The name says it all. This has got to be one of the best viral ad campaigns out there. I may just have to buy on of their blenders.
It amazes me that the phone continued to work for as long as it did during the blend.
Originally Published in the July Issue of the Wilmington Business Journal (http://www.wilmingtonbiz.net/)
I have made some funny spelling mistakes in my life, but unfortunately none of them have led me to owning a company with market capitalization of $160 billion.
The name “Google” originated when founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin misspelled “googol,” which refers to 1 followed by 100 zeros, while registering a domain name for a website. Since its creation in 1996, Google has become the dominant search tool on the Internet, and with the addition of advertising revenue, it has become an economic powerhouse. In addition to becoming an outlet for advertising sales and web search, Google allows employees to spend up to twenty percent of their weekly time working on new products. Google also has been buying successful web sites, and they now offer ancillary products that do not directly relate to online search, including an online office suite that competes with Microsoft Office.
I knew the pubic relations machine at Apple had reached a fever pitch, when even my Fiance’s grandmother asked me what I thought about the iPhone. As a lifetime Apple user and a more recent shareholder, I am excited to see Apple do well with this new device.
Apple has gone a long way to ensuring the success of their device by announcing their rate plans today. The pricing is reasonable and similar to what I currently pay for my unlimited data plan for my Nokia N70 on Cingular.
Everything about the iPhone looks like trademark Apple. The user interface is sexy, the advertising is compelling, and the distribution strategy is disruptive. Apple will sell you the phone, then send you home to activate it. No more waiting in the store in line to have an underpaid sales rep set up your service. All of this is done through iTunes. Talk about convergence.
Will I buy an iPhone on June 29th when it is released. Probably not. I am very happy with my phone now, and it allows me some features that the iPhone lacks. User installed applications and dial up networking (DUN) are my critical features. Apple claims that you can use web apps, but it is nice to be able to install your own programs. I have a couple on my Nokia that would be missed, such a Putty for SSH. As for the lack of DUN, which allows you to get your laptop online via the internet connection in your phone, this is a stop for me. I connect via my laptop all the time, and while it is not that fast, when you need to get a file or something over a remote connection, it is priceless. I am sure this will come in the future, but for now it is a no-deal.
Most people probably do not care about either of these features, so the phone may be for them. If you think that $499 and $599 are expensive, remember the Razr was almost that price when it came out.
People love Power Point, I even like to use, but there are a lot of things you can do wrong. Comedian Don McMillian hits on most of them.
Life After Death by PowerPoint
*This is safe for work and has no improper language.
Originally Published in the June Issue of the Wilmington Business Journal (http://www.wilmingtonbiz.net/)
As this is my first article (for the business journal), I wanted to make a good impression on my editor and get it in early. Unfortunately, my computer crashed, or I accidentally deleted it, or my dog ate my hard drive. Actually, none of this really happened to me, but it did happen to the magazine Business 2.0, which is published by Time. They recently had a catastrophic hardware failure that caused the complete loss of the June issue. Lucky for them they had a paper copy, but page layouts had to be redone from scratch.
If you have ever lost a computer file, then you know how important it is to back up your work. If you have never been there, done that, consider yourself lucky—in today’s digital world, data loss is as inevitable as death and taxes. Therefore, you must have a backup strategy in place to guard against these would-be catastrophes.
For a backup strategy to be effective, it must be regular, complete and verifiable. If your backup strategy ignores any of these three components, you are asking for trouble.
If you are interested in business topics such as marketing, leadership, business development, you should check out the Harvard Business Review “Ideacast.” It is a weekly podcast on a range of topics. Last week’s discussion of public relations gave a lot of valuable insight into the value of good PR. There were some practical tips on how to position your organization in such a way to attract the press when they need an expert for a topic.
Some of the past topics have included, What is Wikinomics?, Breakthrough Ideas of 2007, and Viral marketing. Each episode is free and only 10 to 15 minutes long. This is some great stuff.
Wow, how about that new blog smell. Although the Internet probably does not need another blog, I think that this will be a good place for me to record the tips/tricks and hints I have discovered about web marketing, search engine optimization, design and other topics.
My plan is to write in an approachable style that will interest my friends and family who come by to read this. Also, I hope to get some writing from other sources as well. Jode Willingham has promised to write some words about classic 80’s movies and songs.
