Devices & People & Feelings

Posted on December 31, 2012 by switch11

Zynga is closing down some of its games today. One of the games is Petville – where you have virtual pets you take care of and buy things for. The comments from people whose ‘virtual’ pets are being killed off are a reminder that people and people’s feelings are far more important than software and hardware.

Technology only holds value/meaning if it creates an impact in people’s lives. If it makes people FEEL things.

We tend to forget that devices and technology are meaningless in themselves. It is how devices affect people and the feelings they create that give them meaning.

Would a tree falling in the forest make a sound if there was no one to hear it?

It (the notion that devices in themselves are nothing) might sound like heresy to people working in technology who think the software they make, the devices they manufacture, the cars they build, and the planes they construct are masterpieces. That it doesn’t matter how they impact people or their lives or their feelings. Just the existence of the technology is beautiful in itself.

Actually, it’s not (except to the creators). The existence of technology means nothing until it reaches people.

A hammer by itself is powerless. A hammer used to build a house that people will live in and cherish is something beautiful.

Twin Traps of Technology Fetishism and Fashion Obsession

We’ve fallen into two very interesting traps -

  1. The first trap is that technical specifications of devices have meaning. That having a quad core processor is somehow twice as good as having a two core processor – even if there is no difference in the end user experience.
  2. The second trap is that the device and its beauty is the center of the universe. That it’s not the person who gives the device meaning, but the opposite.

They are both traps. The first gleefully endorsed by the technologically savvy and the second spread by the aesthetically adept (or obsessed or addicted).

A device that has impressive specifications but doesn’t create some great value for the device owner is just a technology fetish. A device that looks beautiful but doesn’t provide great value is just a fashion accessory.

Devices are defined by how People use them

A device gains relevance when people start using it and it starts impacting their lives. When people feel something about it.

There are different things different companies go after -

  1. One device manufacturer says – Let’s put in 57 different shiny new technologies. The user will be so happy to have access to these new technologies that it doesn’t matter what using the device is actually like.
  2. A second device manufacturer says – Let’s polish and pretty up the device so that it sparkles. The user will be so busy showing off that she won’t care if some things don’t feel right.
  3. Somewhere, hidden away in the Arctic perhaps, is a device manufacturer who thinks only in terms of the core. Not the extrinsics like fashion or technology fetishism or price or addictions. Just the core – What does the device do? How does it make the user feel? How can we perfect that?

Subjugating a device’s core purpose to extrinsic things – closed ecosystems, fashion and trends, technology, business priorities. That’s just a corruption of the core ideal. All of it just gets in the way of the device doing justice to its core functionality.

People want to feel good about their devices

Yes, this is in both extrinisc and intrinsic ways. Extrinsically,

  1. People want devices that make them feel they got good value for money OR that they got the chance to show they have disposable income OR that they are most certainly not willing to waste money on expensive things.
  2. People want devices that are pretty and make them look cool and sophisticated.
  3. Some people prefer devices that make them look smart and knowledgable.
  4. Often people want devices that convey a philosophy or an idea.
  5. People want devices that have extrinisic qualities with in turn help people get extrinisic things (coolness, popularity, confidence, contentment, congruence with an idea they hold dear).

Intrinsically, however, is where it gets really interesting. People, sooner or later, run into the core uses of a device i.e.

  1. People end up using the device for what it’s meant for.
  2. This either works great and people feel satisfied and great about themselves and in control.
  3. Or it doesn’t work and people feel stupid and that they don’t control things and realize that the device made them feel bad.

This intrinsic part, in my opinion, is ten times more important than anything extrinsic.

The device must do its core function so well, and with such ease of use, that users LOVE it and Feel good about it, and about themselves. Regardless of the extrinsics.

Devices & People & Feelings

A great many people who make devices and technologies suffer from one of two fatal flaws (sometimes both) -

  1. They don’t realize (or perhaps don’t give importance to) the fact that a device or technology they are making has the power to make people feel things. That their creations can make a person’s day (and life) better or worse. Not just at the ‘getting things done’ level, but also at the ‘how I feel’ level.
  2. They can’t, or don’t want to, step into the common users’ shoes and view the device as the common user will see it. The common user will see the device as ‘providing something’. Not as a combination of a four core processor and a NFC chip and a Wireless card. For the user, the device is a living, breathing thing that the user interacts with and which affects the user’s life and emotions and ability to get things done.

So we end up with devices built for robots and non-thinking non-feeling automatons when we need devices built for human beings.

The average user is wary of technology. Simply because she has been trained that interacting with technology is usually painful and frustrating. Simply because she feels good before dealing with technology but bad afterwards.

It’s time for device makers to change that. So that people look forward to using new technologies.

Device makers think of making devices as fitting a brick into a wall. It is actually more like counting stars. It’s not about the dimensions and the fit and the numbers – it’s about the experience and the joy.

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iPad Mini, Microsoft Surface, Kindle Fire, Nook HD TV Ads

Posted on November 22, 2012 by switch11

First, sans comments.

2006 iPod Ad –

2012 iPad Mini Photos TV Ad –

2012 Microsoft Surface Ad –

2012 Kindle Fire Ad –

2012 Nook HD Ad –

Second, a few observations.

  1. Hard to believe the company behind the 2006 iPod App came out with the 2012 iPad Mini Photos TV Ad. It almost seems as if Apple is now marketing only to support confirmation bias and only to existing Apple users. Not a bad strategy to strengthen their base.
  2. If this 2012 iPad Mini Photos Ad was created to strengthen existing Apple owners’ likelihood of buying an iPad Mini – then it’s good. It does make you wonder why Apple wouldn’t try to focus on new users.
  3. If, however, it was intended to create excitement about the iPad Mini, then it fails spectacularly. The same for the iPad Mini Piano TV Ad. It’s not really doing a very good job of anything other than saying – I’m Mini-Me. Buy me to give your iPad some company.
  4. The Microsoft Surface Ad is the spiritual successor of the whole ‘iPod is cool and it will teach you how to dance’ series of commericals. With a bit of directness and more humanity. The twist is that the Ad does such a good job of putting a smile on your face, you have to wonder what people are left with. The desire to buy a Surface Tablet or just a psychological link between happiness and smiles and Surface. The latter is very powerful but it would suggest Microsoft cares more about creating a bond for the future than about selling in the present.
  5. Kindle Fire Ad is interesting. Very good use of music. Very good situations. Does a decent job of showing what you can do with the Tablet. The ending is really weak. It’s like they put you into this nice happy trance state – ready for a strong emotional connection to the product. Then the man with the strangely annoying voice breaks the spell and starts discussing logic and prices. Are you kidding? How do you go from ‘Play with Fire’ to $199? Update: It’s delicious irony that the first lines of the song in the Kindle Fire Ad are ‘stop talking’.
  6. The Nook HD Ad does a really good job of selling the Profiles feature. On the other hand, the use of music is weak and they don’t create a strong enough emotional connection – which is surprising given they have so many opportunities. Also, the dog is a touch of genius.
  7. My Ranking would be – Surface Tablet, iPod, Nook HD, iPad Mini, Kindle Fire Ad. If they removed the man’s voice and the price from the Kindle Fire Ad it would go to #3 since they do a really good job of showing the functionality and amping up the energy.

There’s something very strange going on at Apple. First, the annoyingly subservient Genius Boy Ads. Now these strangely laid back iPad Mini ads. Did they fire their creative team and replace them with interns?

It’s almost as if Apple has forgotten it’s selling its products to human beings. Or perhaps its on the defensive and just trying to strengthen its position with existing Apple product owners. Of all the different things I’ve seen lately from Apple which are non-Apple, this is the one that’s hardest to fathom. The company that made the 1984 Ad and the Facetime Ads is now reduced to making Ads with an iPad and an iPad Mini side by side showing photos?

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Kindle Fire HD, Nook HD, Nexus 7, MS Surface – The rise of non iPad Tablets

Posted on November 19, 2012 by switch11

This post is ostensibly about Kindle Fire HD, Nexus 7, Nook HD, Microsoft Surface and how they are gradually disrupting the iPad Market Tablet Market.

Beneath the layers, however, it’s really a post about FLOW.

Flow is about falling in love with doing something because it’s so smooth and feels so good. There’s a very smart man who’s written a very unreadable book about it – in case you want to dig deeper (the link above covers the book).

We’ll cover two levels. The surface level of Technical Specifications and Price and Features. The core level of Flow.

Surface Level Things vs Core Level Things

With any device, with any technology, with any experience, there are two levels of things -

  1. Surface Level Things. These are things like technical specifications, features, price, branding, marketing, psychological triggers. These are often barriers or incentives to buy and/or use a product. However, these are not the core. These can often set expectations and tie people into lying about the quality of their core experience (even to themselves). However, they don’t replace the reality of the core experience.
  2. Core Level Things. These are the things that make the ABSOLUTE CORE of your experience with the product.

What the iPad did is that it focused on some of the main things people did with computers i.e. email, surfing, checking Facebook, playing casual games, using simple applications.

It focused on these things and removed as much of the friction as it could. It helped create A STATE OF FLOW. Zero Friction. Actually, close to zero friction.

For a lot of people this was a very big deal. They wanted all the benefits of PCs and Computers but didn’t want the headaches and the friction. That’s really one of the big reasons for the success of the iPhone and the iPad.

Apple was winning at Core Level things. It was winning at some Surface Level things (marketing, branding, etc.) and losing at some Surface Level things (technical specifications, openness, etc.). However, the crux of the iPad and the iPhone’s success was that it absolutely beat everyone else at Core Level things.

Actually, decimated everyone else would be more appropriate.

The Tablet Market was the iPad Market because only iPad focused on Flow

If you strip away everything about Tablets that falls under ‘Surface Level’ or ‘Religion Level’ (the latter being openness and aesthetics and similar things), you’re left with an exceedingly simple center – How are the core experiences?

How is reading? How is surfing the web? How is checking emails? How is playing games? How is watching movies?

iPad was the only Tablet that realized that it’s not about how many cores the processor has, or how open the Operating System is, or how many GB of RAM there are.

It’s about how the user experience is.

Can a typical user experience a state of flow? Where she gets lost while surfing the web. Where she gets lost while reading a book.

Without the ability to experience that state of flow, everything else is meaningless.

Now Everyone is beginning to get it

Please Note: I am NOT saying everyone is beginning to DELIVER it. Just that companies are beginning to get it – they are beginning to understand that they have to deliver Flow State.

You see numerous examples of companies who are ‘getting it’ -

  1. Google made Nexus 7 ‘very smooth’ for games. It’s now almost as easy to get into a state of flow in games on Nexus 7 as iPhone. Of course, the actual number of great games is very small on Android – but the hardware delivers ‘Flow’.
  2. Kindle Fire HD delivers ‘flow’ for photos and music. The speakers are really beautiful. The screen is really good.
  3. Nook HD delivers ‘flow’ for photos and movies and some games. Nook HD is very light, it has the best screen of all the smaller tablets. It just DELIVERS FLOW when it comes to certain areas like movies and photos and some games.
  4. Nook HD+ is a very large screen tablet (relatively, it is 9″) in a very compact and light frame. The screen at 1920 by 1280 and 253 pixels per inch is 97% of the way to Retina Display. Flow for just $269.
  5. Microsoft has made Surface incredibly ‘smooth’ on a hardware level. Holding it and using it delivers flow on the hardware level that no other device does (not even iPad). You don’t have to buy this to experience it – just go to a Microsoft Store and try it.

Notice what’s interesting here – they all deliver flow in a few areas. They are nothing like the iPad which delivers Flow in most areas. However, they are beginning to get there.

You can be a main-stream tech blog reviewer and you can focus on the areas non-iPad Tablets come up short -

  1. Nexus 7 doesn’t have ‘excellent’ speakers and the screen doesn’t match or even come close to Nook HD.
  2. Nook HD+ and HD suffer from software that should have been an alpha release. Speakers suck.
  3. Kindle Fire HD has very few ‘great’ apps.
  4. Surface has software that is shipped 3 months too early and it has a tiny, tiny app store with less than 100 ‘great’ apps. It also has a disapponting screen (it looks good but not great – good isn’t good enough in the Tablet Wars).

However, that would be getting lost in the trees when the forest is what we should be looking at.

Each of these devices now delivers FLOW in one or more core Tablet functions.

Each of these devices delivers FLOW while winning in one or more Surface Level arguments -

  1. They are all much cheaper than iPad Mini (except MS Surface).
  2. They mostly win the technical specifications battle.
  3. Nexus 7 wins the openness battle.
  4. Surface absolutely wins the hardware quality battle.

While this in itself would be enough to enable the Rise of the non iPad Tablets, you see something else that is stunning.

Apple is beginning to forget Reality

Apple is messing up in some Surface Level issues i.e. maps software (calling it Surface level because 90% of users are not affected by goofy mistakes that seem terrible like a missing Statue of Liberty), scratches, etc.

However, the absolutely insane mistake is the poor quality screen on the iPad Mini.

The screen is a core determinant of flow -

  1. While reading - a very high quality display makes text super crisp.
  2. While watching movies – the higher the quality of the screen the better the experience.
  3. While surfing – the resolution determines how much of the screen you can see, the pixel density determines how sharp the text and images are.

It’s as if Apple just completely FORGOT that the quality of the screen affects almost every single usage scenario of Tablets. That a non-Retina display impedes Flow in everything.

Apple is now depending on Surface level things to push a product that is just like the competition. If it didn’t have 270,000 Apps it would be a markedly inferior product (inferior to some of the competition).

Earlier iPhone and iPad delivering Flow in nearly all major things a user would use them for. Better Flow than anything else. Flow ABOVE all else.

iPad Mini is the first Apple product in a long time that does not deliver Flow in most major areas. Not only that, it delivers less Flow than competitors in some major areas.

If you have the time and want to see the evidence for yourself, visit a WalMart or a Target and look at -

  1. The iPad Mini screen.
  2. The Nook HD screen.

You can see it for yourself. The iPad Mini makes compromises in an area that absolutely cannot be compromised. An area that should not be compromised – particularly not by a company that is pushing Retina screens for every other product.

Flow was the Inflection Point … and we’ve crossed it

We’ve crossed the inflection points in both the Phone and the Tablet Markets.

There are 5 to 6 other elements as important as Flow. However, lest someone at Apple wakes up, those are only to be discussed much, much later. After we’ve seen the Tablet and Phone landscape change permanently. After we have had a few new Nokias and Blackberrys (in both the good sense and the bad sense).

It’s all about delivering Flow now. Flow is what we can see clearly for ourselves and experience and what we can marvel at.

Reading a very good book or watching a very good movie is a great example. A lot goes into helping you achieve that state of flow. One part of the responsibility is the content creator’s share. The remaining part is the hardware maker’s share.

Tablet Makers are waking up to that. They are beginning to grasp the reality of Flow. In some cases it’s sheer dumb luck – achieving flow in the midst of mad specification wars. In some cases they really do get it. The latter is infinitely dangerous to Apple because if Apple loses its monopoly on Delivering Flow in all the major Tablet usage scenarios – Well, then it’s dead because Surface Level things won’t win the Tablet Wars.

We are at a very, very unique crossroads in the Tablet Market. For the first time we have an iPad that sacrifices Flow for something external (perhaps the attempt to stem the tide of 7″ Android Tablets without sacrificing profit margins). For the first time we have non-iPad manufacturers realizing Flow and striving to deliver it. For the first time we have Microsoft make a Tablet and succeed spectacularly (in delivering hardware flow) and fail spectacularly (in delivering software flow).

The next time you get lost while reading a book or watching a movie or playing a game or reading a website. After you return, take a moment and think about that state of Flow you experienced. What all went into making it? Who were the people/companies/elements delivering it? How could you achieve deeper Flow? How could you achieve Flow more often?

The answer to those questions is what will decide the Tablet Wars. We’ve crossed the inflection point. We’re not going to realize it for another year or two. However, the Tablet Wars Part I are over and the Barbarians circling Rome are suddenly a lot more refined than they used to be.

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10 Thoughts on Amazon’s handicapping of $1 Kindle Books

Posted on July 26, 2012 by switch11

Update: Added some data points from 2011 to better explain why the disappearance of $1 Kindle books from the Bestsellers List is so strange.

First, let’s look at how many $1 books there are in the Kindle Store Top 100 right now -

  1. The highest selling one is at #17.
  2. The second highest selling one is at #28.
  3. A cluster of three at #34, #36, #38. Including one by Paulo Coelho.
  4. One at #48. That’s 6 $1 books in the Top 50.
  5. Another at #68.
  6. One at #95.
  7. One at #98. That’s 9 $1 books in the Top 100.

The highest selling $1 book is only at #17. There are only 9 $1 books in the entire Top 100.

This is very interesting for a few reasons:

  1. In 2011 $1 books were beginning to really take over. We had lots of independent authors releasing books at $1 and hitting the Top 100. We had indie authors who at various times had one or two or three $1 books in the Top 10 (Amanda Hocking, John Locke).
  2. In 2012 this suddenly grind to a halt. Lots of indie authors have covered this and talked about a shift to ‘Top Grossing’ instead of ‘Best Selling’. I didn’t know what to make of it, or how to write about it. Still don’t. But it’s something more people should be aware of.
  3. The natural progression would have been – A few $1 books in the Top 100 in 2008 and 2009, 10 to 20 in 2011, 30 to 40 $1 books in the Top 100 in 2012. To see how natural and inevitable this is in a digital store environment, consider this – 36 of the Top 40 bestselling iPhone Apps of all time are priced at $1. In a very competitive market, prices go to $1 or $0. The Kindle Store is that rare infinitely competitive market which has seen prices go UP instead of down?

It’s all very strange.

For what $1 kindle books were doing in 2011 please see:

  1. The Inevitable Rise of $1.

And this is what the Top 10 looked like on March 15th 2011:

  1. Saving Rachel by John Locke at $1.
  2. Scrabble by EA at $1.
  3. Mahjong Solitaire by Mobigloo at $1.
  4. A Girl Like You by John Locke at $1.
  5. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen at $6.39.
  6. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand at $12.99.
  7. Love You More by Lisa Gardner at $12.99.
  8. Wish List by John Locke at $1.
  9. EA Solitaire at $1.
  10. Lethal People by John Locke at $1.

Since March 15th, 2011 Amazon has sold a TON of $79 and $99 and $139 Kindles. It’s added lots of Kindle Fires and reached casual readers. That should suggest a FURTHER drop in prices and a rise in the number of $1 Kindle Books in the Top 100.

But it didn’t happen. We had 4 $1 books in the Top 10 in March 2011. In July 2012 the highest selling $1 book is only at #18. We had 23 books priced at $1 in the Top 100 and 11 apps priced at $1. Now we have just 9 books priced at $1 and no apps.

As Amazon is adding more and more cost-conscious customers and more and more casual readers, it’s somehow managed to reverse the decline in ebook prices. Really?

Here is what Roger Knights suggested in March 2011:

If this continues, and Amazon still wants to encourage books being priced at $3 or more, it might set up a separate best-seller list for books under that level. That would give more higher-priced books visibility.

Amazon didn’t have to. Magically, the main bestsellers list automatically somehow kicked out all the $1 books.

10 thoughts on the ‘handicapping’ of $1 Kindle Books

  1. There is, in my mind, no doubt whatsoever that Amazon is using some weighing algorithm to promote $3 and $10 books over $1. It’s disconcerting that there is no public mention of this. There have been a few people who have floated the ludicrous idea that users have stopped buying $1 books because of ‘quality’ issues. No, people buy what they can see/find. The #1 place for that is the bestseller lists and Amazon’s recommendations. Amazon can choose to promote $10 and $3 books over $1 books. Those 9 books in the Top 100 are there DESPITE the weighing algorithm being against them.
  2. Amazon should rename the list ‘Top Grossing’ instead of ‘Bestselling’. It’s disingenuous to call it Best Selling when $1 books from indie authors are ‘handicapped’ by a weighing algorithm that factors price into the equation. It might be too much to ask Amazon for a separate ‘Bestselling’ List that gives $1 books a fair chance. That would defeat the whole purpose of this weighing down of $1 books.
  3. Amazon wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to promote free books to get people to subscribe to Prime, it wants to use free books to get people to buy Kindles and Kindle Fires. And then it wants to turn around and promote $10 and $3 books over $1 and make money from books too. It’s rather strange – you can’t have a loss leader double up as a profit maker.
  4. The bestseller lists are way too powerful. While this is true in any digital store, it’s even more so in books because the number of options is higher than in every other store. When people are presented with too many options, they are overwhelmed and go to the safe bets i.e. The Top 100 and the Genre Top 100s.
  5. The situation is the same in genre lists. The Science Fiction Top 20 used to be mostly $1 books. Now there are ZERO $1 books in the Top 20. How could really good indie Science Fiction books that were Top 20 for years suddenly have stopped selling?
  6. In a way it’s good. It’s an attempt to bring back the value of books. However, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Amazon either didn’t think things through, or it didn’t realize what impact allowing every single aspiring author to self-publish would have on ebook prices. There is no value of books any more. The Agency Model is about to die a death and that will accelerate things.
  7. It’s unfair to indie authors. With $1 they could compete. At $3 it’s not the same because lots of established authors bring in backlist books at $3 and $5.
  8. It reduces the incentive for Publishers to go down below $9.99 for new releases. If they see everything going to $1 and $2 they will eventually be forced to release new releases at $5 and $7. On the other hand, if they see 50% of the Top 20 at $9.99 and $12.99, they will feel they can get away with $12.99.
  9. It’s not sustainable. There is no way Amazon can continue to pull this off. It’s a short-sighted way to fight the inevitable.
  10. Thankfully, there is competition. Amazon needs B&N and Kobo and Apple iBooks to counter whatever ludicrous strategies it comes up with. This whole weighing down of $1 books and ‘unlevelling the playing field for indie authors’ thing really bothers me. Do we really need to give Publishers who gouge us for $12.99 one more advantage?

Coming back to the power of $1.

There is no Escape from $1

There just isn’t.

You create a very competitive market where everyone can compete and eventually people start competing on price. And then it either goes to ZERO or to $1.

The only way you can make money off that is by making money on the device, or by selling something else that is LIMITED and CONTROLLED. Apple doesn’t try to make money from apps. It’s paid out developers something like $5.5 billion. Which means it earned something like $2.357 billion. Take out the costs of running the store and credit card charges and other costs and it’s probably less than $1 billion in profits. Apple makes money from the devices – $8.8 billion profits in the last quarter alone.

That’s the way to do it. Let the developers and authors devalue their work. You make your money from the devices or from some other product (the supply of which you keep limited and whose value you do not destroy). Let all the value from books and apps flow to the device and profit from that.

Amazon is stuck because it’s made both the device and the content loss leaders. Perhaps people aren’t buying very many kitchen sinks and it’s decided to try to turn books back into profit machines. Not going to happen. You blew up the entire book market. You’re sending out thousands of free books every month. You’ve created a ‘Free Lending Library’. You’re completely devaluing books. How on Earth do you expect to also make huge profits from books?

Eventually, someone is going to figure out how to give authors and indie authors 70% of the take from $1 and $2 books. That ebook store is going to win out.

  1. We have hundreds of thousands of authors desperate for their books to be read. Most will take whatever they can get for their books. Some will even pay for people to read their books.
  2. We have readers who are increasingly realizing that any ebook priced over $4.99 is unfair to readers. The savings in ‘produce once, sell to everyone’ are not being carried over.
  3. We have such large numbers of sales that even $1 books can make large profits for authors.
  4. We have indie authors getting better and better. Indie authors who don’t have to support Dinosaur Publishing Companies with their archaic methods. Indie authors that can be nimble and can just destroy the Publishing Houses by using quality $1 books.
  5. We have smarter and smarter readers who can get information from a thousand different sources. So they KNOW that ebooks should not be $12.99.

There’s just no way you can go back to $9.99 and $12.99 books. It’s a testament to the stubbornness of Publishers and Amazon that they’ve managed to keep things going in such an unnatural direction for so long.

But it’s just a temporary blip. eBook companies will rise that aren’t afraid to both embrace $1 and $2 books and also give authors 70% of the cut. And they will, sooner or later, get enough awareness amongst customers that customers start switching.

$1 ebooks might be 9 out of the Top 100 right now. However, within a few years they will be at least 40% and probably 80% of the Top 100. Additionally, if the authors of those ebooks are self-published indie authors, then they will be making out like bandits. In most cases they will be making more than they would have from contracts with Publishers. If Rovio (Angry Birds) can make $100 million in a year selling $1 and $3 games, then it’s a given that there will be authors who will make tens of millions of dollars a year from $1 and $3 books.

One million ebooks sold in one year at $1 with a 70% cut translates to $700,000 a year. There are hundreds of authors who can hit that milestone. There are already 10+ indie authors who are on-track to sell a million ebooks in 2012. Despite all the obstacles (natural and man-made) in their path.

We just have to wait for one of the big stores to realize that $1 ebooks are inevitable, that $1 ebooks are a big, huge competitive differentiator (if you embrace them first), and that readers want $1 ebooks.

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The Zero Click Patent & Circle to Unlock

Posted on December 19, 2011 by switch11

Since there are now software patents being granted for every stupid thing on this planet from unlocking cellphone screens to buying by clicking, here’s my solution for companies that want to sidestep this malarchy (and it’s mentioned here first so no one can patent it).

The Zero Click Patent (in response to Amazon’s 1-click Patent)

  • There’s a Buy With Zero Clicks button. You just hover your mouse over it. A small window comes up that says – Slide Mouse Up to Purchase. Do that and your purchase is done.
  • Zero Clicks = Hover on the Button and then wait for a second and do an Up Swipe Gesture. Done.
  • If you want to make it simpler you can make an upwards pointing arrow and just ask users to move their mouse upwards along that arrow.

Circle to Unlock (in response to Apple’s slide to unlock)

Apple has gotten a patent on slide to unlock. This is pretty strange since who would have thought ‘slide to unlock’ was patentable. Not to worry – there’s something easier.

  • Circle to Unlock.
  • There’s a green dot at the center of the screen. Just circle your finger around it to unlock.
  • Or you could use a mix of fingerprint detection and two fingers pressed on the screen at the same time.

Patents are getting completely out of hand

Sometimes, it’s interesting to compare software patents to real world scenarios to see just how ridiculous they are.

  • 1 Click Patent = 1 Swipe with Credit Card.
  • Imagine if a patent was granted so that you could no longer pay by swiping your credit card once unless you paid Company X 5 cents per swipe. Your only other option – to swipe the card multiple times.
  • Swipe to Unlock = Slide Garage Door vertically.
  • Giving a company a patent that says no one else can use ‘swipe to unlock’ to unlock a phone or Tablet screen is like saying – This Garage Door manufacturer applied for a patent and now no one else is allowed to use Garage doors that open vertically.

Imagine a world where companies would patent handshakes and the words ‘Hi’ and ‘Hello’. If you meet someone, you aren’t allowed to use any of the preceding options – unless you pay 5 cents. That’s literally what software is turning into. Every single thing is being patented no matter how obvious or trivial it is.

Patents are, for the most part, attempts to keep out other companies

Patents were meant to preserve actually valuable technology.

However, big companies have started using patents as a means to keep out other big companies and especially small companies. Whether you look at Microsoft suing Android phone makers or Apple attacking Samsung – it’s the same common thread.

Established companies want to compete on terms that favor them. It’s not enough that they have first mover advantage and their war chests – they want to prevent other companies from even launching in the market. Patents become one of the easiest means to do that. Why waste money on making your product better when you can just prevent other companies from making competing products?

It should be a big warning sign for the Patent Companies themselves. If you have to start patenting trivial things to compete then it suggests your products are going downhill. In fact, even if your products aren’t going downhill, patents provide an incentive to get lazy about quality. Not to mention the opportunity cost of all the time spent in bed with lawyers and the patent system.

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