It took a few months, but finally we have found the model for Whisher – and it is not adding even more features than we had, but taking some away, and making the whole thing much simpler. Some of you have already contacted me asking why we have taken some seemingly drastic decisions, but everything has an explanation and a reason.
A quick Whisher timeline
To refresh your memory, here is a timeline of how Whisher has progressed:
- Early 2006: Ferran, our CEO, after parting ways with Martin Varsavsky (having worked with him on the Fon concept for months), thinks about ways to implement WiFi sharing through software, instead of a capital-intensive hardware-based model.
- Mid 2006: We start developing a Whisher prototype, in those days known internally as Universal, written in Java, which worked pretty well but was rather ugly (here shown in one moment of instability):
- September 2006: We receive some seed funding from Swisscom to develop the first full-blown Whisher, complete with UI design and website.
- November 2006: The first alpha of Whisher 1.0 was compiled, and at the same time, we started looking for a first financing round.
- December 2006: We closed a Series A round with Benchmark Capital (now Balderton), led by Klaus Hommels.
- February 2007: Launched Whisher 1.0 at DEMO in Palm Desert – we got some really good press coverage, ranking #9 in Technorati! The client was released for Windows, Mac and Linux, and featured IM, presence information around your WiFi, file exchange and buddy-style WiFi sharing management. It looked like this (minus the advertising panel):
- September 2007: We launch Whisher 2.0, with a wholly revised GUI, based on the feedback we get from our users, and with new features such as geolocation and Twitter updates, plus multi-platform IM (Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM, and MSN Messenger!). We keep the PR efforts on a low profile.
- November 2007: After the feedback we get on 2.0, we realize the product is way too complex, and it does too many things – we get questions like “Yeah, it looks nice, but what is it?”. We decide to make a sharp course change and go back to our roots – WiFi connectivity.
- February 2008: After a year since our initial release, we launch Whisher 3.0, with most “social” features like IM, file exchange and geolocation taken out, and focusing the software as a plugin rather than a standalone client.
So what is Whisher 3.0?
In a few words – a plugin into your existing WiFi manager which gives you seamless connectivity across shared and commercial hotspots, and also allows you to share and tag your own WiFi. We have realized several things during the first year since our launch:
- Users already have their IM clients like Adium or Trillian, which do a much better job at having tons of features than we could ever do ourselves – it is their core competency, and they are very good at it. The same applies for file exchange or Twitter.
- If people are used to a tool that comes with their operating system in order to connect to WiFi signals, why change that? Initially it seemed obvious that people would like to know more about the WiFi they have around them, like average signal strength or ratings – but the reality is that the majority of users just want to get connected, if possible, with a single click and zero hassle.
- Having a software client with a ton of features running 24/7 is resource intensive, and makes crashes more likely. The user has to remember to open the client or launch it in order to get to its features. In the end, he will just use the OS built-in tool.
- There is a clear demand for seamless access on commercial hotspots, if possible, with a single click and zero hassle. Users hate landing pages, and having to enter a reel of data plus their credit card information just to get online and check their email.
- Users do not want to have a myriad possible combinations to access the various WiFi services.
With this in mind, we launched 3.0 with the following premises:
- It should work as a plugin, adding the minimum required extra information to the default OS WiFi tool.
- As much functionality as possible has to be moved to the web, as certain features like WiFi sharing are not used all the time, and thus are not needed built-in on the software.
- To solve the chicken-and-egg problem of shared WiFi coverage, we will give users access to commercial locations at the lowest possible price. We will encourage people to share by giving them even cheaper WiFi at these commercial locations.
- WiFi connectivity should be a 1-Click experience.
We now have a Windows client less than 4MB in size, and a Mac OS X client (coming soon!) less than 1MB, both meeting these requirements.
WiFi Out, the universal WiFi currency
We faced many hurdles in order to be able to re-orient Whisher into this new direction, the most important being that we had to close roaming agreements with enough providers, and implement the whole backend and client protocols to make it all work. This also had to be formatted in an easy to understand way for end users, so we came up with the concept of a universal WiFi currency, called WiFi Out. This currency would be used in any kind of transaction involving WiFi access, for example, a user could give WiFi Out credit to another in exchange for access at his shared hotspot, and this user in turn could use the credit to access WiFi at a coffee shop.
At this point, you may say “this is nice, but I can already get flat-fee WiFi plans, or just buy passes at the locations when I need them”. True, but consider these problems:
- With flat-fee WiFi plans, you are tied to paying a fixed fee per month, even if you don’t use it. We cater for those people who access WiFi on occasions, and for a few minutes to check their email or browse the web.
- At most commercial hotspots, you can buy vouchers that range from 30 minutes to 24 hours, but you cannot ‘save’ unused minutes for later. If you buy 24 hours, your access will last for 24 hours, and then you have to buy a new voucher – even if you only connected for a few minutes!
- When you fire up your normal WiFi manager, you may not always know which signals are accessible, to which ones you have access if you have a flat fee, what the cost will be, or even if some of them are free.
Whisher fixes the first two with pre-paid, per-minute access, through the WiFi Out credit. Simply visit the online shop, and in a few easy steps, you can buy credit which you can then use at any of our 60.000 commercial locations – yes, 60.000! We even have full roaming with Swisscom, giving us access to over 2.000 premium locations throughout Europe, something none of our competitors can claim. With Whisher, if you don’t connect, you don’t pay.
How do we fix the third problem in the list?
The new Whisher GUI
I already mentioned that Whisher integrates as a plugin into the existing WiFi manager you already use, as an example, the Windows XP one:
We turn this boring, not too useful interface into this:
which gives you additional information about every signal in range, including the price per minute if it’s a commercial one, or the signal’s name and welcome message on Whisher shared hotspots. On the left pane, we show your WiFi Out credit, and the remaining connection time at the hotspot you are on. You access the Whisher plugin just the same as you do the Windows manager, right click on the tray icon, and select ‘View available wireless networks’. Everything else works just the same, so the learning curve is virtually zero!
On a second post I will go over the new website, how to register a hotspot, buy credit, and more.
