Over at Convince and Convert, owner Jason Baer expresses his wealth of knowledge of social media and the trends that apply. His theories apply greatly to what we do here at Dirk+Weiss, including viral online marketing and return on investment.
In this video, Jason is speaking about how people use the web now, and mentions some stats from an “internet usage” study that was released. Always great to see how Jasons knowledge aligns with our practice and usage of marketing across social networks.
Very interesting: “Is social media being used more for communication or entertainment or both?”
Apparently, long time software developers are finally making bank by creating one of those $1.99 iPhone apps. I have now read countless articles about struggling software companies who are giving up their pc/mac box development, for the iPhone platform.
So what’s in an iPhone app? Well, from what we can see, besides some code and graphics, there is an underlying philosophy that has put up the white flag to proprietary software piracy. Software companies have, and are beginning to understand that there is no bringing down piracy. The old mentality and business model of “big box, big software, big price” has been eradicated by open, collaborative development, and the iPhone has brought the same software development strategy to a mobile and light weight, if not viral stage.
Lets do a quick calculation for an example iPhone app’s annual revenue: 200 downloads/day x 1.99/download x 365 Days = $145,270!
Above: Microsoft’s Surface Interface. Proprietary madness. Lets go open-source and make it available to everyone!
In typical Dirk+Weiss fashion, we are building an interface for this years 2009 AIGA BoNE Show. This kiosk combines projection and a touch input device, powered by a custom software interface.
The purpose of this kiosk is to showcase the website winners of this years Best of New England design competition. Our goal is to create an interface that is not only well designed, but extremely intuitive.
The next generation of software interface is well, interface-less. Menu’s are going away and being replaced by hand gestures and organic content design. Thanks to a generous donation from TechSuperpowers in Boston, we have access to a MacMini and other various components for hardware. Come by the show in June, to check it out!
AIGA BoNE Show 2009 Info >>
So you have all heard us talk about the infamous The Media is Dying twitter feed. The man behind the tweets has shared with us many interesting tidbits about the world of print media. Day after day the tweets pile on about CEOs of magazines and newspapers shifting gears and leaving. Not to mention the countless bankruptcy announcements and transitions planned to move the printed publications online.
Named Armstrong, the former communications manager at MySpace.com, the tweeter behind The Media is Dying has written an article for Businessweek online, and has expressed his thoughts and possible reasons for the current state of printed media. Some things are obvious, and some things are not. Here is a quote that hits close to the Dirk+Weiss philosophy:
“So where does this leave us? The days of information monopoly are over, and that’s a fundamental shift. And the industry should be further along than it is. Rather than saying, “Here’s everything we think is relevant to you—and we even put it in sections!” how about, “What do you want to know about today?” Or, for even greater efficiency: “Tick these boxes, and we’ll make a newspaper just for you.” -Armstrong, Businessweek