The Future As Seen By Me In 2010

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Well looky here, things one has scanned in eh. (ignore the photo, that's some guy that made some accounting software, not sure what became of him ;) MIKE RIVERSDALE is fuming. The expensive headphones he bought in Sydney three weeks ago have just died. His first reaction is not to randomly spill expletives into his coffee, but to use his iPhone to vent his frustration to his Twitter con- tacts, under the moniker Miramar Mike. "I will also put, 'What should I do?' It's a conversation. I'm reaching out to the people following me." The council predicts hand-held digital devices such as smartphones will rule the world in 2040. They already rule the life of Mr Riversdale, whose company WaveAdept helps businesses adapt - their computing sys- tems to allow staff to work from anywhere - and with anyone. In order of fre- equency, he uses his iPhone to tweet (1136 followers; 8363 tweets since joining), e-mail, make phone calls and use online services, such as checki
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Software and technology - just too damn hard to use

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Following on from an excellent article by Stu over at fanboygeeks titled Prince Charles and those pesky DVDs I add this wee nugget from the Harvard Business School article Feature Bloat: The Product Manager's Dilemma:
As anyone who has bought a cell phone over the last couple of years can tell you, manufacturers love to cram as many capabilities into a product as possible—cell phones are now also cameras, music players, and game platforms. Why the rush toward "feature bloat"? Because consumers perceive value in this Swiss-Army-Knife approach and will pay for the added utility. The problem comes when the buyer actually starts to use the product. The increased complexity makes for a very unhappy consumer, who will look to return the product or look for another vendor in the future.

Interesting eh! We want it* to do oodles of things and will even gravitate to the one that has it all - and then we hate our lives because it's too cluttered and isn't usable.

And that's the key - it's not about the number features, it's about usability. If a product has 10 usable features it's gonna make my life sweet. If, however, a product has 3 unusable features I am hating the world and ranting against the manufacturer.

Microsoft Word has a gazillion features and I find about 20 of them useful/usable (there is a difference). Google Docs has much less than a gazillion and I find about 20 of them useful/usable. In essence they do the same for me but one feels "lighter" than the other.
However, if I was going to pay $$$s for them I would probably lean towards Microsoft Word ... who knows when I might need to use feature 'x' and I certainly don't want to have to spend time/money downloading it, I want it when I want it.

In the world of $0 cost online software that anticipated risk no longer exists and I then make a more reasoned choice of, "What do I want now?" as it's got no cost to discover 'feature x'. Only if you discount time as a cost and that's probably where most people differ to myself - I am adept at using the Web for finding 'feature x' whereas the majority just can't be arsed and want it at their fingertips (even through they don't really).

Strange greedy world we contribute to, isn't it?

* it = software, cars, mobile phones, DVDs, TV ... almost anything with a central processor unit ("chip") in it

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The Future As Seen By Me In 2010

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