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Technology
Daily business news at www.biv.com July 5–11, 2011
High-Tech Office
Alan Zisman PlayBook scores from various angles for BlackBerry users
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t’s become fashionable to comment how RIM is caught in a downward spiral. The Ontario-based company, with its BlackBerrys, had several years at the top of the smartphone market where its emphasis on security and IT manageability made it a favourite of large enterprises. But it hasn’t seemed able to respond to competition from Apple’s iPhone or Android-powered smartphones. RIM’s releases have consisted of small improvements to its Curve and Bold models and awkward attempts at large touchscreen models. In pre-announcing its PlayBook tablet, RIM promised to do better. A new tablet OS for powerful multitasking. Best-of-show support for Flash. Appeal to both business and home users.
W hen t he PlayBook finally became available, though, reviews were disappointing. Wired, for instance, headlined: “BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Lacks All the Right Moves.” Most often commented: no built-in email application. Instead, users can “bridge” their PlayBook to their BlackBerry and read the BlackBerry’s email on the tablet’s larger screen. The new OS means zero compatibility with BlackBerry apps. “There’s an app for that?” Not quite yet – though selection at RIM’s App World is improving. RIM loaned me a PlayBook for several weeks. Surprise! I like it. It’s a seven-inch tablet. That makes it easier to tote around, lighter and easier to hold in one hand than 10-inch competitors like iPad and Xoom. The wide-
screen display (1024 x 600 resolution) is crisp; battery life, at around eight hours, is good. Like the Xoom, there are micro-USB and microHDMI ports for connection to digital cameras and high-res TVs and projectors and front- and rear-facing cameras that far outclass the pitiful resolution of the iPad 2 cameras. Also like the Xoom (at least in Canada) – Wi-Fi only. No 3G options. (PlayBook owners can tether to their BlackBerry’s 3G connection. No extra charge.) Unlike the Xoom, there are 16- ($499), 32- ($599) or 64- ($699) gigabyte models – priced, in each case, $20 less than the equivalent iPad 2. You can drag and drop files from a Windows PC or Mac (after installing software) to a PlayBook either connected by USB or across
a Wi-Fi network. At first glance, the clean, sleek hardware may present a puzzle. How to get to the home screen for program icons? The PlayBook secret?
The seven-inch tablet is lighter and easier to hold in one hand than 10-inch competitors like iPad and Xoom The frame surrounding the display is “live”; swoop from below the screen to return home. Swoop down to display menus and settings. Swoop left or right to move to another running application. Nice, once you know the trick. The home screen shows the top row of application
icons (tap an arrow to see the rest of your icons) – above that is a parade of running applications. This makes it easy to switch to a different (running) app, and there’s a little (x) under each, making it a no-brainer to shut down any you’re no longer needing, freeing up memory – easier than on an iPad or iPhone and much easier than on Android devices like the Xoom. The browser is fast with (like the Xoom, but not the iPad) convenient tabs. Unlike the Xoom, it usually displays pages laid out like on a “real” computer rather than mobile phone pages. (A very good thing!) Flash support is the best of any tablet – better than on the Xoom, for instance. Hidef video watching, both on the PlayBook and connected to a TV, was very good. About that lack of email/
contacts/calendar apps: I didn’t miss them, since I access all of the above via a Gmail webmail account. On the PlayBook that worked just fine, though I missed being able to share documents or photos as attachments. Reportedly, bridging (via Bluetooth) to a BlackBerry works fine, too, though I couldn’t test it. RIM is promising “real” email (etc.) apps some time this summer, if that’s important to you. Also promised for the summer: 3G versions. And more apps. PlayBook remains a work in progress, but if you use a browser a lot and especially if you’re a BlackBerry user, it may be the tablet for you. • Alan Zisman (www.zisman. ca) is a Vancouver educator and computer specialist. His column appears weekly.
Strategic Marketing
Judy Bishop Startups 2.0 – financing changes a testimony to industry growth
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oney of ten u nites people, and so it was in late May when the Canadian Venture Capital Association (CVCA) held its annual meeting of top venture and private equity minds, this time in Vancouver. According to Steve Hnatiuk, event chairman and Vancouver venture capitalist, Vancouver broke every record set in the CVCA event’s 23-year histor y: more than 650 attendees, serious international participation and a deep bench of top-quality speakers and panellists. So what’s going on? It’s all about startup fever. B.C. networking and investor events are jammed. Company accelerators and
incubators are full. In the late 1990s it was all about the new Internet. No one knew how wacky startups would make money, but they built audiences fast and we all bet they could monetize. Thus the Internet bubble formed – and burst – soon thereafter. Things are different now. Yes, it’s all about the Internet, again. But it’s also about mobile technolog y and smartphones, about a very different landscape and different success factors. The startup ecosystem has radically changed. Oodles of startups are using capital-efficient models, benefiting from lower costs and Internet-enabled delivery, and are reaching serious revenue with minute
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investments. It’s dirt cheap to start a company now. Internet bandwidth is huge, even for mobile devices. Storage and computing power are almost free. Mostly free open-source tools enable creation of applications, websites, games and mobile sites. Online business models are proven or low-risk. And huge social media momentum and infrastructure make it fast and cheap to spread the word. For under $100,000, companies can put usable product into customers’ hands for validation and refinement. Once there’s a bit of traction, an angel round can be raised to beef up team and marketing depth. Small wonder that a key theme at the CVCA event was the new breed of angels, super angels and smaller venture capital (VC) funds now prominent in startup investments. A ngel i nvestors a re wealthy individuals who fund business startups, usually in exchange for convertible debt or equity.
Angels are increasingly organizing themselves into groups or networks to share research and pool investment capital. While angels invest their own funds, venture capitalists (VCs) professionally manage others’ pooled money. The pace of angel investing has skyrocketed, now funding over 20 times more startups than VCs. Small investors can breed with small startups to birth incredible companies – all at light speed. Today is a fantastic time for startup investing. Sure, companies may be valued lower than in recent decades, but the cost of achieving those valuations is also a fraction of what it has been – thus delivering much higher investor returns. Truthfully, startups are about fast failure. Sav v y entrepreneurs are emotionally intelligent enough to push hard, but know to cut and run if their market foray fails. Failing fast is much easier when only minimal cash is raised and few investors need to be
appeased. Ah, but here’s the badnews catch. Though starting a company costs a 10th of what it used to, a startling number of startups blow up because they fail to realize that expanding their com-
It’s all about startup fever pany costs twice as much as before. So entrepreneurs expend all their energy chasing money rather than building the business. Once seed capital from angel investors has been spent to obtain market validation, a company’s “rea l ” f inancing ef for t starts: millions in capital that come from classic VCs or super angels – all seeking traditional metrics, valuation and execution. Moving from the seed stage to follow-on financing has changed substantially. According to Amar Varma, managing partner of Extreme Venture Partners, the Holy Grail of early-stage
VCs is now a “race to get in early, then get out as quickly as possible. Building up big, high-value companies requires linking arms and coinvesting with others at different levels of investment and expectation.” VCs now make tiny early-stage cheques to secure a seat at the follow-on table, despite the burden inherent in holding lots of small investments. Today, traditional VCs hold a lower ownership in companies than in the recent past. The implications of all these changes to the companies, angel investors and other financiers in the company’s lifecycle are profound and worthy of a deeper look. Next column: moving from startup phase to company growth. • Judy Bishop (judy@ judybishop.ca) is the managing partner of Bishop + Company, a provider of corporate and marketing services to changing companies since 1991. Her column appears monthly.