THING
An intelligent Launcher
that automates your life
Replace the wall of apps with a services and API based proactive lifestyle hub
- what you need before you want it
What’s the Problem?
• Innovation has stagnated – mostly minor hardware bumps and novelty
features, e.g. larger screens, fingerprint scanner, iris scanner and a few
new software enhancements.
• Still the same UI paradigm since 2007 – a wall of apps on a reactive
device
• Wearable technology is still immature and lacking
[1]
• People are looking for the next big thing
Conclusion
There is more than enough room for a new contender with a great
idea
Our Solution
An Intelligent Launcher That Automates Your Life
A Launcher is what you see when you unlock your phone – the gateway to all your apps
Apps and devices are reactive.
Users need to interact
constantly to get things done –
let’s fix that
Make any Android device
proactive and put the power of
the Internet
in the hands of the user
Use Natural Language input to
create agents that perform
tasks for you with the help of
any API
Become the Portal between
users and the Internet of
Things
Our Advantages
Technological know-how
Great Design/UI/UX Capabilities
Clear vision
Amazing Growth
Potential
PR, Marketing and
Brand Building
Market Opportunity
• Estimated 1.7 billion devices
by 2017
• 50 billion connected devices,
counting The Internet of Things
• Tight interplay between software
and hardware will be very
attractive
• Targeting the next generation of
mobile users
1.7 Billion
Devices by
2017
Android is
on the rise
- still!
Potentially on any
Android device
Product overview
Thing – a New Proactive Platform
• Problem: Apps and devices are reactive. Users
need to interact constantly with a device that only
displays a wall of apps.
• Problem: your device doesn’t know you and it
doesn’t listen to what you want it to do for you.
• Solution: Let the user tell the device how it
should behave. We use Natural Language
• Solution: Make the device proactive – analyze how
Processing to interpret what the user wants and
the device is used and present relevant apps
connect with public API’s.
thereafter. Display apps that the user is most likely
to user at any given point in time or place.
• This allows the user to create agents based on
the user’s input which allows the device to get or
do what you want, when it's available or
depending on physical activities, location or
other data.
Product overview
Thing – How Do We Automate?
• Create a proactive device by using the device’s
built-in sensors and API’s combined with public
API’s –
let the Internet do the hard work.
• Agents are at the core of the Launcher for
before demand content delivery
• Any public API can be implemented. Let’s become
the portal between users and the Internet of
Things!
• Listens to where you are and how you use the
Thing and changes the content and apps
accordingly
• The agents perform user centric actions based on
user criteria and act on the results.
• Learns your behavior: displays and sorts
apps/services based on usage
• Agents can read the web, watch for events and
take actions on your behalf.
• Adaptive and proactive home screens
Product overview
Hands on user input examples
Combine locations with things you want to
happen there;
• “When I come home, turn the Nest thermostat to
21 degrees and brew me a coffee if it’s raining”
Have the Thing look for items online;
• “Let me know when there is a watch from
Georg Jensen available on eBay for less than
$2.000 and text my wife the link”
Use integrated services such as Spotify and Uber;
• “When I land in San Francisco on Wednesday,
get me an Uber, have it play from my Spotify
starred tracks on the way to the hotel and text my
partner that I have arrived safely”
Automate work related tasks;
• “When I’m at work, let me know if I have any
email from my boss and flag them as spam”
Use private, internal API’s for the business;
• “If Accounting has updated my spreadsheet on
the shared network, make a note in Salesforce
and ping my coworker on Slack and on IRC”
Product overview
Hands on user input examples – Agent Creation
Simplicity and Power
The user types a command the same way you would type a text
message. The text gets analyzed and keywords are extracted –
these keywords will form the logical flow of events.
1. “San Francisco” – location, determined by GPS and/or WiFi
network
2. “Uber” – send a request to Uber’s API for a pickup
3. “Spotify” – enhance the Uber ride with Spotify’s API
4. “starred tracks” – …and have it play from the user’s starred
tracks
5. “hotel” – waypoint gathered from email, Tripadvisor,
booking.com or other data
6. “text …” – use built-in API’s to send a text message with specific
content and recipient , i.e. “I’ve arrived safely”
Product overview
Hands on user input examples - Agent Flow
When the keywords and logic flow match the user’s location and
other parameters, the agent will fire the events in succession.
Contextual analysis of your surrounding, powered by a world of
API’s.
Thing allows the user to be his or her own hub to the Internet of
Things and any other API driven service.
Thing puts the user in control – of everything.
Any API can be integrated to
enhance, automate and simplify your
life
If you can write a text,
you can create an agent
What you need
Before you want it
Vision
Phase 1: Create Launcher;
Phase 3: Hardware;
• Year 0
• Year 2-3+
• Easier market entry, can use Open Source
software, shorter development time. Build brand
and
acquire users.
• Custom Hardware with unique features that tie
into the OS and vice versa
Phase 2: Create operating System;
• Year 1-2+
• Fork Android, create custom Operating System
with the Launcher at the core of the User
Experience
Down the Road: Operating System
A Great Thing
• Start with newly released Android 5 as a baseline • Rethink the mobile experience and make it
gorgeous and fun to use
• Work from the Launcher out to create
• Put the user in focus instead of shoving in
the best User Experience in the world
needless features
• Expand the proactive capabilities – suggest
• Customize it to make good use of our Custom
relevant content and take action on the user’s
Hardware to enhance the user’s life
behalf
Down the Road: Hardware
A Smart Thing
• Secondary screens with the same touch input
capabilities and properties as the ordinary screen
• Control your phone with custom touch sequences
and gestures
• Use the secondary touch screens for visual cues
and touch based actions
• Think: Pulsating in sync with music,
flashing/ambient light in games, display incoming
caller ID, touch sequence to perform action, Email
notifications – the sky’s the limit.
Regular
Touch Screen
Secondary
Touch Screens
On Both Sides
Down the Road: Hardware
A Smart Thing
• Combine with other built in sensors to make the
Thing fully responsive, e.g:
• Hold the Thing like a camera by rotating 90
degrees and touch the bottom secondary
screen with two thumbs: automatically launch
the camera and take an instant picture
• Double tap a secondary screen to check
email or swipe a secondary screen to adjust
volume
• Use the secondary screens as L/R triggers
the same way as a game console controller.
• Think: Gaming; Mobile Battlefield 4. Mobile
Mario Kart. Mobile Tekken.
Regular
Touch Screen
Secondary
Touch Screens
On Both Sides
Business Model Overview
Current and Future Revenue Streams
Marketing
Launcher
Training
Partners
Enterprise
Assesment
Hardware
Technology
Subscriptions: unlock
premium features and
integration with
Wolfram Cloud or IBM
Watson et alia as
integrated
search engine/-s.
Allow partners to
promote their products
inline with
in-launcher-purchases.
Get referrals based on
user behaviour.
Custom solutions for
Enterprise, using
internal business
API’s. Licensing to
other platforms.
Hardware sales and
bundling of software
for each point release.
Partner with telco’s.
Revenue Stream
Thing will be Subscription based
Thing will be free to download and use. When
the user starts subscribing he or she can:
Marketing
Launcher
• Unlock all/premium features
• Get powerful integration with Wolfram
Cloud or IBM Watson et alia as integrated
search engine
• Not get ads displayed in the Launcher
Monthly fee estimated to be €2 per user.
Competitor analysis
Let’s face it – we’ll be the underdog
…which is a lot of fun!
• Direct
• Other Android Launchers, e.g. Aviate, Nova,
Apex.
• Android Forks with custom UI, e.g.
Samsung’s TouchWiz, HTC SenseUI.
• Direct
• They compete with more features that they
cram into existing Launchers and OS, not a
new user interaction paradigm
• Indirect
• Apple Siri
• Microsoft/Nokia Cortana
• Google Now
• Indirect
• They are all fire-and-forget – ask a question
and that’s pretty much it. There’s no way to
chain commands and have them reoccur or
useful implementations based on user behavior
Team
William Dahlheim, Founder and CEO
• Corporate Lawyer, Developer, Art Director
turned Creative Director
• Currently runs one of Stockholm’s most
awarded PR agencies together with Pelle
Sjöqvist
• Self-proclaimed tech geek who still misses his
28.8 US Robotics modem
Pelle Sjöqvist, PR/Marketing
Simon Wolfe, Corporate Lawyer and COO
• An Australian lawyer specializing in corporate
law, media, intellectual property and freedom of
speech
• Simon’s passions are football, travel and his
friends and family. His party trick is memorizing
Sydney’s post-codes despite the fact that he
grew up in Melbourne.
Gustav Hederström, UX/UI Designer, Art Director
• Creative Director with a solid PR background
with focus on strategic conceptualization and
social media
• Graphic Designer with focus on UX/UI,
graduate from the prestigious Forsberg’s
School of Design and Advertisement
• Former Creative Director and Head of Digital at
Edelman, the world’s largest PR firm.
• The creator of the UI for Pacemaker, the world’s
best DJ app for iPad. Praised by Apple’s own
Jony Ive.
• Pelle first got in touch with the Internet in the
beginning of the 90’s when he had a surf shop
• Loves interaction design and building motor
Contact
William Dahlheim
+ 46 (0)70 877 32 10
williamdahlheim
william@dahlheim.com
Miscellaneous
[1] See http://qz.com/161443/2013-was-a-lost-year-for-tech/ and
http://qz.com/163972/global-spending-on-tech-will-fall-this-year-because-theres-nothing-new-to-buy/