Monthly Archives: October 2011

“Cash for Clunkers”

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Brantford’s blog entry, Dealing with Climate Change…Ineffectively, offered some unique insights on “Cash for Clunkers,” a federal program that seeks to reduce CO2 emission.

The following paragraph is my first impression regarding similar programs. As people become more environmentally conscious, there is an increasing pressure on the government to set up more public initiatives that aim at environmental sustainability.  As a result, programs like “Cash for Clunkers” are created and implemented to satisfy this new popular demand.

However, two points that Brantford brought up changed my opinion. The first is the effectiveness of such a program. As he quoted from Economist Jeffrey Sachs, the net reduction cost of CO2, according to Sachs’ rough calculation, is approximately $141 per ton. Looking from an economic perspective, this seems rather inefficient as cars are smashed up five years before their natural demise. In general, subsidized programs are not the best way to counter climate change. Then, Brantford in his final discussion talked about another very interesting point that the main intention of the program was actually to stimulate automotive sales while putting safer and cleaner cars on the road, a purpose that “Cash for Clunkers” definitely succeeded in fulfilling.

iPhone 4s = Anticlimax

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The upgraded iPhone 4s is rather……underwhelming. I refrained from using the word “disappointing” because the hardware upgrades definitely have a wow factor to them, but overall, it failed to meet our “great expectations.”

Siri, one of the remarkable new hardware upgrades

It looks exactly like iPhone 4. For customers, while hardware upgrades are great, it is also important to look edgy at the same time. In our minds, Apple is associated with words like “chic,” not only because of the application of revolutionary ideas in its products, but also their slick physical features.

This failure to blow our socks off would not be such a big deal for any other company. However, for Apple, which has this “tradition” of impressing its customers, it was unexpected. With its competitors working hard to push for market share, this will have a negative impact on the company, slightly damaging its brand image.

However, this is not to say that it’s over for Apple. The brand name is still going strong and without a shadow of a doubt, the line-up for the new iPhone 4s will be crazy. Ultimately, it’s unlikely that a less-than-revolutionary product launch is going to persuade many Apple customers to switch to a different phone.