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Apple has high expectations for the iPhone X Plus to boost sales that have plateaued over the past few years. While the iPhone still dominates the market, sales haven't been growing the way Apple would like. Does this new phablet have what it takes to kick the trend lines back upward and strengthen Apple's hold on the market?

They may be hoping for a little history to repeat itself. When the iPhone 6 Plus was released, boasting a five-and-a-half inch screen that changed consumers' perceptions of just how big a smartphone screen could be, Apple saw a boom in sales they haven't quite been able to replicate since. For them, sales holding steady just isn't good enough. However, industry analysts are having a hard time seeing why the iPhone X Plus would be the breakthrough they're hoping for.

A 6.5 inch screen might be a big step up from the four-inch screens of early iPhone models, but it's hardly a revolutionary improvement over the 5.8 inch screens currently available. That rush of sales to the iPhone 6 Plus was likely fueled by Apple dragging their heels over breaking the phablet barrier for the first time with a large-screen iPhone, and those conditions are no longer in play.

The price tag, expected to exceed $1,000, is also not likely to help Apple realize a significant surge in yearly sales. Apple has always been able to count on their devoted fans to drive sales of newly-released devices, but in a year with the iPhone SE, 8, 8 Plus, and X offering a variety of sizes and technological features, enthusiasts and early adopters may be feeling the strain.

Let's face it—a new iPhone isn't the event it used to be. Phablet shoppers should expect the iPhone X Plus to deliver the same quality of performance and design Apple is known for, but quiet satisfaction—from those who can afford the new iPhone's hefty retail price—isn't a reaction that's going to stir up the consumer frenzy that previous iterations of the iPhone saw.

There are also some important new features, such as a picture in picture function and split-screen capability to enhance multitasking by enabling two apps to operate side by side. The new operating system also has a new two finger swipe movement that makes text editing easier.

Usability has been enhanced by the addition of another hour of battery use, as well as a low power mode that increases battery life even further. In addition, iOS 9 updates will take up considerably less memory. This means that 16GB devices will be able to install the new operating system. Apps will be removed during the update process and automatically reinstalled when it is done, meaning many legacy phones and tablets will not go out of date, which is nice.

Proactive Suggestions are a major AI addition as well, enabling iOS 9 to act as a personal assistant and time management tool. Coupled with Siri, this new feature will enable users to set general reminders, remember appointments and even automatically remember what audiobook they were listening to.  

In a move appreciated by many, Apple has removed Passbook and substituted Wallet in its place. Also, News will replace Newsstand and will function as a magazine style news aggregate.

There is also an improved keyboard is also featured with a built-in shortcuts bar and other improvements too numerous to mention. iOS 9 is another step on the road to a fully integrated digital world.

Uncovering issues can sometimes be difficult due to lack of communication between testers and the client.  This usually centers around incomplete or unrealistic testing scenarios.  The tendency is to assume that particular operations will not be affected by updates when it's entirely possible that they may very well be.

The modification of any operating system, including Android, can have an effect on the performance of any application, and even small changes can have large consequences.  Existing functions can be broken in ways that are not obvious and manifests only under certain conditions.

While re-running established testing scenarios is always a good idea, it should be remembered that it may be necessary to write new scenarios to cover possible changes in application/OS interaction.  How the operating system relates to the program is just as important as how the program relates to the operating system.

Testing must also include customer interaction. The digital revolution has completely redefined the nature of the customer's journey. Where once that journey was primarily person to person and relatively brief, it has now become considerably extended and is primarily virtual. The modern customer journey is mapped out through digital interaction.

It is now vital to understand every customer interaction point and map it out across all the relevant platforms, devices, and channels.  It's important to know when the customer takes action, what the customer does and what platform they do it on.  This is why it is so important to ensure that all relevant devices are tested.  

The primary purpose of regression testing after an update is to ensure that your app seamlessly interacts with the current OS version.  For example, making sure that the app doesn't lose data in multi-window configuration or is adversely affected by new Android features.

Using robust testing scenarios, understanding the customer's journey, testing relevant devices and doing detailed ad hoc testing of the interaction between the operating system and the application, are all elements of ensuring that key functionality is maintained after Android updates.

Pixel and Essential Phone users can start trying it out now, and users who are already testing out the Beta version should have the full release by the end of this fall. Other Android devices are slated to get their piece of Android 9 Pie within the next few months.

Not all of Pie's promised features are accessible yet. The Digital Wellbeing features, which are designed to help Android owners monitor and manage the amount of time they spend using their smartphones, are currently only active in the Pixel Beta release. The rest of us will be able to try out these features, which include app timers, a Do Not Disturb function, and a Wind Down process to help you detach from your phone at bedtime, when the general release goes live later this year.

Another Pie feature we're going to have to wait for is Slices, which pulls up a "slice" of one app within another app. For example, if you search for Lyft in Google Search, a little pop-up from the Lyft app will appear, showing current ride prices and availability times.

However, much of the machine-learning functionality Google has been touting is ready to try out in the current Android 9 Pie release.

Adaptive battery and brightness features should help keep your phone charged longer by reducing the power consumption of apps and services you rarely use while making automatic adjustments to screen brightness based on your usage habits.

App Actions uses predictive technology to learn your patterns and put the apps and functions you're most likely to use next front and center. For example, plug in your headphones and Pie will queue up the last music playlist you were listening to.

Pie also includes Intuitive Navigation to make it easier and more natural to switch apps with a gesture instead of finding and tapping buttons.

Android 9 Pie has been getting positive early reviews, and in addition to the features described above, Google has been adding some behind-the-scenes performance enhancements, as well as security upgrades that make it harder for malware producers to exploit bugs in the operating system.

Like any Operating System update, Android Pie can have unexpected and unwelcome implications for your website or app. Bugwolf's best-practice device lab gives you certainty that your digital assets aren't undermined by external changes. Click here to learn more about how we help.

If banks have one advantage over startups and tech companies who have recently entered the field of finance,  it is that established banks have considerable experience in building organizational structures that are relatively resilient and functional. This enables them to employ analytics more easily and rapidly than their new competition. The only drawback is that the highly structured nature of banking, that has been built up over many centuries, can cause executives to ignore what analytics is telling them. This isn’t always the case and there are many forward looking banks and bankers.

Modern analytics couldn't have come along at a better time. The marriage of  IT and finance has opened up a new era of big data. This has occurred just when stricter regulations, greater loss potential and liquidity problems have created the need for more accurate, timely and relevant information.

Managing risk is now more important than ever and the need to protect both the bank and its customers has become a strategic priority. Business models have changed, yet there still remains the need to acquire profitable customers and to address the needs of those customers quickly and efficiently. In this respect, analytics coupled with established organization gives traditional banks a competitive advantage.

Digital technology has increased the number of financial products and the speed with which these products are delivered to market. The analytics of buying behavior and other customer demographics enables institutions, who have strong organizational and financial assets, to address customer demand more easily and without the need to reinvent the wheel.

The sophistication of modern analytics provides the information that makes innovative solutions possible. The main challenge for traditional banking organizations will be how to integrate all this information into an adaptable and functional business model that retains traditional stability while profitably competing in the new financial ecosystem of the 21st century.

Some people believe that this system was developed by Peter Drucker. But, in reality, he simply delineated what is the standard organisational system for human groups. It is the usual pyramid structure with a capstone consisting of one man. Just below him, is the small group that supports him, including various titles such as Ministers, Secretaries or board members. Below them is upper management, followed by middle management, below that are the supervisors and finally down to the workers. This is a bit simplified and different groups have slightly different organisations, but the vast majority follow this pattern.

Results Oriented

The above structure gives no indication of how results enter the picture.  Critically, top management sets the direction and major goals for the organisation. These goals get divided and spread around as they move down the pyramid. They are broken up into programs and projects, and may even be simply orders. In other words, each level of management is looking for certain results from the layer beneath it and must provide certain results to the layer above it.

Each layer of management then judges the layer beneath it in terms of how well the lower layer achieved its portion of the goals. And the next layer up is judged by the layer above it.

A Fundamental Flaw

The first and most major flaw in this system is that it leaves out the majority of people. This huge majority are called customers. Since each layer is beholden to the one above, nobody is beholden to the customer.

The Seed of Tyranny

If you’re real sharp, you might have noticed that the management by results system is also the seed from which tyranny can grow. If a Government operates on this system, and all of them do - even the democracies, then it’s the citizen who is at the bottom of the pyramid. Which is why every government in history has, at one time or another, tried to impose its goals on the citizen.

Management by Results and Software Testing

Societies evolve and change and there are areas where the old system is failing. One of the most important places where this is happening is in software testing. Advances in technology have not only put more power into the hands of the common person, they have also changed the priority when it comes to software testing. The old style pattern of “please the boss” is evolving into “please the customer” if you want to stay competitive. This means that fewer and fewer decisions can be made from the top down and must be made at the point of interface with the customer. Software testing is becoming more of a ground up activity.  

The Future

The concept of Agile Testing points to a future of Agile Management. In society, change moves at the speed of communication.  Drucker’s old style management evolved in the era of rowed galleys and horse drawn wagons, when the average speed of communication was about 4 kilometers an hour. Today, communication is nearly instantaneous across the entire planet. In the old days, it was reasonable to rely on the wisdom of authority to hold together a slow moving  group that barely changed. Today, change happens continuously and always at the front end of the group, where it connects with the world.  We must now rely on the knowledge and experience of those on the front lines, if companies are to stay competitive and the social order is to keep advancing. There simply isn’t time to wait for decisions from on high.  

This is actually a good thing, because management’s ideas no longer need to be enforced and overwhelming management with too many decisions is the surest way to shrink the group. Agile managers can sit back, put their feet on their desks and tweak the group as necessary by implementing solutions that primarily arise on the front lines. And it’s no big deal if some ideas are wrong. Where failure was once punished, it’s now better to fail fast and move on.

It also enables testers to determine how an application will interact with other software in ways that are not available in onsite tests.

Remote user acceptance testing can be done from a home or office and enables the product to be accessed just as any customer would. This enables fresh eyes to view the software from a detached point of view by keeping testers at arms length from the initial development.

UAT can be burdensome and use up time and money, redirecting the efforts of subject matter experts who could be more profitably employed elsewhere. It was traditionally regarded as a distraction and as a result was frequently pushed off to the very end of the development process. This often caused websites and applications to be released without sufficient testing of the user interface and causing PR nightmares for the companies involved, not to mention their call centres being swamped with complaints. Remote UAT solved this problem by taking up the burden and providing accurate testing in alignment with the brief which did not interfere with the day to day priorities of the stakeholders involved.

Remote user acceptance testing also has another advantage. While function testers and developers validate the software’s operation against specifications, it is still possible for remote UAT testers to be used to test various elements of an application before these are integrated into the final program. In particular, ensuring testers are not provided with a set of instructions or predicted customer scenarios, allows the digital product to be tested as the “real” customer would do so. This helps find bugs early and speeds the development process.

It’s important to realise that the functional test team cannot possibly account for all real world scenarios in the functional testing environment. The same is true of internal UAT teams who generally don’t have the resources to account for every possibility. And so, it is important that remote usability testing be an important part of the development cycle.

Five Article Summaries To Bring You Up To Speed With Amazon's Arrival In Australia

Learn how Amazon transformed the US market, discover how they are expected to disrupt the Australian market, and find out why some experts believe they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.

1. Amazon In A Nutshell (From The Horse’s Mouth)

Full Article By Eric Jhonsa, The Street

Why It’s Important: Quickly get up to speed with Amazon’s various product lines, review business performance and understand key objectives for coming years.

Key Takeaways:

• Strong Sales Growth: 2016 Q4 revenues reached $43.74 billion, up from $35.75 billion last year.

• Market Forces In Their Favour: Amazon’s 19% direct ecommerce growth is not to be sneezed at, but it is only moderately higher than forcasted industry averages for the US and UK (15% and 16% respectively).

• New Territories: In 2015, Amazon reported $45.2B in revenue from non-US markets. The lion’s share of this came from three countries (Germany, Japan and the UK). Whilst Amazon’s other non-US markets are still well behind, they still grew by 52% over the past year.

• Investing In Growth: Amazon invested almost 5% ($6.7B) of their total revenue into things like cargo hubs, warehouses and Boeing 767 leases.

2. Here’s What All The Fuss Is About...

Why It’s Important: Amazon has innovation on their side. If you’re not already familiar with Amazon’s diverse offerings, watch these videos and you will begin to see how they plan on disrupting retail as we know it.

Amazon Prime lets customers get the physical and digital products they want, fast. In the US, they boast over 50 million products - including groceries - that can be delivered to your door in as little as two hours.

Amazon Go is a disruptive shopping experience that lets customers walk into a store, pick up the goods they want, and walk right out without a traditional checkout process.

3. Amazon Topples Big Retail In The USA

Full Article By John Kehoe, The Australian Financial Review

Why It’s Important: Aussie retailers are not the first ones to go up against Amazon. Traditional retailers in the US have suffered significant losses as a result of their inability to innovate and adapt. Now Aussie retailers must learn from their mistakes or suffer the same fate.

Key Takeaways:

• Old Giants Feeling The Pinch: Three major US retailers (Macy’s, Sears and Kohl’s), have announced the closure of hundreds of stores, tens of thousands of job cuts and plummeting share prices, as a result of competitive pressures against online giants like Amazon.

• Amazon Continues To Thrive: This comes as a stark contrast to Amazon reporting its best holiday period ever - selling more than a billion products worldwide.

• "Immune" Segments Have Suffered: Steve Odland, a former top US retail executive, has said Australian retailers could suffer the same fate unless something dramatic were to change. He highlighted that industries that were once deemed immune from online threats (e.g. clothing businesses), were now being consumed by Amazon.

• Protected For Now: Businesses that provide a unique in-store experience or specialise in luxury products, were expected to be most protected from Amazon’s advances.

4. Amazon In Australia: A Disruptive View

Full Article By Carolyn Cummins, The Sydney Morning Herald

Why It’s Important: Some retailers have chosen to bury their head in the sand ahead of Amazon’s arrival. However, estimates suggest that unless properly prepared, Amazon could pick up significant chunks of market share almost overnight.

Key Takeaways:

• Watch Out Electronics: Analysts expect consumer electronic stores will be amongst those most impacted. According to studies by Citi, JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman could fall by as much as 23% and 19% respectively.

• “Safe” Markets First: Whilst Amazon’s entrance to the grocery space is seemingly inevitable, experts predict they will go after “safer” markets like electronics, toys, fashion and office supplies first.

• Executive Warning: Richard Goyder, the outgoing CEO of Wesfarmers’, is quoted as saying that Amazon would “eat all our breakfasts, lunches and dinners” if retailers do not become more competitive.

• Partnership Opportunity: One opportunity could be for existing retailers, especially Coles and Woolworths, to explore partnerships that leverage their existing presence and Amazon’s distribution processes.

• Strong Forecasts: Forecasts estimate Amazon’s revenues to reach $3.5-4 billion, or 14 per cent of Australia’s online sales and 1.1 per cent of traditional retail.

5. Amazon In Australia: A Skeptic’s View

Full Article By News.com.au

Why It’s Important: Not everyone agrees that Amazon can swoop in and disrupt Aussie retailers overnight. Commentators argue that Australians already have a huge range of retail options available to them and that our retail landscape is unique and challenging.

Key Takeaways:

• Already Spoilt For Choice: Other experts aren’t so sure Amazon’s entrance will be so disruptive, reminding us that Australian consumers already have a flood of options to choose from in the online retail and grocery space.

• Supermarkets Evolving: Coles and Woolworths (and many others) have offered online grocery sales for many years now, with competitive features like free shipping and same-day delivery in some cases.

• Online vs. Offline: Commentators argue that it’s not a case of Amazon versus the old guard of Australian retailers, but rather offline buying habits versus online adoption.

• Breaking Old Habits: For Amazon to penetrate the market, they’ll need to offer price and shipping options that are attractive enough to overcome existing consumer loyalty, convenience and habit, which is easier said than done.

• Home-ground Advantage: Australia is a smaller, more dispersed market with a lower proportion of retail spending. This could give existing players a home-ground advantage and create unfamiliar challenges for Amazon.

The concept of agile development and testing is based on teamwork.  Its purpose is to integrate the various groups involved in the software development lifecycle and create a team that can operate as a cohesive whole.

No one in development or operations is considered inferior to anyone else.  Developers, for example, act as the core of the development cycle.  The agile framework gives developers the ability to control not only their portion of the cycle, but to influence much of the testing architecture as well.  Agile methodology is about delivering working code in an ongoing manner. This can only be accomplished if developers have the ability to write tests that can maintain a high level of code quality.

The actual protocol of always being ready to present a shippable product gives end users the capacity to provide feedback on a regular basis.  It isn't necessary for users to wait for a fully developed product before determining the efficacy of some portion of that product.

Agile software testing builds in quality by creating an effective team that can develop and test in a cooperative manner. Such a team can accommodate all the necessary feedback required to make certain that the final product meets the desired standards.  As issues arise, the flexibility of the development cycle and the team itself provides for a level of feedback sufficient to keep information flowing at a rapid pace. This enables the quality of testing to increase throughout the cycle and to better reflect the real world in which the application must function. It also inspires the creativity of those involved by making each individual and group contribution an important part of the whole.  No one is ignored and elements like user testing are not shoved off to the very end of the cycle when time and money are in short supply.

All in all, the agile framework makes for a faster operating team that can respond quickly and evolve as required, thereby improving the chances of building in quality.

Brand loyalty now takes precedence over slick advertising. Communication has replaced the slogan, and addressing customer needs has become more important than a glamorous product image. Globalization has created a situation where every company is now competing with every other organization of its type in the World. And the answer to this problem is agile marketing.

Marketing must now be reconsidered in the light of digital technology and worldwide communication. The very speed with which both positive and negative memes can go viral, means that the carefully orchestrated advertising campaign can become an expensive white elephant very quickly. This is where agile marketing steps in and fills the space left vacant by the increasing unworkability of traditional advertising ideas.

Agile marketing is based on five principles. These are:

1. Responding to change takes precedence over following a plan. While it's all well and good to plan, that plan should be agile enough to quickly respond to changing circumstances.

2. Testing is more important than opinion, no matter how official that opinion might be. The rapid change now prevalent in the business eco system has created a situation where the effectiveness of an advertising campaign cannot easily be determined ahead of time. This can get costly and so it's a good idea to do a lot of testing. While there are still experts who can find hot buttons or write compelling copy, no one is expert enough to guarantee success.

3. Advertising should be based on numerous small experiments rather than a few large bets. It is now economically wise to make numerous small tests of different ideas and approaches before assembling a complete campaign. Even then, that campaign should be released on a small scale first and modified as necessary.

4. Directly addressing the customer is more effective than detached formal market research. Just as agile managers rely on frontline employees to understand what's really going on, so CMO's should have strong lines of communication with customers, to be able to address what customers really need.

5. Companies should be transparent, honest and upfront with their customers. This may seem like a no-brainer, and it's certainly not new. But, in a world where customers can easily switch brands, honesty and transparency are an important part of generating brand loyalty.

Agile marketing is staying abreast of changes in the marketplace and being flexible enough to adapt to those changes. It is putting facts above opinion and validating hypotheses with thorough testing as well as being honest and valuing customers and their input. Combine these elements together and you have the formula for successful marketing in the 21st Century.