Rock Out with Your Blocks Out
The Stretch Your Mind track was aptly named. Sessions ranged from panels on netbook consumer behavior to security to in depth development platform reviews for Adobe AIR and MeeGo SDK. The power behind all of this mind stretching activity? Yes. TWINKIES.
RWW spoke with several developers and captured what they are taking away from the sessions. The variation in attendance of sessions also provided a quick data point on what is the hot topic for all developers and what might be more niche.
For example, a great many discussions started with the words "porting from iPhone to" and "moving from Objective-C to C++". Another common refrain from developers was the hope that Intel will create a social element for the consumer interface of AppUp.
On the topic of application review, Intel indicated it would be outsourcing the vetting of applications to an external third party company. Essentially, Intel is expecting the flow of diversity to preclude having the right mix and numbers of Intel full time staff in place for that scenario. This third party approach also means Intel is trying to avoid prior examples of queue concerns with other app marketplaces.
During discussions of where AppUp might be available to consumers, Intel was cautious in naming names of high profile projects outside of Intel. Namely, while the Cisco Cius was used in most of the screenshots and there were numerous references to Google TV, Intel did not comment specifically on the availability of AppUp for these platforms.
Engage!
At a developer oriented conference you'll come across coding, shop talk, and all manner of geek speak. Intel AppUp did not lack in that area. What was more telling and indicative of the desire for more than just the code is the overflowing rooms that didn't bring up code once.
One example of a glimpse into the other side of app developer communities was the "Getting Consumers Engaged with Your Apps". As one attendee said "you have a limited amount of time in a day" to engage. The panel for was composed of Frank Gruber of Tech Cocktail, Xavier Lanier of notebooks.com, Daniel Odio of Pointabout Inc, and John Bergquist of Soma Games and The Code Monkeys.
Each panelist had a different take on what really matters and how best to approach the goal of getting consumers to care about your app. Suggestions tended to tip and tricks such as making videos and applying mechanical turk for SEO value to using Facebook and Linkedin to search out key influencers.
Departing from the tips and tricks flow, Frank Gruber hammered on why "hustle" matters when you are building up your apps. Gruber's point was the emphasis on staying as real time as possible to move quickly so that you immediately discover what works and more importantly -- what does not work if you try any of these tips and tricks. This should be familiar to anyone that has applied iterative approaches to code development and here Gruber challenged app developers to apply this outside of only the coding side of app development. Later Gruber summarized this as giving your app a "heartbeat" so that consumers know you are a real person or a vibrant app developer that is interested in being engaged.
Post Diet Mt. Dew Quotes
In speaking with Taylor Brown and Jesse Mecham of YouNeedABudget.com, an Adobe AIR shop, the following phrases were shared:
"I am glad to see how much Intel is behind this. This is a genuinely large initiative. We want to be in front of more eyeballs and Intel is committed to enabling that for app developers."
"The tangible dates shared for availability by the retailers were a pleasant surprise. This is about the hardware and retail side coming together finally. It's bigger than we thought."
In keeping with the multi-platform theme, Rovio is bullish on the things heard at the AppUp event. In speaking with Ville Heijari he shared the following:
"Expect the world of Angry Birds to get much much larger"
On the international front, developers with audiences in Japan, China and Europe such as Uwe Maurer of Ambient Design LTD based in New Zealand shared the following:
"AppUp will make it easier for us to reach new customers on emerging netbooks with pen, touch, and multi-touch capabilities for our natural media paint software, ArtRage 3 Studio"
Coder Challenge: 7 Kinds of Awesome
There were 7 teams on the Coder Challenge. Easy DICOM Viewer, MTAR, M-Power, VR Aquarium, Little Fingers, Trillion Ball and Gazelle.
Winners received $2000 each and a brand new netbook!
Keynote from Peter Biddle: We Can Do Better Than This
Peter Biddle opened the conference and said that all the secrets would be revealed during the final keynote. Biddle did not disappoint.
After a short Pong story (you had to be there!) and observations on the how "We can do better than this" theme he launched into the vision of AppUp and how it will fundamentally alter the scale and expectations of the apps marketplace mode. Biddle went on to outline how and why AppUp is going to address 5 key points.
- Platform Sexiness
- API Volume
- Money and Recognition
- Low Friction Deployment
- Validation? Boring!
In short, Intel AppUp aspires to give your app a face, a community, a path and a venue to be discovered and consumed easily. If you are a musician this might sound familiar to you. You've heard "rock star" developer before but the notion of being in a sea of developers in an even larger sea of apps might start to draw the parallel between app developers and musicians.
Unfindable, unsearchable, and unreachable are the things AppUp intends to knock down. Finding the signal in the noise is where Biddle hit stride in the talk. By relating the feedback he assembled from each session he listened to and then consolidating that feedback for the keynote, he got heads nodding. The building of partners through tools and processes is what makes the curators a real and viable aspect of the vision. Take any Top 10 X blog posts and you'll begin to see what driving back to apps could mean if that blog is using AppUp open systems.
Biddle asked "How we did" of the crowd and all hands went up on the awesome scale. Considering that this was the first Intel AppUp Elements event the Oprah moment for 2011 is that all 2010 attendees get free comp badge for Intel AppUp Elements 2011!
Update: Day 2 is still going and we will provide updates in semi-real time!
Disclosure: Intel is a sponsor of ReadWriteWeb.
(Editor’s note: Megan Jones is a Director at Hadley Partners. A modified version of this story appeared on the company’s blog.)
For any industry in which scale is important – especially ones like media or consumer technology – consolidation concerns should be top of mind. Winning over a customer that’s dominated by a better-funded and more established company can be a losing proposition.
That’s why it’s often smart to seize an advantage early on once the winds of M&A begin blowing.
As a tech banker in Menlo Park, I saw a lot of consolidations early in my career. Recently, in discussions with a number of companies, I’ve heard potential acquirers are beginning to lurk nearby once more – even around businesses that have no interest in selling.
These companies are in industries that some people might think were still in the thick of a growth phase, which raises the question: Why do emerging industries sometimes evolve quickly into consolidating ones? I’ve got a few ideas…
1. Emerging industries that get press and attention tend to those that grow quickly. They also have large markets, attract talented people, have multiple and iterative stages of evolution and scale. All of those factors enable easier funding – either from business partners or venture capitalists.
2. Sometimes, as a result, those industries get over funded – with multiple VC firms each owning a similar company. All of those heavily funded companies then slug it out in a battle royale to win market share.
3. New industries or business segments are hard to build. Business models are often based on precedent – industries that targeted similar customers and monetized in related ways. In other words, you guess a lot, hopefully making reasoned guesses. A lot of mistakes are made (and some companies blow up) as a workable business model develops through trial and error. (Google, for example, wasn’t the first search engine.)
4. To build market share faster, some companies wisely merge. This action can enable economies of scale, a better customer experience (more offerings; better geographical reach; better or deeper management team) and add audience/customers. If the market conditions are right, the merger could create an entity that’s large enough to go public; thereby becoming better funded than its competitors.
5. The market can only support so many like companies – and other competitors in the sector realize it’s better to sell what’s left of a beaten company – and sieze some value from what you’ve built, rather than none.
6. Buying something (capacity; products; customers; geographies) takes less time and money than developing it. This factor can also lead to larger public companies buying into a new and emerging sector.
7. Selling late in the consolidation stage is often not as lucrative as selling early. The first companies to be acquired typically get more resources to build their presence in the industry, giving them an advantage (and making it more challenging for those that remain independent). The holdouts need to execute flawlessly in order to maintain any early leadership position they have.
8. VCs may push for a sale to ensure that their portfolio company partners with other stronger sector players, ensuring they get a good return.
Previous Story: RockYou spreads its “Deal of the Day” to other Facebook game makers
Google New: It's Google <b>News</b> About New Google Stuff In One Place
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Previously you would have found the latest Chemical Industry News from our news server site. Acquisitions, mergers, share prices, new chemical industry trading…
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robert shumake
Google New: It's Google <b>News</b> About New Google Stuff In One Place
In terms of blog networks, no one ever seems to talk about Google, but they actually have one of the biggest. The search giant has well over 100 blogs devoted to everything from general company news to niche things that only webmasters ...
Chemical industry <b>news</b>
Previously you would have found the latest Chemical Industry News from our news server site. Acquisitions, mergers, share prices, new chemical industry trading…
Small Business <b>News</b>: The Times They Are A Changing
In the 60's it was a song of revolution when change was just not as common. Today, it reflects a fact of life, at least for small business owners and.
Rock Out with Your Blocks Out
The Stretch Your Mind track was aptly named. Sessions ranged from panels on netbook consumer behavior to security to in depth development platform reviews for Adobe AIR and MeeGo SDK. The power behind all of this mind stretching activity? Yes. TWINKIES.
RWW spoke with several developers and captured what they are taking away from the sessions. The variation in attendance of sessions also provided a quick data point on what is the hot topic for all developers and what might be more niche.
For example, a great many discussions started with the words "porting from iPhone to" and "moving from Objective-C to C++". Another common refrain from developers was the hope that Intel will create a social element for the consumer interface of AppUp.
On the topic of application review, Intel indicated it would be outsourcing the vetting of applications to an external third party company. Essentially, Intel is expecting the flow of diversity to preclude having the right mix and numbers of Intel full time staff in place for that scenario. This third party approach also means Intel is trying to avoid prior examples of queue concerns with other app marketplaces.
During discussions of where AppUp might be available to consumers, Intel was cautious in naming names of high profile projects outside of Intel. Namely, while the Cisco Cius was used in most of the screenshots and there were numerous references to Google TV, Intel did not comment specifically on the availability of AppUp for these platforms.
Engage!
At a developer oriented conference you'll come across coding, shop talk, and all manner of geek speak. Intel AppUp did not lack in that area. What was more telling and indicative of the desire for more than just the code is the overflowing rooms that didn't bring up code once.
One example of a glimpse into the other side of app developer communities was the "Getting Consumers Engaged with Your Apps". As one attendee said "you have a limited amount of time in a day" to engage. The panel for was composed of Frank Gruber of Tech Cocktail, Xavier Lanier of notebooks.com, Daniel Odio of Pointabout Inc, and John Bergquist of Soma Games and The Code Monkeys.
Each panelist had a different take on what really matters and how best to approach the goal of getting consumers to care about your app. Suggestions tended to tip and tricks such as making videos and applying mechanical turk for SEO value to using Facebook and Linkedin to search out key influencers.
Departing from the tips and tricks flow, Frank Gruber hammered on why "hustle" matters when you are building up your apps. Gruber's point was the emphasis on staying as real time as possible to move quickly so that you immediately discover what works and more importantly -- what does not work if you try any of these tips and tricks. This should be familiar to anyone that has applied iterative approaches to code development and here Gruber challenged app developers to apply this outside of only the coding side of app development. Later Gruber summarized this as giving your app a "heartbeat" so that consumers know you are a real person or a vibrant app developer that is interested in being engaged.
Post Diet Mt. Dew Quotes
In speaking with Taylor Brown and Jesse Mecham of YouNeedABudget.com, an Adobe AIR shop, the following phrases were shared:
"I am glad to see how much Intel is behind this. This is a genuinely large initiative. We want to be in front of more eyeballs and Intel is committed to enabling that for app developers."
"The tangible dates shared for availability by the retailers were a pleasant surprise. This is about the hardware and retail side coming together finally. It's bigger than we thought."
In keeping with the multi-platform theme, Rovio is bullish on the things heard at the AppUp event. In speaking with Ville Heijari he shared the following:
"Expect the world of Angry Birds to get much much larger"
On the international front, developers with audiences in Japan, China and Europe such as Uwe Maurer of Ambient Design LTD based in New Zealand shared the following:
"AppUp will make it easier for us to reach new customers on emerging netbooks with pen, touch, and multi-touch capabilities for our natural media paint software, ArtRage 3 Studio"
Coder Challenge: 7 Kinds of Awesome
There were 7 teams on the Coder Challenge. Easy DICOM Viewer, MTAR, M-Power, VR Aquarium, Little Fingers, Trillion Ball and Gazelle.
Winners received $2000 each and a brand new netbook!
Keynote from Peter Biddle: We Can Do Better Than This
Peter Biddle opened the conference and said that all the secrets would be revealed during the final keynote. Biddle did not disappoint.
After a short Pong story (you had to be there!) and observations on the how "We can do better than this" theme he launched into the vision of AppUp and how it will fundamentally alter the scale and expectations of the apps marketplace mode. Biddle went on to outline how and why AppUp is going to address 5 key points.
- Platform Sexiness
- API Volume
- Money and Recognition
- Low Friction Deployment
- Validation? Boring!
In short, Intel AppUp aspires to give your app a face, a community, a path and a venue to be discovered and consumed easily. If you are a musician this might sound familiar to you. You've heard "rock star" developer before but the notion of being in a sea of developers in an even larger sea of apps might start to draw the parallel between app developers and musicians.
Unfindable, unsearchable, and unreachable are the things AppUp intends to knock down. Finding the signal in the noise is where Biddle hit stride in the talk. By relating the feedback he assembled from each session he listened to and then consolidating that feedback for the keynote, he got heads nodding. The building of partners through tools and processes is what makes the curators a real and viable aspect of the vision. Take any Top 10 X blog posts and you'll begin to see what driving back to apps could mean if that blog is using AppUp open systems.
Biddle asked "How we did" of the crowd and all hands went up on the awesome scale. Considering that this was the first Intel AppUp Elements event the Oprah moment for 2011 is that all 2010 attendees get free comp badge for Intel AppUp Elements 2011!
Update: Day 2 is still going and we will provide updates in semi-real time!
Disclosure: Intel is a sponsor of ReadWriteWeb.
(Editor’s note: Megan Jones is a Director at Hadley Partners. A modified version of this story appeared on the company’s blog.)
For any industry in which scale is important – especially ones like media or consumer technology – consolidation concerns should be top of mind. Winning over a customer that’s dominated by a better-funded and more established company can be a losing proposition.
That’s why it’s often smart to seize an advantage early on once the winds of M&A begin blowing.
As a tech banker in Menlo Park, I saw a lot of consolidations early in my career. Recently, in discussions with a number of companies, I’ve heard potential acquirers are beginning to lurk nearby once more – even around businesses that have no interest in selling.
These companies are in industries that some people might think were still in the thick of a growth phase, which raises the question: Why do emerging industries sometimes evolve quickly into consolidating ones? I’ve got a few ideas…
1. Emerging industries that get press and attention tend to those that grow quickly. They also have large markets, attract talented people, have multiple and iterative stages of evolution and scale. All of those factors enable easier funding – either from business partners or venture capitalists.
2. Sometimes, as a result, those industries get over funded – with multiple VC firms each owning a similar company. All of those heavily funded companies then slug it out in a battle royale to win market share.
3. New industries or business segments are hard to build. Business models are often based on precedent – industries that targeted similar customers and monetized in related ways. In other words, you guess a lot, hopefully making reasoned guesses. A lot of mistakes are made (and some companies blow up) as a workable business model develops through trial and error. (Google, for example, wasn’t the first search engine.)
4. To build market share faster, some companies wisely merge. This action can enable economies of scale, a better customer experience (more offerings; better geographical reach; better or deeper management team) and add audience/customers. If the market conditions are right, the merger could create an entity that’s large enough to go public; thereby becoming better funded than its competitors.
5. The market can only support so many like companies – and other competitors in the sector realize it’s better to sell what’s left of a beaten company – and sieze some value from what you’ve built, rather than none.
6. Buying something (capacity; products; customers; geographies) takes less time and money than developing it. This factor can also lead to larger public companies buying into a new and emerging sector.
7. Selling late in the consolidation stage is often not as lucrative as selling early. The first companies to be acquired typically get more resources to build their presence in the industry, giving them an advantage (and making it more challenging for those that remain independent). The holdouts need to execute flawlessly in order to maintain any early leadership position they have.
8. VCs may push for a sale to ensure that their portfolio company partners with other stronger sector players, ensuring they get a good return.
Previous Story: RockYou spreads its “Deal of the Day” to other Facebook game makers
robert shumake
Google New: It's Google <b>News</b> About New Google Stuff In One Place
In terms of blog networks, no one ever seems to talk about Google, but they actually have one of the biggest. The search giant has well over 100 blogs devoted to everything from general company news to niche things that only webmasters ...
Chemical industry <b>news</b>
Previously you would have found the latest Chemical Industry News from our news server site. Acquisitions, mergers, share prices, new chemical industry trading…
Small Business <b>News</b>: The Times They Are A Changing
In the 60's it was a song of revolution when change was just not as common. Today, it reflects a fact of life, at least for small business owners and.
robert shumake
Google New: It's Google <b>News</b> About New Google Stuff In One Place
In terms of blog networks, no one ever seems to talk about Google, but they actually have one of the biggest. The search giant has well over 100 blogs devoted to everything from general company news to niche things that only webmasters ...
Chemical industry <b>news</b>
Previously you would have found the latest Chemical Industry News from our news server site. Acquisitions, mergers, share prices, new chemical industry trading…
Small Business <b>News</b>: The Times They Are A Changing
In the 60's it was a song of revolution when change was just not as common. Today, it reflects a fact of life, at least for small business owners and.
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