2008 Brandjunkie Survey

Interesting results. Not surprisingly, Apple dominated. I found this comment to be very astute:

If you were to describe yourself as being a brand, what brand would you be? Why?

Smart, well designed with some history of bad and good decisions. Cutting edge in the markets in which they choose to play in but do not dream of being a superpower, just best in their game. 

That, in a nutshell, is why everyone hates Microsoft. They operate under the assumption that they need to dominate every market that is remotely connected with the software market. The results of that schizo attitude are unfocused and ill-thought out products.

The answers to this question are telling:

What brand can you not live without? Why?

It’s the only one I can think of that I truly couldn’t replace—in work or in entertainment. With any other brand that I love, there’s some other one I can turn to if it disappeared. But not Apple. 

#2 was none!

This question is scary:

What brand is most likely to revolutionize the branding industry in the next five years? Why?

They continually prove to the world how to not only build a brand, nurture new brands but also tie them all together with the Apple mystique and panache. People know when you talk about Apple you’re talking about solid, useful, consumer products. 

Consumer attitudes and expectations are tough to track and match especially when transitioning between different generations. Let’s hope that Apple can manage it.

Craigslist Leopard scam

Check out this dude offering a freely available software upgrade to 10.5.2 from 10.5!! Apple OSX Leopard Upgrade to 10.5.2 – $20

Reply to: sale-621263034@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-03-27, 10:10PM EDT

I have a copy to upgrade your version of leopard 10.5 to 10.5.2. Its just the current upgraded software.
Thanks
-Joe

Good one, Joe.

DVR predictions

2005:

IDC predicts as many as 30 percent of U.S. households will use DVRs in 2008 this amounts to a ten-fold percentage increase over its penetration estimate for March 2004 (TiVo 10-K, 2005).

2008:

The number of DVRs in U.S. homes will nearly double in the next four years, and 36% of homes will have them by 2012, according to new projections from Magna Global.

Where’s the magic pony?

Bloomberg and CNBC stuck in the 90s

Big Picture:

Hey Bloomberg.com & CNBC.com:

You folks are paying for the shooting, editing, storing, hosting and bandwidth usage of all this video. I assume you actually want people to see it — to sell subscriptions, to roll adverts, to brand your product. You are spending all of this money for a product that sends people running in the opposite direction.

Every time I post a video from either of your sites, I get email telling me it crashed their browser, or even worse their computer. It is slow, ugly and to be blunt, unprofessional. Your online video product is in fact damaging your brands. (CNN/Money’s video auto roll is another bit of annoyance, but we’ll save that for another day).

Of all the major Financial media that run video, only WSJ and NYT seem to have gotten it right.

Um, its 2008. Can we get with program? The embeddable flash video is circa 2006. Can you find it in your business models to only be 2 years — not 10 — behind the technological adoption curve?

More to the point, they can stick with WMV if they want, however, the marginal cost of creating multiple formats is negligible these days. So, why not distribute via YouTube using Flash or MP4 for iTunes/AppleTV? CNBC and Bloomberg happily push Google’s (and others) vision of ubiquitous/cloud computing, but CNBC and Bloomberg seems satisfied with a single format desktop computing (Windows) experience. Weird disconnect.

Get with the program, indeed.

Microsoft iPhone development

InfoWeek:

Microsoft plans to offer software for the iPhone, saying in a recent interview that developers are considering a variety of possibilities that include offering Office functionality on Apple’s smart phone.

This is obviously a R&D exercise.

With the exception of Apple, Microsoft makes more software for the Mac than any other vendor.

Hmm, I believe Adobe makes more software for the Mac than any other vendor.

MOT leadership gets called out

Wow.

I was there when Motorola’s handset division was brought back from the brink of death 5 years ago. Follow my advice, and we can do it again.

Maybe it sounds like I take the downfall of Motorola personally; I do. It was my experience at Motorola, with people like Geoffrey and all of the loyal employees who still remain, that taught me what corporate America can and should be. But with people such as Zander and yourself, Motorola symbolizes the worst of our country’s corporate culture.

As an immigrant American, and someone who has traveled all over the world, I really do appreciate the uniqueness and importance of the American culture of creativity and ingenuity. Whereas other countries back their money on gold and commodities, we back ours on our ability to invent the future. The failure of Motorola as an American institution of creativity and innovation, should you let it happen, will now be entirely of your doing. Hopefully you’ll keep that in mind while the board has the accountants prepare your golden parachute.

In corporate America, you never get what you pay for (in a bad way).

Wonder what Galvin thinks of all this:

When Zander arrived in Chicago three weeks later, Motorola was starting to reap the benefits of years of hard work by former CEO Chris Galvin and his team, even though Galvin and the board had parted ways.

Betting the farm on WiMAX

Despite plenty of evidence that WiMAX sucks, Barrons reports that firms keep slogging on:

It’s the grand unified field theorem of wireless broadband: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that cable operators Comcast (CMCSA), Time Warner (TWX) and Bright House Networks, as well as Intel (INTC) and Google (GOOG), all are in talks about funding a nationwide WiMax-based wireless broadband network that would be operated by Sprint Nextel (S) and Clearwire (CLWR).

The story says Comcast would invest as much as $1 billion in the venture, with Time Warner tossing in $500 million and privately held Bright House investing another $100 million to $200 million. The story says Intel could invest $1 billion or more, and Google could plunk down “hundreds of millions.”

Here’s a report from India:

Technically speaking the service goes down for like a day almost every week.

Is it an India thing? No. Nokia’s head of WiMAX programme:

Silicon.com quotes Mr. Hollström as saying that “WiMax is hype at the moment and it’s pretty bad hype.” … “From our point of view, it’s a great technology,” he added, “but not like it has been hyped.”

Is it a Nokia thing? Australia:

One of the early adopters of WiMAX technology in Australia has officially closed down its network. Buzz Broadband, which started running the WiMAX project last year, has encountered various problems with its WiMAX network.

Buzz Broadband CEO Garth Freeman called the WiMAX network a disaster and said it failed miserably in delivering good services to customers.

Maybe it’ll be different this time.

Windows 7: Why Microsoft Won’t Go Mod

WSJ BizTech:

Windows is the epitome of software that tries to be all things to all people. It’s the glue that makes desktop computing possible. Not surprisingly, it’s incredibly complicated and with each iteration Microsoft has added features and functions. This approach has been a mixed bag for businesses: Many of these features are helpful, but many are unnecessary. Hence, Vista has been knocked as bloated.

What businesses would prefer is the ability to pick only the features they want. Selling software as pieces that can either stand alone or be combined with one another is an approach called “modular” development. The hot rumor this week is that this is the approach Microsoft is taking for Windows 7. (This being the Internet, “hot rumor” means that Mary Jo Foley, who covers Microsoft for ZDNet predicted Windows 7 would be modular. Then ARS Technica guaranteed it will be modular. Then the story got picked up by popular aggregators like Digg and Slashdot.)

Vista is already modular – thus the 7 different versions. Microsoft could just re-market the 7 (or, in the future, 17) versions as modular Windows. Microsoft doesn’t really have to be re-engineer their products to make them “modular”.

Open Wireless Network May Not Be So Open

Yeah, I couldn’t see this coming:

The government, in opening up the coveted swath of the spectrum, essentially said the winner must allow consumers to use any compatible device or software on it as long as it doesn’t harm the network.

But analysts said the open-access playground comes with restrictions and Verizon Wireless, as the winner, will be the one making the rules and setting the schedule.

“It’s unreasonable to expect these guys to go radically changing their business models if they successfully defended the gaggle from encroachment, from the Googles and Comcasts of the world,” said John Jackson, wireless analyst with the Yankee Group.

…

Sarva, who’s testified for open-access conditions before Congress, said he fears that meeting the network’s minimal specifications may be laced with “asterisks and fine print” designed to prevent competition.

“Until it can really be demonstrated to be different, there’s too much history of these guys making these bogus moves to believe it,” he said.

Yep, what he said.

Karma comes calling for Microsoft

I am not a fan of Microsoft but this is a travesty.

But now its Service Pack 1 update, which is supposed to FIX holes and squeaks in the Vista code, seems to be making things worse — so much worse that venerable publications like Computerworld are running stories about how to get SP1 off your machine. InfoWorld has a piece about how Vista users are blasting Microsoft on Microsoft’s own Vista blog. The headline on The Washington Post’s story says a lot: “Vista SP1: Threat or Menace?”

For what it’s worth, for Microsoft’s much-ballyhooed power, its stock traded at around $25 a share five years ago today. Last I looked, it was at $29, with some relatively minor ups and downs in between. You’d have gotten just about the same performance from an electric power company, like Con Ed.Vista, the stock price — something’s clearly not going well in Redmond.

Think buying Yahoo will help?   

Karma is truly a bitch.