Pure has launched a product today that it hopes will “do for radio what the iPhone did for mobile”. That’s the dream of the CEO of Pure’s parent company, Hossain Yassiae of Imagination Technologies.

Also see RadioDNS

The Pure Sensia is a fully connected internet, FM and DAB device, much like their products before, only this time they’re adding an app store. “It’s the radio for the Facebook generation,” according to Pure and the company hopes that it will help make the radio become central to younger generation rather than the PC or the mobile phone

The device will launch at the end of October with two applications – Twitter and Weather – and the plan is to add Facebook, Picasa and a news link within the next few weeks before offering up an SDK for third party apps next year.

The unit itself works with DAB, DAB+, DMB, FM and internet radio through Pure’s Lounge portal. It has a glass capacitive touchscreen, much like the iPhone, it’s 5.7 inches in size with VGA resolution and it also has an ambient light sensor to save battery power when not plugged into the wall.

You can upload software updates via Wi-Fi and the USB port, both of which you can also play music through. So, you can stream music to the Sensia from your PC or direct from a memory stick.

There’s no on board storage for MP3s but there is an alarm, an external connection for an iPod dock, stereo out, a headphones jack, support for album art and a tilt stand as well. Kitchen sink not included.

The only thing missing for the grand iPhone claims is video playback but, the reason, according to Pure:

“Because it’s not a crap TV. It’s a really, really good radio. It’s to make radio relevant again and to bring it up to date”.

The Sensia will be available in red, black, white and yellow and has an RRP of £250.

Surprise: lets start with Apple. Estimates vary about how much in dollars of apps have been purchased via the app store. I read somewhere that Apple sold $300m in the first year of operation of the app store. And I read somewhere else that Apple is now selling $200m of apps per month.

Looking next at device Market share in a say for example a basket of countries in Western Europe the market share by brand may look something like this:

Nokia                           22%

Samsung                     20%

Sony Ericsson             19%

Other Java phones     15%

Blackberry                  12%

Apple                           10%

Win Mob,  and rest      2%

If you say that Apple managed sales of $300 apps with just 10% of the device market share then it follows that if the other manufacturers managed to launch successful app stores and sold roughly the same amount of apps there would be a market for $300m x 10 = $3B per annum.

Peak Apps = $3B per annum?

3 Reasons why this figure is too high.

1. It does not necessarily follow that simply because people buy apps on the apple app store that they will do so using other devices on other App Stores. Other app stores existed long before Apple started theirs but no one (except Apple) noticed. App sales before Apple were small.
2. Everyone might get bored and stop buying apps. You may have seen reports stating that the average customer uses an App for about 1 minute. (How did they figure that out?)
3. A technological advance may occur that wipes out the App economy.

3 Reasons why this figure is too low

1. Apple don’t sell in India or China. If they did the figure could mushroom.
2. The calculation is based on the relatively low reported sales in Apple first year of App sales (July 08 July 09). A more realistic start point might be current reported monthly sales multiplied by 12.
3. The Internet of Things! It could be that the App store is an early prototype for selling apps for your fridge, cooker, heating system, chair in a world driven by the Internet of Things. Is it a phone, is it a computer, is it a camera, is it a pair of glasses, is it a fridge, is it a lamp? No! Its the internet of things! Could there be an App for that?

In wk 12 there will be a presentation/crit

each student should present their project using power point

The presentation should contain (at least) the following points

Title of project

Problem to be solved

users/readers/viewers (who will benifit from the resolution of the problem)

client/commissioner (who (if the project was being done outside the college environment) would pay for the work to be carried out)

distribution (how does the designed entity get to the end user)

Work plan 

Your presentation should last no more than 7 minutes and should excite and sell your idea to your audience (myself, Robin and other students)

Please provide a postcard (a JPEG or GIF 450px wide) (For wk 7)

That has the following information:

Title of project

Problem to be solved

A picture/image/impression visual clue about the project
NB: Each postcard will be published on this blog and the result will be sent to the examiner for information.

For information on PERT see here

Due date: wk 13

Design is an iterative process. Sometimes (most times) you will need to go back to the previous step. On some occassions the project will be nearly complete when you need to start again. The process looks like a waterfall that can flow upstream.

Also see http://www.foylearts.net/ahutton/mobile/?p=418

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iterative_design

Also see this http://simplerisbetter.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/context-is-everything/  and read about the sad story of the SA80

http://ries.typepad.com/ries_blog/2007/03/convergence_fin.html

The future of music:

Background

Music is played in the home using a variety of devices:

Computer, phone, ipod, cd player, shower radio, tape, radio, TV, gaming console, musical instruments, etc

It is played in a variety of rooms:

Kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, computer room, sitting room, hallway.

It is played using a variety of people:

You, house mates, parents, brothers, sisters, friends

In this rich area there is a great deal of convergence of devices, systems, tastes, people, demands and contexts

Assignment 1

Make a survey of how, when and why music is played in your house. How did the music get selected, purchased, acquired?

Start the survey by simply taking a 24hour period and taking a note of what happens

Count all the devices that make music in the house

Describe how each member of the house interacts with each device

Present your data in a compelling way. (ppt, movie, animation, storyboard, essay, graphs, recorded excerpts, etc)

Due date wk 4: Guideline weighting 10%

Eileen Marie         Illustration, teenage Drug use

Maria                     Men dont go shopping!

Breidge                   Design influences of Ireland

Patrica                   Colour and Pattern

Hoi Hin                  The chinese book

Noel                        Information Indigestion

Niall                         Information overload – an animation?

David                      Why dont people use Public transport?

Conor                     A film that heightens awareness of recession