BRAND INFECTION » Business

What Does SmartMoney Want To Imply With This Headline?

Nader Cserny — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:52:25 +0000

I just read the headline “Tech Stocks slip as Palm and RIM decline” and am wondering what SmartMoney (innovators of the famous “Map of the Market”) wants to imply!?

As if “loser brands” such as Palm and RIM would have anything to do with a decline of other tech stocks. For me this looks like a case of fewer people wanting to buy an outdated, unsexy device and turn to Apple with the iPhone, HTC or the Motorola Droid than the industry having a problem in general.

What do you think?

The iPhone AppStore Disaster – Why Developing Your Company’s App For It Is As Safe As Betting On Horses

Matteo Schreiber — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 10:16:10 +0000

A little more than a year has passed since Apple opened the doors to it’s AppStore back in July 2008, and the amount of love and hate alike in blogs all around the internet is showing the huge impact it had on the mobile applications market. After jailbreakers invented the process of providing additional software during the first revision of the iPhone, and, back from what was just a handful of apps at the time of its official release, the AppStore has grown ever since, encompassing over 65.000 apps by now, increasing this number day by day at a very high rate.

Something has been slowing down the growth, though. And surprisingly enough, that “something” is no one else but Apple itself.

During its short life of only one year so far, the AppStore – or more precisely, the approval policy of Apple – has been the target of criticism and numerous complaints coming from the press, the developers and even from the customers. While being unmistakenly the current most successful distribution network for mobile devices that is targeted at only one specific device, it is also the most curious if not politically influenced one.

Apple has made sure in their developer/distribution agreement that each application being submitted for distribution to the AppStore has to undergo a number of review processes before approval for release is given. According to Apple, this is done to make sure that the applications won’t be of any harmful nature, will be according to Apples very strict policies, and will not confuse and/or “lie” to it’s customers including duplicating the iPhone’s functionality.
While the official explanation for the aprovment policy sounds like it’s a fair and square deal, the truth seems to be very far from it.

Apple has repeatedly shown inability to be consistent in their approval process, up to the point where applications would first get the green light and be released to public, then suddenly – while reviewing an update to that same application – would lose the approval, stating as the reason for the rejection a state/fact that had been true for the earlier version just as much, only to see the app being approved again a few days later, with nothing having changed in terms of the application itself. This has made many developers question the competence of Apple’s reviewing team, that appearently isn’t very good at communicating between each other.

Available or not?

The real issue is not the competence of the reviewing personal though, to say the least. That could easily pass as starting troubles, seeing as the AppStore has only been online for a year now, and the team is still in the process of getting the subtle feeling to handle such situations.

The problem seems to be a few “higher authorities” that will actually abuse the policy to block an application from being released for very political, and not at all technical reasons. This seems to have been the issue numerous times in the past already (Skype being only allowed to make voice-calls when the iPhone is connecting over WiFi and the recent release of the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone OS 3.0 and it’s subsequent disapproval of all applications that will enhance the quality of the digital camera shots even though those apps had been approved already long ago, just to name two of these events).

“People are so annoyed by Apple and their shit, and if you give them opportunity to go around it, then they’ll even pay for it,” said Kim Streich, a developer whose app 3G Unrestrictor earned $19,000 in sales in just two weeks through Cydia.

Members of the development scene had been crying for a more transparent criteria catalogue so that they would be able to make sure not to waste their time on something that will never get approved anyway, and the customers had been crying for the apps they had so much hoped for when they bought their iPhone and had been missing from their older smartphones since then.
Recently though, Apple had made that same mistake again, by first approving the application for the brandnew service from Google (Google Voice, still in closed beta), only to remove it from the AppStore immediately again, including several other applications that had similar functionality and had been selling well in the AppStore for almost four months already.

This time, the wave throughout the internet was much bigger than it had been in the past. And one can’t even say it’s because of the name “Google” being a part of it, because the first time Google had been mentioned together with the words “Apple” and “rejected” was back when Google had developed an iPhone application to access it’s Latitude service, but then got asked from Apple to develop it as a web-application instead, to avoid confusion with it’s own Google Maps application.

No, the wave is not much bigger because of what exactly happened, but simply because of how many times it happened by now. Developers simply dont want to take it anymore, as long-term investments into the development of iPhone applications is as safe as betting your money on horses.

Some developers and iPhone users aren’t taking the rejection lying down: They’re turning instead to an unauthorized app store called Cydia, where forbidden wares continue to exist — and even earn developers some money.

Seth Godin On Social Networking

Nader Cserny — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:35:31 +0000

Interesting thoughts by Seth Godin on Social Networking. Video after the click.

Networking is always important when it’s real and it’s a useless distraction when it’s fake… It’s worthless to have lots and lots of friends on Facebook ’cause they’re not really your friends. They’re just people who didn’t want to offend you by pressing the ignore button

How Amazon Went From ‘First’ To ‘Biggest’

Christiane Moore — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:56:53 +0000

When Amazon made their move into eCommerce, analysts and experts alike where questioning their possibilities of success. Where the business world was putting at doubt the future and importance of online-shopping, Amazon was looking at the bigger picture of simply being unable to physically achieve the promising size of an online business by conventional methods (i.e. bookstores and superbookstores), thus betting all their money on the new economy world the internet had brought with it. And Amazon sure did prove to have bet on the right horse …

By the end of 1998, Amazon had already expanded to further product categories such as Music CDs and Movies, opened up more distribution facilities and invested in various new promising markets such as the mobile shopping by cellphones. At this point, Amazon began acquiring more or less successful businesses either in direct competition to them, or at least of good use for their further expansion plans.

By now, Amazon has acquired over 50 various companies, amongst them some big names such as iMDB, CDNow, audible.com and just recently Zappos. Needless to say that, to the commonly interested reader, the actual history of Amazons acquisitions has become a bit of a confusing jungle, and keeping track of the whole picture is pretty time-consuming.

Let ‘Meet the Boss‘ come to rescue with their neat graphical help of all the acquisitions Amazon had made from 1995 to the recent date (2009). The graphical chart shows all the companies that had been “forced to join” the Amazon empire conveniently sorted by their date of acquisition, including the respective cost (if available/known).

In the video below Jeff Bezos talks about the acquisition of Zappos and a couple of simple tips’n'tricks for building a business. One of his most important ones is “Obsess over customers”.

What’s next Amazon?

All credits for the graphical chart herein presented goes to Meet the Boss, respectively the actual creator, who probably put quite some effort into researching all those facts.

Your Business On A Piece Of Meat(cards)

Nader Cserny — Thu, 07 May 2009 08:41:48 +0000

First I thought it was a hoax but knowing Eggvertising, Fieldvertising and other methods from the past I’m not surprised: Business Cards made from meat and lasers.

Meatcards brings meat and lasers together to create the most protein-rich business cards ever.

The product is still in the testing stages, but according to its homepage they should be going on sale some time soon. Make sure to check out this awesome Flickr set to see how it’s done.

Hotel Alicja: Double-Check The Pictures!

Nader Cserny — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:01:11 +0000

Seen a valuable offer for a nice hotel on the internet!?
You should double-check all images and perspectives! :)

Make $25 Millions Selling Toothbrushes

Nader Cserny — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 12:06:41 +0000

Puneet Nanda was like many parents: He couldn’t get his five-year-old daughter to brush her teeth properly. But unlike most parents, Nanda is a toothbrush manufacturer with an irrepressible entrepreneurial drive. Knowing that his daughter was fascinated by her sneakers with flashing lights, he ripped the lights out of her shoes and put them on a toothbrush. That didn’t work, so “I went to Disneyland that evening and bought everything that lit up,” says Nanda, now 38. The second prototype was more successful. His daughter brushed for two minutes before asking: “Dad, will this ever stop, or should I brush my teeth off?”

Official Website at Dr. Fresh

BRAND INFECTION » Business

What Does SmartMoney Want To Imply With This Headline?

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