Will Tek Survive ?
Money
You Need a Credit Card to Deserve an iPad !
May 18th
Setve Jobs only sells iPads to credit card holders. Recently a low income woman asked to buy an iPad without a credit card and she was simply told by Apple reps to get one (credit card) if she wants one (iPad). Apple uses this drastic method to try to limit sales of iPads per person to two units max. Give a little power to a guy (Steve Jobs), and he will make your day ! 
Apple = Money !
Jan 26th
Apple released it’s best quarter ever with $15,7 billion turnover. The main reason if the iPhone, with 8,7 units in hands of happy custommers.
Today is the day of maybe another cash cow for Apple : The Tablet Day.
iPad, iTablet, iSlate, iPhonette… you name it. But hey, you know the real name of it : money ! 
Music Majors Perform Scam ?
Jan 15th
In 2008, New York Federal Court went after EMI, Universal and Sony BMG for illegal – and discreet – price agreement. It was believed that those guns were indulging a minimum $0.70 market price per song gentlemen agreement. At the time, the Judge in charge of the file found nothing special to say against it, depiste an obvious price coincidence across online music portals. Was his blindness also financed by the Majors ?
The case will soon be reconsidered anyway, this time in a grouped class action from different states covering the period from 2005 on. If at the end of the day prices don’t change, we’ll know that justice blindness is a standard !
Should You Say Two Thousand Ten or Twenty Ten ?
Jan 4th
Well, doesn’t really matter how you spell 2010 : you’ll pay taxes for it anyway !
Electronic Arts = 1.500 layoffs !
Nov 10th
Electronic Arts confirms it will set 1.500 workers free in 2010. They just lost $391 million in 2009 revenues this year. And they’ll still do in 2010. This reflects more or less that the gaming industry is also bleeding these tough days : gaming is important, but not as much as eating.
Windows 7 : Only $3 in China !
Oct 16th
Windows 7 is already available in selected stores in China. Of course those ’selected’ store are not from Microsoft, and the pricing policy is as you can imagine quite different : 3 dollars for the Ultimate retail box, the price of a coffee in western countries !
If piracy is core business there, how can you expect a chinese to spend i.e. $200 in a software when that’s what he makes per month ?
Good news, China officials are trying to slow the wave. They’ll be happy if they limit piracy to 50% of all software sold from 2012 on.
This means piracy is here to stay !
Google Stores : $1.95 per Search !
Sep 24th
No, I’m not obsessed with Google. But they spread so fast one day you’ll find them in your toothpaste. Their new trick ? Stores !
Not only Microsoft is a new store-wannabe, now Google too.
We have to congrat Apple for that. Their retail achievement brings passions to life.
As well as Apple, Microsoft and Google believe their brand is strong enough to sell almost anything in stores, even wind.
And that’s almost what Google is planning to sell.
You jump into the Google Store, your ask the first logo-branded T-Shirt you find to make a search for ya, and they’ll free you from $1.95 in a breeze.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt : “We own the Internet, now it’s time for us to own the real world“. The most simple business plan I’ve ever seen.
To ape Apple’s Geniuses, Google logo-branded T-Shirts will be called the “Oracles”. Phew. With special effects built-in ?
One sure thing is soon even your dog will be able to Google your name !
eBay to $ell $kype !
Sep 1st
So the new kid on the block called Skype is no longer stellar ? Buyers are Siler Lake VCs for a $1,9 billion package (65% of shares).
eBay couldn’t eventually find a realy synergy for Skype and it’s core e-commerce bussiness.
Does it mean that the 405 millions Skype users don’t need to talk about sales or bids ? Well, maybe not at eBay’s. While shopping, talking takes longer time than browsing a few categories to find the right item you want and set i.e. an auto-bid.
Time is also the missing ressource for power sellers that don’t want to invest on videos about their goods, if not mandatory. The truth is they sell anyway !
The open questions are :
- which business will now want Skype as an inhouse feature ?
- can Skype diversify, I mean, really ?
Youtube Gives Money !
Aug 26th
Do you know that Youtube (Google) wants to give you money ? At least if your posted video generates a few buzzillions views.
So far they shared revenue with the big guns (media networks). Now they want to spread it to the crowd.
In other words, they want to buy fresh ‘efficient’ content to drive even more wider traffic.
Will the overall quality of the content improove ? Despite it’s 70 millions video views per day, will Youtube become something else than a dumb content ocean ?
Nethertheless, the Grand Opening is just a discreet opening as the rule is for now really really simple : Youtube will contact you if you ‘deserve’ the be enrolled in the revenue sharing program. Whoa, am I THE one ? Am I the new Susan Boyle (she could have earned a few extra bucks!) ?
The only sure thing is that average fellows will start videotaping crazy or dangerous things hoping to catch the eyeballs of the planet :
Quite 911 overload to come
When you know you can make gold with your video, all the perspective changes. Not only you want to impress your buddies, but you wanna be the next Spielberg. In fact, you stop loving video and start loving money. And like everywhere, only a VIP group will catch the majority of the cash. And like everywhere else, don’t forget about the porn industry. They’re starving right know about classic revenu loss. THEY will ctach the youtube buck !
And now to close the topic, a sincere condolence to all the Internet Super-Gurus that so far made their living by selling magic “make-instant-cash-with-youtube” e-books ! Love ya !
Xbox 360 Price Drop !
Aug 26th
Moments after Sony annouced the PS3 Slim repriced, Microsoft jumps in with an also expected price drop of the Xbox 360. The Elite model gets a $100 slimmer to $300 with 120 Mb drive. Global this friday august 27th.
And now, who’s missing the party ?
Niiiin-ten-dooooo !
Well, more seriously. Is this price drop due to the economy or to a natural milestone as console prices eventually go down ? Probably both.
Anyhow, the real issue is not on the hardware price, but on the game’s price.
When you can afford almost only 4 games for the price of the high-end console, there’s something wrong in the neighborhood. Ok, that business model makes happy all the industry makers, but does it make the customer happy the same way ? Sure nope. And my dear, who decides to buy or not to buy ? Da customer, yep.
Thinking marketing and forgetting the essential rule of the added value to the customer is the deadly mistake the gaming industry is playing these days, even with great graphics. The consequence ? The first major business slow-down since 2000 (2nd quartes ‘09 = -31% sales, source NPD).
Simple rule : (no) value = (no) customers = (no) money.
Final question : why marketers never learn from their mistakes ?
