Even if they cut prices, blu-ray is toast. No one is in the mood for a new machine nor do they have money to replace DVDs. It’s over.
Archive for December, 2008
Zuned!
December 31, 2008
Colors are easy, design is hard
December 31, 2008Mark Jarvis thought all that was required to save Dell was multi-colored laptops:
We are going to apply the direct model to customizing what’s outside the box. So you are going to be able to pick the design of the outside of your system, which H-P can’t do. … Ironically even Apple, Apple has moved away from that. There used to be a time when you could get six different colors of Apples.
Predictably, BusinessWeek was singing hosannas (I didn’t check but I am sure they prolly awarded Dell red laptop a “innovation award”):
Job one for Jarvis is to re-envision an advertising message that traditionally has stressed either a PC’s price or its main features, including computing speeds and memory capacity—the machine’s so-called speeds and feeds. Such ads helped Dell goose sales in the past, but they’ve lost their effectiveness in recent years as consumers started to focus on design and other aspects of buying and owning a computer. A year ago, Dell took a small step away from its traditional style with a campaign that featured the tagline “Purely You.”
“Customers are focusing on cool,” he says. “Consumers are increasingly conscious of the brand itself,” he adds. “People say, ‘I’m an Apple (AAPL) person, I’m an HP person, I’m a Dell person.’ We’re reflected in the brand we use.”
That’s some innnovanating! Because that’s all that Apple does. Colors, advertising slogans, and stuff like that.
The reality is that design and design centric innovation is a hard fucking nut to crack.
BusinessWeek digs a deeper hole with Cuil
December 30, 2008Cuil’s PR team convince BW to include them as a successful startup. Techcrunch rightfully blasts BW for this stupid choice. BW returns with this:
Cuil raised $33.25 million in that period, and whatever you think of the company or their product, the amount raised indicates that investors judged them worthy of significant backing, as some TechCrunch commenters noted. Obviously, that’s different from them getting traction or becoming profitable. But they made the list under the criteria we used, which we made clear from the start.
I don’t remember Boo.com being successful and they received $115M in funding.
Just goes to show that good ole PR still holds sway with MSM more so than merit.
Who came first: Yael Naim or the MacBook Air?
December 30, 2008
A Yael Naim song helped sell the MacBook Air.
Really? I was under the impression that the MacBook Air helped sell Yael Naim.
The chinese are engaging in cyberwar
December 29, 2008Nice – is this a feature in Lenovo computers? Walmart Photo Keychain Comes Preloaded With Malware.
Elevation Invests $100 Million in Palm
December 22, 2008Maybe it’s time for Palm to use the money and become an iPhone app vendor a la Sega.
Lenovo’s dual screen laptop
December 20, 2008Me thinks Lenovo has run out of ideas. Via DF:
The ThinkPad W700ds appears to be the first laptop ever to sport two LCD screens — a 17-in. primary and a 10.6-in. secondary screen.
This is the equivalent of Detroit’s best upping each other with extra cylinders while ignoring consumer needs and market shifts. Soon, HP will announce a 3 headed monster followed by Dell’s octo-screen version.
And when Apple releases an updated version of the MBP with just one screen, Steven Levy will write a 10,600 word article on the idea of simplicity and the force of the famedJobsian focus. Meanwhile, Rob Enderle will be a guest on NPR and WSJ podcasts to explain how its all about choice and Dell, HP, and Lenovo give you a choice of which screen to gawk at and Apple tells you its one screen or no screen. BusinessWeek will award Apple a design award and HP and Lenovo a consolation award and Microsoft an award for being able to utilize 8 screens (but only because all three are bigger advertisers than Apple and they don’t really deserve shiaat).
Extra cynical today …
Apple and netbooks
December 19, 2008I have been meaning to write about Apple and netbooks for awhile now. This Steve Jobs quote got it started:
NYT:
“We don’t know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk.” However, he gave a more nuanced answer to the question of whether Apple plans to jump into the “nascent” market for netbooks, essentially restating his comments on the question from last week at the Macbook introduction in Cupertino by saying the company was taking a wait-and-see attitude.
Dave Winer followed with his description of an ideal netbook:
As with all Jobsisms, it’s beautifully elegant, true — and misleading. You have to read it very carefully.
He isn’t saying no one knows how to build one, just that “we” don’t know how to. Fine. And the last part is almost Republican it’s so clever and nasty. He’s not actually slamming Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer and MSI, but if you don’t read it carefully you might think he’s saying they’re pieces of junk.
OK, I suppose it’s time to say what a netbook is…
1. Small size.
2. Low price.
3. Battery life of 4+ hours. Battery can be replaced by user. Atom processor seems to be a requirement, those that aren’t Atom aren’t selling (and are apparently being discontinued).
4. Rugged.
5. Built-in wifi, 3 USB ports, SD card reader. It seems it must have 802.11n to be taken seriously.
6. Runs my software.
7. Runs any software I want (no platform vendor to decide what’s appropriate).
8. Competition (users have choice and can switch vendors at any time).
Here’s the bottomline – shrinking a Hummer by 50% without really changing anything about it does not make it a hybrid. If we want a true network class mobile maching, its got to be a a new class of device. And Jobs is right, the iPhone is a preview of whats coming. It may not be just the multi-touch environment, but the always on capability combined with software that makes Mobile Me (or some similar app) the core app. Just having a browser and some apps and calling it a netbook is a nutty proposition and a giant step back.
So, to answer Gruber, Is a Netbook a Cheap Laptop? No, it isn’t.
Microsoft and BSA go after North Korea
December 17, 2008This is clearly a violation of the EULA (unless Microsoft sells licenses to dear leader?):
Kim Jong II doesn't like Vista
