Monthly Archives: October 2010Blog

What’s Up Asia

Asia is often touted to be an up-and-coming economic power. But we haven’t heard much about how Asians see themselves in the world economy. Mark Hurst, who writes the Creative Good newsletter and recently returned from a lengthy trip to Southeast Asia, offers some very interesting observations that should make us ask: if it’s true that market leaders generally stop innovating and become stagnant, can the same also be true for nations. Says Mark,

It’s hard to overestimate the feeling of energy, expansion, investment, and activity that pervades the region. As the US economy stagnates, money has flooded into southeast Asia trying to find better investment yield – and the aggressive work ethic of the region (long hours, highly competitive, focus on results) has been happy to make use of that investment.

Multiple times people told me, in effect, that they just don’t pay much attention to what’s happening in the US – or Europe, for that matter. Asia is taking the lead in the world economy, and while the US has some good ideas worth studying (and perhaps borrowing and improving upon), it is not considered the leader to be followed.

It makes one wonder, can Americans imagine what the world’s economic landscape will look like in 20 years? In 10 years? And are such seismic shifts simply inevitable?

In case you’re not familiar with Creative Good and their work in the area of customer experience, you can learn more and subscribe to Mark’s newsletter here: http://goodexperience.com

Why Smartphones Matter

Since the launch of the iPhone, smartphones have become a mass media platform. The reason? Smartphones bring all the information gathering and communications tools a person needs in a tiny device. With a smartphone, a shopper can compare prices and get product reviews while in a store’s aisles. News, traffic, weather, entertainment — it’s all there. And the ability to instantly be in touch (or not) with others, inbound or outbound, through numerous media (voice, email, text, social media) is astounding. Conceivably, one day we’ll be able to dock a smartphone to a desktop terminal that is driven by the OS, apps, and data we’re carrying with us.

Because of the utility and portability of smartphones, we can easily imagine that one day they’ll be carried by almost everyone. As the link below shows, those who carry smartphones already lead the mobile world in browser use — just one more category in which smartphones lead. Considering that a smartphone is the only computer people own in many parts of the world, this is a platform that businesses will want to engage. Check out the short article below that talks about how people use smartphones today, and then think about what value you can bring to your market through this portable platform.

Read: Smartphones Now Dominate Mobile Browser and App Use in U.S.