Jeff Chausse
Digital Strategy + Design
Thoughts on the iPhone Multitasking Thing
There’s a lot of rallying for full multitasking support on the iPhone, but a lot of that passion is misplaced. I don’t think Apple will ever support “real” multitasking on the iPhone.
Why? Because the main point of multitasking is to be able to move quickly from one application to another. But this goal can be solved in ways other than running multiple programs simultaneously. If a program can return to the exact state you left it in, in a matter of seconds, from a cold start – what does it matter to the user if it was “running” or not, while you weren’t using it? That’s the approach Apple took, and it’s a wise one. It works the vast majority of the time, only failing when third party apps are too slow, or neglect to return you to the exact state you were in when you left. Betting on faster processors and memory instead of gigantic batteries to handle needlessly-running, multiple simultaneous processes, was a very forward-thinking move – and an environmentally sensitive one to boot.
Apple basically waited for Moore’s Law to make multitasking (mostly) irrelevant. What’s interesting is that, as Moore’s Law chugs along, it could drive user-friendly computers to move in the opposite direction.
Battery life is one reason Apple doesn’t support multitasking on the iPhone. The other is complexity. You (the user) can avoid the battery drain problem by multitasking wisely. But that requires a whole lot of abstract thinking. Users have to be savvy enough to figure out how many processor cycles an app is likely to use in the background, and figure out what to quit, and when. I use a jailbroken iPhone because I really want background audio apps, and even I (a well-trained “computing professional”) fail to “multitask responsibly” – my battery giving out when I least expect it. The “it just works like magic” value proposition of Apple products takes an enormous hit when complex issues like processor cycle usage are exposed to the user.
The complexity issue of multitasking can be solved by Moore’s Law + time. It will evaporate when computers that can run unlimited processes simultaneously come into being. At that point, there will be no need to close any app, ever. Don’t think that day will come? Well, 20 years ago, did you ever think you’d be able to put every piece of media you own into a pocket-sized hard drive? Moore’s Law causes drastic paradigm shifts across decades. That day will come.
But…
There’s one component of computing devices that is notoriously resistant to Moore’s Law – which evolves at a glacial pace compared to processors, memory, and hard drives: the battery. We may never have a portable battery powerful enough to reliably support this “everything-always-running” world. And that’s why this future computing paradigm will likely never hit the iPhone (at least not for many decades).
In a world without utterly transparent multitasking, the only way Apple can preserve their “magic” is to follow a piecemeal strategy of tackling the symptoms of all this multitasking wishing. Aside from quickly switching between apps, there are three reasons people want multitasking. Apple has already tackled two, and is definitely working on the third, right now.
Multitasking use case #1: Working with data between multiple apps
Apple tackled this first by introducing a very clever “cut and paste” system. Granted, it’s no substitute for having multiple application windows open simultaneously, side by side, but only the most hard-core nerds would argue for a need to run something like a programming IDE on a phone.
Multitasking use case #2: Letting one app send you information while you’re using another app
Apple later tackled this problem with their “Push service“. Of course, it’s not perfect – it’s limited to simplistic Javascript-style “alert boxes” – but it handles the huge majority of use cases just fine. Of course, it requires an always-on server component to work – but in this day and age, if you’re scared of “the cloud”, you probably shouldn’t be developing software.
Multitasking use case #3: Background audio
Here’s the real sticky one, still horribly broken, and desperately crying out for a solution. Pandora and Simplify Media are awesome audio applications (and there are others), but they’re pretty much useless to me without background processing – because I rarely have nothing to do except listen to music. I don’t turn off my radio when I read email on my computer, why should that happen on my phone?
So, how’s Apple going to tackle this one? I think I know the answer, and I think a lot of people won’t like it. See, there is one audio app that can run in the background – it’s the “iPod” app. I predict Apple is going to enumerate everything other music apps do, that iPod doesn’t – and add those features to the iPod app. (Remember that Lala acquisition?). Apple’s not afraid of telling users they don’t need apps that duplicate what the iPhone’s built-in apps can do (it’s definitely not afraid of telling developers that) It’s a sort of “boil the ocean” strategy, but Apple already boiled the music ocean once…
How Apple Will Destroy the Web
After my previous pro-Mac blog post, I bet you weren’t expecting a headline like that. But it’s true. Apple wants to destroy the web, and the iPhone was the opening salvo.
Read John Gruber’s post about Apple and Flash. All of it makes sense, but Gruber fails to draw the ultimate logical conclusion. Apple would love to shun the web the same way it shuns Flash. It just can’t pull it off – yet.
Apple COO Tim Cook (quoted in Gruber’s blog post) has said
“We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.”
Now, what about that sentence applies to Flash, but not to other web technologies?
For a company so obsessed with platonic ideals of technology, Apple is remarkably pragmatic. Which means, no, they’re not going to pull Safari from OS X (or iPhone) any time soon. Remember that Apple famously plugged the heck out of Microsoft Office for Mac (until they released a better solution, iWork).
Apple has already starting preparing people for a post-web world. The iPhone taught people that web apps are slow and awkward – native apps are where it’s at. I’m not quite enough of a conspiracy theorist to believe that Apple made us suffer through the iPhone web app era as a social experiment, but it certainly ended up proving that native apps are far superior to web apps, given the right native environment.
And then there’s that word, “app”. I used to think it was an odd misstep on Apple’s part to use industry lingo in a mainstream product. But no, Apple needed a new word to define the new way people would relate to their technology. “Application” was too literal, bulky, boring. “Program”? Even worse. But “app” is short, succinct, snappy – and, just coincidentally, the first syllable in “Apple”. Apps are the way you do stuff.
Everyday people do not give a crap about the Web. Now, don’t get me wrong – they care about the information found there, but Google famously demonstrated that the average Joe doesn’t know the difference between a browser, a web site, and a search engine. People want to tell their computer what they want, and then get an answer. They don’t care one bit if that answer is streamed via HTTP and rendered in a web browser via HTML. They just want an answer. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt if they get that answer fast and in a fun, engaging way. You know, like, via a 99 cent app on your phone.
The iPhone trained people to use apps instead of web pages on their phones. The tablet Apple will release tomorrow will prove that apps’ superiority over web pages holds true for larger devices. It’s only logical that people eventually will use specialized apps in lieu of web pages on their full-sized home computers. Or will they? The answer is: it’s a red herring.
With powerful, portable devices like the iPhone, people will stop sitting down to get information. I’m not predicting the complete death of the home computer, but 20 years from now people will only sit down at a keyboard to do extended work. There is no long-term future for weather web sites, stock quote web sites, or perhaps even ecommerce sites. It just makes no logical sense. Remember when people had to sit, literally tethered to their desk to make a phone call? Seems pretty silly now, no?
Microsoft tried to render the web irrelevant by making it indistinguishable from the operating system (ActiveX!). Apple didn’t fall into that trap. Instead, they’re attacking the web by creating a superior distribution model for content – the same way they beat the unstoppable music-piracy juggernaut with the iTunes store.
Apple’s disdain for the web should be obvious:
- Aside from their own web site and “me.com”, Apple has never launched a web-based service
- The me.com launch was famously botched, indicating that Apple is not exactly awash with web engineering expertise
- iWeb. Look, people knocked FrontPage back in the day, but not since FrontPage was there a web authoring app that “gets” the web less than iWeb.
- Apple does not participate in “Web 2.0″. It has no Facebook Page (I was shocked to find that iTunes does), no Twitter account, no blog. Deep down, Apple doesn’t believe in Social Networking. They believe in enabling real human interaction. Remember Steve Jobs’ response to the Zune’s song sharing ability?
Microsoft tried to destroy the web because they were worried about losing sales. Apple is trying to destroy the web because they genuinely believe they can create a better experience, and they’re probably right. And if you think the web is too big a target for Apple to disrupt completely, think again – it only took Apple 6 years to effectively take over the century-plus-old music industry. The Internet has only been a commercial medium for 15 years.
If you’re a web developer wondering what this means for you, I think the takeaway is this: HTML and CSS are likely to be with us for many more years to come, because they are powerful technologies for easily organizing and rendering content. But where that HTML and CSS end up is going to be a much different place than where it is now. Keep your eyes open and your skills sharp.
Why I Switched, then Switched, then Switched
Back when Apple made a big deal about switching from Windows to OS X, I did. And I really enjoyed living the Mac life. But over time, due to a number of reasons, I drifted back to using a PC.
Firstly, I was stuck using a PC at work (ain’t that always the case). Secondly, (I thought) I wanted a netbook and a gaming PC. I figured maybe I should just standardize on one platform, and with the release of Windows 7, my fate was sealed.
Windows 7 didn’t suck.
I built a custom gaming PC and bought a netbook. Eventually, I realized that I don’t even really play PC games, and that yes, netbooks are kind of sucky and pointless.
But that’s not why I switched back to Mac.
I switched back to Mac because there’s been a crazy role-reversal between Apple and Microsoft in the past few years. I switched away from Windows because there were no good applications for it.
Remember when the number one argument against Macs was that all the good apps were on PC? Oh, how times have changed.
As the web (and web apps) picked up steam, something funny happened. The Windows app developers (mostly rooted in the corporate world) switched to building web apps, but the Apple app developers – mostly enthusiastic, passionate individuals or small teams – kept on building beautiful desktop applications (and passionate fan bases).
Again, Windows 7 does not suck. It is an excellent operating system. The problem was this: once my fascination with its improved taskbar, and Aero Snap, and all that good stuff wore off – once I got around to actually wanting to do stuff on my computer, I realized something. There was not ONE APPLICATION for Windows that I LOVED. Don’t get me wrong, Microsoft Office is good software. But I don’t love it. At this point, I think about Word or Excel the same way I think about “calc.exe”. It’s practically part of the operating system. It’s just something you have to have, and have to use.
The other apps I used a lot – Dreamweaver, Photoshop – were cross-platform, so even if they were awesome on Windows (they’re not – they’re bloated and buggy), they were no pro-Windows argument. The only Windows-only app I’ve come close to “loving” is SnagIt (I’ve always considered TechSmith the most Mac-like Windows development company), but man cannot live on screen capture apps alone. I mostly relied on web apps – using programs I was unenthused about, when I had to use them.
Windows 7 was a beautiful container for running a web browser. What was the point?
Since their respective inceptions, Microsoft has been all about business, Apple all about hobbyists. I’m making a gross generalization here, but Windows-based developers generally care about making money, and Mac developers care about making beautiful stuff. There’s little financial incentive to tying yourself exclusively to the Mac platform. Corporate niche Windows applications and subscription web apps are where it’s at if you just want to make money. If you develop for Mac, it’s because you want to make beautiful software, for people who appreciate beautiful software.
I recently hunted for a good Windows note-taking application, like the Mac’s Yojimbo. After seeing recommendations for OneNote and Evernote (two big, bloated apps) at every turn, I finally came across a small, simple, just-powerful-enough one called “GoldenSection Notes“, buried on the 5th page of some shareware directory. It really is good – try the demo. Then do a Google search for it. Every link on Google is from some cheeseball shareware aggregator site. There’s not one blog post about it (at least as far as I was willing to dig in the Google results). A forum for its users? Nope. A Twitter account from the developer? Keep dreaming. It’s like it fell onto the Internet from another planet. A whole lot of Windows software is like this. I found a really good Windows video converter called Aimersoft Media Converter. You’d never guess that it was good based on their web site, because it’s just one giant SEO trap. Popular Mac apps come with a developer blog, a forum, and one or more Twitter accounts from the developer. Windows software usually just comes with a feeling that you’re on your own.
You can buy decent Windows apps, but you’d be hard pressed to buy Windows apps that are beautiful and come with a passionate, accessible community to back them up. And that’s why I’m moving back to the Mac.
Welcome back, Coda.
Welcome back, Omnigraffle
Welcome back, Things
Welcome back, MarsEdit
Welcome back, Quicksilver
Welcome back, Mac.
Start with the Acceptance Speech
Last year I was asked to speak at an event called “Love@First Website” in Portland. It was quite an experience – my first ever professional public speaking “engagement”. I had been working at Harmonix for about 6 months and we were just about to do our big Rock Band 2 “relaunch” of RockBand.com.
The talk went over quite well, but building that presentation was quite an ordeal. I sweated over it for over a month, trying to take the huge pile of ideas that became the new RockBand.com and crunch it down into a coherent, usable message for the attendees.
The strategy behind the RockBand.com relaunch was a bit of a hodge-podge, because I joined the company mid-stream, and there were already ideas in the works from current and former employees, as well as from an agency that used to do work with us. So, instead of going in with a crystal clear strategy, the team and I mostly went with our gut, and did what felt right. The site came out great, but preparing the presentation became a real discovery process. Basically, I learned that we made a lot of good decisions and, in the end, there WAS a coherent strategy to what we did – we just didn’t know it at the time.
So now, I’m embarking on the biggest project I’ve been involved with since I started at Harmonix – the first project I’ve started from scratch as Web Director, with a fully functional, kick-ass team, and with the authority to build it as I see fit. It’s a pretty tall order, but very exciting.
I took a few different approaches to getting cracking on this project and failed each time. I tried writing a project vision up as a Word Doc, a wiki, an outline – nothing really worked for me. I’d get about three paragraphs in and lose momentum.
Then, I got to thinking about that presentation I did last year. My personal goal for this project is to deliver something that people are inspired by and want to learn from. I’d love to have created something worthy of another speaking engagement.
So I figured – what if I started with that presentation? What if I started by structuring my ideas in terms as a presentation about a successful strategy? Was that just some weird sort of ego-stroking? Regardless, that’s what I did. I fired up PowerPoint, made a cool looking layout, and then the ideas just started coming to me. Ideas started falling into place, and a coherent strategy quickly congealed.
Shortly after I started this, I tweeted: “Coming to terms with the fact that, when wrestling with big ideas, I ‘think in PowerPoint’”.
But recently, it dawned on me, all I was doing was exercising positive visualization. GTD and many other personal productivity strategies emphasize focusing on (and usually writing down) your goals. By being crystal clear on what you’re trying to achieve, your subconscious automatically works out the way to get there. As I assume is the case with many other people, I read about positive visualization many, many times, but never actually took it seriously enough to write things down.
I stumbled into performing real positive visualization accidentally. I decided I wanted to create a site strategy that people would be inspired by – and want to learn about – and the particulars of that project just sort of presented themselves to me.
So, my advice to everyone is this: don’t be shy about thinking about your amazing keynote talk before your project even starts – it’s a great way to illuminate the path to get there. Want to be a great actor? Why not start by writing your Oscar acceptance speech and work backward from there? And, hey, when you DO get that invite to the Kodak Theatre, you’ll have one less thing to worry about.
Before Child/After Child
Before Child:
- Read about a cool netbook on Twitter
- Visit website to check it out
- Get on with life
After Child:
- Read about a cool netbook on Twitter
- Visit website to check it out
- Have child see cross promotion for “Monsters Vs. Aliens”
- Visit movie trailer website
- Watch movie trailers
- Download “coloring pages” of monsters and print out
- Clear paper jam
- Clear another paper jam
- Clear another paper jam
- Curse printer under breath
- Clean print rollers
- Clear another paper jam
- Clear another paper jam
- Curse printer under breath again
- Reboot printer
- Restart printing
- Retrieve printouts
- Try to convince child to color with crayons instead of bingo-marker-type-things
- Fail
- Hang bingo-marker-type-thing-colored picture on wall
- Have child say: “I like you a lot, Daddy” and hug you
- Never actually look at netbook.
"I Got the Drums Because they Looked Cute"
My office is about 20 feet from the Harmonix reception area, where a cheerful fellow named Phillip answers calls from anyone who happens to find our office number. Due to my proximity, I get to overhear most of these calls.
Despite the fact that we clearly instruct people they need to contact EA for technical support, and that we have absolutely no staff or process for that sort of thing, we inevitably get support calls, and Philip does his best to politely help them as best he can. Today, he received the call of the century, which he transcribed as follows (I can personally vouch for the fact that he was actually far more polite, and this has been drastically simplified for editorial purposes):
Caller: Hello, i tried plug my drums into the wall and it didn’t work.
Phillip: You need to plug the drums into your console system.
Caller: Oh, what is a console?
Phillip: A game system, like an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.
Caller: Oh, i don’t know what one of those is. So, you’re telling me i need to buy something else? I got the drums because they looked cute.
Phillip: Yes, ma’am. You need to buy a console and the Rock Band game and you play it through your television.
Madame: How does the console get from the drums to your television? We don’t have a television. I see 4 buttons and one for your foot. Does the foot one plug into the wall? it doesn’t seem to fit.
Phillip: You should return the drum kit and ask a sales representative what it is that you need to play.
Who knows, it might have been a prank, but it was still damned funny.
25 Things – Yes, I Succumbed
For those who don’t know, there’s a simple, but compelling meme going around on Facebook. You just write down 25 random things about yourself, then tag 25 more people to do the same. I usually avoid stuff like this like the plague, but I was intrigued, thinking it might be a good opportunity for self-reflection. It was, and I was glad I did it. For those of you who aren’t lucky enough to be connected to me in Facebook (and I don’t accept invitations from people I don’t know from real life – sorry!), here’s my list. Enjoy.
1. I once had to get stitches after a hard drive-installing accident
2. I totaled a car when I hit a jersey barrier on a highway. The car careened off the road, avoided all guard rails, buildings, and other cars – then landed in a wooded ditch. I walked away with a single scratch and what was apparently a bruised sternum, becuase it hurt when I laughed or coughed for about a year. The tow truck driver who pulled me out was amazed I survived at all.
3. Mints make me sneeze
4. I’ve moved 9 times in less than 15 years: Rhode Island to Worcester to Shrewsbury to Marlborough to Beverly, back to Rhode Island, to Allston to Salem, back to Marlborough, then to Wayland. I’m a homeowner now with an underwater mortgage, so I’ll probably stay put for a while.
5. I wrote four plays, including one monologue, which were performed by my college theatre group at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
6. Years before BitTorrent was developed, I came up with an idea much like it, which I called “CacheWave”. I wrote up about 1/2 a spec before I lost interest.
7. On a whim, I once drove to Canada just to buy Canadian candy bars, and got detained by the border agents because they thought the story was ridiculous.
8. My car once broke down in upstate New York and a I got a ride home to WORCESTER from a total stranger, who refused any payment, or even gas money, and ended up being a born-again Christian who blasted Christian rock cassettes the whole way.
9. When I was a kid I had a recurring nightmare about getting trapped in the back of a possessed car and getting tormented by the headrest, which turned into an evil face.
10. My organized sports career consisted of one summer in a farm league baseball team that placed dead last. I played DEEP RIGHT FIELD.
11. My only real regret in life is getting into extensive credit card debt in college. So many opportunities lost because I was forced to seek out high paying jobs just to break even. I still haven’t fully recovered.
12. My least favorite thing about myself is my lack of perseverance. Some things I wish I had practiced long enough to get good at when I was a kid: drawing, piano, tennis, and skateboarding. This is the one thing I’m going to be a pain in the ass about with my kids – ensuring that they stick with at least ONE thing that they can be really good at all their lives.
13. The first thing I thought when my son was born was “Where’s his face?!” It was 2:14 AM and I was getting very tired and somewhat delusional. I was focused so intently on his “crowning” head, waiting for him to finally come out… For some reason I thought he’d be coming out face up, and I freaked out for a second when all I saw was hair.
14. Since I got my current job, it’s the first time in my life when I haven’t been trying to figure out how to make my next career move. The only things I don’t like about my current job are challenges caused by my own personal shortcomings, which is a great place to be.
15. My favorite drink is a well-made mojito. Gin and tonic is a close second when that’s not an option.
16. I once waited in line behind James Carville in a Washington, D.C. Starbucks.
17. I get cranky – I mean REALLY CRANKY – when waitstaff at restaurants let my water or soda glass run dry.
18. My top 5 videogames of all time, for any system: Starcraft, Super Mario Bros. 3, The Sims 2, Super Mario 64, Half-Life 2.
19. I met my wife via online personals. I knew she was something special when she played her “Kyle’s Mom is a Bitch” ringtone for me. Little did I know how Cartman-like her personality really was.
20. The two most life-changing books I’ve read are “Getting Things Done”, and “Crucial Conversations”. I don’t exactly follow their advice thoroughly yet, but I’ve experienced their lessons deeply enough to know my life would be far better if I did.
21. The three most important life lessons I’ve learned: 1.) No one can “make you feel bad” except yourself. 2.) Don’t worry about the things you can’t change. Seriously, just don’t. 3.) Stress is caused by knowing the right thing to do and not doing it (that last one’s thanks to Larry Winget, I have to admit).
22. The most important “management” lesson I’ve learned: The first thing to do in any hairy situation is to GATHER FACTS. If you can’t drive desired change by simply stating facts, re-evaluate what you’re trying to accomplish.
23. I worked at Wendy’s one summer and permanently have the proper order of burger condiments permanently ingrained in my brain: ketchup, mayonnaise, pickles, tomato, onion, lettuce (+ small swipe of mustard on the meat).
24. I’ve never smoked a cigarette. That’s one of the few things in life I’m inclined to feel smug about.
25. I had no interest in popular music outside of novelty albums until junior high school. Then one day, I saw an “R.E.M./Green” pin on a backpack and somehow it instantly changed my life, even though I don’t think I knew what was on that album at the time. I bought the cassette and played it so many times all the writing wore off of it. R.E.M. was my favorite band for over a decade and it introduced me the world of “alternative” music, making me an outcast for the rest of my high school days. I lost interest in most music again in the late 90′s, which turned around when I heard “New Slang” by the Shins one day (yup, just like in Garden State). Suddenly, I was buying up indie pop albums left and right again.
Take my iPhone, Please!
Actually, no, don’t take it. The way my professional life is now, with its emails and meetings and whatnot, my iPhone is practically an extension of my body. But with serious competitors starting to make their way on the scene – notably Google Android and Palm’s new Pre, I could envision a device that might make me trade in my iPhone. If anyone out there were to fix these glaring holes in iPhone functionality, I know at least one person who would beat down the path to their door. None of these things are ridiculous pie-in-the-sky ideas. Every one is 100% feasible.
- Turn-by-turn GPS functionality. Why don’t we have this yet? Apple explicitly excludes developers from creating these apps in their SDK agreement, but why? Some think it’s due to liability issues (though obviously these are not impossible to work around, otherwise the millions of navigation devices out there would not exist. Its not for lack of interest in development – Garmin, Magellan, and TomTom have all gone on the record as saying they’d be interested. I’m guessing it’s their SDK restriction is really a smokescreen for shoddy technology. The few times I’ve tried to use the Maps application to guide me around the city on foot, it was incredibly slow and inaccurate. Whatever the excuse, Apple already lost this battle, as plenty of devices have decent built-in GPS.
- System-wide voice input. This would be godsend for those of us who try to stay connected to information on the road. I do a lot of thinking and get a lot of email while I’m driving to work, and while I probably should just hang tight until I get to the office, I occasionally really need to send something out. Apps like Vlingo and the Google app do a great (well, good) job of translating voice to text, but I want that functionality baked into the Mail app, Contacts, and anything else that takes text input. Sure, I’d have to retype some mistranslated words hear and their, but it beats typing a two paragraph email when I should have my eyes on the road.
- MMS support. Yeah, it’s a pretty weak technology, but please, Apple, stop preventing my wife from sending me cute 30 second videos of my kid from her non-iPhone phone.
- Video recording. I’m pretty sure the lack of video recording on the iPhone is a case of Apple’s attitude of “if you can do something amazing, don’t do anything at all”. They know the built-in camera would be lousy for video (yet far better than most mobile phones), so they just won’t let you even try. So, to complement my comment in #3: Please, Apple, stop preventing me from sending my wife 30 second videos of my kid from my iPhone phone.
- Cursor keys. OK, the little magnifying glass thing is cute and sometimes useful. But if I notice something I mistyped two words ago, just let me whack an “arrow key” to get over there instead of fiddling with that cursor which never quite ends up where I want it (I mistyped the word Ill yesterday – which meant I had to click the screen TO THE PIXEL to get it to the right spot).
- Way better email. The lack of search, filters, or any way to find stuff in your email other than “swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe…”. was excusable before Exchange support, but now that Apple is implicitly attempting to deliver “enterprise” email, it’s ridiculous.
- Background apps. The “one-app-at-a-time” nature of the iPhone tends to rile up some people a lot more than me, but I’ll tell you when it does drive me nuts – when I’m listening to Pandora or Simplify Media, and want to quickly check my email. Apple has good reasons for designing the iPhone OS this way but, I think, like it or not, they’ll be dragged kicking and screaming by competitors into supporting a multitasking model.
Now, before Palm, or RIM, or Google get all smug about being able to deliver on these 6 things, this hypothetical phone must also get right the 1,000 things that iPhone HAS gotten right, that no one else has. So, I think my iPhone will be in my pocket for a long time to come.
RockBand.com and The #1 Rule in Marketing
I’m attempting to come back from an extended blogging hiatus (I’ve been Twittering up a storm, though…) , and I feel like I should say something profound. You can be the judge on the profundity of this post, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret: what I consider the most important rule in marketing.
It’s something I picked up from Kathy Sierra, who used to run an incredibly inspiring blog called “Creating Passionate Users“, then disappeared for a while from public life due to some unfortunate circumstances, and recently reappeared as a very active Twitterer. Anyway, the rule – which is paraphrased from some of Kathy’s ideas is this:
Don’t tell people how much YOU kick ass. Tell them how you can make THEM kick ass.
This maxim drove a lot of the thinking behind the new RockBand.com launched last year. I don’t feel the goal of our site is to tell you how great Rock Band is. It’s already a worldwide phenomenon, and the gaming press does a pretty good job of getting the word out on the features and quality of the game. No, the point of RockBand.com is this:
How can we make you – the Rock Band player – kick more ass?
There are a few examples of this on the site. The first is our “Zine” section – and, specifically, our “52 Weeks to Rock” series of articles. This content has absolutely nothing to do with the game! But we know that, as a Rock Band fan, you love good music, you might want to play music for real, you know that WE have accomplished rock musicians on staff, and we’re going to share our experiences with you to help you kick rock and roll ass.
Our Music section features writeups on the songs in the Rock Band games. We could have just rehashed song reviews from another site. Instead, we have Brett Milano, a well-established ace rock journalist (and killer RB drum player), write up background info on each track – giving you insights into the artists you can’t get anywhere else. Why? Because we want you to be the guy (or girl) with all the good tidbits about that hot new (or classic) band. When you’re talking to your friends about that latest DLC track, we want you to (you guessed it) kick conversational ass.
Rock Band is not just another game. And Harmonix is not just another game company. We’re a bunch of passionate music fans – who really know our stuff – trying to bring a new social phenomenon into the world. In the coming year (and years), you’re going to see a lot happening on our website driving home the point that playing Rock Band isn’t just a fun thing to do to pass time, it can truly improve your life – socially, artistically, and – who knows – maybe even financially. Rock Band is for music gamers who want to KICK ASS!
View Photo Album