#changing things to attract new people while chasing away the old users is possibly one of the dumbest moves i've ever seen

[imagibunny]

someone from staff posted something about "needing tumblr to stay relevant" and about attracting a new userbase

...

YOU PEOPLE ARE AWARE WE SHOOT RENT LOWERING SHOTS LIKE EVERY TWO WEEKS OR SO RIGHT

[xhudgenssistersconfessions]

My Zanessa ff

I tried my best to traslate it my Zanessa ff in a good english. Forgive me, I tried to do my best between having a life and a full time job. You can still find it on wattpad written in italian. Maybe I will publish it on english too if someone is interested. https://www.wattpad.com/user/FrancyF94

- Fran 

Chapter 1: I set out on a narrow way many years ago

  “I set out on a narrow way many years ago

Hoping I would find true love along the broken road

But I got lost a time or two

Wiped my brow and kept pushing through

I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you "

- “God Bless the Broken Road” Rascal Flatts         

  Arroyo Grande, California - September 2014

Zac Efron gave a sad look at his childhood home: it always seemed the same house that his father had built when he was just one year old. The grass in the driveway and back garden was yellow and dry from the drought that had hit the state of California during the summer, but the flowers in the flowerbeds her mother tended with great care were in bloom. The old car Mustang of his grandfather Harold was always parked in the driveway and the basketball hoop that his father had set up for him and Dylan when they were little was rusty, but always present . The light beige walls of the house had been repainted by Zac himself a few years earlier. It all looked the same, but now he couldn't stare at that house for more than ten seconds. 

Zac was sure that on entering the front door, past the entrance hall, he would find his old grand piano, his father's electronic engineering books stacked in neat rows in the large cedar bookcase , and the whole house wrapped in the scent of his mother's famous blueberry waffles. The he would go upstairs in his old room, and her mother would have lecture him because despite having reached the threshold of twenty-seven years old, Zac’s old room still remained inaccessible because of the piles of clothes strewn on the floor, along with scores music and torn sheets of some script.

The young man closed his eyes, like wanted to hold those memories and fossilize them in his mind, but then the voice of his younger brother Dylan brought him back to reality.

- I can't believe they want to sell the house-.

The 22-year-old made a disgusted face and takes a long sip of beer, wiping his lips with his hands.

-Why didn't you buy it? - he snorted , with an obvious note of reproach.

Zac rolled his eyes and ignored him: his brother's disappoint was not the last thing you had to occupy.

-Dyl, I've already explained why. There is no point in buying it. What was I supposed to do with it?-

-Leave it like this! Fuck, it's like we're selling our whole life! All of our memories are in here! - Dylan kicked a frustrated kick at the " Sold" sign that towered undisturbed on the lawn, and immediately regretted it, cursing at the pain that he had caused to himself.

-Dylan , I already have two houses. I don't need a third one-

-But it is our home!-

-I know it. Do you think I agree with this whole situation? -

-I believe that you are proving too accommodating. It’s so easy, this is not the time to behave like this! They look like two in their twenties! They have no right! They don't have the right to take and throw away a life together! - the boy's voice cracked. - They don't have the right - he muttered, kicking a pebble and hiding the face of his older brother.

Zac was sure Dylan was holding back from bursting into tears. What did he think he was doing? Their parents certainly didn't need to ask their permission to do certain things. And then he too was shuddering, but with confusion. He wanted answers. He hadn't felt so lost in years, or maybe it was only years that he pretended to be fine and that his life was going great. He was so accustomed to goodbyes and change identities and roles in his work, who really did not understand all the rage of his younger brother. But a small part of him hates Dylan. Even in that situation it was up to him to take care of Dylan. Zac have to play the part of the good big brother, tell Dylan that everything would be okay in the end.  Zac himself wasn't sure about it , but he knew he had to do it because he would never, ever abandon his family in a moment like that .

-Hey guys! We did not call you to chasing butterflies! - the voice of their father David called both brothers to work - I need a hand here ! - said the man dragging two old bikes along the driveway. Zac tried to make himself feel good. Those were their old bikes. What the hell was his dad doing? Did he want to throw them away? They were old, but certainly not scrap. Why did he have all this sudden urge to get rid of their old stuff?

- Come on, let's go. The sooner we finish packing everything, the sooner we can leave little brother- Zac held out a hand to him and Dylan helped him get up.

-I go inside to mom and you stay with dad , ok? -.

Dylan nodded and walked reluctantly into the garage while Zac entered in the house. Just a few weeks early the hall’s walls were full with family photos: little Zac and Dylan with their female cousins during their childhood, family holidays in Hawaii and Colorado, David’s photos of his work trips. Now it was all gone.

Zac saw his mother in the kitchen area. She was setting up pot and pans in some sad brown boxes.

-Hey mom, do you need a hand here? -

-Oh yes, thanks honey. You can start bringing these in the car. I don't think your father wants to keep them , they're just old dishes from grandma's good service. They'll have a better spot in my new house-.

Beside Starla were four full boxes with the word "Kitchen" on it. Zac took a breath while Dreamer, the old family dog, was bouncing around, sniffing Zac’s snew brand jeans.

-Hey dude- he scratched his head affectionately -you'll change house soon-.

For nearly ten years that old dog had lived in Arroyo Grande and now… and now he will live in Oregon. If Zac stopped to think about it it was absurd. Even more absurd was to think that even him would never set foot in that house again.

-I will cry every night without him- his mother finally turned to look at him. Starla, despite her sixty-five years, was still an extremely attractive woman : blonde, without even a white hair , with sweet features and two large hazel eyes. Zac, however, could not help but notice that his mother was extremely tense and had two deep dark circles that furrowed her eyes, as if she hadn't slept well for months.

-Mom I'd take it , you know. I already have Puppy and Simon gets along well with dogs, but Dad insisted so much on having him-.

-No honey, it’s okay. Your father wants to do his own thing this time too ... where’s your brother? -

Zac tried to ignore his mother's unhappy comment.

-Dylan is in the garage helping dad, he is a little lost, but he'll soon get over it-

Stare was silence for a moment, she was pale. Then she approached the eldest son and hugged him tightly.

-Thank you honey for coming today. And thanks for dragging Dylan here. I know he's angry , you probably are angry too-.

Probably he was angry. His mother was probably right. Probably Zac should have been angry too. But the reality was that he was not angry, he was in a blind confusion. How was it was even possible that his parents, after two children and thirty years of marriage, had decided to put an end to their marriage? How was it possible that two people who had been madly in love for years now decided to divorce? And without even some drama. Zac had noticed that something was wrong between his parents during the Easter holidays, the last April, but had not given too much attention on it. He was so busy with his new movie and then what couple didn't have some bumps on the road  after so many years together? Besides, he and his brother had  left home at a young age and her mother had recently lost his father. Perhaps Starla and David were just going through a transition phase. But when the two young Efron brothers showed up home for the Fourth of July holiday , their parents sat them down in the living room, announcing their impending divorce. “ We don't get along anymore” his father had sadly sentenced, visibly embarrassed when his parents, Hal and Dot, both in their eighties, had asked for an explanation cause they were worried. Zac hadn't believed a single word because everything his father had said to justify himself : it just didn't make sense in his head. It just didn't make sense. Because two adults with common sense as her parents had always been don't wake up one morning and decide that they don't love each other anymore, that they feel so indifferent towards each other that they ask for a divorce. They were not an inexperienced young couple with small children, they were two mature people with children already away from home. Starla and David should have enjoyed the serenity that reigned in the Efron house…. and instead they had come to hate each other .

- Mom, can I ask you something? – Zac said.

-Anything you want honey-Starla looked into his son’s eyes..

-Dad was cheating on you? -. he knew he was crossing a fine line between respect for his parents and irreverence, but he wanted honesty from both of his parents.

Starla started to hear those words coming from one of her children. He looked to Zac straight in the eyes.

-Zachary ...-

-I am serious mom. I know it's not a question ... it's not a simple question to answer-

-It is not a question a child should ask to his mother-

-Mom, please. You 've been talking to me about sex and love since I was ten and you and dad have been fucking open with me and Dylan. I just have to understand-

-Love changes Zac. It changes and in some cases it ends - .

The young man gave her a doubtful look: it couldn't be like that, it wasn't enough for him. Love ends for a reason.

- I don't think that's enough. Not after thirty years. Until last year everything was fine, you and dad loved each other. You and dad were fine-

- Your father and I had been in trouble for a long time. We had been in that way for a long time, but we gritted our teeth and always told ourselves that it was worth trying to fix things, but then we reached the breaking point-.

-How much time? -

- A long time - now Starla was slightly annoyed - please Zachary, these are ... these are decisions ... this decision that your father and I made was terribly difficult for both of us . But I want him to be happy and he wants the same thing for me. I know that and you and Dylan do not understand our choice, but I ask only to respect it-.

Zac took a step back. Perhaps he had exaggerated, perhaps he should have given her space.

.Ok- he replied, shrugging - I'm going to put these in your car and I'll be back-.

A moment later Starla found herself squeezed in the arms of her eldest son. Zac's arms encircled her from behind and the boy deposited a light kiss on her head. He had already got rid of the box.

-Sorry mom. Sorry- he whispered - I shouldn't have asked you those things-.

-It's okay- the woman turned to look him in the face and reassure him - I don't expect you and Dylan to approve this… this thing-.

The woman lightly touched the blue coin that peeled from her son's breast : it had been a year since Zac hadn't touched a drop of alcohol. He had done it for his health, but mostly for his family.

-Dad and I know that for you, the last year has been difficult , indeed the last few years  . But we are so proud of you honey-.

-Mom ... - the boy blushed. If there was one thing he hated it was receiving compliments when he knew he didn't deserve it. His mother was right, it was a difficult year for him.

- After all, you have been sober for more than a year, not that you were an alcoholic before ... -

-Mom, stop it-

-What's ?-

-Stop! I don't deserve it! -

-What? You started drinking too much, you noticed it in time and went through rehab. You're a good boy and you always take care of your brother. Zac, you deserve these compliments. You are my baby-

-I am not your baby anymore, for many years now- Zac kissed her on the cheek. He was incredibly grateful to her. He was incredibly grateful to both of his parents. -Dyl and I wanted to leave immediately, but I think that we’ll sleeping here and we'll have breakfast together-.

-Do you wanna sleep here? Zac the furniture in your room has already been taken away-

-We will use the sleeping bags in the garage - Zac looked around , full of affection for his childhood home – I wanna sleep here one last time. The kitchen stove still works - his eyes twinkled.

-I will make the waffles that you like so much- said Starla-but you have to share the news you’re your father-

-Mom! -

-Zachary ! -

-You guys have been married  for thirty years, and made eachother happy and now you can not share even a breakfast together? -

The woman bit her lower lip. She was thinking.

-If it's fine for your father , then it's ok- she finally said.

The young man hugged her again to thank her. He was sure she knew when that house meant to all of them and wanted to give her a fitting goodbye.

- Are you sure you didn't have anything else to do? You were supposed to go to Ashley's wedding this weekend-

-Ash will understand- zac said firmly - I'm going to tell dad and Dylan that we are stay here tonight-.

  Vanessa sighed into the darkness of the room and read over and over again the message that Ashley Tisdale, her best friend, had sent her.

“Nessa, I 'm sorry . Kiss Austin for me. Call me for anything. "

That was Ashley. Vanessa adored her: even days before from her marriage to Chris, her best friend had think to herself for a second.

The girl didn't type a return answer, it wouldn't make sense. It was already three in the morning and she would call Ashley tomorrow so she could talk to her calmly. Austin's soft snore indicated that he had finally fallen asleep. Vanessa touched her boyfriend's blond hair - he looked so peaceful while he was sleeping. Austin seemed to be able to finally rest only when he slept: his mother Lori's condition had worsened further and she had been rushed to hospital. When doctors had informed them that she probably would not past the night, Austin had ended in a selective mutism. He had watched her mother suffer through months of cancer and now he was not saying that all the treatments, the money spent and the hours spent at her side were useless? That all the prayers they had addressed to God had not been heard?

Vanessa was his rock. From the exact moment she arrived the diagnosis she had done the impossible to stay close to her fiance. It had calmed him, comforted him. And so she had done that evening too, cradling him in her arms to make him fall asleep.

She wasn't ready to lose Lori either: she had grown a bond with the woman during those three years she had spent with Austin, she wasn't ready to give up on her. Not when the rest of the world kept spinning, when the rest of the people continued to live as if nothing had happened. Vanessa had always believed that if she behaved well, if she proved to God that she was a good person , then nothing bad could ever happen to her in life. Or at least nothing catastrophic. Thinking back it was a purely childish thought, but until then no event had affected that worldview. Yet in the last year she had had to change her mind. She had discovered that perhaps God did not listen to the prayers of everybody , perhaps God did not exist at all or perhaps he was just an old sadist who played to move his pieces at will on a large chessboard. There was no other possible explanation. God had blessed her with talent, fame and a peaceful family life. Maybe he had given her too much. Sometimes the girl thought she was the cause of Austin's suffering. He was too perfect for her. The Butler family was perfect and now Lori was paying the price for all that God had given to Vanessa. If Austin had known what she really thought he probably would have thought that she was crazy, but there was nothing that Vanessa could do about it.

Promise me  that you'll take care of him.

Those were the last words Lori had said to her three days ago . She hadn't said them with the knowledge that they would be the last words she would ever say to her future daughter in law but they were. And now Vanessa feel that she is responsible for Austin's happiness. Lori had been her son's chosen one for years and now she was gone forever. It was up to Vanessa, therefore, to try to make her boyfriend's life as normal as possible.

The girl sighed heavily as she retraced the events of the previous days. It was all still confused. Lori's funeral had only taken place that same afternoon. The memory, however, was blurred in the girl's mind and seemed to belong to centuries ago. Lori had wanted to die in the hospital in Los Angeles, where she had spent the last few weeks of her life. The funeral ceremony therefore took place in Los Angeles, where the woman's body was cremated. If she closed her eyes, Vanessa could clearly see the broken face of Austin's father and sister, she could feel her boyfriend's tight grip during the eulogy. She hadn't cried at the funeral, she hadn't had the strength. She heard Austin move and mutter something in his sleep and so Vanessa’s gaze fall on the alarm clock: three in the morning. She might as well try to sleep for at least a couple of hours. In the morning, Austin's family would take Lori's ashes home to their family home in Anaheim . Austin needs her. He would need all the affection he could get. The girl switch off the cell, laid her head on the pillow and fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

[simplemlmsponsoring]

New Post has been published on https://simplemlmsponsoring.com/attraction-marketing-formula/copywriting/are-your-free-trial-emails-making-you-look-desperate-heres-how-to-fix-that/

Are Your Free Trial Emails Making You Look Desperate? Here’s How to Fix That

A SaaS free trial starts like any relationship – full of hope, dreams and possibilities.

Your prospect starts a trial and gladly opens your welcome email.

She wonders what marvellous, mind-reading revelations she’ll find in your onboarding sequence. (“Please let this be the product that gets me!”)

But then… she takes a moment or two away from you. Other commitments take priority. Although she likes your product, she’s forgetting about you – she’s not sure you’re The One. Plus, her friend just started seeing this other SaaS product, and she’s all “It’s sooooo beautiful” and why should she get a beautiful UI? Suddenly your “rich with utility” app isn’t quite so appealing. I mean, it’s a nice product, but it doesn’t make her eyes all

.

She’s losing interest in you.

She hopes you’ll just kinda go away. In a week or two, communication will cease. It’ll be like you never even met.

But you’re not gonna let her go so easily. After all, she was into you, like, two weeks ago. Maybe she just needs to hear from you more. So you start:

Internet-stalking her with retargeting ads Pushing messages at her friends and social network followers Sending her passive-aggressive don’t-leave-me emails like this:

Desperate, right?

The two of you only saw each other briefly. What’s all this “fall in love” talk?

The 2 Act-of-Desperation Mistakes SaaS Teams Are Making with Free Trial Emails

SaaS teams believe a trial signup equals a storybook romance.

They want to solve your problems and encourage you to date them take the right step to grow your business. SaaS businesses aim to win your love and affection by giving giving giving giving. Because giving is good, right? Users like it. They keep saying they like it.

Nobody stays with you because you’re a big ol’ giver. Yet SaaS teams do all this giving. And 90% of their trial users dump them.

Without a word of explanation. Just… dumped. 

After working with dozens of startups on their email copy, here’s what I’ve identified as the core of what SaaS marketers are getting wrong.

1. Interest ≠ Infatuation

For some reason, SaaS teams are counting on the idea that a new user went into a sealed room with their free trial for 15, 30 or 60 days, and in that time they fell madly in love with the product. 

If The Bachelor taught us anything, it’s that even a sealed room can’t create love.

Except real life is not a sealed room.

The reality is your free-trial user signs up for a trial… and then heads back into a massive, endlessly explorable digital and physical world, filled with rock-climbing classes and sangria-on-patios and deadlines and Facebook and existing processes and people and shiny distractions and shitty distractions. Within minutes of signing up for a free trial, everyone but the most insanely passionate trial users (who require almost no work to convert anyway) will go off and do something else. That’s a problem.

2. And the solution isn’t in your data

Startups look to the data! Growth-stage businesses look to the data! Everyone looks to the data!

But when you do, you don’t find answers. You find that your funnel is, depressingly, more of an inverted pyramid than a wide-mouthed funnel. Your cohort analyses are… sad. All the data sliced all the ways leaves SaaS marketers like you scratching ye olde head, wondering what’s wrong and how to fix what’s wrong.

Because here’s the thing: your trial users are interested.

But here’s the problem: SaaS companies have yet to crack the nut on how to convert interest into 1) activation, 2) revenue and 3) retention.

And while you could try other things, emails are your least expensive and most reliable option. I’ve seen them in action. And the fixes are simple enough that you should address your emails immediately.

So here’s how to make your free trial emails turn interest into infatuation into income.

First: Accept that your free trial emails, as they are today, are almost certainly chasing away money

When I first started consulting, I considered using a CRM to keep track of my leads. So I signed up for a free trial of Pipedrive to see what it could offer me vs. using email.

And the welcome email wasn’t the best I’ve ever received, but I was hopeful Pipedrive could help me organize who was in my client pipeline.

(Sidenote: Pipedrive is just an example. Nothing but love for their team!)

Check out the welcome email they sent me:

The webinar sounded good.

Was it actually good? I dunno – I didn’t end up going to it.

Life got in the way. Plus, I couldn’t get Pipedrive to work with my inbox without upgrading to a paid plan. So before I knew it, I hadn’t learned a thing about Pipedrive, I hadn’t started using it, and my free trial was ending. As my free trial came to a close, they sent me the email I mentioned above. Here it is again:

Let me pause for a moment to scratch the surface of the problems with that email:

Can we get a name in there? You know my name. I used it to create my account. You should use it to talk with me. That’s your opening line? Really? “This is just to remind you.” Ugh. Q: “Want to continue with Pipedrive?” A: Nope. Only using voice at the bitter end of the email…

So, sure, something like 50,000 people are in love with Pipedrive. Those folks converted in spite of that email. Congrats to Pipedrive.

But because you and I care a great deal about converting more trial users, let’s work on writing a better email.

And let’s start by stepping back a bit…

Behind the scenes of selling software (before the cloud)

Before the Internet, you had 2 ways to buy software.

If you were a consumer, it came in an unwieldy box from an electronics superstore like Circuit City (RIP!). Not much salesmanship there. If you were a corporation, you had a designated sales person who got you to sign a multi-year contract. Meaning an individual could assess a company’s particular situation and use various tactics to get the sale.

Then web-hosted apps became a thing. And companies realized they could make more money if they charged customers on a subscription basis. Now users could access apps anywhere, as long as there was a browser and an Internet connection. Meaning companies could cut down on the costs associated with packaging and commissions to retail stores. And take home at least 60% of the gross margins. The venture capitalists showed up in droves.

But even before the cloud and free trials, the practice of giving away software for free has always been very popular. The only difference is the delivery mechanism. Remember the days of AOL CDs in your mailbox?

Seriously, how much did AOL spend on direct mail?

The marketing strategy for software has stayed constant, unfortunately. And here it is:

Hook users with a free sample, with the hope they like it so much they buy the full version.

Drug dealers have a similar marketing strategy. There’s just one difference. Drug dealers don’t hope you’ll like their product. They know.

The SaaS marketer’s strategy is filled with hope.

Hope is what you defer to when you can’t science the shit out of something. Hope is what you defer to when you don’t know what you’re doing. Hope kills businesses, ends sales, frustrates marketers – and frustrates prospects. Hope isn’t for closers. Yet it’s at the core of your acquisition strategy.

SaaS marketing isn’t hope marketing – those free trial emails have gotta close the sale

Consultant Alan Weiss describes four reasons someone might NOT buy your product:

No need – “It’s a neat tool, but it’s not necessary for what I’m trying to accomplish.” No money – “I can’t afford it because I’m a startup” or “I have too many other financial commitments more pressing than yours.” No urgency – “This problem you’re solving for me is necessary, but it’s not my top priority right now.” No trust – “I don’t believe you have my best interests in mind.”

No need, no money, no urgency – what’s the 4th reason people don’t buy? via @copyhackersClick To Tweet

Weiss is talking about winning six-figure management consulting contracts, but he claims it works for any product or service you’re selling. And he admits to flying halfway across the world to close a deal if it means overcoming one of these objections. Few SaaS startups are in a place to fly eight time zones over just to close a deal. I mean, you’re selling an app for $25/month.

Instead of frequent flyer miles to solve your conversion problems, you’ve got basically 2 things: a name and an email address. You’ve gotta work with those 2 resources – and not much more.

So here’s a killer opportunity you may not be leveraging as much as you could.

It’s the Trial Ending email, and here’s how you can make it rock.

Here are 3 easy steps to close better with your free-trial-ending emails

To persuade trial users to pay for your SaaS product, you should use the trial-ending emails to:

Emphasize what the user will miss out on by not upgrading to paid. Contrast the outcomes of upgrading vs. not upgrading. Provide a single call-to-action.

Here’s what I mean…

1: Emphasize what the user will miss out on by not upgrading to paid

There’s nothing that motivates people more than telling someone what they’ll miss out on. In psychology, it’s called loss aversion.

So ask yourself:

What will users miss out on if they don’t upgrade to a paid plan?

To give you a few ideas, think of the key features in your product. But instead of naming them off in the email, turn them into benefits that change the way the user was doing something before.

The benefits of the feature should outweigh the cost of the product. And be painful enough that a user has to stop and think, “Will I miss out if I don’t grab my credit card?”

To demonstrate, let’s look at this email promoting Sumo Pro. Although a cart abandonment email, Sumo does a good job of telling me what I’ll lose if I don’t buy Sumo Pro soon.

Notice how Sumo stacks the benefits of upgrading to the Pro plan. They could have just said I’ll miss out on the heat map features. Instead, they point out that without Pro, I won’t know how engaged visitors are on my website.

And if a prospect is using their website as a way to capture leads…they’re likely to believe Sumo is THE solution to their conversion problems.

Plus, there’s nothing like a 10% discount to entice on-the-fence users to sign up in the next 24 hours. Not necessary, but it’s something extra for the user to lose out on.

2: Contrast the outcomes of upgrading vs not upgrading

Mid-century ad executive Rosser Reeves (creator of the value prop!) was finishing up lunch in Central Park with a friend. They came across a homeless man sitting on a bench with a sign. The sign read:

“I am blind.”

Reeves bet his friend that he could make the homeless fellow more money by changing the words on his sign. With his revisions, the sign now read:

“It is springtime, and I am blind.”

The result? The homeless man’s panhandling success increased and Reeves won his bet.

But why?

Sometimes missing out on benefits isn’t enough. It might be a proven fact that your product’s feature has helped others. But sometimes it’s not enough to persuade the skeptical trial user. So you need to change their mindset. You need to illustrate what would happen to the user if they choose to pay for your product… and how life would be if they didn’t.

It wasn’t enough for prospects to know that the homeless man was blind. After all, only a few of them dropped coins into his bowl.

But because Reeves mentioned springtime, prospects suddenly realized the homeless man couldn’t see the blue skies, the sunshine and blooming flowers in Central Park. And for that reason, they were compelled to give him money when they would have ignored him.

Here’s how to use contrast in your trial-ending email

To apply this in your trial ending email, consider how your product can transform your user’s outlook on business… or how terrible their life would be without your product.

Or in the words of Aaron Orendorff, ask yourself one of the following questions:

What heaven will this email deliver my subscriber unto?

OR

What hell will this email save my subscriber from?

For example, here’s a trial ending email from Honeybadger, an error monitoring service for Ruby apps.

It’s cool that Honeybadger logged 220 error notices. But think about why engineering teams bother with error monitoring in the first place.

Plus, reminding the user that they now have to pay to track bugs? Come on. There’s so much hell this app could save a user from! Though the majority of software errors are a nuisance, there are ones that are downright catastrophic.

 Let’s look at the version I rewrote below.

Any software developer worth a damn would do their best to avoid writing buggy software. Plus, an unscheduled meeting with high-level managers to discuss how your work caused weekend profits to plummet? If that’s not your idea of hell, I don’t know what is.

3: Provide a single call-to-action to upgrade

What’s the next step a user needs to take to upgrade from trial to paid?

Dan Pink calls this an off-ramp. You may recall Pink’s study of a college food drive: explicit directions prompted more donations from groups of individuals who had never donated to a food drive than groups of people who had a history of giving.

Translation? You can convince the most resistant people to do something if you make it clear what it is that you want them to do.

You can convince the most resistant people to do X if you make it clear HOW to do X, via…Click To Tweet

Mulesoft’s trial-ending email doesn’t make it clear what I should do next. Take a look:

Problems:

My trial is over. If I wanted to watch a webinar, I should have seen it before this email. Now you want me to read a case study? I have to talk to a human being to extend my free trial? Pass…

Compare this with DocuSign’s email, where it’s obvious what they want me to do: Upgrade my account.

And they do an excellent job of reminding the user what they’ll miss out on, which is making it easy for others to do business with them.

Think about the number of steps your prospect has to go through to convert / actually pay for your SaaS. If you add six links to your email asking the user to do different things, they’re going to get confused. And maybe start to wonder if paying for the product is the right thing to do. And while gaining Likes on Facebook or Follows on Twitter might be a nice-to-have… your goal is to move that trial user into a paying customer – so don’t lose sight of that.

Two Ways To Get a Response From Passive Trial Users

What about those trial users who don’t convert even after you’ve optimized your trial-ending email copy?

Keep in mind that these non-converters have already spent time interacting with your app in some way. They have an opinion. If you’ve written the most persuasive trial ending email and they STILL haven’t converted, send them a trial expired email.

Here are two ways to go about it:

Ask for advice. Get them to do something (that doesn’t require money)

Lemme show you now.

1: Ask for advice

If you never ask, you’ll never know what keeps your prospect from buying, and you’ll never figure out their level of interest.

According to Robert Cialdini, if you ask a person for advice on what you could do better, it puts them in:

“A merging state of mind, stimulating a linking of one’s own identity with another party.”

Translation: If you can get a person to think about the ways they would improve their business, it creates a bond. The bond may not result in becoming a paying customer, but you could possibly win them over by other means.

When free trial users finish up with Autopilot, Autopilot initiates a customer feedback survey that is explicit about how long it takes to complete: 60 seconds.

Thanks to this study, Autopilot found out:

“27% of our expired trialists don’t buy because they’re still evaluating their options. Us asking both nudges them back into the product and gives us insight into conversion barriers. It’s a win-win.”

A 60-second survey might not solve your business problems, but it can give you the motivation to undertake more in-depth customer research. If you want a technique for that, take a look at the Jobs-to-Be-Done framework.

2: Get them to do something (that doesn’t require money)

So what if they didn’t buy right now? It doesn’t mean they will never buy it. There are plenty of no-cost ways for them to engage with you, too. Neil Patel suggests other forms of action, like reading a blog post or replying to an email.

The call-to-action doesn’t always need to be Upgrade Now. But it’s important to get the prospect to commit to taking smaller steps that could lead to an eventual purchase.

Ruben from Bidsketch does this by sending blog content to his free trial users who don’t end up converting:

Bidsketch might not be the proposal software solution for you right now, but they want you to become a better entrepreneur. So go on, read their blog post on emotional intelligence. The more you read from them, the more you might grow to like them – and people ultimately do business with people (and businesses) they like.

How to fix your 90% free trial failure rate

You could have all the ad money in the world and still trying to figure out your trial-to-paying conversion rate – when all you may need to do is rewrite your trial ending emails.

It’s a no-brainer task that you can knock out within a few hours of reading this. To recap, here’s what to add to your writing to-do list…

In your trial-ending email, be sure to:

Emphasize the benefits the user would miss out on. Contrast the outcomes. Provide a single call-to-action.

For your trial-expired email, you can:

Ask them for advice. Get them to do something else (that doesn’t require money).

And keep this in mind: If users sign up for your trial, there is a little part of them that wants to make your product work.

So choose your (email) words wisely. Because it could be the thing keeping your SaaS product from turning interest to infatuation to income.

~Sophia

The post Are Your Free Trial Emails Making You Look Desperate? Here’s How to Fix That appeared first on Copywriting for startups and marketers.

Read more: copyhackers.com

[nspx]

Tumblr user Nina nspx’s star wars fic rec vol. 2

An anon asked me for an ahsoka/anakin fic rec and i accidentally deleted the ask (i’m dumb!!) BUT because i love ahsoka and i love anakin and i love their relationship and how they helped each other, i’m gonna do a completely separate fic rec for the anon (i hope u see this lmao sorry for deleting the ask). 

but anyway, since the last time i did a rec i had 22 bookmarks on ao3 (i did the last one on october 19th 2015?? how time flies) and now i have like 80+, i decided to do much more than just an anakin/ahsoka rec, but a general star wars fic res

DISCLAIMER: none of these fics feature anakin/ahsoka in a sexual relationship because i am Not About That BUT they do feature other pairings. anyhow. 

These are fics u need to read. need to. sorry, i don’t make the rules. this is gonna be so long. i’m sorry (not)

AHSOKA/ANAKIN

A River Flowing by Barkour

A shadow has left the force, but other threats remain as Padmé and Anakin prepare for the birth of their child.

Part 2 of Peachy

The only issue i have with this fic is that it hasn’t been updated in forever. It’s so good tho!! i’m pretty sure i read this one at least four times. anakin doesn’t go evil (which is something the anon asked for!! here u go) but not everything is perfect - duh, it is a star wars fic, we don’t know what happiness is here - and AHSOKA IS SO WELL WRITTEN!! so good. it also dives into life after the jedi, being a civilian, being dirt-poor and living on coruscant and ALSO!! padme/ahsoka is well developed in this. so good. so great. 10/10 must read

Assassination Attempt No. 23 by pieandsouffle

Tatooine's only senator (or, indeed, one of the only people from that desert planet who is capable of reading and writing, or actually understands what the word 'politics' means), Anakin Skywalker, seems to be one of those rare individuals who attract bounty hunters like flies zero in on a bantha corpse.

The senator!anakin au. what more do u need in life? shenanigans ensue

Old Shadows by Sildae for Windona

Ahsoka asks Anakin about his past after the events on Kadavo and Zygerria.

My babies. My poor heart. 

Obi-Wan and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad (Life) Day by wreckageofstars

It's Obi-Wan Kenobi's life day, but good luck telling the galaxy that.

Anakin and Ahsoka are little shits. obi wan and padme are drinking buddies?? sign me the fuck up. the end

hold on to me, 'cause i'm a little unsteady (ws!obi-wan au) by QueenWithABeeThrone

the one where Obi-wan falls off a ship and gets the Winter Soldier treatment, Anakin doesn't fall to the Dark Side but still loses his limbs, Ahsoka can fly with a one-of-a-kind wing-pack, and Padmé gives birth to twins and a Rebellion.

TBH. SO GOOD. ANAKIN AND AHSOKA ARE AWESOME IN THIS. ALSO IN THIS SERIES BY THE SAME AUTHOR:

angels choking on their haloes QueenWithABeeThrone

Anakin hadn’t been lying, when he said he could never kill Obi-wan like he was being asked to, no matter what Obi-wan’s become.

or: Mustafar, in reverse.

Part 1 of hold on to me, 'cause i'm a little unsteady (ws!obi-wan au)

GO READ THIS. it’s unfinished (hasn’t been updated since early 2016, i weep) BUT. still worth a read. really worth it. the second part of this verse ends on the nastiest, most delicious cliffhanger. I WEEP

and hey, a honorary mention, since i haven’t actually read this fic but it was in my ao3 history 

Perturbations by the_dragongirl

Anakin makes a different choice, the day Ahsoka leaves the Jedi Order. His actions will determine which of the many possible points of balance in the Force will become the new equilibrium

Part 1 of A Shift in Equilibrium

this has a lot of kudos so?? what the hell. give it a read and tell me what you think

this is it for the anakin/ahsoka part of the rec

OTHER

Fundamental Force Carriers by tanarill

The Sith Lord Darth Vader lived his life. He probably didn't live it well, but he lived it as well as he knew how. At the end there, he'd even managed to woman up and kill Sidious. But he was dying, and at peace with the past.

The past wasn't at peace with him.

Part 1 of Probability Matrices

honestly, this fic is just SU CH a delight. it’s well written, it’s got some real cool science facts for your everyday nerd needs BUT IT’S ALSO THE CRACKIEST CRACKFIC TO EVER CRACK. like. vader dies and goes back in time and he’s got 0 fucks to give about the jedi’s opinion?? he’s here to make things right whether the jedi like it or not??? such a funny, amazing fic. 12/10 on this. nice. 

Echoes of Mortis by wreckageofstars

Post-Mortis Arc AU. In a universe where the Father failed to take away Anakin's vision of the future, the Hero With No Fear struggles with the knowledge of what he will become and the knowledge of who, exactly, is responsible. Drastic steps are taken and in the process things go a little bit...sideways.

tbh. so good. also a post-mortic fic (i’m a hoe for mortis). i won’t say too much about this one because i don’t want to spoil anything. i was on the edge of my seat while reading this fic AT ALL TIMES. AT ALL TIMES. I HAD TO READ THE LAST CHAPTER BEFORE READING ON TO MAKE SURE ANAKIN WOULDN’T GO ALL EVIL. i was so pleasantly surprised. it’s just so - poetic. anakin really does a lot of growing in this, i think. brilliant fic 

those immortal dead by notbecauseofvictories

I care more for that long age which I shall never see than for the little of Time that I hold

Padmé Amidala is forgotten, not gone.

This is a five times padme amidala’s legacy lived on, basically. it’s got poe in it as well!! and rey, my daughter. what more do you need from a fic? so well written, so poignant, so beautiful

Palpatine Ad Portas by izzythehutt

When the Emperor Palpatine moves the Empire Day Celebration to Naboo, Darth Vader is forced to confront a past he had thought better buried and forgotten. Admiral Piett becomes the reluctant confidante of the monarch, caught in the middle of a deadly Sith cat-and-mouse mind game. Meanwhile, the young Rebel who blew up the Death Star returns to his mother's home world to pay his respects on the anniversary of her death--unaware of his father and the Emperor's presence on the planet and the very grave danger he is in.

Part 2 of In Loco Pirates-Verse

fucked me up really bad, tbh. vader goes to naboo. luke is there. it’s brilliant, but so painful. read at your own risk (but do read it)

Hello From the Other Side by DarthNickels

Kylo Ren is destined to take up the mantle of Vader. The Force can be incredibly literal.

MY FAVOURITE IMPERIAL OFFICER PIETT IS IN THIS!!! and he hates kylo so much, he thinks he’s such a pale imitation of vader, he’s so disgusted by him. i live for it. 10/10

The Sith Who Brought Life Day by ophelia_interrupted for Binder-lover

An Imperial officer loses a bet and has to get Darth Vader a present for Life Day.

i feel like this is such a star wars fic classic that everyone’s already read ages ago except me. the style on this feels really like. (don’t judge me if i’m way off on this lmao) catcher in the rye. reminds me old american classics. that type of feel. it’s so good!!

Into the Archives by skygawker

After hearing the legend of Darth Plagueis the Wise from Palpatine, Anakin decides that his best chance to save Padme is to break into the restricted Holocron Vault of the Temple Archives to search for information about Plagueis. Predictably, all does not go according to plan. Revenge of the Sith AU.

My tiny son anakin is such a mess in this. and you can tell this is au because anakin and obi wan actually talk about anakin’s feelings?? what?? what are those?? anyway. so good. it hasn’t been updated since feb 2016 but like?? my fics havent been since july 2015. figures

for a hundred miles through the desert by wreckageofstars

[“There's no water, on Tatooine,” Luke said finally. “I mean, no large bodies of water, like you have on other planets. Pools, lakes. Oceans.”

“Well, yeah,” Han said, eyebrow raised at the sudden change of subject, tone still sharper than he meant for it to be. “Place is a dustball. So?”

The kid still wouldn't look at him.

“So,” he said, face carefully blank, like it so often was these days, “I never learned how to swim.”]

Han has a hard time coming to terms with Luke's fall to the dark side during Dark Empire; so does Luke. 

This is some serious EU shit, but it’s pretty good on its own as an AU scenario. I LOVE the meta on this. love

and rise, rise in the desert sand by hollytrees

Padmé and Anakin keep in touch after TPM.

(Or, the author has started writing Fialleril's Pen Pals AU, possibly because they hate themselves.)

THIS ONE IS SO PAINFUL AND HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL!! it’s got one chapter but it’s so worth it

Never Heed by dogmatix, norcumi

The Sith Emperor is dead.

A clone visits one more pyre in his long life.

Part 4 of Ghosts of 66

This is Rex coming to Vader’s pyre. fuck mE UP. like HONESTLY. THERE’S ONE BIT IN THIS THAT MAKES ME WANNA CURL UP AND CRY EVERY TIME. actually two bits. three bits. the whole damn story. anyhow

Mercy is the Mighties' Jewel by akathecentimetre for TheCrackedKatana

They've chased each other all over the world - yet somehow, they will always end up here. Modern-day spy!AU with illustration by JakartaInn.

The Obi-wan and Ventress spy au of your dreams. what more do i need to say?

TFA FIC

to lie with your soul in the grave by plinys

Poe casts a glance at the door, he can see their mothers through the semi-transparent glass, it’s too quiet to hear them talk, but he knows whatever it is it can’t be good. The kid sitting next to him seems to have the same idea.

“So, who talks first?” Poe says, breaking the silence between them.

Tbh.. don’t judge but when tfa came out i liked kylo (i’m more.. conflicted about him now) and i read a lot of kylo fic in that time period. i was never a reylo, so i read a lot of other kylo fic, which was mostly either kyhux or kylo/poe WHICH THIS FIC IS ABOUT. THEY KNEW EACH OTHER GROWING UP. THEY WERE IN LOVE. all i remember from this fic is that it’s so well written. give it a read if you’re into this sort of thing

I read like three more kylo/poe fics that are also very good, so. anyway. here goes

saying that I love him but I know I'm gonna leave him byselenedaydreams

“This could be us one day.” Poe whispers half to himself as he finally turns towards Ben, finding a curious expression on his face. “This could be us.” He repeats, this time with more excitement. “You and me. Pilot and copilot. Traveling the universe together.”

Poe has never seen Ben smile at him the way he’s smiling now but Ben’s reaching for his hand and lacing their fingers together so it must be good. “Together.”

Lost To Me by red0aktree

Poe met Ben Solo when he was too young to even know what it meant to meet someone.

Poe met Kylo Ren years later.

Separating the prince of the First Order from the boy he grew up with proves more difficult than the pilot could ever imagine.

Melting Away by SF2187

Before he was Kylo Ren, he was in love with the best pilot in the Republic.

what i like about these fics is that (from what i remember) they don’t erase the fact that kylo is a raging asshole now. nice

excavate me (from all the girls I've tried to be) by Shadows_of_a_Dream

“Rise, Skywalker.”

“I told you,” Rey hisses through gritted teeth. “He’s gone.” Like everyone else. Like all the girls I’ve tried to be. Like all the girls I might have yet become, because I’m going to die alone on this unknown sea.

The mask returns his lightsaber to his belt. And like a crashing wave, like a renewed flame, like the weight of a planet falling squarely upon her shoulders, the mask looks at her and says, “I was talking to you.”

Part 1 of I never asked to tread the skies (but if I shall, I suppose I'll fly)

This one is so... intense. so intense. and so good. 20/10

need somewhere to begin by doubtthestars

Anthology of the War

1//The first time she officially meets Poe, she divulges secrets that aren't hers to tell. 2// If he had been born in any other family, Ben Solo would have been a soldier. 3// When she sees Rey, Leia only has a brief moment to reflect on all of their wrongs.

Read. That is all.

Trial by nymja

Kylo Ren kneels in the snow before her.

“Do it,” he demands.

Rey breathes in through her nose. Her hands are shaking. Her blade starts to burn the skin of his exposed neck. Do it for Han.

--

Luke takes Rey to face The Cave.

Part 4 of Do or Do Not

So cool.

Lessons Learned by nymja

“You’re never going to get anywhere if you don’t learn patience, first.”

“I’m the strongest knight here!”

The Jedi looks around the room, eyeing the skull of his grandfather with pointed distaste. “Yes, well. Good work.”

Part 1 of The Sad Grandpa Trilogy

Forceghost!obi-wan is so disappointed in kylo. it’s great. READ THE WHOLE SERIES BECAUSE IT’S GOLD!! it’s so good!! the next one is about rey and forceghost!anakin in the desert and that fic is so interesting because in it, anakin isn’t really as much of a grandfather figure as he is a friend figure and one of his corporeal forms is a warning to rey. like a mirror in the force (to her, to ren, it’s so brilliant). honestly i could talk forever about the next fic in this series because anakin is SO WELL WRITTEN. SO WELL WRITTEN. 

THE CLASSICS

tbh @fialleril​‘s Double Agent Vader verse gets the biggest shoutout (love u fia you’re my inspiration) for sheer amazingness. i won’t list any of the fics in the verse because u need to read all of them. yes, all of them. get to it

ACTUALLY. you should read all of fia’s work. all of it. (on the offchance that fia actually reads this, i can’t wait for anabasis i am so pumped)

ALSO!! another must read is @phil-the-stone‘s pocket full of sand 'verse. it’s such an Iconic piece of star wars fanfiction!! like bye, everyone needs to read this

ALSO another one of hers because?? why not. nursery ‘verse!!! i’m so heart eyes over nursery verse. i’m forever flattered because some of my headcanons are in this!! best thing i’ve ever done. (phil writes mostly b99 and ouat now, but still check it out, her writing is so good)

other fandom must-read authors include:

1000-alshain

actual-leia-organa

threadsketchy

star-vault-ofthe-heavens

darthnickels

cadesama

ygrittebardots

@anghraine

@izzythehutt

FF.NET MUST READ AUTHORS ARE: 

Mathematica 

irnan (all of their work, i’m not kidding, writer goals)

frodogenic (they wrote darth vader’s limplet and other hilarious fics, honestly, star wars humor at its finest)

motchi 

a bunch of others, though you might find more in my previous rec 

Now. Since we’ve come to the end of this ridiculously long rec, it’s time for me to shamelessly plug my own blog. you can find more tumblr fic in my tag here, you can find my writing here and on ao3 *whispers* leave me a comment, you can find my bookmarks here (and find fics i did not include that are also very good)

have fun reading!!

[thedeadshotnetwork]

Apple, Google, and the constant chase for tech that can���t be reverse-engineered

Apple, Google, and the constant chase for tech that can’t be reverse-engineered

The future of premium smartphones is a machine-learning battle

by Nov 13, 2017, 9:46am EST

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

One of my favorite things about the tech industry is how quickly innovations from the big companies and premium products trickle down into more affordable devices. The rampant stealing of ideas isn't so awesome when it happens between small companies — or, as in the case of Facebook treating Snapchat like its incubation lab, when a big company copies a smaller one. But I don’t have a problem with the general flow of good ideas from giants like Apple and Google to more budget-friendly suppliers of hardware and software. Apple and Google, though, have an obvious problem with that, and they’ve worked hard to develop new techniques and approaches that can’t be readily imitated.

The big new thing in smartphones lately is one of those buzz phrases you’ll have heard tossed around: machine learning (ML). Like augmented and virtual reality, machine learning is often thought of as a distant promise, however in 2017 it has materialized in major ways. ML is at the heart of what makes this year’s iPhone X from Apple and Pixel 2 / XL from Google unique. It is the driver of differentiation both today and tomorrow; and the companies that fall behind in it will find themselves desperately out of contention.

A machine-learning advantage can’t be easily replicated, cloned, or reverse-engineered: to compete with the likes of Apple and Google at this game, you need to have as much computing power and user data as they do (which you probably lack) and as much time as they’ve invested (which you probably don’t have). In simple terms, ML promises to be the holy grail for giant tech companies that want to scale peaks that smaller rivals can’t reach. It capitalizes on vast resources and user bases, and it keeps getting better with time, so competitors have to keep moving just to stay within reach.

I’m not arguing that ML is a panacea any more than I would argue that all OLED displays are awesome (some are terrible): it’s just the basis on which some of the key differentiating features are now being built.

Google’s HDR+ camera

Let’s start with the most impressive expression of machine-learning consumer tech to date: the camera on Google’s Pixel and Pixel 2 phones. Its DSLR-like performance never ceases to amaze me, especially in low-light conditions. Google’s imaging software has transcended the traditional physical limitations of mobile cameras (namely: shortage of physical space for large sensors and lenses), and it’s done so through a combination of clever algorithms and machine learning. As Google likes to put it, the company has turned a light problem into a data problem, and few companies are as adept at processing data as Google.

I spoke with Marc Levoy, the Stanford academic that leads Google’s computational photography team, recently, and he stressed something important about Google’s ML-assisted camera: it keeps getting better over time. Even if Google had done nothing whatsoever to improve the Pixel camera in the time between the Pixel and Pixel 2’s launch, the simple accumulation of machine learning time will have made the camera better. Time is the added dimension that makes machine learning even more exciting. The more resources you can throw at your ML setup, says Levoy, the better its output becomes, and time and processing power (both on the device itself and in Google’s vast server farms) are crucial.

Google’s Assistant

At CES in January this year, Huawei’s mobile boss Richard Yu was asked if his company would introduce its own voice assistant in the US, to which he replied, “Alexa and Google Assistant are better, how can we compete?” That uncharacteristically pragmatic response (for a mobile company CEO) neatly encapsulates the difficulty of copying Google and Amazon’s machine-learning efforts. All the vast resources that the two US companies have invested into natural language processing and voice recognition are returning a dividend in keeping them far enough ahead of the competition that even Huawei, one of the biggest consumer tech brands outside the US, isn’t trying to compete. That’s the cumulative power of long-term investment in machine learning.

Is Google Assistant a differentiating feature? Not for hardware, as Google wants to have Assistant running on every device possible. But the Assistant serves as a conduit for funneling users into Google search and the rest of the company’s services, with practically all of them benefiting from some variety of machine learning, whether you’re thinking of Google Maps tips or YouTube video suggestions. What Assistant does for the mobile market is to enhance Google’s influence over its hardware partners: woe betide the manufacturer that tries to ship an Android phone in 2018 without either the Google Play Store or Assistant on board.

Apple’s Face ID

On the Apple side of the fence, machine learning is permeating much of the software running on the iPhone already, and the company’s Core ML tools are making it easy for developers to add to that library. But the big highlight feature of the new iPhone X, the thing everyone notices, is the notch at the top of its display and the technology contained within it. Up in that monobrow section, you’ll find a full array of infrared and light sensors, something tantamount to a Microsoft Kinect system, which facilitates the new FaceID authentication method.

I remain uncertain about how well Face ID strikes the balance between security and convenience (especially without the fallback of Touch ID’s fingerprint recognition), but I have no doubt about the technical achievement that it represents. Everyone I know that has used Face ID gives a glowing assessment of its accuracy. The system is robust enough to work in the dark and, thanks to machine learning, it will adapt to changes in your appearance. If you strip away all the usual incremental upgrades and design tweaks, the FaceI D system is the iPhone X’s defining new feature. And it’s reliant on ML to work its technological magic.

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

It may still be early for machine-learning enhancements to truly be the key selling point for mass-market phones. Face ID is of secondary importance to iPhone X purchasers more attracted by the new, bezel-phobic design. While Google’s camera is the best reason to own a Pixel, there still aren’t all that many Pixel owners out there. But the critical thing is that phone companies need to be working on their own ML solutions now in order to remain competitive when those things become essential and core to the user experience, as they threaten to do as early as next year. Chinese companies may work at ludicrous speed when iterating on hardware, however the rules change when the thing you’re trying to replicate is months and years of ML training.

Huawei’s AI chips and Samsung’s Bixby disaster

Outside of Apple and Google, Huawei has been the biggest proponent of implementing machine learning and AI in mobile devices. The company’s latest phone and processor are both marketed as having “the real AI” smarts. Huawei is moving in the right direction with this AI push, however, unlike Apple and Google — both of which have turned ML into tangible, obvious and (literally) user-facing features — Huawei’s approach is to dig into the far less marketable sphere of using ML to optimize Android performance over the course of long-term use. That’s a laudable effort, but it’s hard to imagine it being a true differentiator when people are comparing shiny new phones in a store. Huawei is also putting some marketing toward having “camera AI” that tries to automatically enhance images based on detecting what is being photographed, however I have yet to see it come anywhere near the effectiveness of Google’s Pixel.

Huawei’s example reminds us that machine learning itself is not the unique selling point; the unique selling points are and will be built on top of machine learning.

Another salient example to illustrate that point is Samsung’s experience with its Bixby voice assistant. Bixby is what Google Assistant might have been if a company decided to rush it into production devices with inadequate planning, preparation, or time to accumulate a useful amount of data and machine learning knowhow. Unfortunately, we can probably expect a lot more Bixbys than anything else next year, as companies work to figure out how to best exploit the potential on offer from machine learning.

When you look at the iPhone X, you might be wowed by its gorgeous new OLED display. As pricey and exclusive as it may be, though, that panel is available to Samsung as well, not just Apple. Every new hardware tweak from Apple seems to be targeted at making manufacture of its devices trickier and more technical — such as the Taptic Engine for haptic feedback, the 3D Touch interaction on iPhone displays, and the Touch Bar on the newest MacBooks — but all of those are ultimately systems that can be reverse-engineered and replicated by others. In 2014, Apple invested heavily in its attempt to build its own manufacturing supply chain for sapphire crystal displays, which would have been a huge and unique advantage, but that effort fell through and the production company hired for it went bankrupt.

The old days of phone makers being able to secure a major hardware advantage for longer than a few months are now gone. At this late stage of the evolution of smartphones, machine learning is the only path toward securing meaningful differentiation. I still believe Google’s camera is widely underrated, mostly owing to Google’s chronic inability to distribute Pixel devices widely enough. And I also think Face ID will be copied, badly, by a whole slew of aspiring competitors. But the distinguishing line between the true mobile innovators and the fast copycats, which had until recently been blurring and fading, will become apparent again as phones move into the era of ML-assisted everything.

Tags: November 13, 2017 at 02:53PM Open in Evernote