Nicisms

When you talk about an operating system, talk about the operating system.

An interesting trend is rising and it’s one that confuses me as much in my involvement as that of others.

iPhone vs Android debates are fucking massive. Forget hunger, religion, politics, economics or anything else that might matter to most. iPhone or Android, where do you stand and how far will you go to defend your fanboy-ism?

Let me state outright that I have never used an iPhone for an extended period of time but I do own an iPod touch (my second one) and have for years.

I am not an iPhone hater. I think I am a fanboy hater. I am a hater of blind and ignorant obsession displayed by iPhone users. Kind of like Manchester United supporters actually.

Anyways, I digress.

Increasingly I am hearing the debate around how pretty the iPhone and how shitty Android is. That’s a bit of a misnomer. If you are going to tell me that the iPhone itself, the hardware, the actual phone is pretty then you have to further state what phone, precisely, you are comparing it to. Chances are you don’t know what Android device you are looking at. You aren’t educated in all things Android (nor am I).

The point I’m making is this: I use a Samsung Nexus S running Android. If iPhone users are going to compare my phone to theirs in an aesthetic sense then they should be comparing their iPhone to my Samsung Nexus S. Not to “Android”.

Comparing your phone to my operating system is like comparing iOS (the iPhone’s operating system) to Samsung, Motorola or SonyEricsson. Wrong. Yes there are versions of Android running on each and each can be customised but let’s just be clear about what we’re talking about.

Furthermore, I think that I need to get off this fucken high-horse. I baited this morning with a tweet about some new iPhone features but the truth is I like the iPhone 4S. I think the updates are great and I think that the game is on.

I don’t think there are clear battle lines drawn from the consumer perspective. If you want an iPhone, get one. If you like Android get that too. If you hate what you’ve got then you should switch. There are no allegiances here, it’s technology and it should enhance and simplify your experience of certain things. If the device isn’t up to your standard then toss it.

Last note. How hot is the new Motorola RAZR?

*This post was originally posted on the Motribe Blog.

TWiST (This Week in Startups) is a live internet show that allows startups from around the world to pitch to Jason Calacanis. If you don’t know who Jason is (@jason) then you can check out his wikipedia page. In short, he’s an investor, blogger and entrepreneur in the US.

Straight from the This Week In website:

ThisWeekIn, Inc. is a web television network covering a wide variety of topics from tech to entertainment. Produced out of our Santa Monica studio, our web shows feature guest experts, founders, movie stars, comedians, technologists and CEO’s — all keeping you up to speed on what’s happening this week with a fast and funny style. Informative and entertaining, ThisWeekIn is the place for whatever your interests may be.

So basically the evening started with 10 startups who pitched to a crowd in attendance at the Bandwidth Barn. Each startup spoke for 3 minutes. This was my first point of pain. I spoke for three minutes, exactly, to the second yet some of the others were allowed to speak for way more. The environment of the event is a competition and in competitive arenas the rules need to be adhered to.

(Side note: I think this is some what of a larger issue in the local tech industry right now, things are all jovial, fun and not all that serious. People expect not to be taken to task for fucking up, startups expect to succeed ’cause they are branding themselves as startups. That’s not the way it works. This is a fundamental problem in my eyes. Startups are serious business for those involved, it’s my livelyhood and you’re messing with if you mess around. The TWiST event is a competition with a declared winner, stick to the rules.)

The selected startups, in order, were:
Mobiflock
Motribe
Waytag
Snapbill
lessfuss
Cognician

To Jason’s credit he pushed to get through all 6 of us and normally the show only has 3 startups.

At this point I should also commend Tyrone who organised the event. However, he mentions in his introduction with Jason that South Africa is “behind” and we’re trying hard to make it work. I was a bit offended by that statement and think that there are a million ways to represent us as a country, that wasn’t one of them.

To cut a long story short: each startup pitches to Jason and Tyler for 60 seconds (Again not very hard and fast) and then Jason and Tyler give each startup a score out of ten for Business and Presentation. I was given a relatively hard time about my presentation and Jason had some good comments. I was told to be more personal, include a personal anecdote or story of some kind to engage with the audience. That’s a really good point and one I will be including in my future presentations. A piece of personal advice to startup founders – if you are pitching your company over and over again, try to mix it up, keep it fresh and have 3 or 4 different presentations that you use otherwise you become bored with the content no matter how excited you are about your company.

In spite of my presentation not going as well as I had wanted, Jason and Tyler immediately understood what we do here at Motribe and the value of our services. My presentation was given a solid 7 from Jason and Tyler and the business we have built a good 8 out of 10 (Calacanis rates Facebook and Apple at a 10 out of 10).

All in all I was happy with the outcome and performance of Motribe.

I do need to make mention of the star of the show: Mobiflock. Vanessa did a brilliant job of pitching her amazing company and went on to win the event. Congrats!

The video of the entire show is below. If you’re looking to skip ahead to the Motribe pitch go to minute 24.

The video from The Vaccines uses Instagram to fill the video with pictures from fans. The video looks like it was shot in the 70’s.

(If you can’t view the above, here’s the link – http://youtu.be/5tr5ptnUoDE)

Can you just imagine 150 years from now when someone, some thing, some alien discovers the above video and then discovers pictures taken on a polaroid camera from the 60s and 70s. They will think that we have lost our minds.

In actual fact, I kind of think we’ve lost our minds a bit too. Many of us (myself included) are using new technological advancements to do old things. Instagram photos are made to look older. Why are we not trying to push the envelope a bit and use Instagram to, I don’t know, do something new with photographs?

Just a thought, technology should push us forward and we should learn in an iterative fashion from the past, hold on to what is good and create.

I love Instagram photographs and PicPlz (the Android version) but get this embarrassing thought in my head when I picture future generations discovering some our era’s “advancements”.

Why would I be building out a solution for the emerging markets if I were in group-buying? Simple. Because nobody else is.

Everybody is looking at high-end, high-margin and relatively low volume.

Groupon itself is avoiding the emerging market mobile play because the don’t have a clue about the mobile web, feature phones or emerging markets and how they use smartphones (if they do at all).

Apparently Groupon just released an Android App in Germany. Why would they not be pushing Android apps in to the emerging markets too? Android is selling like hotcakes in Africa and the rest of the developing world.

If I were sitting in India and I ran Snapdeals.com I would create a mobile web version, then a java version, then an Android version of the Snapdeal experience.

The other major thing that needs to change (that no one is doing) is catering for the mass-market with mid-level deals instead of Spa treatments and the likes. What about deals from places like Shoprite, Walmart, Massmart companies, Pick ‘n Pay and those companies?

Maybe there is a problem with the margins, volumes and numbers on smaller and cheaper deals but for my money, if you make that work, you’re golden.

Richard Mulholland decided that we needed to learn how to surf and that we should all pull in to Eden on the Bay and get lessons from Michelle at Stoked Surf School.

I have, had, a fear of the oceans that’s been with me for 25 years. This weekend that fear was conquered.

Here are some photos:

With out a doubt the weekend that just passed was the best weekend of activity I’ve had in Cape Town. The weather played nice, the ocean played nice, the surf teacher taught us how to surf and look good (ish) while doing it and I had good mates to rip me off and cheer when I feel. What could be better?