I can’t deny that my sites (UMPCPortal, Carrypad) growth has been stunted by my reduced attention span in the last 18 months. Two important family considerations (both good!) have hit my working day very hard and I’m struggling to fight my way back into care-taking the sites as I should be. I don’t want to give details but a baby and a hard-working, successful wife gives you a clue.
In addition to the time issues, there’s also the tablet crave.
I am, quite frankly, struggling to keep up with the short-form coverage [that’s a polite way to put some of the content i’ve seen recently] coming from established tech sites.
I’ve lost all of my blogging momentum as a result of these two issues. One took the time away, the other took some of the desire away.
When I was working purely in the UMPC sector it was different. Yes, I had more time back then but the sector was different too. Pro-mobile is a tight, slower-moving, more expensive ultra-niche where people know what they want; Where manufacturers target specific users. The tablet market used to be the same but now it’s a tornado in chaos that changes every time a marketing company comes out with new keywords in their press releases or a well-known journalists decide to pick a fight. Competition for keyword-stuffing is high and quite frankly, the quality of posts is suffering as a result. It’s all about Google in this market and I can’t keep up. I don’t want to try.
The other thing that makes it worse for me is that I found my Carrypad, my tweener mobile device. It took 5 years but the Galaxy Tab is the Carrypad I was looking for when I started writing about ultra-mobile devices in 2006. This near-perfect-fit device gives me less reason to get excited about other tablets that are out there; Especially the 10” tablets that just don’t fit any of my usage scenarios. I could continue treating this segment as a job and remain impartial or I can change the way I blog.
I will change the way I blog by doing two things.
Firtsly, I’m going to start working away from the home which means less hours working but more uninterrupted time. I don’t have an office but I’ll find a chair somewhere. I know from experience in the last 2 years that I can work faster in a Cafe than I can at home but co-working here in Bonn is probably the best solution for me.
As far as the sites go I’m making a big change there too. I’m slimming down a bit. For the next 6 months or so I’m handing over management of Carrypad to Ben Lang, someone that has been doing a great job writing for UMPCPortal and Carrypad for a few years now and has a free summer ahead of him. I feel confident that with him concentrating on Carrypad and me concentrating on UMPCPortal and our product database, advertisers and event coverage, that we be more efficient. Consumer tablets are going on the back burner for me and I will be concentrating on the pro-mobile theme at UMPCPortal for a while. No-doubt some of the consumer tablet products will reach into the pro-mobile sector as time goes on but I need to fine-tune in order to remain efficient.
Thanks Ben, for taking this on. I’m right behind you with support. Lets hope that we can build momentum on Carrypad and UMPCPortal over the summer in our individual ways.
To readers, I hope you understand – I think you’ll benefit from the change.
Just saw this in my RSS, Chippy, couple of days late I’m afraid. Can certainly understand the frustration with mainstream tablet coverage; as one of the guys who writes for one of those “established tech sites” it grates on my nerves too! Interesting to look back at the sort of tablet coverage we were all writing about a few years back, and how different it all is today.
What I would say is that I’ve always prized and appreciated your longer-form, more thoughtful articles. There are plenty of places out there to get the latest news, but fewer places to get opinions from people whose expertise and insight you trust. As a fellow blogger I know it can be difficult to commercialise that sort of content, when the world is going keyword crazy, but as a reader and an enthusiast I know which I would prefer to see from you!
So, good luck (and to Ben!) and I’m eager to see what comes next.
While I understand your satisfaction with the GTab and feeling overwhelmed by the consumer tablet space, is there really enough happening in the UMPC space to justify your time? Or would UMPC also encompass pro uses of tablets?
Exactly that. I see the UMPCPortal space as a segment of users that want pro usage scenarios. The devices will migrate through the segment from other areas (Netbooks, windows tablets, umpcs, mobile operating systems STX.) but the requirement for pro-level analysis remains. At least I think it does! I’m also working on the product database.
Thanks for the opportunity Chippy. People have long enjoyed your expertise, and I can only hope to be able to achieve a similar level of insight. To the readers: Chippy’s post here might have made it sound as though the sites will be parting ways, but it is not so! Chippy still plans on doing reviews and event coverage for Carrypad where applicable, and of course he still owns the site!