Fellow blogger and Big Cheese in mobile at Yahoo!, Russell Beattie, has written us an open letter on his much visited site saying we should lighten up here at MobHappy:
Hey!
What’s the deal with you guys lately!?!? I expect constant cynicism and skepticism from TechDirt Wireless, but MobHappy? I mean the name of your site ends in HAPPY… you know, as in, “Hey, this is a really fun market!,” and “Thank goodness we’re lucky enough to work in such an exciting, constantly new, on the brink of changing the world-type industry,” and “I’m so HAPPY to be in mobiles!”… Yeah? You know?
I mean, come on! You guys are as bitter as old crones. What happened? Did you short Qualcomm stock? Did Motorola’s browser give you a 413 error? Were you disappointed that Toothing wasn’t real? Do you not get enough Java in your BREW? Does your operator still have a walled garden?
Is trying to remember Nokia’s product numbers driving you crazy? Did the price of of your favorite ringtone service just go up? Did you expect that MMS was going to take over the world, or are your thumbs just tired from all that texting and it’s making you grumpy? Are you just sick and tired of typing out SonyEricsson and wondering what BenQ really stands for? Is that it? Really! Lighten up! This is an incredible time to be
involved in mobility! This stuff is great!Seriously, you don’t *always* have to find the negative side to every news story or announcement (it’s a real bummer), and you don’t have to buy into the hype either. There’s a nice balance there somewhere, I’m sure.
Just a thought.
-Russ
P.S. This letter is so amusing to me, I’m going to make it open.
We hope that this proves, once and for all, that Russell Beattie and Russell Buckley aren’t the same person! But seriously, Russ, thanks for the feedback.
What we try to do here at MobHappy is to reach some sort of balance about the mobile world.
We aren’t analysts producing reports that we want to sell to companies that they can use to sell their products. This means that we don’t have to make wild predictions and hype the market, just so our clients will buy our reports as evidence about what great opportunities lie ahead.
Equally, we’re not here to try to sell you something and convince you that mobile and everything about it is the coolest thing ever and we’ll all be millionaires next year.
MobHappy tries to be the voice of reason in a mobile world that’s hard to understand. There’s enough people out there talking up the market for their own ends and we believe that sometimes a non-partisan approach is required.
And one of our particular aims is to tell it like it is (or as we see it anyway) to entrepreneurs coming into mobile. Unbias advice is really hard to come by if you’re an entrepreneur and some genuine constructive criticism at an early stage can save you heartache and cash down the line. The last thing you need to hear is that your idea is fantastic and can’t be improved - and if that is the case, we’ll tell you.
Having said all that, we’re as passionate about mobile as anyone - that’s why we write here at MobHappy. We’re as excited as anyone about the mobile adventure, whether you take the big picture or getting our hands on a new Sony Ericsson W900i (hint to any SE people reading).
Anyway, Russ has given us an excellent opportunity to ask you what you think. Are we curmudgeons, or realists? If we’re curmudgeons, do you like it anyway? Should we try to accentuate the positive or be a source of criticism? Are we too negative? Is there anything else you’d like to get off your chest? Please leave a comment, even if you don’t normally do so. We’ve love to know what you think.
Cheers
Russell and Carlo
Please don’t change! I think you get the tone just right. Afterall we don’t need more cheerleaders we need realists. I’d far rather have opinion that points out the potential problems that something which tells me how good something is. Yes maybe it would be important to be more positive to outsides, but I guessing most people reading this are already mobile-o-philes.
Hi Guys:
Don’t see a published trackback here. You can find my response on my site….http://www.aialone.com
Keep it up,
JT
As we are all aware there are a lot of blogs out there. I have read through quite a lot and to put it short, MobHappy is one of the few that is in my Blogline list.
I really appreciate your writing and find your approach realistic and exactly what I’m after. Keep doing what you are doing in the way you are doing and I’ll keep you in my Bloglines
Glad to have caught your attention… It was the big smiley face, no?
I think (after a night’s sleep and seeing your response) that what I’m really hoping for is simply more enthusiasm. You can be ethusiastically realistic, no? I know you guys love this stuff as much as the rest of us, but you don’t show it nearly enough!
I mean, hey, I’m as sick as the next guy of reading the daily “Consumers will love/hate/love/hate mobile video” news stories… But tell me the truth, isn’t it *fucking cool* to see live channels streaming to your mobile? 18 months ago taking a VGA picture was the coolest thing and just before that just having color screens was considered cutting edge. This stuff is AWESOME! Don’t get caught up in the hype… Analyze what you personally see and hear and feel. An honest voice always gets more readers than forced objectivity.
Okay, that was a little preachy, but you get the idea.
-Russ
I’m working in mobile since 1999 and have been swimming the river wild. Carlo and Russell (with all respect to the other Russell
have always been a true inspiration to me for insightfull, smart, edgy and critical but also funny writing on anything mobile. The over-hyping of the sector itself (and consulting business surrounding) has initiated me to start my own blog and write my own user impressions on mobile which I felt completely the opposite of what I was reading everywhere, but was/is in many cases the way Carlo and Russell felt/feel about things.
But maybe it’s all about perception on the sector now which seems to be different in US than here in Europe?
Anyway keep up the works guys, this is only the beginning, MobHappy is still very young
Hey Guys,
I read both of you, (Mobhappy & Russell Beattie), every day, mostly via opera mini on my Nokia. I have to say that you are sometimes on the same track, sometimes not, but both of you are way ahead of the pack in general and new news (can there still be such a thing in mobile?) is almost always with either or both of you first! In addition the comments are generally fair, and neither too positive, nor too negative, just thought provoking! I live in a kinda 1st world, kinda 3rd world market (South Africa), where a lot of the thinking is determined by what Eurocentric UK Voda_whoever does first…. So this is refreshing. Keep it up! (Both of you!) Regards, Graham
Don’t go changing, to try and please me
You never let me down before
Don’t imagine you’re too curmudgeonly
And I don’t see you anymore
you get the idea guys… keep up the good writing
[...] The iPhone is coming. Maybe. And I’m enthusiastic about the possibility and excited to see what’s in store. But I want to know what Apple’s take on the mobile phone is, not some Mac fanboy with too much time on their hands, or an analyst firm trying to drum up some business. [...]
Thanks everyone for all your comments.
Helen, never had you down for a Billy Joel fan. How embarassing!
R
Please keep at it in just this way. There are far too many Pollyannas out there already. Mobile Nirvana scenarios only have a chance at happening if the biggest fans of mobile innovation retain our sobriety. We have to be useful and profitable, rather than fashionable or cool.
Not at all. I think you guys are rightly critical on most of the stuff you blog about and you do give credit when it’s due. The fact that there’s so much new happening in the sector for you guys to blog on everyday is, to me, something mobile enthusiasts (like all of us commenting here, I presume) to be pretty happy about
Insightful analysis is what makes your site great, and I reckon your site is juuusssstttt fine
Not too curmudgeonly at all, you guys have some of the best commentary out there period. I love reading your articles and you’re one of my few every day stops. Even when I’m marking everything else in my overflowing newsreader as read, you’re still one of the feeds I stop on.
Guys I think that you get it just about right. Not too much of the Fan Boy stuff seen on other sites and not too depressing. You are still one a the few sites that I look in on every day and have acted as an excellent totem thanks to Mobilist.
Keep up the good work and who knows maybe Mr Beattie will be ready for his close up and host/submit to Mobilists sometime soon!
Please don’t change! I’ve been in mobile media in the US for seven years now and you guys tell it like it is…
Please do not change into “gee-wizz” cheerleaders with text full of exclamation marks… Your tone is perfect and as long as it stays like it is you will keep the respect of your many readers. Keep up the good work.
[...] We’ve been accused of being curmudgeonly lately at MobHappy, so maybe our scepticism is misplaced. So we did a quick sanity check with fellow blogger and mobile evangelist, Russ Beattie. He said: [...]
couldn’t have gotten a better set of feedback as this.
and to be russ.dotted.
really, it’s rich for russ b to tease you guys like that. though maybe you are a bit obsessed with gizmodo eriksson.
hey, just be true to yourselves. that’s why folks read you. if you come across as non-happy, then that’s just because things out there get you like that. no worries.
keep it up, guys. whatever it is you do.