Author: Carolina Milanesi

The digital divide is a term that has been used for years to refer to the gap between demographics or areas that have access to modern information and communications technologies and those that do not or only have limited access. Going back to before the late 20^th century, digital divide referred to those who had a phone, and I mean a landline phone, and those who did not. As we moved closer to 2000, the term started to separate those with internet access and those without it.

Let’s look at some numbers.

According to a 2016 Pew Research Center survey. Roughly three-in-ten adults with household incomes below $30,000 a year don’t own a smartphone. Nearly half don’t have home broadband or a computer. And the majority of lower-income Americans are not tablet owners. By comparison, many of these devices are nearly ubiquitous among adults from households earning $100,000 or more a year.

Higher-income Americans are also more likely to have multiple devices that enable them to go online. Two-thirds of adults living in high-earning households have home broadband, a smartphone, a desktop or laptop anda a tablet, compared with 17% of those living in low-income households.

For many lower-income Americans, smartphones are the primary access to the internet. In 2016, one-fifth of adults living in households earning less than $30,000 a year were “smartphone-only” internet. This represents an increase from 12% in 2013. So while not always the ideal tool, smartphones have helped close the connectivity gap bringing the internet to households without broadband.

Location, as well as income, influence connectivity, and technology availability. Rural adults are less likely to have multiple devices to connect to the internet. About 20% of adults who live in rural communities report that they own a desktop or a laptop, a smartphone, a home broadband connection and a tablet compared to 40% of urban adults and 42% of suburban adults. Rural residents also go online less frequently than their urban and suburban counterparts. Roughly 58% of Americans in rural communities say they use the internet on at least a daily basis, compared with more than 80% of those in urban and 76% in suburban areas.

While the numbers have improved there is still work to do in the US, before we look at connecting the unconnected in emerging markets.

The Pace of Tech Adoption will maintain the Divide

Smartphones have been a great contributor to narrowing the digital divide thanks to initial subsidies which helped lower the total cost of ownership of being connected.  The next phase of computing is, however, expanding to devices that deliver experiences and services unlikely to be seen as a “necessity” and therefore harder to justify financially. Virtual Reality headsets and smart speakers come to mind. Technologies that are not a necessity at an individual level but that can make a considerable difference in education. There is a digital divide today in American schools between public and private and between affluent and non-affluent school districts. Never before, have we heard so much talk about STEM in schools but how will these programs develop? Will kids in more well-off schools be experiencing new ways to learn history by being transported into ancient Rome through VR while children attending less affluent schools will read about it on their Chromebooks or iPads? Will the kids in less well off schools learn to code while those in affluent schools are taught skills that machines cannot replace: art, music, critical thinking…

Other life changing technologies like driverless cars are likely to be dependent on location as well as income. If rolling out broadband to rural areas has taken a long time and it is still ongoing, think of what it will take to roll out the infrastructure needed for fully electric cars. Or think about the intelligence and data needed to have autonomous cars safely operate outside connected cities. Will the lack of electric cars make some areas of the country more polluted than others? Will the lack of self-driving cars and their promise to make our roads safer mean that car fatalities will impact certain social demographics?

Services Rather than Devices will be the Real Measure of the Digital Divide

What I am truly concerned about when it comes to the future of the digital divide is the range of services that are enabled by this new class of devices that might leave many people behind. Everything slowly but steadily is going digital from information to payments, entertainment, shopping and the list goes on and on. What kind of services will consumers not be exposed to either because they cannot afford the devices that will enable such experiences or because they live in an area that is not considered a prime target?

Same day delivery services, ride share services, meals delivery services, a fleet of driverless cars for rental…all these services will have a reach limited by the adoption they could generate making affluent urban areas the first and primary focus. Already today it is easy to see a correlation between income, technology, and services, which I expect will get tighter in the future. The potential to foster stronger social inequality than what we see today is obvious.

Companies such as Google and Facebook have spearheaded initiatives in markets such as India to connect the unconnected. They see America as being saturated not from a connectivity perspective but from an opportunity one. Unconnected or under-connected Americans might not be as valuable to these organizations, but they cannot be left behind as we all get excited by new shiny things and tech giants get excited at new revenue opportunity. What is at risk is too big to ignore: equal opportunity for all.

A few months ago the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded patent 9,658,707 to Apple. The title of the patent is: “Devices and methods for manipulating user interfaces with a stylus” and aside from describing using a stylus with portable communications devices such as iPhone and iPad it hints at the ability to do so in a wide range of apps. The words iPhone and phone feature several times in the patent. Of course, we all know too well, that not everything covered by a patent actually makes it to market so maybe we should not get too excited…yet.

Back in September, during an interview with NDTV, in response to a question about launching the Apple Pencil Tim Cook said:

“Well we launched a pencil not a stylus, first of all, and there’s a big difference and the things that people are doing with this pencil, I think that Steve would have loved. He loved to help people create. And if you’ve ever seen what can be created with that pencil on an iPad or an iPhone, it’s really unbelievable.”

Cook could have simply misspoken and whether Apple is or isn’t planning to bring Pencil to the iPhone is for anyone to guess, but I want to make an argument that it really should be considered.

Styli are no Longer a UI Crutch

Steve Jobs once said “If you see a stylus, they blew it”. And he was right. When he made that statement, styli were a way to navigate a user interface (UI) that was not ready for a touch-first experience. Even the strongest Windows supporter will admit that Windows 8 was a poor attempt at adapting a PC Keyboard+Mouse UI to a touch-first UI. The styli that Surface and many other models added was a crutch to help users navigate through that UI, help them bridge from keyboard and mouse to touch.

Things have come a long way since then. Not all vendors are seeing the role of the pen in the same way but all seem to agree that there is a role to play in the modern workflow of content creation.

In the same interview quoted above, Cook was quick to point out how Apple added a Pencil not a Pen to the iPad. While I would argue that distinction is all about semantics, I can concede to Cook that Apple’s focus was more on what Pencil could do for artists than a regular user. At least at first, Pencil was really aimed at artists as a tool to drawn, sketch, paint. With iOS 11 more use cases have been added for less art-inclined users . For instance, you can now use Apple Pencil to mark up webpages, screenshots, email, and more. You can also, now, tap Apple Pencil on the lock screen to instantly access the Notes app.

Inking on Windows 10 has clearly shown how a pen can complement nicely a keyboard and not just be a welcomed addition for artists. As with the overall tablet philosophy, Microsoft and Apple reached a very similar result coming from two very different starting points. Many of the features that Apple Pencil will support with iOS 11 have been available on Windows 10 and the Surface Pen for a while. Only more recently with the addition of Surface Studio to the Surface portfolio, Microsoft has shown a more artistic use of Surface Pen.

Bottom line, no matter what path they took, both Microsoft and Apple believe there is a role for a pen/pencil.

Samsung’s Note: from Niche to Mainstream

Styli have not just been relegated to tablets. Over the years phones such as the Palm Treo, the Sony Ericsson P910 and of course the Samsung Note family all had a stylus.

When the first Samsung Note hit the market back in 2011, Samsung might have been more concerned with differentiating from the competition than thinking about how a pen could empower users to do more, especially with the larger screen real-estate their brand new device was offering. While that first experience left a lot to be desired, Samsung’s focus on S Pen and the software support that comes with it grew making the overall experience much more enjoyable. I expect the Note 8 to be announced later this morning to show even more improvement when it comes to app support for S Pen.

The wider availability of Windows 10-based devices with stylus support and Apple Pencil on iPad have certainly broadened the appeal for styli. I expect Samsung to benefit from this wider acceptance of a pen as a real tool to improve productivity. When productivity can mean anything from drawing, to sketching a message, to enhancing a photo or quickly jot down some notes without having to open the phone first.

Keyboard, Pen, Voice…it is all about the Best Tool for the Job

Voice is the hot feature for any device right now. Yet, voice cannot be the panacea for all the interactions we have with our devices. No one interaction method can be. In fact, voice came about because touch was not seen as the only way to interact with devices either. Technically, replicating a voice interaction between humans is not an easy task when you are mixing humans and devices. Right now it also feels like humans need to learn a new language to master such interactions. Yet, voice remains one of the most intuitive UIs.

When you think about it though, using a pen or a pencil is almost as intuitive as using voice for many people. Our spelling and neat handwriting skills might have deteriorated thanks to smartphones, predictive typing and emojis but we still know how to do it. So much so, I still see many people going to meetings with a good old paper notebook and a pen. Some people do it because they do not want a device like a PC or a tablet to get in the way, others do it because writing helps them make sense of the information and better retain it.

Whatever the reason, it is obvious that one could make an argument for being able to capture a thought or a piece of information with the device that is always in your pocket. This is why adding Pencil support for iPhone makes a lot of sense to me. But of course it cannot be the Pencil that we know today as carrying that with an iPhone does not make a lot of sense given its size. Something to scale that would fit in a case rather then the actual iPhone would be much more convenient and drive more regular use.

So, what would Steve Jobs say if Apple did actually do an iPhone Pencil? Probably that creating something to enhance your user experience is very different from creating something to help you cope with it!

Last week I was in Korea to experience a new direct-lit LED Cinema Screen recently launched at a Lotte Cinema in Seoul. While I was there I had the chance to sit down with the President of Samsung Electronics Mobile Communications,  D.J. Koh, and CMO Younghee Lee to talk broadly about Samsung’s future. The focus was on what they learned from the Galaxy Note7 (Note7) issues and how committed they are in regaining the trust of the millions of Samsung users out there.

What Happened Since the Galaxy Note7 Recall

Back in January, Samsung held a press conference in Korea detailing what caused the Note7 incidents as well as what steps Samsung was taking in making sure there would be no risks for the future.  During the press conference, Mr. Koh and executives from UL, Exponent and TUV Rheinland, who lead an independent investigation into various aspects of the Note7 incidents explained that in both cases the short circuit was caused by a damage to the separator that keeps the positive and negative electrodes from meeting with the jellyroll. In the case of battery A, the tip of the negative electrode was incorrectly located in the curve of the device. In the case of battery B, the high-welding burrs 0n the positive electrode resulted in the penetration of the insulation tape causing direct contact of the positive tab with the negative electrode.

Since then, Samsung implemented multi-layer Safety Measures that improved safety standards for the materials in battery design, added brackets around battery protection and improved algorithms that regulate battery charging.

Samsung also collaborated with the MIT Technology Review on a white paper that was published last week. The report shared more insights into the new 8-Point Battery Safety Check Samsung started implementing with the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

There is no doubt that Samsung went far and beyond the call of duty with this new process, with a goal of sharing its finding with the broader industry. While initial communication around the recall could be faulted, the rigor of the investigation and the follow-up steps taken cannot. Samsung has tried to be very transparent about how it can work to avoid another incident and also how to be better prepared in case something might happen again. Catching the issue at production is almost as important as avoiding the issue in the first place.

Samsung Smartphone Owners are Ready for the Note8

No matter what Samsung says and does though, at the end of the day, what really matters is neither the reports reassuring everything is under control nor the press articles still referring to the Note7 explosions. What will make a difference to Samsung Galaxy Note8 sales rests in the confidence consumers still have in the brand.

This week, SurveyMonkey Audience released the results of a study they conducted among 1000 US consumers to gather their interest in the upcoming smartphone as well as their view of the Samsung brand.

I will focus my analysis on Samsung current owners vs. overall smartphones owners because the Note family has not been a mainstream device. Its large screen size and pen input were not for everyone and certainly not a device than in the past generated a lot of churn from iPhone.

So, how do current Samsung owners feel about the brand?

Brand loyalty remains strong, as current owners are either extremely likely (47%) or very likely (34%) to consider Samsung when it is time to replace their current device.

Awareness of the upcoming Note8 release is good across all smartphone users interviewed with only 38% saying they have not heard about it. As you would expect, awareness among Samsung current owners is much higher with 25% saying they like to keep up with the latest news relating to Samsung devices and another 46% saying they heard about the Note8 but they don’t know much about it.

When it comes to the most interesting features rumored to be coming with the new model, 70% of Samsung current owners are most interested in the phone being waterproof, 35% in the dual camera and another 35% in the Fingerprint scanner.

For current Samsung owners, the top three most appealing reasons they would consider a Note8 are Features (52%), Reliability (50%), and Large Screen Size (38%). These data points underline that the Note as a device family has been seen by Samsung users as the flagship product. The Note7, in particular, with its strong feature set really helped to broaden the appeal to a wider audience outside of the large screen lovers. Reliability, as the second most wanted feature, does not seem to signal much concern that what happened with the Note7 might repeat with its successor.

If this were not enough of an indicator, when current Samsung smartphone owners were asked if they would consider buying a Note8 in the aftermath of last year’s recall, 45% said yes and 37% says maybe leaving only 18% saying no. Among the rejecters, the strongest reasons for lack of consideration is the high cost (31%) while the issues with the Note7 impact intention for another 28%.

Interestingly, most concerns seem to vanish when cost is not an issue. When current Samsung smartphone owners who said they would not consider buying the Note8 were asked if they would use a Note8 if it were free, 66% said they would and another 27% said maybe while only 7% said they would not.

Note Owners are Samsung’s Fiercest Fans

When you look at some of the data I just shared, but narrow it down to Note7 owners, the loyalty to the Samsung brand and the passion for the product comes across very strongly. Although the base size in the sample is more limited compared to the other cohorts, I think this data gives a good indication of how this segment behaves.

Note7 owners still think very highly of Samsung with 37% saying they find the brand extremely reliable and another 43% saying it is very reliable. When it comes to their next phone 43% are extremely likely to consider a Samsung device and another 30% are very likely.

It will come as no surprise to see that only 20% of the current Note7 owners have not heard about the Note8. What is very interesting is to see that 63% of Note7 owners would consider buying a Note8 and another 24 would maybe consider it.

The Note7 recall did, however, shake its owners’ loyalty somewhat, as you would expect with all the publicity the incidents drew. When it comes to the three most appealing reasons for considering a Note8, features comes first at 52% and a better camera comes second at 59% followed by a large screen size at 43%. Reliability, that came second among overall Samsung owners, drops to fourth place at 33% among Note7 owners. This to me shows a somewhat coy stand on the Note brand but one that does not reflect on the overall brand and certainly not on the overall benefits users see with this device.

Ultimately sales will tell if Samsung is really over the Note7 incident but the signs leading up to the launch and the performance of the Galaxy S8 thus far seem to indicate that it is the case.

This week, Apple debuted a new ad centered around Siri and starring actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. In “The Rock x Siri Dominate the Day,” Johnson uses Siri, to take on even more in his busy schedule – from reviewing his life goals to helping him navigate the globe to pursue his many interests, to taking selfies in outer space. The ad is fun and it might help some iOS users try new things with Siri, although I am pretty sure nobody will try a selfie from outer space! Overall though, the ad is an attempt to make Siri sexy as Apple prepares to bring HomePod to market later in the year.

In my short but very exciting Twitter exchange with “The Rock”, he suggested I should watch the ad before jumping into my column for this week.

Hah just wait til we launch the commercial tomorrow then jump in the column 🙌🏾

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) July 24, 2017

Watching the ad made me reflect, once again, on how much more work there is to be done both from the technology side and on the users’ acceptance side. I started thinking about what I would be looking for if I were interviewing to hire the perfect digital assistant.

Job Description

I am a busy working mom looking for a full-time digital assistant who could help me breeze through my day as if I were in total control, having a world of fun with my family yet not missing a beat at work. Most of all, I need a digital assistant that gets a lot done for me while making me feel I am doing it all on my own!

This job is not for the fainthearted! It’s a 24/7 position where you should not expect any please and thank yous. Some cross-room shouting might occur and you will be entitled to zero days off!

I have:

• A tech related job that has me use several devices running on different operating systems. In an ideal world, once I pick my assistant, it would be easier for her/him if all my devices and services were linked to a single ecosystem. Unfortunately, this is not a likely reality, as technology will be more and more pervasive reaching into devices that in the past have not been connected making it difficult if not impossible to just stick with one ecosystem. Job requirements aside, I believe in being able to pick the best in class experience across what is available, which at times means to mix and match devices and ecosystems. Let’s be honest, it is also quite unlikely that one single assistant will be able to address all my needs! So, I expect whoever I employ for the main job to play nice with any other assistant I might also interact with. Over time, I am open, however, to just rely on you for all my needs if the experience you deliver were to be notably superior.
• A busy and unpredictable schedule. My day to day schedule is quite busy and unpredictable, yet tends to be well documented in my calendar. I travel a lot for work which means I will need your help at different times and in different locations. While on the road, I will still need to be able to be in touch with what is going on at home and I might need you to lend your services to my family members. Likely locations where you will be expected to work: home, office, car, coffee shops, planes, and hotels. How I interact with you will vary depending on location and time. As voice might not be the most efficient and most private way to communicate at all times, I expect you to dynamically adapt your communication method to best fit the occasion.
• A need to be always on. As I come to rely on you, I am afraid you will not be able to have any time off. I would also expect you to respond to any member of my family knowing they are not me and therefore they do not have access to all my work information and they have a different set of needs and preferences. As far as you are concerned, they are as important as I am. I will help you figure out who has access to what but when in doubt please ask. Also, please be considerate of their digital assistants.

You have:

• High confidence and accuracy. Don’t doubt yourself and don’t make excuses. If you are not sure about the instructions I have given you make some suggestions to the best of your ability. There is nothing I hate more than hearing: “Sorry I cannot help with that yet!” If you want me to trust you, accuracy is paramount. I will be an open book to you, so you will have plenty of information to get it right. If I ask you to do something a couple of times and you get it wrong, I will not ask you again. Repeat that a few times and I will have to let you go for good. Your profession is a trendy one and there are plenty of digital assistants out there waiting to be hired!
• Good conversation skills. Let’s be clear, I am not your old boss. So whatever you might be used to, you will have to adapt to me. I do not want to learn a new set of commands for you, I also do not expect to repeat myself every time I talk to you. Nor do I want to give you information that you should already be aware of from previous interactions or data you have access to. Read between the lines!
• Eagerness to learn and grow. Never stop learning and using what you know to do your job the best you can. I am more than happy to invest time in teaching you about me. I understand this is the only way to start on the right foot. But please don’t waste my time! You are supposed to be a smart assistant, so be smart! Don’t just store information, use it, connect the dots.
• A flexible and proactive nature. Being proactive is the key to a reciprocally beneficial collaboration. Use what you know about me, my schedule, my preferences, my likes and dislikes to be always two steps ahead of me so you can save me time, make me efficient and productive for the things I must do so I have time for the things I want to do.
• Consistency and reliability. If I teach you something please remember that and use it consistently across devices. I hired you to save me time not to create more work for me. I expect you to show up every time I need you. If you deliver on the promise of a digital assistant I will become so dependent on you that you will have a job for life.

You might also have:

• A sense of humor and a personality. While we do not have to be best friends and we can keep our relationship solely professional, I strongly believe that a sense of humor would help us both get through the day. I also believe that life without sarcasm is not worth living, so I am happy to receive as much as I dish out!

If interested, please apply below and we can discuss compensation and benefits!

If you insist on looking at iOS 11+iPad Pro=PC you might miss the opportunity for this combo to live up to its full potential. I know for many PCs and Macs are synonymous of work and productivity, therefore my suggestion to start looking at the iPad Pro differently is missed on them. Yet, I promise you, there is a difference between wanting to replicate what you have been doing on a PC and wanting to understand if the iPad Pro can fit your workflow or even if it could help your workflow change to better fit your needs.

I have been using a 9.7” iPad Pro as my main “out of office” device since its launch. I do everything I do on my Mac or PC and some things are easier and some things are a little more painful but by and large, it serves me well.

I upgraded to a 10.5” iPad a couple of weeks ago and it has been business as usual. I enjoy the extra screen real estate and I struggled a little to get adjusted to the larger keyboard as my fingers had a lot of muscle memory in them that was generating typos. I did not use Pencil more despite the fact that, thanks to the new sleeve I was not forgetting it at home as often as I used to.

After 24 hours with iOS 11 and iPad Pro, it became apparent to me that the range of things I could do grew and so did the depth I could reach. These are not necessarily tasks I was performing on my Mac or PC and when they are, they are implemented in a slightly different way as the premise on iPad is touch first.

Let’s take a Step Back

Before I moved to the iPad Pro I had to embrace the cloud. This step was crucial in empowering me to use the best device for the job at any given time. When I travel, mobility trumps everything else. Going through a little pain that a smaller screen and keyboard imply is well worth the advantage of cellular connectivity, instant on, all-day battery and the ability to dump all in one purse.

What does a normal day at the office entail for me? Well usually I engage in most of the following: reading articles, reports, papers and books, writing, social media interactions, listening and recording podcasts, email, messaging, data analysis and creating or reviewing presentations.

I could perform all of those tasks on an iPad Pro as well as on a MacBook and a PC. What differed is which task was best executed on each device. Anything touch first was better on my iPad Pro or on my Surface Pro as was anything that supported pencil or inking. The MacBook Pro and Surface were slightly better with Office apps but mainly because of the larger screen and the better keyboard. The iPad Pro still offered a better balance of work and play thanks to the larger ecosystem and better apps and partly because Surface is held back by a Windows 10 jargon that makes it walk and talk too much like a PC.

iOS 11 Brings Richness to the iPad Pro

This is not a review of iOS 11 so I will not list all that is new with it but I will point to the features and capabilities that iOS 11 offers that struck me as changing the way I work.

Files
Adds freedom to my cloud-first workflow allowing me to live in a multi-cloud provider environment which was possible before but not without any pain.

The New Dock, Slide Over, and Split View
Make for a faster, richer multitasking environment that you appreciate when you always must have your eye on social media or you are creating charts or sieving through data when writing a report.

Drag and Drop
This is possibly the best example of a feature that despite sharing the same name on the Mac is made zillion times better by touch. It turns something that is cumbersome to do with the mouse in something super intuitive.

Instant Markup, Instant Notes, Scan and Sign
Despite still preferring the Surface Pen I finally see myself being able to integrate Pencil in my workflow. I read many reports and I used to print them out and annotate them, highlight them and then take pictures of them so that I would not file them somewhere safe and never see them again. All those steps are now condensed for a much more efficient and equally productive experience. In this case, it is not about being able to do something I was doing on my Mac. It is, instead, the ability to fully digitize a workflow. It also allows Apple to catch up with inking on Surface – and I specify Surface as I have not found another Windows 10 2in1 that offers the same richness of experience.

QuickType Keyboard
I am still not a fan of the physical iPad Pro keyboard. I do not like the texture of the material and the lack of backlight limits the usefulness on planes and in bed, sadly two places where I often work! Because of that, my default has always been the digital keyboard and the new update makes it a breeze to touch type on iPad Pro both for speed and accuracy.

Screen Capture and Screen Record
We have already started to experiment with the video record function to share an interesting chart with some live commentary. This is something we could have done in the past but required specialized apps and a pretty convoluted process. Screen Capture coupled with Instant Markup also offers a new way to interact with content that Samsung Galaxy Note users have already been addicted to.

All new features that will make my work on iPad not just more efficient but more pleasant because it better fits me. I am sure this will result in more time spent on iPad when I am in the office not just when I am on the go.

The Best Tool for the Job

If you think about other technologies innovations there is always a degree of compromise at least for a given period. Think about the clarity of a voice call on a fixed phone vs. a DECT phone and then a cellular one. We were happy to sacrifice quality of sound for the freedom to walk around the home first and always have a phone with us later on. The same can be said about fixed broadband vs. mobile broadband.

I feel though that with computing we are getting to the point of not having to compromise as long as we do not let habits hold us back and we feel empowered to reinvent our workflows. Millennials and Gen Z have the advantage of not suffering from the limitations muscle memory imposes, but there is hope for us old dogs too.

Worrying about installed base has destroyed companies such as Nokia and Blackberry and has held back Microsoft. Apple has had the advantage to have a very loyal and forgiving installed base of users who gave them the benefit of the doubt when they started to experiment with computing. Microsoft has stepped up and with Surface has been able to deliver a richer experience that comes from a deeper integration of software, hardware, and apps. Yet, while the goal of these two giants seems to be very much aligned, I cannot help but wonder if Microsoft decision of going all in with Windows 10 will always hold them back somewhat vs. an Apple that has chosen a two-pronged approach to computing.

For me Surface Pro today is the best productivity device on the market but it’s being held back to be a true creativity device by Windows 10. As a user who wants to both be creative and be productive iPad Pro is the choice for me today. I am, however, keeping my eyes on Windows 10 S as Microsoft’s opportunity to create a two-pronged strategy that frees them of the legacy ball and chain.

There was a lot unveiled during the Apple WWDC keynote last week and, as to be expected, some of the hotter and bigger products stole the limelight and relegated others to be simply an extra in the over two-hour-long production. watchOS 4 might not have seemed significant, especially to those who have been so eagerly calling Apple Watch a failure, but I saw it as one of the best examples of how Apple sees the future.

The wearable market remains a challenging market for most vendors. According to IDC, sales in the first quarter of 2017 saw Apple and Xiaomi sharing the number one position with volumes of 3.6 million units. While volumes are the same, it is when you look at average selling price (ASP) for these two brands that the real issue with the wearable markets surfaces. Apple controls the high-end of the market and Xiaomi the lower end. In between, Fitbit is losing ground and failing to move ASP up.

Delivering a clear value continues to be key in convincing consumers that wearables have a role to play and for now that value for mainstream consumers remain health and fitness.

There is More Value in a Coach than a Tracker

Since Apple Watch 2, Apple has been focusing on fitness and the release of watchOS 4 builds on it by adding to the Workout app support for the highly popular High-Intensity Interval Training, an autoset for pool swim workouts and the ability to switch and combine multiple workout types.

Apple is also attempting to turn Apple Watch into more of an active coach than a simple tracker. This might seem like a subtle differentiation, but if implemented right it could actually drive engagement and loyalty. Tracking, while clearly useful, has more a passive role and one that some users might think could be taken on by other devices. Turning Apple Watch more into a coach through daily inspiration, evening push and monthly challenges deepens the relationship a user has with the device. Delivering suggestions on how to close the circles, praising the goals achieved thus far and pushing to achieve more can make users feel that Apple Watch is more an active driver of their success which in turns increases the value they see in it.

The new GymKit which allows gym equipment to sync with Apple Watch might take a while to materialize given the required updated hardware roll out by key brands such as LifeFitness, TechnoGym StairMaster, etc. but it makes sure Apple is not losing sight of critical data. Today, some users might just rely on the gym equipment rather than their Apple Watch due to the duplication of functionalities which leaves Apple Watch missing out on valuable data to which Apple and other apps could otherwise have access to. GymKit puts Apple Watch right at the center of our fitness regime. Apple Watch talking to gym equipment via NFC also makes me believe that more devices will come in the future. Think about having your gym membership card or your hotel room card on your watch rather than having to carry a physical card.

Reinforcing the Strong Pairing of Apple Watch + AirPods

I talked about the magic that Apple Watch + AirPods can deliver to users before and I remain a believer. In a similar way to HomePod, music on the Apple Watch is the easiest way to appreciate Siri as well as the combo with AirPods. With watchOS 4, Apple is making it simpler to get to the music you want for your workout thanks to a new multi-playlist support and automatic import.

Apple also introduced the new Siri face that makes Apple Watch much more context-aware by delivering information that is relevant to you at a specific moment in time. While Apple did not talk about it, one could see how that Siri Watch face could integrate very well with voice when you are wearing AirPods. Siri could, for instance, tell you that you need to leave for your meeting while showing you the calendar appointment on Apple Watch.

So, as Apple Watch becomes more like a coach, Siri becomes more a visible but discreet assistant that is being liberated from the iPhone. I think this is a very powerful paradigm and before nay-sayers jump to point out that Apple Watch penetration is limited, I underline that Apple Watch users are highly engaged in the Apple ecosystem and represent Siri’s best opportunity. Similar to CarPlay, Apple Watch also has a captivated audience not just for Siri’s brains but also for voice-first. With Apple Watch, voice interaction is the most natural form of interaction, especially when wearing AirPods. So much so that, with watchOS 4, SiriKit adds support for apps that are used to take notes, so that now you can use Siri on Apple Watch to make changes in any note-taking app.

Smarter Watch, Smarter Apps

Some Apple Watch critics have used the news that circulated last month that Google, Amazon, and eBay were killing support of their Apple Watch apps as evidence that Apple Watch failed. The reality is, however, as I explained numerous times, that Apple Watch cannot be seen as an iPhone on your wrist and therefore its success will not be driven nor defined by the same enablers.

Don’t get me wrong, there is certainly a place for apps to play, but context is going to be much more important than it has been so far on the iPhone or the iPad. This is why I believe Apple’s latest watchOS will help in making apps not just faster and smoother to run but much more relevant for users.

First, there will be a single process that runs the app’s UI elements and code. This helps with speed and responsiveness and means developers do not need to change their code. Access to Core Bluetooth will allow apps to bypass the iPhone and connect directly to Apple Watch so that data is transmitted faster between Apple Watch and an accessory for instance. Apple also increased the number of app categories that can run in background mode like for example, navigation apps.

While it will be up to developers to think differently when it comes to delivering apps for Apple Watch, I believe Apple has given them a much easier tool set to succeed.

Apple Watch and its Role in Ambient Computing

HomePod was the sexy hot product that everybody paid attention to and ambient computing is the buzzword of choice at the moment. Both extremely relevant in how one should think about home computing and even office computing, to be honest. It is easy for me to see the role that Apple Watch can play in helping me navigate my ambient computing network in a personal and highly relevant way. It is early days, but Apple has laid the foundation!

On Monday, the most awaited and rumored device of Apple’s developer conference was finally announced as the last one thing of an over two-hour long keynote: HomePod.

A little later in the day, in a room that is probably as large as my family room at home, I had the opportunity to listen to HomePod and compare its performance to an Amazon Echo and a Sonos Play 3. I listened to five songs across the three devices: Sia’s “The Greatest,” “Sunrise” by Norah Jones, “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder, “DNA” by Kendrick Lamar and a live performance of The Eagles’ “Hotel California.” The sound coming from HomePod was crisper and the vocals clearer than the Sonos. The comparison with Echo was the harsher of the two. No matter where I stood in the room, the music sounded great. What I did not get to do was talk to Siri! Even the demo was run from an iPad which would imply there is Bluetooth support with HomePod.

The Advantage of Going Music First

On Stage, Phil Schiller said the HomePod will do to home music what iPod did to music overall. The iPod, of course, did a lot to music from a business model perspective but I do not think this is what Schiller was getting at. I believe the ‘reinventing home music’ comment is actually closer to what AirPods have done for wireless headsets. They created a more magical experience from pairing your phone, all the way to listening to music. HomePod delivers good quality sound without the added complexity of having to figure out where to position multiple speakers in a room to achieve that sound. The fact that HomePod understands where it is positioned in the room and whether or not it is paired with another HomePod so that the way the music is played changes dynamically takes all the burden away from the user.

By focusing on music first, Apple straight away opens up the addressable market to a much broader segment than what a smart speaker would do. There are more people our there interested in buying or replacing their speakers that care about good sound quality than there are wanting a smart speaker that delivers ok sound.

While early tech adopters might find it easy to invest in a speaker to get access to an assistant the price that they are willing to pay for it has been set by Amazon and Google and so far it has not gone past $249. Beyond early adopters justifying the investment gets a little more tricky if the core value is put on the assistant. Nobody would question quality sound, however. And even if the assistant turns out not to be that key for you, you would not be regretting the purchase. That is a smart move when you think that Apple not only knows music but knows hardware.

Siri as a Specialist to Build Trust

During the keynote, Apple was much more intentional with how it described Siri beyond voice. As the different presenters talked about Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Siri clearly emerged as a brain, not just a voice.

When it comes to HomePod, Siri becomes a musicologist that will be able to understand my music taste and preferences and deliver the perfect playlist just when I ask “Siri play some music I like.” Determine what music to play in relation to taste, possibly mood and time of the day does not seem particularly difficult which would give Siri a high chance to get it right. This accuracy is going to build confidence in the user who will likely increase usage and trust Siri for other things over time.

Opening too much too soon when it comes to APIs, however, could spoil that experience and Apple is not willing to take that risks. The number of things you can do with an intelligent speaker or any device that is linked to a digital assistant is not, in my opinion, what truly matters.

Alexa has over 11 thousand skills but how many are regularly used in a way that makes an impact on the user life. In a way, skills are the new apps. The number game works for a while but what it will boil down to is what skills hook me on the device. Everybody is going to be a little different. For me, my Alexa morning briefings and traffic alerts have become a part of my morning routine.

The number of devices that will be able to integrate an assistant is also not the most important thing in the overall experience. Just because you can integrate an assistant in a fridge or a washing machine it does not mean that you should. Voice UI and assistant are two different things. Will I want to control my washing machine with voice? Sure. Will I want for my assistant to be in my washing machine? No!

Curating the experience so early in the game is important. Our data shows that consumers who tried a digital assistant a few times and did not get the answer or the task they wanted gave up and never tried again. Getting disappointed users to try again is harder than getting consumers to try in the first place.

Don’t draw Conclusions on Why We did not get to interact with Siri

Apple said that HomePod is a hub to control Home when out and about. It also said that Siri in HomePod can do the same things “she” does in the iPhone or the iPad. There are a lot of questions that do not have answers today: will HomePod be able to recognize and differentiate users when it is associated with a Music family account? Will HomePod connect to my Apple TV? Will I be able to stream other music services other than Apple Music? Will there be a developer kit?

When it comes to Siri, I would urge not to conclude that the Siri we know today will be the same as what we will discover once HomePod hits the market. We are aware that iOS 11 will bring enhancements to Siri. Aside from a new voice, and more context that will be used to suggest answers to follow-up questions, Siri will now support translation from English into Chinese, German, Italian, French and Spanish with more to come later. Siri will also be able to provide bank account summaries, balance transfers and support third-party note-taking.

I believe that the reason why we did not get to interact with Siri as part of the demo is that the experience will be very different, but there is, of course, more work to be done otherwise HomePod will be shipping now! By letting HomePod out of the bag, Apple made sure that people in the market for a speaker did not rush to get what is available on the market today.

Slow and Steady wins the Race

As much as we like to talk about who is ahead and who is behind, the reality is that the smart speaker and digital assistant market are still at the start of a long opportunity and Apple is still right in the game. While Siri might not come across as smart as Alexa and Google Assistant “she” has been learning consumers’ preferences, habits, behaviors for years now and doing that across over thirty countries albeit with different skills. Apple mentioned that Siri is used monthly on 375 million devices. This reach is a significant advantage and maybe the primary source of the discontent that some feel right now. With Siri having this kind of advantage why are we not seeing more? Well, I think we are about to see more!

The other day, I was reading this fascinating and scary story of a woman in Kenya who thought she was carrying the HIV virus because an app told her so. The app was a hoax but she could not have known it as she had downloaded the app over Bluetooth from a friend and never got to read the reviews that warned about the scam. The BBC story was centered on a report funded and commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Foundation and developed by the Mozilla Foundation in close collaboration with Digital Divide Data.

The report offers a very interesting snapshot of what technology and smartphones mean in a country like Kenya. The good is how smartphones can help Kenyans, especially low-income earners, not to feel left out of society. The bad is online gambling becoming a larger issue. The ugly is what consumers in emerging market discover, especially when new to smartphones, is their experience is shaped by trends set by larger international organizations that control the ecosystem.

This last point made me think about how different the smartphone market is compared to the feature phone market and not just because the hardware is different.

Feature phones were More Customized than Smartphones

Going back to 2009/2010, emerging markets were the future of mobile as the overall mobile phone market was made up by dumb phones and manufacturers had a more focused portfolio for emerging markets. The race to control emerging markets was very much open, as Nokia fiercely defended its position in markets such as Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

What was unique about Nokia was that, even back then, their focus was on services as well as hardware. While lowering the price of feature phones, Nokia focused on lowering the requirements for data consumption, making some of their services such as music and maps available offline. Nokia also implemented a financing service for small businesses as well as a service focused on allowing users to send money called Nokia Pay.

These were the years when most of the hardware was not yet touch-based and was customized with keyboards that reflected the different languages. Applications were also pre-loaded to reflect local cultural preferences. Aside from possibly Latin America, which endured for years the hand-me-downs from the US, consumers in emerging markets were given devices that mostly reflected their needs.

These were also the years before local manufacturers, empowered by Android, started to make a dent in the market share of tier-one players and fragment the market in such a way that replicating what Nokia had became impossible due to the lack of economies of scale.

With the shift to smartphones and the pressure on margins, many vendors are prioritizing high growth markets such as China and India while trying to serve the rest of the emerging markets by leveraging what they have in the portfolio rather than customizing to the country’s needs.

Software: One Size Fits All

With the advent of smartphones, touch, and the shift to software, customization was no longer needed to be able to sell in a specific country. One phone model was shipping across more markets than ever before as most settings were delivered via software. Apps were no longer pre-installed but could be accessed through app stores that offered more international content than they did local. While software might overcome language barriers, it has less success overcoming cultural differences. Apps suitable in America or Europe might not be so in the Middle East or Africa where much of the female population is highly dependent on the men in their lives to grant them access to technology, for instance.

While the size of the emerging market population is still very appealing to hardware vendors, it is not always so compelling to developers and service providers. Tier-one developers and service providers might lack the cultural knowledge to customize and they might see the connectivity challenges and low-income barrier as issues that will always dampen their opportunity, making the investment less than worthwhile.

Many emerging markets are also mobile-only rather than mobile-first markets, making the relationship consumers have with technology quite unique. Many emerging market smartphone users have no measure of comparison for what the digital world can deliver, which makes them vulnerable to exploits. The case reported by the BBC is a very good example. Esther did not know her phone could not possibly diagnose whether she had HIV through the reading of her fingerprint on the screen. For all she knew, technology is that good.

Are Emerging Markets a Duty or an Opportunity?

Tech giants cannot ignore emerging markets in their path to world domination. Google tried through the Android One program to lower the price of smartphones in emerging markets so Android could continue to grow. However, the strength of local, combined with the little differentiation the program was giving to the devices, lead to a weak value proposition both for partners and customers alike. Plus, focusing on an online channel in markets that mainly sell via small mom and pop shops did not really help. Google also focused on improving connectivity by flying internet balloons — an endeavor that is taking much longer than first anticipated to become a reality.

Facebook started a couple of years ago with tweaking its user experience for emerging markets so the content the user was looking at was prioritized and loaded first over side stories which would not be loaded. It also launched an accelerator program to come up with ideas that make advertising rewards relevant to local users.

Finally, Facebook also focused on connectivity first with Free Basics. Users do not pay for using Facebook and other apps but some governments, like India, found it too limited. More recently, Facebook launched Express Wi-Fi in India, as a renewed attempt to offer connectivity at minimum cost by the deployment of public Wi-Fi.

The hurdles both companies have faced, however, underline the challenges of looking at emerging markets from the comfort of Silicon Valley. International telcos with interests in emerging markets such as Telenor, Megafon, and Vimpelcom (now Veon) are also trying to get a slice of the pie and they might just have the advantage of having a ton of data on the very consumers they want to serve.

The Win-Win when Tech Improves Life in Emerging Markets

Rather than focusing on lowering costs or lowering services requirements so consumers in emerging markets can afford to buy devices and subscribe to services, tech companies should focus on improving life in emerging markets. Technology should be used to improve education, eradicate diseases, improve housing and transportation and ultimately create more wealth and empower people to become a potential customer for Amazon, Google or Facebook. While the final goal might be the same and generate market growth, I would very much argue the means to an end would be much more rewarding for emerging markets.