Tech Surprises

80% of the time you are wearing 20% of your clothes. Why do you still keep 4/5 of your closet? If you get the right classy pieces of clothing and accessories, you will be able to go on a 7 day business trip with carry on only and never wear the same combination of clothes. Oh, and you will need no more than 5min to pack for the trip.

If you’re living a nomadic lifestyle, you work out of coffee places, airports and hotels. You need one device that has it all. A device that “stands alone” like a Marc Jacobs bag. When you have to pick just one accessory, you’re looking for a simple form, neutral color that will match all your outfits. When you finally find it, it becomes your perfect travel companion. The petite bag with detachable strap and built-in credit card slots has a triple identity: a strapless clutch, handled purse and shoulder bag. You will not be able to live without it and you won’t need other bags. The price-per-wear will decrease with each wear and the initial cost of the bag will soon be forgotten.

Versatile handbag

Apple can charge the consumer the premium price because of its “awesome design and a relentless focus on users”. iPads and iPhones cost more than most smartphones and tablets. App store is not a non-profit organization either. Yet it has 25% smartphone market share in the US. iPhone owners download more apps and use them more frequently than any other smartphone users. Three-quarters of iPhone users now pay for one or more apps each month.

But how many apps can you actually handle? Switching between different apps seems less problematic than swapping handbags where you have to transfer all its content to the next one and it’s easy to forget the vitals, like the keys, the lipstick, the cards etc. When you have too many accessories, it is more likely than some of them you’ll never use and they’ll become dust collectors somewhere on the back of your closet. The same principle applies to apps, “too much choice actually makes it less likely [users] will take advantage of a feature.”

Why have many functions/features/apps in one app?
– To have a clean display. With the average 48 apps downloaded, the screens of iPhones and iPads quickly get crowded. It is difficult to find the app you want to use and you have no space for new downloads.
– To quickly switch between tasks without the need of closing and opening a new app, whether it’s running a simple search or looking for a first date inspiration.
– To save the memory and battery life. Fever apps running in the background equals less frequent charging of the device.

End-users want to do more with less. No wonder that AppZilla, 100 apps in one, hit 1,5 million downloads on July 1st 2011.

Did you know that the top selling app in Norway allows you to scan the beer prices in the bars around you? The Swiss are happy to pay for a collection of Grandma’s tips and tricks on house making? The Italians cannot live without stalking their friends on Facebook?

Housekeeping tips

It seldom happens that an app conquers the entire world. The number of total downloads of AngryBirds, 250 million, has surpassed the number of all iPhone, iPad and iPod devices worldwide, that is 200 milion. However, this is an exception to the general trend that people prefer local products. According to the Economist: “… the internet will continue to become more and more local: cultures are different, so the more people go online, the more the internet will resemble them”. One of the most downloaded paid app in Denmark, Danske Apps, serves solely one purpose: to find apps either made in Denmark or made specifically for the Danish market.

Simply beer

Norway is the most expensive country to live in Europe with ultra high prices of alcohol. You can save a lot of money on drinks if you only stick to the bars offering happy hour, hence the huge popularity in Norway of an app that lets you find them.

As much as the Norwegians like cheap beer, the Italians enjoy being the center of attention. Family and friendship mean a lot to them and they eagerly adopt social networks that helps them better connect with their dearest ones as well as lead in the never-ending popularity contest. “Who has deleted you on Facebook? Who is visiting your Facebook profile?” are good things to know and the apps that give an easy access to this information are selling well in Italy.

Facebook delete

Facebook stalker

Americans like to use the technology to be more efficient in their everyday lives. After the crisis, they adopted a more rational attitude to shopping and value a good deal even more than before. The shift in the American mindset to more conscious consumption combined with their passion for always increasing their productivity explains the success of AppZilla. This app combines a hundred of utility apps such as currency converter, calculator, weather forecast etc in one app for 1 USD which is value for money and simultaneously allows them to cram more apps on the small screen of the iPhone.

iSocialize

AppZilla

As the country that invented marketing, America perceives the technology not only as a way to optimize their daily activities but also as tools for individual promotion and visibility. If nobody knows about your existence, you won’t be offered a great job or invited to cool parties. No wonder the social networks thrive in this highly competitive society where the amount of publicity determines your social status. As Coco Chanel said, “the most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” Americans tweet, post on Facebook and Google +. And if they are short of ideas of what thoughts to share with the world, they can always reach for the iSocialize app, the third best selling social networking app in the USA in July 2011.

What two words best describe a hi-tech company eager to win the consumers’ hearts in all categories: social network, mobile operating system, web browser and email? Angry Google!

Angry Birds has become a part of the modern culture and the brand is now part if the common knowledge just like Google, Facebook, Microsoft. One million downloads a day and 250 million downloads in total does not leave any doubt. Neither do pictures like the one below.

Angry Google

The major competitor of Angry Birds in the overall number of sales in the App Store is surprisingly not another game but WhatsApp Messanger, which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS.

What does the mobile game have in common with the utility app? They are used on very different occasions but they have a few things in common.
• Simple elevator pitches:
– You will help cute birds defend nasty pigs that have stolen their eggs.
–  You will be able to do more than SMS allows you to at a lower cost.
• Very intuitive and simple user interfaces:
–  The key app features are easily accessible without cluttering the interface with the stuff most of the users would hardly ever access.
• Instant gratification to the end users.
–  There are five types of Angry Birds, each equipped with a unique skill to fight the pigs. That’s all you need to know to start playing.
• Deliver what they promise
–  Whether it is a way to decrease the phone bill or make the good win over the evil.

The most popular apps all guarantee a great end user experience from first encounter with the users.
• They do not overpromise, confuse or overwhelm. If first experience with a new app / device is bad, users will not return and are lost forever. Why do you think Google Wave died? Google Wave had a lot of nice things to offer to users, but Google didn’t build a compelling user experience nor did it define some use cases for the application.
• They deliver stable quality and great user experience. Customer surveys of mobile subscribers in Europe and North America confirm that 74% of respondents would be prepared to pay for a higher quality of experience and better download speeds. Users have higher expectations to paid apps as opposed to the free ones.

The algorithm for a killer app is simple, yet difficult to implement; the few apps that that live up to the end user expectations take a vast majority of the downloads. End users are prepared to pay for them. 75% of iPhone users purchase one or more apps each month.

Sometimes you just have to leave the office in the middle of the day to take the car to the mechanic or see your orthodontist. By the time you’re ready to return to work, the rush hours hits.
Do you park your car on the back of a supermarket and pray for a decent cellular coverage? Or would you rather sit at a table and take the call while sipping your favorite coffee drink?

Many modern work tasks can be successfully accomplished outside of the office environment. Some, like working on a report a few hours before the deadline, require our undivided attention and deep, undisturbed thoughts of the creative process. These conditions are easiest to achieve at the home office. Other tasks, like passively listening to a conference call, can easily be done in between running errands on the go. The energy you save by efficiently getting the daily chores and mundane work duties out of your way can be put to the most demanding part of your job: producing equity for your company. It is hard though to be creative if you’re not having at least some fun in the middle of a busy day. Luckily, the modern technology is here to save your day.

We purchase mobile devices and apps in hope that they will to make our lives easier. A typical iPhone user has downloaded 48 apps. 68% of iPhone owners use their apps multiple times a day. Apple store had 425.000 apps in July 2011. Finding the right app for you that you’ll find useful is a real challenge.

When do you consider downloading a new app? It typically happens on two occasions. Either when you are faced with a practical problem, such as finding the closest coffee shop with Internet connection to attend a videoconference while on the go. In this case, you are more concerned about the reliability of the WiFi than about finding a perfectly organic and artisan coffee blend, so you go for Starbucks. You download the Starbucks app and soon you know that the closest Starbucks is only half a block away and is open till 8pm.

Starbucks app

Once you’re there and realize you still have 10 minutes till the meeting begins, you may just as well dedicate the spare time to experiencing something new, like trying a new beverage at Starbucks, just for the fun of it. The Starbucks app has quickly transformed your daily staple, tall latte, into Short-Caramel-Brulee-Nonfat-Extra-Foam-Ginger-Topping-Caffe-Latte. Now with the fresh yet tasty intake of caffeine you’re ready to face the toughest part of the day: summarizing the earnings call of the competitor’s you just listened to at Starbucks and recommending actions for your company. It’s going to be a long evening.

Today you are working from home. Two days before your tradeshow keynote it makes perfect sense to focus on brushing up your storyline. But it’s almost lunchtime and you’re craving a sandwich.
– Shall you open the fridge and quickly grab some fuel just to survive?
– Shall you order a delivery from a deli nearby?
– Or maybe your friends are lunching in the neighborhood and you can join them?

All these decisions will simply stress you out when you’re in hyper productivity mode. The last thing you need is to be bogged down by mundane activities, like lunch planning, that distract you from a task at hand. If only you could efficiently explore all your options and quickly pick the optimal one: walk three blocks to the newly opened Italian cafe that is serving your favorite panini with porchetta for half price and where your best friend is just checking in.

Porchetta NYC

How awesome, a great deal on a perfect meal in the best possible company was only a few Internet searches away!  First, you googled Recipes and Images to realize that you want more than the only sandwich you could prepare at home: Nutella and tortilla. Second, you ran ‘’sandwich’’ on Local, Maps and Gmail to see what’s going on nearby you and find that Groupon lunch discount coupon you totally forgot about. Finally, by searching for “sandwich” on your Facebook and Twitter you learned your neighborhood is the ultimate Panini destination in the city — your coolest friends either already have a picture of the panino on their profile or they’re on their way to take one! You clearly have been hiding under a rock not to know yet about about Porchetta NYC yet. Not anymore! Now you can enjoy a delicious lunch at a trendy spot with a friend who can help you practice your speech. Just don’t forget to call your buddy on Gtalk and ask her to order the sandwich for you, because the lines will be long! You don’t want to compromise your efficiency and get stuck in the lunch queue now that you’ve managed to so perfectly solve the problem of an empty fridge. You have enhanced your lunch experience without taking away any time from your work.

A question to you that we will answer in one of the upcoming posts: how long did it take to research all the lunch options and which device(s) / app(s) were used? Put your bet here:

Device(s): _______________________

App(s): _________________________

Time used: _______________________