It’s crazy to think that the future might be sneaking up faster than we think. Remember the time when people were scared to give their credit card information over the Internet? Concerns about identity theft, unfamiliarity with ssl pages, the need to see the product in person were typical excuses. Times have most certainly changed as e-commerce is booming and just apart of the way we live today.

M-Commerce or mobile commerce is definitely coming and soon will be “just apart of the way we live”. As smart phones and other portable devices like the iPad become more ubiquitous the amount of commerce will follow. For example, I was at the airport tonight waiting for my trip to New Zealand/Australia with my wife. We quickly realized that we probably should’ve make reservations for the spa/hot springs we had planned to visit in less than 48 hours. I quickly jumped onto my iPad, found their website, filled out a form, and submitted my credit card information. I got an email 10 minutes later with times to choose from. One email reply later and our reservation was confirmed. Pretty powerful stuff. In a matter of 15 minutes we were able to purchase a service in a country across the globe for a place we had never been that would be fulfilled in less than 48 hours. The amazing part is that we were sitting in terminal 43 of LAX…the walls of commerce are being broken down as I type.

The experience I had is probably not common today but it will be very very soon. I’m guessing in less than 2 years this will be commonplace. The speed at which things can be purchased is truly game changing. Mobile is definitely where business should start to think about optimizing. By optimization I see a few key areas:

- Simple easy to use websites or app – if I’m mobile I want to be able to find what I want quickly and fast. This probably means shorter forms, quick forms of payment, etc.
- Fast response – Let me know my purchase went through. Notify me quickly that there are problems. Reply to support and service questions instantly.
- Full selection – I should be able to purchase anything and everything that I could from a physical location or website.

Thoughts about m-commerce? Leave some comments…would love to discuss.

Announced yesterday was the all-new Apple TV at a $99. A much more attractive price point that actually made me pause, think, and research if this was something that I wanted to buy. A win for Apple (and others like Roku and Boxee) as I wasn’t even in the market to buy this type of product. Apple’s marketing machine has again placed a seed in my head to consider a product that I didn’t even know I possibly wanted (e.g., the iPad, which I currently now own).

I did a bit of digging last night and here’s a few pros and cons as it pertains to my current situation…

Pros

1. Netflix Streaming – With Blockbuster in bankruptcy, our favorite local video store might be kaput. It would be great to get access to movies without leaving the couch.
2. AirPlay Streaming – We have iPhones and an iPad in our household so it would be seamless to stream music and videos onto the player.
3. Apple Design & Functionality – We love our current Apple products. They are not without fault but in general they work really well and are used on a daily basis.

Cons

1. Lack of Content – The biggest problem with Apple TV is that I’m not sure if they’ll have enough good programming to purchase. For TV shows they only will have ABC and Fox shows. What about my Amazing Race and How I Met Your Mother?
2. DVR - Do I really need another product to buy more things to watch on TV? I already pay $100 for cable and the DVR function means that I always have something that I want to watch.
3. Price - Yes this was the main head turner but for $99 is my money better spent somewhere else? Similar streaming content devices cost cheaper or I could spend a bit more and get a Blu-Ray player with streaming capabilities. The other issue is that if I had the Apple TV would I be locked into spending even more money buying shows/movies? The answer is probably yes as I would need to justify the purchase.

The product has its initial temptation but I think I’ll end up in a wait and see approach. If more studios provide content to Apple for shows and movies then I might be more inclined to kill my cable service and try a product like the Apple TV.

For a guy who’s over 6 feet in height, seeing a Smartcar as a rental car was definitely a head scratcher. We’ve rented small, economy cars before like the Kia Rio but this one was the smallest one yet (at least from the outside).

The interior was surprisingly roomy but did only have space for two people. The dash was laid out efficiently with all the controls within an acceptable reach. There was also space to store your pocket items like iPhone and sunglasses so that was a plus. The mirrors were tiny and your over the shoulder view was straight into the trunk. Speaking of the trunk there was enough space for a Costco pack of toilet paper and not much else.

In terms of driving, the car felt like a golf cart. The seat felt high off the ground, the roof was tall, and the outside seemed closer then it should be. The motor was small and underneath the trunk floor. Supposedly it supplied only 70 HP and it definitely felt weak. The acceleration was slow and the steering felt shaky above 60 mph. Ever bump was felt and strong winds felt a bit unnerving. The brake was floor mounted and definitely needed to get used to.

All in all, the results were mixed. I liked the concept and was pleasantly surprised by the interior space. On the other hand, the drive was pretty crappy and felt unstable. The jerky motion from the gear box shifting and strange brakes were undesirable. It’s probably ok for local putting around to the grocery store but not much else. For guys my size you’ll probably feel like your driving a clown car — not the feeling you’d probably want. Fun for a rental but definitely not one to own.

I just flew to SJC and started to think about how technology could be used at airports to make flying more efficient. There are definitely implementation and privacy for some of these ideas but here they are:

1. An app/website that allows you to track where parking shuttles are. It would be great to know how long before the next one would arrive. Also the ability to check in at shuttle stops could help alert drivers which stops have passengers waiting and if they need to send more than one.

2. The ability to use iPhones and other smart phones as your boarding pass. Already being tested by airlines like Delta but something that definitely should be rolled out.

3. Geolocate/track passengers. Allow for gps tracking of passengers so you can track them to make sure they are in valid areas of the airport. Also you could use it for tracking passengers if they had checked in but aren’t at the gate and the flight is getting to leave.

4. Create a marketplace to easily trade seats. Have the ability at a kiosk or mobile app to post a price you’d be willing to trade your seat for. That way if you had an exit row seat, aisle seat etc. you could sell it for a profit if you didn’t value the seat as much as someone else. Airlines could facilitate the transaction and take a percentage for the move.

5. Offer limited free wifi on airlines to purchase content. Airlines could offer a closed system accessible by wifi to stream content to someones laptop, iPad, iPhone, etc. This could be a pay per use model to get new movies, games, ebooks, and more. You could easily change content since it’s all in digital format and you wouldn’t have to retrofit old seats with new screens.

I’ve been messing around with Google Realtime today and it’s definitely pretty interesting. It’s basically a constantly updated list of news updates from sources like Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, etc. In the screenshot above, I’m checking out the activity for my brother’s company, 3Par, which is right now in the middle of a bidding war between HP and Dell. I definitely like the timeline above the results as it shows the concentration of when there’s the most amount of chatter and buzz.I think each spike in the timeline is when a new offer to buy the company was made.

As Google starts to refine its listing and figure out what users want to see, you can bet that this feature is going to be more prominently featured within the main search engine. Three things come to mind to what would make this page more interesting:

1. Updates/tweets/feeds that have been shared or retweeted the most.

2. A listing of the top links that were being shared. Apparently that’s exactly what the top links are in the right hand nav. Cool!

3. Being able to filter the graph by Tweets, Facebook Posts, etc.