Ewan MacLeod › Comments

"Richard's got it right! It's the Senate Library -- on Russell Square (shot from Keppel Street)" - Ewan MacLeod

"I certainly understand that limitation -- but with 280m customers, I reckon Vodafone's well placed to do-a-deal with Facebook to sort that out, surely?" - Ewan MacLeod

"A home from home" - Ewan MacLeod

"Do check your spam folder for the email..." - Ewan MacLeod

"Hi Team Targus thanks for taking the time to contribute! I'll take a look -- very cool!" - Ewan MacLeod

"Does that mean you're in good company... or ...." - Ewan MacLeod

I know at least 5 people who are *going* to purchase an iPhone from Orange on this date - Ewan MacLeod

"And you don't see any problem with the 'head space' issue?" - Ewan MacLeod

"And you don't see any problem with the 'head space' issue?" - Ewan MacLeod

"I really appreciate you helping me work it out Chris. I'm going to sit back and have a think then I'll publish some more ideas for critique. What do you think about the forum concept (below)?" - Ewan MacLeod

"How you react to @moof's suggestion of creating a forum for the Mobile Industry Review newsletter. I create a topic for each article/topic within the newsletter and provide a forum link in the newsletter?" - Ewan MacLeod

"I actually think that the Fresh-to-MIR people will come from recommendations and forwards of the email. That means that we can't immediately capture a ton of new readers or be 'scobleized' (i.e. 50,000 people visit, read, then leave, within an hour). For other sites, there's a critical requirement to be as publicly available as possible. What I'd rather have is fewer people, thinking better. I'd rather have 2,000 of the world's most influential mobile executives and fanatics reading the newsletter, than a nominal 300 or 400,000 readers who: a) can't dedicate the time to read most of what we're producing b) aren't in our target demographic of executives or fanatics c) are transitory Last year we connected about £3 million quid's worth of venture funding. In the last month alone I reckon we've connected about £150k's worth of business (readers doing business with other readers via MIR). I'm concerned that in it's current guise, the MIR service is continually diluted. You can't help but..." - Ewan MacLeod

"I see what you're saying Chris -- and I particularly understand your 'semi-aghastness' at the concept of the content being in email form. Over the weeks whilst I've been considering this it's been my biggest issue -- the fact that the stuff we publish is now going to be only immediately consumable by those who've subscribed to the email. But then I like that. I like the exclusivity of it. The big problem with writing for a wider audience is that you invariably are forced to change. For example I published the N900 videos for the core MIR audience and then -- with so many others piling in to watch -- felt I needed to produce even more. Ridiculous. The core audience want to have a look, want to read a bit of perspective, want to see the odd video. But they don't want 15 videos on the N900. Whereas if I was properly responding to the audience feedback (and the bucketloads of Youtube comments) I'd have published an N900 vid every 10 minutes for a week. Perhaps there's a third way? Maybe I..." - Ewan MacLeod

"Chris, I completely agree with you on this point: 'I'm sorry that you and the sender are the only people getting to read it' It's a frustration I share. I often ask if I can quote parts of the feedback on a post -- and most readers are usually happy for this to happen, sometimes on an anonymous basis. But then I run out of time and I'm back to having to deliver the next day's update. I think the real challenge is that the MIR audience doesn't generally like public discourse. When we get a load of readers together at our events, the conversation is fantastic. But it doesn't replicate on to the web, mostly I think, because people are concerned about or unwilling to make their comments 'in public'. I was originally going to avoid putting any newsletter content on to the site. I was going to make the site frontpage a subscribe form (but ensuring that old content can still be accessed as before)." - Ewan MacLeod

"I've been thinking a lot about the feedback Paul. I was wondering if I could place a link at the bottom of each section that takes you to a page for that function. I do have a Twitter feed specifically for anyone 'atting' me with @ew4n or @mobileindustry so it's rare that I miss anything on Twitter. That said, the ratio between readers and those posting comments is crazily, crazily low. Just as an indication -- we had about 14,000 readers on the site yesterday and (I'm estimating) no more than, what, 20 comments?" - Ewan MacLeod

"Thank you for taking a chance and subscribing, Chris. I'd like to fatten-out your 'large value comes from the discussions in the comments' point. The MIR audience isn't a commenting audience. I actually took a look back at the posts vs comments ratio and it's very low. In the anecdotal evidence I've been compiling through chats with readers, this explained by: a) Insufficient time to digest what I've posted b) Insufficient time to post a comment c) Too many posts leading to judging the content by it's headlines (in an RSS feed) and skipping everything but the most entirely pertinent d) Concern about commenting (from an corporate policy perspective). A good example is Reda posting on behalf (or not, as it turns out) of Nokia Siemens Networks. e) "I've never commented" I like your idea of 'this is what Ewan's finding interesting' feed. Perhaps I could use Facebook or FriendFeed for that kind of 'immediacy' perspective. That would also allow easy commenting. What do you think? One final..." - Ewan MacLeod

"I do agree with Stefan's response Ross -- but I also think I'll be able to deliver greater value with a newsletter, rather than a site. It's an experiment. I don't entirely know and I'm reliant upon (and will act upon) feedback from everyone." - Ewan MacLeod

"I don't want to be rushed, ARJ. Life does get in the way -- big time, I've got a ton going on, but having to sit down and panic every morning about what I'm going to be posting (because I haven't got enough time to think) is not good. Your comments about email are well made. I'm going to give that some thought." - Ewan MacLeod

"Oh I like that idea Olly... Sunday. Hmmm. I'll canvas opinion!" - Ewan MacLeod

"I've tried that ARJ -- the challenge is if I haven't posted something by, say, 11am, I start to get emails from folk wondering what's happening. So even though I could schedule posts, it gets a bit crazy. I'd sooner do a better job, once a week and see how that goes!" - Ewan MacLeod

"So it'd be fair to say that Silicon Valley is as influential as, say, Belgium?" - Ewan MacLeod

"Thanks for making that clear, Reda" - Ewan MacLeod

"I'm clear now that Reda's not necessarily speaking on behalf of his employer!" - Ewan MacLeod

"Woops Dan you're absolutely right -- I was trying to keep the headline as short as possible. I'll make the changes." - Ewan MacLeod

"Woops Dan you're absolutely right -- I was trying to keep the headline as short as possible. I'll make the changes." - Ewan MacLeod

"Reda, I'm always delighted to hear from Nokia Siemens Networks. Thanks for taking the time to post. I'm definitely not biased against Nokia per se. What you're reading here in this post is my opinion. I would have thought that patently clear given the fact I didn't reference any specific sources and I frequently used generalisations and wide descriptions. I see you had a look at the last 7 Nokia posts. Indeed that's a heck of a lot of time that you've spent cutting and pasting headlines. You missed this one: http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2009...... That's the highest trafficked post on the site this month by far. And it indicates I'm a massive, massive fan of Nokia (if occasionally a frustrated one). And I think Nokia Siemens Networks does a pretty good job too." - Ewan MacLeod

"I'm thoroughly enjoying your responses Alex and I really do appreciate you taking the time to put down your thoughts. First question: Where do you think the centre of the mobile industry then, Alex? Berlin? Paris? London? Seoul? (and, er, leave out Japan... as they're in another dimension) My contention is that Silicon Valley is now extremely, extremely influential in the mobile industry. Just 2 years ago, I'd have said it was a glint in the milkman's eye. Apple's iPhone and Google's Android are just some flipping massive examples of the influence the region is wielding. There are tons more. Upsetting the 'proud Americans' as you're describing them, changing their attention from disinterest to ire, no... that's not a good strategy at all. These are passionate people with extensive resources and a penchant for thinking big and relishing the Gordon Gekko attitude of simply demolishing your competition. If it's a genuine patent dispute and not a misaligned attempt at public relations,..." - Ewan MacLeod

"Totally agree with you Ben" - Ewan MacLeod

"I suspect they're reading Alex -- whether or not they're taking any action... well... we shall see" - Ewan MacLeod

"It comes down to cost. Companies go out to market asking for proposals -- and when they get the details back for the Symbian client, their eyes pop out their heads. The process with iPhone is so much easier. So I agree there's a heck of a lot of laziness on the part of developers -- but it's also a cost issue. For the developer and for the client making the purchasing decision. So laziness gives way to simple economics :| It's typically cheaper to make an iPhone app than a Symbian one. That should hopefully change when it comes to discussing Maemo. But I find it absolutely staggering that with the millions and millions of entirely capable Nokia N95s out there, more companies don't support them. The sad fact is most companies made a costing decision and opted for iPhone. The market has spoken -- and it's said 'no thanks' (broadly speaking) to Nokia/Symbian. So who's at fault? Symbian and Nokia. Not the developers, right? They're simply reacting to reality." - Ewan MacLeod

"Ah very interesting Chris!" - Ewan MacLeod

""Hello. I'm a normob. I saw my mate ordering his shopping on his iPhone with Ocado. Why can't I do that from my Nokia?" Answer that one, Vlad." - Ewan MacLeod