, it only translates documents, but not the language of the phone itself, so here we are again; stuck with a foreign phone that we can't even use for simple commands.
The competitors have nothing on us. We are entirely new and different. Where as the competitors are trying to focus on translating speech and documents we just want you to have a phone you are able to use without language frustrations. No other company it looking to do that because they just assume it's not as needed as a regular translator. They are wrong we do need a language translator for the phone interface so that we can use our phones to the fullest extent.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
A Few More Improvements
Entrepreneurial Idea: "There's an app for that." Or so they say, but
there's no app for changing the language interface on an Android phone.
We are forced to go with an Iphone or a weird unresponsive smartphone to
get the language setting we want. Android is getting better and better
every passing day, but they are still losing out on a lot of customers
because of no option to change the language setting like one can do on
an Iphone. My idea is for an app that can do that. The day we can all
have ANY phone of our choice with the language we understand will be the
day cellular devices take a great leap into the future.
In class this week my awesome IST professor gave a lecture on Hardware. It made me think about the future of my phone language modifier app more. What if the feedback was so great and more and more people were downloading and using the app? This calls for expansion and more help would be needed to run the app and improve it. I don't know much about the market so I may contact Deloitte-which is one of the world leaders in developing marketing strategies. They could help me with my next move. This may include whether I should partner up with a big company like Google to make the app more widespread and how to manage the revenue of the app. Better yet they could help create a website for the app that will draw more attention. Perhaps the website could even have a little online demo of the app so prospective "downloaders" will now exactly what they are getting.
Expansion for the app requires a lot more than just calling on Deloitte for marketing strategies. More gear would be needed for the PCs that are running the program and making it work for the millions. If the app makes a lot of revenue then it's possible to invest in better computer parts that are running the program. We can make the computer faster and more efficient by adding a better cache. Adding more RAM to juice up the PC would be perfect too! The PC would then be able to run more programs simultaneously if the app had more programs in it due to expansion.
What do you think of these extra improvements? I think they are worth while. If something expands it's obvious that more help would be needed. If it's an app then the PC that houses the program would probably need to be better. That's where the extra revenue can be used to "beef" up the PC even more so that it's more efficient. Expansion also calls for more professional help from people who understand the market and its demands. This is where Deloitte can step in and help out by coming up with a marketing strategy and putting up a website to let more people see how the app works.
In class this week my awesome IST professor gave a lecture on Hardware. It made me think about the future of my phone language modifier app more. What if the feedback was so great and more and more people were downloading and using the app? This calls for expansion and more help would be needed to run the app and improve it. I don't know much about the market so I may contact Deloitte-which is one of the world leaders in developing marketing strategies. They could help me with my next move. This may include whether I should partner up with a big company like Google to make the app more widespread and how to manage the revenue of the app. Better yet they could help create a website for the app that will draw more attention. Perhaps the website could even have a little online demo of the app so prospective "downloaders" will now exactly what they are getting.
Expansion for the app requires a lot more than just calling on Deloitte for marketing strategies. More gear would be needed for the PCs that are running the program and making it work for the millions. If the app makes a lot of revenue then it's possible to invest in better computer parts that are running the program. We can make the computer faster and more efficient by adding a better cache. Adding more RAM to juice up the PC would be perfect too! The PC would then be able to run more programs simultaneously if the app had more programs in it due to expansion.
What do you think of these extra improvements? I think they are worth while. If something expands it's obvious that more help would be needed. If it's an app then the PC that houses the program would probably need to be better. That's where the extra revenue can be used to "beef" up the PC even more so that it's more efficient. Expansion also calls for more professional help from people who understand the market and its demands. This is where Deloitte can step in and help out by coming up with a marketing strategy and putting up a website to let more people see how the app works.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Making it Better
Entrepreneurial Idea: "There's an app for that." Or so they say, but there's no app for changing the language interface on an Android phone. We are forced to go with an Iphone or a weird unresponsive smartphone to get the language setting we want. Android is getting better and better every passing day, but they are still losing out on a lot of customers because of no option to change the language setting like one can do on an Iphone. My idea is for an app that can do that. The day we can all have ANY phone of our choice with the language we understand will be the day cellular devices take a great leap into the future.
Social Media is a huge thing in our lives nowadays. Many of us spend a huge amount of time on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to the point where we lose track of time and are constantly monitoring it like hounds looking for food. As a company I don't see why we can't take advantage of the readily available focused attention. By using sites like Facebook and Twitter my idea for a language change app can be heard by the whole world in no time at all! People can "Share" the link, "Like" it and post it so that all their friends can see it and the friends of their friends can see it till almost everyone knows about it. The idea could go viral in a matter of days all because social media is instantaneous. What better way is there to spread the word on something than a great social site.
In many companies Microsoft Excel or a variation of it is constantly used to be keep inventory or to track growth and income. Excel can also be used to keep track of this language app. It can track how many users are using the app and in which countries. If the countries the users are using the app in are having some qualms about the translation software of the phone interface they can report it and it can be fixed so that the local language can understand it. Excel can also track the growth of the app and if it is getting bigger then the app developers would know to hire more help or expand.
Combining the two different things, Social Media and Excel would greatly enhance the app. Social Media will be able to attract attention to the app at a fairly fast pace and with the growth of the app Excel will be able to track the growth so that any improvements that can be made on the program can be taken care of. The app in theory should be able to run as efficiently as the language software on the Iphone.
Social Media is a huge thing in our lives nowadays. Many of us spend a huge amount of time on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to the point where we lose track of time and are constantly monitoring it like hounds looking for food. As a company I don't see why we can't take advantage of the readily available focused attention. By using sites like Facebook and Twitter my idea for a language change app can be heard by the whole world in no time at all! People can "Share" the link, "Like" it and post it so that all their friends can see it and the friends of their friends can see it till almost everyone knows about it. The idea could go viral in a matter of days all because social media is instantaneous. What better way is there to spread the word on something than a great social site.
In many companies Microsoft Excel or a variation of it is constantly used to be keep inventory or to track growth and income. Excel can also be used to keep track of this language app. It can track how many users are using the app and in which countries. If the countries the users are using the app in are having some qualms about the translation software of the phone interface they can report it and it can be fixed so that the local language can understand it. Excel can also track the growth of the app and if it is getting bigger then the app developers would know to hire more help or expand.
Combining the two different things, Social Media and Excel would greatly enhance the app. Social Media will be able to attract attention to the app at a fairly fast pace and with the growth of the app Excel will be able to track the growth so that any improvements that can be made on the program can be taken care of. The app in theory should be able to run as efficiently as the language software on the Iphone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)