Teen App Makers, Smart Phones, and Social Class

Mike Cassidy
(photo: Google Plus)

An article by Mercury News business columnist Mike Cassidy in today's siliconvalley.com explores what's going on for some teenaged app creators. The story's theme is that teens now consider smart phones as the ne plus ultra platform for their inventions. App development also provides access into basic programming, the knowledge of which tech's high priests have insisted is among the world's essential ambitions. Recently, according to a KQED story, some Northern California elementary schools offer class time for learning basic programming language. (No comment was added about helping this new generation become articulate in the English language.)

Teen app developers theoretically can come from all walks of life. In order to create apps, they do need access to a reasonably current computer and, of course, a smart phone. Those criteria immediately separate the haves from the have-nots. Teens from poor or rural backgrounds are far less likely to have this equipment than their suburban or prosperous urban peers. Kids from city neighborhoods without supermarkets (a useful definition of "ghetto") might have a smart phone. A computer? Maybe not.

Further, teens from areas such as tech-savvy Milpitas (the town mentioned in Cassidy's article) have far greater opportunity to connect with live human beings associated with the tech biz. While the proposition of online peer learning is a slam dunk concept for app development, the process is far more efficient when people interact in such quaint ways as face-to-face meetings.

The one depressing note in Cassidy's piece is a Milpitas high school teacher's observation about what teens find inspiring. "You could say for them that the movie 'The Social Network' was for them what 'Easy Rider' was for an earlier generation...It was just like a way to live." For teens who dream of emulating Mark Zuckerberg's college drop-out career path, beware of what you wish for. The "Facebook movie" depicts a world where emasculated privacy, a disdain for ethics, ruthless financial gatekeepers, corrupt elitism, and a boy's club atmosphere are considered generators of the greatest possible good for individuals and for society.

The Social Network skewers those who celebrate these presumably undesirable qualities. However, teens are supposedly enamored of the "empowerment" tech's young zillionaires embody. We've come a long way -- and not a useful or good way -- from Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, and Dennis Hopper rebelling against a fucked up society.

Jeff Bezos Flies Solo on Phone Patent Application

Most of us are familiar with Jeff Bezos as Amazon's caudillo. It turns out Mr. B. also has a touch of the inventor in him.

A report in geekwire.com noted that Bezos applied for a patent involving smartphones and information sharing via audio signals. The current standard, known as "bumping," would presumably be the target of Bezos' proposed "innovation."

What's remarkable is that the Amazon CEO has enough time on his hands to tinker in the lab. Perhaps that explains why he rarely talks to the media, shareholders, or (heaven help us) Amazon customers.

In case you're wondering, Bezos is the sole inventor listed on the patent application. Well, at least one can't accuse the caudillo of false modesty.

Report: Smart Phones Outsell PCs

Fry's Ad Offering Smartphones

In something of a landmark event, a widely publicized report asserts that smart phones are now outselling PCs. The tech consulting/analysis firm Canalys, which prepared the document, estimates that 488 million smart phones were shipped in 2011. PCs followed with 415 million units shipped.

Granted that "shipped" and "sold" are not quite the same thing, as anyone working the wholesale business will quickly tell you. The data nonetheless offer a compelling illustration of a shift in how mass market consumers and providers create, retrieve, and send information.

While it's easy to infer that Apple is the big winner here, a closer look at the data offers a different perspective. The Android system has definitely taken a big bite from the smartphone market. Samsung is selling lots and lots of phones. Apple's best move, according to the data, is not the iPhone -- it's the iPad. The iPad maintains a dominant place in its category, up to now. No wonder Amazon rushed the Kindle Fire (KF) to the market (before all of KF's kinks were worked out). Even less wonder why HP dropped out of the tablet race, even though its tablet was pretty good.

I suppose all of this sounds "business-y" and a little too enamored of data for its own good. That's a point taken. However, you can't deny the revolution in communication that's now in everyman's -- and everywoman's -- hands. It's as if we've moved from the horse and buggy era into the that of the automobile, from stage to movies, from sailing to flying.

Netflix, Hulu Viewers' Device, Programming Choices; Apple's TV Strategy

A recent Nielsen survey of Netflix and Hulu customers revealed some interesting consumer choices. The AP story, picked up by the San Jose Mercury News, found that "more Netflix users are watching video on the TVs rather than their computers," often using game box consoles as their connection.

Hulu clients skew heavily toward computer use. They also tend to watch TV programs. That contrasts with the Netflix crowd, which tends to prefer viewing movies. (The image shows Hulu's icon for its desktop application.)

Now, if Apple acquires Hulu, that act would imply a major Apple push into the television distribution market. A computer-driven audience would play into the Apple plan. TV also happens to play better on mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, including the iPhone. Apple's bete noire in this hypothetical strategy would be the cost of bandwidth, which would be controlled by the phone duopoly and cable providers such as Comcast (which happens to own NBC).