For over a decade now it has been possible to work offline with various portable tools. Thanks to the recent development in 3G infrastructure and 3G enabled mobile devices, it’s now extremely easy to work on things online when you are on the go. For example, I am now much mote productive because I can spend my down time doing time eating tasks such as checking my Facebook, reading news headlines, and much more. Then when I get home I can spend more time on proactive tasks rather than reactive tasks such as gasping in awe at a full inbox. This blog post was written entirely an NJ Transit train on my commute home from New York City.
Recently the tech community has been endlessly trading opinions about the best place to start a business, which city offers the best quality of life for a startup employee, and various other aspects of the environment that a startup is based. Regardless of whether you’re a tech startup based in Silicon Valley (aka San Francisco-San Jose), Los Angeles, Seattle, Austin, Boulder, Boston, NYC, etc., each area has seen its good and bad days, and each area has benefits and turn offs. The reason for this heated discussion is primarily because many people believe that Silicon Valley is losing its edge and startups elsewhere around the world no longer need the competitive advantage of being based in the San Francisco area.
Take a look at some of the popular articles by mainstream media and bloggers alike:
Perhaps all of the Silicon Valley wannabe’s should just follow the advice of Paul Graham, as he describes the best way to emulate a Silicon Valley tech hub is not to pick a sunny spot on the map, but rather to attract the right people. (“How to be Silicon Valley“)
Whichever city you choose to base your startup in, it will not be the sole supporting factor for your startup’s success or failure. (That is unless you decide to start your skiing business in Florida.) No matter which tech hub you are in, there will always be hurdles and challenges to overcome. To Silicon Valley’s credit, they still remain the most powerful tech hub*, but they area is “Not All Sunshine and Rainbows”. For example, take a look back at the tech bubble that burst in 2000. Yes, it’s true for both sides, more companies have succeeded and failed in Silicon Valley than anywhere else. However, as Rocky demonstrates in one of the most motivating movie scenes of all time: “It’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward… how much you can take, and keep moving forward.” So far, Silicon Valley has survived as the most powerful tech center in two major economic collapses, so it’s safe to say they are the winners for now.
*The dominance of tech center is determined by the amount of venture capital funding invested in companies located in each city every year.
Last week marked an important milestone for Amazon customers and anyone else looking to establish a digital library. Amazon released details on its newest Kindle generation as they plan to ship the revolutionary reading device towards the end of August. Special arrangements made for the announcement of the new and improved Kindle include showing a personal letter written from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to visitors on the Amazon.com home page. In addition, Bezos made an appearance on PBS to do an interview with Charlie Rose last week, where he answered many pressing questions regarding the Kindle as well as the tablet PC market.
Take a look at the interview, the insight on the newest Kindle as well as other potential customers is worth tuning in.
Some highlights from the interview include:
Bezos believes the Kindle has the ability to transcend the readers mind into visualizing solely the page, just like a book.
Amazon has a leg up on the competition because their mission is to be “the earth’s most customer centric company”.
The Kindle price point is affordable, unlike the iPad among other e-readers.
Over 600,000 books are available on the Kindle in 60 seconds or less. (Most for $9.99 or less)
Clothing is the fastest growing segment on Amazon. Their philosophy is buy 3, return the 2 that don’t fit.
Bezos projects that in the future, people in society will fulfill their needs through an array of devices.
Kindle for reading, smart-phone, laptop, tablet PC.
The new Kindle’s one month battery lifespan relieves battery power anxiety.
The Apple iPad is not a competitor to the Kindle because it offers one of the best web-browsers. Therefore, more customers are shopping on Amazon.com.
Ever since the temporary downfall of FratMusic.com (once home of the most popular and meticulously crafted playlists), the loyal users who streamed their music from the FratMusic have sought to fill the void by seeking out a site that offers similar playlists. The most important connection FratMusic had with their users is that the playlists were picked by hand and altered according to music genre, giving them a leg up on the computer generated services such as Pandora, iTunes Genius, Last.FM, etc. In fact, FratMusic’s short but overwhelming success and popularity is a prime example of the business term known as “Market Fragmentation”. FratMusic has grown the new emerging market for party playlists and as a result of the demand for their service, an increase in new suppliers have entered in this new fragment of the online music industry.
For the party music lovers out there, breathe a sigh of relief. VPlaylist.com gives former FratMusic users good reason to turn up their speakers again. In the words of VPlaylist.com founder:
Fratmusic is down, MTV is too busy playing re-runs of Jersey Shore, and Youtube is drowning in ads. What ever happened to good music, new singles, and good old MUSIC VIDEOS?
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Started by a group of music lovers and DJs, VPlaylist.com is bringing back music videos through instantly streaming video playlists. We scour the internet bringing our viewers not only updated music playlists, but the great videos that go along with them.
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Whether people are looking to stream videos at parties, keep up to date with newly released videos, or simply looking for a good playlist – we are the place.
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After the VPlaylist initially reached out to me about the newly launched site, I decided to do my own investigation. The clean and simple UI is easy to use and easy to navigate, and often emphasizes the various sharing tools which will help in the site’s organic word of mouth growth. Also, the playlist genres appeal to almost any mood and are easily accessible. My personal taste is most impressed with the lineup put together on the Mash-Ups & Mixes playlist, although this one does not offer the video component.
VPlaylist agreed to do an interview regarding the status of their launch. They are currently moving quickly with hopes of earning a chunk of this niche market.
Describe the “a-Ha” moment when you decided to go ahead and build a party playlist site.
When my friends and I throw parties, we like to play music videos on the bigscreen or project them on the wall. People have starting to the equivalent of “cloud computing” with their music, they stream it online. People are always looking for the newest party song, if they don’t know about it they can’t buy it, download it, stream it, etc.. I felt like I hadn’t seen a actually music video on MTV in ages. All these combined to create the a-ha moment that there was a need for vplaylist.com
Why did you decide to include not only music, but music videos?
I have always been a huge fan of music videos. I was very disappointed to see all these sites popping up with decent music, but no music videos. They add a story to the music.
What was the biggest hurdle when building VPlaylist?
Quality music and videos. Anyone can have a good site, good idea. But for users its all about the music. We tap into our network of music lovers and DJs for the best songs.
How is VPlaylist dealing with licensing and other legal issues that plague the music industry?
Our plan is to grow into a legal business that does not pirate music. We have created a business model that will generate revenue to cover the cost of royalties paid to all the music organizations and studios.
Why is VPlaylist better than other social music sharing sites such as GrooveShark, Rdio, Last.fm, etc.?
Videos, Videos, Videos. But besides that, our product offers great playlists. The problem with Youtube, Grooveshark, Last.fm, is that you often need to know a song to put in on our playlist. Further more, many of the songs suggested are older. We stay ahead with the newest music videos. If its more than 3-4 months old, its too old for us.
What has been the largest growth contributer to VPlaylist? (or which do you expect to be)
People just like you. If you think we have a good product, people start sharing.
Great! What’s the plan for the future of VPlaylist?
To develop a loyal user base that loves the content we provide.
Which tracks should we be rockin’ to this summer?
Bad music selection is no longer an excuse, checkout the video playlist collection at VPlaylist.com
10 years ago in aviation now seems like an eternity. The numerous airline mergers and acquisitions, new aircraft models released, security regulations imposed, and various other incidents have seemed to clear our memory of one of the most tragic Pre-9/11 air crashes. I’m writing about this rather unusual topic because today, July 25th, 2010 is exactly 10 years from the day when the Air France Concorde crashed on takeoff outside Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
While the crash of the supersonic airliner that could fly at twice the speed of sound has faded into the distant past of most flyers today, it’s an event that remains vivid in my memory. As a 7-year old visiting Europe for the first time, I didn’t fully understand the enormous distance separating the two continents but I did understand how we were going to get home on that hot summer afternoon in Paris. Let me explain.
My family was about to return home from a two-week vacation visiting the highlights of southern England and northern France, and we had already endured a lengthy 7 hour flight from Newark – London on the powerful wide-body DC-10 airplane. I remember jokingly discussing the possibility of using frequent flier miles to pay for the quick but expensive trip home on the Concorde, but those thoughts vanished. In hopes of a bit more entertainment for the flight home, my older brother researched the aircraft that was scheduled to fly us home from Paris. The originally scheduled aircraft that was supposed to operate the flight was the brand new 777-200 aircraft which had just been delivered to Continental only a couple months earlier at the turn of the century. The entertaining advantage on the 777 was that everyone on the plane would have their own television to watch movies and play games, a concept that revolutionized in-flight entertainment 10 years ago.
To our disappointment the Continental aircraft that was waiting at the gate to take us back home was a DC-10. The equipment swap which took place in Newark a day earlier eventually turned out to be the source of crash which was according to investigators, the result of a titanium strip falling off the DC-10 onto the runway. After several years of investigation, French authorities concluded that a piece of titanium metal fell off the Continental plane which my family was flying home on, and then the metal caused the tire on the Concorde to explode. Once the tire exploded, the pieces of tire were ingested, which immediately started a fire in the Concorde’s engines, leaving the Concorde with no thrust and a tragic crash resulted.
My most striking memory is when we taxied to the runway past the Air France Concorde that day, I remember seeing the passengers climb the stairs from the tarmac onto the plane, self assured that they would be safe and sound in New York just 3 hours later. When my family did arrive safely 8 hours later at Newark Airport on-board the Continental DC-10, we learned about the crash and were completely confused and astonished knowing that such a tragic event had happened just minutes after we left France. In total, 109 passengers died on-board and 4 others on the ground. The crash also lead to the eventual end of the Concorde service as new maintenance requirements became too expensive for Air France and British Airways, combined with reduced passenger traffic due to the 9/11 attacks. Today a ceremony in Paris was held to honor the victims of the crash at the crash site in Gonesse, France. The two Continental mechanics who were responsible for installing the titanium strip are currently under manslaughter charges, and the ruling on the case will be determined in December later this year.
For more information on the crash, take a look at this video documenting the event-
Correction (Thanks to gvb of Y-Combinator news):
The official cause of the crash is more complex than the explanation above. According to Wikipedia–
“During the Concorde’s subsequent take-off run, this piece of debris, still lying on the runway, ruptured a tyre which then burst. A large chunk of this (4.5 kilograms or 9.9 lb) struck the underside of the aircraft’s wing structure at well over 300 kilometres per hour (190 mph). Although it did not directly puncture any of the fuel tanks, it sent out a pressure shockwave that eventually ruptured the number five fuel tank at the weakest point, just above the landing gear. Leaking fuel rushing over the top of the wing was ignited by an electric arc in the landing gear bay or through contact with severed electrical cables.”
Last week I was shopping on the historic Lincoln Road pedestrian mall in Miami Beach. It was the early afternoon and I had just begun feeling a hunger sensation as most of the walking space is filled with outdoor restaurants. This was my first time visiting the area and I had no knowledge of the local cuisine, since I opted out of using an app on my droid such as UrbanSpoon or Yelp. Trusting my instinct to find a tasty lunch, my friends and I began scoping out the surrounding restaurants. We had very little luck at first, only finding uninviting restaurants with more of a fancy dinner flavor. After a couple more blocks passed by, the hunger was increasing and we were not going to settle for plan B, the golden arches of McDonald’s. Eventually a familiar beat in the distance began catching my attention, but it was still mixed up in the clutter of several restaurants nearby.
As we walked closer the vibrant colors of the outdoor tables and stylish décor immediately pulled me into the pizza restaurant, Pizza Rustica. The typical pizza customer can range from young kids to grandparents but in this area of Miami Beach, they had their target demographic hooked, the 18-30 crowd. Loud music projected from their compact kitchen and the pizza was plentiful. Not to mention another perk of this pizza place was that one slice was filling enough for lunch, allowing the customer to perceive that they are getting a great deal for one slice.
In other words, Pizza Rustica on Lincolnd Road has established a very attractive curb appeal. In a location where the majority of there customers are one-time-only as they visit Miami Beach, they understand the importance of pulling in as many customers as possible on their first impression. This same strategy applied by Pizza Rustica on a pedestrian mall can be applied to any website. Imagine the situation as a website:
Lincoln road is the main thoroughfare where people are searching for a product/service. This can be Google/Yahoo/Bing or anywhere else where customers find your site advertised.
The stylish décor outside is the attention-getting banner advertisement, or perhaps the well optimized site that is positioned to attract potential customers (organic traffic).
Music being projected from inside is the alluring design elements on your landing page that entice the customer to click further into the website.
The generic slice of pizza being slightly modified into a filling rectangle so that Pizza Rustica is distinguished is similar to marketing or packaging your product so it appears to be innovative.
Thereby encouraging the customer want to share their experience with others.
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Great work Pizza Rustica! When I did go onto Yelp later that day it was no surprise to see that Pizza Rustica is the most reviewed pizza place in Miami Beach and has received numerous awards for their delicious pizza. Does your site’s “curb appeal” pull in customers from the clutter of the online search funnels?
Courtesy of themacgirl* of Flickr.com and Creative Commons
Today marks the summer solstice, and if you are like many people living in coastal areas, you will be spending some time on the beach during the next few weeks. This past weekend I sat on the beach on the Jersey Shore, gazing at the incessant stream of aerial advertisements towed through the sky at minimum headway speed. On the July 4th weekend I will be sifting through the sand on South Beach in Miami, Florida and as people flock to the beach during the summer holiday season, and an opportunity to capture their attention in the sky is valuable real estate.
A variety of advertisements from the local restaurants to major brands such as Coca-Cola had opted to reach out to the beach goers via an aerial advertisement. Many advertisers prefer aerial advertisements in their summer marketing budget because they offer a way to connect with potential customers in a non-cluttered environment, as the banner is viewed with a nice large blue backdrop. To local merchants this is very valuable in order to stand out among their nearby competition, and according to survey statistics about 60% of aerial advertisement viewers recall the message 30 minutes after viewing. If large brands execute aerial advertisements properly in one market, their campaign can easily be expanded nationwide to the various seasonal and year-round beach communities throughout the country.
Costs vary according to the air time that you intend to purchase, but an average campaign (an impression is equal to one fly-by) in one beach area can cost about $450 per hour in the sky. Rates are relatively the same in all beach areas nationwide whether or not you are on the Jersey Shore or South Beach, Miami. With initial banner creation costs varying between a few hundred dollars for a text message to around $1,000 for a banner, aerial advertising can be profitable advertising platform which will engage your audience if done right.
The Android Robot and friends at Googleplex. Thanks to niallkennedy of Flickr.com and Creative Commons.
Last week the reports on Q1 sales for smart phones were released, and in conjunction with the ecstatic Droid hype over the last couple months, Google’s Android OS unseated Apple’s iPhone for the #2 spot in smart phone sales. This is a great indicator that Q2 will see an even larger market share attained by Android for smart phone sales. (I ordered my own Droid Incredible last week.) Given that the Android was only initially offered for sale just over six months ago, this is a very optimistic gauge for growth on the Android. Read more about the news here.
The recent success in smart phones equipped with Android is thanks is part due to Verizon’s extensive marketing campaign which downplays the capabilities of the #1 selling smart phone, the Blackberry, made by RIM. Android’s open compatibility is allowing phone manufacturers such as Motorola and HTC to develop new devices that run the software, and captivate consumers interest with sleek new offerings. Competition among phone manufacturers for consumer interest is driving innovation, as seen in the most recent release of the highly popular Droid by Motorola, and then less than two months later the Droid Incredible by HTC.
2010 is unfolding as the year that the mobile landscape is being redefined. Once a dreadfully slow and unreliable luxury item for only the most passionate tech junkies, access to the mobile web is bursting into the mainstream consumer demographic as ordinary people become entirely digital and connected to their lives online. The challenge remaining is how to capitalize on the rising usage of smart phones and the mobile web. First, the main demographic carrying around a smart phone today is: A male/female 25-44 who needs a productive yet playful phone and is looking for nice design combined with high performance. The next step is to determine the need that this demographic has when using their phone, and is not currently served or can be improved. Opportunities to enter the mobile industry are abundant, this is one of the few instances where time is still on your side to manifest the next popular phone app or mobile web service.
Leading up to the release of the Apple iPad, the tech world was buzzing all winter long after Apple released its plan on January 27th to sell its new touch screen tablet computer starting on April 2nd. Given the amount of press coverage this innovative product recieved over the last month, its hard to ignore and can not be passed by. The most recent one being their official release on the sale of the one millionth iPad, which provoked me to dig deeper into the subject.
Courtesy of allaboutgeorge of Flickr.com and Creative Commons
By taking a look at similar product releases in Apple’s past, one common trait can be seen among all of their new products: they take a high demand technology that’s in its early stages and then combine that with their marketing and design choices to characterize their product as the most innovative and advanced choice available. The iPad is no exception. First, the iPad’s most distinct characteristic is that it is a fully functional portable computer, which operates very similar to its already existing iPod touch, which has been widely popular because of its touch screen technology that was first unveiled on the iPhone. In other words, we’ve seen touch screen technology, 3G access, and portable laptops before, but never all in the same box. Apple packed the necessary computer components (minus a keyboard) into a slim metal case, and thats what has allowed them to market the iPad as the most convenient and versatile computer ever.
Now lets look at the iPad strictly from a numbers point of view:
1,000,000 iPad’s sold in 28 days. (All Wi-Fi-only models, 3G launched separately on April 30th.)
$499,000,000 Gross sales revenue. (Assuming all units sold were the 16GB model to error on the safe side. $499/each)
Or 2,419,200 seconds in 28 days, which equates to $98.79 profit per second.
Now, this is just assuming their cheapest model available and not considering other imperative variables to the sales funnel. Either way, Apple is doing historic sales numbers on the hardware alone, just imagine the possibilities when revenue streams such as international sales, App Store commissions, and accessories are factored in. Once again Apple strikes into the market flawlessly, proving their technological drive within the tech industry as a whole. I’m looking forward to seeing how Apple once again fights off the slow competition, except this time at the touch of a screen.
Now in the final weeks of the Spring semester for most colleges and universities, the party life has been livened up a bit with the rising popularity of the new playlist sharing site, FratMusic.com. College students on campus’s throughout the country have embraced the resource, a live melting pot of party playlists that lets users vote which playlist they think is “hot”. Since the site took off, anyone looking to get up to date with todays hit party music has been able to instantly stream the music through a widget by MixPod.com placed on the FratMusic site.
FratMusic.com growth in 2010 according to Google Trends
MixPod is an already established playlist sharing site, but this niche implementation of their widget is the most popular that I’ve seen anywhere. This certainly makes sense considering that all college students need to be connected to the internet today, and browsing the web with a hot playlist has made listening to music via the internet even better. Each day there are new playlists added to the site, from just about every type of institution that you can think of, and the new playlists are voted on, with the most popular playlists making it to the homepage.
FratMusic functions seamlessly and this has helped keep their user numbers growing steadily. The music stream is very reliable with no interruptions and each playlist is categorized so that finding a hot playlist is always easy to find. To add to the site’s growth, each page has a Facebook “Share” button that allows anyone to instantly share a playlist with friends on Facebook. Overall, FratMusic is the product of great collaboration between the web apps of MixPod and Facebook, and the power of crowd-sourcing via college students. I hope you enjoy this site, it has enormous potential.
