Apple iPhone

This is for people who want to be seen with an iPhone – and don’t mind paying for the privilege. Regardless of the contract this isn’t going to be your cheapest option but it’s nicely designed, a pleasure to use and now built for use in the cloud. It syncs well with Google Apps and this can bring all of your Apple kit into union, with all diary entries appearing simultaneously on all machines.

It’s also a very good ‘social’ phone – not social as in social media, which all smartphones will handle very nicely, but it handles video conferencing, music, the video playback is good for younger people (we fortysomethings prefer a bigger screen). IPhone has the largest market of apps if you need to configure your phone to your own specification.

Recommended if: You want an easy to use smartphone, which you can all but build to your own spec.

Not recommended if: You haven’t bought into the “do everything Apple’s way” ethos. Also if you don’t want to be forced to buy a case so that you don’t cut out calls by daring to hold the phone wrongly – seriously, this is a known fault with the iPhone 4.

BlackBerry

The original portable emailer is still around in several guises. Look at the Torch for a serious competitor to the iPhone. A solid keyboard makes text entry easy but the leisure features like music and video are well catered for with direct links into Amazon’s music libraries for downloads. Syncs well with Google Docs although needs an extra app to do this with complete efficiency.

If the social stuff is less important to you then the Bold is a good business model with fewer bells and whistles but a nice at-a-glance daily agenda. All BlackBerrys will sync well with a BlackBerry Playbook tablet.

Unfortunately the market is buying fewer BlackBerrys so you’d have to be aware of this before buying; this has led to odd gaps like the fact there’s no Skype app available for a BlackBerry, which is a pain because the hardware should make this easy. Worse still is the news that the next generation of BlackBerrys, based on the new version of the operating system, has been delayed and now won’t be emerging in Q1 of 2012.

Recommended if: You want an easy smartphone mostly for emailing but one which does everything else including satnav.

Not recommended if: You want a wide range of apps – including Skype, which is a glaring omission. And NO ANGRY BIRDS.

Android

The greatest proportion of the smart phone market buys Android phones from various manufacturers, with Samsung and HTC among the most popular. The software comes from Google and it has a completely open marketplace – so whereas Apple will have approved all of the apps you can fit onto an iPhone, Google hasn’t done the same for its software. It’s just a difference in philosophy – Google understands “marketplace” to include an element of openness.

These phones are as functional but never quite as elegant as their Apple competitors. Longer term they’re almost certain to stay in the number one slot in the market simply because Google allows loads of companies to make them whereas Apple is the only iPhone maker just as RIM is the only BlackBerry maker. If Google’s takeover of Motorola is approved then other manufacturers may be a little less quick to make more Android phones.

Recommended if: You want a safe option shared by millions of others, and all the functions you’ll get from an iPhone – often earlier than the Apple community.

Not recommended if: You like an elegant-looking phone, or don’t like companies putting their own overlay over a basic operating system. HTC’s version of the software is slightly different from that of Samsung – and when I played with a Sony Ericsson that was tweaked to work better with Facebook, Twitter et al it was so complicated it made my teeth itch.

Windows Phone

Microsoft has been making software for phones and hand-helds for a while but this is only now taking root in the market. It has announced a major tie-in with Nokia, whose own operating system is effectively on its knees.

It’s a little early to say just how this one will develop; certainly Microsoft has played the long game quite convincingly before, and basing its computer software and phone software on the same look and feel so that everything looks as though it’s laid out in “slates” is a good marketing strategy.

Recommended if: You’re a Windows user and want the same manufacturer to supply your phone software for complete compatibility.

Not recommended if: You don’t want to be the first in the class taking a risk with what to all intents and purposes is a new operating system.

Others

There are a handful of other operating systems to look out for. Nokia is still selling phones based on its Symbian operating system, which aren’t as easy to use as anything else on the market. Nokia denies it’s going to kill Symbian off, but its tie-up with Microsoft on Windows Phone has certainly set people wondering. Nokia also announced a more basic smartphone operating system called Meego during the year; by the time it announced it the company had already made most of the developers redundant. It’s difficult to imagine Nokia’s own software being around for long.

The other place to watch is WebOS. Developed by Palm over a number of years, bought by Hewlett-Packard in 2010, HP shocked everybody by pulling out of the market earlier this year – then sacking the CEO that made the decision. In December the company turned WebOS into open source software so anyone can develop using it if they choose – which is a great way to develop apps but not so good if you want any significant market share.

Guy Clapperton is the British author of the books “This Is Social Media” and the forthcoming “This Is Social Commerce”. He has been a technology and business journalist since 1998 and is also a speaker and broadcaster who has addressed audiences in seven countries during 2011. Guy appears on the BBC’s News Channel regularly and writes for the Times, Guardian, Telegraph and other national newspapers in the UK.

Pay to play

Like every other iPhone app, we provided a way for people to signup from the app itself. However, Apple insisted we must use Apple’s in-app payments if we wanted people to signup from the app. Funny thing is, that’s not possible – their in-app payments can’t handle a subscription service like ours with upgrades, downgrades and volume discounts.

Beyond the billing mechanics, the pricing model for subscription software – 30% of lifetime revenue – is not an option. We can accept paying a one-off bounty for each signup, because that’s the value the app store delivers.

No sampling the merchandise

And anyway, our signup is free. People don’t have to pay to use a trial of Xero. Hence, Apple’s other policy – no trial versions. Apple says “Your website is the best place to provide demos, trial versions, ….” Except Apple then bans developers from that too “It’s not appropriate to include the link of your web service and references of the link in your app or your marketing text.”

After weeks of waiting and cryptic emails from Apple, we ended up on the phone with our judge & jury: a guy called Steve from Cupertino (alas, not the Steve). In a two minute phone call the ambiguities of written policies was cleared. If we removed the ability to signup from within the app we would get official approval, which we did and you can now get the Xero app here.

Straight to the top

It’s great to finally have our app in the App Store. Almost immediately we were featured at the top of the ranks. It’s been very popular. Which makes it really frustrating that people who discover the app can’t just try it out immediately. And it’s beyond frustrating that we’re forbidden from telling people how they can get a free login so they can try it out.

Double standards?

It’s unclear whether Apple is reviewing and rejecting all existing apps that have in-app signups and demos. There’s more than a few that we know about – Quickbooks Mobile is a perfect example – that don’t comply with this policy.

It’s worth noting the Quickbooks app released an approved update the same week our app was rejected.

We’d love to hear from other people who’ve had to deal with this or similar issues. Is there a loophole or a workaround that we haven’t discovered?

This is the same accounting app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch that’s also available when you login at m.xero.com. However, there are a few big advantages that come with installing the official iPhone version:

• Take photos of receipts and attach them directly to your expenses
• Use a 4 digit passcode to login quickly
• It runs faster, because the app is stored on your phone

We put together a fun video to illustrate some of the useful features of the app…

A lot of thought went into the design of our iPhone accounting app, focusing on ways to streamline the mobile experience: Quickly check your balances, quickly draft invoices with a few taps – even approve & send invoices straight from your phone, add expenses just by taking a photo of a receipt, tap to call customers & quickly add contact notes.

We think you’ll find it’s very smooth & snappy.

We also made the accounting app available on the iPad so you can get the same streamlined experience on the bigger screen. As always, you can still use the full version of Xero from your iPad (which we plan to make a bit more touch friendly).

Even though Xero Touch is available in the App Store, under the hood it’s running our standard HTML5 mobile web app. A big advantage of being a web app is that the data on your phone and the data in your accounting system are always in sync.

It was a slight ordeal getting the app thru Apple’s notorious approval process, but that’s a story for another day. With the iPhone version now approved our team is working hard on getting a version into the Google Android app store.

Let us know how Xero Touch is changing the way you do business. And be sure to leave a recommendation on the App Store. As always, let us know what other features you think would be useful.

They look pretty snazzy on my iPhone, and obviously I’m rather partial to the Help Center one!

Note these are shortcut icons that display if you log into Xero (go.xero.com) or the mobile version of Xero (m.xero.com) or go to Help Center (help.xero.com) and choose ‘Add to Home Screen’ from your device’s browser.

GeoOp (Geographic Operations) is our latest Network Partner and works as a job dispatch system for small to medium sized businesses that have mobile workforces. If you are a  tradesperson, vehicle driver, in the IT services industry or have people on the road then GeoOp is perfect for you.

GeoOp brings the same instant clarity to your operations that Xero does for your business performance and profitability. It allows you to instantly get a broad overview of all your jobs and mobile staff, or with a few clicks of the mouse you can drill down and see in real time exact details – something that normally takes days to filter back to the office.

GeoOp’s integration with Xero allows you to send job information, either for individual jobs or as batch invoices, so you can easily invoice your customers in Xero. The entire process takes less than a minute, saving you time and the hassle of re-entering your data from one system into another. Your administration team can send out an invoice to your client as soon as the job has been completed.

For more about Xero and GeoOp and how to get started have a look here, or watch the video below for an overview of GeoOp.

We’ve been exploring some design enhancements to our mobile version of Xero. Our plan is to build it in HTML5 using Sencha. We also plan to make device specific versions available for Android and iPhone that will offer some additional functionality.

Obviously the form factor and touch interaction of phones is radically different to standard web design, so I’ve had to adapt my design process slightly.

I found a really excellent prototyping tool called LiveView (it’s free) that let’s you display whatever is on your Mac screen on your iPhone. It even lets you tap on the phone to trigger mouse clicks on the Mac. That way I can simulate real app navigation and interaction.

It’s so effective that I managed to fool Craig, our CTO, into thinking I’d actually built a working version of the app.

Considering the uproar about iPhones and Flash, it’s pretty ironic that I’m using Flash to design our iPhone app and thanks to LiveView, technically speaking, I’ve got Flash running on the iPhone. In all the bashing Apple has dished out regarding Flash (most of which I agree with), I wish there was some acknowledgement about the influence Flash has had on the design language and interaction experience of the iPhone. The iPhone’s animated interfaces and massive success with casual games owes a huge debt of gratitude to the extensive history and evolution of Flash mini games from the likes of Orisinal, Miniclip and the early generation of animated interaction design experiments by Praystation.

Also, thanks for your feedback on our direction with the mobile version of Xero Personal.

And it’s all about Widgets. Look at the screen of the Streak. You see information.

I first saw the Dell Streak about 3 months ago and I pretty much laughed it was so big. You can’t be serious that thing is a phone.  It’s huge. But since then I’ve had an iPad and I’ve got used to tablet computing.  I like the space on the screen.  When I do calls it’s often in the car on Bluetooth or I can easily use a Bluetooth headset or the speaker phone so big doesn’t worry me so much anymore, if you get screen space.

The big difference is how the Android Operating System uses widgets. That is, each app can have its own dashboard that can be displayed directly on the desktop(s), which can be easily scrolled through. This is fundamentally different to how iOS works on Apple devices. iOS is an app centric interface. You have to launch each app to use it. I didn’t realize how broken and limiting this is until I played with Android. With Android you just view widgets. Clocks, Stocks, FaceBook feeds, your CRM system, Tasks, your bank balance – whatever YOU want. Anything you want to drill into you can, which then launches the application. That truly is information at your finger tips, being able to see at a glance the key information YOU need without having to think about applications.

Already there is talk of iOS5 and a smaller iPad device. iOS5 has to have widgets, and Apple has to get there soon. Widgets are such a better metaphor than apps that the iPhone seems kinda pointless without them. And if you are going to have one mobile device, this bigger form factor is better. Maybe Dell were right with this sized device.

Apple has kept such tight control of the phone experience. I thought I would value being on the one platform. Today I feel quite different. Already I’ve noticed that notifications are too restrictive.  I feel locked in by my music in iTunes. I feel restricted on a tiny screen. (I also miss the BlackBerry flashing red light.)

Android isn’t perfect. Exchange integration is still not good enough and the UI seems a bit clunky. But having a huge screen phone where you can assemble the information you need to run your day felt a lot closer to information nirvana than where the iPhone is right now.

This is why competition is so good. I really had thought that Apple had won. Not anymore.  Android is much more interesting now. The possibility to craft a mobile information portal, where you can see at a glance the things that matter to you without having to dive in, feels much more magical.

We’re seeing so  much innovation in hardware and software. I hope we see some standards in Widgets between iOS and Android (hopefully HTML5) so that developers don’t have to fragment their energy.

I’m surprised by how much I’ve swung on this. I wasn’t interested in Android at all before. But now I get it. Apple’s control and app centric design don’t make sense anymore.

What do you think?

I had the iPad3G sent over from the US, and followed the process to connect to Telecom’s XT network. I had to manually trim the SIM but that wasn’t too hard and took about 15 minutes to get going, while making me feel like Tim the Toolman Taylor.

It’s liberating to have instant on Internet access anywhere I am.  The XT network is fast all over the country so the iPad hums.  I’m on a 4GB plan which should be OK.  As I have a BlackBerry, TStick and now an iPad all on XT  it would be great to be able to consolidate them all into one account and hope that comes at some point.  I was tempted to get a Mifi to share connections but the instant on nature of the iPad 3G makes it much more useable.

Having had an iPad for a while now I’ve settled into using it at home and work.

My personal experience is very much like described here. iPadTV. I’m watching less broadcast TV on the 46″ in the lounge, and more downloaded US shows on my chest when traveling.  The quality is stunning but an hour of hi-def TV from iTunes is 1.5GB so you need to be careful where you get your downloads.  I’ve already spent $US150 on content so I think this reinforces that FTTH initiatives need access to TV content to create the base demand for subscribers. With good content consumers will spend.

My most used app is NewsRack.  An RSS reader than works great with Google reader, so you are always in sync between Mac and iPad.

With my work hat on I have my iPad with me at all times.  The killer application is reading board papers.  Being able to download 200 pages of board materials as a PDF and read them when you can, is much easier than carrying papers in your case.  In a board meeting the iPad is low profile and not distracting. Because you can search within pdf’s it’s very efficient.  I use GoodReader, where you upload files through iTunes, but it works even better with DropBox. You simply drop your files into DropBox and GoodReader on the iPad can grab them down whenever you have an Internet connection.

GoodReader does not yet have annotations, but Steve Job’s iOS keynote showed a new version of iBooks due later this month.  iBooks will support PDF’s and annotations.  Not sure how you get content in yet, but annotations will make the iPad just ideal for doing Board meetings.

For note taking I use Things, which links nicely with the mac version. Rather than just take notes I take actions.

So far though the best iPad app has to be Angry Birds. Best way yet to kill a late night flight home.

What’s on your iPad?

Congratulations Kieren.

We like to think we have our finger on the pulse so for what it’s worth here are a few suggestions for your 100 day plan …

I think the iPad is a game changer. This article from Kleiner Perkins provides a good summary of why.

In the 10 hours of my love affair I have some thoughts.

1. No one needs an iPad.  It doesn’t do anything that other devices, or a collection of other devices, can do. But for a geek like myself I love it.
2. I won’t read for pleasure on it, but I may pull down some reference books to skim through.  An eBook is not the same as a paperback.
3. I don’t need my iPod touch anymore, other than I can plug it in the car.  On a plane I’d use the iPad.
4. I still use a BlackBerry (my last one), but it would be confusing having an iPhone and an iPad. Everything would be doubled up.
5. The iPad is a magical device.  It is the best way to read the web and consume information. I’ll probably get a 3G one when they come out.
6. I’m in two minds as to installed apps versus web apps.  Both are great but Googles web based GMail and Reader show the power of HTML5 web apps with no install.  For the iPod features (music, photos etc) the iPad rocks but I also think the upcoming Chrome based NetBooks that run only web apps may be able to give a fantastic experience. I couldn’t find a good iPad sized RSS reader and instead found Google reader (HTML5) worked great – perhaps even faster and better than an installed app. (I’m sure they’ll give it a makeover like GMail with iPad widgets soon and it will be even better)  These new devices demonstrate clearly the power of SaaS. It is magical to have the web in your hand.
7. Exchange support is excellent.  I’ve been doing work on my iPad all afternoon.
8. The keyboard is great. I can type pretty quick on it.

If you are a geek.  Get one.

While I think the iPad is a hugely important device in the history of computing I don’t think the iPad is the final answer.  The technologies and approach have lifted the game for everyone.  I hope a future MacBook Air will be a convertible that blends the best of a laptop with the best of the iPad.  The iPad currently is part iPod, phone and NetBook. But it’s not a viable one device as it is too large for a phone.  Maybe the iPhone and a separate NetBook that tethers to the iPhone is the answer.

I will probably get a 3G one, but individuals are going to get hit with multiple data accounts. It would be a great if the iPad could tether through your 3G phone. Another alternative is a Mifi (not yet here for XT) or CradlePoint which does allow an XT data stick to be plugged in and creates a shared wifi connection.

As a demonstration of the power of NetBooks I’m completely sold. The iPad is the first instant on, web computer I’ve used. The future of web applications looks very bright as these stunning connected devices take off.

And instead of purchasing with the people that didn’t have a reservation, we got to walk up to the third floor, usually dedicated to the Apple Genius bar, to have a whole other group of Apple staffers greet & meet & talk about how much you love the device you haven’t actually purchased yet. And then they clap you on the way out as well!

So now that I’ve got it home & have calmed down a bit what do I think? It’s fantastic. It’s basically a big iPod Touch – but that’s why it’s so great. Smart mobile devices like the iPhone are great at consuming content – games, music, news, Twitter – all accessible anywhere & anytime. The problem is that the form factor has never really been great when you’re not moving around. This is where the iPad comes into it’s own. The kitchen, on the couch, reading in bed, on the train – all where the iPad rules. I spend a lot of the time checking email, checking Tweets, surfing, reading, listening, watching. At the moment this is all done on my MacBook – but the iPad now makes it so much easier & somehow seem so much cooler.

Everything is very snappy – it feels like a real computer rather than a big mobile device (actually a little heavier than I expected it to be). The bevel doesn’t look big in real life & is quite handy because you feel you can really hold it properly without inadvertently launching an app. The keyboard is good – I can touch type on it without issue but my wife’s finger nails meant she was a little frustrated by it (that’s actually a feature – if she wants one she can buy one). Even though the iPad is a killer device for consumption I can see myself doing content production on it as well – it’s so intuitive to use & I’m really looking forward to the different types of apps that developers come up with that really push the platform to it’s limit. Have already loaded some apps – will be interesting to hear some comments from other iPad users as to the killer apps (I’ve got Tweetdeck, the new Kindle app & MLB At Bat 2010 so far).

So does Xero work on it? Of course! There are some issues with the fact that we have some Flash still hanging around, but otherwise both Xero & Xero Personal look & work great (actually everything looks great on the iPad – that screen is stunning). We will be releasing new versions of both products that are even more iPad friendly in the near future. Don’t ask us about us creating an iPad app though – at Xero we’re dedicated to the open web & reaching as many platforms & devices as possible. Having said that we are doing some work in this area at the moment to make the transition from the device to the web seamless so stay tuned.

The Bold 9000 has been hit. Most business people I meet have either an iPhone or the 9000 and the consensus seems to be that the 9000 is the best mobile experience out there. And not a bad phone.I got my first BlackBerry when I was at Quest 4 or 5 years ago. Before that I’d had every Windows Mobile device. I’d seen Americans with BlackBerry’s for years before. When I finally got one I was blown away by what a good mobile email device they were. I immediately saw how wrong the Microsoft approach of trying to shoehorn the Windows metaphor into a mobile device was. It was a great example of the power of design. In addition RIM (Research in Motion – the company behind Blackberry’s) has vertically integrated into Telephone companies through to Exchange Mail servers to deliver a very fast service. You can simply flip your BB on as soon the plane lands and be caught up on emails before leaving the plane.

But as the iPhone has arrived RIM has been left behind. Worse they have thrown away their competitive advantage of the best mobile experience by such a simple thing. They have not invested in user centered design – the very thing that made them the best mobile email experience in the beginning.

Here are some examples

1. The BlackBerry home screen lacks the basic apps that people use. All they had to do was look at the iPhone. After Email, Calendar, Contacts it’s Weather, Stocks, World Time. The iPhone nails these. RIM didn’t even have to be original, they could have just copied. That would have stopped me looking at the iPhone.
2. Even the icons on the screen – the thousands of them. Aren’t just ‘at a glance’ icons. You have to work out what each one means. Too hard and again – easy to fix.
3. The BlackBerry app store is just crap.  I can’t believe they executed that so poorly.

Just one designer at RIM would make the difference and could have saved the company.

So onto the 9700. Did the close the gap on the iPhone?

Firstly. The 9700 is gorgeous. This is the nicest BB ever. Much smaller than the 9000 – close to the curve. I’ve had to change the 9000 Trackball so the Trackpad will be great. It seems good to use. I’m still working out how hard to push the surrounding keys so it takes a few days to wire but it feels good. Another great thing is now there is a dedicated lock button on the top. Finally. Hard to see it but it works great.

On the XT network the 9700 is 3G everywhere and that seems to work well.

Changing BlackBerry’s is slick. Simply reactivate and everything comes across. Wifi settings, browser history, everything. You only need to get your apps (like Google Maps, GMail and Yammer). Up and running in 15-20 minutes while you do something else.

Hardware and phone then 10 out of 10 so far. But the 9000 is also very nice. Being a bit bigger the 9000 may actually be easier to use. But I do like the small size of the 9700. I wouldn’t suggest you had to change immediately as both are good and some may find the 9700 a bit small.

But, and this makes me really angry, they changed the USB to an even smaller size which means that my investment in standard chargers, car charger and deskstands are now a throw away. Why change to a different USB standard? You idiots!  The new small USB port is not even that much smaller. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Not thinking of the customer.

So onto the software.

Huge disappointment. Not just because its essentially the same, but for a couple more reasons.

1. There is a bug in the new messages notification (the red asterisk). My red asterisk never goes away. I look for the red asterisk probably 100 times a day (you notice this when its broken). Those few pixels completely ruin the experience for me. I want to throw this new device across the room and go back to my 9000.
2. The different message readers are just a mess. Always has been. If you’re new to BlackBerry this must be very confusing. I just fire everything into the one stream and that works great. A new good thing (I think) is that SMS’s are now more chat like and the conversation collapses in the inbox. That is quite good but they chickened out of doing that to email as well which may have been a nice innovation and moved things forward.
3. The UI is the same boring UI as the 9000, but they’ve sexed up a few of the widgets. So the date and other option pickers are starting to look iPhone quality nice. This seems really odd as they live on the same old general UI. RIM what are you smoking? This just looks half done and unacceptable for a company that serves millions of users.
4. The BB interface in general now is just old. It’s too hard to use now compared to what we’re seeing on the iPhone and new devices.

In this industry, things move fast. The velocity of change is increasing. Up until now i’ve resisted the iPhone because email was the most important thing. Now other streams and feeds are as important. Yammer at Xero is a key tool for me. RSS feeds, blog comments, twitter searchers and for many I suspect FaceBook updates are becoming as important as email. While you can get BlackBerry apps they just aren’t good enough.  Also many of the websites I need are now great on an iPhone. So I’m ready to jump ship on the BlackBerry. I’ll suffer going to a soft keyboard to get better access to these other streams.

The next iPhone should be a big step up. Hopefully it will have a step up in battery life and the phone quality will be better. But regardless – it’s not about the best mobile email experience anymore.

You can see this move to feeds in the latest Windows Mobile offering. Surprisingly it now appears that Microsoft now get’s it.

So where I used to think that Microsoft has to buy RIM. RIM now needs Microsoft to buy it. They are going to loose so much value over the next few years that RIM will become affordable. RIM don’t have a clue about design, and Microsoft now shows it does in this space. Linking the superfast carrier links of RIM, through the BES Exchange connectors, into the new Windows Mobile UI would create a formidable mobile enterprise platform.

Microsoft + RIM. It’s not if but when.

Final recommendation: Hold onto your Blackberry 9000 for a couple of months until you see what the iPhone 4 looks like.

So RIM, thank you for a few years of good service. But you’ve wasted your opportunity.  The 9700 is my last BlackBerry ever.

I was especially interested to see a small range of Netbooks priced at $0 up front if you commit to a 2 year contract at $69 per month.

These devices have 3G modems built in. Looking at the reviews the model seems to be a $AU30 per month hardware financing charge and a $AU39  data charge – capped as you would expect to a fairly small 400MB download (its about on par with their iPhone dataplan).

Regardless, $30 per month hardware cost looks reasonable alongside data charges.  More realistically you’ll be spending $100 on data. $30 x 24 months of hardware is $AU720 to play with (less finance charges of course).  A Dell Mini starts from $AU499 including Windows 7 and a $160GB disk, so there is plenty of room to pay for the gear.

The description of these low costs PC’s as Netbooks does annoy me.  These are small, low cost PC’s. My definition of a Netbook is a device that simply hosts a browser that boots to the cloud.  This is a significant distinction as they are likely to have an Open Source Operating System (free) and probably doesn’t need a hard disk – as it just needs enough memory for cache.  We expect to see these devices arrive next year and take off fueled by the entry of Google Chrome OS, Android and Intels Moblin. Even if Chrome is not a home run for Google it will absolutely put pressure on Microsofts Windows and Office licensing.

The reduced hardware requirements and software licensing of true Netbooks puts further downward pressure on the base cost of getting online.  The monthly hardware costs could drop quite quickly towards $15-$20 ($360-$480 over 2 years).  Coupled with an increase in data allowance for your data fee (say 5-10GB) and you could be talking about no up front cost and $100 a month for a pretty good service with enough data to be useful.

The point of all this is the cost of the basic device to connect to the cloud and do email, web surfing, social media and basic business applications (like accounting) is trending towards free.  The existence of $0 up front deals by mainstream carriers – even before true Netbooks arrive – is a clear waypoint that this pricing disruption is inevitable.

Kindle 2 goes to $259, International GSM version coming October 19

Amazon.com introduced a new addition to its family of portable reading devices–Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless. Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless now enables readers to wirelessly download content in over 100 countries and territories. Readers can pre-order Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless starting today for $279 at www.amazon.com/kindle and it ships October 19.

The Kindle includes a wireless data modem. In the US Amazon has partnered with AT&T as the network partner to deliver books and magazines over the air to the Kindle. There is no data charge for downloading books – rather the download cost is covered in the book fee or magazine subscription. It’s a nice model as Amazon customers don’t have to think about mobile data charges. There is no wifi in Kindle so AT&T can’t be bypassed.

The industry has assumed that Amazon was doing deals with other carriers around the world. In the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand we’d assumed that Vodafone was going to lock up a deal and bring the Amazon Kindle into these markets – no doubt with a horrible price differential on books but at least we’d be able to get and use a local Kindle.

This is the normal model for rolling out Telco products globally. With the iPhone, a local carrier could do an exclusive deal for their market (for a period of time).

But AT&T seem to be providing the service globally, exploiting the GSM international roaming agreements they have.

I’ve never seen this before: a carrier competing against others outside of their market, by bypassing the local carrier and selling directly to their customers. This is a massive change to the international Telco market.

A few thoughts spring to mind.

• Are the UK, Australia and New Zealand included in the 100 countries?
• The margin on this must be substantial – if they can cover international roaming charges which are notoriously high
• Will the international prices be more expensive to cover the roaming charges?
• Will pricing be in US dollars – i.e. global pricing?
• Did Vodafone see this coming?
• Will local carriers block the service?
• Will UK, Australia and New Zealand have the full catalog or will it be limited like iTunes
• Could we drop your bank transactions and KPI’s as a daily newsletter through Kindle? So when you open your Kindle in the morning your Xero transactions are there.

Another fascinating one to watch.

Biggest debtors

Login to m.xero.com to see your top debtors. You can see their outstanding balance and overdue balance. Tap on their name to call them, or tap on the amount they owe to see a list of unpaid invoices.

View and send invoices

If you view a list of AR awaiting payment invoices, you can now tap on the total to view the invoice details. Scroll down to the bottom of the invoice to email the invoice as a PDF to the customer’s email address.

Creating a new invoice from the mobile version is in the works.

Accountants Edition

Accounting partners who use Accountants Edition can login to access their clients and staff members.

Apple, iPhone and iTunes – Impacts on the Wireless World (pdf)

Here are some highlights …

You may recall that 3G iPhone was launched globally on July 11th, 2008. Within the first 6 months, around 12 million 3G iPhones have been sold, with significant majority in the U.S., to AT&T subscribers. However, as of now, iPhone is available in over 80 countries, through more than 100 mobile operators. So, it truly is a global product.

… about 50% of all mobile Internet access in the U.S. is through a 3G iPhone

Application developers generally wonder which platform to focus on for their development. Sometimes (not always) numbers speak for themselves! Apple has launched the App Store for iPhones in iTunes on July 11th 2008 with only 500 apps, (about 150 of them free); In December 2008, this number exceeded 10,000 apps (which is a remarkable and record?breaking number to achieve within 5 months). In addition, in the same period, 500 Million application downloads to iPhones have occurred. That is about 100 Million app downloads per month!

For the mobile industry, 2009 is expected to be the year of applications. It is the applications where the user excitements are at; it is the applications that will justify and drive the deployment of wireless broadband / 4G networks in the future; and it is the applications where ultimately the money is.

If I was a young fella doing it all again I’d be investing my time here. The mobile platforms provides an access to market reducing significantly the costs to entry. This is an area where you can play with minimal capital and there are endless possibilities for increasingly complex applications.

That access to market is driving enterprises like banks to release applications for brand perhaps rather than utility. See the Westpac icon below on my iTunes front page today.

This signals that enterprise customers will pay for bespoke development for an iPhone application. So developers wanting to break into iPhone development have fee paying opportunities to hone their skills before building their million dollar idea.

Maybe it’s time my near 5 year old got his own Mac and learned a bit of Cocoa programming.  I may be able to turn him cash-flow positive much earlier than I originally planned.

I’ve covered my reasons why before, and this is becoming more obvious to the wider industry.

PC’s are dropping to sub $US500 products will quickly drop to less than $US200. 

NYTimes: $200 Laptops Break a Business Model.

I was thinking NetBooks were inevitable just because of technology but of course the recession is creating an additional driver.

Hoping to save money, Arista Networks, a start-up based in Menlo Park, Calif., has much of its internal technology processes online, or “in the cloud.” Instead of buying its own hardware and software systems from the likes of Microsoft and Oracle, it opted for e-mail and online document services from Google and online sales and manufacturing software from Netsuite, based in San Mateo, Calif.

It is spending a fifth of what it would be for traditional technology, said Jayshree Ullal, Arista’s chief executive.

She smells a trend. “I think 80 percent of the new high-tech and small to mid-size companies are doing what we’re doing,” she said.

The NetBook trend will change the landscape especially in the small business accounting space – an industry that that has not been that innovative and lacked competition.

This has happened before. The dot-com bust earlier in the decade dragged down high-fliers like Sun Microsystems and America Online but set the stage for a new generation of Web powerhouses like Google and other innovative Internet software companies like Salesforce.com, founded on disrupting the status quo.

Exciting times.

When I saw it I thought – bit late to the party.

But I just watched this interview with Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners, one of the big investors in Palm.

http://www.9to5mac.com/palm-pre-interview

Fascinating. His thought processes at the end of the interview about how to use technology to help people out resonates with us at Xero.

I love this quote from some of the blog commentators …

How rich is he?  He’s “I don’t give a &*#$ about what my hair looks like” rich.

The keyboard is fantastic and I’ve noticed lots of little software improvements like being able to read HTML email.  The best thing so far is that the new BlackBerry Browser seems to work very well – so far no need for OperaMini. Xero Mobile (http://m.xero.com) worked without any style tweaks.

As the Bold has wifi I will surf more on my BlackBerry at home and work.

My biggest gripe so far is that RIM doesn’t include the same useful applications that the iPhone has on the front screen. Weather, World Time and Stocks are the obvious ones.  With a BlackBerry you have to hunt for those applications yourself and load them up.  Too hard.  I don’t understand why RIM don’t do basic Interaction Design and see what users actually do. Or just copy Apple.

The Bold is expensive - especially when there is so much innovation happening and there is already talk of the next models which will be Curve (8310) sized. While the Bold may only have a fashion life of 20 minutes, it is by far the best mobile email device I’ve used. I just wish RIM would do some work on their software.

Xero iPhone walkthrough from Xero on Vimeo.

You can access Xero mobile at http://m.xero.com.

We’ve added a few new features like:

• Contact Groups
• You can now drill into your Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable to see the biggest and oldest invoices
• All user roles within Xero can now access Xero Mobile

We’re still tweaking the Windows Mobile styles.  Let us know if you have any problems.

On the BlackBerry, the standard browser doesn’t easily allow us to make things pretty but if you download OperaMini (http://www.operamini.com), you’ll have a great experience.

Let us know what else you want in Xero mobile.

Firstly, you can now make Skype Calls directly from Xero.

We’re hearing a number of our accounting partners are working from home, walking through Xero alongside their customers using Skype. Now that is Accounting 2.0!

We’ve also added the ability to build your own custom links to your CRM system directly from Xero contacts.  You set up Contact Links under your Organisation settings. We have a link builder that makes it easy to match contact fields inside Xero to your other systems.

Let us know what other systems you link to and what their link formats are and we’ll look at adding them in directly.  What CRM systems are you using?

Well done Kiwibank! They’ve just released an iPhone version of online banking.

It’s very similar to the Xero for iPhone version, letting you see your account balances and recent transactions. It also lets you transfer money between your Kiwibank accounts.

Of course, the big advantage of using Xero on your iPhone is that you have access to transaction data from all your banking providers, plus all of your invoicing data, to give you a complete cash flow overview.

MobileMe is a new email service that has some features you would normally only expect if you were part of a larger enterprise and had an IT department.

MobileMe stores a copy of your email and contacts on the internet so you can get to them from anywhere, as well as have email and contacts shared across the computers and your phone.

iPhone users will get alerted immediately when an email is received. This is called ‘push email’ as the email server sends you a notification as soon as it receives a new email message.  This makes email a far more dependable communication tool between you, your staff and customers. You send and receive email messages immediately like you might with SMS messaging now.

Google and Microsoft have also been busy for small businesses. Both providers have hosted email services that allow you to have your own domain name and manage email for a the people in your team.  These services are standard based so can be used by your existing email software.

MobileMe takes it to the next level however and it will be interesting to see if they allow you to host your own domain name or if you have to be ‘mybusiness@mac.com’.

Google also has shared spreadsheets, documents and storage that small business owners can use for free called Google Apps. You can even change things in your documents at the same time! You will need a geek friend to set these up for you as it can be a bit complicated.  Most mobile IT support companies will be able to help you get started.

They will also be able to help you get an email domain.  Much more professional to be joe@joesplumbers.com that joetheplumber@myisp.net.

We expect that these announcements will spark more innovation from Google and Microsoft.  It’s exciting to see such useful technology being made accessible to small business owners.