New Android Ice Cream Sandwich Nexus

I bought the new Samsung Nexus Galaxy phone last week.  This is the first Android phone shipping with Ice Cream Sandwich version of the O/S.  I waited for the Verizon Wireless version of the phone, for many reasons. 

                                                                  Samsung Galaxy Nexus

1.  4G LTE footprint of Verizon is awesome and only getting better.

2.  Verizon is my primary provider and I am sick of ATT and T Mobile slow networks.

3.  My DroidX was showing its age and I wanted to replace my primary phone with a faster phone that had front and rear cameras and could do effective video conferencing over 4G

So, I broke down and bought the new Nexus, which is what I am going to call it.  My first impressions were just ok.  It is thin, the screen is nice, the speed is good and it slides in and out of my pocket easily.  It does not have the WOW factor that the original Nexus had on me.  This is a much more subtle phone, it is more of a covert champion rather than a shiny new "look at me" type of phone.  I have had it now for 3 days and it is growing on my as the strong silent type of phone versus the flashy look at me phone.  I really had wanted to purchase the Galaxy S II phone but Verizon never picked it up.  I assumed this phone would be out in October and it has been a long wait, over 2 months later than anticipated.  Then to add insult to injury, Verizon and Google got into a pissing contest over the NFC enabled Google Wallet which delayed the release until December 15th.  

                                                            LifeSignals Vital Signs App

One of the coolest features with the new Nexus is the facial recognition screen locking.  I found it very easy and intuitive to set up and it works very well in normal lighting conditions.  It does not work well if you are wearing sunglasses or a hat.  I did it this morning while working out on the elliptical, worked fine each time.  It worked while I was driving as well.  If it does not recognize you, it will prompt you for a PIN number after a few seconds, it is not annoying at all. 

Compatibility with the LifeSignals Application in Ice Cream Sandwich:  I was worried that I bought a new phone for my own use and that the current version of LifeSignals App would not function.  I was pleasantly surprised, it functions perfectly and looks terrific. 

Battery life is a probably my biggest complaint.  In Mobile Network settings you can de-select 4G LTE and select only 3G.  I did that this morning and it appears to noticeably improve battery life.  I will keep it in 3G mode unless I plan to do a demonstration of our App or am using Video Conferencing.  I don't have 4G in Doylestown where I live, so it is a moot point for when I am at home.

My second biggest complaint is Verizon.  They raised the price of Hotspot from $20 to $30 per month for 4G Hotspot.  One cool new feature in Ice Cream Sandwich is there are now 2 methods for tethering the phone.  In addition to turning the phone into a Wifi Router you have the option of using Bluetooth Tethering.  I haven't used it yet, but I assume that is handy in the new Ford Synch systems and maybe in noisy Wifi environments.  It may be a little more secure (through obscurity) than traditional Wifi hotspot in Airports and other busy areas.  

All in all, I am very happy with the phone and feel that I will like it more as time goes by.  I would highly recommend the phone to any Android user. 

Global Telehealth Market Set to Exceed $1 Billion by 2016
Date: 15 September 2011

The world market for Telehealth is set to exceed $1 billion by 2016 and could jump to $6 billion in 2020, according to a new report, “The World Market for Telehealth – A Quantitative Market Assessment – 2011 Edition,” by InMedica, the medical electronics market research group within IMS Research, the leading independent provider of market research and consultancy to the global electronics industry.

“Many public healthcare systems now have targets to reduce both the number of hospital visits and the length of stay in hospital,” says Diane Wilkinson, Research Manager at InMedica. “This has led to a growing trend for healthcare to be managed outside the traditional hospital environment, and as a result, there is a growing trend for patients to be monitored in their home environment using Telehealth technologies once their treatment is complete.”

Home-monitoring is becoming increasingly relevant in the treatment of chronic diseases. For example, home monitoring of blood-pressure allows sufferers of hypertension to manage their condition better and monitor their progress. Home-use medical devices in Teleheatlh services, such as blood glucose meters, pulse oximeters, weight scales and peak flow meters are being deployed to monitor four main diseases – congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes and hypertension.

“By far the most established market for telehealth at present is the US, as evidenced by The Veteran’s Health Administration’s extensive home Telehealth service, which aims to have 92,000 patients enrolled on Telehealth services by 2012” Wilkinson adds. “There has also been some large-scale trial activity in Europe, most notably in the UK in 2010 and 2011, where PCTs have initiated some projects involving more than 2,000 patients”.

“What is apparent is the convergence of many different industries in this space, including Telehealth companies, device manufacturers, healthcare agencies, service providers and telecommunication companies to name but a few. With such interest from a wide range of investors and the need to minimize healthcare expenditure globally while managing the chronic disease epidemic, there is obvious motivation for the full acceptance of Telehealth from governments, physicians and patients alike.”

Apple is the new Tiger Woods

Apple is the new Tiger Woods

Many golf fans will appreciate this analogy.  Prior to Tiger's spectacular fall from greatness that began with him crashing his SUV in his driveway and being attacked by a club wielding wife he was the most feared golfer on the planet.  His competitors would wilt at the very sound of the gallery that followed Tiger.  His competitor's wind tunnel tested golf swings would melt down playing under the cold icy stare when paired with Tiger.   Many top rated golfers would change their schedule to compete in the events Tiger skipped as he prepared for only the top tournaments and major golf championships.  For many of the game's top players who had competed and won top honors their entire careers, they became happy with chasing 2nd place when Tiger was in the field.  Since smashing his Escalade in the front yard and the public humiliation that followed Tiger has crashed to earth and is no longer a threat to the top tier players.  Not to worry,  for fans of totally dominating leaders and the devastating effects they have on the competition  there is a new leader to watch with fascination.   Two leading stories in the business news this week bestow the mantle of the new Tiger to Apple Computer.  The first in chronological order was waking up to the news Monday morning that Google intends to acquire Motorola Mobility.  The mighty Google, whose meteoric rise from Stanford project to global behemoth that dominates search engine marketing and whose Android O/S is the fastest growing phone operating system on the planet is going to spend $12 Billion dollars to buy a struggling handset maker who happens to have 17,000 patents and another 7500 patent applications.  Has Apple's dominant patent portfolio forced Google to do the unthinkable, to acquire a hardware company that operates on razor thin margins in a hypercompetitive business?  Did Apple's winning strategy to create a consortium with Microsoft, RIM, Sony, and EMC to buy Nortel's patents force Google to buy Motorola?  Did Apple's  $385 Billion dollar valuation  and recent eclipsing of Exxon as the most valuable company on the planet force Google to buy Motorola in order to mimic Apple's hardware strategy?  Google was not alone in the Smartphone and Tablet industry to hear Apple's footsteps just like the Tiger Woods pre-crash.  The two leading Android Handset makers, Samsung, LG and HTC released press statements that were eerily similar and heartily supported Google's acquisition of Motorola.  How crazy is that?  Google is buying one of their competitors  which threatens their market leading position and they applaud the move?  That is the Tiger effect that Apple has now evolved to, anything that takes them down is good for the under classes of competitors.  It is breathtaking to watch and understand. 

The second news item of the week that reinforces that Apple is the  new Tiger Woods was HP's announcement that they are considering selling their PC business and that they will not compete with Apple on Handsets or Tablets.  The strategic move away from the PC business is the result of the "Tablet Effect" on the sales and margins of personal computers and Net books.  It is also the result of Apple's dramatic impact on computing, moving from fixed to mobile computing which has propelled the sales of IOS and Android mobile devices globally.  Think of it, HP's PC business is over $22 Billion and they are seriously considering selling it off completely and not competing with Apple on PC's or mobile devices.  They also announced a $10 Billion dollar acquisition of Autonomous software.  They are going to try and mimic IBM and move away from PC hardware and focus on services and software.  That is another way of saying they don't want to play on any course where Apple competes.  Sad, but that is the reality that faces them, they cannot win against Apple and they have decided not to try.  Shareholders punished HP for these announcements amputating over $12 Billion dollars in the company's value in 1 day.  How proud would founders Hewlett and Packard be today watching their company run and hide from the mighty Apple?

There are many unknown outcomes from the events of this week with Google and HP.  My first concern was that Google's fears drove an acquisition that would damage the growth trajectory of Android.  Since our business is based on Android and the idea that it will hurt the growth trajectory worries me.  Is one of the unintended consequences of the Motorola acquisition that Samsung, HTC and others diversify their use of Windows 7 phone O/S and other operating systems?  Is there a potentially perverse outcome where HP becomes the new Google with their WEB OS?  Web OS (formerly Palm OS) was universally considered a world class O/S and was about to enter the game as a serious contender with IOS and Android.  Obviously, HP was late to the game and has pulled back from this strategy but this will not stop them from licensing Web OS to the Android ecosystem who may feel the need to hedge their bets.  Yes, there will be a cost to license Web OS, but given the fear of Apple and the cost to litigate, Android is not really free.  

I used to enjoy watching Tiger dominate the men's PGA tour.  I enjoy it more now in the post Tiger era where any number of players can win any given week.  I look forward to that type of level playing field in the mobile arena but fear it won't be any time soon.

Android O/S continues to gain traction

Android O/S continues to gain traction

Recent reports from Nielson, Canalysis and Comscore provide terrific insight into Android's market penetration which is mostly at the expense of RIM's Blackberry O/S and Nokia's Symbian O/S. 

At this point it appears to be a two horse race between Google and Apple. 

Android is number 1 in Smartphone O/S during Q2 2011. Nielsen reported that

55% of all new mobile-phone sales in the U.S. from March through May were

Smartphones, for the first time Smartphones outsold feature phones. Nielsen reported 38% of all phones in use in the US were  Smartphones versus 34% in the prior period/year.

Google’s Android O/S  is responsible for the majority of that growth.  Thirty-eight percent

of new U.S. Smartphone buyers purchased an Android handset during the three month

period.  Android's growth trajectory should continue along the same lines as the O/S matures and evolves.  We learned at Google I/O that the next big release in Q4 2011 will be Ice Cream Sandwich which will be an advanced version of the O/S that combines some of the advances in Honeycomb tablet version that can run on either a phone or a tablet.  That will certainly be helpful to LifeSignals as we see more interest and traction in the Health Care space on the new tablet devices.  

Google's Android races to the top

Google's Android races to the top

When we attended Google IO in early May Google announced that Android activations had hit the mind-blowing rate of 400,000 devices per day.  About two weeks ago Andy Rubin announced that activations had increased to 500,000 per day.  In yesterday's earnings conference call, Google founder and CEO Larry Page said the company is activating 550,000 Android phones per day now.  Comscore released data last week that 49% of all Smartphones sold in May were Android.  Google also released that Android activations have reached 135 million devices, with 400 models available globally. 

These are staggering numbers that must even make Apple worried.  I would not want to be at RIM or Nokia and be processing these numbers and evaluating how to survive. 

From LifeSignals perspective, we continue to be validated that we chose the right operating system to launch our Mobile Health Platform.  Our rationale was low cost, open source, and diversity of suppliers.  We are fortunate to have made this decision and will reap the benefits as a Google continues its amazing growth. 

Google Health Announcement

Google IO and Google Health

Google announced last week that they are no longer going to support their ground breaking Google Health Personal Health Record system as of the end of this year.  This is a disappointing announcement but not entirely unexpected.  There have been rumors swirling around Google Health for quite some time and their lack of presence at Google IO only served to confirm the impending collapse.  We will miss Google Health as it was a nice story for end to end Google connectivity from Android phones.  We will also miss the ability to use the CCR (continuity of care record) connectivity as a reference example of EMR connectivity.  We will most likely interface the application to Microsoft Health Vault in the near term.  Microsoft has announced a Health Vault Mobile SDK for Windows 7 Phone Mobile with Android support coming soon.  More on that when it is available. 

In the meantime we received the video from Google of interviews with Steve Jacobs and Paul Speese.  Google IO seems like a year ago already even though it was just 7 weeks past.  They did a nice job splicing our separate videos, capturing some of the apps we showed and getting a flavor or the event at the floor level inside the Sandbox area. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpq08ictqB0

LifeSignals app optimized for Honeycomb Android 3.0

As I mentioned in the last post, I was fortunate enough to have received one of the new ultra slim Samsung 10.1" Honeycomb tablets while attending Google IO 2011.  I just received the tablet back from the developers who were working to optimize the graphics and performance on Honeycomb.  It has really turned out nice, as you can see in the video link below.  Samsung has done an incredible job with all aspects of this new Tablet.  I am impressed with the size, weight, screen resolution and overall performance.  I have been an iPad user since its inception and have not found an Android Tablet that could replace it until now.  This is every bit as good as a consumer media consumption device for me but has the advantage of being Android O/S and running our applications.  The quality of the video conferencing is really amazing.  I will capture a video of that next time.
Enjoy the video link below:
http://youtu.be/Ckbx-6gy5ME

Google IO 2011

I was invited to attend Google IO by friend and business associate Steve Jacobs from Apps4android.  Steve is engaged with Google on a mission to make Android phones and tablets more accessible to the blind and other visually challenged individuals.  Steve and his team do some excellent work and his collaboration with the Google accessibility team has payed dividends for the visually challenged all over the world.  Steve has also worked with us in the same vein, to enable the Androiter application to be fully accessible.  We demonstrated the system at his pod on the 3rd floor of the Moscone Center last week.  We demonstrated the system hundreds of times over the two days of the event and had rave reviews. 

Google IO was really a terrific event.  Exciting keynotes on both day 1 and day2, exceptional sessions, a diverse and energetic group of 5000 developers, parties, food, all contributed to a significant buzz and quite a bit of fun.  From a mobile health perspective, there were several significant takeaways.

·         Google announced that over 100 Million Android phones have been activated.  I don't need to wax philosophic about that level of success in just 2 and 1/2 years.  It speaks for itself.  100,000,000  wow.

·         Equally staggering, there are 400,000 activations of new Android devices every day!

·         There are 36 OEM's producing phones and tablets globally

·         There are 215 Carriers selling Android phones

·         There are 450,000 registered app developers

·         There are over 200,000 apps available in the Market

·         There are 1 billion apps downloaded every 60 days at the current pace

·         There have been 4.5 Billion downloads as of last week

LifeSignals made a conscious choice to use the Android platform to develop our mobile health and wellness applications.  It appears to have been a good choice. 

Thanks to Steve Jacobs and Google for such a fun and informative event.  Also thanks to Google, Samsung and Verizon for the free 10.1" Galaxy Tab and 4G hotspot.   The new tablet is sleek and gorgeous and makes a great platform for our applications. 

Asian Invasion Fragmentation

My last posting was a description of our dilemma with the LG Optimus V price increase.  Since that time I have received 3 more phones, 2 of which were low cost Chinese imports and the other two mainstream phones purchased on eBay.  Let's start with the low cost Chinese phones.  The first one from China Vision called Eclipse is an attractive phone with Android 2.2, an attractive 3.2" capacitive screen and a unique (for US market) dual SIM design.  I installed the AT&T SIM in SIM slot 1 and after some modest configuration time was able to send text messages and acquire ATT 3G coverage.  The WIFI radio is a bit shaky, constantly connecting and disconnecting similar to the way the Galaxy Tablet often acts so no reason to put it down for that reason.  I turned off the WIFI and began to test it on our application.  The first problem was the phone does not come standard with the USB drivers required for side loading applications.  After reading the worthless manual and contacting responsive but non helpful technical support I gave up.  We have the ability to load the application via a server link so I went that route.  Once I had the application installed I received an error message that it required an SD memory card.  After installing a 2GB SD card I rebooted the phone and launched the application and it loaded perfectly.  I performed routing testing starting with the thermometer, pulse Oximeter, and blood sugar monitor.  The first two tests were flawless and then the Blood Sugar Monitor failed to connect and began requesting the pairing code which had already been entered.  I went through this process 4 or 5 times and then threw the phone into the trash can!  Just kidding, but I could not determine a method of getting it to work.  I have set it aside with the idea of getting back to it after testing some of the other phones.  The next phone was the Huawei IDEOS phone.  This phone appears to be a very high quality device with a smaller screen at 2.8" with a beautiful and responsive capacitive screen and version 2.1 of Android O/S.  This phone was well equipped with memory and had its USB drivers preinstalled and loaded Gmail, app installer and the Androiter application flawlessly.  Same with pairing the devices and running through the tests and then BAM!  It began rejecting the Nonin Pulse Oximeter and the blood sugar monitor despite repeated successful pairings with the phone.  I set that aside before it went flying out the window, count to 10 and all of that nonsense.  I thought I should shift gears and work with the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S and T-Mobile Motorola Defy phones.   The Motorola Defy was a joy to load the SIM and turn on with the exception of Moto blur.  What a bloated piece or crap that is, but once you are past the early stage of enabling this is a nice phone and very appropriate for the M Health market due to its water proof and dust resistant characteristics.   Samsung had a huge hit with the Galaxy S selling over 10 Million phones in 2010.  It is a beautiful full featured device and I looked forward to getting back to 4" screens and predictable performance from US carrier phones.  Wow did I get kicked in the teeth.  I paired all the devices and upon loading the Androiter application I am given an error message that the phone will not accept non market applications.  I quickly went to settings/applications and found it does not have the selection for Unknown Sources.  I Googled side loading on ATT Galaxy S and found much to my chagrin that ATT's version of the Galaxy S indeed blocked loading of any non market application.  Not to be outdone, I Rooted the damn thing.  Didn't matter, still blocked non market apps.  Android Central to the rescue with their Sideload Wonder Machine.  This wonderful little tool enables side loading on the phone.  Success, I loaded the app and it works great.  Nice phone, but what a pain in the butt.  So, to recap, my wonderful idea of buying low cost phones resulted in wasting a ton of time and getting scared that Android phones and the various Android versions they use are so fragmented that they will cause a nightmare for M Health providers such as LifeSignals to support.  At the end of the day, we have concluded that we need to certify as broad a selection of phones possible from carriers in the US market.  If we are diligent in this process we can proactively identify the problematic devices and Android builds and either solve the problem or identify in advance that we don't support the device.

Asian Invasion of Low Cost Android Phones

As LifeSignals moves toward its first customer pilots we find ourselves in the position of having to purchase small quantities of Android Phones to provide to our Pilot clients.  Our goal is to identify low cost Android Phones that run our applications efficiently and are GSM phones that will run on AT&T's network.  We have recently formed a relationship with AT&T that has provided us with low cost data only SIM cards that we can integrate into low cost GSM phones.  So, we initially found $150 LG Optimus V phones from Virgin Mobile at Radio Shack.  They were nice phones, a sub 3" screen but the apps run well and they were easy to use and had reasonable battery life.  That phone set the standard for us, but they expensive for 3G data service at $25 per month.  We assumed that our early pilots would all have Wifi so we would use the phones only in Wifi mode and skip the monthly 3G data plan.  Unfortunately, earlier this month Virgin Mobile announced a price increase to $200.  Apparently a lot of people thought that was a good deal and they could not keep enough of them in stock.  We were really blindsided by this change, but you know what they say about the silver lining in every dark cloud.  The price increase forced us to search the market for other phones that we could acquire in the $150 or less category.  I used my time at CTIA to visit a number of Chinese, Korean and South American device companies and made some good contacts.  Over the last 2 weeks I have purchased about 12 phones from 4 different companies overseas.  In my search I found that you could buy the new Dual Core LG 2X from the same low cost suppliers on the web.  I received the new LG phone yesterday, wow!  This is by far the best Android phone we have seen produced.  It is a beautiful sleek design, the screen technology is gorgeous, and the phone is super responsive.  I currently have a data only SIM in the phone which makes me sad as I would like this to be my personal phone.  When you put it side by side with my DroidX it makes the Droid X seem old and tired.  In addition, for M-health this phone has both front and rear facing cameras for video conferencing.  But I digress, so I have ordered a variety of low cost phones and received the first one today.  It is the Blu Tango from Bluproducts in South America.  It is a ZTE product from China that is pictured below. It is an attractive phone with a 2.8" screen and Froyo 2.2.  I generally like the phone but have two complaints that force me to admit that it is not comparable to the LG Optimus V that we are trying to replace.  First, the device does not come standard with the USB drivers that allow you to mount the phone as drive on your PC.  This makes it impossible to side load applications which is how we currently load our application on phones and Tablets.  Secondly, and probably more important is that the touch screen is very poor.  The visual quality of the phone is fine, in fact it is very attractive but navigating between icons and screens is very awkward and frequently results in accidents and mistakes.  Over the course of setting up Gmail and Wifi I got better at understanding how it worked best but that doesn't make me any happier with the performance.  You have to really slow down and be deliberate with every touch and keystroke.  If it was the only phone you had you might become accustomed to the pace but when I was switching back and forth between my DroidX and the new LG 2X it was glaringly obvious that the Blu Tango was more "Skanko"or "Tanko" than Tango.  See a picture of the Blue Skanko below.  So we have a number of new phones coming in over the next week and it will be fun and instructive to understand the qualitative differences between them.  It is clear right now, the high end phones we have come to know well from Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG are really accomplished phones that are first class.  So far, the next class is defined by the LG Optimus V which are small screen but completely acceptable with only a modest fall off in quality and ease of use from the high end devices.  The current crop of low end devices will probably have one or two good enough to qualify for our pilots...I hope!

Ripped from the headlines: Connecting the dots for Mobile Health

Today and yesterday's Wall Street Journal had some fascinating and relevant M-health articles. 

·         Cisco Flips Consumer Strategy-This article goes into some depth and history about Cisco's failed direct to consumer strategy including the Flip Video Camera which they are shutting down after spending $590 Million to acquire.  They are reevaluating Linksys and their recently launched video conference product named UMI.  We payed a lot of attention to the UMI announcement since we examined the consumer video conferencing product closely in order to choose high quality low cost products for the telemedicine portion of our applications and found the UMI product to be ridiculously expensive given what was available for free from Skype and Logitech.  It was not surprising to see them cut the price from $25 per month to $10 per month and now to pull it entirely and "reposition" it as an enterprise product which means you will rarely ever see this system again.

·         Symbian Holds Fort for Nokia-The alleged news here is that Nokia is defensively announcing two new smart phones based upon the Symbian O/S that they are in the process of abandoning while Microsoft pays them to adopt Windows Phone 7.  This is laughable that if it wasn't so sad to see the world's leading phone company burrow into the ground.  Apart from the drama, the important point for Mobile Health is that the success of the iPhone and subsequent domination by the Android O/S has changed the global market narrowing the platform down to only viable two operating systems.  

·         HTC Phone Adds Video as makers go past apps-This article focuses on HTC and other Smart Phone manufacturers diversifying their proprietary offerings to go beyond app stores and markets.  HTC, Samsung, LG and Motorola were all demonstrating new services and systems at CTIA a few weeks ago.  The relevance and dot connection with Mobile Health is twofold.  The first is that the device companies are beginning to recognize the next phase of application integration and are seriously investing in proprietary and in house capabilities to develop applications and extend existing applications across phones-tablets-TVs and Set Top boxes.  This is an important recognition for Mobile Health to be sustainable in the home.  The other noteworthy nugget from the article was the projection from Gartner Group.  " The dominance of Google's  Android operating system, which market researcher Gartner Inc predicts will run on nearly half of the world's Smartphones by next year..."  So the upshot for Mobile Health is that the device makers are looking for differentiation and outside of Apple they are focusing on Android.  This is all good news for Mobile Health Developers such as LifeSignals. 

Androiter application continues to evolve

This post is intended to provide an update on the current release of the Androiter application.  At this time, the application is still in beta and only available to partners and partner pilot sites.  We expect to have a more advanced release for a large pilot in early May.  The current product is composed of two pieces, the Android application and the back end database and call center management and reporting tools.  Today I will address the current state of the Mobile Application development.  We are currently capturing and reporting the following vital signs:

v  ECG

v  Blood Sugar

v  Blood Pressure

v  Body Temperature

v  Blood Oxygen

v  Pulse

v  Body Weight

v  Respiration

Here is a screen shot of the current user interface

We are also providing SMS Text message alerts directly from the phone/tablet.

Here is a screen shot that show the capability:

We continue to evolve the application to incorporate video conferencing.  At CTIA I saw some impressive demonstrations of video conferencing using mobile devices over 4G and am confident embedded video conferencing will be a useful function within our system.

Attached is a screen shot of the video conferencing screens utilizing our Video partner Vidyo:

We are constantly on the lookout for new Bluetooth medical devices to add to our certified vendor list.  We currently support over a dozen devices from 5 different manufacturers.   In addition, we are working closely with some emerging vendors on new technologies that go beyond the normal vital signs of our first generation application.  Stay tuned as we make progress on these exciting fronts.  We are also making significant progress on our Call Center Alert System Database that I will write about in the near term and provide screenshots and system capabilities.  

Notes from CTIA show this week in Orlando

I was fortunate to be selected by the AT&T Developers program to present the Androiter application at CTIA this week.  We were not selected as one of the two finalists in the open category, but the presentation went well and the judges were impressed with the application and asked many intelligent wide ranging questions.  I was impressed with the quality of the judges and their familiarity with the terminology and issues in Healthcare generically and remote monitoring specifically. 

The CTIA show was chock full of interesting and exciting new products relevant for Mobile Health.  There were new Android Phones and Tablets on display from Samsung, HTC, and LG.  Motorola was also showing their new Xoom but that seems almost old at this point since it was introduced at CES in the first week of January.  Samsung had both their new  8.9" and 10.1" Galaxy Tabs  under glass and not available for hands on testing.  They had units that we could test and play with but they are not the ones that will be released in early June.  Apparently the iPad2 introduction caused Samsung to make last minute changes to the dimensions and pricing of these 2 new Tabs.  I don't know if you caught the news but one of the executive VP's at Samsung was quoted in Korea that the iPad2 was exposing Samsung's Tablets as inferior and requiring rework.  So, the units we had our hands on worked quite well but the ones under glass were thinner and sleeker and will be less costly once released.  It is amazing that Samsung will be able to retool these two Tabs that quickly.  Overall I was impressed with the new Tablets and Honeycomb is much more appropriate than the Froyo on the tablet.  Samsung was also showcasing their new Android Player PDA's which were 4" and 5" Galaxy S phones without a CDMA or GSM phone radio.  These were gorgeous devices, more like Google Nexus S than anything else I have seen.  They came in white and black.  Since they are the Android equivalent of an iPod Touch, they will likely be priced in the same range or slightly less than $229-$399 based upon memory.   Although I understand Samsung's desire to match up product for product with Apple on the most popular consumer electronic categories this product will not be very cost effective in the Mobile Health arena.  We are currently buying LG Optimus phones for $150 with no contract and using them as PDA's or phones with a low cost SIM plan from Virgin Mobile.  When comparing the Samsung Player to the LG Optimus, the only real advantage for the Player is likely to be battery life which will be difficult to justify for the additional money.  Speaking of cheap android phones for Mobile Health, I talked to 3 or 4 Chinese manufacturers who were offering very attractive Android phones that were significantly lower cost than the LG Optimus.  I plan to order sample quantities of as many as possible and test them.  If we can acquire phones for <$100 and negotiate low cost data only plans it should significantly increase the systems we can put in the hands of the poor and disabled groups who are hard pressed to pay for premium phones.  Speaking of LG, they probably had the most interesting phones at the show.  They introduced their new LG Optimus 2X with the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core processor.  It is an attractive phone that sets new benchmarks for speedy performance.  LG was also demonstrating the LG Thrill, the first 3D Smartphone.  It was really amazing.  I am not a huge 3D fan and I don't know any applications in Mobile Health that are relevant but it certainly was cool.  I will cover more phones, Tablets and other medical discoveries from CTIA in my next post.

Congratulations! Your Androiter app was selected to move on to the second round of the AT&T Open Call contest at CTIA Wireless 2011, Orlando, FL.

That was the message I found in my email this week.  I was not planning on attending the CTIA show this year due to the crush of work in front of us preparing for upcoming pilots of our system, but duty calls!.  On a more serious note, it is quite an honor to be selected by AT&T judges and we intend to put on an impressive demonstration of the system at the meeting next week.  We will perform a live demonstration of all aspects of the system including real time vital signs data collection of Body Temperature, Blood Pressure, Blood Glucose, Blood Oxygen,  Pulse Rate, Weight and ECG.  In addition to vital signs we will demonstrate Emergency Alerts via SMS Text, Instant Video Conferencing and Patient Education all delivered seamlessly on the Android platform.  I look forward to the contest and hope to be selected for the final round.  I will keep you posted on our progress from CTIA in Orlando next week.  

Silly

I will have a more serious post later today, but I will use this post to introduce my new alterego image.

This goes well with the Androiter Logo introduced at CES 2011.

Which then evolved to Dr. Androiter for HIMSS 11

I saw a report by RBC Capital Markets that really captured my attention and is relevant to this discussion.  Check out this chart:

This is fascinating: 

World's Population is 6.8 Billion People

Mobile Subscribers are 5.1 Billion

There are only 394 Million Smartphone users today!!

That equates to less than 8% of all subscribers are Smartphone users.  With the cost of Android Phones quickly moving to the price of feature phones it appears obvious that Smartphone growth is in the earliest days of its infancy.  Right now it is only the wealthiest early adopters with Smartphones.  Can you imagine the installed base in a few years with continued price decreases and build out of the 3G and 4G Networks?  It is not hard to imagine several billion Smartphone Subscribers in a few years time.  From a Mobile Health perspective this is a very powerful trend.  Studies from Pew Research and others indicate that minorities and other lower income groups in the US rely on Smartphones to access the internet more than higher income groups.  As the trends towards Smartphone adoption increases installed base across all patient populations, the poor, minorities and well healed will all have the opportunity to leverage the power of these phones to increase their access to mobile healthcare applications. 

Let's look at Android Adoption rates over the first 9 quarters since its release.  This graph is courtesy of Kleiner Perkins Mary Meeker.  When you look at this chart and put this adoption rate against the total market, I believe it gives you a glimpse of where the Android Smartphone market is going, towards explosive growth.  More on the growth of Android and how it will impact the Mobile Health Market next.

Android Adoption Rates and yesterday's announcement of the iPad2

A friend and former colleague asked me today if any Android Tablets would pose serious competition to the iPad2?  My answer surprised him.  It is my position that (selfishly) it doesn't matter, but no Android Tablet Maker will become a significant competitor to Apple and it's near perfect tablet offerings any time soon.  As an owner of both the first iPad and the first serious Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab, there is no comparison between them as consumer media devices.  The iPad display is better, the larger screen is better, UI is better, App store is better,  the ease of use is better and at the risk of being portrayed as an Apple fan boy it is the best computing device I have ever purchased.  Little surprise that it is recognized as the single most successful consumer electronic device in history.  Apple sold nearly 15 million units from April to December generating almost $10 Billion in revenue.  Ok, I got carried away there a bit, my point was that Apple is the de facto leader in tablets and with yesterday's iPad2 they are poised to maintain that leadership position for 2011 and beyond the " Year of the Tablet".  Now, back to my friend's question and my answer that surprised him.  Motorola, Samsung, Toshiba, LG and every other serious Android Tablet maker will compete for a distant 2nd place and that is ok by me, as long as they make devices that perform well and are reasonably priced.  It is important that Android is well represented across the PDA, Smartphone, Tablet and TV categories so the operating system is not locked out of any vertical market, particularly Healthcare which is our focus.  The backbone of the Android movement is the Smartphone and at current adoption rates it is killing the iPhone and will be the dominant operating system globally.  This is a far more important category killer and will propel vertical market applications which at the risk of redundancy, particularly Healthcare which is my focus.  More on this subject soon.

Smartphone and Tablet Tipping Point Continued

So, the question posed is what does the dramatic shift away from PC's to more mobile Tablets and Smartphones mean to the emerging Mobile Health Market?  The first answer is that it is obviously not a negative trend for sure.  One of the key reasons Smartphones are growing so rapidly are the low price points that the Android Operating System has driven in the market.  Within 2 years of the first Android phone hitting the market, we have Cricket, Virgin Mobile and other MVNO's selling capable Android Smartphones for  $100-$150 with no long term commitment.   That trend will continue to some lower price points.  The good news for Mobile Health Application Developers is that the devices are not going to be a barrier to adoption.  Quite the contrary, there will be such a large installed base of consumers already carrying an Android phone who will be looking for meaningful applications that help them manage their health.  As the installed base grows and as the average age of the installed base increases there is a natural confluence of events and applications that we believe will  have a positive impact on Mobile Health Adoption. 

The Smartphone v. PC Tipping Point and Tablets

What about Tablets?  Where do they fit in the Smartphone-PC tipping point debate?  IDC did not count Tablet Shipments in Q4 2010 PC shipment numbers.  If they had, the numbers would have been much closer to all square.  It is obvious Acer and Microsoft's comments that Net book sales have been gutted by sales of Tablets.  Since 2011 has been dubbed the year of the tablet that is only going to hurt PC shipments at an increasing rate going forward.  Apple sold over 7 million iPads in Q4 2010, Samsung sold 2 million Galaxy Tablets, at that rate Apple and Samsung will sell almost 40 million Tablets in 2011.  That does not include entries from some serious competitors such as Motorola with its Xoom, Samsung with its new 10.1" Tablet, LG, and Toshiba and more.  Some analysts are predicting Tablet sales exceeding 50 million units.  That only underscores the premise that Q4 2010's Tipping point is permanent.  What does the move to Smartphones and Tablet mean to adoption of Mobile Health Systems?  That is a question that means a lot to me and to those I work with.  

New Website for Adventacare

Please check out our new web site at www.AdventaCare.com
We launched the site just prior to HIMSS11, it is a good start.  As we expand our product offerings and gain more traction in the market we will post updates to the site.  Thanks for everyone's support and input to date, keep the emails and phone calls coming in, we hope to see all of you soon.

Paul Speese

HIMSS 2011

Recap of HIMSS11: Brian Dolan from Mobihealth news reported that there was "renewed energy" and that Himss is back after 2 years in the doldrums due to the financial crisis and recession.  You certainly could not tell from booth 2087. Lesson learned, don't sign up at the last minute without some plan to be near the action. Location, location, location! One of the booths near us reported only one good contact in 3 days. The silver lining for us was our Mobile Centric offering, which is hot in healthcare at the moment.  Speaking of mobile or health, it seemed virtually every company at the show had a mobile aspect to their offerings.  Most of it was simplistic and not very compelling.  We were demonstrating live connectivity between a wide range of Bluetooth vital sign devices including thermometers, blood pressure monitors, blood sugar glucometers, pulse odometers, weight scales, and ECG.  We were demonstrating this live on Motorola Droid, DroidX, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus S, LG Optimus, and HTC EVO.  Additionally, we were demonstrating live interfaces of that data to both Google Health and our HIPAA compliant Call Center Alert System Database. Unlike our neighbors we were fortunate to have a steady stream of attendees and exhibitors interested in testing and discussing the systems.  Our  own Hospital of University of Pennsylvania cardiac nurse, Coleen Riley, performed hundreds of vital sign tests on willing "patients".  Overall, HIMSS was a great experience, we met some wonderful people and had the opportunity to share our vision of Mobile Health Monitoring Systems.   

What is driving smartphone adoption and how does that impact Mobile Health adoption

If the Smartphones are a cinch to continue outgrowing PC sales, what is the reason?  Is it that Smartphones are mobile?  Is it because the computing power has reached a magical line that is good enough for most tasks?  Is it because 3G and 4G Wireless Networks are available and provide sufficient bandwidth for most applications?  Is it because Cloud based services provide instantaneous access to documents, files, music, movies, media and anything consumes and business people require?  The answer is an obvious yes to all above and therefore the answer is yes that Smartphones shipments will outpace PC shipments for the rest of time...until there is something better than Smartphones!  How does this impact Mobile Health Adoption?  Is it the analogous rising tide raises all boats?  Studies indicate both physicians and patients are interested in monitoring their health, the confluence of that desire and the explosion of Smartphone adoption surely leads to Mobile Health Application Adoption/Expansion. 

Smartphone Sales overtake PC Sales for the first time

Smartphone shipments exceed PC shipments in Q4 2010 for the first time ever.  According to an article in the Financial Times published February 8, 2011, the FT quotes IDC as saying that over 102 Million Smartphones were shipped in Q4 while only 92 million PC's shipped.  Mary Meeker, formerly  of Morgan Stanley who is infamous for her technology projections had previously forecast this would not occur until 2012.  No one predicted the meteoric growth of the Android Operating System and how that would drive Smartphone sales volumes in 2010.  Now that we have reached this "tipping point", is this a permanent state of affairs?  Will PC volumes continue to grow at low single digit rates while Smartphones continue to increase at an increasing rate?  The short answer is yes.  The more compelling question for me and my company is how will this trend affect Mobile Health Adoption Rates?  Will the increased adoption of Smartphones drive Mobile Health Application adoption rates?  It certainly will broaden the number of people who can run the apps without additional expense and that will only expand as the price points for Android Phones drop over time.  

New Video on You Tube

Check out TECHPODCASTS.com's Carissa O'Brien interview of  Paul Speese at CES 2011.  It was a good opportunity to expose the new Androiter Technology.
Listed below is a link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Gkkj-ZyBg

Look for AdventaCare Inc to present our Next Generation of Mobile Health and Wellness Monitoring at HIMSS in Orlando next week.  Paul Speese, and Gary Reilly RPh will be demonstrating the new technologies in booth 2087.  We look forward to seeing you at HIMSS!