Media: A-Clue continues to talk Always-On, with Business Models

Dana Blankenhorn's column A-Clue has run some thought-provoking stuff the last few weeks on the impact of always-on connectivity. Here's more...

'To work, a business model must bring a profit to the vendor and ample value to the consumer,' he starts, and he points out that 'a good business model can be worse for vendors than what came before. What matters is that the consumer gets awesome value while a vendor still finds a route to profit.'

He argues that Always-On applications require a lot of software which must work seamlessly on a network in order for the application to be bullet-proof. And he sees present business models leading away from this vision: 'Not only are software prices going up, not down, but you can't even "buy" it. You can only "license" it, for a fixed term, and thus no matter how old your machine you have to "buy" it and "buy" it again. Worse, the software maker isn't even promising to make sure it works for you -- software license agreements specifically indemnify the makers from crappy products.

Then he offers other models...

Associated Link: A-clue: The House Of Cards, The Toll Booth, and The Volcano

All change at the top for System Concepts
Source: System Concepts Ltd, 3 July 2009
 
Leslie Fountain has been promoted to joint Managing Director of leading usability consultancy System Concepts.

Life in UCD immortalised in fiction: you couldn't make it up
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Sarah Herman's fictitious book on life in a user-centred design company has hit the shelves and The Guardian's book pages...

Interfaces Magazine - Issue 79: The Education Issue
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The latest issue of Interfaces is now available as a free download from the Interaction Website.

Two new Behavioural research Tools from Noldus
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Tool updates make on-site behavioural data collection easier.

Cell Phones that Listen and Learn
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New software tracks a user's behavior by monitoring everyday sounds.

Top Six Don’ts for Usability Testing
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Six tips for creating quality usability tests to ensure useful feedback from testers.

Usability: ‘Lovely software. But I can’t work it’
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In a recent survey by Global Graphics, 77 per cent of office workers estimate they lose up to one hour a week because business software is difficult to use.

And what do you do?
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Most Doctors cite Usability as critical to Electronic Health Record Adoption
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It's all about 'meaningful use'.

Glossy monitors look good but can hurt
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A new advisory cites research which suggests high gloss monitors make users sit awkwardly.