I decided to write this after I saw a couple of my classmates relate their blogs to tablets (Laurel) (Ji-Eun).
What are tech companies really good at doing?
Making me feel like my laptop is severely outdated.
Currently the laptop I own is the Thinkpad Edge 14, purchased a year ago. I used to think it was the best thing when I first bought it. Now?
“It’s alright, I guess.”
Recently I decided I needed to buy a tablet for school, because my laptop isn’t good enough. Makes sense, right?
I mean, of course I need a tablet to look at pdf files, surf the web for homework, with its awesome battery life right? I need a tablet to be productive right?
I looked at all of the current “tier 1” “big name” tablets, such as:
Samsung, Toshiba, Motorola, Acer, Lenovo, ASUS.
The thing about these tablets are, They’re all basically the same. Same 10.1″ capacitive touch screen, all running on Android 3.2 Honeycomb (No iOS for me, thanks) as well as a Tegra 2 processor. The only thing that differentiates each product its its form factor, ports, thinness, and accessories.
These tablets made my computer feel that much smaller.
Then I realized a new line of tablets were coming, installed with the NEW TEGRA 3 PROCESSOR, said to be 5 times faster than the Tegra 2.
The one I had my eye on was the Transformer Prime by ASUS. Plus I can turn it into a laptop, which is cool.
Then I thought to myself, what if I want more computing power?
Quickly my necessities changed, and immediately started looking at the new ultrabook lineups by ASUS, Lenovo, Toshiba, and Acer.
Now my laptop looks like garbage.
I rationalized myself out of this tech consumer trap, at least for now.
We’ll see what happens in 2012.
Recently the CUS Lounge in the Sauder School of Business started offering free coffee. Naturally I went to try it, right before COMM 296 (early classes). I would have to say, it was quite good. The coffee machine had the choice of several different types of coffee beans, as well as different types of coffee (espresso, cappuccino, etc). I was quite satisfied.
Next day, I am in line for a medium double double at Tim Hortons.
“Hold on. You’re going to pay a dollar fifty for coffee when you can have as much FREE coffee as you want? Are you crazy?”
Yup.
The fact is, I prefer the taste of something that my tastebuds is accustomed to.
My economics professor describes this phenomenon in the form of “utility,” or “total satisfaction received for consuming a good or service”. Apparently a dollar fifty is a small price to pay for a greater satisfaction received from Tim Horton’s coffee.
Little do people know, there is also some deeper underlying reasons which I will now describe to you.
1. I am lazy. In the morning, I prefer not to make my own coffee. I would rather wait in line and have another person make it for me. Sad, but true. Consumers are in all honesty, lazy in some ways. They would rather buy a prepackaged product than make their own. Why? Because it is much more convenient. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing, just that consumers want products quickly and efficiently.
2. There are usually crowds of people at the CUS Lounge. Obviously because the CUS offers free coffee, many people will flock to get some.
3. Tim Horton’s has timbits~. A one stop shop for my donut and coffee needs.
Matt wrote on his blog that not accepting free coffee is wrong.
NOT TO ME.
Remember Blackberry?
Before the iPhone and Android phones started dominating the smartphone market, Blackberry was king.
This was before smartphones turned more towards the average consumer population instead of just professionals in business.
Now RIM’s Blackberry is slowly dying, and even in the tablet market.
A brief synopsis, Blackberry Playbook is a tablet that is currently in competition with the iPad, Android tablets, as well as now eBook readers (who would have guessed it?). The new Amazon Kindle Fire (an ebook reader) comes with similar specs as all the other tablets out in the market, but get this: It’s only $199. The Playbook, which is already losing out to the huge amount of tablets out in the market will continue to get the short end of the stick as technology advances forward. I mean, who would pay $499 if they can get a similar or superior product for $199? I see flash sales for Playbook very soon, maybe with Black Friday coming soon in the states, as the HP Touchpad fared a similar fate.
Why is marketing important?
Wherever you go, to succeed you must make your decisions heard.
Whether it is marketing yourself or marking that new snazzy product, the fundamentals are the same:
If I had to sum up what marketing is to me in one word, it would be presentation.
One presentation that really stood out to me:
You can clearly see who they are targetting: Dancers. Specifically Hip hop, Locking, and Popping dancers.
This was held in Vancouver during an October weekend. Tickets sold out super quickly. They sold out so quickly, I had to come two hours early and stand in line to have a SLIM chance of receiving one that was reserved for out-of-towners that could not make it.
Certainly they did a great job marketing, at the same time marketing their dance crew using spiffy crewneck sweaters.
It created value for the customers by giving local dancers a chance to experience the high level of talent that international dancers can bring together, which will ultimately raise the skill level here in Vancouver. It was a great event and I am glad I went.
I didn’t get an iPad. Why? because it costs a good 500 dollars to buy one. I might get the Kindle Fire. Why? Cause IT’S SO FREAKIN CHEAP. IT’S LIKE 200 DOLLARS.
Amazon does not plan to compete directly with the iPad. They plan to enter into a relatively untapped market of cheap tablets. Within the cheap tablet market it will offer the best specifications, with a dual core processor and an IPS display with ppi even better than the iPad (means that it has a super clear screen). Fear not in case of dropping your Kindle Fire, because of special plastic that is 30 times more durable than regular plastic, and to top it off, gorilla glass! No more scratches on that screen!
Amazon has done a lot to create large amounts of hype. It is currently the most anticipated electronic device on their e-commerce website.
I want one.
BIG NEWS. NETFLIX IS SPLITTING ITS SERVICE INTO TWO SERVICES.
Not really big news for me, since I don’t use Netflix, but I thought it would interest those that do, or want to in the future.
Basically Netflix is a company that allows people to browse through a vast collection of movies and television series’, for the low low price of 9.99 per month. They gave the subscribers the option of renting 1 DVD a month at no extra charge.
Recently they decided to split their services, offering unlimited streaming of movies and television shows for a monthly fee of 7.99 and unlimited DVD rentals for 7.99 a month. This new DVD rental service will be branded “Qwikster” (because of their quick service hahahhahahha).
Apparently they did not make this change clear to its loyal customers, and received much negative feedback.
Here’s a video made to welcome the new CEO of Quikster, Reed Hastings, as well as to apologize to subscribers.
This rebranding is a very ballsy step into reformation of the company. Rebranding and creating two different services opens up a new market niche, where their target market is more specialized to people who still majority of the time use DVD’s. Currently there are no big competitors with this area of expertise, and because it is a bud off of Netflix, people can still expect the same type of service and experience they received from its previous joint subscriptions.
So if you want to just stream movies and do not care for DVD’s, GREAT! You just saved two dollars!
If you never ever stream movies but watch everything through DVD’s, GREAT! You just saved two dollars and receive a more than one DVD a month!
If you want both, YOU’RE SCREWED! Not really, you just have to pay 6 more bucks.
