Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Tuesday Night Links

1. Mobile phones are changing the world of retail – at a remarkable speed.  Mobile commerce represents a fundamental shift in consumer behavior and retailers must move quickly to exploit it.

2. (you can probably guess #1). 

3. Oil companies are giving millions of dollars in charitable contributions to local communities in North Dakota.

4. Tech Title IX?  Twitter, General Electric, Google, and eBay announce "Girls Who Code" initiative to address the gender imbalance in the IT industry.

5. North Dakota's robust and diverse energy sector could be model for the country: An energy policy that really works.

6. Ferry Systems Consider Switch to Liquid Natural Gas as the Price of Diesel Rises.  

5 Comments:

At 6/26/2012 9:20 PM, Blogger Hydra said...

Yep. I got a new hay customer that wantedd to pay by credit card, so i got a vendor app for my phone.

Go figure.

 
At 6/27/2012 1:08 AM, Blogger OBloodyHell said...

>>>> The Betamax video recorder hit stores in 1975. A year later, Sony's rival released another video recorder -- the VHS. By early 1977, four other companies were selling VHS machines. Meanwhile, Sony chose not to license Betamax technology. Because the two formats were incompatible, consumers had to choose between the two. As Sony was the lone Betamax producer, you can guess which system they chose.

It has been generally agreed by all "in the know" that the BetaMax system was far superior to the VHS system. Despite this, the price difference was far too much for the difference in quality, and that was driven by the number of alternative vendors competing for business. Whoodathunkit?

This happened in other cases, too -- most notably the Mac vs the WinClone. While the Mac was a superior machine in almost all respects, the windows clone was much cheaper.

Apple doomed itself when they stupidly chose not to license the tech.


... and they're making much the exact same mistake over again with the iPhone. While the iP outsells any single Droid model, the total Droid sales easily outstrips that of Apple. Apple is doomed.

 
At 6/27/2012 7:12 AM, Blogger Bruce Oksol said...

I don't know what the future holds for Apple.

But currently, it is impossible to go anywhere without seeing Apple products (here in the US).

At Harvard Square Starbucks: Apple laptops 70%.

On bus into Boston: Apple iPhones or iPads: 70% or greater.

At Logan Airport: Apple laptops, iPad, iPhone: 60%.

In Hollywood, the percentages are higher. I can only imagine the penetration in San Francisco area.

Apple logo ubiquitous on television shows.

And in any mall that has an Apple store, it is the busiest store in the mall.

Apple may be doomed, but there will still be a few of us that will enjoy the seamlessness of IOS, iTunes, iPad, iPhone, laptops, and desktops. And the ubiquitous white earbuds.

 
At 6/27/2012 7:18 AM, Blogger Bruce Oksol said...

The pilot who just sat down across from me at McDonald's just pulled out his iPad. The only other computer user right now in my line of sight is an Apple MacBook Pro, it appears.

By the way, Logan Airport now has free wi-fi. It appears it is free for one hour with sign in. I signed in for a second hour with no problem.

 
At 6/27/2012 10:00 AM, Blogger Jet Beagle said...

The list of 25 biggest product flops includes only consumer product failures. FedEx wrote off $320 million when it pulled the plug on Zapmail, but the total losses for that product were much higher. When I joined the Xapmail planning group in 1984, I was amazed to find that their "sensitivity analysis" only varied revenue projections by 20 percent.

I was very young, but had access to very high levels at FedEx. I didn't realize that I wasn't supposed to ask uncomfortable questions.

 

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