Meeting David V. Kimball

I am talking about the man in the Cortana shirt. If you need ask questions to know whom he is… then use those Bing/Google searches for good use.

The days are blurry, yet my lack of sleep was unmatched to that of David V. Kimball. Over the past week he has been traveling across the country to help demonstrate the beauty that comes from using Windows devices in the real world. Therefore he has been everywhere from L.A. to New York and is still at this moment (6/3/2014) on the move in Chicago. Check out his travel blog if you wish to follow him along his vast summer journey!

From day one of my birth, I have had to learn to keep my mouth shut and be told not to ask so many questions. Yet when I heard that David was going to be visiting Indianapolis, I knew it was apparent that my mouth was to be opened.

Over twitter he accepted my request to meet up while he was in town, and it was a blast! I tried showing him some of the downtown area, along with the beautiful Monumental Circle. I even showed him my apartment, because the canal in the back of our complex is just gorgeous. Yet with every pro about the city life, there are also Cons. The light grey sky made for it to be less than pleasant for showing him the sights.

Life is life though, so we went back to my place and started the short interview. I started easy by asking him if he liked Indiana. And given the little time he really had been here (less than 24 hours) the response of it being a little bit too warm for him seemed appropriate. He did comment on how friendly it is here… Which was interesting to myself, considering people in Indianapolis are usually pretty secluded people. Yet when showing him around, everyone had an itch to talk (made me feel pretty good).

So how did he get into Windows Phone? A question with an answer that is very relatable to the early adaptors of the Metro revolution. “The Zune.” Around 2008 the second generation Zune’s were being talked about on every blog and news site all across the globe. This was great timing because David was conveniently searching for a new MP3 player of sorts and he wasn’t too keen on the round click wheel in which Apple had installed on the iPod. After seeing a commercial about the Zune he placed his bets and bought a small but beautiful 8GB that unknowingly would define his future. Shortly after, the Zune HD was launched. With the typography and animations luring him in, he decided to purchase one as well and from that moment on he knew that “The panicle transformation of the technology age” was about.

I enjoyed our conversation over the Zune, for I myself owned a 30GB back in the day. But that just led to questions about the Microsoft Kin fail… Now few people even know what it is, yet David put it this way “It was kind of a smart phone, but not really smart enough.” So why did the Kin fail according to David? The clarity in his remarks were received sternly. He stated that he wasn’t sure that Microsoft really had a big hold on where they wanted their mobile division to go, resulting in it being more of a “pre-mature Windows Phone”. Owning one himself he had actually gotten a chance to speak to Jarrod Potter one of the software engineers that helped code the operating system and said that the “software for kin was great, it was just the hardware that gave them the issues”.

So speaking of failures, I, even to this day, am interested in hearing people’s thoughts on why the Zune just didn’t take off like it should of. Luckily David had thought this through quite thoroughly himself. He continued the interview speaking about the idea of “only if Microsoft had released the Zune two years earlier”. Now I personally am not too keen on the timing of the Zune, however I did enjoy the Zune HD, and he did as well. So what was it lacking? If it weren’t for the timing there still had to be some X factor still missing from the equation. Apps… David talked about how the Zune didn’t really have any app eco-system and this was a major flaw that held it back to much for the consumer markets. So with a combination of an earlier release and an app eco-system the results of the Zune would have been completely changed for the world today.

Quieting things back down a bit because of the dreary feel the weather, I talked about typing speed. My personal WPM average is around 64 so out of curiosity I wondered what his was. At a whopping 130 WPM peek I can tell he is made for the marketing business. He joked around a bit that he even has had to train himself to not reply to text messages to quickly for people tend to think he is a bit eager and sometimes overbearing because of his abilities. I personally thought his response times were quite adequate from my personal analysis of course.

Last but not least, I wanted to leave with you a few star athletes from the man himself. The 1520 and the Lumia Icon are currently his favorite Windows Phone devices, along with the Surface Pro 3 being his favorite tablet. Honestly, who can blame him? The 1520 has one of the most beautiful 1080p screens ever seen, along with the specs of the Icon… My goodness Microsoft/Nokia… Those are flagship phones if I do say so myself. As for the Surface Pro 3… one word… Beautiful!

That pretty much wraps it up for my interview with David V. Kimball. If you would like to find out more about his majestic life, mention him on twitter or visit his personal website. As for myself, I’m going to get some coffee and take a nap and not specifically in that order. Have a great day everyone!