I think its a well made commercial that does a good job for Microsoft as a brand. I do have a few issues with its message though:
1) No real mention of any products or features or why windows is better, except for maybe the "Life without walls" tag at the end.
2) The "life without walls" tag sounds great, but its not quite true, since Windows and MS is all about making a walled garden the size of the whole planet. I guess if you are inside the garden, then there are no walls. I reminds me of MS's original "Making it easier" ads back in the early 90s that didn't mention that they were the ones who also made it so hard to start with.
3) It establishes the PC as the "everyman". I'm all for egalitarianism, and I can understand how many may think of the Mac as elitist, so this is a perfect counter to that. But combine this with point 1, and its also implying that the masses shouldn't ask for better, and should have some pride in being part of the status quo.
I have a nokia n800 and love it. It can easily fit in a jacket pocket or a bag without having to think about it. Its big screen, wifi, and bluetooth, make surfing the web a breeze. I use it a lot to read news and documentation in coffee shops or on trains. With a folding bluetooth keyboard, or the on screen one, I can easily write quick notes or docs. And its linux and comes with a full featured terminal I can use to SSH into work and get some things done. Plus its only $400
The genius of the n800 I think is that it is not a laptop and not a pda. It is its own class of device, with a UI designed specificly for its small high resolution screen, touch screen, and set of buttons.
I am still waiting for a computer that looks like a small book, but where the screen itself folds in half, to become a tablet with a reasonable screen size. Apple dreamed of such a device called the Knowledge Navigator years ago in the following video, and I hope display and voice recognition technology will make this something real within the next 5 years. http://youtube.com/watch?v=3WdS4TscWH8
I think CompUSA needs to make a bold move and be more like the Apple store. I love CompUSA's big selection, but their stores tend to be cluttered, hard to find things in, hard to find a competant person in, and then try and buy something without being pushed the extended warantee. Often the actual computers and other big ticket items are way in the back and the displays are nearly falling apart, and have lots of empty slots.
What makes Apple stores work? The stores have a clean open layout where it is easy to find things. The stores are designed beautifully but simply, letting the products really stand for themselves. They have the Genius bar, where you can talk to someone who actually knows what they are talking about. The Apple store almost never has the best price, but they provide a complete and pleasant shopping experience, and even a certain ammount of "cool".
Its not beyond CompUSA to do this. In Manhattan there are two stores (although I've not been in a while). One by Columbus circle which is like a closterphobic version of the usual CompUSA store. The other is on 5th Ave and 37th st, and is beautiful. Its two floors, the first floor full of rounded "islands" of displays of every kind of something there is. One for pdas, one for laptops, one for cameras. Plus a lot of the popular software and accessories and scattered about, and people man each station to answer your questions. Upstairs is more like a traditional store, with rows of shelves and such, but the shelves are not very high and there is a wall of windows, so it feels bright and open. The Columbus circle store is probably bigger and has more stuff, but the 5th ave store does a brisk business and is just nice to be in.
Circuit City stores tend to have a haphazard feel to them, and Best Buys feel vacuous and dark. If CompUSA brought that 5th Ave feel to all their far and wide suburban stores and they would be doing something so far only Apple is doing, but they would be doing it with a much wider product line, and will make computer shopping cool again.
Consumers still like the option of buying complete software packages. However, for places where the price of software keeps obtaining legitimate versions out of most people's reach, a rental program may be a useful alternative.'
Wouldn't the obvious solution be to lower prices? Its like MS is trying to work around a problem that is of their own doing. I really think what contributes most to piracy is when people feel the price of something is more than the value they get from it. But I think MS's big problem is they don't want to figure out how to do development in a more efficient productive way that would let them charge less. They are an icon of what I call american corporate socialism, inefficiency and unreasonableness for the sake of the economey. It always catches up with you though.
Why make a business pay some $400 for each copy of office when only a fraction of the total value of that product is used on each computer? This is a case where a legitimate lite version would be great. And by legitimate I mean don't reserve some feature everyone wants for the high end version. Adobe does this with Acrobat, making you buy the full version to make forms, when most people who want to make forms have no need for anything else in the full version.
I don't think software rental makes a whole lot of sense for most businesses, but hosted apps like Google Office do make some sense. There is always a balance between control, functionality, and support. With hosted software I give up some control, but I don't have to support it either. With rental software I give up some controll, but I still have to spend all that time supporting the software.
I think the only way a rental software system might work is if really acted ln a service based way. For a small loss leader investment, you get a MS app server to sit in your office. You then rent access to apps, MS put them on the server for you, and all your desktops can run those apps off the server. You don't have to manage the server at all except for setting up accounts and being sure your computers can connect to it. After that point MS takes care of the rest for you. You've basicly outsourced a big chunk of your IT responsibilities. With a fast internet connection, a local server might not be needed. Something like this might bring the value proposition back into balance.
Honestly, I think the Apple TV does nees something more than what it is now to be a compelling device.
Its $299, for $349, I can get a 80gb ipod which plays video, can hook up to my tv, and fits in my pocket. It just isn't high def and it doesn't have the fancy menu system. But the current iTunes store videos aren't hi-def anyways, and since the DRM doesn't let you burn them to DVD so I have a future proof backup, I am not so interested in buying them. Although if I could burn DVDs, and most network shows were on iTunes, I would consider canceling my video cable, as it would be cheaper for me to just buy subscriptions to the few shows I actually watch.
If there was a lot of good, affordable, and/or free HD content I could stream or download and watch on an Apple TV I might consider it. P2P is something a device like this could uniquely do, but as a user I don't really care if it uses P2P, I just want something good to watch. (BTW, I wouldn't put YouTube into the category of "good", but a well curated YouTube like system, like the Zed show on CBC, I'd go for)
It has a USB port, but I don't really see what for. What does it do? Can I attach extra storage? Can I attach an eyeTV and turn it into a DVR? Or hook up a mouse and keyboard and browse the web?
Without the above, I'd be more inclined to buy a mac mini for my living room. Its more money, but since its a full computer, I would get a lot more value out of it, and it comes with the Front Row software and remote too. Without more content and features, I don't see the Apple TV being all that compelling for me beyond the "wow, Apple makes cool stuff" factor. I still think they will sell a ton of them, but there really is a lot more potential in the set top box area I hope they develop.
I love ranting. I'll sit back for a while and see what version 2 of apple tv ends up being.
In Burlington, Vermont's largest city, they already have a municipal fiber optic network.
The City of Burlington, like many other small cities and towns around the USA, has decided to ensure that all of Burlington's citizens and business have the up-to-date telecommunication services they need by building a municipally owned 21st century fiber optic infrastructure. http://www.burlingtontelecom.net/aboutus
Vermonters often prefer local smaller business, cooperatives, and the like, to the national chains and providers. They do an excellent job up there of doing things their own way. Having FairPoint instead of Verizon will hopefully mean a telco that will work more closely with local government to provide innovate services that reach everyone. The big telcos have fought against things like municpal networks in the past. I don't think they will be missed.
Does anyone remember or have info on the old "station car" program offered on Metro North and the Long Island Railroad? I remember seeing news about it around 2000 and maybe even something in the mail. The idea was, you leased a Ford TH!NK car for around the same price the EV1 was going for. But for the lease price you also got, free monthly train pass (which could run you $200+ a month on its own), free charging while at the train station, a charger to use at home, and a parking spot at the station (which can take years to come by). As far as I know it was a popular and pretty successful program, but the cars used for it were discontinued. Some of the chargers and spaces are still there. I've seen them at Southeast station on the Harlem line.
Its fills that last gap in to the public transit commuter situation. The free train passes and parking made this really attractive, and most families in this area have multiple cars and some realize they have no need to use their work vehicle for anything more than going to the train and maybe getting some groceries on the way home.
If you do a search for "electric station car" on google you'll get back some info on the project.
Are there any studies or numbers out there regarding this project and if it will be revived at some point?
Slashdot Mirror
I think its a well made commercial that does a good job for Microsoft as a brand. I do have a few issues with its message though:
1) No real mention of any products or features or why windows is better, except for maybe the "Life without walls" tag at the end.
2) The "life without walls" tag sounds great, but its not quite true, since Windows and MS is all about making a walled garden the size of the whole planet. I guess if you are inside the garden, then there are no walls. I reminds me of MS's original "Making it easier" ads back in the early 90s that didn't mention that they were the ones who also made it so hard to start with.
3) It establishes the PC as the "everyman". I'm all for egalitarianism, and I can understand how many may think of the Mac as elitist, so this is a perfect counter to that. But combine this with point 1, and its also implying that the masses shouldn't ask for better, and should have some pride in being part of the status quo.
I have a nokia n800 and love it. It can easily fit in a jacket pocket or a bag without having to think about it. Its big screen, wifi, and bluetooth, make surfing the web a breeze. I use it a lot to read news and documentation in coffee shops or on trains. With a folding bluetooth keyboard, or the on screen one, I can easily write quick notes or docs. And its linux and comes with a full featured terminal I can use to SSH into work and get some things done. Plus its only $400
The genius of the n800 I think is that it is not a laptop and not a pda. It is its own class of device, with a UI designed specificly for its small high resolution screen, touch screen, and set of buttons.
I am still waiting for a computer that looks like a small book, but where the screen itself folds in half, to become a tablet with a reasonable screen size. Apple dreamed of such a device called the Knowledge Navigator years ago in the following video, and I hope display and voice recognition technology will make this something real within the next 5 years.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3WdS4TscWH8
I think CompUSA needs to make a bold move and be more like the Apple store. I love CompUSA's big selection, but their stores tend to be cluttered, hard to find things in, hard to find a competant person in, and then try and buy something without being pushed the extended warantee. Often the actual computers and other big ticket items are way in the back and the displays are nearly falling apart, and have lots of empty slots.
What makes Apple stores work? The stores have a clean open layout where it is easy to find things. The stores are designed beautifully but simply, letting the products really stand for themselves. They have the Genius bar, where you can talk to someone who actually knows what they are talking about. The Apple store almost never has the best price, but they provide a complete and pleasant shopping experience, and even a certain ammount of "cool".
Its not beyond CompUSA to do this. In Manhattan there are two stores (although I've not been in a while). One by Columbus circle which is like a closterphobic version of the usual CompUSA store. The other is on 5th Ave and 37th st, and is beautiful. Its two floors, the first floor full of rounded "islands" of displays of every kind of something there is. One for pdas, one for laptops, one for cameras. Plus a lot of the popular software and accessories and scattered about, and people man each station to answer your questions. Upstairs is more like a traditional store, with rows of shelves and such, but the shelves are not very high and there is a wall of windows, so it feels bright and open. The Columbus circle store is probably bigger and has more stuff, but the 5th ave store does a brisk business and is just nice to be in.
Circuit City stores tend to have a haphazard feel to them, and Best Buys feel vacuous and dark. If CompUSA brought that 5th Ave feel to all their far and wide suburban stores and they would be doing something so far only Apple is doing, but they would be doing it with a much wider product line, and will make computer shopping cool again.
Wouldn't the obvious solution be to lower prices? Its like MS is trying to work around a problem that is of their own doing. I really think what contributes most to piracy is when people feel the price of something is more than the value they get from it. But I think MS's big problem is they don't want to figure out how to do development in a more efficient productive way that would let them charge less. They are an icon of what I call american corporate socialism, inefficiency and unreasonableness for the sake of the economey. It always catches up with you though.
Why make a business pay some $400 for each copy of office when only a fraction of the total value of that product is used on each computer? This is a case where a legitimate lite version would be great. And by legitimate I mean don't reserve some feature everyone wants for the high end version. Adobe does this with Acrobat, making you buy the full version to make forms, when most people who want to make forms have no need for anything else in the full version.
I don't think software rental makes a whole lot of sense for most businesses, but hosted apps like Google Office do make some sense. There is always a balance between control, functionality, and support. With hosted software I give up some control, but I don't have to support it either. With rental software I give up some controll, but I still have to spend all that time supporting the software.
I think the only way a rental software system might work is if really acted ln a service based way. For a small loss leader investment, you get a MS app server to sit in your office. You then rent access to apps, MS put them on the server for you, and all your desktops can run those apps off the server. You don't have to manage the server at all except for setting up accounts and being sure your computers can connect to it. After that point MS takes care of the rest for you. You've basicly outsourced a big chunk of your IT responsibilities. With a fast internet connection, a local server might not be needed. Something like this might bring the value proposition back into balance.
Honestly, I think the Apple TV does nees something more than what it is now to be a compelling device. Its $299, for $349, I can get a 80gb ipod which plays video, can hook up to my tv, and fits in my pocket. It just isn't high def and it doesn't have the fancy menu system. But the current iTunes store videos aren't hi-def anyways, and since the DRM doesn't let you burn them to DVD so I have a future proof backup, I am not so interested in buying them. Although if I could burn DVDs, and most network shows were on iTunes, I would consider canceling my video cable, as it would be cheaper for me to just buy subscriptions to the few shows I actually watch. If there was a lot of good, affordable, and/or free HD content I could stream or download and watch on an Apple TV I might consider it. P2P is something a device like this could uniquely do, but as a user I don't really care if it uses P2P, I just want something good to watch. (BTW, I wouldn't put YouTube into the category of "good", but a well curated YouTube like system, like the Zed show on CBC, I'd go for) It has a USB port, but I don't really see what for. What does it do? Can I attach extra storage? Can I attach an eyeTV and turn it into a DVR? Or hook up a mouse and keyboard and browse the web? Without the above, I'd be more inclined to buy a mac mini for my living room. Its more money, but since its a full computer, I would get a lot more value out of it, and it comes with the Front Row software and remote too. Without more content and features, I don't see the Apple TV being all that compelling for me beyond the "wow, Apple makes cool stuff" factor. I still think they will sell a ton of them, but there really is a lot more potential in the set top box area I hope they develop. I love ranting. I'll sit back for a while and see what version 2 of apple tv ends up being.
Vermonters often prefer local smaller business, cooperatives, and the like, to the national chains and providers. They do an excellent job up there of doing things their own way. Having FairPoint instead of Verizon will hopefully mean a telco that will work more closely with local government to provide innovate services that reach everyone. The big telcos have fought against things like municpal networks in the past. I don't think they will be missed.
Does anyone remember or have info on the old "station car" program offered on Metro North and the Long Island Railroad? I remember seeing news about it around 2000 and maybe even something in the mail. The idea was, you leased a Ford TH!NK car for around the same price the EV1 was going for. But for the lease price you also got, free monthly train pass (which could run you $200+ a month on its own), free charging while at the train station, a charger to use at home, and a parking spot at the station (which can take years to come by). As far as I know it was a popular and pretty successful program, but the cars used for it were discontinued. Some of the chargers and spaces are still there. I've seen them at Southeast station on the Harlem line.
Its fills that last gap in to the public transit commuter situation. The free train passes and parking made this really attractive, and most families in this area have multiple cars and some realize they have no need to use their work vehicle for anything more than going to the train and maybe getting some groceries on the way home.
If you do a search for "electric station car" on google you'll get back some info on the project.
Are there any studies or numbers out there regarding this project and if it will be revived at some point?