A noted CEO once said that a good way to get results is to take your calendar out a couple of months and then work backwards.
If your goal, let's say, is to increase daily average users, pinpoint the things that you want to do each month leading up to 60 or 90 days later.
It is a way of not getting distracted by the things that you have to do today; things that seem important for one reason or another, but don't actually help fulfill your longterm goal.
Seize the day by plotting couple of months ahead.
Good advice
If you were to apply the same thinking to your mobile distribution strategy, you might consider how to get an unfair advantage against everybody else.
You could spend lot of money on incentivised download campaigns. You could add cool features to your app. Or you could own a big slice of a new platform.
So, going back to that CEO's point about thinking ahead and working backwards, what is your three-month goal?
From a distribution standpoint, improve your monetisable reach. In 90 days you can do a lot.
The why and the how
The Tizen Developer Conference happened in late May in San Francisco, and while the Linux open source operating system may not be what first comes to mind when you think about building a big audience, think about the name Android and how unfamiliar it was when it launched.
Some say, and still do, that HTML5 is a great idea but it's not there yet.
But seeing how Tizen is shaping up that assessment may be about to get shattered. And if that's correct, now is the time to get in on the ground floor.
Here's why I believe Tizen is going to rattle the doors and accelerate HTML5 into becoming the dominant mobile platform.
HTML5 makes sense. With so many platforms, HTML5 is hugely convenient. But more importantly, it is light, fast and versatile. It is where mobile wants to be.
Turnaround
Apps are so much more than just mobile too. Cars, planes, TVs, fridges, everything needs software, and software means apps.
Tizen is very cross-platform.
And even when it comes to mobile, the broader mobile ecosystem needs HTML5, badly. It makes carriers more relevant and OEMs more relevant.
The result? Significant hardware and carrier resources are being deployed to make Tizen a success.
Current problems can be solved. With committed and focused work, the latency and lag that has plagued HTML5 will go away. It's improved dramatically already.
Looking at high performance games and apps running on Tizen was magical. Compared to one year ago, it is as night to day. Just imagine when consumers start buying into Tizen and the acceleration happens even faster.
The time is now
Trains leave stations. Early birds get the biggest worms. Being present at the start of a platform when your app is one of 5,000 available is a rare opportunity to stand out from the crowd.
Right now, Samsung and Intel - major supporters of Tizen through code, hardware and investment - and their partners are scouring the ecosystem for the very best apps.
Do you want to be a big fish in a pond that will only get bigger, fast?
More generally, our experience at the Tizen Developers Conference - surrounded by scores of engineers and executives from Samsung and Intel - was impressive.
The carriers from all around the world who sponsored the event - hinting at their grand plans - combined with the passionate developers who attended, are strong indicators of the potential for something new.
Thanks to Firefox OS and Tizen, I believe 2014 will be the year of HTML5. Think ahead and work backwards. Now is the time to ensure you're there, successful right from the start.
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