Kevin Cawley Goes Mobile
Huge Opportuntiy
there is a massive opportunity right now for tech entrepreneurs… collecting big data (and by big data i mean a shit load of data) is pretty close to being commotidized.
there are lots of software solutions (nosql flavor of the day for example) that make this very easy. now you can fuck this up royally by not ‘modeling’ your data properly, but you still can cost effectively and scalably persist boat loads of data to your heart’s content. yes, you still need to model in a non-RDBMS world; in fact, it may even be more important (this comes from 1st hand experience).
then the hard part ensues. what to do w/ all this data and how to get real time insights? that is the opportunity. things like pig, hive, and hadoop mapreduce help but i don’t think get it there all the way and putting all this stuff together is hard, really hard. fortunately i can fake it or lean on some bad ass experts i know. but these experts are few and far between and this problem is only getting bigger every single second.
that is the opp for some aspiring entrepreneur w/ some chops. do it.
An Unserviced Hole in the Mobile Market
Last weekend we bought our daughter a new phone. I was pushing her to get an Android phone - iPhone was out as she wanted a real keyboard and a slider. AND it absolutely had to be really small. She is stubborn and knows what she wants. Texting seems to be her biggest need w/ the phone. Oh yeh, and talking, remember that, she does that with her friends too and curiously in the closet. Odd.
I wanted her to get an Android or WP7 so she could play around w/ apps and have something she could grow into. But all the droid phones were “way too big and boring” and not cool I suppose. We ended up buying a Samsung feature type phone in a pretty color.
There is a HUGE opportunity for phone manufacturers to make cool kid friendly phones running Android or WP7. Oh, and it needs to come in fun & shiny colors. What you waiting for?
2011 is the Year of HTML5 and Web Apps
Everyone is talking about ‘11 being the year of tablets and client apps/app stores… but I think and hope this is wrong.
We need to get back to focusing on making the Web application experience as good as possible. Web apps will not fully match the client app experience any time soon; they just needs to be almost as good.
Developing applications across all the platforms is not feasible; there are just too many platforms to support. To get 100% coverage across all desktop and mobile clients, you need a large dev team and there will be redundant efforts occurring in parallel. Building one kick ass Web app takes care of this mess. Also, the Web Browser neutralizes all hardware so prices go down and quality goes up. We will have more mobile and tablet options at lower prices that all have the browser to serve up freshness. In the end consumers are the winners.
With Web application stores like openspace and Chrome opening for businesss and new and exciting advances in Web app technology popping up right now, I think we are on our way. All we need is to get the best developers to stop drinking the damn app store kool aid and all will be just in the world!
peace
If you’ve been longing to get a white HTC Evo for a great price, Wirefly’s answered your prayers.
Wirefly has white HTC EVOs in stock with a list price of only $149.99 with a 2-year contract.
They also recently launced two new color variations of the BlackBerry Torch. You can now get a white Torch or a cherry red Torch. The Torch is currently on sale for “Free” with a 2-year contract.
Hurry up! These Black-Friday prices aren’t going to last much longer.
Other hot new phone deals…
Having trouble deciding which hot phone to get from T-Mobile? Then check out this extensive comparison of the HTC HD7 vs. the myTouch 4G.
From the article:
The T-Mobile MyTouch 4G (made by HTC) runs the Android 2.2 operating system, which is the most powerful version of Google’s open operating system. The MyTouch 4G is compact yet sports a bright 3.8-inch TFT LCD display, and the phone connects to the Internet on T-Mobile’s high-speed HSPA+ network. The HD7 carries a giant 4.3″ TFT LCD…
I have yet to see any write anything other than praise T-Mobile’s latest Android phone, the myTouch 4G.
To quote: “Not only is it the speediest device to hit the America’s, it also comes with a front-facing camera capable of video chat via WiFi and T-Mobile’s network, as well as hotspot capability, wireless media broadcasting and more.”
Be sure to check out Wirefly’s myTouch 4G review, complete with multiple videos of key features and benchmark tests.
The myTouch 4G can be yours today at…
And…
While we are at it, let’s hope Google and Apple and Cisco and Dell and HP and Intel and Adobe and Oracle and… all kick ass!
Not sure why we have these vendors wars but it is pretty lame and counterintuitive. More great companies means competition, better products, better prices, more people employed, more people learning and leaving to do startups, and more luv.
Nice Quarter MSFT
Microsoft had a record quarter… congrats. I know it’s not cool to actually applaud Microsoft. People think it is somehow cool and easy to pick on this company. BUT from my perspective we should all be thankful to Microsoft and hope that they continue to be hugely successful.
Why?
Well, the quick answer is easy… MSFT and its ecosystem employ lots (I mean a ton) of people. And all those folks out there who use Windows are our potential customers. That alone should be good enough.
But let me peal back a layer…
I was a grad student in the CS Dept. at CU Boulder way back when. Microsoft was despised; the mere mention of the name could get you expelled or at least result in a spitball in the eye. I went along with that philosophy…
Then a funny thing happened, I graduated and needed a job. I saw an article in the Daily Camera for a startup in Boulder that was building cool and cutting edge software for the Emergency Medical Industry. I walked into the office, met the CTO and started working the next day as an intern which led to a full time gig…. that company was a Microsoft shop and was helping to save lives. Geez, Microsoft can’t be that bad. Then the company sold and had a nice exit; ok, you can be a successful entrepreneur building on the MSFT stack. That’s good!
By the way, that company was called PinPoint Technologies and that CTO, David Cohen, went on to found Tech Stars one of the best things to happen to the Colorado technology scene. In a way Microsoft was one of the things that made this possible.
Fast forward a few years and I built a RSS reader for mobile phones (one of the supported OS’s was Windows Mobile). This got acquired by Newsgator Technologies and I worked there for a few years. Newsgator is a .NET shop (yes, Microsoft enters the picture again). Newsgator is the raddest mature technology company in Colorado hands down and some of the brightest developers I have met happen to be the .NET developers that work at Newsgator. Microsoft ain’t so bad!!!
The startup I am involved with now does not use any of the Microsoft stack - that is for other reasons and for another post.
But man, please for all our sakes Microsoft, please keep kicking ass. Why is it cool to rip on Microsoft? I am not sure but the next time you think about it, please don’t. It’s not cool to try to be cool.
Well, it’s been a long time coming, but the fine folks over at AT&T seems to have finally caught the fever that has already struck the remainder of the mobile nation: Android fever. Motorola’s BACKFLIP was the first Android phone to jump onto AT&T’s network. Fever, though, hadn’t quite struck until the HTC Aria and Samsung Captivate stood up this past week and challenged the iPhone 4 to a duel.
Both of these Android phones and their widget-loving home screens stand to take a bite out of…
