ImaginativePRO Blog

HANNOVER-BASED DESIGNER QOOP CREATES EDEN, A NATURAL WOOD BACKPLATE REPLACEMENT KIT FOR YOUR IPHONE 5 AND 4S

Eden is a replacement backplate for the iPhone 4 and 4S made out of wood (Click Image To Enlarge)

HOW DO YOU TURN A WARRANTY-VOIDING MODIFICATION INTO AN APPROACHABLE PRODUCT?

To those who abstain from iPhone cases on aesthetic grounds, the idea of replacing the device’s machine-milled backplate with a wooden one will seem like a transgression worthy of prison time. But the modification has proven to be a popular one, and now, with a kit from the Hannover-based design agency Qoop, it’s become a fully realized product. Creating Eden, as the line is called, involved tackling an unusual challenge: figuring out how to package a warranty-voiding, specialty-screwdriver-requiring process as something an average person would feel comfortable tackling.

The modification isn’t a new one, but here, Hannover-based design agency Qoop dressed it up as a fully-realized product (Click Image To Enlarge)

It involved a unique challenge -- making a warranty-voiding mod into something anyone could do (Click Image To Enlarge)

Part of the solution is obvious: Supply that specialty screwdriver. Qoop did that--and made sure it’s something the buyer sees right away upon opening the box. Here’s your new backplate, here’s the tool you’ll need to install it. "The arrangement within the packaging box is simple," explains one of the designers, "giving the customer a feeling that it is going to be easy to replace." A tiny screwdriver rattling around loose inside a box doesn’t inspire much confidence when it comes to this type of precision endeavor.

So they went for super-straightforward packaging that when you open the box you see two things -- your backplate, and the screwdriver you need to replace it (Click Image To Enlarge)

The rest of the identity was rounded out by the designers’ decision to use real quality woods (Click Image To Enlarge)

The instructions for executing the job are similarly straightforward, essentially just four simple diagrams showing users how to proceed. It’s the Ikea approach to iPhone customization. You don’t need to know that the screws you’re dealing with are of an unusual pentalobe variety, so the included instructions don’t bother telling you. They just show you how to remove them.

The kit is available in wenge, mahogany, beech, and bamboo (Click Image To Enlarge)

You can grab your own kit on the Eden page for 89.00€, or around $120 (Click Image To Enlarge)

The kit, which is compatible with the iPhone 4 and 4S, comes in four varieties of wood: wenge, mahogany, beech, and bamboo. Going the real-wood route (and avoiding the flimsy fake-wood versions that at least double the ech-factor), became a central part of the product identity, too. a Qoop team member explained. 

"We believe that we’re enhancing the highly technical iPhone,  making it warmer and more natural."

The product picked up a "back to nature" tagline, and the team decided on a plain cardboard package that was intended to reflect their commitment to natural materials. All of the wood, the team points out, is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which oversees environmentally sound practices.

Still, natural or not, the style may not be for everyone. But for those who are interested, Qoop has made the potentially sticky process about as streamlined as it can possibly be.

You can grab your own kit on the Eden page for 89.00€, or around $120.

COMMENTARY:   That's what I call a cool replacement to the standard drab black or white backplate on the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5.  At $120, it's an expensive alternative to what Apple offers on its iPhone, but if you love the natural colors and texture of real wood, go for it. 

Courtesy of an article dated February 20, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design 

NEW VIDEO SHOWS HOW GOOGLE'S GLASS AUGMENTED REALITY GLASSES WORK FROM THE WEARER'S POINT-OF-VIEW

A beautiful young lady wears a pair of Google's new augmented reality glasses (Click Image To Enlarge)

Developers, start your laptops. Google depicts how it'll feel using the augmented reality headset.

Google's Glass augmented reality hardware isn't yet available and the project's development is generally kept secret, but the company has now released a video that gives us a hint about how its user interface will work. In it many users are seen interacting with Glass's systems. The video shows the point of view of normal vision plus the Glass augmented reality-style window in the field of view.

Googler shows what Google's new augmented reality glasses see from the wearer's point-of-view (Click To Enlarge Image)

Users demonstrate searching for information, taking a picture or recording video, and even asking for a Google translation into Thai.

 

In many ways, these are the same details we've seen in other Glass PR stunts, but this conceptualized video shows it from the "inside" glass point of view, presumably to demonstrate the power of the device and its seamless UI. Google has recently allowed developer access to Glass hardware, and will soon be releasing 8,000 new headsets to promising app developers. Still, a consumer launch is not expected any time too soon.

COMMENTARY:   Since I last blogged about Google's Project Glass, a lot has happened, and it looks like things are cranking up and preparation are being made for a launch in either late 2013 or early 2014.

Facebook Wants A Piece of the Google Glass Action

Face1book founder, Mark Zuckerberg, can’t wait for the Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) release of its Google Glass device. The tech entrepreneur made the comments at a charity function that both he and Google founder, Sergey Brin, were attending. According to Forbes, this is what Mark Zuckerberg said about Google's new augmented reality glasses.  

“I can’t wait to get my own.”

There is a heated rivalry between Facebook and Google, as both companies compete for the same advertisement revenue. The firms’ executives are not above honest appreciation of each others products, as evidenced by the statement from Zuckerberg.

Both tech luminaries were attending an event at the University of California medical campus at Mission Bay. They were there promoting the Breakthrough Prize For The Life Sciences, a new $3 million award for excellence in the Life Sciences. Brin and Zuckerberg are both prominent backers of the prize.

Brin, who has been spotted sporting Google Glass eye wear in public since last May, was wearing the device at the event, and offered Zuckerberg a sneak peak at their capabilities, fixing his pair onto the CEO’s head at the back of the hall after media comments. Google Glass is billed as a social experience, that means that Facebook integration will be absolutely necessary.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin demonstrates Google's new Glass, the wearable internet glasses shown at the Google I-O conference in San Francisco, June 27, 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)

Despite the growth in Google’s own social platform, Facebook is still the gold standard in social networking. Google will need absolute cooperation from the Menlo Park company if its glass product is going to succeed, and judging by the mood surrounding it, it will need all the help it can get.

Here's an early video when Google announced Google Glass back at Google I/O 2012:

 

Google announced just two days ago that it would offer Google Glass to early adopters for $1,500 a pair. In order to avail of the offer, hopefuls will have to fill in an application demonstrating their ability to add to the Google Glass project. Developers have already been able to apply for a pair.

Facebook employees will no doubt be involved in the development of applications for the device, though it remains to be seen whether or not the firm will be able to release an early application. The firm showed weakness with its release of poor iPad apps more than a year after that products release.

Facebook will be essential to Google Glass in the early days. The product will almost certainly require apps specifically designed for it. It does not seem like full web pages will be useable on the device. If Zuckerberg’s comments are anything to go by, Facebook engineers might jump right in.

Warby Parker To Design Glass AR Frames For Google

In a blog post dated April 18, 2013, I reported on what Fast Company felt Google needed to do in order to make its Glass AR glasses a commercial success.   It now appears that Google listened. A New York Times report claims that Google is talking to Warby Parker, the online glasses store with a heart, and it's one of Fast Company's Most Innovative in Retail 2012, in an attempt to make its glasses look like something you'd want to wear out without making people point, scream, faint (optional) and shriek, "Cyborg, Incoming!" when they see you.  Neither firm, of course, would comment on the claim, which emanated from "two people briefed on the negotiations." The current model is glassless, but there is an idea to fit them with either tinted or prescription lenses. There is still no clue as to when Google Glass will be available, but the firm yesterday ratcheted up the excitement another notch with this, the If I Had Glass project. Consider yourself cool, curious, creative, and a U.S. resident over 18? Should Google feel the same about you, then you could become an Explorer (nothing so mundane as testing, eh?) for the project.

Google Glass Undergoes FCC Tests

Earlier this month, it was reported that the F.C.C. has been giving the glasses the once-over.  Every electronic device that transmits radio signals must undergo FCC tests and meet stringent radio frequency and communications requirements before a product is approved for the commercial market. 

New York Fashion Week Test Drives Google Glass

Google Glass AR glasses have been seen out in the wild at New York Fashion Week last September, at DVF's runway show (she later released a short film, DVF Through Glass, about the specs).

Apple iWatch Under Development

Snapping at the heels of Google's AR glasses could be the iWatch, a wearable gadget which, according to a report last week, has 100 product designers seeing to its every whim.

From the look of things, Google is taking extra care and is very serious about launching Google Glass AR glasses, and doing it the right way.  From everything I have seen so far, I think the era of wearable electronic devies is about to take a significant jump into our daily lives, and tying the whole thing with a social platform, whether its Google+, Facebook or Twitter, makes obvious sense for enriching our online experience in a new and more dramatic fashion than we ever thought possible.  

The $1,500 price tag is hefty, but there will always be a small group of early adopters ready, willing and able to pay the price for the next new thing in electronic gadgetry.  The fact that that Google is making it a requirement that buyers fill out an application demonstrating that they can add to the overall Google Glass project user experience, makes it appear very likely that the initial launch rollout will be to a relatively small group of customers.       

It also seems very likely that the first owners of Google Glass AR glasses will be running an a Google app that will integrate the glasses with Google+.  I have often commented that Google+ users are mostly affluent male social media and technology geeks, so this could be a rich proving ground for the new Glass AR glasses.  You can expect a lot of the will already be Googler's.  

This also raises a lot of questions as to how Google intends to make money off of Glass AR glasses.  I don't think it will be the glasses themselves, but a grand plan involving mobile ads appearing in the lens.   Example:  If I look at a McDonald's restaurant while wearing a pair of Glass AR glasses, the software will recognize McD's and immediately prompt me with a small add promoting a free fries if I buy a Big Mac.  I think that's Google's grand scheme to monetize Google+, by making users much more pro-active within its social platform, and then coupling the whole thing with advetising.  

Google could also integrate Google Glass AR glasses with your moble phone to give you instintaneous location information and tell you how many of your Google+ fans are nearby, what they are doing, and you can either text them or call them from your smartphone.  

The capabilities are endless, and Google is about to change the social media landscape several notches.  Whether it will share this technology with Facebook and Twitter remains to be seen.  I know that Zuck would love a pair of those AR glasses, and he probably will get a shot, but I have a feeling that Google may not want to integrate the Facebook or Twitter platforms with its AR glass technology, keeping that competititve edge for itself.  This makes me very happy, since I am already a Google+ user.  :) 

Courtesy of an article dated February 20, 2013 appearing in Fast Company and an article dated February 21, 2013 appearing in Fast Company and an article dated February 20, 2013 appearing in IGN

BANG WITH FRIENDS: A MATCHMAKING APP THAT COULD SPARK THE NEXT SEXUAL REVOLUTION ON FACEBOOK?

IN THE ERA OF THE OVERSHARE, BANG WITH FRIENDS ALLOWS DISCREET CONVERSATION (AND SEX) WITH YOUR ENTIRE SOCIAL NETWORK.

Its three creators are anonymous college students. They claim to have built the app in just two hours. Yet Bang With Friends is the simplest, most disruptive app Facebook has seen in a long time.

The premise is so obvious, you’ll kick yourself for not thinking of it first. You install the app, then the app lists your Facebook friends of the opposite sex. You click if you’d like to “bang” them, and no one ever knows . . . that is, unless one of those friends installed the app and elected to bang you, too. Bang With Friends makes finding a mate as easy as window shopping on Pinterest.

Bang With Friends homepage (Click Image To Enlarge)

One of the creators tells Co.Design.

“We wanted to keep it simple. See your friends, choose your potential bangs, and then get notified privately via email when you have a match. Wham, bam, thank you new friend with benefits!”

With my wife’s permission, I took Bang With Friends for a spin. After installing the app, I was greeted by a Pinterest-y wall of potential hook-ups: An old co-worker. A friend from high school. A cousin. A minor. A dude. My wife. Lots of my friends’ wives. My mother-in-law, but, thank god, at least not my mom (apparently, there’s at least one filter at work here). With the touch of a button, my vote was cast. I opted just for my wife--really! Part of me hopes she accepts. Part of me hopes she never experiences the oddity of seeing her friends and relatives as a list of potential DTFs.

A few smarter filters would no doubt, make the app less inherently awkward (it’s hard to believe that family members should make the list). But then again, filters imply a certain level of judgement. And if Bang With Friends is anything, it’s a nonjudgmental corner of your social, digital life in which you can let your basest impulses run wild. For however frat-boy-centric the app may be marketed, it’s solving one of the biggest problems in social networking: How do you have an intimate conversation in a room full of your relatives? And how do you leverage all this amazing connectivity to take a leap of faith, without leaving a permanent, devastating trail of evidence?

Click Image To Enlarge

Since launching about a week ago, the team claims to have matched 10,000 couples, and due to overwhelming user demand, they’re working on an update that will bring LGBT matching. A mobile app is in the works, too, but they wouldn’t comment as to their current state of funding.

Bang With Friends

COMMENTARY:   Although many people have laughed at Bang With Friends idea and its shameless, frat-boy marketing, its premise of one-button interaction has struck a chord.   Since launching a few weeks ago with no marketing budget to speak of, half a million users have clicked their “down to bang” button 9 million times (or about 15 times apiece). The app has facilitated as many as 100,000 hookups.

A developer who goes simply by the name of C told Fast Company Design. 

“As much of a joke and an unabashed, risque approach as we’d taken, there’s a larger vision.  We really think this is a much more realistic way of how the younger generation is working.”

Even still, in an interview earlier this week, C was quick to point out his platform’s big shortcoming. Once users have created their bang list, most people have no more use for the app. There’s nothing else to do but refresh Gmail for the notification of a match. So the team is rolling out a series of new updates focused on the product’s long tail. And its pièce de résistance is every bit as intriguing as the app’s original premise.   C says  

“It’s like a Klout score for your weekly sexiness.”

As part of the update, Bang With Friends is adding richer profiles, pulling several images from your Facebook feed. Along with all these clicks comes the opportunity for analytics. While viewing data will remain anonymous, Bang With Friends will be providing a weekly score for each user, generated from the sorts of pageviews they’re drawing.   C says.  

“If nothing else, it gives you an idea that people were at least curious about you, that they didn’t get over the hump--no pun intended--or that maybe they’re viewing a certain photo of yours more than others.”

Bang With Friends now features a Klout-like bangability score. Colbert and Stewart are apparently the app’s flagship users. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Scores are sharable, but going public with your number is an opt-in scenario. (Or it was supposed to be. Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart both have staggeringly large public numbers at the moment that they probably didn’t authorize. Also, see your invite, Jon. Thx.) The idea is to add a feature that you can boast about, but if you strike out, no one is any the wiser. In this regard, your bangability score is actually a lot more humane than Klout. But checking your score is just the hook of a larger vision for the platform, C tells me, that morphs the hook-up service into a more legitimate dating site.  C says.

“We see it as being more than Bang With Friends. We want to redefine ‘bang’ so it can be something like, ‘I want to meet up, I’m down to hang rather than just down to bang.’”

So moving forward, the app will actually have a “down to hang” button alongside the “down the bang” button. A skeptic might say that Bang With Friends is selling out before landing their first major investor, trading in their social media key to become another Match.com. But C disagrees.

He maintains. 

“We’re not trying to form it into something that’s more socially acceptable, we’re trying to expand the use case.  We’re definitely not getting rid of the bang part. We’re not at all ashamed of that.”

The more I consider the potential of Bang With Friends as a quasi-legitimate dating site, the more the idea actually makes a perverse amount of sense. It’s going to attract a certain cohort--just like a ChristianMingle or eHarmony does--and even when that cohort generally wants to hang, you’ll know that they’re like-minded in being open to bang. But whether or not their users will still be so likely to click that “down to bang” option with another, more conservative choice in sight? That’s the question. And if that’s lost, so is the strangely alluring id-scratcher that is Bang With Friends. 

Courtesy of an article dated February 4, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design and an article dated  February 15, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design

INFOGRAPHIC: 14 WAYS TO INSPIRE VIRAL SHARING ON FACEBOOK

Companies who market via Facebook often don’t realize the damage that they do by not making each and every update a compelling one. There’s so much activity happening around each user that Facebook can’t possibly display every update. As a result, they often only display posts that are shared and/or discussed to a great extent.

Shares have more weight in the news feed. Basically, Facebook’s algorithms determine that the more people share a post and make it go viral, the more people want to see it. Makes sense. In this fun infographic, prepared for Mari Smith by the good folks over at ShortStack, you’ll find 14 different ways to help boost your Facebook visibility and inspire more shares!

This provides a challenge to companies, but often also provides an opportunity. With great graphics, a great copywriter, and great tools… the content you share on Facebook can travel swiftly if you prepare and distribute it well. Mari’s infographic nails all the aspects of content that’s shared on Facebook.

Click Image To Enlarge

Courtesy of an article appearing in Marketing Tech Blog

PwC STUDY: SOCIAL COMMERCE STILL A LOSER -- ONLY 12% OF CONSUMERS BROUGHT ANYTHING THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA SITES

While there’s no denying that consumers are increasingly using social media in just about every area of their lives, they still aren’t into shopping there. A new global study from PwC, the global consultancy, reports that last year, only 12% of consumers bought anything through social media.

Nor does social media buzz do much to drive sales: Only 18% of those consumers active in social media made a purchase as a result of information they got via their social-media connections.

The report says. 

“Our survey data shows that social media will, for the near future, remain a backwater sales channel, if you can call it a sales channel at all.   While about half of respondents say they’re checking out social media sites daily, only a tiny minority uses the sites frequently to shop. In fact, seven out of ten online shoppers who took our survey say they never shop this way. That should remain the status quo for the immediate future.”

But the survey, based on 11,000 people in 11 countries, did highlight a fast-growing willingness to interact with brands via social media, with 59% saying they follow brands through social channels, up from 49% last year. And 27% say they’ve discovered brands they didn’t know about this way, compared with 17% last year.

One big exception is China, where one in four shoppers has already made a purchase via social media.

PwC has classified them in three different groups: 

• Brand lovers - This segment offers the most potential for future shopping, and includes the 38% of consumers now following brands and retailers, up from 33% last year. And they are the fiercest shoppers, with 53% going into an actual store at least weekly (compared with 45% of the overall sample), and 45% making at least one online purchase per week. 
• Deal hunters - Nearly half of the survey fell into this category, and will click through to online stores if they think they’ve spotted an appealing offer.
• Social addicts - While the smallest group, this minority uses social media “to talk about their experiences with brands, learn what their friends like and recommend, find customer service answers, and submit ideas and product feedback to companies,” the report notes. Failing to include these evangelists “carries significant reputational risk, as these very active online users tend to have huge social media networks and wield an outsized influence.”

Its slow start as a commerce channel notwithstanding, social media continues to be a critical component of brand building.  The report says.

“Despite its inability to lead directly to a purchase, social media activity is a pretty strong indicator of how much some shoppers will buy, both online and in stores, so...the impact social media has on the brand needs to be part of every multichannel strategy discussion. It’s clearly a robust marketing and communications tool for retailers and consumer product companies.”

COMMENTARY:   Although some brands over the years have been skeptical about how social media can bring in revenue, a new infographic reveals social commerce sales are expected to bring in $30 billion each year by 2015, with half of web sales to occur through social media.

Cloud marketing software provider Vocus has put together an infographic with stats from Gartner Research highlighting how brands are currently using social media and what trends are on the horizon.

According to the data, Facebook drives 26% of referral traffic to business websites and those numbers are only expected to increase. About 20% of shoppers already prefer buying products through a brand's Facebook page compared to its website.

Although Facebook users still use the platform largely for personal use, one in three businesses embrace it to reach out to consumers. Nearly 10 million registered small businesses have a Facebook presence, and 89% of agencies use the social network to advertise for their business clients.

Fans who follow brands on Facebook are also more likely to purchase items from the company than non-fans. With that in mind, about 89% of small businesses believe Facebook is a valuable marketing tool for their brand.

Click Image To Enlarge

In an article dated January 28, 2013 appearing in Social Commerce Today, it was announced that Payvment, the leading provider of Facebook enabled social commerce storefronts, announced that it will cease operations on February 28, 2013 and transfer all accounts to social commerce platform Ecwid.

Ecwid, an e-commerce provider with more than 250,000 customers, will be taking over Payvment's 200,000 customers, though terms of the deal are unknown at this time. An announcement released this morning states that Ecwid will be “acquiring sellers referred by Payvment.” 

For those unfamiliar, Ecwid is no slouch when it comes to e-commerce. It built the first PHP-powered store builder, which eventually became known as X-Cart. Its current platform allows merchants to easily embed a shopping cart widget into their blogs or websites with no little or no technical knowledge required.

There’s also a mobile version of the platform and Ecwid also has its own Facebook shopping cart app, which I assume is what Payvment sellers will transition to.

Both Payvment’s and Ecwid’s customer base consists primarily of small businesses, so there is synergy there. In fact, if you ask me, based on my knowledge of both companies and their respective CEO’s, I think Ecwid is the perfect e-commerce provider to take over Payvment’s client base and would suggest to its sellers that they are in good hands.

These two companies commanded the lion's share of social commerce stores on Facebook. Facebook does not report revenues from ecommerce storefronts and neither do Ecwid and Payvment, but it is important to note that these customers are mostly small businesses conducting ecommerce sales on Facebook.   

On the flip side of the coin, large retailers have not fared very well selling their goods on Facebook. In fact, in a blog post dated February 17, 2012, I reported that Penneys, Nordstroms and Gap had opened Facebook stores, but quickly closed them down only after a few months. The failure of large retailers to generate much traction on Facebook makes you wonder if it is even possible to generate significant ecommerce sales through Facebook. The above infographic forecasts taht social commerce sales could hit $30 billion by 2015.  There are still a lot of unanswered questions, and the above PcW survey certainly casts doubts about social commerce or F-commerce (Facebook).

Courtesy of an article dated February 7, 2013 appearing in MediaPost Publications Marketing Daily and an article dated January 28, 2013 appearing in Social Commerce Today

TWINE: A KICKSTARTER PROJECT THAT RAISED TOO MUCH MONEY, THEN SHIPPED LATE DUE TO POOR PLANNING AND "MURPHY'S LAW"

Twine, a gadget that promises to make your your washing machine tweet when the laundry is done and your basement send an email when it floods, raised more than $500,000 on Kickstarter in 2011 (Click Image To Enlarge)

When Twine's creators signed up for Kickstarter, they thought they'd make about 200 devices using the same $20 toaster oven they had purchased for the prototype. Then they raised more than $500,000.

Twine is exactly the type of sensor-stuffed, Wi-Fi-connected gadget you would expect to take off in Kickstarter's tech section. The device promises to make your washing machine tweet when the laundry is done and your basement send an email when it floods. Blogs called it “the future” within a week after debuting. Nobody was surprised when it raised more than half-a-million dollars--except for its creators.

Supermechanical expected to make about 200 Twines after running its Kickstarter project. Instead, it ended up shipping 4,000 of them to Kickstarter backers (Click Image To Enlarge)

When John Kestner and David Carr posted Twine on Kickstarter in November 2011, they had set their fundraising goal at $35,000. Their plan was to produce about 200 units using the same process that created the prototype. But six weeks later, having raised $556,541, they were now committed to shipping almost 4,000 units. The homemade wax mold used to create Twine's prototype was no longer going to cut it, and there wasn't another plan. Kestner tells Fast Company.

“We were definitely not thinking of the risk of being too successful.” 

Twine's creators, John Kestner and David Carr, who call their startup 'Supermechanical,' prototyped Twine in the basement of a dorm (Click Image To Enlarge)

In scaling their manufacturing process, tasks the team of two hadn't considered--customizing a $15,000 set of tooling, designing packaging, communicating with backers, and searching for components--added up to an unmanageable number of full-time jobs. Twine’s estimated delivery date of March quickly became unrealistic.

Despite the disproportionate attention that superstar Kickstarter projects like Twine get, they're rare. Most projects raise less than $10,000, and until last year, none had raised more than $1 million. But as Kickstarter's scale rockets, breakaway projects like Twine are becoming not only more visible but more common. Seventeen Kickstarter projects passed the $1 million (or euro equivalent) milestone last year. Six of them, like Twine, were gadget projects, which are arguably left in the most awkward position after breakout success. When a Kickstarter project involving hardware takes off, what started as a dream and a prototype can morph into a mass-manufacturing commitment within a couple of weeks. It’s something of a Cinderella story--but one in which Cinderella must learn how to navigate mass manufacturing overnight. Here is how it worked out for Twine.

Twine's prototype cost just a few hundred dollars to create. Its first version's outer casing baked in a $20 toaster oven (Click Image To Enlarge)

Stage 1: Prototyping

Prototyping Twine cost a few hundred dollars. Recently graduated from MIT’s Media Lab, Kestner and Carr “squirreled away” a space to work in the basement of a Harvard dorm. Carr already owned a soldering iron and the electronics equipment for Twine’s circuit board, and he carved a wax mold for Twine's blue outer casing using a milling machine that he had built himself. Silicone and urethane cost about $100 at a local supply shop, and the toaster oven where Twine's first casing baked for six hours cost another $20.

Carr made the wax mold for Twine's outer casing with a homemade milling machine (Click Image To Enlarge)

It wasn't until the third day of the Kickstarter project, when Twine's funding passed three times the original goal, that the pair of inventors realized Twine had scaled past this manufacturing process.  Kestner says.

“If we had done 4,000, it would have taken months just to physically manufacture them. That’s not including all of the development time.”

Carr already owned the soldering iron and electronics equipment he needed to create Twine's prototype circuit board (Click Image To Enlarge)

3-D printing, Github-type sites for creating hardware such as Upverter, and makerspaces like Boston-based Artisan Aylum have all made the path to creating a functional prototype or a small batch of gadgets easier.  Scott Miller, the CEO of a production consultancy called Dragon Innovation that has about 20 Kickstarter projects as clients says. 

“But the big gotchya is that is really just the beginning, and there’s a tremendous amount of work to do after that. Because the entrepreneurs have a lot of unknown unknowns, they don’t really know how far along the timeline they are. And typically they will think they’re a lot closer to getting volume on the shelf or e-commerce than they actually are.”

The tooling for Twine's outer casing wasn't as easy to 3-D prototype, and the resulting component wasn't usable the first time around. Had the Supermechanical not gotten a refund for a mistake with the factory's software, it could have cost them $15,000 (Click Image To Enlarge)

Stage 2:  Surprise Scaling

Though Kestner had studied industrial design as an undergraduate, he had never actually produced a physical object on a large scale. “To be honest, I Googled a lot,” he says.

All of Twine’s manufacturing partners and most of its component sources are located in the United States, which successfully avoided the problems with language, time, and cultural barriers that Kickstarter projects such as Pebble and LIFX have dealt with while manufacturing their products in China. Even without overseas manufacturing, however, there were plenty of unanticipated challenges.

The company that manufactured Twine’s outer casing, for instance, didn’t design the tooling it used to shape them. Kestner did. Whether or not his designs ended up being functional, they each would cost $15,000. Twine’s gut, the part that holds its circuit board, is made of hard plastic and was easy to test with a 3-D printer before putting money down for the real deal. But only one 3-D printer would prototype the tooling for Twine’s rubber casing, and the results weren’t nearly as accurate as the gut prototypes. When the actual metal tooling arrived, it was a disaster. The case was too tight, and it looked terrible. Problems with the manufacturer’s preview software got the team a refund, but the lost cost could have killed the project. Even with the refund, it cost time. All together, it took five months to just design Twine’s outer casing.

Twine’s gut, the part that holds its circuit board, is made of hard plastic and was easy to test with a 3-D printer before putting money down for the real deal (Click Image To Enlarge)

Meanwhile, Twine’s first employee coordinated the delivery of 100 components to the factory that assembled Twine’s circuit boards--a job that was part scavenger hunt and part logistical Olympics. Kestner worked on a design for Twine’s packaging and put together a website for managing Twine backers’ new addresses and international shipping costs.

By the time the casing and circuit boards began arriving in June, the team had moved to Austin. Boxes started piling up in their new workspace (Click Image To Enlarge)

By the time the casing and circuit boards began arriving in June, the team had moved to Austin. Boxes started piling up in their new workspace.

By the time Twine's parts were ready for assembly, the team had moved from Boston to a workspace in Austin, TX (Click Image To Enlarge)

The casing arrived from an injection molding plant in Minnesota. Circuit boards came from a manufacturer in New Hampshire. And the 8-piece boxes that Kestner designed himself came from North Carolina in large flats.Supermechanical, the company behind Twine, had already spent nearly all of its Kickstarter money. It had overshot its estimated shipping date by three months, and it hadn’t even started putting devices together.

A factory in New Hampshire assembled Twine's circuit boards. Its cases were made in Minnesota, and its packaging manufactured in North Carolina (Click Image To Enlarge)

Stage 3:  Missing The Deadline

It isn't just first-time hardware entrepreneurs that struggle with the manufacturing demands of surprise scaling via Kickstarter. Pebble Technology's CEO, Eric Migicovsky, has been working on smartwatches for four years. The company manufactured about 1,500 units of its first product, InPulse, at a Bay Area manufacturer. But the 85,000 Pebble smartwatches the company owes Kickstarter backers after raising $10 million on the site required a shift to an overseas manufacturing process, and--though Migicovsky says this plan B existed in advance--the company missed its September estimated delivery date.

In fact, most breakaway hardware projects have missed their deadlines. iPhone station Elevation Dock shipped about six months late. Virtual reality headset Oculus Rift initially set its expected delivery date for October, but announced recently that it now expects to be delivering developer kits by March 2013. By one estimate, only 25% of Kickstarter’s design and technology products deliver on time.

Twine technician tests each finished Twine for quality control issues.  This is a very time-consuming procedure, but a necessary evil in order to avoid returns for defects, requests for refunds and the resulting bad publicity (Click Image To Enlarge)

Being late is not necessarily a big deal. Kickstarter is, after all, designed to support unfinished projects. A bigger problem is reaching a Kickstarter funding goal only to realize that the funding can’t come close to covering your costs. Twine, for instance, set its goal at $35,000—aiming as low as possible in order to avoid missing it. 

Kestner says.

“If we had gotten less than we did, but still met our goal, that would have really hurt us; we would have lost money.  There’s an uncomfortable valley between hand-making stuff and being able to have the capital to invest in tooling and all the stuff that goes into mass manufacturing that you just can’t get good prices on without mass production. So what do you do? You can’t afford to hand-make 1,000 of something.”

Dragon Innovation’s Miller says he often gets panicked calls from Kickstarter project creators who can't feasibly complete their projects. Their creators did not understand the manufacturing costs when they set their goal. Their timeline is unreasonable, or their design isn’t actually manufacturable.

Miller says. 

“They’ve also spent the money, and Amazon and Kickstarter have taken their cut.  They can’t even give back the money. It’s kind of a really unfortunate position to be in.”

Stage 4:  Delivering Against The Odds

Kestner asks at some point while describing Twine's journey from Kickstarter funding to shipping,

"What’s that quote that says,  'If I knew how hard it was to do it, maybe I wouldn’t have started in the first place?'"

Kickstarter doesn't provide any warnings. While it approves projects before they go live on the site, the process is more like filling out a college application than an investigation into the project’s feasibility. In September, however, the platform took its biggest step in preventing hardware projects from drowning in their own success (and the phrase "Kickstarter vaporware" from entering the vernacular) by banning renderings and simulations.  it advised in a blog post.

“The best rule of thumb: under-promise and over-deliver.”

Earlier that summer additional guidelines for design and technology products required information about creators' relevant experience and a manufacturing plan. Kickstarter has also advised against posting finished products on the site, remind its users that "Kickstarter is Not a Store." So what is the appropriate amount of risk?

No matter how overwhelmed by their projects, all six of the Kickstarter gadget creators I interviewed for this article talked about the opportunities Kickstarter gives entrepreneurs to solicit input and test demand for a product at an early stage.  Kestner says.

"It’s okay that you have the chance to fail.  That’s how good stuff gets made. You’ve got to have the chance to fail."

Some did say they wished they had waited until later in the development process before putting their gadgets on Kickstarter.  Some couldn't have afforded to get further along in the process before their Kickstarter campaign. Alex Hawkinson, the CEO of the company that makes SmartThings, a platform for connecting objects to the Internet that raised $1.2 million, said his product was already on track to ship when the campaign first went live. He set the reward thresholds knowing that he'd pretty much break even.  He told Fast Company.

“We were on track to launch the product at the end of this year anyway, but we were all Kickstarter users, and thought it was a great way to get the word out and sort of build on that three-legged stool.” 

Even without being prepared for it, Twine’s creators successfully navigated the mass manufacturing process by picking up new skills as they went. Now with a staff of five, Supermechanical started snapping units together last summer. Each of the 4,000 units took about 10 minutes to assemble, test, and package: A total of about more than 650 hours.

Supermechanical finally shipped its first 25 Twines in September--about six months after the estimated delivery date.

Kestner and Carr celebrated with a nice dinner.  Kestner says. 

"We didn’t cry.  But it was a great, great weight off."

The next day, they dove into what is sure to be a never-ending series of unexpected challenges: The circuit board assembler couldn’t keep the schedule it had agreed to, some of the shipped Twines returned in the mail, and, with the Kickstarter project behind them, it was time to address the small task of turning Twine into a sustainable business.

Kestner says.

“I’m a workaholic.  I’ve always been a workaholic, but this is the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life. It’s not free money. That’s for sure.”

COMMENTARY:   The thing I see happening with a lot of entrepreneurs building something is their lack of knowledge and understanding of the intricacies of manufacturing.  Developing production-ready prototypes, preparing precise engineering drawings and bills of materials, and exacting tooling is extremely important.  Several of my former clients didn't both to provide manufacturer's with precise engineering drawings or a bill of materials, or take into account the useful life of the tooling, or factor in additional tooling as production qualities scale.  

My recommendation for startups is to avoid assembling the finished product yourself, not unless you care about your family and kids, don't have much of a social life, and you have a high tolerance for pain and frustration.  Do what the big boys do.  Work only with individuals experienced with the manufacturing process from start-to-finish.  They are familiar with the material specifications, and whether the finished product will holdup during regular use.

If you can afford to produce several working prototypes, do so, then conduct a thorough A/B market test in order to determine if the product satisfies customer needs, provides a great overall experience, and provide you with the feedback to make any last minute changes to the prototype before you go into production on the final finished product.  Again, I can't tell you how many times entrepreneurs dive right into manufacturing without conducting an adequate market test, only to encounter quality control issues and huge numbers of product returns.     

Courtesy of an article dated February 5, 2013 appearing in Fast Company 

 

INVESTORS WORRIED APPLE HAS LOST ITS AURA AND INNOVATION MOJO, SHARES DROP 36% SINCE A HIGH OF 702.10 IN SEP 2012

"Apple is a different kind of company — it is on a mission of making products you didn’t know you wanted but then can’t live without. The financials follow,” UBS analyst Steven Milunovich said in a recent note to clients. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Apple Inc. investors have made it clear they want growth, which is why the company has lost 12% of its market value since Jan. 23, 2013, when it reported a flat quarterly profit and warned revenue growth would continue to slow.

Using some of its US$137-billion in cash to pay a bigger dividend, buy back more stock or issue preferred shares would surely staunch the decline in market cap, which has dropped 35% since last September. But Apple became a market darling because of its innovative products and that’s what investors really want to see more of.

Apple Inc (NASDAQ.AAPL) shares have plunged from a high of 702.10 on Sep 19, 2012 to 448.85 on Feb 20, 2013,a drop in total value  of 36.1% (Click Image To Enlarge)

UBS analyst Steven Milunovich said in a recent note to clients.

“Apple is a different kind of company — it is on a mission of making products you didn’t know you wanted but then can’t live without. The financials follow.” 

But creating the next big product is no easy task, which is why investors are calling for Apple to expand its iPhone offerings, chiefly down in price and up in screen size.

Mr. Milunovich estimates a sub-$300 iPhone could increase Apple’s addressable market by 40% or more, giving it easier access to emerging markets such as China and India. But he also believes there is a fine line between attracting more revenue and damaging its image.

Mr. Milunovich said.

“Apple is a premium brand that perhaps should worry more about diluting its image than its margins.  Apple is not a true luxury good in that it sells to the masses, but the brand expectation is of exquisite quality.”

Barclays Capital PLC analyst Ben Reitzes believes Samsung Electronics Co.’s momentum in the smartphone market requires Apple to expand its iPhone market substantially in 2013, as well as improve its platform.

He expects Apple to offer a lower-cost iPhone through new carriers such as NTT Docomo in Japan and China Mobile in the next few months. By this time next year, the analyst anticipates Apple will also have a five-inch phablet, which combines the functionality of a smartphone and a tablet.

However, Mr. Reitzes said Apple’s next great innovations need to come in the form of software and web/data services.

For example, he believes the iPhone 5S’s key feature must be fingerprint authentication, which could eventually be used in a secured payments system. And since younger users are less inclined to build huge iTunes libraries, the analyst thinks it’s time Apple entered the music streaming business.

He said in a report.

“We believe these services are needed to keep Apple’s ecosystem ahead of the pack and to attract and retain users.” 

The analyst suggested the seeds of this innovation may emerge when the company previews iOS 7 as early as March at an iPad launch event.

He said.  

“We believe Apple can turn perceptions of its platform around with a real move into payments, an integrated iOS-led television service and improvements to iCloud (including subscription-based services.”

Further ahead, there is the possibility of an iWatch, which could act as an office manager by coordinating the use of other Apple devices.

Eric Jackson, president of Ironfire Capital, a technology-focused hedge fund said.

“We’re still at the tip of the iceberg for wearable computing.”

He highlighted the recent launch of Nike Inc.’s social network-friendly FuelBand, which measures things such as time, calories and steps, as well as Google Inc.’s augmented reality specs that may released later in 2013.

Mr. Jackson said.

“Apple has proved again and again that they are able to come up with new and interesting products that will keep revenues moving higher.” 

He noted Apple has earned the luxury of being able to both return more capital to shareholders and invest in developing products for growth.

Mr. Jackson said. 

“I don’t think it’s an either/or.  They’re going to have a chance to prove the critics wrong.”

COMMENTARY:   I remember when I warned everybody that the "smartphone wars are not over" back in 2011, but little did I know the intensity of the competition that would come along. Samsung answered the call and went on the attack in 2012 by capturing the lead in total smartphones from Apple.   Although the Apple iPhone 5 outsold and took the lead from Samsung's Galaxy SIII in Q4 2012, Samsung still remains No 1 in overall smartphone unit sales and market share by a healthy margin for Q4 2012 (see my blog post dated February 20, 2013).

 Top 5 Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share - Q4 2012 (In Millions of Units ) - IDC (Click Image To Enlarge)

I predict that the Samsung Galaxy SIII will regain the lead in unit sales and market share from the Apple iPhone 5 in Q1 2013, because sales of the iPhone 5 have shown signs of slowing down (denied by Apple CEO Tim Cook) amid reports that the iPhone 5 is just too expensive for consumers in China and other developing nations.  Here are a few facts:  

• Customers love the S3's huge 4.8-inch OLED display over the iPhone 5's 4-inch Retina display.  On January 24, 2013, Tim Cook defended the smaller display of the iPhone 5 by saying:  "The iPhone 5 offers as you know a new 4-inch Retina display, which is the most advanced display in the industry and no one comes close to matching the level of quality as the Retina display. It also provides a larger screen size for iPhone customers without sacrificing the one-handed ease-of-use that our customers love. So, we put a lot of thinking into screen size and believe we’ve picked the right one."  Tim Cook is definitely overreaching here.
• On January 14, 2013, Apple reduced by half orders for LCD panels for the iPhone 5 from Sharp.   A clear sign that iPhone 5 sales are softening.
• In early January 2013, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple cut component orders for the iPhone 5 due to weaker-than-expected demand, with orders for iPhone 5 screens for the January-to-March quarter dropping to about half of what the company had previously planned to order. Orders of other components were also reduced. 

Tim Cook denied any slowdown in sales of the iPhone 5.      

I think that since former Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs passed away in 2011, the company has lost its innovation mojo.  When the first touchscreen iPhone was introduced in June 29, 2007, it was a wakeup call for the entire smartphone industry.  Everybody was caught off guard. Apple immediately gained a two-year head start in the premium priced touchscreen smartphone category.  After four years, Apple has lost that advantage, and is no longer the innovator, but simply leading by making incremental changes (SIRI, Retina display of iPhone 5, iPad 4 and Airbook).  

Fast Company's Bruce Nussbaum claims that Apple has lost its aura and is now in it more for the money and economic gains than true innovation.  Nussbaum says.

"The erosion of Apple’s Aura is so threatening to the company. This erosion appears to be widespread. The utter disaster of Apple Maps and problems with the latest version of iTunes disconnects the community and puts barriers between the 'object' and the 'subject' of Aura. There is no beckoning in bad products and no desire for losing the self in belonging by the consuming audience. Selling bad products is a betrayal of the Apple community and turns users’ strong emotions from love into anger. Who wants to identify with incompetence, rather than cool? This undermines the emotional engagement people have with the company."

Nussbaum blame's the decline in Apple's aura from a shift in what used to matter: to designing simple, beautiful and elegant products that people lust for, to money.  He says.  

"The shift in Apple’s narrative frame from awe to money is changing the meaning of belonging, a crucial ingredient of Aura. Instead of new and wonderful things that make our lives better, we hear constant talk of share prices, cost of iPhones, and price points in the 'globalization' of products. Charging for the iCloud introduces a tax to belonging to the community. And cutting costs by threatening to fire the competent and friendly staff in Apple stores--the physical 'face' of Apple to its followers--marks a distancing of the company with its followers. Apple once provided an optimistic, modern, creative existential meaning to its customers, who wanted to belong and were willing to pay extra to get into the community. But now it’s as if Apple has set out to break the bonds that connect it to its community."

I agree with Nussbaum.  Tim Cook is no innovator. Steve Jobs was an innovative genius and the best product picker in corporate history, who relinquished the operations side of the company to Tim Cook, while Steve was free to dream up the next new product.  With Steve Jobs now gone, Tim Cook's weakness in new product innovation has become glaringly clear.  Apple's aura has lost its luster.  Far too many things are falling through the cracks (Apple Maps, weak iPhone 5 battery, small display of the iPhne 5, and SIRI is not as good as Google search). This sort of thing would never have happened under Steve Jobs who strove for absolute perfection and demanded this from his new product development team. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook (left) and the late Steve Jobs (right) during a new product unveiling (Click Image To Enlarge)

Apple truly needs a big new, bold, exciting and breakthrough product that can make them reclaim their innovative lead and balls out market leader, not a leader by incremental improvements of existing products.  Just how much can you cram into the iPhone 5 (dubbed as the thinnest smartphone)?  The Retina display was nice, but the OLED display in the Galaxy S III is almost as good.  Apple no longer has an overwhelming lead in mobile apps.  Android developers have narrowed that gap, so apps are no longer an issue.

Steve Jobs used to create the products of tomorrow that people didn't know they needed yet.  He strove to create products that "put a dent in the universe."   Tim Cook is so far removed from new product innovation that he has to depend solely on Jonathan Ive, Apple's chief new product designer for new product ideas.   He was highly regarded by Steve Jobs, who called Ive his "spiritual partner at Apple."   

Jonathan Ive (left) and the late Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs (right) (Click Image To Enlarge)

Late last year, Tim Cook put Ive in the position of heading up Apple's Human Interface (HI) design across the company's products. Known for his work on Apple hardware, the British designer has worked his way up the ranks at Apple.  Still, I have to wonder whether Jonathan Ive has the chops to dream up the next new breakthrough product of tomorrow that consumers don't know they need yet.   Steve Jobs used to bring those incredible new product ideas to Ive, and Ive would run with them and design the finished product so that it would be nearly flawless and meet Jobs exacting requirements for ease-of-use, elegance and simplicity.  But with Steve Jobs now gone, there is no fire starter or originator of new product ideas.  This void has become painfully apparent, and investors have definite reasons to worry about Apple's future, and many of them are dumping shares quicker than you can say "Jobs."     

Time of Apple New Product Releases 1981 through 2010 (Click Image To Enlarge)

Courtesy of an article dated February 20, 2013 appearing in the Financial Post, an article dated February 17, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design, an article dated February 20, 2013 appearing in Tuaw and an article dated February 20, 2013 appearing in ValueWalk

APPLE'S iPHONE 5 CRUSHES SAMSUNG'S GALAXY S III, TAKES BACK LEAD IN Q4 2012 AFTER LOSING IT IN Q3 2012, BUT SAMSUNG NO 1 IN OVERALL SMARTPHONE SALES

After South Korean conglomerate Samsung boasted of having the best-selling smartphone in the third quarter with its Galaxy S III, dethroning Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s iPhone 4S, the company is now ceding that title back to Cupertino.

According to the most recent figures out of Strategy Analytics, Apple's iPhone was able to reclaim the spot as the best-selling smartphone in the world in the fourth quarter. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shipped a whopping 27.4 million units of the newest iPhone 5 during the holiday quarter, according to the estimates, nearly double the 15.4 million Galaxy S III units that Sammy shipped.

Source: Strategy Analytics. N/A = not applicable; iPhone 5 was launched in Q3 2012. Best-selling model in each quarter shown in bold. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Perhaps more interesting is that even the previous-generation iPhone 4S outsold the newest Galaxy S III, even after Samsung's newest flagship fared better in the third quarter.

Source: Strategy Analytics. N/A = not applicable; iPhone 5 was launched in Q3 2012. Best-selling model in each quarter shown in bold. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The third quarter was a transition period for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as it launched the iPhone 5 and sales of the iPhone 4S stalled in anticipation of the new model. In the fourth quarter, demand for the two newest generations rebounded while the Galaxy S III posted a sequential decline despite all of Samsung's aggressive marketing.

The third quarter was a transition period for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as it launched the iPhone 5 and sales of the iPhone 4S stalled in anticipation of the new model. In the fourth quarter, demand for the two newest generations rebounded while the Galaxy S III posted a sequential decline despite all of Samsung's aggressive marketing.

Low-balling it

 Another interesting data point is when you cross reference these figures with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s earnings figures, that implies that the company only sold 3 million units of the 2-year-old iPhone 4. Once the iPhone 5 was launched, the iPhone 4 was moved down to the on-contract subsidized price point of $0, which is mighty tempting.

That unit figure is lower than I would have expected, as on the last conference call, Tim Cook said that model was supply constrained for the entire quarter due to strong demand. It appears that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) significantly underestimated what level of demand the iPhone 4 could generate at such a low price point, despite the fact that it was originally released in 2010.

Does size really matter? With much debate recently over smartphone display size and the perception that Apple is lagging in this department, these figures show that Apple's choice to focus on one-handed use is holding up to skepticism. The anecdotal consensus recently has been that Apple is falling behind competitors because it has thus far refused to approach phablet territory.

Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK)'s flagship Lumia 920 sports a 4.5-inch display, the Galaxy S III carries a 4.8-inch display, and Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)'s new Z10 that was just unveiled uses a 4.2-inch display. Nokia sold a total of 4.4 million Lumias last quarter (including smaller devices), although it would have sold more if it could have built more.

The iPhone 4S figure is actually rather impressive when you think about it. We're talking about a previous-generation device that was released in 2011 that lacks 4G LTE and has "just" a 3.5-inch display outselling the latest 2012 flagship devices from Samsung and Nokia that have much larger displays and far faster 4G LTE data connections. The Lumia 920 sits at the same price point of $100 on contract, so the iPhone 4S has no pricing advantage there, while the Galaxy S III costs more.

That being said, there certainly is a growing market for larger smartphones and Apple really should tap it sooner or later. But these figures show that the pressure isn't quite as great as you'd think and that the company probably has the time to wait and do it right... like it always does.

There is a debate raging as to whether Apple remains a buy. The Motley Fool's senior technology analyst and managing bureau chief, Eric Bleeker, is prepared to fill you in on both reasons to buy and reasons to sell Apple, and what opportunities are left for the company (and your portfolio) going forward. To get instant access to his latest thinking on Apple, simply click here now.

The article Apple's iPhone 5 Crushes Samsung's Galaxy S III originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Evan Niu, CFA.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple.

COMMENTARY:   I'm absolutely amazed and impressed just how quickly the Apple iPhone 5 was able to regain the No 1 spot from the Samsung Galaxy SIII in Q4 2012, after losing the lead in Q3 2012.  However, acording to research firm IDC, Samsung still leads Apple in overall smartphone unit sales and market share, 63.7 million (29.8%) vs 47.8 million (21.8%) for Q4 2012.  I don't see that changing anytime soon due to Samsung's larger smartphone product line.

Top 5 Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share - Q4 2012 (In Millions of Units ) - IDC (Click Image To Enlarge)

Below is a comparison of both phones for smartphone aficionados:

Click Image To Enlarge

Courtesy of an article dated February 20, 2013 appearing in Insider Monkey 

HOW TO WATCH ASTEROID 2012 DA14 AS IT SAFELY PASSES ONLY 17,000 MILES FROM EARTH

NASA artist concept of asteroid 2012 DA14 (Click Image To Enlarge)

The best way for most of us to watch asteroid 2012 DA14 come within 17,200 miles of Earth on Friday, and then recede harmlessly into the cosmos, is to fire up your Web browser and watch the show online. Pictures of the space rock, which is about half the length of a football field, are already starting to roll in.

NASA's experts on near-Earth objects say that the time of closest approach will come at 2:25 p.m. ET, when the asteroid is zooming above the eastern Indian Ocean at a speed of almost 17,500 mph (7.8 kilometers per second). It'll be too dim to see with the naked eye, but observers in Australia, Asia and Europe might be able to follow it with binoculars or small telescopes if they know exactly where to look. (If you want to try it, follow the directions at the bottom of this item.)

 

Then there are the professionals: Astronomers around the world are tracking 2012 DA14 with optical telescopes and radar dishes to learn more about the asteroid's color, shape, spin and reflectivity. Such data could tell them what the object is made of, and perhaps provide insights into how similar objects could be diverted if they were on a threatening course. Which this one is not.

Experts estimate that asteroids the size of 2012 DA14 hit our planet every 1,200 years or so, exploding with the energy of a 2.5-megaton atomic bomb: The last such impact struck a remote region of Siberia without warning in 1908, flattening 820 square miles of forest. If an object that big were to hit in just the wrong place, it could wipe out a city. Coincidentally, a much smaller meteoroid came down over Russia on Friday, sparking a fireball and a glass-shattering shock wave.

The size of the asteroid 2012 DA14 in comparison to a football field (Click Image To Enlarge)

Even though the 150-foot-wide (45-meter-wide) asteroid is the biggest object of its kind to be seen coming this close to Earth, its orbit is so well-known that NASA's Near-Earth Object Program can rule out any chance of collision in the foreseeable future. And even though 2012 will fly 5,000 miles closer than satellites in geosynchronous orbit, NASA says its mostly south-to-north orbital path goes through a "sweet spot" that keeps it far away from those satellites — as well as from other spacecraft that are in closer orbits, including the International Space Station.

 

Thus, astronomers don't expect to see anything go boom on Friday. But they could pick up on some subtler phenomena, such as seismic disturbances in the asteroid that are induced by Earth's gravitational kick, or characteristics of the asteroid's spin that are affected by radiation absorption and emission.

This animated set of three images shows 2012 DA14 as it was observed by the Faulkes Telescope South in Australia on Feb. 14 at a distance of 465,000 miles. The asteroid is the moving bright spot in the middle.NASA's website provides details. Credit: LCOGT / E. Gomez / Faulkes South / Remanzacco Observatory. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Radar readings provide the best way to get a fix on the asteroid's shape and spin, in part because observations from multiple radio telescopes can be combined to produce a clearer picture. During 2012 DA14's flyby, radio telescopes in California, New Mexico and Puerto Rico will be tracking the asteroid. NASA's 230-foot (70-meter) dish at Goldstone, Calif., is expected to collect radar imagery good enough to produce a 3-D movie mapping the space rock from all sides.

Graphic depicts the trajectory of asteroid 2012 DA14 on Feb 15, 2013. In this view, we are looking down from above Earth's north pole. Image credit of NASA-JPL-Caltech (Click Image To Enlarge)

Other telescopes, spread out from Australia to Israel to the Canary Islands to the U.S., will be gathering optical data — and the images from some of those telescopes will be shared on Friday. Here's the viewing schedule:

Noon ET: NASA plans to start streaming near-real-time imagery of the asteroid's flyby, as provided by telescopes in Australia and Europe, weather permitting. Watch JPL video on Ustream.

2 p.m. ET: To mark the time of closest encounter, NASA will present a half-hour program with commentary from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The show will feature computer animations as well as any live or near-real-time imagery that becomes available from telescopes in Australia. Watch video on NASA.gov or Ustream. (NBCNews.com also plans to stream the show.)

3:15 p.m. ET: The Bareket Observatory in Israel says it will air a three-hour webcast featuring imagery from the flyby. Static images of the asteroid and its celestial surroundings will be refreshed every 30 to 60 seconds. Watch Bareket's webcast.

5 p.m. ET: The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 will present live video of the asteroid flyby from a telescope in Italy, weather permitting. Video site: Watch Virtual Telescope Project's webcast.

6 p.m. ET: Weather permitting, the Clay Center Observatory in Massachusetts will stream real-time, high-definition video from 6 p.m. ET until 4 a.m. ET Saturday. Watch Clay Center video on Ustream.

9 p.m. ET: Slooh Space Camera plans to present several live shows about the asteroid flyby, accompanied by expert commentary. Weather permitting, imagery will be beamed to Slooh HQ from telescopes on the Canary Islands and in Arizona. Watch the show on Slooh.com.

9 p.m. ET: A video feed of the flyby from a telescope at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center will be streamed for three hours. During the live-streaming event, viewers can ask researchers questions about the flyby via Twitter or the Ustream chat window. Watch Marshall's Ustream channel.

Got any other websites worth watching? Or any asteroid questions you're wondering about? Feel free to share them in your comments below.

COMMENTARY:  

Courtesy of an article dated February 15, 2013 appearing in NBC News Cosmic Log and an article date February 12, 2013 appearing in Space.com and an article dated February 14, 2013 appearing in Space.com and an article dated February 15, 2013 appearing in NASA.gov

10 TON METEORITE HITS RUSSIAN URALS, ITS FIREBALL EXPLOSION AND SHOCKWAVE WRECKS HAVOC, OVER 900 INJURED

Picture of the meteorite as it explodes into a huge fireball and sends a huge shockwave and rains debris down on Chelyabinsk in the Russian Urals (Click Image To Enlarge)

Russia’s Urals region has been rocked by a meteorite explosion in the stratosphere. The impact wave damaged several buildings, and blew out thousands of windows amid frigid winter weather. Hundreds have sought medical attention for minor injuries.

 

Around 950 people have sought medical attention in Chelyabinsk alone because of the disaster, the region's governor Mikhail Yurevich told RIA Novosti. Over 110 of them have been hospitalized and two of them are in heavy condition. Among the injured there are 159 children, Emergency ministry reported.

Army units found three meteorite debris impact sites, two of which are in an area near Chebarkul Lake, west of Chelyabinsk. The third site was found some 80 kilometers further to the northwest, near the town of Zlatoust. One of the fragments that struck near Chebarkul left a crater six meters in diameter.

Servicemembers from the tank brigade that found the crater have confirmed that background radiation levels at the site are normal.

A hole in Chebarkul Lake made by meteorite debris. Photo by Chebarkul town head Andrey Orlov. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Police officers, environmentalists and EMERCOM experts examine small 0.5-1 cm pieces of black matter left by the meteorite at the site of a meteorite hit in the Chelyabinsk Region (Click Image To Enlarge)

Experts working at the site of the impact told Lifenews tabloid that the fragment is most likely solid, and consists of rock and iron.

A local fisherman told police he found a large hole in the lake’s ice, which could be a result of a meteorite impact. The site was immediately sealed off by police, a search team is now waiting for divers to arrive and explore the bottom of the lake.

Samples of water taken from the lake have not revealed any excessive radioactivity or foreign material.

Weather sattelite Meteosat 10 has taken an image of the meteriote shortly after entering the atmosphere.(Copyright 2013 © EUMETSAT) (Click Image To Enlarge)

Russian space agency Roskosmos has confirmed the object that crashed in the Chelyabinsk region is a meteorite:

“According to preliminary estimates, this space object is of non-technogenic origin and qualifies as a meteorite. It was moving at a low trajectory with a speed of about 30 km/s.”

According to estimates by the Russian Academy of Sciences, the space object weighed about 10 tons before entering Earth’s atmosphere.

A bright flash was seen in the Chelyabinsk, Tyumen and Sverdlovsk regions, Russia’s Republic of Bashkiria and in northern Kazakhstan.

The Russian army has joined the rescue operation. Radiation, chemical and biological protection units have been put on high alert. Since the explosion occurred several kilometers above the Earth, a large ground area must be thoroughly checked for radiation and other threats.

According to preliminary reports, the worst damage on the ground in Chelyabinsk was at a zinc factory, the walls and roof of which were partially destroyed by an impact wave. The city's Internet and mobile service were reportedly interrupted because of the damage inflicted near the factory.

Chelyabinsk administration’s website said nearly 3,000 buildings were damaged to varying extents by the meteor shower in the city, including 34 medical facilities and 361 schools and kindergartens. The total amount of window glass shattered amounts to 100,000 square meters, the site said, citing city administration head Sergey Davydov. The ministry also said that no local power stations or civil aircraft were damaged by the meteorite shower, and that “all flights proceed according to schedule.”

Buildings were left without gas because facilities in the city had also been damaged, an Emergency Ministry spokesperson said, according to Russia 24 news channel. 

The Emergency Ministry reported that 20,000 rescue workers are operating in the region. Three aircraft were deployed to survey the area and locate other possible impact locations.

The trail of a falling object is seen above a residential apartment block in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, on February 15, 2013.(AFP Photo - Oleg Kargopolov) (Click Image To Enlarge)

The regional Emergency Ministry denied  previous unconfirmed reports by local media that the meteorite was shot by  the military air defenses.

Witnesses said the explosion was so loud that it seemed like an earthquake and thunder had struck at the same time, and that there were huge trails of smoke across the sky. Others reported seeing burning objects fall to earth.

A spokesperson for the Urals regional Emergency Ministry center claimed it sent out a mass SMS warning residents about a possible meteorite shower. However, eyewitnesses said they either never received it, or got the message after the explosion had occurred. The Emergency Ministry has since denied sending out the SMS warning, and said the spokesperson that spread the false information “will be fired.”

Picture of windows damaged right after the impact of meteorite in Chelyabinsk (Click Image To Enlarge)

This picture taken by Pavel Berlet shows office damage in the city of Chelyabins (Click Image To Enlarge)

Classes for all Chelyabinsk schools have been canceled, mostly due to broken windows. Institute students have been dismissed until next Monday. Authorities also ordered all kindergartens with broken windows to return children to their families.

Police in the Chelyabinsk region are reportedly on high alert, and have begun ‘Operation Fortress’ in order to protect vital infrastructure.

Office buildings in downtown Chelyabinsk have been evacuated. An emergency message published on the website of the Chelyabinsk regional authority urged residents to pick up their children from school and remain at home if possible.

This picture shows exterior window damage to a building in Chelyabinsk. Photo courtesy Pavel Berlet (Click Image To Enlarge)

A man walks past a building with shattered windows after a meteorite shock wave in Chelyabinsk, Urals, Russia (Click Image To Enlarge)

The shockwave from the meteorite blast was so powerful that n some cases the entire window frames were torn from the windows (Click Image To Enlarge)

Those in Chelyabinsk who had their windows smashed are scrambling to cover the openings with anything available – the temperature in the city is currently -6°C.

Chelyabinsk regional governor Mikhail Yurevich said that preserving the city’s central heating system is authorities’ primary goal.

The governor said in and address to city residents.

“Do not panic, this is an ordinary situation we can manage in a couple of days.” 

Background radiation levels in Chelyabinsk remain unchanged, the Emergency Ministry reported.

Local zinc factory was damaged the severest, some of its walls collapsing (Photo from Twitter.com user @TimurKhorev) (Click Image To Enlarge)

Screenshot from YouTube user Gregor Grimm (Click Image To Enlarge)

Residents of the town of Emanzhilinsk, some 50 kilometers from Chelyabinsk, said they saw a flying object that suddenly burst into flames, broke apart and fell to earth, and that a black cloud had been seen hanging above the town. Witnesses in Chelyabinsk said the city’s air smells like gunpowder.

Many locals reported that the explosion rattled their houses and smashed windows. “This explosion, my ears popped, windows were smashed… phone doesn’t work,” Evgeniya Gabun wrote on Twitter.

Twitter user Katya Grechannikova reported.

“My window smashed, I am all shaking! Everybody says that a plane crashed.” 

Bukreeva Olga wrote on Twitter.

“My windows were not smashed, but I first thought that my house is being dismantled, then I thought it was a UFO, and my eventual thought was an earthquake.” 

The Mayak nuclear complex near the town of Ozersk was not affected by the incident, according to reports. Mayak, one of the world’s biggest nuclear facilities that used to house plutonium production reactors and a reprocessing plant, is located 72 kilometers northwest of Chelyabinsk.

NASA scientists said that the incident is not connected to  the approach of 2012 DA14, which measures 45 to 95 meters in diameter and will be passing by Earth tonight at around 19:25 GMT, at the record close distance of 27,000 kilometers.

Photo from Twitter.com user @varlamov (Click Image To Enlarge)

COMMENTARY:

Another Tunguska event?

The incident in Chelyabinsk bears a strong resemblance to the 1908 Tunguska event – an exceptionally powerful explosion in Siberia believed to have been caused by a fragment of a comet or meteor.

According to estimates, the energy of the Tunguska blast may have been as high as 50 megatons of TNT, equal to a nuclear explosion. Some 80 million trees were leveled over a 2,000-square-kilometer area. The Tunguska blast remains one of the most mysterious events in history, prompting a wide array of hypotheses on its cause, including a black hole passing through Earth and the wreck of an alien spacecraft.

Trees were flattened from the blast and shockwave from the meteorite that exploded above Tunguska in northern Siberia in 1908 (Click Image To Enlarge)

It is believed that if the Tunguska event had happened 4 hours later, due to the rotation of the Earth it would have completely destroyed the city of Vyborg and significantly damaged St. Petersburg.   

When a similar, though less powerful, unexplained explosion happened in Brazil in 1930, it was named the ‘Brazilian Tunguska.’ The Tunguska event also prompted debate and research into preventing or mitigating asteroid impacts.

Courtey of an article dated  February 15, 2013 appearing in RT.com