Having acknowledged that Apple would appear to be the mobile development platform of choice at the moment, I have entered the Apple garden, and thus far have been delighted with the whole experience.
I have already built my first application and used AppMakr as an initial web based development tool, just to get up and running. Having subscribed to the Apple developer program, I now have access to the tools and ability to offer approved applications via the iTunes store.
Now the last real programming I did was on the 6510 processor, the divertive of the 6502 processor that fuelled the 1980’s home computer revolution. I am finding it really refreshing, because it’s an activity that is mentally taxing, yet free from a large degree of interference – you just simply get on, design, build and test. It’s also fun because the last code that I wrote was over 20 years ago whilst at Plymouth University, and we had nothing like the set of tools available today – I remember still writing code that would be batch tested overnight!
However I am conscious that this is only a short lived period in the evolution of the FBO Guides as my primary focus needs to be on the marketing and business development of the project, but at least I will have a grounding in the technologies that are being used, which I am sure will help in future product development.
I am really enjoying getting to grips with a new challenge, but also laying the foundations of the project, so I can go out and promote what I am working on to the business aviation community with a good understanding of how the product might evolve and what the possible is.
Roy 3rd June
Nokia 5230 running the AV8Services Application
Currently a lot of my focus is on the development of the FBO guide, and how to deliver the information to the prospective audience.
Given the very nature of the service, delivery on a mobile platform is taken as a given.
Having read this morning that the iPad has arrived, I started thinking about the mobile strategy and which platforms to deliver on.
I’ve always had a time for Apple and think that it’s healthy that alternative platforms exist. When the iPhone first came out I think it was universally regarded as “cool”. However as the other phone manufacturers have now caught up, I think Apple is over-rated and certainly overpriced.
I have discovered the iPad with mobile connectivity is going to use a non-standard SIM, what a joke ! – Does the iPad data have something magical about it ? – other than the ability to allow the mobile service providers to rip you off for the privilege of being an Apple user. I can see no technical reason, it’s purely a marketing scam.
Sorry it’s not innovative or “cool”, Apple – your doing just because you can.
My first exposure to mobile data was back in the late 90’s when I was working at Ideal Hardware, the Nokia banana made famous in the Matrix was all the rage – I wanted one and immediately set about using the 9600 baud data connectivity. Websites still where largely designed around a dial-up-audience. So I’ve seen the game evolve from day one.
Well yesterday I’ve invested in a new Nokia 5230 – OK it’s the budgetary mainstream for Nokia at the moment, but here are my four reasons for choosing Nokia over Apple
1/ It’s a phone first – At a meeting in central London the other day, the only attendees who could get a signal where those with Nokia phones. Your blackberry, iPhone or whatever is useless if it cannot communicate with the outside world.
Nokia built a lot of the mobile infrastructure and transmitters as well – it follows therefore that it should have a head start on the reception front
Round 1 – Nokia
2/ Cost of Ownership
Firstly I am with T-mobile, therefore I either need a jail break phone or to change to 02, at £50 per month for 18 months, so £900 worth of contract or £500 to purchase a phone.
Then we turn to data, I currently get unlimited (well I’ve never hit the barrier) as part of my monthly tariff, I think it added a £5 to the monthly costs. iPad option see to start around £20 per month for realistic monthly usage.
Round 2 – Nokia
3/ Extras
Lets see – Nokia’s entry level sub £100 touch phone has given me – full GPS mapping and directions for most of the known world, 10 tracks to download from the Music Store, 10GB of online accessible storage, e-mail clients and access.
Understand from my Apple friends that Apple’s policy is like a 1980’s BMW – anything you might desire is likely to be on the options list with a suitable price tag attached.
Round 3 – Nokia
4/ As a Development Platform
Now I don’t have a Mac, but to develop iPhone applications you need both an iPhone and a Mac computer and a later model intel chipset one at that.
Nokia have actually made the process of developing Apps so easy, that I already have one in the works already – due for publication in the next week or so
Round 4 – Nokia
So now back to the serious business of which platform
Market Share
Well, this is where we get to the power of marketing and brands – essentially I get the same functionality form my Nokia as my friends do from the iPhone – but Apple have taken a huge market share in the markets that matter to me in the past five years or so.
Market share for Q4 2009 is coming in at 40% for Apple in North America, v 11% for Nokia, and things are even better for Apple in Nokia’s backyard with market share at 68% and Nokia hanging in at 8%
So unless my specific aviation market feedback reflects that aviation professionals across Europe are bucking the trend, reluctantly the iPhone platform must be on the agenda and is more important than the Nokia one.
So on that note, whilst I will always champion Nokia, my head say’s it has to be Apple.
Roy 28th May 2010
With the World Cup days away, most of us when the subject of coaching comes up immediately think of team sports and then individual athletes.
I doubt if any modern Olympic contender has sought a gold medal has done so without some coaching, even if this is not formally acknowledged.
But when it comes to business, we often think only in terms of mentoring, but not coaching. But surely nearly all of us a playing a team game and we want to “win”, we may work as a freelance, but are nearly always part of a larger team game.
Why am I writing this? well I have just come off the phone to Linda Mattacks. Now I have only known Linda for a couple of weeks, and she was introduced by a long-term friend Andy Ferguson. Now Andy is quite well known and is very much focused on bring the best out of people, buy making them understand what he refers to as there “higher purpose”.
“Higher purpose”, is very much about what you aspire to do in the longer term and I best describe it as what should be the message that comes across in your obituary ( no I am not trying to be morbid just trying to focus your mind!) – it also when discovered helps define you, your aspirations and your reason to get up each morning.
When I first meet Andy my “higher purpose”, did not come across as very lofty – given that we had been speaking about some of the greatest characters of the 20th century, such as JFK or Gandhi, I simply wanted to work and make a difference in aviation, well six to seven years on I’ve made it? – Or have I?
Now my longer-term higher purpose is to become involved in the transportation of big cats and other endangered species around the globe – because aviation can contribute toward positive elements of the environment and our collective futures, and I still want to make a difference in the wider world of aviation as well.
I mention mentoring in passing, because all of the entrepreneurial training programs such as Doug Richard’s school for startup’s put a lot of emphasis on this and rightly so. My career thus far has in part been shaped by a couple of good mentors, however you cannot usually substitute a mentor for a coach.
Linda for me is not a mentor, she is a coach – we cannot any of us work in isolation. We need a running mate – somebody who can ensure that we are pushing ourselves to the limit and not just coasting.
To others Linda is able to help them formulate what our higher purpose might be – because in today’s uncertain world the career paths or other things that we may have pursued might be for us personally be the wrong ones. Also why should you allow others to define what “winning” is.
Coaching requires commitment and that commitment must be both ways.
Now the great thing about being self-employed is that I to a large extent am able to do things as and when I please, but those who know me well know that I more than anybody have a good understanding of how close that obituary might be – so the greatest gift that I have had since discovering my higher purpose, is to be coached.
Roy 24th May
Growing up in the 70′s, with a father that worked up in central London, would enviably mean the odd trip into “town”.
One of my favourite treats would be a trip to what I thought was the largest bookshop in the known universe – Foyles in Charring Cross road. As a small boy I stood in wonderment at the vast collection of railway books on offer – which like many small boys at the time was a particular passion of mine. Books where piled in every conceivable space – the shelves where often filled to overflowing, small piles of books on the floor where not uncommon. The place seemed to have a special magic, surely if you needed a book on any topic known to mankind it could be found here ?
Yesterday, some three decades later with another couple of hours to kill, I decided that I needed a book on mySQL, so being “in town”, I headed to Foyles.
No doubt, many things have improved – books seem organised and none are seen on the floor in piles any more – much I am sure to the delight of the local fire brigade inspector. The whole place seems light and airy, yet for all the improvements the wonderment is long gone.
The place appears to be now exclusively staffed by young graduates – bight and astute I am sure – but merely “passing through” or I am sure in today’s climate just grateful to be in paid employment. The old hands who both had a life long interest in books, where usually often subject specialists and could make highly informed recommendations no doubt are in retirement.
I found that much to my horror that all of the books, well certainly all that I was browsing in the computer section where already marked with a theft detection device – usually located mid-book on a page where removal would mean damaging the book. So my book shall be marked for life, for Foyle’s benefit.
Having located the book that I was thinking of, I looked in disgust at the price – it was FULL retail ! – Not only had all the perceived magic gone, I was still expected to pay for it – because even historically books where always at marked retail price.
So long Foyles – you are now part of my history and Amazon will ensure that you remain that way.
May 20th
Last Monday saw the announcement that United and Continental Airlines intend to merge, to create the world’s largest airline – or shall I put it another way, on current financial performance, the world’s leading loss making airline.
I’ve yet to fully understand how two largely dysfunctional legacy carriers with a raft of problems can truly benefit from the merger. As a fellow aviation professional my first thoughts are with the employees of the respective airlines, currently the employment levels across the two companies are 86,000 people.
United Airlines Glenn Tilton call the deal “great for our customers, our employees and our communities”. He indicated minimal cutbacks in front-line employees, but given the oversupply problem that has plagued the global air transport market for nearly a decade post 9-11, one cannot realistically see how their will not be significant job casualties over and above any retirements and voluntary redundancies.
Merger talks between United and another US carrier, US Airways came to an end on April the 23rd. Again the reasons for merger where stated as it being in the best interests of customers, shareholders and communities, so the story is the same, this time the outcome different. Mergers are back on the agenda.
Before you think I am being biased towards the USA, I have some very serious reservations of the true benefit of British Airways and Iberia merging. British Airways has some serious financial problems, a potentially crippling pension deficit, and a serious reputation problem with a large section of the travelling public across the world. Who ever in marketing dreamt up the title “The worlds favourite airline”, clearly failed to consult with the world at large or at least those who had actually travelled with the airline.
Now moving away from the specifics of this particular merger, where else would you find two giant loss making businesses, with a raft of issues ranging from long term pension provision issues, to a massive oversupply of product (in an airlines case empty seats), and a market that is taking a battering as a result of events which are out of the control of the market players ( 9-11, global recession, Ash clouds), in my mind two dysfunctional businesses with no sound basis to move forward on merging into one business with a myriad of problems is not the way forward.
The problems that persist in the American aviation business are in my mind beyond the issues that mergers try and seek to solve, by economies of scale and the subsequent reduction in parallel business functions.
In Europe over a decade ago, it became illegal for the state / governments to prop up failing airline businesses. The two airlines that seem immune to this position are Olympic and Italia, which are widely regarded in financial circles as basket-case airlines and are probably in truth beyond redemption.
The American aviation sector is very much protected and most of the major carriers have spent periods in Chapter 11. I almost cynically think that the boards get together in tough times and decide, shall we operate normally or shall we call for chapter 11 again. This combined with a complete unwillingness to have any significant foreign ownership means that the American carriers operate away from the normal financial realities that the rest of the world’s airlines live with.
The larger American carriers are “too big to fail”, this simply means that should the shareholders and other stakeholders agree to the formation of the new “United” (the proposal calls for the use of the Continental logos and the United name), the new airline will simply have the option of trading using the Chapter 11 rules when things get tough again, which no doubt they will.
I find it Ironic however that one of the best performers historically on the NY stock market is that of another airline “Southwest”, this is not only a good performer in it’s sector, but a good performer financially across all sectors.
The Southwest business model has been reapplied in Europe to form some of the leading and now largest carriers in Europe, notably easyJet and Ryanair.
At the end of the day, I remain convinced that far from providing any real improvements for customers, employees and the wider non-aviation communities, all that will be achieved by the creation of the largest world airline will be a few “winners” – a small number of shareholders and as always in these things the banks and other financial advisers who are “in on the deal”.
Roy
9th May 2010
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In a past life I worked in the world of IT sales and enjoyed it immensely, and made some good friends who where either customers or fellow colleagues.
Like most professional sales people I attended numerous sales training courses, seminars and events in order to “improve my game” and better understand how I could improve my chances of sales success, then I stumbled upon something very powerful that I still make use of nearly every day, and it’s a useful business tool even outside sales.
At the time I was working for DEC (Digital Equipments) largest European distributor and had been invited by a regional sales director to speak to his sales team. I did my pitch and I elected to stay for the rest of the day and it is perhaps one of the smartest business decisions I’ve ever made.
Each member of the sales team was asked to outline their major prospects over the coming months and give an overview of what they where working on.
One of the sales team was enthusing over a particular project prospect they had, and the sales director said, “this is all very good, but what is the impending event?” and at that moment I noticed that the prospect reporting sheets also had a box marked impending event.
The sales representative said that at this time he had not clearly identified the impending event because he was not close enough to the customer, so the sales director said “no impending event, more than likely – no sale this quarter.”
Over lunch all of this was explained to me, Impending events are really important things to understand, because this is what drives the customers buying cycle and indicates if the sale is likely to happen and when it is likely to happen.
In business most businesses put off making a decision until the last moment, because it is always wise to keep your options open, however if an impending event is identified, the seller can understand what the likely actions and timing of the customer might be.
For example a software licence might need to be renewed on a specific date, so if an alternative vendor wants to pitch he must do so in time for a transition to occur before the existing software must be renewed for X years. Another example maybe that your competitor is about to launch a new product that makes yours obsolete and you need to plan for a new product launch.
A printer may need to be aware of the dates of the major trade shows for his customers, because extra or new marketing collateral might be needed.
The closer you are to your customer the better you are likely to be given the information you need to identify the impending event and plan your marketing and sales activities accordingly.
Ironically the world of aviation has thousands of impending events every day as each aircraft rotates or lands.
Roy 7th April 2010
