Ged Carroll

Category: wireless | 無線 |무선 네트워크 | 無線

This blog came out of the crater of the dot com bust and wireless growth. Wi-Fi was transforming the way we used the internet at home. I used to have my Mac next to my router on top of a cupboard that contained the house fuse panel and the telephone line. Many people had an internet room and used a desktop computer like a Mac Mini or an all-in-one computer like an iMac. Often this would be in the ‘den’ or the ‘man cave’. Going on the internet to email, send instant messages or surf the internet was something you did with intent.

Wi-Fi arrived alongside broadband connections and the dot com boom. Wi-Fi capable computers came in at a relatively low price point with the first Apple iBook. I had the second generation design at the end of 2001 and using the internet changed. Free Wi-Fi became a way to attract people to use a coffee shop, as a freelancer it affected where I did meetings and how I worked.

I was travelling more for work at the time. While I preferred the reliability of an ethernet connection, Wi-Fi would meet my needs just as well. UMTS or 3G wireless data plans were still relatively expensive and slow. I would eventually send low resolution pictures to Flickr and even write a blog post or two. But most of the time I used it to clear my email box, or use Google Maps if I was desperate.

4G wireless services, started to make mobile data a bit more useful, even if the telephony wasn’t great

 

  • The spirit of halloween & things that made last week

    New York public transport gets into the spirit of Halloween. Halloween in the US is based on the Irish traditions, but the US spirit of Halloween that have been expanded and adapted to the new world over time. More here – MTA Making Subway Scarier Than Usual This Month – Gothamist – to be fair you don’t need to get on the MTA during Halloween to see strange and sometimes scary things. You all New York life there.

    Great profile on the director of The Host and Parasite: Bong Joon-ho profile: How the Parasite director is weaponizing the blockbuster. Mr Bong’s work is inherently political in nature, which is at odds with the international popularity that he has received. Parasite is about class and inequality. The Host was a commentary on the US military presence, large Korean corporates and the opaque nature of Korean government.

    Interesting public safety campaign – How the patron saint of chimney sweeps is saving lives in Poland | Creative Moment – Poland is still a very Catholic country so this was an interesting adaptation.

    Taylor Herring tried to use Airdrop at the recent PR Week Awards to try and solicit job applications. Its a variation on a theme of Bluetooth spam the was popular in shopping malls 15 years ago or so. I suspect that main effect will have been to build a mild degree of buzz around the Taylor Herring employer brand rather than active solicitation of candidates there and then.

    taylor herring

    Sanrio have had a cash machine in terms of Hello Kitty for decades. It was only a matter of time before she became a YouTube blogger. This allows Sanrio to continue supporting the franchise whilst reducing the cost of media production. Its a major win for YouTube that desperately needs brand-friendly, child friendly content. Though I think that it will attract viewers of all ages.

    https://youtu.be/bLb_-LJeGTU

  • Choi Hyun woo & things that made last week

    Choi Hyun woo

    TV shopping channels are huge in Korea. Asian Boss did this great interview with Choi Hyun woo, one of the most successful shopping TV pitchmen (pitchwoman) in Korea.

    Looking at data from home shopping company CJ ENM Commerce division, sales are starting to focus more on premium and luxury products from international brands like Karl Lagerfeld and Vera Wang. Overall TV viewship has been declining; but TV home shopping has been steadily growing.

    Good document on how consumer behaviour and technology will affect the future of retailing and e-commerce by Sparks & Honey. Its a book rather than a presentation.

    Amazing bit of creative work by Alzheimer’s Research UK.

    We’re in a golden age of TV drama and it looks like thins are only going to get more interesting with this trailer from HBO’s adaptation of The Watchmen universe. This seems to go in a very different direction to the original Watchman series. It is picks up from the end of the original book when a ‘trans-dimensional’ invasion fails. It doesn’t have the cold war orientation of the original series and is instead a show for our times. The HBO series focuses on issues of race and class. It looks as if it could be more entertaining than the original film adaptation that felt a bit flat.

    https://youtu.be/-33JCGEGzwU

    McDonalds have pushed these ads about trust and they play on human truths like the discomfort of formal restaurants or the tyranny of choice in grocery stores. A classic example of this tension is that many people I know refuse to eat on their own in a restaurant. I don’t have that hang up at all. McDonalds deserves credit for really listening to consumer insights and playing them back tot the audience for added brand resonance.

  • By innovation only. Yet another iPhone launch

    Apple’s September 10 event ‘By innovation only’ marked the autumn season of premium smartphone launches. It is also a bellwether of what we can expect from the technology sector.

    Mark Twain’s ‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes’ fits especially well in the smartphone business. From a consumer perspective Apple’s 2019/20 iPhone range is basically the same phones but with more camera features. Other vendors are going to come out with handsets with more camera and 5G modems.

    All of them are going to be trapped in the same pictures-under-glass metaphor. The smartphone industry as a whole (with the iPhone as bellwether) is trapped in its own version of groundhog day.

    5G? Not so fast

    Whilst 5G sounds good on new handsets, there’s five points to consider:

    • Early generation handsets for a new wireless standards tend to have poor battery lives
    • 5G phones are only as good as 5G networks
    • There aren’t applications to make use of 5G networks
    • A lot of mobile usage happens on home or other wi-fi networks. 5G is competing with your home broadband connection rather than your patchy cellular connection
    • 5G isn’t really about smartphones

    When you see all launches (like this picture from the Huawei Mate 30 launch); just remember the five points above and process the slick technology spin through this lens.

    5G competition isn't cellular its wi-fi on smartphone

    In Huawei’s case they’re basically launching very pretty €1,000+ 5G Mi-Fi hotspots with point-and-shoot camera functionality, since they’re an Android phone without access to Google services. The Porsche Design variants come out at closer to €2,500 – ideal for bored, but patriotic 土豪.

    Price inelasticity

    Apple’s iPhone X and XS models tested the the price elasticity of premium smartphones. The market spoke. This year’s prices have stayed the same rather than increasing. You could argue that the value proposition has increased through a year’s worth of bundled services. Of course, its only worth anything if you use the services.

    Differentiation through services

    Seven years ago I was sat in a hotel restaurant in Seoul and overheard Flipboard going through a pitch they wanted to deliver to Samsung. Samsung eventually tried out Flipboard and free content subscriptions to help sell the Galaxy S3.

    Apple decided to build their own free subscription model based around streaming video. This is to:

    • Differentiate its new devices from competitors
    • Provide a recurring revenue stream from iPhone users with older devices
    • Utilise the massive data centres that Apple has been building for the past decade

    Built to last

    The use of superior materials has resulted in iPhones lasting longer. Add this to pricing and for many people, their first iPhone is a pre-owned iPhone. They are handed down in families or to older relatives. This has built Apple a large user base. The big question is whether they can turn this footprint into services.

    There is a tension between new phone sales in a saturated marketplace, versus a growing base of service users.

    More information

    Apple Live Event: Apple Cuts Prices for Sales, New Subscribers – Bloomberg 

    Apple Event: Upgrades, Upgrades, Upgrades – Tech.pinions 

    The iPhone and Apple’s Services Strategy – Stratechery by Ben Thompson 

    Apple is making its iPhones last longer. That’s a good thing | Macworld 

  • Ultra deep watch + more things

    OMEGA SEAMASTER PLANET OCEAN ULTRA DEEP | Watches News – I love some of the design details in this Planet Ocean Ultra Deep such as the lugs. I was less convinced by the aesthetics of the dial, the hands and the lack of protection given to the crown on the Planet Ocean Ultra Deep. More on design here.

    So, Gutenberg Didn’t Actually Invent the Printing Press | Literary Hub – way before Samsung Korea was innovating the shit out of the world, here’s the story

    The Redirect Method – its rare to get this much of an inside view inside a campaign, well worth reading

    NHS teams up with Amazon to bring Alexa to patients | Society | The Guardian – the push here seems to be accessibility; but a call centre is even more responsive than Alexa is

    Shiseido’s Beauty App Promises Perfect Skin — at $92 a Month – Bloomberg – Shiseido is targeting women facing “the dilemma of valuing skincare but struggling to find the time to find the perfect formula,” Shigekazu Sugiyama, president of Shiseido Japan, said at a news conference in Tokyo. Research by the company shows that the more hectic the lifestyle, the greater the fluctuation seen in complexion, he said. 

    Optune’s cylindrical device mixes and dispenses a personalized formula twice a day, with as many as 80,000 different combinations. The product’s software, available as an iPhone app, takes photos of the user’s face in order to detect skin conditions. The data is analyzed together with sleep rhythms and menstrual cycles, as well as external factors such as weather and air pollution, in order to deliver the right mix of serums.

    Unilever tackles marketing bias with DNA tests | WARC – The exposed group who perused their personal DNA results and participated in the immersive training recorded a 35% decrease in unconscious stereotyping when measured against the control group. 

    Similarly, Santos revealed, the exposed group also logged a 27% increase in original thinking measured against their peers in the control group. 

    Such an insight builds on a growing slate of evidence that the part of the brain associated with stereotyping influences the cognitive activities that are needed for creativity, too.

    Podcast: WARC’s David Tiltman On Marketing Effectiveness – great listening for the lunch hour on advertising effectiveness

    Nomads travel to America’s Walmarts to stock Amazon’s shelves – The Verge – “If somebody likes a certain scent or how something works, they become loyal to that item, even if just the packaging has changed. They can no longer find that item in a store, and Amazon is one place they’ll look for it. It’s people like us who travel around that can find it.”

    Mediatel: Newsline: The scourge of short-termism comes from the top – “The Media sector has several examples of companies that placed short-term earnings growth over long-term investment and saw their earnings and, ironically, share price suffer. RELX (the old Reed Elsevier) suffered a collapse in its share price, which took several years to reverse, after the market realised previous management had underinvested to boost earnings growth to meet LTIP plans. On the other hand, companies that invest see returns to shareholders. Sky, which famously prioritised organic investment over shareholder returns and meeting earnings targets, eventually was bought out at a big premium to its historic share price”.

    How 5G will affect marketing communications | Advertising | Campaign Asia – so adtech will slow up the theoretical speed of 5G, this is all very depressing

  • Digital Rx + more things

    Digital Rx – JWT Intelligence – Digital Rx covers a wide range of services from telemedicine to AI mediated diagnosis and everything in between. Pharmaceutical companies are looking a digital companion app functionality to help keep patient adherence high. I only hope that they’re not as much of a car crash as the first lot of apps like Babylon Health

    China’s new creatives – JWT Intelligence – This new wave of consumers recognizes China’s rising economic status and thus possesses an acute sense of national pride; no longer are they reliant on Western fashion brands and influence to define how they express themselves as individuals. Yet the world is small, and despite crackdowns on international cultural imports like hip-hop and K-pop, there are echoes in China of what defines Gen Z tastes abroad in the streetwear, beauty, art, luxury and online landscapes. This is channeled through a powerful new creative lens

    High-art airports – JWT Intelligence – air travel need to lift its image after the TSA experience post 9/11 and discount airlines dragged it into the gutter

    Making Connections: 53 Teenagers Suggest Creative Ways to Link School Curriculum to the World of 2019 – The New York Times – great reading (paywall)

    Empire.Kred | Grow your Social Audience – gaming Facebook likes to drive engagement numbers. Not great for marketers but might benefit media companies on Facebook in terms of impact on reach

    Disgraced Korean Air Heiress Regains Executive Job – The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea – Business > Business – surprised that they’ve pushed this through so fast

    Japan’s Hometown Tax | Kalzumeus Software – one of the best examples of cultural insight led marketing campaigns

    Agencies must redress decoupling damage | WARC – creative opportunities are lost without media thinking and media thinking needs to incorporate context that is so important for creative. Media also needs to fix basic hygiene issues

    Code Red | Logic Magazine – the nature of Chinese innovation versus US innovation