Keeping Up With The Kids
I think it’s funny and amazing to see Facebook’s new Poke app tanking in popularity in the Apple’s App Store.
At the tender age of 28, Mark Zuckerberg is already finding himself keeping up with what’s popular with the kids. Not too long ago, he was one of those kids, coding up thefacebook in his dorm room.
Moves like this and Twitter’s decision to make itself look more like Instagram with the inclusion of image filters just make both companies look dumb and out-of-touch.
Feature parity can been really boring and pointless without strategic thinking behind it.
Apple copied Android’s pull-down notifications when they launched Notification Center in iOS 5 in 2011. This is an example of gaining feature parity and giving people something that improved the overall experience of using an iPhone or an iPad.
You always have to ask yourself why you’re doing something. It doesn’t matter if it’s adding new features to your mobile app or buying a new pair of jeans. If you don’t truly believe in the decisions you make, you have no reason to follow through with them.
Saying, “I’m doing this because [fill in person or company name] is doing it.” isn’t enough.