If you want a look at the most design-forward site on the Web, take a look at the preview of the new Microsoft site, Anthony Wing Kosner writes in a Forbes.com analysis. He argues that the company’s product design has undergone a slow transformation that culminates in Windows 8, succeeding because it was built from the ground up for mobile devices, not adapted to the trend.
On a related note, Microsoft must really, really want a lot of businesses to start using Windows 8, and soon. It has just announced that users of Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 can update to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99 when it arrives this fall. That’s less than half previous upgrade costs. The price for the consumer version was not announced.
What Works on Mobile
Everybody’s working on mobile advertising, but one of the few real success models to emerge so far belongs to Twitter, says venture capitalist Fred Wilson in his blog.
More than half of Twitter’s ad revenue now comes from mobile advertising. The ad is delivered as a single Tweet, and displays as an entry in the user’s feed. It seems that Twitter’s standard 140-character limit, which was set arbitrarily in 1995, is ideal for mobile.
Nonetheless, Wilson argues that “mobile native” companies like Foursquare and Instagram are in a better position to thrive from the transition to mobile than feature-rich sites like Google (GOOG) and Facebook.
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State-of-the-Art Web Design
If you want a look at the most design-forward site on the Web, take a look at the preview of the new Microsoft site, Anthony Wing Kosner writes in a Forbes.com analysis. He argues that the company’s product design has undergone a slow transformation that culminates in Windows 8, succeeding because it was built from the ground up for mobile devices, not adapted to the trend.
On a related note, Microsoft must really, really want a lot of businesses to start using Windows 8, and soon. It has just announced that users of Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 can update to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99 when it arrives this fall. That’s less than half previous upgrade costs. The price for the consumer version was not announced.
What Works on Mobile
Everybody’s working on mobile advertising, but one of the few real success models to emerge so far belongs to Twitter, says venture capitalist Fred Wilson in his blog.
More than half of Twitter’s ad revenue now comes from mobile advertising. The ad is delivered as a single Tweet, and displays as an entry in the user’s feed. It seems that Twitter’s standard 140-character limit, which was set arbitrarily in 1995, is ideal for mobile.
Nonetheless, Wilson argues that “mobile native” companies like Foursquare and Instagram are in a better position to thrive from the transition to mobile than feature-rich sites like Google (GOOG) and Facebook.