It’s a month or more since I got back from my first visit to SXSW in Austin, Texas – and some of the takeaways from the conference are finally starting to properly take shape.
First, I have been coming round to realise how important it is to recruit and retain talented people. There was a lot of angst at SXSW from people either looking for a gig, or trying to employ good people. The common theme was that as soon as you find someone who’s good, they get snapped up by Facebook/Google and the rest.
Second, there are no new ideas. Not a new one in itself this, but just having a good idea in this world is nowhere near good enough – you really need to be able to execute well. There were a multitude of group messaging apps at SXSW but even though they were attracting a lot of attention (and investment) in truth there were several which were no good and will dissappear with out trace as quickly as they emerged.
Third, HTML5 is definitely the future, but is not the “right now”. No matter how annoying the fragmenting apps. ecosystems are, developers can’t drag themselves away from the real money available through the app. stores, and their clients want to have a presence in the app. store as well. The iTunes app. store that is – forget about the geek-fest that is still the Android marketplace.
Digital Product Innovation 