"I'm smarter than lots of really smart people"
Posted by bert at 09:00 PM on May 1, 2009 in ME.
my mom's computer was "broken" so of course it becomes the reformed engineer's job to fix it. Though she has already called Dell, and two current IBM'ers to help fix it, my mom was not getting sound out of her laptop.
Turns out someone helped her with a selective startup that turned off the sound drivers on the computer so I turned those back on. My mom was so impressed and told me that I was smarter than 3 people, and that cooking dinner for me was an excellent form of payment. Of course, one of the people who helped told my mom she wouldn't have "these kind of problems if she got a mac."
Ok, so I don't get it. Macs are cute, they're nice to look at, but at the end of the day it's just a computer. It has less software options, that when you can buy it often costs more. It's not like Macs never have problems (have you looked at the waiting list at those "Genius Bars?" And now they're talking about how it gets less viruses than PCs. Well.. that is true because virus makers target PC's since the user base is much larger. I think it would not be a stretch to imagine a day when virus makers start targeting iPhone OS and Mac OS's because a bunch of these really "cool" people are still stupid when it comes to computer use. How do you make phishing more effective? Target a mac. I know I would if I were a hacker. (sadly I was thinking "blue ocean strategy" as I wrote those words).
Oh and Linda.. your mom has learned some new tricks in teh cooking department. It was a truly solid meal when I got home. =)
Smart Phones (shortened eval)
Posted by bert at 10:16 AM on May 26, 2009 in Tech, ME.
It's funny when work FINALLY intersects with personal interests.
I'm helping with an assessment of the smart phone industry and the
various value chains baked into it. Thanks to a certain relative, I have
a pretty decent preview of things as well. Not that it really matters
since my job is to look 2-3 years out, not 6 months.
Of course, the most interesting thing in my eyes is the battle of Apple’s
iTunes vs Google’s mobile marketplace vs Microsoft’s ability to migrate Office
processing capability onto its smart phones. Yes I am ignoring Blackberry. Like
all things Canadian they are irrelevant. (ok, j/k on this one)
Basically you have 2 OS’s against 1 “all-inclusive”, where the all-inclusive
has managed to lock away a significant share of the market. Long story short, Apple has people locked in
on the iTunes platform since people have spent money to use Apple-only
merchandise from iPod song and video purchases to iPhone and iPod Touch
application purchases. All those things
are non-transferable so basically Apple has basically scaled up the barrier of
entry for all competitors.
(side note, this is why I still refuse to purchase music on iTunes… I buy CD’s and rip them to MP3 so I am not
completely attached to my iPod. In fact,
I have NEVER purchased music from iTunes&hellip
Apple really is the incumbent here, so I’m going quickly into how Google
can win. As for Microsoft, they’re
getting backed into multiple corners. They needed to win a battle of convergence (mobile OS’s + office suite
portability) and are now being attacked by smart phones and net books. (funnier side note… I told MSFT this during
an interview last year with their Office group, and they really didn’t like my
answer. One day I’ll learn to hold back.)
Google has a huge advantage over Apple. They do not have hardware costs for their phones as they do not make any
of their phones. You have companies
like HTC and Sony making various “google phones.” These companies are bearing the brunt of
diversifying their phones for each of their target audiences. Unlike Apple, they are forced into a slow
release process of ONE type of phone each generation. Unless something changes soon, Google will
have multiple phones to compete against the stylish iPhone.
Soon, we’ll see a second phone, the HTC “magic.” It’s a serious sexy phone that has already
improved upon many of the drawbacks I see with the iPhone. It’s lighter weight, has better battery time
and has one of those sexy “pearls” to help navigate. There’s a sony Erickson model that looks to
be an iPhone mimicker. Some other
smaller Samsungs in multiple colors to woo the fashionable female
demographic. If done right, Google
will have multiple competitors with many demographics covered competing against
each other for price, across all phone networks. Essentially, they are shotgunning the market
and have spread most of the risk to the manufacturers. Pretty smart if you ask me.
So who wins? I’ll bet on whoever
treats their developer forums the best. This is very much like the video game industry. He who gives the best toolkits and in this
case the best kickbacks to their applications developers, will have the more
complete application library. He who
has the best/most games wins.
Oh and Linda. That new phone is
seriously sexy. If they need more alpha/beta
testers for that, I’ll be happy to get
off of AT&T for awhile.
Twitter as a Service (TaaS)
Posted by bert at 05:43 AM on May 27, 2009 in ME.
Ok, so maybe it doesn't sound as good as SaaS (or do they call it SaS now?). whatever. I came across this article regarding how revolutionary Twitter was going to be. I just don't know. I've been on that "trendy" thing for roughly 2+ years now. I'm no Ashton, but I just don't have that many things to say, even if I'm limited to 140 characters.
http://247wallst.com/2009/05/26/the-ten-ways-twitter-will-permanently-change-american-business/
This article is interesting because you have some journalist that likes to play with e-toys and decided to figure out how that new toy is applicable in the future. It's a classic column structure and those who use that toy will click and see if they are doing any of those "10 things."
I'm a sucker...
So i went through and I thought it was omitting what would be my #1 Twitter revolution. It makes sense to me, but JIT marketing sounds like a big potential hit.
For example, there's this local coffee joint downstairs from where I work called Swings Coffee. If you're ever on the west end of the White House, I recommend trying a cup.
So lets say you're a manager there and your morning business is a bit on the slow side, but you have a pretty decent twitter audience (or you have been building it up...) and you want a quick boost in revenue because you baked a few too many scones. Rather then need to throw them out, you put out a twitter sale alert for your scones. "Free scone with every coffee" or something from 10-11 A.M. And those who were thinking they needed a cup of joe would be able to grab it and get their scone too.
Just-in-time marketing. That's right, lets upgrade the blackboard.
And if you were Twitter, instead of wanting to be acquired, wouldn't you want to do some acquiring of basic social network sites like... yelp, open table? where you could twitter comments about restaurants, shopping?
or how about Zagats or other ratings type publications. Sorry just thinking. =)
Hrm.. anyone have a patent on twitter-fed LED boards?
