Angela McIntyre
Research Director
3 years with Gartner
16 years IT industry
Angela McIntyre is a research director with the Gartner Technology and Service Provider Research group. Her focus is on the evolution of computing at the extremes. She researches consumer trends for small computing devices… Read Full Bio
by Angela McIntyre | May 9, 2012 | 2 Comments
“Most people don’t know Microsoft sells PCs,” is how James at the Microsoft Store responded to my initial surprise at the layout of their new store. Microsoft has 19 retail stores in the US, and the Microsoft Store at the Stanford Shopping Mall opened a couple weeks ago. I was surprised that the Xbox and software were in the back corners of the store. Instead, PCs, tablets and smartphones were front and center, and Samsung and Acer had the strongest presence. The Microsoft Store encouraged visitors to try out the products and placed stools in front of most displays to make shoppers feel comfortable staying for a longer period of time.
I got to try out Windows 8 on a Samsung Slate 7 when I was there. Cool device. It had a Core i5 processor, so plenty of compute power. James walked me through Windows 8, and I liked the Metro interface on the slate screen. The Slate 7 comes with a pen, which I wish was tethered so I could just let go of it without having to snap it back into its holder at the top. I liked the flexibility of being able to switch from handwriting to soft qwerty keyboard to a thumb-style keyboard. With thumb-typing, the tablet tended to waggle too much at the far end due to its 11.6 inch screen size and 16:9 format. As for the Office apps, Word was usable with the touch interface, but Power Point was a pain without a separate keyboard. I hope Microsoft effectively incorporates touch in Office 15. Otherwise, Office will soon feel like a dinosaur.
The modern, minimalist design of the Microsoft Store’s retail space mimicked the design of the Apple store, and as at Apple, the hip, Microsoft staff were more like advisors than sales persons. Hey, why reinvent what works? The Microsoft Store is right next door to the Apple Store – to promote comparison shopping? Whereas the ratio of staff to shopper in the Microsoft Store was about 4 to 1, the Apple Store was packed with visitors. With Apple it’s not only the user experience and devices, but the brand cache of a designer label. Copying a retail environment is easy for Microsoft, but evolving the brand is a significant challenge.
Category: Uncategorized Tags: Acer, Apple, Intel, Microsoft, PC, Samsung, smartphone, tablet, Windows 8
by Angela McIntyre | November 28, 2011 | Comments Off
I was behind the mirror for a few consumer focus groups Gartner held recently. We asked consumers in six cities about how they use technology, attitudes about consumer electronics, and what influences their purchase decisions the most. The focus groups highlight how differently consumers think about mobile, video and social media than marketing directors, product managers and industry analysts. Focus groups are fantastic for us to step away from the tech-centric world to hear what matters to end users. It’s exciting to hear insights about consumer usage trends straight from the end users themselves.
For example, in cities where smartphones usage among focus group participants was high, consumers commented that smartphones have changed the way they watch TV and reduced the time they spend using their PCs. Smartphones are the connected device that is most convenient to carry around, even around the house. Participants multi-tasked on their smartphones while “watching” TV, by doing on-line social networking or browsing the internet. Because smartphones are at hand, participants cited various ways that they use them when they have a few extra minutes or at the moment they think of an online task they should do. They don’t have to wait to get home to check a bank account or watch videos. Key consumer trends are to use mobile devices more and PCs less and to multi-task across multiple screens.
Marketing organizations use the data from consumer surveys and focus groups to guide their messaging, for product development, and to request budget. The quotes, sound bites and video clips from focus groups help build a convincing case when communicating consumer attitudes to executives across the enterprise. Gartner will have published 20 reports this year about consumer attitudes from our primary research. Topics span how to influence late adopters, preferences for customer service, and what devices consumers want to carry with them. I have links to a couple of my reports below:
Findings: Press ’0′ to Speak with a Live Agent
Survey Analysis: San Jose Focus Group Reveals Divergent Paths to Technology Purchases
Access to these reports depends on your Gartner subscription.
Thank you for reading my blog.
Category: Uncategorized Tags: brand, consumer, customer service, focus group, mobility, PC, smartphone, survey, technology trends, TV
by Angela McIntyre | November 11, 2011 | 3 Comments
An example of technology, once a kids’ fad, which will increase data traffic in the Cloud
My daughter turned nine recently, and with her birthday money she chose to buy a necklace with a cat pendant that turns hues of green and blue from her own body temperature when she wears it. The necklace reminded me of mood ring from 30 years ago! They turned pretty shades depending on how warm one’s finger gets. What a blast from the past for this old mom! I think I was in 5th grade when my aunt gave me one as a present. It was the top fad at the time, and I just had to have one. I had been envious for months of the rich-looking purple color the “stone” turned when my friends wore their rings. I was disappointed that all my skinny finger could generate was a muddy brown color. “Cold hands, warm heart,” my mom would offer in consolation. Geesh.
Yet mood ring technology has evolved into useful thermal sensors. I was reading news about Near Field Communication (NFC) and SMART (Status and Motion Activated Radiofrequency Tags) technology and came across announcements from American Thermal Instruments, Inc. ATI got its start manufacturing mood rings in 1980. After mood rings, ATI turned their attention to more useful applications of thermal monitoring, such as forehead thermometers; they supplied more than 30 million of them last year. ATI announced pilot programs for sensors and mobile software that track temperature and send alerts if temperatures go outside a programmed range. The sensors provide data, which can be transmitted and stored in the Cloud, via NFC-enabled smartphones or RFID scanners.
Thermal sensors with wireless connectivity can lead to improved product quality and safety benefiting both business and consumers. Medicine can lose potency above certain temperatures. The shelf-life of produce will be shorter if temperatures are too high during transport from the farm to the market. Temperature increases in the wheels of cars, trains and airplanes can indicate they need repair. A variety of wireless sensors may be used in the home, such as in appliances to send maintenance alerts, to inform parents if their child develops a fever, and on food containers to indicate the leftovers are going bad. Consumers will want the option of receiving alerts on their smartphones or tablets.
ATI is an example of companies entering the connected device market. The number of devices intermittently connected to the internet is 50 billion worldwide, but with trends, such the increasing use of sensors and greater penetration of smartphones and tablets, the number will grow to 200 billion by 2015. Gartner analysts Sylvain Fabre and Jessica Ekholm write that by 2020 there will be more cellular connected devices than conventional subscribers. By 2015 data traffic through cellular networks will increase to 26 times its volume in 2010. The increase in data traffic holds opportunities and challenges for communications service providers, and Sylvain and Jessica discuss them in “4G: The Next Frontier for Cellular Networks.” Sylvain recently did a Talking Technology segment, “4G Services: A Premature Call,” which provides an introduction to issues surrounding 4G.
The growing trend for real-world objects to be connected forming an ”Internet of Things” is included in a webinar by David Willis and me, “iPad and Beyond: What the Future of Computing Holds.” It was well-attended, and you can download the slides or listen to the replay through the link above. (Access to Gartner content depends on your subscription.)
Note: SMART technology has a patent pending from the University of Dayton Research Institute, whose inventor Bob Kauffman developed it in part to detect and report mechanical failures of certain clamps on aircraft.
Thank you for reading my blog. Have a great day!
Category: Uncategorized Tags: 4G, big data, Cloud, computing trends, Internet of Things, NFC, SMART
by Angela McIntyre | September 20, 2011 | Comments Off
One of the computing trends from the Intel Developer Forum 2011 in San Francisco was the use of Microsoft Kinect as a platform for controlling electronics with gestures. The demo showcased a prototype electronic sign that could be used as an endcap display in a retail shop. The sign was a large LCD panel mounted vertically with half a dozen images of drug store products, arranged as if in a high-end magazine ad, making razors, shaving cream, sun block, etc. appear as glamorous as they possibly could. For the demo I was a shopper seeking information about the air fresheners advertised on the screen.
Getting the sensors to recognize my hand took a couple of tries. The demo staff suggested I shift my feet 6 inches left and then modified my wave to something between Queen Elizabeth’s and a warm Howdy. Hovering my virtual hand over a product image brought it to the foreground, and icons at the bottom of the screen let me choose among price, product information, and reviews. The sensor and software technology may evolve so that almost everyone can activate the display on the first try.
The demo illustrated well how gestures can be useful for interactive advertising and product information in retail. Similar applications include interactive signage or large screen kiosks that the public can use to access information about locations, schedules, events, transit, menus, and so on. In the workplace, using gestures to control computers and electronics will make tasks easier. Creative prototypes from developers using the Microsoft Kinect SDK show some of the ways gesture interfaces will change how we work. When giving live presentations, gestures can replace using the remote control “clicker” to advance slides or zoom in on a chart. In warehouse or factory uses, guiding some heavy equipment or robots by gesture could be more economical and potentially safer than with push-buttons and levers. Gestures can be especially useful when analyzing large amounts of graphical data, such as manipulating multiple charts, graphs, tables and images on a large screen for business dashboards or to plan treatment for patients with multiple health issues.
To discuss how new user interfaces are shaping computing, I invite you to join David Willis and me for our webinar on October 27th: “iPad and Beyond: What the Future of Computing Holds.” Here is the link to register.
Thanks for reading my blog.
Category: Uncategorized Tags: gesture recognition, Intel, Microsoft, user interface
by Angela McIntyre | July 21, 2011 | 1 Comment
I was working from my hotel room yesterday afternoon with a couple of hours between client visits, and I couldn’t get on the internet. I was on-line after checking-in the evening before, no problem. It was one of those hotspot services where you click on a portal, enter your credit card number, and get on. I called the 800 customer service number on the placard on the desk. The lady on the phone did everything she was supposed to, except get me back on the internet. She walked me through the steps to connect and the proper set-up, which was all a waste of time since I had connected successfully the night before.
I wanted to know; had my hotspot password expired too soon? Had a problem been reported with the internet service in the hotel? After 20 minutes the lady had exhausted her script. She seemed like a kind gal and told me that I would receive a call back from a technician who would continue to help me with the issue. I got the call from the level 2 help desk within 10 minutes.
It wasn’t long before he said, “Well, I can see why you can’t get on. The internet has been down at your hotel since around noon.”
“Why didn’t the first person I spoke with simply tell me that?”
“Oh, she couldn’t have known. She doesn’t have that information.”
I asked for my hotspot charge to be refunded for the day, and he hesitatingly agreed. By then almost an hour had passed. Maybe next time I will take the advice my colleague gave me, “I always insist on talking with higher level staff right away.”
Yet since I cover customer service, I find myself rooting for the companies I contact to give me a good customer experience. I want to have their customer support processes work well instead of going around them.
What could have been different? It would have been great if when I dialed the 800 number, a virtual assistant told me the internet service was down at the hotel and how long it would be before service would be restored. Anyway, the first contact person could have access to the same knowledge base as higher level staff to know about outages, etc. For issues that are more difficult to diagnose, the first contact person could ask more experienced staff for help and resolve the issue in one call.
I hope the internet hotspot provider actively looks for ways to improve its customer support experience and optimize its internal processes. If they do, they will find ways to become more efficient, they’ll improve their bottom line, and give customers a better opinion of their brand.
I recently presented a webinar on customer experience that emphasized customer support. Here is the link.
http://my.gartner.com/webinars/viewWebinar/channelId=5500&commId=30233&ref=btem
Webinar: Build Your 2012 Customer Experience Action Plan Now
Presented by: Charlotte Patrick and Angela McIntyre
Category: Uncategorized Tags:
by Angela McIntyre | May 11, 2011 | 1 Comment
When I have trouble with a product, I often find myself on the company’s website tracking down how to fix it. Often the info on the webpages doesn’t go deep enough to help my particular circumstance. I try on-line chat if available and sometimes wonder if the agent is virtual or a real person. It’s not so easy to tell at first.
Most consumers prefer to have a conversation with a person to help them resolve issues with after-sales support. The cost to staff call centers or live chat can be prohibitive for some companies, especially in mature market countries where labor costs tend to be higher.
Virtual agents handle many consumer questions and help diagnose problems with devices. As with a human agent, the ability of the virtual agent to provide help depends in part on how good their knowledgebase is. For virtual agents, their ability to understand my question in any of the half a dozen or so ways I choose to ask it is key. Several companies are improving the virtual agents’ ability to process natural language and give a response in a conversation-like manner.
With consumer electronics, it can be difficult to know whether the trouble is due to the device, or its connector box, or the software, etc. Some providers of virtual assistant technology seamlessly link the virtual agent for the company that makes the device, with the virtual agent of the company that makes the connector box, with the virtual agent of the company that provides the software application, etc. They go right through the checklist for diagnosing a problem, and it is easy not to notice the hand-off to another company. There is no “hold” while being transferred between agents. As a consumer if there is a problem with a device I’ve purchased, I want to get it resolved conveniently with one chat session or call, if possible. The latest virtual agent capabilities in on-line chat are one way to improve the after-sales support experience.
Thank you for reading my blog! I suggest you take a look at the following Gartner reports on consumer research, emerging chatbot technology and players pertinent to the virtual assistant market.
Findings: Press ’0′ to Speak With a Live Agent
Cool Vendors in Emerging Technologies, 2011
Virtual Assistant Vendor Landscape
You may need to be a Gartner client to view these documents.
Category: Uncategorized Tags: artificial intelligence, knowledge management, virtual agent
