With services such as Twitter and Foursquare gaining incredible boosts through high visibility at the yearly South by Southwest event (SXSW), it has become something of a pastime to predict which service will be the breakthrough this year, if any. If early response to Beluga is any indication, the application, in addition to other candidates, such as Yobongo, is in the driver's seat to take that role in 2011. Only a month after the application debuted, the group texting service has gained high-profile mentions in publications as varied as Fortune and TechCrunch, and I can see new contacts joining the service every day - as each new connection from my address book notifies me from within the service.

As debated on Quora, it's widely assumed the best candidates for a boost from SXSW would be those useful at the event itself, be it for discovering top parties, debating keynotes and panels, and enabling people to communicate in the sometimes frenetic venue with spotty wireless support. This leads us to Beluga and Yobongo - the first enabling free texting between friends with intelligent linkage to location data and photos support, and the second offering location-based chat with complete strangers. But Yobongo doesn't have multi-platform support yet (including Android), and Beluga is already seeing good cross-platform engagement from early adopters, former Googlers, and is gaining awareness in the mainstream, especially after having been featured in the Android Market this week by Google - goosing the app's download numbers significantly.


   Updates from Beluga With Photos and GeoLocation

The group chat field is one that is becoming increasingly crowded, with TextPlus, GroupMe and now Beluga being the best-known players. But Beluga, without the 10 million in funding gained by GroupMe, already has an extremely smooth application that integrates well with both mobile and Web-based activity, supports multiple mobile OSes and is very lightweight. As I've seen new "pods" started within my groups of friends, for the casual to the more business-oriented, it's obvious that a simple and fast way to exchange messages in groups, independent of the larger networks, like Twitter and Facebook, is much desired.


   Tony Hung and Siobhan Quinn Rave About Beluga In the App(Note Also the Geographical Reach of this Pod)

Guessing where the application could go in the future would be especially interesting as well. Recall how Brizzly Picnics had both private and public options, letting you publish question and answer chats to the Web for all to see? Today, all Beluga Pods are private to only the participants. There could come a real opportunity to make select Pods public, or even to established tiered roles for such Pods, so you could have read-only participants and moderators for public events, such as SXSW and others.



Foursquare's Dennis Crowley on Beluga's Growth Beyond the Mainstream

If it wasn't enough to just speculate about how the app could perform on the public stage, I was backed by Siobhan Quinn, product manger at Foursquare, who said in one of our Beluga Pods that "Beluga is going to blow up SXSW." Activity in individual pods is jumping, users are joining and feedback so far has been very good. It's been an eventful month for the service already, even over a usually-quiet Holiday break, but the next few months could be very loud indeed.


New Friends Are Joining Beluga All the Time

If you're not already using Beluga, go check it out at http://belugapods.com. Want to add me to a pod? Just use my email address and I'll join.

Yesterday, Apple announced earnings that were record-setting for the company, with blowout numbers on iPads, iPhones and Macs. The sales far outstripped practically every analyst estimate, and even the most optimistic amateur guesses. The fantastic news for Cupertino's money machine came just one day after the news that CEO (and legend) Steve Jobs was going to be sidelined for a third time for an undisclosed medical issue for an uncertain amount of time. Intriguingly, after the company proved it was firing on all cylinders, again, well beyond expectations, one once again sees feedback from the peanut gallery offering suggestions for where the company should go next, and how it should handle the executive transition. Luckily for Apple's customers and shareholders, they're ignoring you. They've proven quite good at it, and they should continue.

Apple being a public company doesn't necessarily mean they need to be managed by the people, in some sort of communist undertaking. The qualification that the company is public requires they do what is in the best interest of their shareholders, and the numbers prove they have done so - without any doubts.

Apple's stock value is up 298 percent from the beginning of 2009. This contrasts with a 110 percent rise for Google stock, a 48 percent rise for Microsoft, and a 32 percent rise for HP. And when faced with a similar uncertainty related to Steve Jobs two years ago, Tim Cook (and the rest of Apple's deep bench, which is growing) executed dramatically well. The company is the highest-valued tech company in the world, and at this pace, may soon become the most valuable company in the world, period.

While there are some aspects to Apple's opaqueness which are frustrating, as a user, a shareholder, or press, the company has proven it doesn't need to heed public opinion when it comes to running its business. The company famously doesn't leverage focus groups to design upcoming products, and they don't have the transparency into employee's thoughts as you see with more blogosphere-friendly companies, including Google. I would suggest that one of the major reasons I've personally drawn closer to Google and its employees in the last few years, possibly at the expense of my loyalty to Apple, has been due to ease of access and fast feedback, but this formula is not demanded by all.

So here we are, not a full day beyond the company's blowout earnings call, and already you can see stories in the tech community, calling for a clear succession plan at Apple. With headlines like those from Marketwatch saying "Apple should make Tim Cook its CEO" and people already clamoring about unreleased specifics regarding the rumored iPad 2 and iPhone 5, the best thing Apple can do is ignore all the noise. They've proven for several years now that they don't need your guidance when it comes to how they manage their business, how they hire personnel, how they release products, or how they engage in relationships with partners.

If Steve Jobs says he hopes to be back at Apple soon, and the company tells you that he is going to be active in strategic decisions related to the company, while Tim Cook runs day to day back in Cupertino, then that's the long and short of the story. Done! They've proven they can do it before and they will again. They have given us no reason to doubt them.

I have the utmost confidence that if Steve Jobs were to disappear tomorrow from the Earth, no doubt transcended to Heaven like in Blblical times, rather than passing away due to mortal death, the company has a plan to keep going. Apple is much more than one person now. Jobs is an enigma - the guy tech titans dream about becoming when they grow up. But for as much noise that is drawn up around this company and every little move they make or don't make, it's great they aren't paying attention and managing the company by committee. If only Microsoft and others could execute half as well.

So stop it with your silly headlines telling Apple what they should do next. They know, and you don't.

Quora, the red-hot question and answer service sprung from the minds and keyboards of a small group of early Facebook employees, continues to see dramatic growth, sustaining a near-fever pitch that was kindled just prior to the new year. While off its all-time traffic peak, with subscription notifications ebbing for most folks, but remaining high, people are still trying to find out what role Quora fits in their Web consumption ecosystem, and what role they may want to play.

Last week, I gained the opportunity to sit down with Brian Remmel of Social Media Club Silicon Valley to talk about what has made Quora intriguing for tech-focused early adopters, who have generally shied away from mainstream question and answer sites. For me, the site has been most intriguing to take a passive view, watching primary sources share their unique insight. Not aiming to draw attention to myself, my answers have been sporadic, aiming to add value.

While there have been some concerns about the site's quality decreasing with the influx of traffic, for me Quora will provide solid value so long as the top-ranked answer is exceptional. The rest of the answers, from the casual to humorous to incorrect, should be taken care of by the community or moderators themselves. You can follow me on Quora at http://www.quora.com/Louis-Gray.

To read the great summary from Brian, see: Social Media Club: Will Quora find its place among the stars? or my previous comments on Quora: The Quora Phenomenon - Peaking on Value & Authenticity.

The full interview (in audio) is embedded below:



Louis Gray on Quora 1-11-11 by bremmel

There is a tug of war going on in your mobile devices and your desktop OS - between the world of apps and that of cloud-based Web services. The applications, usually designed and optimized for your particular environment, serve as familiar tools for you, and improve your productivity, bring you news, enabling you to do new things or they may simply entertain you. Not all those applications are on every platform, and the more you choose to purchase on one device, the more it is assumed you have some share of "switching costs" or, in a more antiquated word, "lock-in" to your selected OS.

In parallel, one sees a rise in Web services and apps that tap into cloud-hosted data, without demanding the data be stored on your local device. As applications become increasingly cross-platform and feature equal, this, in combination with the mass migration of data to the cloud, is reducing vendor lock-in and making it easier for consumers to make radical switches in their desktop or mobile environments - be it by operating system or the device itself.

If money were no object, I would be delighted to have desktops with the latest Windows, Mac or Chrome OS installs at my disposal, surrounded by mobile phones and tablets bearing logos not just of Android and Apple, but BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7. The rise in importance and prevalence of cloud data, and access to the true Web on all these devices (for the most part) makes their core differences less dramatic than in years past. Meanwhile, most application developers are executing in tandem for the top operating systems in desktop and mobile, meaning you can find your apps in a new place, should you choose to switch.

(See also: BetaNews: Laplink Switch & Sync -- posted tonight)

In 2010, I first switched mobile operating systems, and then switched phones on that OS. The first move took some effort and app discovery, but most my data was in the cloud, especially including all my email services, contacts and browser bookmarks. Switching between phones was even easier, as on Android, I was able to redownload all my paid apps from the Android market, free of charge. By the end of the year, I also had my hands on the ChromeOS-based CR-48 notebook, the most radical change yet, foregoing local apps for cloud-based ones, and making the Web browser the center of the universe. And yet, I've survived, going back to the MacBook Air for archived email and heavy-duty apps for Office and photos, but keeping pace on the Web.

A year ago, I called for OS and App neutral data, which removes the ownership of my content from the service providers themselves and gives it back to me. Recognizing mobile providers' core offerings, I started my migration to the cloud in earnest when I first picked up the MacBook Air. I've failed somewhat in keeping apps off the device, out of necessity, but most rich media gets moved off to the local Time Capsule, and from a 128 GB hard drive, smaller than my last laptop, above 50 GB are left. Clearly, I have more cutting to do.

The move to the cloud means I am no longer a Mac person or a Blackberry person or a Google person, but instead a Web person. So long as I can configure the device to find my information elsewhere, it is less necessary to be concerned about the hops needed to try and switch or test out a Windows Phone 7 handset, or what would happen if the Blackberry Playbook entered my life. Similarly, migrating from the Samsung Galaxy Tab to a Motorola Xoom would be extremely simple - just like my move from EVO to Epic in the fall.

Asymco says for every iOS device, be they iPhones, iPads, or iPods, users have downloaded more than 60 apps on average. No doubt have we exceeded this number ourselves, but also on the Android platform - some of which are duplicates of the other. I purchased MLB At Bat for iPhone, iPad and Android, and would probably get it for the Mac App Store if it was there too. But the availability of the top apps on most of the top platforms makes my loyalty to any one particular device or OS a temporary one. If I've put $200 or $300 of my money into apps on iOS, and about $200 on apps on Android, it's a one-time allotment of sunk costs, no greater than a prepayment penalty on one's mobile phone contract. But the technical hassles between devices are going away as the cloud becomes the center of all we do.