Andrew Cho.NET

Wrong.

ANYONE who’s telling you this, wants you to FAIL.

Some business principles by Phil Libin, CEO, Evernote:

- It always pays off to invest all your money on product, because if you’ve got a great product, almost everything else comes for free.

- Make an amazingly great product.

- Charge money for it.

A good idea is a clever solution to a problem, one that I have never seen before. But if an idea is not taken up and used as a solution to a problem, it has no value. It becomes a non-idea.

-Paul Arden, author of the world’s bestselling book

I don’t care if you’re a billionaire. If you haven’t started a company, really gambled your resume and your money and maybe even your marriage to just go crazy and try something on your own, you’re no pirate and you aren’t in the club.

-Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve carried around my iPad around everywhere. My Macbook Pro has been reduced to, rather demoted to something that I use only if I have to do some writing, or programming. For the past 3 weeks, I only carried around my laptop once, which is a huge shift from having to carry it around almost every day.

So, in this post, I would like to talk about the iPad apps that I would actually love to pay for. It has been said, in some statistics, that 70% of the iPad apps are paid apps, ranging from $2.99-$49.99 depending on the types of the applications. However, most of these apps that I find in the App Store these days disappoint me in many ways:

A. They don’t take advantage of the bigger screen. The new “iPad” apps currently in the store tend to be just a larger version of the iPhone apps that developers have previously published on the iPhone. Over time, I believe that this problem would be solved as developers become used to the bigger screen real estate.

B. Viewing angles. Some of these apps only support certain directions when it comes to using their programs. I find so many of these in various applications. This problem is prevalent in many game apps, and it become a huge pain in the ass if you are using the Apple Case with it.

C. Overpriced. I do understand the reason why so many developers thought it was a great time to increase their price on the iPad. They must have thought “Well, bigger screen= higher price.” But guess what. Consumers are not dumb. Well, not that dumb. Just because I get to play doodle jump on the big screen doesn’t mean I’ll automatically pay $4.99 for the same game all of a sudden. Produce something enjoyable and native to the iPad platform, fully utilizing the experience. And then, I might think about paying so much.

So, it’s been a week since the iPad replaced my laptop as the official gadget of choice to bring to school instead of my laptop. Amazingly, the iPad has let me do whatever that I’ve been doing on my Macbook Pro very well and I believe that it will continue to do so, unless I need my laptop for other reasons, such as heavy coding or word processing.

On my last post, I talked about how the iPad is going to repeat what the iPod has done in the music industry; it single-handedly killed the old-fashioned buy-the-entire-album-to-listen-to-just-one-good-song-that-is-worth-listening consumption pattern and allowed music listeners to pick and choose whatever song that they wanted to listen to.

So this time, I’m going to talk about what the iPad is going to do in software development industry, specifically those small independent developers who traditionally lacked the means to distribute their software, publicize their newest innovations, and make adequate amount of money to compensate for their effort. But this is about to change. In the next paragraph, I’m going to talk a little bit about economics, which may be boring but I promise it will be worth reading.

As it is very common in many developed countries, it is not very hard to find huge companies dominating one industry with their $$$ and PR power to influence the market  in whatever way they want. In economics, we call such practice oligopoly. And we all know (at least, should know if you’ve taken econ 101 back in college) that oligopolistic practice causes what is called deadweight loss through less production of goods at higher price, thereby reducing the amount of consumer surplus and producer surplus. As a result, the economy loses a significant amount of welfare that could have been produced had the market been competitive as illustrated in this graph.

Now, because the iPad gives independent software developer, who tend to be more creative and can produce innovative products faster than giant companies, a platform to compete on the same level as some of these bigger companies with more manpower and resources, it changes the entire market into nearly perfect competitive market. Consumers have the option of selecting whatever they need at a cheaper price because of the availability of numerous new applications that fit their needs. It effectively decreases the average price of software, previously dictated by some corporate giants and increases the quantity of available software by driving the number of software developers in the market, and minimizes the deadweight loss caused by oligopolistic market system in software industry.

In conclusion, the introduction of the iPad is a good news for both consumers and society because they’ll earn more from it as a whole. Yeah, some may say that this empowers Apple to become the next dictator in software industry but at least they are producing amazing user experience and share this new opportunity with everyone, unlike some companies.

Apple‘s latest and hottest product, the iPad just hit the stores yesterday. As it is the case for most Apple products, whenever Steve Jobs announces the latest innovation in Apple’s product line, so many doubtful customers (usually the ones that have no idea what they’re talking about but love to show off their ignorance)  talk so much nonsense all over the place that I’ve decided to clarify a few things and enlighten theses poor bastards.

The biggest complaint that I hear from people around me is that the iPad is just a bigger version of the iPhone. Now, I can’t even begin to tell you why such statement is absurd but let me just explain to you why the iPad is not just a blown up iPhone.

First, take the iBooks app and the Kindle app for the iPad. As most of you know, these applications let users purchase books and store them directly onto the iPad. Some may say, “I prefer to have a real book made of paper and ink”. Now, that doesn’t matter. As witnessed by the music industry, contents, whether they are music, pictures, songs, or films, are bound to become cheaper and cheaper over time. It is a basic economic principle that consumers will find their way to get their hands on the contents that they consume in the cheapest possible way without compromising quality. These two books applications mark the beginning of cheapening content in publishing industry. Yes, it is the rise of cheaper, higher quality digital content that will shake the publishing industry’s traditional business model. It will give power to numerous independent writers just as the iPhone and the App Store empowered independent programmers.

This is a good news for independent writers and publishers as they now have more opportunities to communicate and spread their ideas in effective ways by distributing their work as digital content over the Kindle app and the iBooks app. The iPad is like Guttenberg’s printing press that revolutionized the publishing industry back in 1436, and marks the end of 600-year-old paper and ink publishing. The iPad is the very epitome of the process of creative destruction preached by Joseph Schumpeter.  The market will NEVER be the same again.

The rise of independent writers that can deliver their products directly to consumers will turn the oligopolistic publishing market into competitive market, thereby maximizing consumer surplus and minimizing deadweight loss caused by oligopolistic business practice. The oligopolistic publishing industry, which have been dominated by a few mega firms, will have to adapt to the new free market perfect competition business model that will arise in the near future, thanks to the iPad. In conclusion, the iPad will be the only device that will be remembered as the gadget that single-handedly brought down the publishing industry.

This is just one effect of the iPad will have on the existing market. Now, I dare you to tell me that this product is still a giant iPhone.

I learned something important from networking at Twiistup 7 and would like to share this with everyone. I met the founder of Baduku, an opinion engine similar to Aardvark or Hunch. He majored in sociology and told me something very different from what other entrepreneurs have told me in the past. He said that “Every event, historical or current, has two sides: ethnography and numbers. And through founding Baduku, I’m trying to accomplish both.”

So I’ve been TAing for my school’s web startups class and online marketing class for the past two months and I came to realize something.These brilliant students, many with game-changing ideas, when they share/present their ideas, vast majority of them seem to have trouble delivering the core value of their product in a simple form.

For those of you who have seen any video clips from Ted Conference, or Steve Jobs’ presentation, you know what I mean by ‘delivering core value in a simple way”. Personally, I had trouble simplifying my own ideas because I tried to accomplish too much in too little time. And it only accomplishes one thing: CONFUSING YOUR AUDIENCE.

When you give a presentation, just remember that there should be two things that you should pay attention to.

First, Numbers. Your facts and figures that you present should be accurate and cited from respectable/trustworthy sources that others can look up immediately. Making stuff up just to impress your audience will only get you so far. Be concise and clear as to why you are telling them about these numbers. Remember, relevance is the key.

Second, Story. Your presentation should be like a concert. Your facts/figures/numbers should coordinate beautifully with the story that you’re telling your audience. For instance, tell your audience how a day in your customer’s life is going to become different by using your product/service. Support your speech with believable sources/facts/numbers.

Again, why do we have to learn sociology? Because every event has two sides: ethnography(stories) and numbers. You don’t have to be the best presenter to become a successful entrepreneur. But ,those who can combine the two, are more likely to WIN.

If you are not good at public speaking or want to become a better speaker, sign up for Toastmasters. I already did.

I was trying to write a more refined and formal version of this, but since this idea’s been stuck in my head for so long, I’ll just let it out.

So it’s been a couple weeks since Twitter rolled out its newest feature, locations-based trending topics. I have set my location to Los Angeles, CA and tried to see if it added any real value to my Twitter stream. Just to be clear, the only reason why I adopted and avidly supported Twitter over Facebook is not because it was simple and easy to use. (For some people, Twitter is TOO simple for them to ‘get’ it. Or at least, that’s what I hear from those who don’t tweet. ) The only reason why I joined Twitter is because of its real-time information stream. It allows me to create, share, deliver, and consume what is happening RIGHT NOW with others.

As Evan Williams said at Web 2.0 Summit in November 2009, “What we have to do is deliver to people the best and freshest most relevant information possible. We think of Twitter as it’s not a social network but it’s an information network. It tells people what they care about as it is happening in the world.”

Hence, as he mentioned above, the most phenomenal and compelling feature that differentiated Twitter from other social networks is that it enables people to share real-time information of current events anywhere in the world. It allowed people to filter & customize the real-time information by letting them follow news, people, places, and companies that they genuinely care about. In addition, it publishes the most talked about or the ‘hottest’ topics on the bottom right corner of the homepage so that its users can see what is going on at the moment. It is the core strength of Twitter that contributed so much to its mainstream adoption.

However, is Twitter really living up to its mission statement defined by Evan Williams? At least in its current form, I doubt it. With the addition of location-based trending topics, it just seems like Twitter is jumping on the location-based social networking bandwagon just like everyone else in Silicon Valley (Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, Geodelic, etc. you name it). And the biggest problem with the introduction of location-based trending topics is that it adds absolutely no value to neither Twitter as an information network nor its user experience.

I mean, how many times have you seen useless, pointless, and irrelevant trending topics such as #goodnight, #omgthatssotrue, #thisdateisover (these are displayed on Twitter as I write this post) on Twitter trending topics? Twitter’s core strength is in its real-time delivery of relevant and accurate information to its users. Twitter was faster at delivering Tiger Woods’ being involved in a car accident than CNN was.

But seriously, for FAWK’s sake, do we really need to know what the HELL you’re #nowplaying?? Just last week, there was a false rumor being spread on Twitter regarding Johnny Depp’s death and ‘RIP Johnny Depp’ was a trending topic for almost the entire day. By indiscriminately displaying the most talked about or most hashtagged words, Twitter is downgrading its quality as the world’s biggest real-time information repository.

Just imagine what Twitter can do with relevant and current real-time information combined with location-specific trending topics. For example, by filtering out the unnecessary and useless things that people say, Twitter can display location-specific advertisements about the ‘hottest’ and most talked about topics when they click on one of the trending topics. Think about how high click-through rate and conversion rate would be for those ads.

The result? “Seamless CPC advertisements with super high conversion rate for which Twitter can charge premium rate” that does not disturb Twitter’s current user experience or downgrade user’s authority like in-stream advertising does”.

This is just one thing that Twitter can do by simply filtering out the trending topics to deliver more relevant information for its users. And Twitter can create a revenue model without distorting the current user experience and make $$ at the same time. How great is that?

I never quite understood why people would ever use or create a desktop client for Twitter. I always asked myself, “Is it worth making an application for a tool as simple as twitter?”

To me, Twitter was simple enough to use in any web browsers. Honestly, I thought a twitter desktop client was for those who are too lazy to double-click on a browser icon and type in their log-in info.

However, since I use twitter a lot on my iPhone, I figured I would give twitter desktop clients a try. The ultimate decision came down to Seesmic and TweetDeck.

They both feature multiple columns that can be used to organize your followers. I always had a trouble dealing with power twitter users such as Guy Kawasaki(btw, follow him or Alltop. I highly recommend their tweets) who would simply “rape” my twitter page with their updates. Now, I can simply put them in a column dedicated for power users who tweet every minute and won’t miss out on any important updates or useful information they disseminate.

It also supports MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. If you have accounts with them, you can also add them in a column.

For those of you new to twitter, try TweetDeck. It’s the twitter desktop client of my choice and possibly the best one out there.