Tech Shopping with Mom

My Mom, like most moms, is not very tech savvy. A few months ago she mentioned to me that she wanted a new laptop. I live hundreds of miles away, so the best I could do was send her a few links based on what features she told me were important to her. A month or so later she mentioned that she bought a new Dell XPS Laptop from QVC. If you're a tech person or a deal hunter you can imagine my surprise when I found out she bought a laptop from a home shopping channel. However, I quickly realized that QVC was the easiest, least threatening purchasing choice for her. Unfortunately, when the laptop showed up she was unhappy with the weight and the glossy screen.

She returned her laptop to QVC and asked me to help her pick a new one out when she came to visit San Francisco. After some obligatory sightseeing we went over to Best Buy to pick out a new laptop. Upon arriving in Best Buy we proceeded to check out the numerous laptop and netbook brands they carry, including Dell, Apple, HP, Acer, and Sony. We quickly discovered that almost all of the laptops today have high gloss screens. These are great for watching movies but not so good for working in bright sunlight. Further, older individuals like my Mom have an especially hard time with the screen glare. We asked the friendly sales associate if they carried anti-glare screen covers that we could sample. He kindly referred us to Office Max.

With our choice severely limited, we decided to evaluate the Macs more closely. Their screens were still glossy but not nearly as pronounced as some of the other brands. She quickly became enamored with the MacBook Air which offered everything she wanted. Notable selling points included the built-in webcam, lack of viruses, light weight, backlit keys, and general ease of use. Although her previous laptop ran XP, she was facing the challenge of learning a new OS on both Mac or PC (Vista).

After settling on a MacBook Air we headed over to the GPS and digital camera sections where our frustrations were repeated. These products, like almost all tech products, are not designed for simplicity or use by older people. For example, the leading digital cameras either have microscopic buttons or touch screens with complex menus. They pack in features while increasing complexity. The cameras with simple menus or large buttons are all low-end models with poor picture quality.

Finally, we went home empty handed to continue our research online and look for the best deals on the models we liked. With my assistance she was able to get some great deals online at Newegg and the Apple store. Her MacBook Air came refurbished from Apple for $999 and her Fuji FinePix came with an accessory bundle from Newegg.com.

Our experience was stressful, typical, and somewhat enlightening. Once again, I realized that there is a vest unaddressed market for user-friendly technology products. The Baby Boomer generation may not have grown up in a high tech world but they have disposable income and a desire to stay connected to their children and grandchildren. Technology companies, software companies and retailers need do a better job of designing and marketing their products to this audience. If you need a tech gift for Mom (or Dad) check out my approved list below.

Tech Products for Older Folks
Digital Camera: FUJIFILM FinePix - large rubbery buttons, a sliding lens cover, and bright colors make this camera a great choice.
Computer: MacBook Air - Light and easy to use with a built in webcam and iChat to remotely trouble shoot for mom.
GPS: TomTom 340 - Simple menus and large icons for easy use.
Computer Service/Training: Apple One to One - Get going on your new Mac for $99.

Best of SF New Tech 6/17

For the last few months I've been a regular attendee at numerous Bay Area tech events. SF New Tech is hands down one of the best events for the companies featured, the format, and the networking. With so many great companies presenting I've decided to highlight the best companies each month.

The June 17th New Tech, "Widgets up the Wazoo," included Clearspring, Gigya, Sprout, Sellit, Adgregrate Markets, Toobla, & Transpond. All of these companies had interesting technologies but the two that impressed me most were Transpond (B2B) and Toobla (B2C).

Toobla is esentially a rich media version of Delicious. The site lets you bookmark any content from the web and organize it into folders that can be embeded on other sites. The visual nature of the bookmarks makes them perfect for sharing through social media or on your blog. Toobla also makes it much easier to share things like video playlists or sets of documents from sites like Slideshare, VisualCV, and Sribd. The company did a nice demo at New Tech but unfortunately since they are still in private beta I haven't had a chance to really test their site out. They will be slowly opening up the site over the next few weeks so sign up with your email or check back regularly.

The most impressive B2B company of the night was Transpond (formerly iWidget). The company provides a platform that facilitates the easy creation & publication of applications. They integrate with social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo Connected TV as well as moible platforms including the Palm Pre. Their new platform update is drop dead simple and their flat rate pricing will keep your budget happy.

For more coverage on the night check out today's WSJ article. SF New Tech broadcasts live on Justin.tv so if you can't make it to the next event you can always tune in online.

Women Over 55 Discover Facebook

The other day I came across an interesting article highlighting the explosive growth of Facebook users over 35. This trend is especially interesting in the 55+ demographic and it mirrors my recent experience.

To my surprise, about a month ago my Mother-In-Law began talking about getting on Facebook. Now that all of her children and grandchildren were on Facebook, she felt left out. Why hadn't she hadn't seen that great picture her family was talking about? Why was she the last to know about a fun day of sledding?

The situation got me thinking about how under served this demographic is on the internet and with technology in general. A few companies have tried to cater to them, but nobody seems to have hit the winning formula. Examples that come to mind include Eons, Web TV, and Jitter Bug.

Now that the network effects of Facebook (and other technologies) are so strong, older users are ready to sign up as well. There is an opportunity to modify these existing sites & technologies to better cater to this group. For example, why not a scaled down Facebook with larger text specifically for older people? My Mother-In-Law doesn't care about 95% of the applications and isn't tech savvy enough to sort through them. However, she does want to see family pictures, maybe get status updates, or remember everyone's birthdays. How about streaming Facebook photo albums to her digital picture frame?

One of the more interesting stories I've heard about older Americans on the web was from a digital entertainment conference at the MIT Media Lab. The presenter, who worked at an MMO gaming company, described how older players (55+) were joining the game as priest characters. They weren't really interested in the fighting aspect of the game but they enjoyed interacting in the virtual world. This was especially true for retired people or people with limited mobility.

Many older American's have the money and are more than willing to spend it to stay up to date with their family; However, the technology has not been modified or marketed to them. Why not market the iPhone to grandparents? They would love the ability to see the latest photos, use Loopt to keep track of grandchildren, or utilize the GPS to get directions. With a little help on the setup I'd say the iPhone is easier to use than most cell phones.

No doubt creating technology for older Americans can be a risky proposition. However, over the next few years I hope to see some websites that cater to my aging parents and make it easier for me to share my digital life with them.

Boston Mobile Investment

Along with the list of Boston area mobile startups, Xconomy (a great site covering Boston and Seattle startups) also posted an analysis of the total mobile investment which has been steadily growing. Interestingly, the 2008 investments were fairly steady despite economic issues.

"MoMoBoston didn’t detect any dropoff in mobile investment as 2008 progressed: the total of $562 million was invested in fairly even chunks across the four quarters, with a slight spike in the second quarter...With over half of a billion dollars invested in 2008 and 180 very diverse companies operating locally, Boston has quietly developed into the worldwide hub of mobile and wireless.”

BU Tech Strategy Presentation

I'm finally getting around to posting some of my work to Slideshare. Below is my team's winning presentation from the 2007 Boston University Tech Strategy Case Competition. Each team had 24 hours to address the subject, “What is the best way for Motorola to win in seamless delivery of media and entertainment?” We recommended that Motorola leverage their position in the set-top box market to enable a P2P media delivery system. Check out the presentation. I'd love to hear your comments.

Motorola's Strategy for Media Distribution

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: box set-top)

Mobile Start-Up Presentation

Slideshare is a great site for all kinds of useful information (once you sort through the junk). Check out the mobile presentation I recently found. Also, you can find a number of my presentations there.

The Mobile Start-Up Ecosystem - Rudy De Waele

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socialmedia startup)

2nd Annual Open Web Awards

Check out the 2nd Annual Open Web Awards and vote for Rearden Commerce and all your other favorite companies. You can nominate and vote for companies in 26 different categories.

Update: The 2008 winners have been announced and can be found here. Some of my personal favorites from the list include Gyminee, Evernote, and Doodle. Be sure to check out all the rest of the winners and finalists.

Tech and the financial crisis

Check out this presentation by Mary Meeker from the Web 2.0 Summit. She talks about some of the causes of the financial crisis and the outlook for tech. The video of the presentation is available on TechCrunch.

Mary Meeker Web 2.0 Presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: web 2.0)

An Open Platform for Mobile Application Development

As my MBA experience comes to an end it seems like a good time to post some of the project work I've done over the last two years. One of my main areas of focus has been mobile technology. This semester I took a class called Winning in Technology Markets which used System Dynamics as a framework for tech strategy. My team project was an evaluation of an open platform strategy for the Japanese cell phone company NTT DoCoMo. Here is our presentation deck. If I get the chance I will also post the full analysis.

View Upload your own

BU Tech Strategy Case Competition

It is just about time for Boston University's annual tech strategy case competition. This year 16 teams from around the world will be competing for the top prize of $25,000 sponsored by Ericsson. Last year I participated in the competition and was fortunate enough to be on the winning MIT Sloan team. As the only first-year student on that team I had the opportunity to put this year's team together. We've got a great team and will hopefully come home with enough money to hold me over until I find a job.

The competition goes from March 27 - 29th and you follow the action on the official competition blog. Check back here to see if Sloan was able to pull off a repeat victory.

Pandora at Sloan

I want to say thanks to Tim Westergren, Co-founder of Pandora for speaking at Sloan this past Wednesday. Tim gave a great talk on the founding of Pandora, the future of the music industry, and the Music Genome project.

One of the most interesting aspects of Tim's talk was his explanation of Pandora as part of the music discovery process. Because Pandora uses over 400 objective criteria to rate each song, the music discovery process is not driven by the latest fad or ratings that trend toward the mean. Pandora spends between 15 - 45 min rating each song. In addition over 70% of their music is not on a major label. For my money Pandora clearly has nailed one piece of music discovery on the internet. Ultimately they still need to dramatically improve the ease of purchase. Tim mentioned that many of their artists are not on iTunes or Amazon.

For the first three weeks of Pandora's life the company attempted a subscription model. When this was a dismal failure they moved to a free service. Currently, Pandora is supported by ads and a revenue sharing agreement with merchants like Amazon.com. Next time you want to buy a CD (or other item), help Pandora out by clicking through their site.

Pandora recently sent me an email with some tips for improving my station:

Want to create a station with a very specific sound? Consider giving a thumbs up to a song only when you like (almost) every aspect of a song, because each thumbs up will add more songs to your station, perhaps in a range that is wider than you had hoped.
Thumbs down has a less dramatic impact than thumbs up – it simply bans that song from that station, so consider using it liberally for any song you don’t like, or for a song that just doesn’t ‘fit’ on that station.