I came home from Demo 2008, took two Tylenol for a blown out left knee and promptly went to bed; for almost a full day. Now that I can hobble around ising my trusty five year old shillelagh It’s time to finish my thoughts on a couple of the companies I saw at Demo this week.
First up is Education.com’s School Finder. A product I wish I had access to in 2002 when my beautiful daughter, the lovely Miss Amanda, was getting ready to go away to college. School Finder is a parent’s dream: it lets you match your kids’ needs to college offerings and the local environment. When School Finder goes live in about two months, it will have information on about 100,000 public and private schools. I was impressed by this start-up’s deep well of information on various colleges and their locations. I quickly realized how valuable this site and tool would have been back in 2002, when (based on bad advice) she chose a Boston area women’s university whose classes were seldom transferable. School Finder is just one of Education.com’s offerings. It also offers modest on-line tutoring, and electronic learning. This site already has great traffic numbers. The addition of School Finder to its offerings will bolster both its position and usefulness, creating even more unique visitors. I think Education.com and School Finder may be one of the jewels of Demo 2008. I really wish it had been around five years ago, when I was a parent trying to help my soon to fledge daughter pick a college that met her needs and expectations. Oh, prior to moving to go to school in Boston, my daughter had never experienced a real snowstorm.
I’m a sucker for mobile applications and Ribbit’s Amphibian, a web telephony application made me realized just how important the personal information provided in our profile information files have become when we connect with friends or potential business associates on the phone. Imagine getting a phone call from a potential client and suddenly being presented with personal information from their FaceBook page. I understand the need to connect with people in order to sell or convince someone of a value proposition, and Ribbit’s Amphibian is the first example I’ve seen of an application that gives me access to someone’s web presence, while I’m talking with them on my mobile phone.
It’s this type of application that highlights the need for new mobile phone plans that offer affordable internet access as part of business or high-minute plans. I believe that platforms like Ribbit and apps like Amphibian also work best with cell phones with large screens, which facilitate more complete information displays.
CellSpin is another mobile-based application I liked at Demo 08. This startup is one of the several companies that have been in development for almost two years. What CellSpin does that’s unique is it allows you to post and synchronize you posts to multiple outlets with an absolute minimum of user intervention. For example, if you wanted to post something to Blogger, eBay, FaceBook, Flickr, Live Journal, Picassa or YouTube, you could do so with a minimum of clicks and all your files would be automatically synchronized. Of all the products at Demo 08, I had the most experience with CellSpin. I like its ultra clean interface, and its promise of simultaneously posting virtually all media types (including video and audio) to multiple sites with one or two clicks.
I love great mobile technology and Skyfire, a downloadable browser for mobile phones just knocked my socks off. My ongoing complaint with the Internet experience on so-called phones is that it just plain sucks. I’ve sat by and waited, and waited for freaking ever for some pages to load on various smart phones and in many cases just walked away from the experience rather than endure the tedious experience of taking advantage of the web on cell phone. Skyfire changes that. I was blown away by this company’s pavilion-demonstration that after only two minutes left me wishing that my antique cell phone would support the Skyfire browser.
Unlike other browsers for mobile phones, Skyfire supports dynamic Flash, Ajax and Java technologies, which allows smart phones running this new browser to deliver a desktop-like computing experience.
If there was one technology and company from Demo 08 that is worth watching, it’s Skyfire.
A quick note pertaining to CellSpin and Skyfire. Both of these companies are tying their success to third-party cellular networks and smart phone manufacturers. It’s one thing to develop and introduce a product with obvious advantages and little cost adders and an altogether different thing to score a huge win with that product.
The problem here is that start-ups are ill equipped to navigate the treacherous rocks and shoals that provide safe harbor for key decision makers that can guarantee and provide a safe birth in this industry segment.
What I’ve seen over the years is a long line of entrepreneurs network with B-School buddies who work for telcos, thinking such people will become their allies in driving adoption. The problem with this thinking is the ultra conservative nature of telco management. That B-school chum who is your champion may have a sexy title, but the reality is not very promising: the champion’s name on an org chart is five cells off center and at least as many levels down from the decision makers and check signers.
There are at least three domestic cellular network companies that appear to be aggressively courting new technologies: AT&T, Sprint and Verizon immediately come to mind. I rank Sprint at the top of this list followed by Verizon and AT&T.
Well, I’ve run out of time for this post, so up on ForbesonTech it goes.—Jim Forbes, recovering from my favorite technology show, Demo on 1/31/2008.
{ mandatory disclosure, I am a retired producer of Demo shows as well as the editor of the printed and electronic versions of DemoLetter. I have no fiduciary or other ties with Demo, or any of its parent organizations. But I am one of the few people who has run a Demo show and sat through thousands of meetings with companies during the selection process of the show. There, I’ve said it. I’m still proud of it—jmf}
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