話口未完，Pizzla Hut 推出Augmented Reality 應用

才講了兩天的時間，話下一浪可能是Augmented Reality(AR)，立即有商家推出AR應用，為客戶帶來方便．

是甚麼？唔講咁多，去片先：




睇完知唔知係乜？

其實是一個iPhone App，客戶只要下載及開啟程式，然後用iPhone鏡頭影下街境，就會指示出最近一間的Pizzla Hut係邊，你還可以立即落order，由iPhone送出去，在等候的期間還可以玩pizzla遊戲．

仲未明白究竟AR乜？其實內裡的技術就是一併採用iPhone的GPS、相機、指南針，在相機上的真實環境中，顯示與實境相關的訊息，如Pizzla Hut的方向位置等．

唔好以為咁開心，你又去用iPhone試下，這個App只適用於澳洲的！

技術由澳洲公司Insqribe開拓的，該公司正致力發展手機推廣平台，而這個App只應用於3GS．客戶使用時，需要走出家門，到可以用GPS的地方，拍一下門前的景像，才會顯示到相關訊息，當中包括了方向和距離．當然，客戶還可以按自己的口味，挑選薄餅上的口味．

好唔好玩？嗯，我都不愛吃薄餅的...

Mobile Payment ：Starbucks好努力

Starbucks正式宣布，在全美一千零二十間Target和Starbucks店，都可以用Starbucks Card mobile app來支付．

其實，有關的App早在去年十一月推出市場，當時用戶可以App查閱Starbucks Card的餘額和記錄．現時可以進一步在店舖內，用iPhone或者iPod Touch來付費．早前，Starbucks已經在西雅圖等十六個分店做試點，效果令人滿意．

由現時開始，用你的iPhone上網來Starbucks登記，可以享用免費咖啡！嘩，有著數！不過，只限美國，亞洲區無份．

唔知我張Starbucks Card在美國用唔用到呢？

如果俾我搞動新聞，我會...

當我想這問題時，我想起了太約一年前讀McKinsey一篇文章，Production可以放出去嗎？

台蘋請數百人做動新聞，這符合媒體創作的做法，但這讓我很震驚，因為這違反了互聯網的共創(cocreation)和參與(engagment)的原則，那是危險的...　在整個製作的過程中，那數百人只是參照著蘋果的內容，加工成為新的產品，基本上沒有創意的溶入，所加的不外乎血腥、色情和暴力，沒有集體創作走出新路的方向。就正如把多拉A夢由漫畫，改為3D動漫一樣，本質並未改變，仍是大體上一樣的製作流程。但動新聞的加工費很高，全人手製作，甚至較原來一篇稿一個記者一個編輯的人手還要多，這些內容卻很難收費，一開始便呈現敗局。要紅了才收費？那時會大量流失客戶。一開始便收費？一定紅不起來...這個結果就是動新聞的製作費，變相加到原來的製作流程中，導至成本大幅上升，所以說是敗局。

情況就如TVB.com一樣，叫好叫座但卻不賺錢，據TVB中人說，六嬸很不滿意，認為投資大，效益卻不彰，不及TVB賤價請藝員拍電影，來得容易賺錢．

我想如果讓我今天參與管理動新聞這項目，我會把重點放在兩個投資上，一是創作平台標準化，二是市場推廣和廣告系統，參與製作內容的人手應該盡量減少。

我的意思是把動新聞的創作由外判或讀者來負擔，蘋果只負責把平台標準化，經過一定的規則，把動新聞由網民或外判商製作起來，然後由蘋果負責監管內容是否合乎規則，並且擁有是否讓動新聞出街。當然，這種做法要經相當的日子才能發展成熟，但卻可以很容易透過現有的viral途徑，火速把動新聞紅起來。

當然，更進一步的，可以與讀者一起分享動新聞的廣告收入，讓讀者自己推廣自己的動新聞，這似乎才合乎新世代的創作要求。把廣告溶入動新聞內，虛擬的環境有真實的廣告，也應該是一條財路．

當中還有很多的配合，但這個想法可能真的可以放於其他的傳媒創作，可以再想想...

這一刻我想到的是AR－－Augemented Reality，只要客戶走出家門前，用GPS手機對著家門外的地方拍照，便會顯示最就近你家門外的新聞，按一按便可以取讀動新聞．這個動新聞平台當然和要廣告系統結合，日後客戶出街幫襯商號前，可在門前用AR，便可以找到相關新聞、網民評價、最近的相類競爭者等，不是一個更好的想法嗎？蘋果要想多一想．

Mobile 2D Barcode Payment System起革命？嗯... 搞慈善可以翻身嗎？

近日去台灣探望朋友，跟台灣傳的朋友談起，傳媒面對新媒體的競爭，很多時會流於不理性和衝動。就以台灣蘋果日報為例，據說單單是搞動新聞都請了數百人（有說二百也有說五百），真的是一個天文數字。再看看香港，香港蘋果也有搞動新聞和壹斑碼，東仔也有搞它的網上on.cc，究竟這種模式是否有作為呢？據說，連壹傳媒自己內部都很人對壹斑碼有點懷疑...

如果你好痛恨蘋果，又從來唔睇的，咁我要講講，壹斑碼就是利用2D Barcode來做認證或者選定資訊，把收費內容傳送到手機，但要在手機上安裝閱/解讀2D Barcode的軟件。2D Barcode本身都用了好一段日子，都紅唔起，因為手續繁覆... 早幾年，已有電訊商與戲院合作搞手機訂位，但好似搞極都唔受歡迎。總之，香港至今，未見有過好成功的例子。

不過，近日在外國就有一個市場推廣的事例，顯示2D Barcode還有發展空間，就是作為慈善用的捐款平台。原來根據外國的經驗，每逢有大災難發生，都有大批的人無法打通捐款熱線，被迫放棄捐款的念頭，而2D Barcode的好處就是無需要輸入太多的資料，捐款者就可以把指令送出，亦不用跟其他人迫爆捐款熱線。

作出這種突破的是加國the University of Ottawa Heart Institute ，他們在三月廿八日舉行一個號稱全球首次的2D Barcode捐款活動。大學與一間叫做MobioID的IT公司合作，在電視進行籌款活動，捐款者只需要用一個iPhone App，便可以掃瞄電視上的2D Barcode，再輸入信用卡號碼和捐款數目，便可以直接作出捐款。2D Barcode更可以透過Facebook、Twitter以viral式散播。

成效如果？我的感覺是噱頭是足夠了，但未必受歡迎，而局限性很大，還幫iPhone買廣告，係咪有點那過呢？

但我認同MobioID一點睇法，就是這種捐款的好處是有持久力，因為一旦2D barcode做好，便是只為這件事而做的，可以不設年期地做下去。問題是不設年期，人都會淡忘的。

有沒有更好的辦法？
1. 如果可以推廣到所有電話都用得就最好。
2. 不如印T-恤，叫義工通街叫人捐，又或者viral一點，叫人買T-shirt，自己去叫人捐。捐款好多時，都係人與人，Face to Face比較收效的...

不過，2D Barcode本身有很多制式，目前仍以日本的QR code最受歡迎，但各國各自發展，筆者便有朋友在大陸自己造了一套。單單是制式問題，已經讓2D barcode發展受制，我仍然都不太睇好。

真的好期待一套既簡單又快捷的手機支付模式面世！

雅虎露出獠牙 手機廣告市場反擊戰

雅虎一名高級行政人員近日向媒體放風，披露雅虎的移動廣告大計，重點資源將會投放在移動網絡、支付和廣告支援的廣用。

北美的雅虎移動副總裁戴維卡茨(Daivd Katz)表示，移動廣告在二零零九年已正式成為了主流，他預期會有更大的增長。但他補充，業界在去年都看到在收入上的大躍進，但還沒有破解正確手機和單元的密碼。

「一直以來，我們的說法都是，明年才是手機廣告之年，但今年度，我們的說法已是去年就是了，２００９年就是突破的一年。接下來的，應該就是越來越具創意的手機專用廣告經驗。」舉例說，雅虎正在推行一個手機行動的策略，把學院籃球比賽的粉絲，從雅虎的手機體育入門網，引導到快樂巨擘KFC或西南航空的手機網站。

「我們花了很多的功夫於跨平台購買上，而事實上我們所收到的request for proposal招標書中，都提到手機。」他說：「去年，我們的Fantasy Football App就是一個完全的跨平台之作，我們的廣告商如Subway、Toyota和Southwest Airlines都從我們的網上和手機裡獲益。」

「同樣，以我們最近的奧運移動網站為例，跨平台已肯定是一種趨勢。我們認為我們有一個相當大的優勢，因為在兩個平台上我們都擁有大量的網站流量。」他說：「我們已經調整了我們的銷售隊伍，他們在推銷雅虎的廣告時，亦同時可以推銷手機廣告。」

「我們也有一個移動的專家力量，幫助他們做到移動廣告， 但在線廣告客戶不必跟不同的人聯絡，如果他們也想購買手機廣告的話。」

上個月，微軟和雅虎獲美國司法部和歐洲委員會開綠燈，讓他們合作協議無條件下得到通過，他們正著手落實協議的細則。

卡茲說：「我們希望把重點放在客戶的搜尋體驗上，而跟微軟的合作主要在支援我們的搜尋入門網站的後端，供給我們傳統的連結。」

「現在我們不用擔心核心的管道，我們可以專注於提供娛樂、參與和有用的用戶體驗。」他說：「這些新的應用程序都是例子，突顯我們能提供的。」

在上週的2010年美國無線通信展，雅虎推出兩款 iPhone應用，Yahoo Sketch-a-search和Yahoo Search，目的為提高客戶在接收訊息時參與感。

「其他搜索應用程序使用GPS、城市名稱或郵政編碼來描述的位置，但這都不是人對位置的真正意思。」卡茲說。 「我們推出Sketch-a-Search(SaS)本地搜索體驗，就是要讓客戶可在一隻手指打圈的範圍內，修窄搜尋結果。」

「現時主要應用在搜尋飲食及酒店，但我們會在iPhone平台上，增加更多的本地信息和評價資料。」他說：「雅虎一直在本地業務一段時間，我們將利用這些內容為SaS搜索引擎，我們的主要搜索應用程序。 」

「這兩個應用程序是免費的，我們也沒有推出任何廣告， 但我將會稍後推出廣告，我們為移動本地搜尋廣告而興奮，而我們一直都擅於查詢中賺錢。”

本地和流動有一種天然的親和力。

「本地對於雅虎極為重要性」卡茨說：「對於SaS搜索引擎，我們問自己'你怎麼通過手機鏡頭去看待本地呢？”

「移動搜索結果應該是近於咫尺而你所關心的事。」他說：「當你靠近某一點時，那就會有很多機會使用位置，而一天之內，亦有很多機會需要配合位置的。

「我們今天已做了這方面的一些工作，但位置信息亦是不很精細，我們就會繼續做得更精細的。”

雖然這些新的應用，目前僅適用於 iPhone，雅虎計劃推出其他智能手機版本。

「在2009年，我們大部分的應用都給是 iPhone和Blackberry的；在2010年我們加入Android，很快大家便會看到Android的App。」卡茲說。

「雅虎是與「平台不可知」論者，客戶要去的地方，我們便去；如果智能手機平台大量激增會令客戶使用可上互聯網手機，這是一件好事。」他說。

除了標準的橫幅廣告，雅虎計劃把這個淘金工具推展至付費搜尋，並隨著時間的推移，再擴展至付費通話廣告、當地促銷、優惠券和其他優惠。

繙譯外電

手機下一浪：Augmented Reality 擴增實境

這絕對不是甚麼新的東西==>Augmented Reality。

根據維基百科：「擴增實境，Augmented Reality，簡稱 AR，是一種實時地計算攝影機影像的位置及角度並加上相應圖像的技術，這種技術的目標是在螢幕上把虛擬世界套在現實世界並進行互動。這種技術估計由 1990年提出。隨著隨身電子產品運算能力的提升，預期擴增實境的用途將會越來越廣。」

在前天一個國際的會議(International CTIA Wireless 2010)上，大會則指AR將會是值得大家注意的事。

十年前的東西，不單到了今天才有人拿出來講，還指是手機下浪，相信是一場造勢的開始。

不過，既然可能會紅起來，這裡不妨花多點篇幅介紹下。在圖中所見，就是目前一個在Andorid手機上，一個AR的應用，它把維基百科資訊和即時影像結合。這種應用據說在不久的將來，將會應用在娛樂等更廣的層面上。據說，已經有人與「Avatar阿凡特」電影James Cameron合作，為客戶推出AR產品。其中，Mattel已根據電影主角的造型，製作了AR產品，並聲稱這是世上首個在零售市場推出的AR玩具。

點樣玩法？據說每一個玩具都會包括一個立體的網簽，名為i-Tag，只要用掃瞄標簽，便會送出與電影相關的內容。

其他還有很多的應用，例如醫療的應用，將有助於外科手術。

中國的手機商務大戰即將展開

凡事發生前，都必有徵兆。

去年，阿里爸爸的馬雲突然間好有氣慨地說，如果國家有需要的，他一天內便可以把支付寶送給國家。

事件曾經引起一陣子的揣測，有的認為馬雲在說空話，因為不久之後，他在支付寶年會上，大罵了支付寶的客戶經驗做得不好，沒理由把這王國送出去；有的認為是國家對支付寶有所顧忌，馬雲最終可能不得不讓路。

觀乎今天，「國進民退」的國策高唱入雲，國家要主導整個經濟發展，讓發展在最能控制的景況下前進，民企不得不退下，讓路給國企進一步發，我們大概可以想像到馬雲的說話內的含意。

最近有數個來自大陸做IT的朋友，均先後跟筆者說工作很忙，奇怪的是他們的合作伙伴都是電訊商，不是中國電訊、中國移動，便是聯通，共通的地方都是發展手機商務，不是手機商城，便是手機遊戲，而且都在攪好了支付渠道。

相信在這一年內，手機商務將會成為一個大勢，最終邊個會勝出？我相信，如果聯通能夠搞好iPhone推廣，在成熟的手機平台環境下，會稍稍佔優。是否如此？好快就知。

鬼佬預期：Mobile 商務進入主流應用期 戰線將在Mobile Money上

著名的Javelin Strategy & Research 一個分析員指出，種種跡象顯示，手機商務業正處於變身期，將會由創新期，進入主流應用期。他說，這種起飛徵兆包括了非凡的手機、銀行陸續提供手機財務服務、客戶對手機商務好奇、手機數據計劃降價、對下載應用程式的需求上升，和新產品新服務收費及新功能面世等。

這位分析員JimVan Dyke說，科技大量起變花，引發了新的革命，「手機錢」（Mobile money）將會是其中一個重要的部分，但這亦會帶來「血流成河」的。就好似，你不再會見到有類似Paypal異軍突起的事件重演，這不會再發生。

「Paypal在互聯網起飛的日子裡，角色特別，在如拍賣等用戶間付費平台湧現的日子裡，它擔當了橋樑的角色，但當中亦有僥倖的成份。以目前的發展來說，Mobile money將會陷於一次苦戰，甚至是一場塹壕戰。」

Mobile Money現時已由原來簡單地監管自己銀行戶口交易，逐漸變為移動銀行交易和支付。基於 5個主要方面，美國市場似乎也正準備為流動商貿起飛：用戶的行為，發卡，支付網絡，商戶和POS設備。 InStat公司2009年12月一項調查發 現，百分之六十四的美國人有興趣使用移動錢包的電子商務。

看來，大家的錢包真的很快會生出腳來，自己移動起來。

Summary: Four ways to get more value from digital marketing (McKinsey Quarterly)

Companies that make the deep strategic, organizational, and operational shifts required to become effective digital marketers can become more agile, more productive, and accelerate revenue growth.

Since the dawn of the Internet, marketers have regarded it as a vast laboratory, launching experiment after experiment to crack the code that generates sales and customer loyalty. Not surprising, most have failed. Consumers adopted digital technology as they themselves saw fit, in the process fundamentally altering the way they make purchasing decisions.¹ Companies that understand this evolution are now carefully moving digital interactivity toward the center of their marketing strategies, rethinking their priorities and budgets, and substantially reshaping their processes and skills.

Through our work with dozens of companies navigating this shifting landscape, we have found that the most successful digital marketers focus on managing four core sources of value as they increase the percentage of marketing and channel spending that is directed to digital activities. First, they coordinate their activities to engage the consumer throughout an increasingly digital purchase journey. Second, they harness interest in their brands by syndicating content that empowers the consumer to build his or her own marketing identity and, in the process, to serve as a brand ambassador. Third, they recognize the need to think like a large-scale multimedia publisher as they manage a staggering increase in the content they create to support products, segments, channels, and promotions. Finally, these marketers strategically plot how to gather and use the plethora of digital data now available.

The digital-marketing difference

At the simplest level, we’ve always known that consumers tend to go through a multistage journey as they make purchasing decisions. Yet most companies still concentrate marketing resources on only two stages: brand marketing up front to woo consumers when they first consider products, and promotions at the final point of sale to sway them as they are about to make a purchase.

Digital technology is changing all that. Consumers who used to seek out family and friends for word-of-mouth product recommendations now read online reviews, compare features and prices on Web sites, and discuss options via social-networking sites. This information flow not only empowers consumers but also allows marketing departments to be part of the conversation consumers have as they actively learn about product categories and evaluate choices. In fact, both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) purchasers increasingly want marketers to help them make smart decisions. They just don’t want to feel subjected to the hard sell—they expect marketers to engage them, not dictate to them.

Moving from a one-way, company-driven sales mentality to a two-way relationship with consumers requires core changes in the way marketers do business. While some of them have adjusted effectively, most simply tried everything that came to mind, because they weren’t sure what would work. Companies have explored digital-marketing vehicles such as video ads, sponsored content, and online promotions. New forms of targeted online ad delivery have emerged. Web sites have been overhauled, and microsites for specific products or promotions have multiplied. Companies are buying thousands of search terms across their lines of business, and new agencies keep popping up to serve marketers’ increasingly keen desire for innovative content, user tools, or social experimentation. While these initiatives usually make sense, their implementation often doesn’t: most companies merely add them to their other operations and thus stretch their organizations financially and operationally. In our experience, companies must thoughtfully integrate such initiatives by focusing on four core sources of value.

Orchestrate an integrated consumer experience

Whether by receiving marketing e-mails, searching for products online, or using mobile devices to find retail coupons, customers today continually interact with brands as they move closer to making purchasing decisions. Yet completely different parts of an organization manage most such contacts. Digital channels can unify that experience and prevent the leakage of opportunity. Across a range of B2C and B2B clients, we’ve seen companies accelerate revenue growth by tightening the coordination of the end-to-end experience (Exhibit 1). These increases represent the cumulative impact of capturing more online traffic, engaging consumers effectively, raising sales conversion rates, and then deepening bonds with the brand after sales are made.

To be sure, it’s not easy to coordinate content across the entire consumer experience, but the waste from failing to do so ought to be even harder to face. When done right, television commercials should at the very least inspire keywords for consumers to search. Great search positioning should offer easy-to-find Web links to specific offers being promoted in other media. Links should go deep into specific places to help consumers learn about and buy products. Retailer sites should show the same product with the same image, rich descriptions, and inventory availability. And all of these images and messages should be consistent.

Similar rigor is required to ensure that marketing investments are proportional to the influence they may have on a prospective customer’s purchasing decision. Consider the global consumer products company that traditionally relied on mass-media campaigns when launching new products. Because the brand was already well known, the campaigns failed to increase actual sales: the company was spending a disproportionate percentage of its marketing budget on advertising that consumers were largely ignoring.

The company realized that a big shift was needed—one that would likely ripple through much of its budgeting process, organizational structure, and agency lineup. It moved its spending to efforts toward influencing consumers as they actually evaluated products: by increasing its presence in stores and online, improving its search engine positioning, developing content for retailers’ Web sites, and cultivating recommendations from important online influencers, such as bloggers. Traditional media spending fell, and advertising agency budgets shifted toward online content development. As a result, the company doubled its rate of consideration as a top-three brand, almost tripled the rate of recommendations by salespeople in stores, and increased its market share.

Inspire customers to help you stretch your marketing budget

Traditional marketers spend about 60 percent of their budgets on “working media” (or paid placement), 20 percent on creating content, and the balance on employees and agencies. Digital channels, with their social nature, reverse these economics, focusing on a smaller core of engaged people who can spread positive impressions, or simply share information, with a broader audience. Active digital marketers tend to devote about 30 percent of their marketing budgets to paid media and 50 percent to content. Customers do more of the heavy lifting as they decide what to look at, play with content, and forward it to their online communities. We have found that by making the right investments, active digital marketers can spend significantly less on marketing as a percentage of sales, with little to no deterioration in performance.

Allowing consumers to make brands their own inevitably raises concerns among companies that are fearful of losing control over brands. The key is to strike a balance between retaining control and creating opportunities for consumers to embrace your content. One prominent example is American Express’s Members Project. Created to help consumers promote their favorite causes, the initiative offered $5 million to the nonprofit group that garnered the most vociferous support.

Consumer engagement was captured through a central Web site that offered tools for creating blogs about causes, widgets to distribute so that larger groups could show their affiliation, and a central system where members could rank causes. Despite very limited paid media (some banner ads, search, and e-mail), AmEx magnified its exposure through heavy interest from news sites and even traditional TV coverage. Celebrities became involved, placing widgets for their favorite causes on personal sites or Facebook pages. In short, this initiative generated an explosive viral campaign that made it one of AmEx’s most successful brand-building efforts, at little cost for paid media.

Adopt a publisher’s discipline to curb costs

Supporting the consumer’s decision journey requires a vast and growing range of content—well beyond advertisements. As companies chase digital opportunities, most have slowly but steadily begun publishing everything from static content, such as product descriptions, to games and other multimedia. Marketers are syndicating content and applications to flow across the sites and mobile platforms of other organizations and people. Content is increasingly being pulled on demand by consumers (who, for example, subscribe to alerts or become “fans” on Facebook) or is tailored to their preferences (determined through their past behavior), the context of an interaction, or the time of day. Most companies have now essentially become publishers, with a more complex set of cost and quality concerns, yet continue to behave like simple advertisers (Exhibit 2).

Most marketers, failing to adopt the discipline of a multimedia publisher, don’t realize that deep within their operations, they are facing rapidly escalating production costs, unnecessary duplication, inconsistent quality of content, and second-rate interactions with customers. One global B2B software provider, for example, produced a growing amount of content—from advertising to cost-of-ownership analytic tools to sales support materials to instruction manuals—for each of its products in every geography, all tailored to different types of audiences and for different online placements. Obsolete content persisted across the Web. Much useful content was poorly tagged or not well linked to related content, making it hard for consumers to find. Product descriptions on the company’s own Web site, for instance, were often different from descriptions of the same products on a distributor’s site. Finally, budgets for content creation were buried across business units, and no one had a clear sense of how to pare down the amount of content or raise it to a consistent standard.

The software company’s solution was to adopt a comprehensive, portfolio-based view of its content with a view to streamlining production costs, making its content more reusable, and finding new ways to improve the experience that the content delivered. It dug into activities across the enterprise to calculate its total publishing costs and understand the spread of its multimedia publishing presence. Then it began rationalizing the system. New processes were implemented and a new organization created to coordinate, edit, and manage the content. Performance measures tracked how well the content drove sales. A central warehouse stored reusable core content objects, such as product descriptions. Salespeople and users received automatic notifications of product updates, tailored to their specific needs. Databases and analytics were created to better target the right content to the right consumers at the right time, so material was surgically placed to maximize impact.

Switching perspectives in this way—from that of a traditional advertiser to that of a tightly disciplined, personalized publisher—helped the company cut its operating costs by tens of millions of dollars a year. Its Web site generated dramatically more sales leads than it had before, by offering more timely, personalized, and useful content. The software company’s salespeople felt more confident about directing customers to use the Web for research and support during the buying process. By improving the customer experience, the new approach improved efficiency and raised returns on assets and on investment.

Use intelligence wisely to drive performance

When a prospective customer actively evaluates product options, the right message is needed immediately, in the right location. When online conversations start to trash your brand, no response can be fast enough. When you need to optimize your search and other media spending on ever-faster cycles—eventually daily—there’s no time to waste. One telecom provider, for example, manages more than 40,000 search terms, has developed dozens of algorithms to identify and reach relevant consumers, and has a war room to spot and react to online complaints or rumors. The ability to mobilize in that way requires smart investments in data tools, a group of skilled analysts, and flexible processes that can facilitate rapid action. What isn’t required is a multipage performance report, pondered at a meeting several days later, that substitutes for action.

Savvy digital marketers are mastering intelligence-gathering tools and processes that analyze what customers are seeing, by examining positions in search results or coverage on key retail sites. These marketers explain what consumers are doing, by analyzing their online behavior, and interpret what they are saying, by mining online discussions and soliciting ongoing feedback. Such intelligence, the lifeblood of digital leadership, disseminates insights throughout an organization to drive ongoing optimization and promotes the personalization needed to help consumers feel that a brand is their own (Exhibit 3).

Marketers need the ability to assess and utilize intelligence in real time to drive performance by using it. Dell, for example, has a full-time team that monitors its IdeaStorm discussion boards and rapidly responds to posts. Packaged-goods companies are starting to manage thousands of search terms on a daily basis, not only optimizing what they spend but also looking for the keywords customers are using in association with their brands. One auto company tracks the volume of people using car configuration tools on its Web site as a way to forecast sales and tweak production. For these companies, such insights flow directly into operations. Unfortunately, that tight linkage between insight and action is rare.

We have found, for instance, that few marketing or sales executives can name three key insights, derived from their online analyses in the past month, that they acted upon to generate value. Activating a company’s intelligence goes beyond hiring statistical analysts, building dashboards, and writing reports. Marketers must prioritize what to measure, as well as assign a cross-functional team to analyze the data generated. Then they must have clear processes to act upon insights, track results, and follow up with action.

Taken together, these changes force companies to step back from tactical, day-to-day execution and take a more strategic view of where to invest and make changes. Companies often find that they must enhance their technology infrastructure, expand analytic skills, adjust organizational structures across business unit boundaries, and build processes that impose a new operational discipline. Tough decisions need to be made, such as who takes the lead in developing a new-product launch plan; how budgets for content creation are reallocated across global, regional, and local groups; and how to rebalance the roles of traditional media and digital agencies. Technology and marketing functions need to work together more closely, with clear service-level agreements from IT to maintain adequate support for much more information-intensive marketing operations.

Marketing departments will justifiably demand more resources, but those should come at a price: higher accountability for sales, innovation, and operational efficiency. Business line executives should demand better visibility into metrics about digital delivery and greater clarity about how marketing plans will directly improve performance. In return, marketers will drive value as their brands cease to be mere names and instead become central to helping customers get what they want.

HTC 反擊Apple

宏達公司已明確表示不同意與蘋果公司的法律指控，並重申其承諾建立一個投資組合的創新智能手機為消費者提供了多種選擇。

3月3日，宏達給蘋果吃了一驚，蘋果公司提起訴訟，對公司的侵犯20項專利與蘋果 iPhone的用戶界面，底層架構和硬件。蘋果同時亦向美國國際貿易委員會（ITC）和美國特 拉華州地方法院遞交了訴訟書。

宏達公司已明確表示不同意與蘋果公司的法律行為，並重 申其承諾建立一個投資組合的創新智能手機為消費者提供了多種選擇。

3月3日，以宏達電吃驚的是，蘋果公司提起訴訟，對公 司的侵犯20項專利與蘋果 iPhone的用戶界面，底層架構和硬件。該訴訟是同時與美國國際貿易委員會（ITC）和美國特 拉華州地方法院。

找到工作的你

“宏達不同意蘋果的行為，並會全力保衛自己，”周永明 表示，宏達電首席執行官，西雅圖。“宏達強烈主張知識產權保護，並將繼續尊重其他創新者和他們的技術是我們一直在做，但我們會繼續遵守競爭，通過我們自己的創新為消費者健康的方式獲得 最佳的移動體驗。

“從第一天開始，宏達著力打造尖端創新，提供獨特的價 值的人尋找一個智能手機，”他說。“1999年我們開始設計中，XDA（一）和T - Mobile Pocket PC手機版（二），我們的第一款觸摸屏智能手機，它們都在2002年 出貨量超過 50個宏達智能手機型號航運不知所踪。“

蘋果公司重新設計的移動電話在2007年其革命性的 iPhone，並再次做到了在2008年的開拓性應用程序商店，現在提供超過 15萬的移動應用在90多個國家。

成立於 1997年的熱情，創新和遠見智能手機將如何改變人們的生活，宏達不斷推動這一構想的不斷引入屢獲殊榮的智能手機，與美國無線運營商。

呼籲 HTC和蘋果公司關於訴訟沒有歸還。

這起訴訟開始後腳跟諾基亞提出申訴與美國國際貿易委員 會指控蘋果侵犯專利諾基亞幾乎所有的移動電話，便攜式音樂播放器和計算機。

諾基亞的7項專利，在12月的投訴與諾基亞的開拓創 新，目前正在使用蘋果建立主要特點在其產品在該地區的用戶界面，以及攝像頭，天線和電源管理技術（見故事）。

這是一場戰爭
宏達得知蘋果的行為基礎上的新聞報導和蘋果公司的新聞 稿。顯然，蘋果公司公開了備案宏達甚至前送達。

現在，週後，宏達終於公開了一個聲明，就其地位。該公司沒有提供細節時或計劃如何應對訴訟。

宏達使一些手機上運行谷歌的Android操作系統。谷歌和蘋果都在不斷的戰鬥模式近來，由於每個公司是竭 盡所能獲得成功的智能手機市場。

事情確實加熱到了。谷歌本週推出了新版本的手機納克斯一個運行在AT＆T 公司，這也是iPhone的獨家運營商在美國

看起來像谷歌，是加強對蘋果的腳趾。

預計宏達把一個良好的抗衡蘋果，因為台灣智能手機製造 商絕對有這樣做的資源。此外，Android手機是宏達電的黃金門票的領導在 智能手機領域，因此運行該訴訟是至關重要的製造商。

蘋果電腦公司訴訟證據表明，智能手機巨頭都試圖遏制 Android和宏達電的市場份額。

“宏達一直採取面向夥伴關係，協作的經營方針，”詹森 說麥肯齊，副總裁宏達美國。“這導致了長期的戰略夥伴關係的頂級軟件，互聯網和無線技術公司在行業以及頂級美國，歐洲和亞洲的移動運營商。

“正是通過這些關係，我們已經能夠提供世界上最多樣化 的系列智能手機，以更多樣化的一組人在世界各地，並認識到客戶的不同需要，”他說。

Summary: The Internet of Things (McKinsey Quarterly)

More objects are becoming embedded with sensors and gaining the ability to communicate. The resulting information networks promise to create new business models, improve business processes, and reduce costs and risks.

In most organizations, information travels along familiar routes. Proprietary information is lodged in databases and analyzed in reports and then rises up the management chain. Information also originates externally—gathered from public sources, harvested from the Internet, or purchased from information suppliers.

But the predictable pathways of information are changing: the physical world itself is becoming a type of information system. In what’s called the Internet of Things, sensors and actuators embedded in physical objects—from roadways to pacemakers—are linked through wired and wireless networks, often using the same Internet Protocol (IP) that connects the Internet. These networks churn out huge volumes of data that flow to computers for analysis. When objects can both sense the environment and communicate, they become tools for understanding complexity and responding to it swiftly. What’s revolutionary in all this is that these physical information systems are now beginning to be deployed, and some of them even work largely without human intervention.

Pill-shaped microcameras already traverse the human digestive tract and send back thousands of images to pinpoint sources of illness. Precision farming equipment with wireless links to data collected from remote satellites and ground sensors can take into account crop conditions and adjust the way each individual part of a field is farmed—for instance, by spreading extra fertilizer on areas that need more nutrients. Billboards in Japan peer back at passersby, assessing how they fit consumer profiles, and instantly change displayed messages based on those assessments.

Yes, there are traces of futurism in some of this and early warnings for companies too. Business models based on today’s largely static information architectures face challenges as new ways of creating value arise. When a customer’s buying preferences are sensed in real time at a specific location, dynamic pricing may increase the odds of a purchase. Knowing how often or intensively a product is used can create additional options—usage fees rather than outright sale, for example. Manufacturing processes studded with a multitude of sensors can be controlled more precisely, raising efficiency. And when operating environments are monitored continuously for hazards or when objects can take corrective action to avoid damage, risks and costs diminish. Companies that take advantage of these capabilities stand to gain against competitors that don’t.

The widespread adoption of the Internet of Things will take time, but the time line is advancing thanks to improvements in underlying technologies. Advances in wireless networking technology and the greater standardization of communications protocols make it possible to collect data from these sensors almost anywhere at any time. Ever-smaller silicon chips for this purpose are gaining new capabilities, while costs, following the pattern of Moore’s Law, are falling. Massive increases in storage and computing power, some of it available via cloud computing, make number crunching possible at very large scale and at declining cost.

None of this is news to technology companies and those on the frontier of adoption. But as these technologies mature, the range of corporate deployments will increase. Now is the time for executives across all industries to structure their thoughts about the potential impact and opportunities likely to emerge from the Internet of Things. We see six distinct types of emerging applications, which fall in two broad categories: first, information and analysis and, second, automation and control (exhibit).

Information and analysis

As the new networks link data from products, company assets, or the operating environment, they will generate better information and analysis, which can enhance decision making significantly. Some organizations are starting to deploy these applications in targeted areas, while more radical and demanding uses are still in the conceptual or experimental stages.

1. Tracking behavior

When products are embedded with sensors, companies can track the movements of these products and even monitor interactions with them. Business models can be fine-tuned to take advantage of this behavioral data. Some insurance companies, for example, are offering to install location sensors in customers’ cars. That allows these companies to base the price of policies on how a car is driven as well as where it travels. Pricing can be customized to the actual risks of operating a vehicle rather than based on proxies such as a driver’s age, gender, or place of residence.

Or consider the possibilities when sensors and network connections are embedded in a rental car: it can be leased for short time spans to registered members of a car service, rental centers become unnecessary, and each car’s use can be optimized for higher revenues. Zipcar has pioneered this model, and more established car rental companies are starting to follow. In retailing, sensors that note shoppers’ profile data (stored in their membership cards) can help close purchases by providing additional information or offering discounts at the point of sale. Market leaders such as Tesco are at the forefront of these uses.

In the business-to-business marketplace, one well-known application of the Internet of Things involves using sensors to track RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags placed on products moving through supply chains, thus improving inventory management while reducing working capital and logistics costs. The range of possible uses for tracking is expanding. In the aviation industry, sensor technologies are spurring new business models. Manufacturers of jet engines retain ownership of their products while charging airlines for the amount of thrust used. Airplane manufacturers are building airframes with networked sensors that send continuous data on product wear and tear to their computers, allowing for proactive maintenance and reducing unplanned downtime.

2. Enhanced situational awareness

Data from large numbers of sensors, deployed in infrastructure (such as roads and buildings) or to report on environmental conditions (including soil moisture, ocean currents, or weather), can give decision makers a heightened awareness of real-time events, particularly when the sensors are used with advanced display or visualization technologies.

Security personnel, for instance, can use sensor networks that combine video, audio, and vibration detectors to spot unauthorized individuals who enter restricted areas. Some advanced security systems already use elements of these technologies, but more far-reaching applications are in the works as sensors become smaller and more powerful, and software systems more adept at analyzing and displaying captured information. Logistics managers for airlines and trucking lines already are tapping some early capabilities to get up-to-the-second knowledge of weather conditions, traffic patterns, and vehicle locations. In this way, these managers are increasing their ability to make constant routing adjustments that reduce congestion costs and increase a network’s effective capacity. In another application, law-enforcement officers can get instantaneous data from sonic sensors that are able to pinpoint the location of gunfire.

3. Sensor-driven decision analytics

The Internet of Things also can support longer-range, more complex human planning and decision making. The technology requirements—tremendous storage and computing resources linked with advanced software systems that generate a variety of graphical displays for analyzing data—rise accordingly.

In the oil and gas industry, for instance, the next phase of exploration and development could rely on extensive sensor networks placed in the earth’s crust to produce more accurate readings of the location, structure, and dimensions of potential fields than current data-driven methods allow. The payoff: lower development costs and improved oil flows.

As for retailing, some companies are studying ways to gather and process data from thousands of shoppers as they journey through stores. Sensor readings and videos note how long they linger at individual displays and record what they ultimately buy. Simulations based on this data will help to increase revenues by optimizing retail layouts.

In health care, sensors and data links offer possibilities for monitoring a patient’s behavior and symptoms in real time and at relatively low cost, allowing physicians to better diagnose disease and prescribe tailored treatment regimens. Patients with chronic illnesses, for example, have been outfitted with sensors in a small number of health care trials currently under way, so that their conditions can be monitored continuously as they go about their daily activities. One such trial has enrolled patients with congestive heart failure. These patients are typically monitored only during periodic physician office visits for weight, blood pressure, and heart rate and rhythm. Sensors placed on the patient can now monitor many of these signs remotely and continuously, giving practitioners early warning of conditions that would otherwise lead to unplanned hospitalizations and expensive emergency care. Better management of congestive heart failure alone could reduce hospitalization and treatment costs by a billion dollars annually in the United States.

Automation and control

Making data the basis for automation and control means converting the data and analysis collected through the Internet of Things into instructions that feed back through the network to actuators that in turn modify processes. Closing the loop from data to automated applications can raise productivity, as systems that adjust automatically to complex situations make many human interventions unnecessary. Early adopters are ushering in relatively basic applications that provide a fairly immediate payoff. Advanced automated systems will be adopted by organizations as these technologies develop further.

1. Process optimization

The Internet of Things is opening new frontiers for improving processes. Some industries, such as chemical production, are installing legions of sensors to bring much greater granularity to monitoring. These sensors feed data to computers, which in turn analyze them and then send signals to actuators that adjust processes—for example, by modifying ingredient mixtures, temperatures, or pressures. Sensors and actuators can also be used to change the position of a physical object as it moves down an assembly line, ensuring that it arrives at machine tools in an optimum position (small deviations in the position of work in process can jam or even damage machine tools). This improved instrumentation, multiplied hundreds of times during an entire process, allows for major reductions in waste, energy costs, and human intervention.

In the pulp and paper industry, for example, the need for frequent manual temperature adjustments in lime kilns limits productivity gains. One company raised production 5 percent by using embedded temperature sensors whose data is used to automatically adjust a kiln flame’s shape and intensity. Reducing temperature variance to near zero improved product quality and eliminated the need for frequent operator intervention.

2. Optimized resource consumption

Networked sensors and automated feedback mechanisms can change usage patterns for scarce resources, including energy and water, often by enabling more dynamic pricing. Utilities such as Enel in Italy and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in the United States, for example, are deploying “smart” meters that provide residential and industrial customers with visual displays showing energy usage and the real-time costs of providing it. (The traditional residential fixed-price-per-kilowatt-hour billing masks the fact that the cost of producing energy varies substantially throughout the day.) Based on time-of-use pricing and better information residential consumers could shut down air conditioners or delay running dishwashers during peak times. Commercial customers can shift energy-intensive processes and production away from high-priced periods of peak energy demand to low-priced off-peak hours.

Data centers, which are among the fastest-growing segments of global energy demand, are starting to adopt power-management techniques tied to information feedback. Power consumption is often half of a typical facility’s total lifetime cost, but most managers lack a detailed view of energy consumption patterns. Getting such a view isn’t easy, since the energy usage of servers spikes at various times, depending on workloads. Furthermore, many servers draw some power 24/7 but are used mostly at minimal capacity, since they are tied to specific operations. Manufacturers have developed sensors that monitor each server’s power use, employing software that balances computing loads and eliminates the need for underused servers and storage devices. Greenfield data centers already are adopting such technologies, which could become standard features of data center infrastructure within a few years.

3. Complex autonomous systems

The most demanding use of the Internet of Things involves the rapid, real-time sensing of unpredictable conditions and instantaneous responses guided by automated systems. This kind of machine decision making mimics human reactions, though at vastly enhanced performance levels. The automobile industry, for instance, is stepping up the development of systems that can detect imminent collisions and take evasive action. Certain basic applications, such as automatic braking systems, are available in high-end autos. The potential accident reduction savings flowing from wider deployment could surpass $100 billion annually. Some companies and research organizations are experimenting with a form of automotive autopilot for networked vehicles driven in coordinated patterns at highway speeds. This technology would reduce the number of “phantom jams” caused by small disturbances (such as suddenly illuminated brake lights) that cascade into traffic bottlenecks.

Scientists in other industries are testing swarms of robots that maintain facilities or clean up toxic waste, and systems under study in the defense sector would coordinate the movements of groups of unmanned aircraft. While such autonomous systems will be challenging to develop and perfect, they promise major gains in safety, risk, and costs. These experiments could also spur fresh thinking about how to tackle tasks in inhospitable physical environments (such as deep water, wars, and contaminated areas) that are difficult or dangerous for humans.

What comes next?

The Internet of Things has great promise, yet business, policy, and technical challenges must be tackled before these systems are widely embraced. Early adopters will need to prove that the new sensor-driven business models create superior value. Industry groups and government regulators should study rules on data privacy and data security, particularly for uses that touch on sensitive consumer information. Legal liability frameworks for the bad decisions of automated systems will have to be established by governments, companies, and risk analysts, in consort with insurers. On the technology side, the cost of sensors and actuators must fall to levels that will spark widespread use. Networking technologies and the standards that support them must evolve to the point where data can flow freely among sensors, computers, and actuators. Software to aggregate and analyze data, as well as graphic display techniques, must improve to the point where huge volumes of data can be absorbed by human decision makers or synthesized to guide automated systems more appropriately.

Within companies, big changes in information patterns will have implications for organizational structures, as well as for the way decisions are made, operations are managed, and processes are conceived. Product development, for example, will need to reflect far greater possibilities for capturing and analyzing information.

Companies can begin taking steps now to position themselves for these changes by using the new technologies to optimize business processes in which traditional approaches have not brought satisfactory returns. Energy consumption efficiency and process optimization are good early targets. Experiments with the emerging technologies should be conducted in development labs and in small-scale pilot trials, and established companies can seek partnerships with innovative technology suppliers creating Internet-of-Things capabilities for target industries.

Yahoo!解散手機部？！迎戰新環境

沒有講錯！正正就在三月初，手機商務熱潮熾盛之際，雅虎的首席執行官Carol Bartz決定解散了內部的手機組，目前當然不是放棄市場，而是把整個團組分散到公司內部各階層，為手機搜尋市場作好最重要的部署。

不過，好消息沒有隨之而來，T-Mobile USA宣布與雅虎不再續約，投到Google的陣形，把旗下的手機內置搜尋置定為Google。至於T-Mobile的歐洲市場，則暫時仍沿用雅虎。

分析員指出，手機搜尋今天來說，帶來的收入仍然很微薄，但前景卻一片光明，尤其是手機搜尋對零售業和品牌有著無限的商機。

Facebook Twitter 手機登入跳升的啟示

互聯網上著名的統計及研究公司comScore發表報告，指今年（２０１０年）一月，有30.8%智能手機用戶利用瀏覽器上網登入社交網。這個數字將為手機市場推廣界帶來新的意義，意味著下一個兵家必爭之地，就是智能手機社交網。

還是不太相信，那就講講數字吧！根據comScore，Facebook單在去年，透過手機瀏覽器登入的人數狂飆了1.12倍，而Twitter因為還在起步初階，跳升幅度更強勁，達到3.47倍。

是否真的「嘩」多幾聲呢？！但我相信這個還沒有包括利用Mobile Apps上Facebook和Twitter的人數，實際數字可能更驚人。

comScore的研究員認為，社交媒體和手機平台之間有著一種很自然的協同效應，從Facebook和Twitter的情況來看，這可效應確實存在。更重要的是，社交媒體在手機上的落根生長速度，比其他傳統媒體來得更加快，意味著市場推廣者未來需要重視手機上社交網應用的環境。

好，看了這篇文章一段小時間，大家有沒有想過，其實我講的可能只是Hypes and Hoaxes，一味在「老吹」呢？

當然，各位做Marketing的朋友，還是應該要看清楚數字的。據comScore，在2010年1月，在整體手機用瀏覽器上網登入社交網的人數，實際只佔整體手機人數的11.1%，較去年增長4.6%。相對用智能手機戶口為低，但亦不能太差。

comScore研究人員表示，我們目前只看到冰山一角，還沒有了透徹了解手機用戶如何在手機環境下，利用社交網與朋友連繫起來，如怎樣相約聚會、下線購物、支付、交易等等，但總而言之，那是商機無限！

Facebook Page定係自己起網站好？

前數日的清晨時份上網之際，突然間想起，要為家人的公司推出一些簡單的網絡推廣。於是，急忙跑進Facebook，開了一個新的Page，只定好的欄題，想起了未能確定一些資訊，於是就這樣沒有內容、沒有照片，便擱掉下來。

沒想翌日下午，突然接到了傳銷電話，對方是一間Facebook廣告製作公司，知道我的姓氏，問我是否製作了某某個Page，向我介紹他公司的製作套餐，又說我所造的空間很有限，不像他們可以造一些PHP的問卷等等，還邀約我見面。我…一向的宗旨是盡做Fugal Marketing，慳得就慳，不想花費數千元製作費，當然推卻了。

這樣我想起了一事，換了數年前，我只會做網站，而沒有想過在Social Media做的。今天，以Facebook為首的Social Media大行其道，「個網」（個人網站和個別公司的網站）仍有空間嗎？

據Facebook的資料，目前約有多於三百萬個活躍的Facebook Page在它們的平台上，主要都是商業機構在打大眾市場。

對於擁有大批粉絲的商業機構來說，開設Facebook Page成為了一項重要的投資。美國廣告業界便發現，不少客戶在其網絡廣告上，現都會在結尾部分，「請到我們的Facebook Page」瀏覽，而不再連結到自己公司的網站。

最佳的例子莫過於Uniball在Facebook Page上送出了近一萬支筆，但竟然隻字不提自己的網站，也沒有作出連結。此舉明智是否，惹起了業界的討論，這種純粹推廣，把活動從官方網站中抽離的做法，很不為人所認同。

有電子顧問就這種做法提出五大的質疑：
1. 沒有擁有權：
Facebook Page根本就不屬於公司的，公司充其量只是在Facebook 租個「場」做推銷，Facebook有權改變策略，那時公司可能會損失客戶資料，甚至可能被Facebook閉掉。或許，影響可能好輕微，但一旦公司這樣做，就是把「人流」導向不屬於自己的地方，這是怎樣的策略呢？

2. 不是所有人都在上Facebook：
Facebook不代表整個網絡，更不代表全個世界，世界仍有很多人不上Facebook、甚至沒有Facebook帳號的。是否用Facebook Page，真的視乎你的對象而定。

3. Facebook Page的URL唔靚仔：
我很同意這個說法，真的無法記下的，用中文做標題，更會被改為一些奇怪的拼音字作為代替，相對自己公司設定的URL，真的有天淵之別！只要很微小的錯誤，足以影響整個推廣計劃的成效。

4. 廢掉你的SEO努力
就當你的Facebook Page好成功，如病毒咁散播出去，你所接收的連結都去了Facebook，對你的網站一點也沒有好處，也不能提升你的search engine optimization。

5. 一個成功的網站，一定比Facebook Page強效
依靠Facebook Page實無可厚非，但自家的網站一樣可以強大起來的，自己造作的內容一樣可以很有價值，Facebook Page有很多限制，例如一經設定，標題不能修改，始終都不及自己的網站好！

個人認為，這五大指控很有力。你呢？

HTML5 異軍突起 與Flash正面衝突?!

網絡世界日新月異，近日最為網頁設計師所談論的話題，莫過於網頁設計新戰幔已經打開，那就是Flash和HTML5之戰。說起來有點怪異，兩者本來應相輔相承，何來競爭之兆呢？偏偏業界中人卻預期，雄霸網業世界的Flash，將在2010年遇到真正的對手，它不是Microsoft的Sliverlight，而是HTML5.

其實，業界中人估計，HTML5的整個規格說明可能要多十年的時間，才能真正踏入完備的階段，但隨著它的副組開始獲得界業用，它對Flash的影響日漸增強。

有多強？ Youtube在今年初開始，推出一個實驗性的HTML5視頻播放器；航空公司Virgin America(VA)早幾天宣佈，這間廉價航空公司已經掉棄了原來的Flash版本。

追來溯源？與iPhone有莫大的關係，因為iPhone推出多年，仍然堅守不支援Flash這片青草地。VA的資訊總監直言，他不想為每一款硬件或平台製作一款對應的版本，Flash毀掉了我們的iPhone客戶，但我們相信今年將會是手機用戶的一年。在剔除去Flash之後，VA網站目前正使用傳統的HTML和JAVASCRIPT，但正計劃使用HTML5。VA揚言，日後Flash的應用只會在於廣告的轉換。

誠然，這場戰事有多大，還是未知之數，事件可能只反映航空業很少應用Flash的功能，但也必需正視iPhone對業界帶來的影響。

今年三月一日，Google大哥正式放棄支援IE 6.0的瀏覽器，所持的理由是要支援HTML5，雖然有點項莊舞劍，志不在於支援HTML5，而在攻擊對手Microsoft。但亦令HTML5在隆重地在世界互聯網舞台上，正式登場！