iA / On Apps and Coffee

Tag: Strategy

On Apps and Coffee

– No matter how many times developers compare their apps to coffee... apps are not coffee. The question is not: How many coffees does an app cost. It's: How many apps does a cup of coffee cost? And the answer is: Apps are not coffee but coffee machines.

Subscription or no subscription? That is not the question.

– Companies selling apps via subscriptions use drama to sell: "Either subscription or we die.” As customers, we don't like to add more recurring payments to our monthly credit card bill. Begrudgingly we all accept subscriptions as a new reality. There is a limit to how many we can add to our credit card bill before we ask: Is this necessary? Is there only one business model for software, and, well, for anything now?

On Monopolies, Apple, and Epic

– Google has built a complete monopoly on search. Amazon uses the sales data of its resellers to continuously expand and solidify market dominance. Facebook copies the competitors that they can’t bully into being bought to keep their dominant market position. Apple is partying in antitrust land forcing its competitors to hand out 30% of its revenue. The game is rigged. And no one is enforcing the rules. Except for Epic, the maker of one of the most successful games of all time.

Putting Thought Into Things

– To get a good perspective, we start our projects with research. We go mobile first for prioritization, and we want all the content first so we can design in the browser… Unfortunately, the reality of web design follows a different stereotype.

“Why Simplicity Creates Great User Experiences” (DRT)

– Interview with William Channer for DRT, focusing on “the importance of keeping interfaces simple, why current websites are complicated and the pitfalls of research and why it's a good starting point to understand user expectations.” This is the unedited transcript of the interview.

The Value of Information

– When confronted with the necessity of offering news for free, editors are quick at pointing at the cost involved in news production. Which of course is beside the point. Information on the Internet is as common as snow in the arctic. You can't expect Eskimos to buy a snowman.

Kill Blog Comments?

– Blog comments have an innate communication problem: You can't discuss and moderate the discussion at the same time.

Social Media Marketing? Kaboom, Baby!

– "Social media marketing" is bullshit. If that upsets you, don't read the following text.

Data Gourmet

– The IT-Revolution promised to free and enrich us. To free us from propaganda, to free us from mindless TV, to free us from advertisement torture, and to enrich us by letting machines do all the boring work so we'd have more free time. So, how did it go?

Surfing the Avalanche

– The supposed recession is the best thing that could happen to us readers, consumers, new media makers. Avalanche, take us with you!

Web Ad Spend Overtakes Newspapers

– Earlier this year we speculated that in 2007 "Big ad investments start streaming in". Our prognosis was heavily understated.

10 Newspaper Myths Deconstructed

– The San Francisco Chronicle is in financial trouble. InfoWorld stops printing. Time Magazine redesigns its print edition and fires 50 people. Quo vadis, newspapers?

Pushers and Spammers Should Pay

– The amount of spam and flooding blogs and mailboxes is getting worse and worse and worse. How should we stop it?

How to Compete With Free

– You should read Mike's latest article several times. Not because it's hard to understand, but because it's amazing stuff. Read it again and again and then read through a whole series of his related articles.

Tirekickers & Co. Ltd.

– Yes, we still get requests from people that want us to work for free or deliver comps and sketches “just to see”. And we did some work for tire kickers in the past and once got really screwed by a couple of con-men. So actually we do have some advice for young creative companies and students that work in our field.

Internet 2007 Predictions

– After looking closer at what made the web in 2006, it is time for some bold predictions.

Technorati: Big Business with Bogus Data

– Since the PR giant Edelman and Technorati are working together they are both trying to become an industry reference for statistics on the blogosphere. The question is how reliable is Technorati’s data?

Startup in Japan (2): Find an Accountant

– I needed an accountant for my new company and so I checked out a couple of websites and made a couple of appointments. And if you think accountants are boring, you are so very wrong.

日本で起業するということ(1)基本

– もちろん、日本語が使いこなせるかは、日本でビジネスを行う上でキーになります。しかし、あなたの日本語がパーフェクトでない限り、日本人と仕事をしようなんて、考えてはいけません。やっていきたければ、日本人のスタッフを雇うべきです。そして、そういった環境を整える準備ができるまでは、ガイジン市場に固執してください。小さいけれど、大変にフレンドリーな市場です。自信を持って出せるものさえあれば。

Startup in Japan (1): The Basics

– Setting up a company in Japan as a foreigner isn’t as difficult as you might guess. Of course, it helped that I knew some things about Japan, and starting off—before I started off.

What is an Idea, and How Much is it Worth?

– An idea is not some pink cloud that looks like a bunny. The Greek word "Eidos" originally meant "form, shape", and that is what a real idea is.