So the news is that Tiger Woods is out of Sex rehabilitation centre and trying to get back in his normal life – of course he has still not made public appearance. Often I wonder what this ‘sex rehabilitation centre’ would be like. The idea is to cure a person from his ‘disease’ which in this case his regular sexual affairs. So how do they test if the person is cured? In the 1st place, how to they treat the person? Do they make him watch some religious discourse followed by a lap dance by some skimpily dressed gal and observe if the erection is happening and at what pace? J Or perhaps tie the person up to zillions of wires and check his beats to see if is he still getting excited by watching naked gals dancing in front of him. Let me google on what they do and hope to publish another post on it soon :-)
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Blogging sabbatical
I noticed that last year I just posted one single post! It's very surprising for me since till a year before that I was heavily blogging. This year I promise it would be different. My dear friend Sahana who herself is an avid blogger & the queen of tweets has suggested I start a photo blog. I am toying with that idea too. Very soon I'll be posting my road trip blogs along with snaps. Hope I'll gain back my motivation to write and write passionately. :)
The new tablet on the block - Ipad
Those who have followed Steve Jobs closely through his career would be aware that the king pin of Apple doesn’t sell products. He sells experience. Right from the 80s days when the famous Mac TVC brought in a revolutionary change in the desktop industry to the visual experience of seeing a notebook being pulled out of an envelope. It was no surprise that the most awaited launch of recent time – the Apple tablet bore the same aura and excitement generally you will find at Oscars. Given Apple’s panache for creating mega hype for any product launch, little wonder everyone was super excited on what Steve would produce this time. And boy, they were not disappointed. So finally we have the Apple Ipad and as expected it has created a stormy debate on blogs and technology forums. The main bone of discussion has been – where does it fit in? It’s an Iphone/Itouch on steroids minus the ability to make a call and still not in a league where it can be qualified as a notebook. So has Apple created the biggest blunder by creating a product that doesn’t fit into any category or have they embarked on a bold attempt to create a new market segment?
Experience Sells. Apple products have always been driven around experience. Be it the visual appeal or the sheer joy of experiencing the interaction on any of the apple product. Experience, like brands are not built overnight. And with Apple who has set the benchmark for interaction experience, users always expect the next product from their stable to take the experience a notch higher. If you would have seen the key note that Steve Jobs delivered, his maximum emphasis was around the experience that a user would enjoy with the product. A key aspect in all his key notes has always been the demo that Steve delivers around the product. Steve never ‘sells’ the products. His demos do the job of selling. A simple tap here, a light touch to flick the ebook on the Ipad, the rotatable bookstore, the email keypad, the rotatable browser – notice how he casually went through the key user journeys on the Ipad, as the audience experienced it in delight. Didn’t it make you feel you want to grab that product right away? That’s experience – a hallmark of all Apple products.
Experience creates demand. In Apple’s case it’s their brilliant marketing strategy that has also fuelled up any demand for their product. The sheer aura that they manage to create around any of their product launch helps in creating anticipation and the experience of the product converts that anticipation into a demand. In Ipad’s case I believe Apple has boldly ventured on a path of creating a new market segment. A product that fits between a laptop & a smart phone like iphone. The question is, will they manage to create the demand? I believe yes. Thanks to Ipad, we will see a rise of a new segment of users who would like to ride on the convergence wave that Ipad promises. Apple’s ‘tempting’ pricing strategy for ipad will ensure that conversions happen. With ipad, Apple has also blown the war trumpet against ebook hardware manufacturers like Kindle and taken the storming bull by its horn. Their venture in ebooks with launch of ibooks application in ipad is a bold attempt to walk into the ebook territory. Of course, you don’t expect ebooks addicts to buy ipad for just the books application and they would very well stick to portable devices like Kindle. Already a storm in brewing up in ebooks industry with publishers picking up sides on which side of the hardware manufactures there would like to be. Will this be another Blueray v/s HD DVD in making?.
On the flip side what I didn’t like about Ipad is the limited hard disk space that is bundled into the device. 64GB?? This device is not an ipod but has been pitched as an entertainment solution. Games, movies, photos. Load all that up plus few more softwares and very soon you will start feeling a pinch for space. Imagine, sitting at airport lounge and plugging in an external HDD to the sleek looking ipad. While ipad has provision of mini GSM card for 3G model, I wonder if they will launch 3G model in India as I am not sure if mini GSM are available with telecom operators.
Over all I feel apple has lived up to their brand name and have managed to create a storm. But they need to watch out as Google is just round the corner fine turning their version of the tablet. Already their Android platform and the decision to enter the smart phone segment have started giving Steve Jobs nightmare.
For ipad, will they manage to convert foot falls into purchases when they launch it in March? Only time will tell.
Experience Sells. Apple products have always been driven around experience. Be it the visual appeal or the sheer joy of experiencing the interaction on any of the apple product. Experience, like brands are not built overnight. And with Apple who has set the benchmark for interaction experience, users always expect the next product from their stable to take the experience a notch higher. If you would have seen the key note that Steve Jobs delivered, his maximum emphasis was around the experience that a user would enjoy with the product. A key aspect in all his key notes has always been the demo that Steve delivers around the product. Steve never ‘sells’ the products. His demos do the job of selling. A simple tap here, a light touch to flick the ebook on the Ipad, the rotatable bookstore, the email keypad, the rotatable browser – notice how he casually went through the key user journeys on the Ipad, as the audience experienced it in delight. Didn’t it make you feel you want to grab that product right away? That’s experience – a hallmark of all Apple products.
Experience creates demand. In Apple’s case it’s their brilliant marketing strategy that has also fuelled up any demand for their product. The sheer aura that they manage to create around any of their product launch helps in creating anticipation and the experience of the product converts that anticipation into a demand. In Ipad’s case I believe Apple has boldly ventured on a path of creating a new market segment. A product that fits between a laptop & a smart phone like iphone. The question is, will they manage to create the demand? I believe yes. Thanks to Ipad, we will see a rise of a new segment of users who would like to ride on the convergence wave that Ipad promises. Apple’s ‘tempting’ pricing strategy for ipad will ensure that conversions happen. With ipad, Apple has also blown the war trumpet against ebook hardware manufacturers like Kindle and taken the storming bull by its horn. Their venture in ebooks with launch of ibooks application in ipad is a bold attempt to walk into the ebook territory. Of course, you don’t expect ebooks addicts to buy ipad for just the books application and they would very well stick to portable devices like Kindle. Already a storm in brewing up in ebooks industry with publishers picking up sides on which side of the hardware manufactures there would like to be. Will this be another Blueray v/s HD DVD in making?.
On the flip side what I didn’t like about Ipad is the limited hard disk space that is bundled into the device. 64GB?? This device is not an ipod but has been pitched as an entertainment solution. Games, movies, photos. Load all that up plus few more softwares and very soon you will start feeling a pinch for space. Imagine, sitting at airport lounge and plugging in an external HDD to the sleek looking ipad. While ipad has provision of mini GSM card for 3G model, I wonder if they will launch 3G model in India as I am not sure if mini GSM are available with telecom operators.
Over all I feel apple has lived up to their brand name and have managed to create a storm. But they need to watch out as Google is just round the corner fine turning their version of the tablet. Already their Android platform and the decision to enter the smart phone segment have started giving Steve Jobs nightmare.
For ipad, will they manage to convert foot falls into purchases when they launch it in March? Only time will tell.
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