An Attempt At Balanced Reporting

Microsoft has put out the second ad to its controversial Laptop Hunters series. Many articles do not know how to address these ads that include specific call outs to the apple value proposition. They have either focused on the bottom line price of the pc or the hardware specs of the apple – in defending one side or the other. Let me throw my hat into the ring.

The point of these ads are about choice. A consumer can say I have x amount of money and I want these 3 features, what laptop best fits my needs. As Lauren pointed out, for her there were no apple options available from which to choose from. This approach is a real world approach. I remember buying my first computer for college in 2002 and I had a $2000 budget and a set of minimum features as a baseline that I had written down on a piece of paper. I ended up buying a dell dimension, which I really enjoyed for the next 5 years.

Where I feel some people are getting confused is starting the conversation with an apple laptop and then asking people to find a pc equivalent. This makes for a good discuss but is not how people buy computers. It is not fair (or helpful) to start with a macbook laptop and twist around asking for a pc that matches this specific laptop. When one cannot find an apples to apples comparison (pun) – an apple user might declare victory.

The real value of these commercials are that they work through the buying process the way most other people do, with a set of relevant criteria and an open view to all laptops. The person’s specific budget and feature needs will begin to narrow down the selection to just a few laptops to choose from. The conversation should not be skewed by authors and bloggers that if only he/she had a bigger budget they would have picked an apple or if only this person wanted x feature rather than y feature they would get an apple.

The purpose is choice that allows you to buy a product that meets all of your individual needs. If someone has a specific budget of $1000 then don’t show me a $2500 laptop and say it is better. Of course a higher priced laptop will have better components. But I may not need all those components. That is like buying a jaguar to commute 10 minutes to work – it would be nice – but I don’t need it (iLife). In the end I want to choose and define my features rather than having someone else do that for me.

Aaron

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/videos.aspx?vindex=14

This is a really interesting video. In past benchmark tests I always felt disconnected on how they measured my internet experience. They go through tons of websites with and without java-script rending at a blurring speed – finalizing the results with a bar graph. The question I seem to ask inside is – are these results reflective of the sites I visit regularly and in the manner that I visit them? In the end does one browser lead in performance over the others so significantly that I can tell a different, myself?

This embedded video says ‘no’. The difference between browsers for the top internet sites is negligible – some leaning favorable to IE8, some to Chrome, and some to Safari. There is no clear outlier within the data set for all even most of them. This brings me back to the primary issue, like so many other products, that we are dealing with issues of perception not reality. Even if a browser is 30 milliseconds faster than a competing browser, like the video points out, that is the same time it takes to blink your eye. Who cares?

So the IE8 team needs to continue to reach out through organic and developed marketing campaigns to stay involved in the speed conversation. Perception will determine reality in minds of users. I have heard many people say “x-browser “feels” faster”. Now we know that is perception not reality – but in the end they are both equally important.

I would also like to see more focus and data around 3 additional benchmarks – ones that impact the overall browser experience:
Time to launch the program.
Time to open a new tab.
How fast it recovers from crashes.

And there is one more area that will be more important with time but not yet a fundamental benchmark. How many clicks or steps does it take me to get things done on the internet. From searching to finding to viewing to buying might take 10+ clicks. Can my browser help make that only 5 clicks or 4 clicks? The less the better. The Accelerators in IE8 are aimed at addressing this exact situation but it is early on and the product still young.

There was a program released last May in alpha (tech preview) that has become a must-have application for me – Live Mesh. This application in its current form is already pretty amazing and yet the potential of this application will continue to make it one of the most important and valuable products on the internet.

The concept is simple: as the number of devices we use increases across desktops, laptops, netbooks, cell phones, and media centers – users need a way to sync the content of their personal lives to just 1 profile rather than to multiple individual devices. The result should be that each user sees just 1 folder of their photos, docs, and video no matter with device they are using.

Live Mesh can do all that right now, instantly and in the background. But the future can and will go beyond just files to include programs and settings – using a simple and secure online profile. It can also begin to replicate the many advantages we get from Exchange Server on our cell phones.

Recently I bought a new Motorola Q and while still in the store I opened up the box and entered my Exchange alias, domain, and password. Literally, by the time I walked back to my car in the store parking lot my contacts, calendar, and emails were already synchronized to my newly purchased cell phone. Now imagine buying a new laptop, entering your Live Mesh username and password, and instantly seeing your your files, applications, and settings from your old laptop download to your new one. No cables, no manual coping, and no external hard drives.

Simple and amazing. If you have not already started to use Live Mesh take a good look at this application. It is free to the public and runs across PCs, Macs, and many Cell Phones.

How many clicks does it take to add a tabbed session to your IE8 favorites? 5 + Plus a folder name.

If I am doing this several times a day with news stories, product research, or general web browsing than five clicks (plus a folder name) is too much. There is a quick add to favorites button but that doesn’t work for tabs and it also suppressing your frequently visited favorites shown above the tabs. People use favorites for two reasons: to quickly save a session to view later or to save a frequently visited site for quicker access later. IE8 mixes these up so quick saves suppress frequently visited sites lowering either’s unique value.

How many clicks does it take to add a friend into my windows live network? 3.

Why isn’t the default just 1-click? Amazon figured out a way to do this with online purchasing so why can’t social networks be as successful with reducing redundancy. If the extra steps of reading/confirming each prompt and refreshing the screen before adding someone to your network takes an extra 5-10 seconds each time that costs users about 1 1/2 hours during each 1000 new adds. Imagine repeatedly clicking a mouse for 3 full episodes of Seinfeld to understand how wasteful this is to users.

For technology products and websites to win my loyalty as a user my ask is simple: get out of my way. Be conscience of my time and the amount of clicks required. If you can remove a click or two from the process…do it. If you can pre-populate a form or successfully suggestion something to expedite the process…do it. The fastest will become the most successful because users can accomplish more and convert quicker.