Apple

Having read a fair bit about ‘Apple reinventing the textbook’  and having watched the launch, I don’t think anyone can say for certainty which way this will go; beyond those raised by the Econsultancy blog (which missed the bit about Apple’s publishing partners talking about iBooks)  There are a number of points to note:

• Anything that makes textbooks more interesting can only be a good thing. However, is it possible to turn every book into an amazing visual journey. I notice they only showed introductory science book examples. How complex can the topics become before the book reverts to mainly text? What about drier subjects like some branches of mathematics?
• Does this risk trivialising learning? They’ve taken the study questions and made them more interactive. Fine, but this is just like any web based learning environment, so not exactly revolutionary. And not everything can be represented as a multiple-choice question. It would have been great to see more innovative approaches to learning. Without this, there is a risk that the reinforcement of learning is only very shallow.
• Immersion. There are lots of potential distractions on an iPad. Just how effective will it be as a teaching tool.
• Reading experience. iPads are not e-Ink displays, which means that they will be tiring to read over time. People seem to cope with this, but if kids are looking at a screen solidly for 5 days a week, I’m not sure that’s amazing for their eyes.
• Typing. Nobody is going to claim that an iPad makes a great tool for typing for long periods. The problem is, if a school invests in iPads for each student, then they’re not going to provide laptops too. So what are students going to use to do coursework while at school?
• Exclusion. I echo the sentiment about this being too expensive for most schools/students. It would have been nice if the iBooks format was slightly more open, so it could perhaps work via a browser for those schools that couldn’t afford iPads. This is not in Apple’s interests though, hardware sales are where all their profits are (and why they can make the entire iBooks platform free software. You need an iPad to view it and a Mac to create it).
• Reach. As the article states, cost aside, not all schools will want to move onto an entirely Apple ecosystem. I’m not sure this matters to Apple though and I don’t think they’ll be worried if they only carve out a small niche in the education market. For one it’s great publicity for how socially responsible they are, it also helps to cement use of Apple products into the next generation of consumers and it will drive sales from those wealthy schools that can afford it. Now they’ve made the software, there are no major costs to supporting it (even interactive books are likely to be less costly to host and serve than apps, music or video as they will be smaller files prone to lower levels of demand).

So, there are limitations, but it is likely to see success within those schools that can afford to adopt it. Just don’t expect to see it revolutionise education overnight.

Apple has been in the media wars of late, with some significantly negative publicity relating to the tracking of users via their iPhone. Whilst the reality is rather different to that initially portrayed, it does highlight some interesting trends…

For those of you that watch South Park, a recent episode highlighted the public perception of end-user licensing and privacy statements. The character Kyle doesn’t bother to read the privacy agreement of an Apple iTunes update and has to suffer the consequences, which cannot be detailed here!

Apple has suffered a significant damage to its public reputation recently, due to the news that it has been tracking the location of it’s iPhone and iPad users.  Apple, along with Google, have been requested to participate in a US Senate panel on the issue of mobile tracking, with Apple adamantly stating that it does not track user’s locations, but uses the data collected to help speed up the use of location based services. As you can see from the map below (produced using the iPhone Tracker tool ), the wi-fi location and cell towers around your phone, can give an impression of your own location – you’d never guess that I use the east coast railway a lot!

<Click to enlarge>

Last year I wrote about the issues of advertising on mobile devices, a theme that I’ll be coming back to again shortly, along with the potential difficulties of mobile tracking. One of the issues related to the latency of the tracking and the corresponding issue of data accuracy. A recent article by ‘Localytics’ has highlighted this problem and it will be an ever more important issue as the use of mobile devices becomes more and more main stream. The common consensus (Wikimedia & Online Marketing Trends)  predicts that mobile devices will surpass desktops as the method of browsing the internet by 2014.

The Apple story is interesting as the issue of tracking on mobile devices, and indeed this specific issue relating to the user’s location, has been known about for well over a year. It only gained momentum in the popular press when the information was visualised!

This really shows the importance of visualising data. We all love a good story and need to be able to relate to the protagonists. Data is great, but insight is better!

Our own Neil Mason discusses the use of storytelling in his recent blog post. We are often confronted with the conflict of making data look ‘sexy’, think of glossy 3D pie charts, rather than meaningful. For me it is vital that a data visualisation tells a story. It should allow the user to experience a journey through the data to gain meaningful insight.

What is interesting, is that the depiction of data can often feel like an uphill struggle, everyone has an opinion on what a chart should look like. It is often only when you have played with a couple of different visualisations that the true meaning comes through. From a linguistic or memory perspective, this would be termed as ‘semantic’ meaning that a greater level had been achieved. As analysts, it is our job to help create this journey for our client.

This is not easy. It may take several iterations before the insights come through, but then again, it wouldn’t be a true story without a struggling hero now would it!

For more about Foviance’s Data Privacy Audit

The mobile advertising market is growing rapidly, presenting fresh challenges for any brands wishing to get their messages in front of this important new target audience.

According to recent figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade body for digital marketing, the total spend on mobile phone advertising in 2009 rocketed by 32 percent year-on-year to a new high of £37.6 million – and all that despite an overall contraction in the advertising sector in 2009. Read more…

Just like every year at the same time, a new version of the hugely popular iPhone was recently released on the market. The iPhone4 boasts a whole new range of sexy features like video calling or multitasking and, like its previous versions, is meant to take the mobile world to a new age. But despite all the hype a closer look at the device shows that the iPhone4 is far from perfect. Some important aspects of the phones technical specs have clearly been overlooked by the general public and even though it remains a state-of-the-art device, the iPhone4, I have to say is not as good as you may think. Read more…

I recently blogged about the iPhone4 and hoping to be a proud owner, set the wheels in motion. After a gruelling two hours of being left on hold and almost giving up, I finally managed to place my order for the iPhone4 on 24th June 2010.  Despite this terrible telephone customer experience, the new toy was impressively delivered within 24 hours and I got my hands on it. Read more…

Rumours of the Apple iPhone4 have been circulating for months and for so long I’ve been waiting to make my free phone upgrade worthwhile, I’ll finally get my hands on an iPhone. Now the launch date has arrived and I only have a few more weeks to wait.

So, what are some of the new features of iPhone4 that are going to be so special? For me forward facing video calling, is going to be a really good feature (in the main). A number of my close friends live all around the UK so being able to actually see their faces when we chat will be a real bonus and make them feel much closer. This is great. But, I don’t want all my friends, family and colleagues to be able to utilise video calling. Read more…

I took the  iPad home for a few days and carried out some basic usability testing and below are some of my findings:

• Connect to my wireless network. All fine, except main CTA (after writing password) was amongst letters and looked equally grey)
• Watch YouTube videos – Eddie Izzard – great experience with the iPad sitting on my legs, picking it up every so often to show my husband who could also participate at a distance.

Read more…

Welcome to your latest edition of the Foviance newsletter. This issue sees the whole team mobilising to gain a more footloose and fancy-free perspective on the customer experience.

Frank Ma, our man in China, offers a fascinating insight into the mobile state of play in his own vast marketplace. Chris Holmes takes Apple’s latest toy home for the weekend but fails to be seduced by its good looks and charming first impressions. Jamie Barnett examines why Betfair is odds-on to turn its first-to-market mobile betting advantage into solid returns. And finally, Guy Stephens explains why ‘on-the-go’ points to a bright new future for customer service.

I would be very interested to hear from you directly with any feedback.

Paul

In this issue:

Mobile habits made in China

My weekend with the iPad

Gaming cuts loose

Customer service ‘on-the-go’