Seamless Connectivity Drives Value for Consumers and Businesses

Posted on June 27, 2008

All this week, at the Connections Digital Living conference we’ve heard about how seamless connectivity is de rigeur for making digital living in the home and on the go a reality. Phil McKinney from HP projected that this would be ubiquitous by 2010 – and I suggested that Devicescape had a way to get us there. The attached connections-digital-living-devicescape presentation, given on stage at the conference yesterday by Simon Wynn, VP Products at Devicescape, goes into more details of our role in making access seamless – and driving value for you.

Devicescape and Making Digital Living Easy

Posted on June 26, 2008

Devicescape is showcasing our technologies this week at the Connections Digital Living Conference in Santa Clara, CA. This is a great location for us, since nearly ever session, at some point, discusses how essential “seamless connectivity” is to growing the digital living business – and hey – this is what we do. Yesterday, we announced our essential role in enabling seamless connectivity and how we are constantly advancing our technology to improve ease of use and access for consumers. Access to services on the internet is the driving force behind device uptake – but what is holding growth of this industry back is that access is still too hard. In the home, people need one touch set up. In the office, secure and fast connections. On the go – access everywhere. In essence, people want magic in the background – everywhere they go for everything they do. That’s a tall order – but we’re working on it. And with our partners and all the big brains like these with us here at this conference, we’ll be getting there soon.

Welcome to your Digital Life

Posted on June 25, 2008

Are you connected? Do you stay connected to the internet, your work, family and friends via your laptop, mobile phone or iPod touch? Do you watch digital TV? I bet you do – and about 1000 people in Santa Clara today bet you partake of this digital life and will do more of the same in the very near future. In addition, analysts and industry pundits here at the Connections Digital Living Conference predict that you will be joined in your digital life by many, many more people. While predictions are flying and new technologies being celebrated and bandied about –one thing from day one of this show sticks with me: Phil McKinney, VP and CTO of the Personal Systems Group at HP predicts that by the year 2010 consumer and business alike will expect and demand seamless access from all their devices. Phil talked for a while about how consumers will demand the “perception” of always-on connectivity. Imagine if you really could get connected to the internet as easy as dialing your cell phone. Imagine that information and data was able to easily stream back and forth between you and whatever internet site held the key to your desire…

Road Warrior Pain and Devicescape One

Posted on June 19, 2008

One of the things that always frustrates me when I travel is the high cost of Internet access, especially at hotels. Oddly enough, it seems to be the premium hotels that charge extra for access, while the lower end chains give it away for free. I checked into a hotel near Heathrow Airport in London a few weeks ago and noticed that they had an “Executive Upgrade” which included Wi-Fi access and breakfast for $20. When I asked about the costs for Wi-Fi alone they told me it was $30. I guess the thinking there was that executives would be so dumb they’d need big help figuring out which one to choose! Anyway, I went with the upgrade, but amazingly they warned me that I likely wouldn’t be able to actually access Wi-Fi from my room but I could certainly use it in the lobby. Now that’s great service. At least breakfast was ok. It’s long been a bone of contention for many road warriors to pay high access fees when traveling. The all you can eat cellular data and Wi-Fi plans we have enjoyed at home suddenly rack up enormous roaming fees, and we encounter high price “session islands”…

Users Want Mobile Apps and Drive Innovations

Posted on June 12, 2008

Word has it that the iPhone is encouraging use of mobile applications. This phone boasts a 90% customer satisfaction rate (according to Apple) and reports rates of mobile browsing use at a whopping 98%! Add to this that 80% of owners report using 10 or more features – and you surely have a device that is driving experimentation and innovative use. But these impressive stats don’t include the number of people who are really experimenting and being innovative with their iPhones. At Monday June 6th’s iPhone Developer Conference, Steve Jobs proudly proclaimed that Apple has sold nearly 6 million iPhones in the nearly one year since it’s launch. Estimates are that up to 10% of iPhone owners have “jail broken” their iPhones to add third party applications. If true, that’s about 600,000 people who are really experimenting with their phones and pushing new boundaries. Some claim this number is over one million. We’ve been recipients of the value this creates in the market – as have you. The value to us is fairly direct. Our Devicescape Connect solution for the iPhone has been downloaded more than 325,000 times – meaning that half of all iPhone “innovators” have found our app…