Patek Philippe Chairman Thierry Stern on the Apple Watch:

“When you are buy a Patek Philippe, you buy a timeless piece of art. It would be as if you told people to no longer buy paintings but TV screens projecting the image of a painting.”

Stern also said he believed many consumers would prefer wearing a traditional watch with a suit or a black tie, rather than a smartwatch. He clearly doesn’t get it.

We don’t know yet if the Apple Watch will be a success, but don’t come crying when Apple starts drinking your milkshake, Thierry.

via DrewBot

via Lifehacker

Art has squarely met science in the modern practice of digital marketing, ushering in new forms of collaboration among marketers, agencies and technologists. Successful campaign execution now requires as much deftness with data and analytics as it does with creative and media planning disciplines.

This approach isn’t entirely new, however.

For decades, marketers have used consumer insights to inform creative and communications strategies, and relied on data signals to understand, target and measure audience reach. This is still true today, but with a twist: the shift towards auction-based buying of media formats such as search and video and automated trading of display media, has moved the industry to data-driven, technology-centric planning and buying modes.

But:

All this is not to say that human skills – such as judgement, creativity, storytelling – are any less vital to a great advertising campaign. Quite the opposite. Understanding people’s motivations, discerning consumer insights, creating compelling messages and delivering them across multiple channels and devices at appropriate intervals remain fundamental inputs to successful marketing communications.

—Eileen Naughton, Mad men, meet the algorithm: the art and science of modern marketing

When you launch a new product how it works is important (duh), how it looks is important, and how you photograph it is also very important.

You want your product to go viral, so make it as easy as possible for this to happen. This is where your product photography can help.

Your product photography is not just important on your website and promotional materials. It’s also important to all the people and news outlets you want talking about your product. Great photography increases your odds of them talking about it. Your great photography makes all the blogs and news sites look better. Give them images they can “steal”.

I was reminded of this after Apple’s Watch Keynote last week. They’re obviously Apple, so people will be talking about their new shiny stuff regardless of what photography exists, but just look at how impactful their product shots are:

Microsoft reveals how it will make money giving away software:

Microsoft’s traditional revenue has primarily come from licensing software like Windows and Office to OEMs and businesses. Microsoft grew into the giant it is today thanks to this hugely successful strategy and a dominance of the PC market. With mobile altering the landscape, Microsoft is turning to new strategies for the future of its entire business. Speaking at Microsoft’s Convergence conference today, Chris Caposella, who is in charge of marketing at the software giant, revealed Microsoft’s freemium plans in full.

It involves four parts: acquire, engage, enlist, and monetize. Acquire is Microsoft’s way of getting people to use a product for free, like Office for iPad. Engage is Microsoft’s plan to get them hooked on the product and leverage other parts of its ecosystem to keep someone using the service. Enlist is simply finding fans to keep the circle going, and then monetizing is figuring out who will pay for subscription versions of the service they’re hooked on. It sounds simple, but it’s something Microsoft hasn’t traditionally succeeded at. Google has thrived at offering free services in return for your data or ads, but Microsoft’s approach assumes people are willing to spend money on apps and services they’re addicted to.

Good luck with that strategy.

Google wants to get more involved with its app marketplace, Play:

Google Play, Google’s marketplace for Android applications which now reaches a billion people in over 190 countries, has historically differentiated itself from rival Apple by allowing developers to immediately publish their mobile applications without a lengthy review process. However, Google has today disclosed that, beginning a couple of months ago, it began having an internal team of reviewers analyze apps for policy violations prior to publication. And going forward, human reviewers will continue to go hands-on with apps before they go live on Google Play.

Additionally, Google announced the rollout of a new age-based ratings system for games and apps on Google Play, which will utilize the scales provided by a given region’s official ratings authority, like the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) here in the U.S.

I thought open was better? Open always wins?

Why is Google gettng involved? It couldn’t have anything to do with quality control. Nah.

I mean, it’s not like Android has problems with shitty scam apps or anything.

via The Combustion Chamber

Bill Gurley predicts ‘dead unicorns’ in startup-land this year

Bill Gurley, the prominent investor behind Uber and Snapchat, has been sounding the tech bubble alarm for months now. He’s preached about the dangerous appetite for risk in the market, the alarmingly high burn rates and the excess of capital sloshing around in Silicon Valley.

What’s that, Alan?

Robert Downey Jr. delivered a real bionic arm to a 7-year-old boy.

This is one of the coolest things that could ever happen to a kid.

Even at 37-years-old, you best believe I’d be getting an Iron Man prosthetic if I lost part of my arm.

via The Verge

It’s crazy how far software has come in 25 years.

Where will we be in 25 more?

via Designer News

There has been a bit of consternation about Apple’s focus on “fashion” and all that entails, but there is a very practical aspect to this focus: people need to be willing to actually put the wearable on their body. While “form may follow function” for tools, the priorities are the exact opposite when it comes to what we wear: function is irrelevant without a form we find appealing. In this case, design actually is how it looks.

It’s on this point specifically that most critics – including myself – have failed to appreciate Apple’s approach. After last fall’s presentation I compared the Watch’s introduction to that of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad and found it lacking for its lack of focus on functionality. What I now appreciate, though, is that this was almost certainly on purpose: there was focus in that keynote, it just happened to be on the Watch’s appearance; since I’m a geek I dismissed it, but normal consumers, especially in the case of a wearable, absolutely will not.

—Ben Thompson, How Apple Will Make the Wearable Market

via Twitter