American Technology Research Analyst, Shaw Wu has commented that Zune, the new media player from Microsoft (MSFT) will hurt Microsoft and it's partners more than it will hurt Apple (AAPL) or it's iPod. Though the price tag for Zune, $249.99 is similar to a comparable iPod's price, Wu thinks that it will be difficult to convert iPod users to Zune. Wu also estimates that Microsoft will lose $50 for every Zune it sells. Wu's sources indicate that Microsoft did not expect Apple to lower prices of its iPods. This move had surprised Microsoft and had forced it to reduce pricing to match Apple's. Wu also commented on the superior supply chain and operating efficiency of Apple which is highly invisible. This probably has given Apple the edge over the new Zune threat by allowing Apple to lower the iPod prices. In this price range, Apple still makes profits while Microsoft loses money.
While many people cite Microsoft's success with Xbox, it is a completely different game than media players. Media players have small form factors and a lot of content to navigate. I repeat NAVIGATE. This is the key to iPod's success. The click wheel makes combing through a vast library of media easy. Whereas in Zune, one has to scroll through the library individually, making it difficult to move around. Zune's user interface, based on Windows will not provide a good experience. In the initial comparisons, Zune seems to have a lesser battery life than iPod, which is again a let down. The wireless or WiFi feature that allows networking and sharing is a novel concept. But you should enough Zune users around you to share with. Connecting to a wireless network and allowing other people to communicate with your device is a cumbersome process, a drain on the battery and not to mention issues associated with hacking or viruses. While you are waiting at a traffic signal or traveling in a train, you dont want anyone to hack into your player and erase all your music. Security is a key feature that not many people are talking about and we probably will wait for more information to be revealed. Zune has a bigger screen than the iPod. Well is this really an advantage or a disadvantage? If you want to watch videos it is good but if you just want to listen to music, then you probably will not need this big a screen. So the overall user experience of Zune may not stand up to iPod's user experience. There is also the question of how Zune's Marketplace with stack up with the iTunes Store. There is one area where Microsoft has the edge, gaming. If Microsoft is capable of somehow incorporating games into Zune and allowing a network of users to play games, it has a chance to get into a territory that Apple is weak in. This is understandable with Zune's screen size and wireless capability. But the current design of Zune is not game-friendly.
There are many products which have been successful in the past because of their user experience even though they had lesser features than their competitors. Zune with more features is simply not enough to challenge the iPod. It needs to be seen how long Microsoft can lose money, churn out new 'Zunes' and market its features and brand to gain an edge over Apple.
Wu also estimates that, Apple has 18-22% gross margin and 8-11% operating margin. So Microsoft will not only have to overcome Apple's prolific innovations and designs but has to atleast match Apple's operating efficiency to kill the iPod.
On a sidenote, another effect of Microsoft's foray into the media player business is antagonizing some of its partners. Since Microsoft has the upper hand on its partners now, it is not an issue. But Microsoft may feel the heat later on when it may need their help.
Labels: AAPL, MSFT, Tech, UX
Selected IDEO Methods
LEARN
Competitive Product Survey
HOW: Collect, compare and conduct evaluations of the product's competition
WHY: This is a useful way to establish functional requirements, performances standards, and other benchmarks
Error Analysis
HOW: List all the things that can go wrong when using a product and determine the various possible causes
WHY: This is a good way to understand how design features mitigate or contribute to inevitable human errors and other failures.
Long Range Forecasts
HOW: Write up prose scenarios that describe how social and/or technological trends might influence people's behavior and the use of a product, service or environment.
WHY: Predicting changes in behavior, industry, or technology can help clients to understand the implications of design decisions.
Secondary Research
HOW: Review published articles, papers, and other pertinent documents to develop an informed point of view on the design issues.
WHY: This is a useful way to ground observations and to develop a point of view on the state of the art.
LOOK
Behavioral Mapping
HOW: Track the positions and movements of people within a space over time.
WHY: Recording the pathways and traffic patterns of occupants of a space helps to define zones of different spatial behaviors.
Fly on the Wall
HOW: Observe and record behavior within its context, without interfering with people's activities.
WHY: It is useful to see what people actually do within real contexts and time frames, rather than accept what they say they did after the fact.
Guided Tours
HOW: Based on observations of real people, develop character profiles to represent archetypes and the details of their behavior or lifestyles.
WHY: This is a useful way to bring a typical customer to life and to communicate the value of different concepts to various target groups.
Social Network Mapping
HOW: Notice different kinds of social relationships within a user group and map the network of their interactions.
WHY: This is a useful way to understand interpersonal and professional relationship structures within workgroups.
A Day in the Life
HOW: Catalog the activities and contexts that users experience throughout an entire day.
WHY: This is a useful way to ground reveal unanticipated issues inherent in the routines and circumstances people experience daily.
ASK
Card Sort
HOW: On separate cards, name possible features, functions, or design attributes. Ask people to organize the cards spatially, in ways that make sense to them.
WHY: This helps to expose people's mental models of a device or system. Their organization reveals expectations and priorities about the intended functions.
Cognitive Maps
HOW: Ask participants to map an existing or virtual space and show how they navigate it.
WHY: This is a useful way to discover the significant element, pathways, and other spatial behavior associated with a real or virtual environment.
Conceptual Landscape
HOW: Diagram, sketch or map the aspects of abstract social and behavioral constructs or phenomena.
WHY: This is a helpful way to understand people's mental models of the issues related to the design problem.
Draw the Experience
HOW: Ask participants to visualize an experience through drawings and diagrams.
WHY: This can be a good way to debunk assumptions and reveal how people conceive of and order their experiences or activities.
Extreme User Interviews
HOW: Identify individuals who are extremely familiar or completely unfamiliar with the product and ask them to evaluate their experience using it.
WHY: These individuals are often able to highlight key issues of the design problem and provide insights for design improvements.
Five Why's
HOW: Ask "Why?" questions in response to 5 consecutive answers.
WHY: This exercise forces people to examine and express the underlying reasons for their behavior and attitudes.
Narration
HOW: As they perform a process or execute a specific task, ask participants to describe aloud what they are thinking.
WHY: This is a useful way to reach users' motivations, concerns, perceptions, and reasoning.
Surveys & Questionnaires
HOW: Ask a series of targeted questions in order to ascertain particular characteristics and perceptions of users.
WHY: This is a quick way to elicit answers from a large number of people.
Word Concept Association
HOW: Ask people to associate descriptive words with different design concepts or features in order to show how they perceive and value the issues.
WHY: Clustering users' perceptions helps to evaluate and prioritize design features and concepts.
TRY
Paper Prototyping
HOW: Rapidly sketch, layout, and evaluate interaction design concepts for basic usability.
WHY: This is a good way to quickly organize, articulate, and visualize interaction design concepts.
Scenarios
HOW: Illustrate a character-rich story line describing the context of use for a product or service.
WHY: This process helps to communicate and test the essence of a design idea within its probable context of use. It is especially useful for the evaluation of service concepts.
Scenario Testing
HOW: Show users a series of cards depicting possible future scenarios and invite them to share their reactions.
WHY: Useful for compiling a feature set within a possible context of use as well as communicating the value of a concept to clients.
Try It Yourself
HOW: Use the product or prototype you are designing.
WHY: Trying the product being designed prompts the team to appreciate the experience the actual users might have.
Labels: UX
Bluetooth is an open-source standard for connecting devices without wires via short-wave radio frequencies. Bluetooth is a short-wave standard, with most development concentrated on connecting devices within a radius of 10 meters, or roughly 30 feet – in tech terms, a PAN, or personal area network.
The most "hotly contested" Bluetooth segment is the semiconductor market which last year began moving into second-generation solutions with developers also ramping up for volume production. The result was "fiercer competitive forces driving strong performance," a trend that will continue to spur consolidation. Frost & Sullivan projects that consolidation will lead to the emergence of " no more than 10 key players" in the sector. Also driving the Bluetooth success story: advances in single-chip RF technology, a solution that is geared toward the cellular phone market.
Among the applications garnering increased Bluetooth attention: "human interface" devices, such as keyboard, mouse, games controllers, and desktop peripherals, including printers and digital cameras.
"All are perceived as potential high volume areas for market development," according to the report, which adds that "improvements in the robustness of chipsets to conditions such as heat and light is allowing further investigation in automotive and industrial environments."
A thriving environment of supporting products and services has emerged around the main semiconductor market, with design services, protocol software vendors and intellectual property developers all making major contributions to the growth of the market.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a method of remotely storing and retrieving data using devices called RFID tags. An RFID tag is a small object, such as an adhesive sticker, that can be attached to or incorporated into a product. RFID tags contain antennae to enable them to receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an RFID transceiver
RFID tags can be either active or passive. Passive RFID tags do not have their own power supply: the minute
electrical current induced in the antenna by the incoming radio-frequency scan provides enough power for the tag to send a response. Due to power and cost concerns, the response of a passive RFID tag is necessarily brief, typically just an ID number (
GUID). Lack of its own power supply makes the device quite small: commercially available products exist that can be embedded under the skin. As of
2004, the smallest such devices commercially available measured 0.4
mm × 0.4 mm, and thinner than a sheet of paper; such devices are practically invisible. Passive tags have practical read ranges that vary from about 10 mm up to about 5
metres.
Active RFID tags, on the other hand, must have a power source, and may have longer ranges and larger memories than passive tags, as well as the ability to store additional information sent by the transceiver. At present, the smallest active tags are about the size of a coin. Many active tags have practical ranges of tens of metres, and a battery life of up to several years.
As passive tags are much cheaper to manufacture, the vast majority of RFID tags in existence are of the passive variety. As of 2004 tags cost from $0.25. The aim is to produce tags for less than $0.05 to make widespread RFID tagging commercially viable.
There are four different kinds of tags commonly in use, their differences based on the level of their radio frequency: Low frequency tags (between 125 to 134 kilohertz), High frequency tags (13.56 megahertz), UHF tags (868 to 956 megahertz), and Microwave tags (2.45 gigahertz).
See also for some Transponder devices which deliver a similar function, and contactless chipcards.
High-frequency RFID tags are used in library book or bookstore tracking, pallet tracking, building access control, airline baggage tracking, and apparel item tracking. High-frequency tags are widely used in identification badges, replacing earlier magnetic stripe cards. These badges need only be held within a certain distance of the reader to authenticate the holder.
RFID tags are often envisioned as a replacement for UPC or EAN bar-codes, having a number of important advantages over the older bar-code technology. RFID codes are long enough that every RFID tag may have a unique code, while UPC codes are limited to a single code for all instances of a particular product. The uniqueness of RFID tags means that a product may be individually tracked as it moves from location to location, finally ending up in the consumer's hands. This may help companies to combat theft and other forms of product loss. It has also been proposed to use RFID for point-of-sale store checkout to replace the cashier with an automatic system, with the option of erasing all RFID tags at checkout and paying by credit card or inserting money into a payment machine. This has to a limited extent already been implemented at some stores
An organization called EPCglobal is working on a proposed international standard for the use of RFID and the Electronic Product Code (EPC) in the identification of any item in the supply chain for companies in any industry, anywhere in the world. The organization's board of governors includes representatives from EAN International, Uniform Code Council, The Gillette Company, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, and Auto-ID Labs.
In July 2004, the Food and Drug Administration issued a ruling that essentially begins a final review process that will determine whether hospitals can use RFID systems to identify patients and/or permit relevant hospital staff to access medical records.
Many somewhat far-fetched uses, such as allowing a refrigerator to track the expiration dates of the food it contains, have also been proposed, but few have moved beyond the prototype stage.
The use of RFID technology has engendered considerable controversy and even product boycotts. The four main privacy concerns regarding RFID are:
- The purchaser of an item will not necessarily be aware of the presence of the tag or be able to remove it;
- The tag can be read at a distance without the knowledge of the individual;
- If a tagged item is paid for by credit card or in conjunction with use of a loyalty card, then it would be possible to tie the unique ID of that item to the identity of the purchaser; and
- Tags create, or are proposed to create, globally unique serial numbers for all products, even though this creates privacy problems and is completely unnecessary for most applications.
Labels: Tech, UX
People are not crazy about new technologies for mobility, but they appreciate real benefits in products. Developers & designers are presently at a time where this understanding is frequesntly blurred by a haze of enthusiasm cast up by emerging new technology. However, it is vital that user needs and requirements meet the technologies at some point in the product development cycle. By time and again, it has proven that the intersection of user needs and the industry interests increasingly takes place only after product launch. With the unpredictable mobile communication culture, new solutions are utilized in ways that never even occured to their designers, who would feel a lot better if user behaviour is taken into accout before the launch.
Mobile gadgets like phones and PDAs are carried around with users wherever they go. Sometimes, they are the primary personal communication link to other people and to services. The most obvious engineering solution to ensure portability and mobility is compact size that allows more freedom. The negative impact in decreasing the size is it influenzed the size of physical user interface elements. The total surface aread of the terminal limits the number and size of buttons. The same applies to the screen. Given the limits of human vision, the amount of data that can be presented on the screen at a given time is very limited.
Desktops have web interfaces with numerous options labeled as texts, most of them long enough to resemble natural language, or by icons, thumbnail images, or all of them well-designed and organized into visual structures that link relevant topics to support the users's search strategies. The difference in designing UIs for desktop environments cersus ohone is about quantity; where desktops can accomodate more. However, the difference in quantity turns into a difference in quality. Small interfaces are essentially different from big ones.
Parallel representation, in which plenty of options are displayed simultaneously on a sizeable screen, turns into sequential representation on a small screen, where options are browsed one by one though only a few can be seen at a time. But in a desktop UI, the features are not heavily prioritized. The user will customize his UI and develop personal styles of use. Mobile gadgets are consumer goods and users are not expected to configure them, though they can short-cut some of the functions that they frequently use. The developers are responsible for making the products more user-friendly.
Labels: UX
