International
WEB2000 Show -Moscone
Center, San Francisco
by
Thu Drouet
How
all this would affect the leasing industry?
Voice-enabled
/ wireless devices and services :
Faster access to info, approvals, more direct/personal
communication for more personal customer contact.
Main Difference: competition in getting clients faster.
Client's
satisfaction will depend on integrity and effective communication to a long-term
relationship with customer service.
Topics
covered
1.How
the future of the web is affecting business strategy of today.
2.Where should
we go? Which products to watch out?
3.How speed will affect the design aspects?
4.How all this would affect the leasing industry?
1.How the future of the web is affecting business strategy of today.
We're
in situated in the 3rd generation sites represented by "differentiation",
comparing to 1995-96 where 1st generation sites were a matter of "presence" and
1997-98 where 2nd generation sites focused on "transactions". What does this mean?
Nowadays,
investors are pickier and smarter. First it was called B2B Internet businesses,
but P2P - standing for Path to Profit or Peer to Peer - are the by-words
today.
USABILITY.
It's all about the User-end. Know what your users want. If you build your business
strategy around your users and "create a unique promise and personality... then
your brand strategy will last " underlined Andrew Zolli in his speech called "Crafting
a Vision". For more info see:www.siegelgale.com
Include services around the web to satisfy your users'experience and you
will make a difference! Example:……………..
2.Where
should we go? Which products to watch out?
While
the web mentality has taken a more specific direction targeting the users'experience,
factors like services, equipment, softwares and products are affected.
In fact, due to increasing broadband, the web will no longer be only "browser"
based. Business surrounding the web industry,like designing wireless devices and
wireless services, are hot and must be considered if you want to survive in the
Internet industry.
Keep in mind those terms while you build your services or products:
-
WIRELESS: mobile devices like phone, palms, PCs, jewelry accessories
- XML:voice
enabled devices(ex: "push to talk" feature),databases, services
- STREAMING
NEW MEDIA: 3D, WebTV, Broadcast
Wireless
resources:
Products:
www.onhandpc.com
(world's
smallest
PC/PDA)
www.kyocera.co.jp
(Kyocera
videophone)
Mobile
business solutions:
www.capslock.fi
www.centurasoft.com
www.voicexml.com
Streaming
and new media:
Ibeam or Akamai or Digital Island (tools)
www.pulse3d.com
www.cult3d.com
www.b3d.com
www.wildtangent.com
3.
How speed will affect the design aspects?
The
Wireless World requires a faster connection and in real-time. Today, depending
on areas and countries, Internet access varies. In the US, homes are still connected
to the Internet via a 56 kbps telephone modem. People who travel get a 14 kbps
access on the plane. (In Thailand, few homes has Internet=back up info). And think
about Africa…
Japan
has the UMTS (explain), Sweden is testing it, some US states like … (ask Carl).
Worldly, those new "fiber cables" solutions to fast access are not available immediately
because it is costly and will take a long time to install in the entire planet.
Expect after 2005 to know a drastic change for the web. New technology like streaming
is there but not everyone can afford a T1 access. even though "the web was not
meant to be broadcast", we must consider it in the future (few example: napster/online
radio station).
However, while waiting patiently for the broadband to increase and its price to
be affordable for everyone… Smaller wireless devices are becoming popular, causing
the design field to position itself from a different point of view.
The "multiple-browser-platform-target" dilema is no longer the main issue in design.
You should take also into account other factors like:
- smaller screens for
wrist-watch devices for example, therefore smaller text fonts,
- less color
as sizes decrease,
- less text block for quicker view of information, using
significant icons,
- messages with sharper concepts using key-words.
