Real competition for the iPhone?
Anyone with their TV on last probably saw Verizon’s DROID commercial… encouraging people to visit droiddoes.com
Apparently, this is a Motorola device running the Google Android operating system– many people believe devices that run the Android system are the biggest threat on the horizon for the otherwise-dominant iPhone.
Just to be clear– the Google Android operating system can run on various devices on different cell phone networks. This will allow people choice in devices, choice in wireless carriers, but a set of downloadable applications that will work on all of those different phones and wireless networks, assuming the phone they are using is a phone running the Google Android operating system.
Here’s a snippet from an article posted yesterday about this:
I’m not going to be foolish enough to call this an iPhone killer for the simple fact that the iPhone’s developer community is still miles ahead of Android’s regardless of how good Droid turns out to be. But don’t be surprised if you start hearing about people who quit the iPhone in favor of the Droid. After all, even if the phone doesn’t turn out to be quite as polished as the iPhone, it will be running on a network that will actually let them connect their calls consistently.
One final thing to note: given how direct an attack Verizon is making on the iPhone, it sure doesn’t sound like the iPhone will be making the leap to Verizon any time soon.
From this individual’s comments and plenty of others, it is clear that the consensus is that the iPhone market share is fairly dominant, and that eating into it will take a while.
But in the meantime, for those of us who’ve not yet taken the iPhone plunge, there may be an exciting alternative soon!
Have you ever been strangled by your cell phone?
No, I haven’t either.
But the AT&T network has been strangled by the iPhone recently.
I’ve started a blog posting entitled “My junky phone – savings or a symbol?” that I really need to finish – but in light of all the press in recent days about iPhone’s service problems, I’m glad I waited… BUT I couldn’t wait to pass THIS on to you all out there, several of whom I know have iPhones.
Despite TechCrunch having reported on this issue months ago, the rest of the media is starting to catch on… the AT&T cellular network is being bogged down by the intense data demands of the typical iPhone user, leading to slowdowns for many users.
You’ll notice in the ZDNet article below the author blames Apple for the problem– but, I assure you that Apple is not happy about this, regardless of whether the blame is rightly theirs or not. I also think this bad press about the iPhone’s slowness, even if it is not systemwide, pretty much assures that other carries will have the iPhone available soon. Although, it’s a tightrope Apple and the cell companies must walk. Making the device available to other carries will help spread out the cellular network load to other carriers, and yet it is also going to increase the total absolute load on cell networks, as people will be rushing to get the iPhone with their existing provider, that they were leery of leaving for AT&T.
Coverage of this issue the last few days includes these articles:
NY Times: Customers Angered as iPhones Overload AT&T
Wall Street Journal: AT&T Gets a Fuzzy Signal on Apple’s iPhone
Also.. NY Times March ’09 article: 3G Phones Exposing Networks’ Last-Gen Technology
ZDNet: iPhone users strangling the AT&T network
The WiiStimulus
Many of you read the iStimulus plan I had proposed the other day– and after getting some feedback, I’ve realized that the plan was a bit, er, selfish, as the irony in the name iStimulus (as in “I”) was pointed out to me.
So instead, I have crafted a new stimulus proposal that I feel certain will be better received. The iStimulus‘ benefit was limited because, let’s face it, iPhones and most other Apple products only benefit individuals… so I now propose something that helps a broader swath of people — the WiiStimulus plan.
As it sounds and as it is spelled, the WiiStimulus is designed to help families and groups of friends purchase Nintendo Wii(TM) systems and other home video game systems. This stimulus shuns the individual and instead favors the group approach. In fact, the only way to receive your $100 tax credit on participating video game products will be to also provide, with your tax return, proof of purchase of at least one video game requiring two or more players. I know, such game titles may be hard to find, but I am done with rewarding individuals!
Anything that will bring a family or groups of friends to gather around the LCD in their living room glowing the colors of Guitar Hero or Mario Kart Wii is a good thing! Blogging? So self-promoting. Facebook? So selfish and self-pitying (unless you are messaging friends or family members on the other side of the room). Twitter? Just noisy and distracting. Playing games on your iPhone? — it’s just Windows Solitaire with a prettier face. Family video game playing represents a PURE use of technology that brings people together.
So, rush out today and buy a new video game system (only new systems qualify for the stimulus) and get your family off of their laptops and iPhones and get them gathered around the television once again, using entertainment tools they don’t need and may not be able to afford. Because after all, it will be $100 less now!
Many believe that even though i don’t need or want a stimulus, but that Wii, collectively, do… but is there a difference?
The iStimulus
According to this article in the NY Times yesterday, some “experts worry that the recovery may be weak, stymied by consumers’ reluctance to spend.” Oh no! We’ve got to go spend our money!
Some of the reasons why consumers are slowing their spending from the irrational highs of recent years is described in the article by Moodys.com chief economist Mark Zandi:
“Lower-income households can’t borrow, and higher-income households no longer feel wealthy,” Mr. Zandi added. “There’s still a lot of debt out there. It throws a pall over the potential for a strong recovery. The economy is going to struggle.”
Mark Zandi is describing a return to rationality among American consumers–and I couldn’t be happier. In fact, if the lower-income don’t borrow–because they can’t–and save their money instead, and if higher-income households don’t spend all they make (and save their money instead), I believe this will lead to a more stable economy over the long-run. This may not appease everyone–Cash for Clunkers, for example, was designed to stimulate spending quickly in the short-run, as some economists are convinced that is the greater need.
So, to appease those with a short-run mentality, and to excite the technology lovers out there such as myself who have not yet taken the “plunge” into the world of Apple technology bliss, I propose the first-ever iStimulus. The government will give a purchaser a $100 tax credit for every Apple device they buy – an iPod, iTouch, and yes– especially the iPhone.
This stimulus will do several things for the economy:
1) It will push me over the edge and let me whip out my debit card for the new iPhone activation fee, knowing that $100 of it isn’t all my money – it’s from the government, and so society will gladly share in the cost of my new technology purchase in the form of taxes to cover the iStimulus program.
2) As a result, I can feel good about buying something I don’t completely need. Yes, I literally do have the cash to go buy one and yes, I may or may not really need it, but the government wants me to spend–and it wants me to be a good American citizen–so it has given me an incentive to do so now.
3) It will give Apple more reasons to boast of their strong recent success. It doesn’t matter that they recently sold their 40 millionth iPod/iTouch device; this will get them closer to that 100 million mark! Yes, we may indeed create a mini-technology bubble that will eventually burst, but we can worry about that later…
In all seriousness, the one positive thing about such a stimulus is that at least for once we would be investing money into a company with a future!! And granted, there is nothing wrong with buying “wants”. But, in my opinion, when you lie to yourself and call it a need, or when you finance those wants through personal credit and the backs of society in the form of government incentives, we will find ourselves creating yet another spending bubble that we and our children will be paying for in the form of higher taxes and slower economic growth in the future.
I have personally experienced no benefit from any of the recent stimulus programs; so I say launch an iStimulus program so that more of us can feel good about this devastating economic path that the current administration and the conventional economic wisdom of the day is leading us down.
…
UPDATE: You may wish to read the related posting about a proposed “WiiStimulus” by clicking here.
Target & iTunes
According to an article in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal, Minneapolis-based Target is partnering with iTunes to promote music on iTunes.
I think this is a fairly interesting development, as Target begins to leverage its brand outside of the brick-and-mortar space. Sure, target.com has been a favorite destination for women (and men!) for years now — and yet, it’s not yet often that you see a traditional retailer join forces online with another online company to encourage purchases that otherwise COULD have come through them (via physical cd’s through their website or in their stores).
This clearly demonstrates Target’s commitment to change with the times, and acknowledges the fact that cd sales are quickly dropping away. It is widely known, in fact, that Apple surpassed Wal-Mart in 2008 as the largest music retailer in the United States.
It is astounding to me, however, that Target is to my knowledge the first major retailer to take the obvious step to partner with the leader in online music sales. A trip to the music section of Best Buy’s website promotes the revamped Napster heavily– and who can blame them, when they paid $121 million to buy Napster last year? Of course, they do sell iTunes gift cards online, although this is virtually pointless except when buying them for a gift — who wants to pull out our credit card, buy an iTunes gift card at BestBuy.com, wait for it to come in the mail, then go to the iTunes store and wip out the gift card and enter the card number?
Barnes & Noble has recently gotten wise on the rise of e-books and jumped on the bandwagon by launching their own e-book store at the same time they launched a Blackberry and iPhone reader app — as well as indicating they will be selling a reader device very soon. This, of course, in response to Amazon’s Kindle device and in realization of the virtual disappearance of physical books, for the most part, coming upon us in the very near future.
Target is wise to take a similar strategy with music — they are getting a piece of the online music action before it can take a bigger piece out of their sales.
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