Link of the Day:
http://www.presto.com/
I heard this advertised on Live365. (Which is a great place to find lots of music, but hard to buy off of. Its streaming radio, and they use shoutcast, so without refreshing the web page, you can't really tell what you're listening to. But that's another day...)
Its basically a printer in a box that prints your emails out for you.
When I first heard the ad, I just kinda laughed, like "Who in their right mind would get this?"
Well, my grandma's birthday is coming up, and I was trying to decide what to get her. Now, I'm not so good at picking out rugs or drapes or quilts. But I can do technology, so my gifts usually entail some sort of thing with chips inside. What can I say? I LIKE Chips!
I ws looking at several photo frames (LCD) and trying to decide which one I liked, when I heard the ad on Live365 (no, I don't have a premium account... ). So, I checked it out, laughed and went on with life. I was considering it later though..... and thought to myself, hmm... Grandma doesn't have internet or email. And I'm always wishing she would. I wonder if this would help?
So, I checked it out some more... $150 for the printer and an ink cartridge... Not unreasonable. Wait! $10 a month for the "Presto" Service? Uh...
Let's see... $10 a month for internet. Plus $150 for the printer... Plus ink and paper? Wow, HP is really setting this up for a cash cow here.
You see, just in case you didn't know, HP makes a *lot* of money off of ink. Last year, in 2007, HP got 42% of its operating profit (2.63 billion) from its Imaging and Printing Group. That was nearly twice the amount from its Personal Systems Group, which includes PCs. So its certainly in HP's best interest to get more printers out there....
So, to recap:
HP is offering basically a cheap computer with a printer attached for $150 plus $10 a month. Which means that you're basically buying an internet connection anyway, since cheaper dialup services go for $10 a month.
While its perhaps still a good deal if you really don't want to set up your own stuff, and don't know anything about the options, I don't think I'll be following this deal any further....
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Let the community help!
I came across this interesting post today:
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/266523108/design-lgs-touchscreen-phone-ui-theme-win-14000
Summary: LG has decided to hold an open contest to create their next touchscreen UI. $14000 is offered as the winning prize.
Thoughts:
Over the years, many companies, large ones especially, think that they've got it all. Instead of listening to their customers and offering their customers a chance to be involved, they produce a design internally, run it through some focus groups, and then send it out.
While this may work some, or even most, of the time, sometimes a company just can't get it right. And other times, you just can't please everyone.
For instance, I like elements of my interface to be shiny, but informative. I like round corners, smooth lines, gradients, and pretty widgets. However, I like items on my screen to take up real estate informatively, that is, they give information back to me.
For others, the interface is a place of conformity. They never consider how the interface can be changed to create a more pleasing place to them. They attack the interface every time they use it, because it doesn't make sense to them. They feel as if they are "technologically illiterate" because the interface does not make sense to them.
And yet, companies continue to disabuse users of making the interface their home. They try and create an interface that is everything to everyone. This obviously does not work well. For the longest time, the computer was thought of as a single desktop. Now, we have ultraportables with small screens, large media pc-tv hybrids, desktops, laptops, etc. Grandma uses it. I use it. My kid sister uses it. My friend's young children use it.
And they are all expected to use the same interface, whether its the standard OS X, standard Windows, or some variant of Linux. To change more than the interface colors on OS X and Windows, you need to download and install special software that provides system level hacks to do this. Linux has the opposite issue... too many interface choices, and not enough organization on the themes available for each of them.
What would it hurt a company to recognize that consumers that are emotionally attached to their product might have a good idea? To setup a collaborative process (such as LG's) with the community that might result in a good idea. This could be as simple as recognizing good work and folding it into your product (with appropriate renumeration) or setting up an official contest to inject new ideas into your product.
As the reach of technology expands, companies will have to realize that they no longer control the entire product line and usage of it. The company that gets their users emotionally vested in their product will develop long term customers, of the same loyalty as the famed Apple ilk. This should be the goal of all companies.
The role of community manager will become more and more important. We live in an increasingly user created world. We create videos, blogs, posts, etc. We want to feel a connection to the technology we use, not to be handed something and told, "Use this!" Of course, managing and coordinating all this information will take a special skill set as well.
The additional resources available to all of us now is incredible. Many features, whether in the programming world, art world, music world, or wherever that were only available to professionals with expensive software packages can now be done by an amateur with low-cost (under $150) or free software. The expanding reach of this allows previously unreproducible ideas to enter the system.
The key for any company is: How do we make use of these ideas?
The company that latches onto that idea and injects it into its product stream may very well create a whole new breed of fans. As well as money. Lots of it.
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/266523108/design-lgs-touchscreen-phone-ui-theme-win-14000
Summary: LG has decided to hold an open contest to create their next touchscreen UI. $14000 is offered as the winning prize.
Thoughts:
Over the years, many companies, large ones especially, think that they've got it all. Instead of listening to their customers and offering their customers a chance to be involved, they produce a design internally, run it through some focus groups, and then send it out.
While this may work some, or even most, of the time, sometimes a company just can't get it right. And other times, you just can't please everyone.
For instance, I like elements of my interface to be shiny, but informative. I like round corners, smooth lines, gradients, and pretty widgets. However, I like items on my screen to take up real estate informatively, that is, they give information back to me.
For others, the interface is a place of conformity. They never consider how the interface can be changed to create a more pleasing place to them. They attack the interface every time they use it, because it doesn't make sense to them. They feel as if they are "technologically illiterate" because the interface does not make sense to them.
And yet, companies continue to disabuse users of making the interface their home. They try and create an interface that is everything to everyone. This obviously does not work well. For the longest time, the computer was thought of as a single desktop. Now, we have ultraportables with small screens, large media pc-tv hybrids, desktops, laptops, etc. Grandma uses it. I use it. My kid sister uses it. My friend's young children use it.
And they are all expected to use the same interface, whether its the standard OS X, standard Windows, or some variant of Linux. To change more than the interface colors on OS X and Windows, you need to download and install special software that provides system level hacks to do this. Linux has the opposite issue... too many interface choices, and not enough organization on the themes available for each of them.
What would it hurt a company to recognize that consumers that are emotionally attached to their product might have a good idea? To setup a collaborative process (such as LG's) with the community that might result in a good idea. This could be as simple as recognizing good work and folding it into your product (with appropriate renumeration) or setting up an official contest to inject new ideas into your product.
As the reach of technology expands, companies will have to realize that they no longer control the entire product line and usage of it. The company that gets their users emotionally vested in their product will develop long term customers, of the same loyalty as the famed Apple ilk. This should be the goal of all companies.
The role of community manager will become more and more important. We live in an increasingly user created world. We create videos, blogs, posts, etc. We want to feel a connection to the technology we use, not to be handed something and told, "Use this!" Of course, managing and coordinating all this information will take a special skill set as well.
The additional resources available to all of us now is incredible. Many features, whether in the programming world, art world, music world, or wherever that were only available to professionals with expensive software packages can now be done by an amateur with low-cost (under $150) or free software. The expanding reach of this allows previously unreproducible ideas to enter the system.
The key for any company is: How do we make use of these ideas?
The company that latches onto that idea and injects it into its product stream may very well create a whole new breed of fans. As well as money. Lots of it.
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