Thursday, June 26, 2014

GoPro’s I.P.O. Prices at Top of Range Leading a Wave of Newly Public Companies Updated

Since its founding in 2004, GoPro has become the biggest name in action videos, its tiny cameras attached to hundreds of surfboards, sports bikes and skydiving helmets.

That immense popularity drew investors to its initial public offering, as the camera maker priced at the top of its expected range on Wednesday, as the market for new stock offerings has experienced a resurgence.

At $24 a share, GoPro will be valued at about $3 billion when it begins trading on the Nasdaq stock market under the ticker “GPRO.”

Though the most prominent by far, GoPro is only one of nearly 20 companies looking to make their market debuts this week, a pace unseen since the height of the dot-com boom in 2000. New issuers and investors have flocked back to I.P.O.s after a halt in the spring, when concerns about overvalued technology and health care start-ups gyrated the stock markets.
GoPro

Now, investors are again tempted by the growth potential of new stock sales. GoPro’s offering, for example, was 18 times oversubscribed, according to a person briefed on the matter.

“Investors figure that they’re going to make money,” said Kathleen Smith, a principal at Renaissance Capital, a research and investment advisory firm.

An exchange-traded fund maintained by Renaissance to track new I.P.O.s is up 6.7 percent over the past month, more than double the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index.

But since the market hiccups of the spring, investors have begun pushing back on pricing, according to Ms. Smith, with many stock sales now pricing below the midpoint of their expected price ranges. That suggests that buyers have become more disciplined in what they are willing to pay.

Still, companies like GoPro that make money remain in favor. The camera maker is certainly profitable — and growing. Sales nearly doubled last year, to $985.7 million, while net income almost doubled, to $60.6 million.

“Investors are looking at GoPro’s price as a multiple of earnings,” Ms. Smith said. “It’s nice that there are earnings.”

Created by the entrepreneur Nicholas Woodman after he wanted a camera that could record his surfing exploits, GoPro is one of only a handful of technology companies to price an I.P.O. after the spring hiatus. But the decade-old start-up hardly resembles high-tech purveyors like Zendesk, a customer-support provider.

GoPro’s main offering is its line of Hero cameras, rugged and waterproof in a way that traditional and smartphone cameras are not. So attractive are those devices that the company claims to have been the biggest seller of camcorders in the country last year, commanding 45 percent of all dollars spent in the category.

But the start-up has aspirations to become more than a photography specialist. It has pushed into media, promoting content on YouTube, Microsoft’s XBox game consoles and other channels. And it sponsors top athletes like the surfer Kelly Slater and the snowboarder Shaun White — who naturally record their exploits on GoPro cameras.

“We believe that the growing adoption of our capture devices and the engaging content they enable, position GoPro to become an exciting new media company,” the start-up wrote in its prospectus.

That transformation could help the company avoid the fate of other camera makers like Flip Video, which shut down two years after being acquired by Cisco.

Earning money from those media arrangements will take time, however. GoPro said in its prospectus that it did not expect material revenue from the new ventures this year.

The past success of GoPro has already made Mr. Woodman a billionaire. He raised about $86.4 million through the I.P.O., and his remaining holdings are now worth more than $1.2 billion. And he will retain control of the company, owning about 47.7 percent of the voting rights.


Wednesday, June 25, 2014

What is Reponsive Web Design…?


Almost every new client these days wants a mobile version of their website. It’s practically essential after all: one design for the BlackBerry, another for the iPhone, the iPad, netbook, Kindle — and all screen resolutions must be compatible, too. In the next five years, we’ll likely need to design for a number of additional inventions. When will the madness stop? It won’t, of course. In the field of Web design and development, we’re quickly getting to the point of being unable to keep up with the endless new resolutions and devices. For many websites, creating a website version for each resolution and new device would be impossible, or at least impractical. Should we just suffer the consequences of losing visitors from one device, for the benefit of gaining visitors from another? Or is there another option?  

Responsive Web design is the approach that suggests that design and development should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation. The practice consists of a mix of flexible grids and layouts, images and an intelligent use of CSS media queries. As the user switches from their laptop to iPad, the website should automatically switch to accommodate for resolution, image size and scripting abilities. In other words, the website should have the technology to automatically respond to the user’s preferences. This would eliminate the need for a different design and development phase for each new gadget on the market.


“Recently, an emergent discipline called “responsive architecture” has begun asking how physical spaces can respond to the presence of people passing through them. Through a combination of embedded robotics and tensile materials, architects are experimenting with art installations and wall structures that bend, flex, and expand as crowds approach them. Motion sensors can be paired with climate control systems to adjust a room’s temperature and ambient lighting as it fills with people. Companies have already produced “smart glass technology” that can automatically become opaque when a room’s occupants reach a certain density threshold, giving them an additional layer of privacy.”
Transplant this discipline onto Web design, and we have a similar yet whole new idea. Why should we create a custom Web design for each group of users; after all, architects don’t design a building for each group size and type that passes through it? Like responsive architecture, Web design should automatically adjust. It shouldn’t require countless custom-made solutions for each new category of users.
Obviously, we can’t use motion sensors and robotics to accomplish this the way a building would. Responsive Web design requires a more abstract way of thinking. However, some ideas are already being practiced: fluid layouts, media queries and scripts that can reformat Web pages and mark-up effortlessly (or automatically).
Saying that, responsive Web design is not only about adjustable screen resolutions and automatically resizable images, but rather about a whole new way of thinking about design.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Responsive Mobile Web Design - Miami - Key Largo - Florida Keys

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Watch the video below. We want our clients to have the information they need so they can make an informed decision. The traffic you're missing is costing you money. If you haven't heard of responsive design, watch the video and learn the astonishing facts about mobile. Don't waste time, beat your competitors to the draw, own a responsive website today. Call us at 305 (757-4WEB 4932)  We're here to make your business shine on the web thereby generating more revenue !

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Wednesday, April 2, 2014

How often should we tweet





We often get asked when’s the best time and day to tweet as well as how often so here are a few guidelines to consider for your business’s content strategy.

  
How often should I tweet?
It depends on your business, but we suggest establishing a regular cadence of tweeting so your followers know when they are going to get updates from you.

What is the best time to tweet?
We’ve seen that there is double* the engagement rate when Tweets are published during the day (8AM - 7PM).  However, consider tweeting throughout the day to reach different time zones.

Which day of the week should I tweet on?
Test multiple days of the week to see what works best.  Saturdays and Sundays may have a higher engagement rate as that is when most people are not at work.

  
Start applying these guidelines by logging into Twitter today.



Saturday, February 22, 2014

Top Ten Ways To Identify A Quality Design And Development Firm By Daljeet Sidhu



Website Design - Top Ten Ways To Identify A Quality Design And Development Firm
By Daljeet Sidhu

An effective website attracts customers to your business, generates sales leads and closes sales - multiplying your profits in the process. Professional web design firms must combine uniqueness and innovation in design with state-of the-art technology and maintenance support to create a powerful website that produces results. Before hiring a web designer, consider the following ten factors: 

1. Effective Web Designers communicate well 

Experienced web-designers support multiple modes of communication for interacting with their clients. These include phone, email and live chat. Depending on your requirements, you can use the communication method that suits you best. 

2. Website Design Budgets Should Focus on Results 

Effective web-design teams often combine the method of flat fees with hourly billing for software design and installation. It is never advisable to enter into open-ended billing relationships with Web designers until the maintenance phase of the project. 

3. Smart Web Designers and Developers Make Billing Easy 

An experienced web-design company usually charges twenty to fifty percent of the project fee in advance, and accepts payment through checks and major credit cards. 

4. A Web Design Company Shares Its Work 

Professional design companies encourage their designers to maintain portfolios representing their best work, client information and testimonials. You can request portfolios to assess the effectiveness of the company’s web design solutions. 


  

5. Flexible Website Designers Use Time Saving Technology 

Quality web design teams support the use of inexpensive and time saving technology. This includes open source publishing and e-commerce tools like WordPress for handling Weblogs and corporate information pages, osCommerce for online shopping features and Zope for building customized content management and customer interaction tools. These tools enable businesses to achieve professional standards while saving time and money. 

6. Efficient Web Design Professionals Blend Stock and Scratch sources 

Efficient website designers always maintain a set of stock templates and images to speed up work. When designing a website for a client, they select an appropriate stock template and customize it from scratch to meet client-specific requirements and ensure uniqueness and freshness in design. 

7. Intelligent Web Professionals Distinguish Design and Hosting 

Many website design firms offer complementary and low cost Web-hosting solutions, usually as part of their maintenance packages. Quality firms provide excellent uptime, reliability and service. Compare the cost and benefits of an in-house hosting solution and an independent web-host before making your decision. 

8. Creative Website Designers Let Clients Handle Minor Updates 

Experienced Web designers develop architectures for Websites including publishing platforms that simplify the process of making changes. These plans are so effective that they allow you to make minor updates in-house or with the help of a less expensive Web professional. These web designers often save their skills for launching or re-launching websites and major revisions requiring considerable work on design, templates and graphics. 

9. The Best Web Developers Understand Standards and Accessibility 

The designed website should comply with both web standards like standards for interface design and browser accessibility, and state and federal guidelines such as providing accessibility features for the visually impaired and people suffering with other medical insufficiencies. Experienced Web designers should also ensure SEO optimization of your website and prevent it from become inaccessible and unusable. 

10. A Good Web Design Company Gets Honest about Rates and Turnaround Time 

Even the most efficient Web designers can combine only two of the three features (High quality, speed and low cost) when designing your web-site. Professional web design teams will provide you accurate estimates about their rates, speed and turnaround time. Firms that are more expensive often have smaller waiting lists. If sufficient time is available, you can get a high quality website at a lower cost. Select a Web design firm that meets your requirements. 
Focusing on Results sets Premier Website Design Professionals Apart 

Effective Web designers comply with all of the above-mentioned practices. More importantly, they make clients feel comfortable about wading into unfamiliar waters. The right Web design firm can enable your business to save thousands of dollars and valuable time. 

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Did the Apple Fall Too Far From the Tree? Restoring Steve Jobs’s Culture of Innovation Is the #1 Job



In a recent discussion about the future of Apple, I heard something that is becoming all too common these days. “I sold my shares in Apple,” muttered a chief marketing executive of a global spirits brand. He then sighed, “I’m losing my faith.”

In a post-Jobs era of innovation, I, like many others, wonder whether Apple’s current position as the world’s most valuable business has run its course. Yet Apple continues to perform notably hovering close to its 52-week high of $575.14, an impressive 67% stronger than its 52 week low of $385.10. Granted, $575 is generous these days considering its commanding $702.10 price on September 19, 2012. In a recent article in USAToday, Analyst at Brean Capital Frank Longman shared his professional assessment that Apple is "becoming just another stock." He too believes, "The phenomenon is unwinding."

Is the Magic Gone?

I guess the answer depends on whether you place your value in historical performance or in futures. Certainly Apple’s recent performance is helping the company recoup billions in market capitalization. And, other analysts are taking notice. Research firm UBS upgraded its position in December 2013 from Neutral to Buy. In October 2013, wealth management and private equity firm Robert W. Baird upgraded its position from Neutral to Outperform.

None of the above changes in status or outlook answer the question though of whether or not Apple’s magic is fading. Financial performance is not enough to restore my faith in the company’s ability to enchant customers and markets. With the passing of Jobs, Apple lost a public leader and a voice for change. He was not only a visionary, he was also a convincing showman, equally captivating customers and investors.

Tim Cook is a proven CEO and was hand-picked by Jobs to helm his juggernaut. Although charming in his own right, Cook is not a gifted showman nor visionary. More so, Cook is not an architect of the future and without the gift of vision and persuasion, he cannot communicate the future of Apple. This missing link is affecting the company’s potential and testing the faith of Apple’s devoted fans. As the world’s highest paid CEO, Cook’s leadership is set to be tested in just a few years.

Why?

Incrementalism vs. Innovation

Since the passing of Jobs on October 5, 2011, Apple has demonstrated a product release pattern that communicates a culture of incrementalism versus that of innovation. Thinking back to the past two-plus years, we’ve seen incremental changes in the company’s flagship products ranging from the iPhone to iPads and MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. The company’s greatest innovation is courtesy of the Mac Pro, which initial technology reviews place it in a league of its own. Even with a dramatic redesign and groundbreaking performance, the cylindrical dynamo remains progressive rather than inventive.

Beyond incremental product releases, market share advances only help prolong the inevitable. Apple’s pre-holiday agreement with China Mobile to supply it with the latest iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c sent the stock up 3% on December 23, 2013.

In fact, each product is garnering greater market share.

But, where’s the “next big thing?”

Prior to his passing, Steve Jobs knew that Apple could lose its shine, and more so, its dominance if the company shifted into cruise control and ceased disrupting or inventing markets. He was after all a visionary. Many believe he was even a genius. Many eventually learned that he also jerk. As author Walter Isaacson noted in his best-selling biography Steve Jobs, there was a “good Steve” and also a “bad Steve.”

Skate to Where the Puck Will Be: The Four Year Roadmap

Regardless of what he was like to work with, Jobs competed for the future instead of the moment or the next earnings report. At the Macworld Conference and Expo in January 2007, Jobs famously quoted Wayne Gretzky, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” He then shared that his mantra for Apple was to always do just that.

Shortly after his death, reports circulated that the Jobs left plans for four years of new products. Additionally, he also fought to safeguard plans for the company’s spaceship-inspired headquarters in Cupertino.

For years, rumors have circulated around the infamous iWatch and other wearables, TVs or TV-related products, gesture-based controls, in-car platforms or perhaps even iCars, etc. Based on Apple’s recent hiring and acquisition movements, educated deductions point to the enlivening of some part of these rumors or something altogether new in the near-term.

In September 2013, Nike’s famed FuelBand designer Ben Shaffer joined Apple’s supposed wearable project.

In November of this year, Apple acquired PrimeSense a 3D motion-tracking company behind the first Microsoft Kinect sensor.

Also in November, Burberry’s turnaround queen Angela Ahrendts joined Apple to spearhead strategy, expansion and operations of its retail and online stores.

What does each move have in common beyond a shared employer? They now possess the opportunity to create history.

Even Steve Jobs left us with a tease about the future. In his biography, Isaacson quotes Jobs as revealing a hint about his vision for the future of television, “I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,” he told Isaacson. “It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.” Isaacson shared that this ultimate product would no longer make users fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. “It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it," exclaimed Jobs.

If speculation around Apple’s product pipeline is true, the company’s future will indeed be bright and shareholder value will again mount. Certainly wearable devices from Apple will change consumer behavior. A TV could be a game changer and a TV-related product would disrupt the cable industry. I’m sure there’s another product under the veil of secrecy that Jobs envisioned. Combined, these products will remind us of the eminence of its once artful leader.

But what happens after this supposed four-year plan?

“Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”

Steve Jobs once said, “Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.” In a post-Jobs Apple, the company now needs its change agent to shift from mourning and incrementalism to innovation.

Tim Cook should be commended for his work in steering Apple toward lucrative waters in what was a disconcerting time following the passing of Steve Jobs. Success though takes more than promises, stellar progress reports, and positive financial outlooks. Competing for the future takes leadership. Although Tim is promising “big things” for the company in 2014, it is 2015, 2016 and the years after that I question.

This is Apple’s time to think out of the orchard. Acquire Tesla and secure its chief visionary Elon Musk! Crazy? Veteran tech analyst at Berenberg Bank Adnaan Ahmad, wrote an open letter to Cook and Apple Chairman Art Levinson on October 25 suggesting just that. If anything, it’s this kind crazy thinking that demonstrates the limitless boundaries in which Apple can move.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish

Raise the pirate flag.

Raise the anchor.

And set sail into bold new waters...once again.

Apple wasn’t just another great tech or consumer electronics brand; it became a lifestyle and a pinnacle for creative aspiration and innovation. As such, Apple needs more than the next Steve Jobs. The company needs someone who can see beyond what Steve secretly left behind; someone who can “put a dent in the universe.”

See, Jobs wasn’t just another great business leader. He captivated the world’s imagination. He set out to challenge the status quo. He urged people to think differently. As of now, the church of Apple is without its preacher. To change that though, Apple must become much more vocal, more daring, and give the world something to believe in again. This takes more than company memos and analyst calls. To survive beyond Steve’s alleged four-year roadmap, the company must not only “stay hungry,” it must also “stay foolish” and persistently remind us that brave words supported by diligent actions can also instill faith and confidence.