Follow Apple in the Cloud!
Apple with the launch of their iCloud services is a great example to follow! Read More...
Invented by Kodak, Certified by Apple
In the pocket video camera world, 2 ways of taking videos are available on the market pistol grip and candy bar.
For many months, some companies are pushing one way and some are pushing they other way.
However, like for the blue ray and the HD DVD standards at the end of the day the winning standard is the one that most of the consumers are using.
So if you take a look at what happened in the last months, the launch of the iPhone 4 is a big deal with 1.7 million units sold. The way the iPhone 4 is recording HD video will for sure based on the success of the product dictate what consumers are expecting in term of user experience to capture videos with pocket video camera. So clearly the candy bar way is the way to go and teenagers who will have used the iPhone 4 to capture HD videos will find it easier and more natural to use candy bar pocket video camera.
If you bought a pistol grip pocket video camera, rush to sell it on eBay and buy a candy bar pocket video camera! This kind of product has been invented by Kodak and now Certified by the Apple iPhone 4!
Make a successful product transition
The Business Case:
1- A company is selling consumer products and is using retailers as the main distribution channel.
2- They have a product transition in calendar Q4.
3- The replacement product have the same design but slightly better features than the original one.
4- The cost difference between the old and the replacement product is marginal.
The company is expecting to cover more price bands with the two products on the shelves.
However, what if the competition has no more inventory of the equivalent of the old product and is becoming very aggressive on the new one?
The simple answer, the company will be in lots of troubles having to dump the price of the old product.
The solution:
1- Forecast mainly the replacement product and not the new one.
2- For retailers, take a look at their committed numbers for the old product and when there is no more inventory of the old product ship to them the new ones at the cost of the old product. For the company it is a wash financially. Also, make sure that they do not price the replacement product to the old one level.
3- For customers, you buy a product with X features and for the same price you offer a level of features X+1. You will not complain, you will even be happy.
Last but not least, if you get rid of the inventory of the old product faster than your competition you could accelerate the transition to the new level of features... and grab market share.
The worst will be to bet your forecast on an old product and getting crushed by the competition!
iPad the PC will never be the same
Well, I have been in the PC business for almost two decades! I have seen some technology Innovation like the Newton, the first Wireless Notebook in the World, the first touch screen, etc. and recently I just bought an iPad.
When I bought it, I was not exactly sure on how I will use it. As a PC, as a book reader???
At the same time I had to go to surgery, and working on one leg is hard.
So I discover the usage of the iPad as a PC and believe it or not it works and it does the job.
The only challenging part to completely switch to the iPad is the storage capacity.
3 big acquisitions this week!
As you can see in my chapter on how corporations are acquiring companies in order to deliver technology innovations, in the last week 3 tech companies decided to be aggressive on the acquisition side :
Hewlett-Packard decided to absorb 3Com
The price: 2.7B$, a premium of 39% to Wednesday closing price.
The intent: To rival CISCO but also to have a complementary product offering and also a strong presence in China
Google decided to acquire AdMob
The price: 750M$
The intent: To continue to dominate the internet advertising space and to acknowledge the emergence of the Mobile Internet Tsunami.
Logitech decided to acquire LifeSize
The price: 405M$
The intent: Logitech is challenged on the low end by the netbooks and their low cost. This acquisition could be a way to go higher in term of value chain to their customers (mainly businesses) and also to be able one day to deliver HD quality videoconferencing solution to consumers.