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1984 Backwards?
How's
this for a flip? Sunday's New York Times Magazine ran an article
called "AntiPod," which speculates about what makes people
buy Microsoft's Zune digital music player instead of an Apple iPod.
The main thesis of the article is that many people are buying the
Microsoft product simply because it isn't an iPod. Given the history
of Apple and Microsoft, that's really ironic.
At
70% market share, the iPod is the big, bad marketplace monster,
dwarfing the Zune with its 3% share. (SanDisk has a 10% share of
digital music players.) The article quotes one Zune owner as saying,
"I probably wouldn't buy an iPod," for that reason that
she is "a little bit anti-Apple." Public radio host Jesse
Thorn is quoted as saying that he was put off from owning an iPod
by seeing so many "self-satisfied people carrying a ubiquitous
object."
I
have a great idea. Maybe Microsoft can take the film from Apple's
famous 1984 IBM-bashing TV ad (Remember the days when "IBM
Compatible" was synonymous with "It runs on Microsoft
DOS?") and repurpose it into an anti-Apple ad. "Don't
let those big bad guys at Apple take over your world. Be a rebel!
Go with the cool, hip, anti-trend underdog ... Microsoft!"
Sorry.
I have a hard time imagining people embracing a Microsoft product
because it is the counter-culture, anti-trend answer to the imperial,
controlling Apple monolith. Maybe Apple will become what Microsoft
is, but Microsoft will never become what Apple was.
Steve Yastrow posted this on 08/12/08.
Design
Saved From Trash
Ok,
I'm risking jabs for being one of those ex-Windows-Macophiles, but
hey, what can I say? I deserve it!
Did a major office cleaning the other day, muttering a mantra of
"get rid of it" as I tossed just about everything in sight.
Old client files, articles, extra pens—you name it, I threw
it out.
Despite
this urge to purge, two things survived that seemingly shouldn't
have: The box to my iBook and a plastic shopping bag from the Apple
Store. I found myself identifying future functions for them so they
wouldn't have to go. They're so pretty!
Steve Yastrow posted this on 02/19/06.
Playstation
Power
I
just picked my 13 year old son up from a friend's house, where he
was watching the Chicago Bears lose an NFL playoff game. He is really
bummed out.
The
entire way home I heard about poor play from the Bears' cornerback,
missed calls by inept refs, and the unfortunate interception near
the end of the game. And then he told me the worst part: "Now
the Bears are going to be rated low in Madden 2007." "Why
does that matter so much?" I asked. "Now when I want to
be the Bears they won't win very often."
Steve Yastrow posted this on 01/15/06.
Mac
Love
I
knew when I switched from Windows back to Apple (after 11 years
away) I'd end up being one of those insufferable anti-Windows people.
But I didn't know it would take .5 nanoseconds.
A
few months ago my Dell laptop had its 3rd hard drive crash, so I
promptly went to the Mac Store and bought an iBook. (When you work
for yourself you have to pay for everything, but you don't have
to ask permission. It's well worth it.) All I can say is that it
is really nice to be away from all of the cumbersome things and
problems that Windows makes you endure.
What's
making me happy right this minute? Well, my Dell used to act funny
anytime I put it to sleep, so I was constantly shutting it down
and waiting through the long Windows boot-up process, multiple times
each day. I just close my iBook when I'm done using it, and it wakes
up instantly refreshed and ready to go. I just went through security
at O'Hare, popped into the Admiral's Club, and I can write this
post in the time it would take my old Windows machine to start up.
And
... my battery says 4 hours and 12 minutes left to go. (After working
for a while.) Plenty to get me to Vegas tonight.
Steve Yastrow posted this on 01/08/06.
Buy
American?
Ad
Age reported this week on the "American Demographics Perception
Study", a new consumer research study. One of the interesting
findings is that, while Americans think "made in USA"
stands for quality, most Americans, especially "young adults
entering their prime buying years and richer households who have
money," are not particularly inclined to buy American-made
products.
Why
do you think this is? What causes the "high quality but I don't
really want it" phenomenon?
Other
interesting findings from the study: Dell beat Apple on innovation—you
may disagree but this is what a representative cross-section of
Americans think—and Wal-Mart is generally thought of as a
good corporate citizen.
Steve Yastrow posted this on 06/08/05.
Caveat Emptor Comcast
Oops.
I didn't think to ask Comcast for an international calling plan.
If I had, I would have paid 9 cents a minute for calls to Israel.
Since I didn't think to ask for the international plan, I was paying
30 times more than that, close to $3/minute. Since I've been working
on finishing up a deal in Jerusalem, I've made lots of phone calls
there lately and racked up $357 in calls before I realized what
was going on.
Shame
on me. Silly me. I didn't fit a task into my busy schedule titled
"make sure Comcast doesn't rip you off." If I had, I would
have saved 97% on my international calling rates.
What
a business model—create a complicated web of tariffs and rules,
have "customer care" phone system that requires long wait
times and multiple call transfers, and then charge 30 times more
to people who don't go out of their way to navigate this Kafka-esque
labyrinth. Wow. Maybe we should all try it.
Steve Yastrow posted this on 06/07/05.
Southwest
I
just received a birthday card from Southwest Airlines, complete
with cute 3-D glasses to look at the card. Can you imagine any other
airline sending a birthday card to a customer?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 04/06/05.
The Purple Hotel
If
you grew up on the north side of Chicago or in the north suburbs
sometime in the last 40 years, you probably remember "The Purple
Hyatt" in Lincolnwood, Illinois, a shrine to Sixties Kitsch
Style. I actually remember going there to visit family friends when
I was about 6, circa 1965. Even then I could tell it was tacky!
By
the time I worked at the Hyatt corporate office in the early '90's,
The Purple Hyatt had become "The Purple Radisson," and
no one at Hyatt could mention the hotel without a sigh of relief
that it was no longer associated with our brand. After all, this
hotel was sort of a local joke.
But
I drove by there yesterday, and saw a twist on the branding of this
property that is, at the least, amusing. The hotel is no longer
The Purple Hyatt or The Purple Radisson—it's The Purple Hotel.
Why apologize for an architectural anachronism? Embrace it!
Steve Yastrow posted this on 01/31/05.
Caveat Emptor Verizon
I
left Verizon Wireless two years ago for the lower prices at Sprint.
Sprint was a big service disappointment, so I decided to return
to Verizon. I dashed into a Verizon store two weeks ago and figured
out what I wanted in about 5 minutes—4 lines, the first two
at $99 and the second two at $9.95 each.
Then,
I returned a week ago to sign up for new service and buy phones.
It was taking a long time and I had to be somewhere, so I had the
sales person do all the paperwork, and I returned an hour later
to pick up the phones and sign on the dotted line.
OK,
this is ultimately my fault: I didn't read the fine print to see
what the extra surcharges were. I figured the surcharges were equally
egregious as all cell phone companies'.
Then
the first bill arrived. Additional surcharges and taxes amounted
to 69% of the monthly fees, i.e., a hidden $82 on top of the $120
that they were advertising. Taxes are a small piece of that—most
of it is for Verizon.
Yes, when I go back and read the fine print, I see those charges
were described. So yes, it is my fault. My fault for trusting my
new cell phone provider and assuming that they won't try to reach
into my pockets to grab cash when I'm not looking!
Steve Yastrow posted this on 01/31/05.
Couldn't Help But Notice
As
we're ranting about the P&G/Gillette merger, my Fortune magazine
arrives with the cover story:
Why
Carly's Big Bet Is Failing
Buying
Compaq hasn't paid off for HP's investors. And there's no easy way
out.
Do
you think Fortune will be able to save this cover layout for when
they write the inevitable P&G/Gillete story sometime in the
not too distant future?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 01/29/05.
United
Ugh-lines
Off
to the airport, have to fly United today. Must admit—I'm dreading
it. What stupidness will they show me today?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 01/09/05.
The Emperor's New TSA Uniform
At
this very moment, tens of thousands of people are patiently inching
through airport security lines at a snail's pace. Few are complaining,
because we look at it as an important piece of homeland defense.
"Hey, we're all in this 9-11 thing together."
OK.
Of course. We all want safe air travel. We all want to keep terrorists
from committing violent acts. But let's not be afraid to call it
what it is: The current process of screening passengers at U.S.
airports is a joke. It's not protecting us from very much. Did you
ever notice that your likelihood of being pulled out of line for
a special check has more to do with the TSA staff/passenger ratio
than if you're likely to be carrying a bomb? I swear that I only
get pulled out of line if they're not very busy. Don't you think
a terrorist could figure this system out?
You
may have guessed: I just went through an inane complete search of
all my belongings, just by the luck of the draw as I went through
security in Phoenix. With 2 guys busy analyzing my toothpaste and
making sure my iPod Mini wasn't really WMD Mini, all I could think
was that Senator Proxmire would be having lots of fun with this
if he were still exposing stupid government waste.
Steve Yastrow posted this on 11/19/04
The Royal Air Force Markets a Line of Motion Sickness Pills
Why
do I find this weird? The British Army recently announced that they
are involved in the production of a new running shoe that carries
the army's crossed swords logo and "embodies the Army's values
and standards," whatever that means.
One
of the army's lieutenant colonels admitted that that a commercial
flop could tarnish the armed forces' image. No worries, I guess,
since the army said that they would "proceed with caution and
take any evasive action necessary to avoid being labelled a "fashion"
company." Will they really? Proceed with caution? How? Evasive
action? Huh?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 11/13/04.
Mis-Fortune 500
I've
never been a fan of the Fortune 500 list. It's considered a weighty
honor for companies and a proxy for their credibility. But, after
all, it's only a list of the companies that sell the most stuff.
So what?
If
you look at this year's list, you'll see that 66 of these 500 companies—13%!!—lost
money in 2003. I'll bet every one of them brags about being "A
Fortune 500 Company."
Steve Yastrow posted this on 11/02/04
Who Pays?
Should
the government pay for airline marketing programs?
In
the past few years, special lines have appeared at airline security
checkpoints, reserved for the "elite" members of airline
frequent flyer programs. Is this right? Should government-funded
employees give special treatment to the best customers of private
companies?
Full
disclosure, that may open me up to criticism: I sometimes take advantage
of this service. Yesterday, at the American Airlines terminal at
O'Hare, I encountered a Disneyworld-esque snaking line at security.
I was able to avoid the wait and walk right up to the special taxpayer-funded
station reserved for AAdvantage Gold members.
Yeah, I'm confused about whether I should do this or not ... maybe
I'm being a hypocrite. But I can tell you this with certainty: I
would rather see this go away, and give up my occasional privilege.
The big airlines should pay for their own marketing programs.
What
do you think?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 09/18/04.
Wal*Mart:
Ever More Influence
National
Assoc. of Convenience Stores Magazine, August, 2004: "Because
of its buying power, Wal*Mart can sell all of its products at retail
for less than the price at which most of your wholesale distributors
can buy the same product from the manufacturer ... It's scary to
think small retailers might get better prices by purchasing directly
from a Wal*Mart store than they can from buying from their own distributor/wholesaler."
What
this means is that Wal*Mart has not only changed consumer buying
behavior, they have changed the way distribution channels work.
Many manufacturers know that much of their Wal*Mart volume, especially
what they sell through Sam's Club, actually represents trade sales
and not consumer sales. We've all heard about the impact Wal*Mart
has on its retail competitors ... how big will this impact on trade
channels be?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 08/26/04
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