Aug 27

Waiting until the last possible moment before I close the storm windows for the approaching hurricane – so here are a couple of links.

A take on Tim Cook

An acquaintance, Alex Bain, works at Apple and has a post up on his meetings with Tim Cook. It seems that he’s meet with him once a week, and so it’s interesting to hear his take on Tim’s leadership style. Very cool look inside the now most powerful man in tech’s leadership style. (Thanks to Kenny Kellogg for pointing out Alex’s post.)

Updating Mac Apps

I’m proud of a post over on the OfficeDrop blog about how to update apps purchased in the Mac App Store. You’d be surprised at how many people ignore the update icon (or who don’t know how to update their apps!). Anyway, hopefully this how to will make it easier for people to update their apps and perhaps not call our customer service to ask about how to do it. OfficeDrop’s ScanDrop Mac Scanner Software really does work better when it’s the most up to date version!

Aug 24

Tablet growth is going gangbusters! Bizrate Insights has a new report that shows tablet growth at a 51% CAGR for the next few years (I can’t find the piece, just a write up on online marketing trends here.) A slightly more dated chart shows how fast tablets are taking off:

Online Marketing Tends reports that:

“According to a new report by Forrester Research, in partnership with Bizrate Insights, the number of Americans owning tablet devices is forecast to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 51% between 2010 and 2015, while tablet commerce is expected to grow rapidly over the same period. 9% of surveyed online shoppers say they own a tablet device; among them, 78% own a smartphone as well, while 22% of tablet owners (2% of online shoppers) own a tablet only.”

That’s pretty quick. I’m starting to believe that the future will be dominated by tablets, at least as far as small business usage goes. And looks like Prasad Thammenini, my intrepid sometimes co-blogger, agrees. Here he is with a nifty new iPad2 keyboard that he just purchased:

Aug 23

Came across a study by a company called Comparz and found the following quote interesting:

Only 20% or less of SMBs found vendor websites and conversation useful. So what are SMB’s looking for? Over 90% of business users said that user reviews and user ratings and rankings would be the strongest help in making vendor decisions. In addition, 84% indicated that decision guides outlining what to consider when purchasing a solution and would be useful. They also seek a community where they can chat online with similar buyers.

This goes along with my mobile app marketing strategy of getting existing power users to step up and review new versions of apps in app stores.

Aug 22

Yup, it’s me, Healy Jones, talking about the OfficeDrop cloud filing system switch to freemium with Lincoln Murphy of 16Ventures. Lincoln is that well known SaaS pricing guy, and we go over the switch OfficeDrop made from a pure web only service with a 60 day free trial to an app focused business with a freemium pricing model.

The switch in our pricing strategy has been pretty huge for OfficeDrop. It’s driving a lot of new user growth – both free and paid. It’s been only a month and a half since the switch and the change is clearly measurable with our analytics packages. So far, for our SaaS company, freemium seems to be working.

Check out the interview with on why OfficeDrop went Freemium here! Or simply watch the video embedded below.

Healy Jones with Lincoln Murphy on Freemium

Aug 20

While we all knew that VCs are actively investing in startups, we now have some solid data from two of the most important law firms that help startups – Cooley and Fenwick. I think it’s great these two firms release reports on the aggregate level data the collect during their work. They have both just come out with info on the second quarter 2011, and it’s both positive and pretty interesting.

Cooley’s Q2 report is here, and Fenwick’s is here.

2011 Q2 VC Activity

Valuations are solid! According to Cooley, “Average valuations for Series A deals were $8 million, a level not seen since Q3 2010.”

Coley is also reporting that the average startup’s Series A valuation was $8 million, and Series B was almost $22 million.

Follow rounds are healthy! Here are the % of rounds that up, according to Fenwick (this means that the subsequent round of financing for any given company increased from the previous. For example, comparing Series B to a previous Series A for the same company.

Price Change Q2’11 Q1’11 Q4’10 Q3’10 Q2’10 Q1’10 Q4’09 Q3’09
Down
25%
16%
21%
30%
27%
32%
30%
36%
Flat
14%
17%
12%
18%
18%
19%
23%
23%
Up
61%
67%
67%
52%
55%
49%
47%
41%

 

Industry Number of Financings Up Rounds Down Rounds Flat Rounds Barometer
Software
34
71%
20%
9%
+123%
Hardware
12
50%
50%
0%
+35%
Lifescience
24
46%
33%
21%
+6%
Internet/Digital Media
17
76%
6%
8%
+115%
Cleantech
6
67%
17%
16%
+24%
Other
2
0%
50%
50%
-33%
Total – All Industries
95
61%
25%
14%
+71%

Both reports are packed with info worth checking out. Again, thanks to these firms for helping keep the entrepreneurial community up to date on the VC economy.  You can also read peHUB’s reaction to the reports (and thanks to them for tipping me off to the reports.)

Aug 15
More smartphone adoption numbers
icon1 Healy Jones | icon2 mobile | icon4 08 15th, 2011| icon3No Comments »

Pew internet research has more data on recent smartphone usage; you can find the full report here.

Looks like almost everyone has a smartphone there days… and people use them, with 87% of smartphone users saying they go online and or email with their phone.

For 25% the smartphone IS the primary way to get online. That’s a big deal!

And another interesting fact from the report: “Those under the age of 45 – 58% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 now own a smartphone as do 49% of those ages 18-24 and 44% of those ages 35-44. Even among those with a household income of $30,000 or less, smartphone ownership rates for those ages 18-29 are equal to the national average.” That compares with 35% of all age groups, so it’s clear that younger people are getting into these things. Smartphones are the future of computing…

Aug 10

Android is growing like crazy but it sill lacks that… je ne sais quoi that the iPhone has.

Oh, wait, I know what it lacks. People who download and use mobile apps, a stable and non-fragmented OS and consistent user experience.

android eclair

Android Eclair - is this robot holding a piece of poop? Nope, it's just another dessert named OS by Android

Anand Rajaram, an OfficeDrop co-founder and our chief product officer, just wrote a piece for Techrepublic called “10 Things I Hate About Android.” Of course, not to be totally negative on Android, the subtitle is “and some work arounds that help.”

OfficeDrop has now released a series of mobile apps on different platforms – our iPhone PDF app, iPad App, Android Scanner App, and the PaperPort Anywhere iOS and Android apps. Anand has led the charge on all of these mobile applications. It was a lot of work! And he also has gotten a pretty deep view into the development and marketing side of these different mobile platforms.

And let me tell you… Android has some problems brewing. If the platform is going to be a serious contender from a mobile app developer perspective then it’s got a lot of stuff that has to get fixed. Anand goes into his top 10 in this article. This includes things that are nightmares for developers and QA people, like the software and hardware fragmentation, security issues, and the problem of getting found in Google Android marketplace.

Let’s hope that Google is able to address and reduce some of the problems. I think they, as a company, are taking this whole mobile thing quite seriously and I’d expect they make significant headway in improving a lot of these things in the coming year.

Anyway, click on the link above to see what Anand has to say about OfficeDrop’s experience developing on the Android platform. It’s a good read.

Aug 5

I’m pretty excited about a new partnership my company has that just launched. OfficeDrop is working with Nuance’s PaperPort desktop filing system to bring the newest version of PaperPort, PaperPort 14, to the cloud.

The team here at OfficeDrop was able to connect our APIs to PaperPort 14′s desktop client, making it simple to right click any folder from within PaperPort 14 and automatically sync all files to the cloud. If you include the mobile apps we developed this means you can right click a folder and the text search, browse and share the folder and it’s contents from your phone. It’s pretty cool and the tech press seems to be getting it. You can buy PaperPort 14 at paperport.com, where you can also sign up for a free PaperPort Anywhere account. And the mobile apps are here:

Obviously preparing for this was a ton of work, which is why I’ve been totally silent on the blogging front. Hopefully now that we are launched I”ll have time to get back to posting more frequently!

Below is the press release by Nuance talking about PaperPort Anywhere.

Nuance Launches PaperPort Anywhere Cloud Service

Making it Easy for Millions to Organize, Access and Share All of Their Paper and Digital Documents, Anywhere and Anytime

BURLINGTON, Mass., August 2, 2011 — Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions, today introduced PaperPort® Anywhere, a new cloud-based service that makes it easy to organize, access and share documents from nearly any PC and mobile device. PaperPort Anywhere lets users manage and access their documents in the cloud using web browsers, as well as using free apps from Nuance for Apple® and Google® Android® mobile devices.

The service uses the market-leading Nuance OmniPage® OCR (optical character recognition) engine to automatically create searchable documents from scanned and camera-captured documents, as well as faxes, making paper content as easy to search and find as digital documents. As a result, users can organize, access and share all of their document content on PaperPort Anywhere.

“There is a reason that recent surveys show over 51% of people still use paper files – it is in large part because current cloud services treat paper content as an afterthought,” said Robert Weideman, vice president and general manager for the Nuance Document Imaging Division. “PaperPort Anywhere goes further than other services by closing the content gap between paper and digital documents – making it easy to scan to the cloud, improving the way users manage both their scanned and digital documents, and by making cloud access easy and convenient.”

PaperPort Anywhere also integrates with the new release of Nuance PaperPort 14 for Windows®, the world’s most popular scanning and document management application for the PC, which was also announced today. PaperPort 14 provides automatic synchronization of Windows folders and files with PaperPort Anywhere. It also adds conversion of scanned and PDF documents into fully formatted word and spreadsheet files that can be edited on Windows, the Macintosh and through cloud services such as Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365. PaperPort 14 provides robust PDF capabilities, including the ability to create PDF from practically any application, and includes PDF-MRC, which creates scanned files that are up to eight times smaller than scanned PDF files without compression.

PaperPort Anywhere is valuable to anyone that works with documents, including the over 20 million registered users of Nuance desktop applications, and users of the more than five million seats of PaperPort that are deployed each year. PaperPort Anywhere includes free apps for Apple iPhone, iPad and Google Android devices, and is free for up to one gigabyte of searchable storage space. PaperPort Anywhere subscription plans include $9.99 per month for 10 gigabytes and $24.99 per month for 50 gigabytes of storage space.

PaperPort Anywhere Key Features and Benefits

PaperPort Anywhere makes it easy to organize, access, and share any document – both paper and digital – anywhere and anytime. Key features and benefits include:

  • Organize All Your Documents in the Cloud. PaperPort Anywhere is more than cloud storage – it provides a better way to organize and use your documents. PaperPort Anywhere’s thumbnail and clip views of paper and digital documents are key features that help you quickly organize documents.
  • Search and Find both Paper and Digital Documents. PaperPort Anywhere is powered by the Nuance OmniPage OCR engine, which provides the highest levels of accuracy for scanned documents and image PDF files, such as those from fax services. The best OCR means users can find indexed paper documents just as they do Word and spreadsheet files.
  • Access and Use, Anywhere and Anytime. PaperPort Anywhere is accessible through any web browser at www.PaperPort.com, the web gateway to PaperPort Anywhere cloud services. Nuance also provides free apps for the Apple iPhone®, iPad® and Google Android devices, and supports Microsoft Windows through PaperPort 14.
  • Share and Collaborate. PaperPort Anywhere makes it easy to share links to files stored on the site. The service also supports secure and permission-based emailing of files into PaperPort Anywhere accounts, making it easier than ever to collaborate and share documents with others.
  • One Click Scan to Cloud. Only PaperPort Anywhere integrates with PaperPort 14 – the world’s most popular scanning and document management application for the PC. The combination results in unmatched document productivity and convenience.

Pricing and Availability

PaperPort Anywhere with up to one gigabyte of searchable storage is free. PaperPort Anywhere Premium with up to 10 gigabytes of storage is $9.99 per month and $24.99 a month for 50 gigabytes of storage. For additional information on PaperPort Anywhere visit www.PaperPort.com.

About PaperPort Anywhere

PaperPort Anywhere is a new, innovative cloud service from Nuance that makes it easy to scan, organize and share documents – anytime, from anywhere. PaperPort Anywhere is powered by OfficeDrop. It delivers enhanced search-indexing capabilities using Nuance OmniPage OCR.

Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Trademark reference: Nuance, the Nuance logo, and OmniPage and PaperPort are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names referenced herein may be the property of their respective owners.

# # #

Media and Industry Analyst Contact:

Jennifer Shelgren

Nuance Communications, Inc.

Tel: (781) 565-4758

Email: jennifer.shelgren@nuance.com