Apple’s iPad is flying off the shelves. Jim gives his real-world results after 30 days with it, reviews the Wired Magazine app, analyzes market share trends and asks, can it be beat?

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

iPad iPad iPad.
Everyone is talking about the iPad, and so am I. Lets take a look at three things today:

1) My experience with the iPad 3G after one month with the iPad
2) My thoughts on the Wired Magazine iPad app
3) Analyze Apple’s historic marketshare and drill down to see the future of tablet computing and if the iPad can be beat

Note: All thoughts are my own opinion and not that of Wired or Apple. I have no affiliation with Apple and was not compensated.

Summary of the podcast below. Listen to the entire show for the full experience.

OK, so I’ve had the iPad for 30 days of real world testing.

I’ve installed various apps: the Entertainment Weekly Must List and Weather Channel (good, but could use some work), ones with solid functionality (Kayak, Pandora, MLB at Bat), ones that I normally wouldn’t use (Marvel’s comic book reader and games such as Asphalt 5 and Labyrinth), and Conde Nast’s own (Epicurious, GQ, and Wired).

The best part about these apps, is the ease that you can simply install them, check them out, and delete them if you don’t like it. While it does add to this constant ADD, “try it and forget it” world, it really puts the pressure on developers to create visually-appealing, easy to use apps right out of the box. You might only have 5 minutes to hook someone, or it’s delete and move on to the next program. That’s why I think the “Lite for free, pay for upgrade” model works so well here.

People are going to continue to find new and inventive ways to use the iPad. For example, check out uber-designer Brandon Werner’s “iPadfolio” (best viewed on an iPad). He used it in an interview and blew them away.

Things that I’m looking to do more of in the coming months are:
- Download and read more iBooks
- See a Facebook app for the iPad (they have to be working on one, right?)
- Get Apple’s SD card attachment so I can transfer photos from my DSLR right to the iPad

Real life use
As many others have probably noted, the iPad is the king of the couch surfer. It is fantastic around the house, especially for the short time each day that I finally relax (when I’m not out or working on 3 blogs) and turn on the TV. As I predicted, it’s such a better device to do the following:
- Check and respond to quick emails
- Surf the web
- Check Twitter
- View photos

Yes, you can do all this on a bigger, heavier, hotter laptop, but it’s a faster, quicker, more focused experience.

Road test: Family trip
I went to visit my brother’s family in Austin, TX, traveling there with my parents. Results were:
- First and foremost, I did not have to take out the iPad when going through security
- It was great on the plane… it’s instant-on, I didn’t worry about battery life, I watched video, read the GQ magazine app, and easily tucked it into the seatback during meals
- I let a 5-year old play with it at one point, and she instantly bonded (apologies to her parents, who will probably need to spend $500 to get her to stop talking about it at some point). We downloaded Tic Tac Toe and iSpy and had a few spirited matches, and it was amazing how kick-ass she was at the driving video game. Although it was tough for me to tell a white lie and console her when the game yells “YOU LOSE!” if you don’t finish in the top 3.
- I also let my parents (both over 65) use it. They approached it like a cat sneaking up on something new in the yard, and pretty much got the hang of it using maps and music. I did run into one issue, as my mom was trying to check her email in Safari (my email is set up as the default in the app). She was using the updated, flash-based version of Yahoo mail, and it wasn’t rendering correctly. It was just weird enough looking that she NEVER would have figured it out (most people wouldn’t), it was only because I noticed it and changed here to “Yahoo Classic” email that we were able to move on.

Camping trip
First, let me lay out my street cred. I’ve done my fair share of camping and consider myself a pretty good outdoorsman. Yes, I’m an actual Eagle Scout, something that 95% of scouts never attain.

Now let me destroy that street cred. Mostly as a fun test, a friend and I went camping in upstate New York (I did my first trail running race). Not only did we use Google maps on the iPad to locate a diner 2 exits away for dinner instead of cooking, but that night we hunkered down in the tent and watched a movie. Yes, I brought along a $639 iPad camping. And yes, it was awesome.

Road trip
I’m putting this to the test this week, bringing the iPad on a long road trip. As a combo GPS device, movie player, musical jukebox, e-mail checker, and with the “Gas Log” app, it should come in handy.

Thoughts on Wired Magazine’s iPad app
It was really interesting working on such a cool project, and seeing the initial success of 24,000 downloads in 24 hours.

Let’s get the two big questions out of the way:

- 500 MB in size
Yes, that is a very large size, especially for those with the 16GB model. Wired feels that the technology will evolve and the app will get smaller in future versions. The tradeoff was video. By including the video within the app, that allowed for a more seamless process and users could read the entire magazine without being connected to the web. I’m sure if we did NOT include it, people would be complaining that every time they got to a video they had to wait longer for it to play. Perhaps there’s a middle ground where users are asked to download or stream upon install (not sure if that’s technically feasible).

- $5 per issue cost
It’s really quite simple.
- When viewed against the cost of a year-long print subscription ($10 per year), the cost of the app seems six times higher. People make the analogy that they pay $10 per year for the Wired Magazine paper subscription, so why should they pay $60 per year for the electronic version.
- When viewed against the newsstand price of $5 (which 80,000-100,000 non-subscribing Wired fans pay every single month), it’s exactly the same.

At it’s core, this is a slice of media entertainment.
- Millions of people pay $5 a pop for magazines at newsstands, airports, and in supermarket checkout lines every month
- The Wall Street Journal charges $4 per week for their iPad application
- Netflix customers pay a monthly fee for video entertainment
- The latest blockbuster movie is $12.50 a ticket here in NYC for 2 hours of entertainment last time I checked
- And don’t get me started on what I pay for cable each month

Bottom line, the Wired Magazine iPad app gives you several hours of media entertainment for $5. And yes, Conde Nast is “exploring many ways of making it easier for users to enjoy our content.” IE, they’re looking at the best way to make some kind of subscription program work.

Areas for improvement
Just so you don’t think I’m a total homer, here are things that I think can be improved with the app
- Better navigation indicators. Because this is such a new device, I think it’s ok to treat users a little bit more dumbed down to start. My guess is that it was partially done on purpose, as it makes the user explore the app and find new features. I’m not asking for giant blinking “click here” buttons, but there were a few small areas where it could have guided me better. That being said, I was a pro by the time I finished the entire issue.
- Navigating the fun stuff. The great part about the app is the interactive features… swirling, twirling hearts and planets, and stop motion legos. But I sometimes had trouble when I wanted to swipe to the next page, but the app still thought I wanted to swirl.
- Pinch and zoom. Once you get used to pinching and zooming all over the iPad, you miss it if you come across something and are not allowed to do so. This was the case for most of the app, except for some sections that let you do this.
- As others have pointed out, there is a slight disconnect when say, playing a movie clip and it brings you outside the app, plays it, and then returns, vs. keeping you right where you are. I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that it will continue to be more streamlined.

What I loved
- The app, taking advantage of the hardware itself, is crazy bright and easy to read. Vibrant. Glowing.
- I loved the interactive touch buttons to flip multiple views. Swiping from page to page is — let’s say it — fun, but it’s also a great experience to stay on one page, and view multiple views or photos by tapping numbered dots
- The fun stuff. The ultimate goal of the app is to combine the best of print and the web in an engaging environment. This was best seen in the “Most Dangerous Object in the Office” section. This month it was a flaming hacky sack. Reading about it in print? Interesting. Actually SEEING two employees flailing around with a fiery footbag of flames in the bathroom at the Wired office in SF? Amazing.
- The extras. Ironman spining around, lego Lamborghinis, Toy Story clips, exclusive Trent Reznor songs… all of this adds to the experience.

The Ads
Call me crazy, but sometimes I LIKE looking at ads. I like seeing cool companies launch cool products that I might want to get. And stop groaning, this is a marketing podcast and blog, you knew it was coming.

But here’s the thing. You get to experience it under YOUR terms. Watching live TV? Sorry, sit through the ads. On DVR? get that fast forward button ready. In a magazine? It’s an easy page turn. On the web? Better hope that peripheral vision is working to block out things if you don’t want to see it.

But on the iPad? If you don’t like the ad — swipe — it’s gone. Instantly. If you DO choose to learn more, you can take it to the next level. My favorites were as follows.

For simply clean, crisp, uncluttered product messages:
- Dyson Fans
- Intel
- Mercedes (with great commercial embedded)
- GMC

For excellent photos that looking practically 3D on the iPad:
- True Blood
- Jack Daniels
- Volkswagen
- Infiniti

And remember, THIS IS VERSION 1! Developers, writers, editors, programmers, and advertisers are only going to get better at this.

Can it be beat?

Lets look at four categories that Apple is in, and what kind of market share they command.

First, where am I coming from? I am a computer guy. I Love all technology. Love good technology. I’ve been literally using computers for more than 25 years.
First 21 on a PC, last 4 on a Mac.
- Macbook pro at home, Dell laptop at work
- iPhone for personal use, Treo for work email
- iPod touch and Nano
- 1 iPad

Computers
I think that Macs are beautifully designed, easier to use, easier to get tech support, don’t get viruses, are more expensive, and are definitely the computer system that I’ve switched over to, that I see myself using moving forward, and that I would recommend to a friend. However, there is absolutely no denying the market share numbers.

Apple owns just 10% of the personal computer market. That means 9 out of every 10 computers out there are not made by Apple.

But in doing my research I came across this amazing article on Techcrunch from July 2009, that said Apple owns 91% market share on computers above $1000.

So is Apple winning in the computer department? In the big picture, no. There are countless millions of PCs around the world running Windows, the vast majority of businesses and IT departments are locked in with the PC/Windows platform, and will be for some time. It’s a tough process to switch. This is business device in a mature market.

But can Apple win the upper end of the market where profits are greater? Looks like they already are.

MP3 Players
What is the market share of the iPod vs other MP3 players? It tough for me to find the latest and greatest stats, but one blog from Sep 2009 said that iPods had a 74% market share. I’d call that dominant. Lets put it this way, do YOU have any friends that have a non-Apple MP3 player? If you were out to buy a new device, would YOU consider something else? I thought so.

My point is this… this is a non-business device, in a relatively new market. And Apple dominates it.

Phones
What I am about to say might sound familiar. I think that the iPhone is beautifully designed, easier to use, easier to get tech support, is more expensive, and is definitely the phone that I’ve switched over to, that I see myself using moving forward, and that I would recommend to a friend. Kind of like the Mac.

But in terms of marketshare, it’s also like the Mac. A recent report just found that Android phones outsold the iPhone in the first quarter of 2010. What was Apple’s share of the smartphone market? Just 21%. Again, the stats show that it is hardly dominant.

A cell phone is a mix of business and pleasure, and is definitely a mature market. The iPhone will continue to do well, but won’t necessarily dominate.

But here are the numbers that astound:
- 50 million iPhones sold to date
- App Store carries 200,000 apps
- 3 billion app downloads

Even more telling, Ars Technica reported: Apple responsible for 99.4% of mobile app sales in 2009

Tablet computers
What is Apple’s market share in tablets? Let’s not include the Kindle since that is primarily a dedicated e-reader and not a computer. So who is their competition? The Archos 5 Tablet? The Samsung NP-Q1u? Let me know when you find someone that owns one of those. All I know is that they’ve sold 2 million iPads in under 60 days. I’d say that puts them at 99% market share.

So, where does that leave us? Is the iPad like the iPhone and Mac, where it will face stiff competition from it’s known enemies, Dell, HP, and Google?

I’m going to say no. My gut tells me it’s going to play out a lot like the iPod. This is a new device, and an entertainment device. Yes, there will be competition at the lower levels, but the great equalizer is the App Store.

If someone came up to me and said “Should I get an iPad or should I wait for one by Google or HP? I hear they might have more storage, be cheaper, have USB ports, play flash, and so on.” I totally agree.

But again, it’s the App Store. That’s the killer product that will prevent me from recommending other devices.

So if someone asks me, should I get the iPad? I would say can you afford it and when would you use it? It’s best as a companion device, is great for light travel, and is king of the couch.

If they ask if they should wait to get next year’s iPad, I say no. Of course it will be better, and if you’re very patient, then go ahead and wait an entire year. But remember that there will be software updates before then that will raise the bar a bit.

If they ask if they should wait for another company’s tablet, I say they are coming, they will be cheaper, and have some better features, but ask yourself this:

- How long till there is a similar app store that has all the games you want to play?
- Do you sync your music with your iPod?
- Where are you going to download movies from?
- Do they have a better way to read books?

So do you agree with me?

Apple has sold 2 million devices.
They have a huge lead on the competition.
Almost every developer right now is working on iPad apps, not other apps
And when new tablets appear in six months to a year, remember that Apple will have been working on their new version for a year as well.

So I ask you. Can the iPad be beat?

Email: MarketingGuy [at] wired.com
Twitter: @hopkinsonreport

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Best Earbud Headphones For The iPhone Review

Does a great pair of earbud headphones for the iPhone exist? I sure haven’t found one, but lets find out.

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

“Whoa it just got so freaking loud, are you in a wind tunnel?”
“I’m sorry, I just caught about every third word that you just said.”
“What? Can you repeat that last part? Your father is kissing a lizard?”
“Hello?  Hello? I think I lost you.”
“Oh my gosh your phone is the worst thing ever I hate your damn phone it is HORRIBLE and I hate you and your damn phone please don’t ever call me again with that stupid phone.”

I don’t know about you, but those are just 5 of the types of things people say to me as the owner of an iPhone.  By the way, the reference of “Your father is kissing a lizard” came from the sitcom Good Times, when they were on the phone and mishearing things, and then they figured out – and were devastated – when they realized the other person was saying “You father is stuck in a blizzard.”  That’s right, I just made a Jimmy Walker joke. Dynomite.

The podcast and blog this week is being done to accomplish three things, as we set out to find best earbud headphones for the iPhone.

1) On the personal side, after 2 years the right earbud on my iPhone 3G headset stopped working, so I need to replace them, hopefully with a model that cuts down the complaints above.

2) On the tech side, I wanted to do a comparison of the best earbud headphones on the market to see how they shaped up.

3) On the marketing side, I wanted to do a blog post that optimized the content, and try to appear on the first page of Google for the term “best earbud headphones for the iPhone.” You may have noticed that I’ve stated that phrase 4 times so far.

As I mentioned, people have a really hard time with me talking on my iPhone. After the last few days of intensive testing, I’ve realized a few things.

First, I live in Manhattan, a place where an enormous amount of your time is spent walking. Because most everyone here is an outgoing Type-A personality, you wouldn’t be caught dead just doing ONE thing like walking down the street. Oh no, you have to be talking on the phone or texting or chatting or jotting down notes for your next screenplay. Everyone is constantly on their phones.

The problem is that you’re not sitting in a convenient “car cocoon” with your windows rolled up and the A/C slightly blowing at your feet during your commute. You’re in a massive city with beeping horns and giant buses and squealing cabs and constant construction in the background.

Because you’re jostling around so much, it’s actually convenient to be wearing headphones with your iPhone, so that you can actually hear when some is calling in case you don’t pick up on the vibrate mode.

Additionally, a great majority of people are on the subway. Once again, you’d rather be caught dead than simply sitting and reading a book or waiting for your next stop. It’s almost a requirement that you wear earbuds.

During my testing, I realized I had to isolate the fact that I had two separate problems.

1) Headset quality
The first is the sound quality of my headset. Whether it’s walking in the wind or talking while opening a bag of chips, the sensitivity of the microphone is a major factor that annoyed people.

2) AT&T Service
Second, is the quality of AT&T’s service. In addition to the 30% of dropped calls that AT&T says is within normal range for New York City, a new development in the past few weeks is that the quality of my calls is warbling my voice as I walk around the apartment. This is not a factor of the headset, but some crazy cell phone tower issue or something along those lines.

Let me be clear for a moment. I live in a 400 square foot studio apartment!!!  We’re not talking the call quality decreasing when I move from the walk-in closet in my master bedroom suite to my downstairs kitchen with granite counter-tops to the basement home theater with concrete walls!  I am moving within a 10 foot radius!!!

Wow.

I also want to say that I’m going to approach the testing in my own unique way. I’m not going to talk about the decibel crossover levels in the midrange tones or however the audiophiles measure it. In fact, because I’m a podcaster and mostly listen to speaking voices on my iPhone, I’m not going to go crazy worrying about the bass levels.

I’m going to talk about the little things that I feel customers really care about, like the quality of the connection, the feel of the cord, the placement of the microphone, and whether or not it makes you look like you’re wearing jewelry.

I’m even going to talk about the packaging.

One of the interesting things I found, is that there was definitely no clear winner when reading reviews online. It seemed that nearly everyone had some kind of beef with whatever headset they had chosen. I was going nuts racking my brain trying to decide which one to buy, so in the end, I did the only thing a tech freak like me would do. I called up Amazon to check on their return policy (and I sure hope my Indian to English translation skills are accurate), and bought 6 different pairs of earbuds.

Before we get to the reviews, a note on the marketing side. I think it’s pretty cool that when you search for “best revenue model for the iPhone,” my blog post comes up first. This is a pretty good accomplishment considering the popularity of the term iPhone.

So my goal with this post is to see if I can get a How-to review style post in the first 10 spots, and ideally in the top 3. I’m going to do this by

1) keeping things relevant and on topic

2) mentioning those specific keyword a few times

3) embedding photos, videos, and audio with product names and keywords

4) linking to the products on a major site like Amazon or the product homepage.

Nothing crazy. No custom HTML or paid search buy. Just a simple, organic blog post to see what happens.

So without further ado, here is:

Best Earbud Headphones for the iPhone Review

The Incumbent: Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic

Earbud style/fit: Hard plastic bud style, not noise-canceling, solid

Cord: Decent weight and feel

Mic and control: Integrated as one, solid and convenient

Connection: Rubber enforced and straight; broke down, but only after 2 years of harsh use

Sound quality: Decent for music and voice

Dealbreaker: Trying to improve mic sound

Retail/Price paid: $29.99 / $0 (Came with iPhone)

Jim says: Of course, I could have avoided all this testing by simply tossing my broken earbuds, heading over to the Apple store, and picking up a new pair for $29. In all, there is nothing wrong with these. They lasted me 2 years of harsh abuse, the sound was fine, and they fit me ok. However, people complained about the mic being too sensitive, so I was on a mission to find something better.

Apple Earphones Audio Test:

JBuds J3M Micro Atomic In-Ear Earphones with Microphone

Earbud style/fit: Small, round silicone ear buds for a noise-isolating fit

Cord: Looks like some kind of fiber optic cord, as the wire is encased in clear plastic; feels solid and resistant to tangles

Mic and control: Aluminum with solid feel and a single button

Connection: Straight and feels like it will be a little bit flimsy

Sound quality: Solid for music and good voice

Dealbreaker: Worries about connection

Retail/Price paid: $89.95 / $39.95

Jim says: At $39.95, the JBuds came in as one of the lower priced challengers. I’m not sure what the packaging looks like at retail, but when they arrived from Amazon, they were simply sealed up in a tiny ziplock bag. For the price, it was a solid all-around contender. For those on a budget, this might be your pick.

JBuds J3M Audio Test:

Sennheiser MM50 iP Earbud Headset

Earbud style/fit: Small, round silicone ear buds for an isolating-style fit. But they almost felt like they were going to disappear into my ear canal.

Cord: Felt really flimsy and tangle-prone.

Mic and control: Made of a large, kidney-shaped piece of plastic. This was the only model where the mic was on the left side of the headset. Your thumb naturally goes to the inside of the kidney to fast forward or pause, yet the button is on the opposite side.

Connection: Straight and feels like it will be a little bit flimsy

Sound quality: Actually very solid for music with good bass and decent voice

Dealbreaker: Mismatched cord

Retail/Price paid: $129.95 / $33.48

Jim says: Before I even got into testing, I had an immediate dealbreaker. The headset is set up so that the right earbud cord is about 19″ long, while the left one is 5″ long. This might not be a problem for everyone, but based on where the mic was placed, it just felt wrong. There was a constant feeling that one side was heavier than the other. I also didn’t like the overall quality feel of the product.

Sennheiser MM50 Audio Test:

V-Moda Vibe II Earbud Headset with Microphone

Earbud style/fit: Small, round silicone fittings provide a comfortable fit and sound isolation. They are made of ’sculpted stainless steel alloy’ and have a solid heft and quality feel to them

Cord: The cord is wrapped in fabric, giving it a great feel and making it less prone to tangles

Mic and control: Unique in that the solid-feeling steel microphone is up high near your mouth, but the button to control answering calls or fast forwarding is lower, placed at the V in the cord. To me this isn’t a positive, as you have to reach down lower, sometimes within your coat, to find the fast forward button. The piece looks like some kind of multisided crystal, and you need to make sure you pick the correct side and dig your thumb in to the rubber button in order to press it.

Connection: Solid feeling “Y” shape plug puts less pressure on the connection

Sound quality: Solid for music and good voice

Dealbreaker: Separate controls

Retail/Price paid: $128.00 / $119.95

Jim says: These were pretty solid all-around, with some good heft to them. I really liked the cord, and the connection felt encouraging. While I might just need some time to get used to the controls, it felt unnecessarily clumsy.

V-Moda Vibe II Audio Test:

V-MODA Vibe Duo Earbuds/Headset (iPhone Compatible)

Earbud style/fit: Silicon fittings provide a sealed fit. Similar to the other V-Modas, they were metal and solid. However, the bright silver ring around them made them feel very ‘blingy’

Cord: The cord is wrapped in fabric, giving it a great feel and making it less prone to tangles

Mic and control: The mic and control were housed in a single metal unit, which felt solid. However, the button was a little small to find and operate, and did not work for me.

Connection: Solid feeling “Y” shape plug puts less pressure on the connection, the best of the bunch

Sound quality: Solid for music, great bass and voice

Dealbreaker: I felt like I was wearing earrings, fast forward didn’t work

Retail/Price paid: $79.95 / $48.64

Jim says: On the plus side, I liked the construction, the cord, the plug, and the sound. But I also had several problems. As far as feel, the mic button is small and was a little tricky to operate. Next, I’m not sure if I got a defective unit, but the button didn’t work. Clicking it did not pause or fast forward to the next song.  And it could have been me, but of the 7 audio tests I did, this one didn’t come out (sorry, time constraints prevented me from re-recording) Lastly, they were too blinged out for me.

V-Moda Vibe II Audio Test:
[Not available]

Klipsch Image S4i Premium Noise-Isolating Headset with 3-Button Apple Control

Earbud style/fit: These were unique for 2 reasons. First, the drivers on the earbud were angled in, and second, the earbud gels were oval. Both of these factors led to a really comfortable fit

Cord: The cord was a basic cheaper plastic the felt like it would tangle

Mic and control: The mic and control were housed in a single metal unit, which felt very solid. They featured the new 3 button control for newer ipod models. Even though I still had a 3G, I thought it would be great to have if I move up to a newer model. The main issue is that the mic was located at the V, far below your mouth. They of course tout this as a positive, but my personal preference is to have it floating near my mouth, not bouncing around near my chest where I could have the zipper of a jacket, a tie, or the strap of my work bag.

Connection: Straight, flimsy feeling.

Sound quality: Solid for music, a little less bass than the vibe duo and average voice – loud during the pretzel test, probably due to mic placement

Dealbreaker: Placement of mic and cheap feeling wires

Retail/Price paid: $99.99 / $99.99

Jim says: I really wanted to like these, and enjoyed the way the earbuds sat in my ear. But below that, the wires just felt less sold, the connection worried me, and the mic placement sealed the deal.

Klipsch Image S4i Audio Test:

Etymotic Research HF2 Earphones / Headset (iPhone Compatible)

Earbud style/fit: At first I really, really liked the way these sat in my ears. They were light and comfortable due to the combination of the oval shape and stacked ear pads. However, I then realized how deep they are supposed to sit. (see sound quality)

Cord: The cord was plastic but solid enough. Not the quality of the V-Modas, but better than the cheaper models.

Mic and control: This was a single plastic mic unit with a button control. Pretty easy to find and use.

Connection: The connection had a strong plastic feel that curved at almost a 90 degree angle, making it easy to add/remove it.

Sound quality: As all the reviewers noted online, there is a noticeable absence of bass when compared to all others. While my sister said I sounded a little like a robot, and my parents thought it was a little tinny, they did say it felt a clearer. Decent audio in my test.

Then as I was looking at the packaging again, I noticed there was a warning saying Important: a deep seal in the ear canal is essential, or there will be a loss of bass. Then they direct you to  a video. The video is informative, if not amusing. They show a woman demonstrating how to properly put in the earbuds, which includes stretching your face with your opposite arm, and opening your mouth. I’m serious.

However, I have to admit when I did so, I definitely felt a much deeper seal, and the bass improved dramatically. But now I had a new issue, the seal was TOO good. I felt that someone had poured wax into my ears and sealed them shut. While this was great for sound quality, there was a constant pressure there, and I was concerned about walking in Manhattan streets and having 80% of outside noises blocked. I guess you can’t have it both ways.

Dealbreaker: The seal mentioned above, and price. Many people online paid the full $180 plus tax, which starts to put the total at the same level of the iPhone itself. I’ve seen them as low as $129.

Retail/Price paid: $179.99 / $139.83

Jim says: I really didn’t want to like these because of the price, but ordered them anyway because of the numerous awards that were awarded to the HF2.

But when I figured that I use my iPhone every single day, for multiple hours per day, they extra $100 or so would be a good investment over the next year or more. There was a sense of quality in the little things from both the headset and the packaging. I liked that I could pull these out * a little * so that I wasn’t yelling while on the phone, but push them back in for music or audio.

Etymotic Research HF2 Audio Test:

Overall thoughts:

I’m sure I put WAY more thought into this than the average Joe, that just strides into a store and grabs what the guy behind the counter recommends. (Hey, that’s why I’m here). Note that every model provided multiple earbud gels to custom to your particular ear canal setup. Also, it’s tricky to get used to talking when your ears are completely sealed shut.

Several also come with cases to carry the headphones in, but I’m not sure how many people will take the time to wrap up the headphones and carry them in a separate case all the time. Maybe women in a purse?

I also want to tell people to remember that the noise isolation can cause you to zone out and miss sounds when you are crossing the street, trying to listen to announcements on the subway, or just interacting with people in general.

Sadly, what I found out is that clarity in ALL of these products, especially on city streets, is an issue. With so many moving parts, from fit to electronics to finish quality, no wonder there is no clear winner. However, I’m probably going to go with the V-MODA Vibe II, which offered the best all-around performance for me.

I hope the testing was helpful to you in making your decision.

And from the marketing side, hopefully I’ll start to trend on Google for the search term best earbud headphones for iPhone.

Cheers

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So the much-ballyhooed Apple iPad was announced on January 27. What do I think?

Well, I reveled in all the hype, blocking off my lunchtime calendar and jumping between 5 different live-streaming tabs on my browser.

And first off, you DO have to give Apple credit for the hype. Love them or hate them, just think about the sheer number of people talking about this product, and the entire industry of bloggers, writers, reporters, photographers, and so on that exist just to speculate and cover this stuff. I can’t think of another company off-hand that creates another sub-industry just to cover it (other than “Hollywood” or “Wall Street”).

However, with this hype, you live by the crowd and die by the crowd. And right now, the crowd is turning on Apple. My take is that the device is certainly not as good as everyone had dreamed it would be (how could it?), but c’mon people… let’s at least HOLD the thing and try it before passing judgment. Perhaps there will be a double reverse backlash where it now becomes cool to say that it IS the new device to have.

In the podcast I dive into why it could be compelling, and the 5 types of people that would use it.

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

I think the most compelling features could be:

- Super light 1.5 lbs
- Instant-on like an iPhone
- The potential as an eBook reader (which I don’t think has been discussed enough)

So who are the 5 people that will use the iPad?:

1) Professional geeks, early adopters, unwavering Apple fanboys

I am a professional geek. That’s what I do. I love gadgets. I don’t always get the first version of every new thing, but I like to keep on top of it for sure.  I will strongly consider getting it once the hype dies down and I see it, and maybe I can unload my barely-used netbook on someone.

So will early adopters flock to it? I’m not sure. It’s never good to question the unwavering passion of some of the Apple fanboys, but perhaps Steve Jobs and Co have a Macbook Air on their hands. It was very cool, incredibly designed, and you’d think that it would be something an early adopter would love. But I haven’t seen many bloggers pulling one out of a manila envelope.

2) Travelers

We’re venturing into netbook territory, and it’s hard for me to defend what the iPad can do over a light, small, fully-equipped computer. But I HATE bringing out my laptop on a flight. At least with my work-assigned computer, it’s too big, I hate the whole boot up and log in, and the battery life barely makes it halfway across the country.

I’d much rather keep it in my bag and watch a movie or read. Aha… that’s the advantage of the iPad. You can do all that – watch 10 hours of movies (allegedly), listen to your music or podcasts, read an eBook, or easily browse your photos. And… you can simply slide it into the seatback when you get up from your window seat and have to crawl over people, or want to set it aside when you get your inflight meal.

3) Couch surfers
Here’s the scene… you own a desktop, not laptop. It’s in another room. Or you have a laptop, but it gets too hot, and too heavy on your lap while watching TV. The iPhone is just a bit too small for effective web surfing. The solution is that the iPad is sitting on the coffee table while watching TV.

Picture the scene at a Super Bowl party. You’re watching the game, focused on the big screen. Whoa, that crazy commercial just told you to go to GoDaddy or Pepsi or you want to check a stat. No bringing out the laptop and clearing away a pile of nachos and beers, just pass around the iPad.

Or if you’re on the couch and have an idea, you can just pick it up, turn it on instantly, fire off an email, jot some notes down, and put something on the calendar. (OK, I know I know… you can do this with a laptop or your iPhone too… I’m trying here!)

4) Thieves

On 1/27 the iPad was announced. That same day, I’m sure developers were getting together to tailor their apps, publishers were meeting to figure out content, and video game management teams were having breakout sessions.

But what about the ICSE?  The International Cartel of Stolen Electronics?  OK, I made that up, but did you know that 10,000 laptops are stolen per week at airports? And according to a Forbes story in 2008:
- Cell phone thefts were up 33% from 2006 to 2008
- Digital camera thefts were up 25% over 3 years
- iPod thefts were up 91%
- A 2007 study showed iPod robberies bumped up overall crime rates in some major U.S. cities
- Stolen iPods accounted for 4% of all robberies in Washington, D.C., in 2007.

So if I was ICSE president, I’d say it’s the best news since white headphones. While you can’t just stick it in your pocket and take off like a phone, at less than 2 pounds it’s not like the old days when you had to steal a 200 lb Sony Wega TV.

5) 3P: Portfolio Presentation Professionals

OK, another made up term, 3P.  I think the iPad would be amazing anywhere a professional person with a portfolio has to meet with clients. For example:
- Fashion Designers
- Architect or engineer
- Illustrator / Comic Books
- Artist
- Photographer
- Real Estate Agent
- 1:1 Salesperson
- Interviewees

Imagine you’re an artist trying to sell high-end paintings to a gallery. How impressive would it be to pull out this small device and just swipe your way through your best work?

Or what about being a wedding photographer and sitting down with a couple on their couch to show them your best shots?

Or you’re a real estate agent… out in the field, running around, showing people photos, layouts, and floor plans. Maybe it’s to people not used to using a computer that much. Swipe. Here’s the master bedroom. Swipe. Here the map that shows the nearest schools.  Swipe. Add those people at the open house to your contact list.

And lastly, what about on an interview?  I’ll tell you I’d be impressed if you took out an iPad and said can I just show you a few of my projects?

As for the Apple iPad’s prospects with me… it may not have the job yet, but it’s definitely going to get an interview.

More »

Hey everybody and Happy New Year!  It is so great to be back and diving into 2010 like a toddler at a kiddie pool.

Today’s topic is a little of everything. A pot pourri. A pot luck dinner of a multitude of topics.

It’s Ramblings and Rants.

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

Here’s an outline of today’s topics:

The 4-Hour Workweek

I talked about this book last year in my Book Report post listing my favorite marketing and business books, and to be honest, not much has changed so I will give you my review again below.

But what HAS changed is that he has an updated version of the book, with 100 new pages. Were these amazing new updates? Not really. However, I really wanted to read the book again, so figured the low price of $11 for The 4-Hour Workweek on Amazon.com was worth it.

I truly feel 2010 is the year for me to try and put some of his thoughts into action. I try to temper myself, because these books can get you really fired up but might not be realistic, but it’s something that I’m genuinely interested in. If you agree, I also recommend “Internet Business Mastery” as a podcast and the “Smart Passive Income” blog. We’ll see.

My review from last year:

I first came across Tim Ferriss when he was named The Most Effective Self Promoter of All Time on a Wired survey, beating out Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Jesus.

This was especially interesting because I had never ever heard of him. It’s been getting a lot buzz this year, and it’s easy to understand why. He promises to give you the key steps to quitting your job, escaping the 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich.

So is this just another ‘get rich quick and retire’ book that over promises? No.

While it bills itself as a step-by-step guide to “luxury lifestyle design,” here is why you need to read this book. I found that it actually covers several different topics individually, and you are free to pick and choose the ones you want independently. For example:

- Quitting the workforce While this is the main theme, and he encourages working remotely and getting down to just a handful of hours, I’m actually OK with going to the office. The problem many people probably have, is not being at the office until 7 or 8 at night, not checking the Treo or Blackberry at all hours, and actually using up all your allocated vacation days every year.

- Mini-retirements The conventional wisdom is your work your butt off for 45 years and THEN you get to retire. Ferriss argues, what fun is that? Who decided that was the rules? His plan is to take a series of mini-retirements throughout your life.

- Marketing Ferriss shows some great examples of implementing the 80/20 rule. Is it simply rehashing a theory from an Italian economist born in 1848? Yes! And he admits it. But it’s still good to get a refresher on Pareto’s rule every once in awhile.

- Managing E-mail This is something that just about everyone can use help with. He has some great practical advice on when to check email, using out-of-office replies, and managing information overload.

- Virtual assistants Can you outsource all your mundane busy work to someone overseas? Tim says you can and while I haven’t tried it, it’s something I’d love to test.

- Starting an internet business to make passive income This one intrigued me the most, especially the stories about the French Sailor shirt and the Rock Climbing Yoga DVD. He makes it sound easy, but if you’re a smart marketer, internet savvy, have ever done a Google keyword buy, and are up on the latest social media, he gives some very, very compelling examples.

So again, if you’re sick of your job and you want to live in Buenos Aires and get a check for doing nothing every mont h, Tim steers you in the right direction. This could be your bible. But this is also a great read to pick up simple workday efficiency tips like batching your email. The example he gives is that you don’t do your laundry every single day after one of your shirts get dirty. It would be silly. There’s too much startup time to go to the basement, run the washer, add the soap, clean the shirt, take it out, put it in the dryer, etc.

So instead you put it all in a bundle and do it once a week. He argues it’s the same thing for a project you’re working on. If you’re in the middle of a budget spreadsheet and try to multi-task by tabbing over to answer a quick email or pick up the phone, when you go back to the spreadsheet there’s a huge startup time to ramp back up again. I highly recommend it.

The Apple Tablet

I have to admit, I love the hype.  I confessed that I was a PC user from birth until 2007, and now with an iPhone, a Macbook Pro, and about 4 iPods, I’m probably Apple-fanboy-approved.  In 2007 I followed all the hype leading up to the iPhone’s first launch, and then even MORE closely in 2008 because I knew I was going to buy one.

I really enjoyed the speculation on the Apple tablet in a blog post by John Gruber of Daring Fireball.net. Some of the questions he asks are:

- How do you type on it?
- How do you carry it?
- How  do you watch it? Prop it up on some kind of legs?
- Most importantly… who will want it?  Can it fill the void between the iPhone and a laptop

I can’t wait to find out.

Consumer Electronics Show – Can I get rid of cable TV yet?

In this rant, I talk about how I was “out-Wired” at a meal with some other guys the other day. I was complaining how I couldn’t watch the Patriots when not on TV, and they gave me several option how I could have done it, including using a Slingbox from my parent’s house in Boston, then streaming it to my netbook (which I barely use) hooked into my LCD TV.  Man, that sure sounds like a geek project to tackle for this fall.

Wired posted their quick CES preview this week, and there seem to be lots of TV options.

1) Is Boxee going to take over this year? In that case, I won’t need cable TV. I can get everything online.
2) But wait, maybe I won’t need a TV if I can use a projector built into a camera like the Nikon Coolpix S1000pj (which I predicted in October 2008)
3) But wait a second, now they’re saying I DO need a TV… a NEW TV… a 3D TV

Avatar

I really enjoyed the movie. Was the story clichéd? Of course.  Was it wildly entertaining to me? Yes.  The key for me? Cameron didn’t overdo it with the 3D. Do other people agree? Hell yeah. It’s made over 1 BILLION DOLLARS.

If I was James Cameron, I would be walking around Hollywood like a peacock. Hey, you know who I am? I’m James Freaking Cameron. My movie just made a BILLION dollars. How you like that?  But I wouldn’t say it like the cliched Dr. Evil with my pinky… I’d be screaming it like a crazy drill instructor hyped up on crack addressing his daddy that never loved him after winning some kind of futuristic worldwide lottery. One. Billion. Dollars.

Fantasy Football

Speaking of a) strutting like a peacock and b) winning money. I won’t bore you with the details (the podcast rant is entertaining though), but lets just say that a league I was in CONSPIRED to make a specific RULE CHANGE to directly thwart my team. It would be like Hollywood telling Cameron that because Titanic did so well, and they didn’t want him to break a record again, he could only show Avatar on weekdays. You know what happened? I STILL freaking won. Again. Yes, that’s THREE titles in a row.

Sexy Things

1) Shoutout to former Hopkinson Report guest Elizabeth King, author of Outsmarting the SAT, for being nominated in Wired’s 2009 Sexiest Geeks contest.

2) The band Pomplamoose is my newest musical obsession. Like a true Wired geek, I am equally mesmerized by singer Nataly Dawn’s sultry voice, piercing eyes, and sweet-as-pie character… as I am with Jack Conte’s musical talent (drums, guitar, piano, mini piano, organ, xylophone, accordion… should I go on?), sound engineering, and incredible video editing.

Check out their entertaining cover songs (Beat It, September, Mister Sandman, Mrs. Robinson) and original music on the Pomplamoose YouTube page.

Warning: Upon viewing this video, you will NOT be able to get it out of your head.

Hopkinson Report User Survey

Thanks everyone for participating in the survey! I covered a lot of the results in the podcast. I’ll try to post the highlights when I get the transcript of this show. Of note:

Male guest of the year: Daniel Odio, Pointabout.com

Female guest of the year: Jana Eggers, Spreadshirt.com

Listener winner of a Hopkinson Report t-shirt: Martin McManus.

Prizes

Lastly, I gave a little inside scoop for the listeners:

1) Wired’s One Wired Wish contest is quick to enter, ends on 2/2, and chance to win a $10,000 shopping spree)

2) Our “Wired Magazine Spine photo contest” ends on 1/15. The key? We have 10 prizes, and as of 1/6, we have less than 25 entries. Odds are good.

Thanks and talk to you soon.

More »

“Scary WalMart Security Guards In Black Hoodies Prevent Black Friday Deaths” was a headline I read over the Thanksgiving break on The Business Insider, referring to the sad death of a temporary worker that died last year when early bird customers rushed the doors. Oh, and they forgot to mention the bullhorns. (Photo credit: NY Times slideshow).

But it never should have come to that.

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

As a self-proclaimed “hyper-influencer” and in layman’s terms “the guy everyone asks for tech and shopping advice,” there’s no way I would ever recommend forsaking time with family during the holidays, getting out of a warm bed at 5am, and elbowing other like-minded, bad-at-math, so-called bargain hunters for the lowest possible quality flat-screen TV available at retail.

Before I even get to my rules, I can tell you they violate good shopping logic on so many levels.

First there’s the 5am thing.

Hey, maybe you love your mom so much that it’s a ritual that you both get up at the crack of dawn and shop together. It’s a yearly tradition. Um, ok. I’d prefer a nice cup of coffee and breakfast at the kitchen table, but so be it.

Or maybe you hate your family so much, that you fake that you really want to camp out on a Best Buy sidewalk the night before just to get away from them. You’ve got other problems there.

There’s just not that many things worth getting up at 5am for – and I’m a morning person. Some things that come to mind are a really good road trip, catching the first run down a ski trail on a knee-deep powder day, or catching a flight to Cabo St. Lucas.

Second, there’s also not a lot of things worth waiting in line for.

For this I think it comes down to opportunity cost. If your favorite sports team hasn’t made the finals in 20 years or this is the only time your favorite band of all-time is playing an intimate set at the venue in your small town, then I can see the reasoning in camping out for tickets. You may never get the chance again.

But what about that doorbuster 32” Emerson LCD TV for $248? Well, as of this post the full retail price on WalMart’s website has it at $318. A respectable 22% discount. But don’t you think they’ll put that on sale again? So what’s your margin now, 15%? 10%?

And the fact is, you’re cheaping out on the worst kind of item, a potentially long-term purchase. It’s an Emerson! No disrespect to the electronics maker, but they just aren’t in the conversation with Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, or Panasonic when it comes to quality TVs.

In fact, I was easily able to find a comment the day after Thanksgiving of someone getting one with a defect.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve really paid a lot more attention to the quality vs quantity matrix. Go ahead and cut corners on that winter scarf, wine opener, or an ironing board. Listen, don’t get me wrong. When I’m home, I always make a stop at WalMart to pick up toiletries and other small items. But a TV is something you’ll potentially use hours a day, every day, for years. Do you really want to go bottom of the barrel? (In a Consumer Reports test, the Emerson… well, evidently CR didn’t have the Emerson as one of the TWENTY-THREE different brands that they tested. Sorry).

Even worse, lets say you decide to go quality and get WalMart’s 32” Sony Bravia model for $378.
You know how much it is normally?

Wait for it…

$398!

Wow, 5 percent off! And you know how much they charge to ship it to your house? 97 cents! I swear to god, click the link, they’ll ship it to your home – I’m guessing some time AFTER 5am – for a dollar!

OK, that was a good warm-up rant. On to the tips:

Tip 1: Just buy it online
Lets face it, I live in the most expensive city in the country, so I need to save whenever and wherever you can. To me, that means buying online. Seriously, with the speed that you can do a Google search on virtually any product — in my case from my iPhone while still in the store — there’s no reason not to check on a price. Usually one of two things will happen:

A) You show the retailer the price, and say, hey, you’re too expensive, I’m just going to get it online, at which point they might lower or match the price and you can walk away with it right away

B)They say they can’t possibly meet that price. My friend and I both happened to be buying new LCD TVs at the same time 2 years ago, and said to the store manager, look, we’ll buy TWO giant flatscreen TVs today if you get close to the price online. Maybe he thought we were bluffing and said he couldn’t do it, so we walked.

Purchases in the last year include a digital camera, netbook, running sneakers, several books, an external hard drive, razor blades, a camping tent, a humidifier filter, and a replacement dimmer switch.

In every case, I did various amounts of research online, saw the product in person if needed, and paid significantly less by purchasing online. It’s not for the impatient among us, you do have to wait for shipping. But I counteract that somewhat by being an Amazon Prime member (yes, there is a yearly fee, and no, I don’t get paid to promote them). What that gives me is automatic 2^nd day air shipping, and overnight for only $3.99.

The only purchase that caused me trouble was the dimmer switch. It ended up being defective, so I went to a local lighting store to get a replacement and ask questions of the staff, knowing they’d help me if the one I bought from them shorted out as well.

Reasons for not buying online:

- Need it quickly
- Need a local level of service
- Cost of shipping is a factor
- Savings tradeoff is too low

Let’s look at the duality of the Apple Store. Say you want a new Macbook Pro. You can buy it in the store for $1699, or get it on Amazon for $1678.88, a piddly savings of 1%. I would buy it at the Apple Store 99 times out of a 100 because if (and when?) something happens to it and you need to bring it in for service, you’re in a better position to say “I bought it right here at this store.”

On the other hand, lets say you need to buy a backup hard drive with your purchase, and they recommend the LaCie 500GB model for $179.95. You can literally walk over to any one of their internet-enabled computers, go to Amazon, and even buy the same model for $144.95 before you even leave the store!

Tip 2: What’s up with Banana Republic?

OK, so I know fashion is a very personal thing, trends vary greatly in different parts of the country, and just because I work in the same building as the guys from GQ and Details, doesn’t mean I’m an expert. But like many men – probably a large majority of my listeners – I tend to wear a dress shirt to work every day.

Now there’s not much as guys we can do to screw that up… at it’s core, you’re probably looking at some shade of blue or white with maybe a pattern or stripe thrown in, with the other variant being the collar and the cuffs, whether it’s supposedly non-wrinkle or not, and recently I’m seeing a lot of slim cut or fitted options.

How many dress shirts does the average guy own? I actually counted and was surprised to find that I had almost 40. Granted some are more for going out vs. business, some I rarely wear at all and should probably be thrown out [Actually, I donate them], and a few are my really nice “go-to” ones for events or weddings or other random things in New York that I need to look spiffy for.

I asked one of the younger guys at work, he guessed he had about 20, so I’m going to say that they average office guy in his 30s – the Wired demographic – has about 25 to 30 dress shirts.

My point is this… it’s an item that you’re buying and replenishing on a constant basis, and honestly, most of the time they’re all about the same. For larger one-time purchases like a watch or a suit or shoes or a jacket, I’m going to pay more for quality and style.

So I’m a pretty simple guy. I used to work on 34^th St, which means I walked past Macy’s, the largest department store in the world, every single day. OK, so Google leads me to the Guinness Book of World Records to say that in June the Shinsegae Centumcity Department Store in South Korea surpassed Macys, with a whopping 3 million square feet compared to Macy’s 1 million. I don’t care. I’m going with Macys.

Anyway, some people said that [walking by that many stores every single day] would be dangerous for them, as they’d always go in and buy something every single day. I said it was the opposite… unlike some people that make a specific trip to a mall to go shopping and feel like they have to buy something, I was able to very quickly pop in, see if there was a great sale, and if not, just continue on my way.

I knew that most of their dress shirts were in the $30-$50 range, but there was always some kind of sale, and usually some extra bonus dollars and coupons and Macy’s credit card deals that allowed me to buy shirts under $30 bucks.

But, there was also a Banana Republic on 34^th. Their shirts were in the $60 range, and were tougher to find on sale, but when they did, you got a nicer, more stylish, shirt in the $30-$40 range.

But not anymore. Over the past year or so, their prices seem to be going up and up. I swore that I could barely find a decent shirt on sale for under $60.

My guess was that parent company Gap, Inc was trying to set a distinct market between Old Navy, the Gap, and Banana Republic. It seems they’re willing to turn off a large majority of Banana Republic shoppers, forcing those looking for lower prices down the chain to their neighborhood Gap, while keeping fewer upscale shoppers at much higher prices.

Well to me, I think it is backfiring, and at minimum they picked the worst year in memory to try and pull it off.

So I went to the web and I think the stats prove I’m right.

Here are the current price points for their non-sale shirts, and how many they have available:

$59.50 (5)
$79.50 (33)
$127.00 (6)

So of the current dress shirts available on your website, 88.6% of them are $80 or higher. Really?

Contrast that with Macys.com, where they have over 350 different dress shirts, categorized into the following groupings:

Under $69.99
Under $49.99
Under $34.99

So what happens when I go into the Banana Republic on Black Friday? We already know WalMart is practically giving away items to get people in the store.

What is Banana’s alluring offer?

Buy one cashmere scarf at $139, get one free.

Really?

That’s your Black Friday worst-recession-in-recent-memory deal?

You polled 1,000 people and asked what they really wanted for as a holiday gift or what they would buy themselves, and they said please get me TWO scarves worth $139. Is that not ridiculous? Even with the deal, it’s a $70 scarf! I bet I’ve lost more scarves in my lifetime than I’ve bought if that is somehow possible.

So I decided to check their earnings report, and sure enough, while Gap shares were up a fantastic 25%, sales at Banana were down 6%.

Tip 3: iPod case study

So my sister has a very old school 20GB iPod that is on its last legs, and she asked for advice. At first I raved about the iPod touch… it was cool, it was flashy, it had apps, and it had wifi. But then I did what I’ve had to really focus on doing when giving tech advice… listen to what the person really needs.

She didn’t need apps. She didn’t need wifi. She just wanted a way to manage her music collection, and rip some more CDs that she owned, and do it at a reasonable price. So since the lowest priced touch over 20GB was $300, that was out. The problem was, the latest version of the classic is now $250, and has more than 8 times the storage than what she has now, 160 GB.

My solution?

Go to Craigslist, but with caution. It might look like I am contradicting my thoughts on spending the money on a quality piece of electronics that will last you, but my thinking is this:

- $250 is a pretty high premium to pay for more storage than she needs. 

- Going the refurbished route only saves about 15%. You might as well go new. 

- But if you can get a good deal on a good product from an early adopter looking to upgrade to a touch and unload their classic, you’re in a good position to make a win-win deal. Generally I’m looking for at least a 50% discount off of new to make it worthwhile.

The result? She emailed me today with a person listing a 6 month old 120GB iPod classic, and had talked her down from $195 to $160. I’d say saving $100 is just about the area when you take the chance, although I’d rather see the price get to the $125 range to really get a good deal.

Tip 4: What not to worry about

Gas prices. This is one I get into with my parents all the time, as they sometimes go out of their way to go to a gas station that has lower prices. Lets say gas station A is charging $3.09 a gallon and station B is charging $2.79. That seems like a pretty significant 30 cent difference.

But then I spell out the math. How big is your gas tank? 16 gallons. How much gas do you need? It’s at ¼ tank, so I need 12 gallons. So how much more does it actually cost? $3.60.

So I argue that his time, his effort, the wear and tear on the car, and the chance of an accident for driving more out of the way is definitely NOT worth it for just a few dollars more.

If he was filling up an SUV and commuted 40 miles to work each day? Yes, then it really adds up. But for tooling around town, go for convenience.

Tip 5: What you should really spend your money on

There was an article early this year on CNN.com that found that people valued experiences much more than possessions. So if you’re debating whether to get your wife or girlfriend diamond earrings or a sunny weekend getaway, lean toward Aruba.

But I also thought this article in the NY Times was fascinating, When Money Buys Happiness. It asked people to:

“List the ten most expensive things (products, services or experiences) that you have ever paid for (including houses, cars, university degrees, marriage ceremonies, divorce settlements and taxes). Then, list the ten items that you have ever bought that gave you the most happiness. Count how many items appear on both lists.”

It’s worth a read to see all the different ways people responded, and how they valued possessions vs happiness.

I’ll end it with a quote from Craig, who said:

“As I read through all of the lists I realized that everyone who is more frugal than me is cheap and everyone who spends more than me is ostentatious. I am so relieved to realize that I have perfectly calibrated values.”

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[Jim's Note: I want to note that these are my editorial thoughts, and that I often shop at all the locations discussed. Well, except the mall in South Korea. Haven't seen what their holidays sales are like yet.]

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If this has you in a money spending mood, head over to the Wired Store to check out tons of cool gadgets and gear. If you’re in the New York City area, there’s a pop up store for the holidays located in the Meatpacking District with lots of cool stuff.

And if this has you not wanting to spend any money at all, you should still check out the website for a chance to win $10,000 worth of Wired Store stuff.

More »

Daniel Odio demonstrates the Phone2Projector on The Hopkinson Report. from Jim Hopkinson on Vimeo.

In Episode 65, I interviewed Daniel Odio, co-founder and COO of a company called PointAbout.com. We geeked out and talked about gadgets for nearly 2 hours before settling down to record the podcast, but even then, we had so much great information, we had to break it into two parts.

Below: Part 2.
Also see: Part 1 of the Daniel Odio Interview.
Also see: Full Transcript of the Interview.

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

Topics we cover:

How to get to the CEO:
- Daniel’s favorite book for sales tips
- How to write to the CEO and get your message across so that a company takes action from the top down.
- The optimum length e-mail
- How to find any CEO’s e-mail address
- How Daniel got a brand new Dell laptop sent to him in one day after a frustrating experience with overseas tech support

How to get the word out using social media
Video
- The low-cost additional step you should be using to get more views from Vimeo and Youtube
- The fear to avoid when doing online video
- The most unlikely place Daniel does a video podcast (His car – see below)

Being an Entrepreneur = Always On from Daniel R. Odio on Vimeo.

Blogging
- Why Henry Ford would love blogging
- A blogging techique that will save you hours of time
- Jim’s case study: Hopkinson How-to Guides
- How to update your blog via e-mail using Posterous.com
- Feed Google’s thirst for original content

Pointabout
- Changing the ways iPhone applications exist
- AppMakr.com – Cutting the cost of iPhone applications in 27 seconds
- The operating system Daniel feels will outsell the iPhone
- AppMakr’s pricing model
– $500 for unlimited demos
– $2000 1-time fee to build a real app and get it in the iTunes store
– Customized app (adding contact lists, GPS, etc)
- How ad agencies or companies like Burger King can constantly be testing
- Test – iterate – repeat

The future trends in mobile
- Web: from local to global (ex: local store can now be found anywhere)
- Mobile: from global to local (ex: like Yelp… I don’t care about a restaurant in California, if I’m in NYC, I want to know the closest sushi place on my block. And what do people think about it?  Mobile helps hyper-local
- Move from analog devices being digitized
- Ex. Blood pressure monitor plugs into iPhone
- Hooks into phone; upload, email to doctor, etc
- Improving the infrastructure of mobile
- Web: started basic… years before online banking and safe credit cards
- Mobile: games, etc. Soon: integrated, networked parking meters in cities. Use phone to get a map to open parking spaces
- You have your phone with you all the time, gateway to all things digital

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Key Links:

Daniel: On Twitter | Personal Blog | Point About

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Revenue Models for the New Media Infopreneur

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Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

It’s June and that means the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference is going on, so all the die-hard fans can stop looking at the rumor sites featuring leaked bootleg photos from Chinese wholesalers guessing what will be announced. It’s here.

In the end, the phone itself was largely the same, with Steve Jobs and company giving it more speed, a longer battery life, and a video camera as major features. What, no Kindle-killer? No ultra-light “Macbook Touch” tablet? I guess I can go back to checking out netbooks.

But here’s the important fact for the millions of people like me that already have an iPhone 3G, and aren’t fanatical about buying every new piece of hardware that Cupertino pumps out. It’s the software.

So in a way, the announcement of updated iPhone 3.0 software in March was far more important. A few months ago while at SXSW, I interviewed Olivier and Tyler from the ad agency Full Six, who created a site called PleaseFixTheiPhone.com, which documented the dozens of features that they felt were left out.

We talked about the challenges of developing for the iPhone, and what the top 5 most-wanted features were.  After we hear what they had to say back then, I’ll let you know if Apple answered people’s wishes.

Tyler Peterson and Olivier Peyre from PleaseFixTheiPhone.com
(Play the podcast above to hear the full interview)

The top 5 requests to improve the iPhone were:

1) Running apps in the background. Did they get it in the new 3.0 software? No.
But you know who did? The Palm Pre, giving it a major selling point when they try to differentiate itself vs. the iPhone.

2) MMS messaging. Yes… when AT&T gets around to it “late summer.”
This will be a welcome addition.

3) Copy and paste. Yes.
It’s amazing how many people are so excited about something this simple.

4) The ability to wirelessly sync. No.
While there are some enhancements with Bluetooth, it does not appear that you can simply sync your iPhone without plugging it in, with the possible exception of their paid MobileMe service.

5) Horizontal keyboard. Yes.
All you texting fanatics just got a little bit faster.

As for the marketing, I’m sure Apple has a slew of new commercials tee’d up and ready to appeal to our inner geek. So sit back and enjoy the ride… well, until it’s time for the next new product to come along.

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Links

PleaseFixTheiPhone.com

Full Six Interactive Agency

Wired’s WWDC Coverage

Wired’s Review of the Palm Pre

Which iPhone app revenue model has the most profit potential?

More »

So what’s the best revenue model for iPhone applications? Lets find out.

Play Episode as a Podcast (recommended):

Or read as a blog post:

Apple did it to me again. Back in September when I was doing market analysis for the Wired Product Reviews iPhone application, I stated that a whopping 100 million iPhone applications had been downloaded. But when I checked my stats again a week or so later before the kickoff meeting, the number had already doubled to 200 million.

Then they did it again. I had some pretty recent stats that there had been 300 million downloads. Guess again. In mid January, Apple announced that they had ballooned to 500 million iPhone App downloads in just six months. To put that into perspective, it took 2 years for the number of iTunes songs to surpass half a billion.

Of course when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. In 2003 when the iTunes store launched, far more people were still illegally downloading songs on Napster and other file sharing services. The iPod didn’t have the stranglehold on the MP3 player culture that it does now. But in the last 5+ years, Apple has essentially educated a generation of followers on how to download digital content. The work done by iTunes has paved the way for the App Store. There was no learning curve.

So if you or your company are looking to build an application and jump into the fray, what’s the best – and most profitable – way to do so?

E-mail MarketingGuy [at] Wired.com or leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Revenue Model 1

Price: Free
Audience: Mass Market
Model: Content extension, advertising-supported
Example: Wired Reviews, Facebook, Yelp, NY Times
Outlook: Mixed

In this model, a company like Wired released a very solid, free application that brings real value to its readers. Users can browse product reviews that are updated daily, and the next version will feature the ability to view the latest tech videos, and a direct feed of Wired’s Gadget Lab Blog.

The main goal for Wired is to deliver their content in multiple formats and extend their reach, so that readers can choose which method works best for them, be it the print magazine, online at Wired.com, via podcasts, RSS, and now, the iPhone. Because of Wired’s strong brand name and established sales team, they have the option to package sponsors within their free application to generate incremental revenue. Extending the online reach is also the goal of apps like Facebook, Yelp, the New York Times, and others.

However, new companies looking to follow the straight advertising model may want to think twice given that ad budgets have been sliced across the board. While I feel companies in this category will continue to develop, I’m sure they’ve scaled back their expectations that this will be a profit center.

Revenue Model 2

Price: Free
Audience: Mass Market
Model: Loss leader, alternate revenue
Example: Urbanspoon, others
Outlook: Promising

In this model, companies hope to create a huge buzz around their product by offering it for free and getting it into as many hands as possible. In some cases, iPhone developers are looking for revenue down the line. For example, if you’re a development shop and hit it big with a popular application, you can work the press from both ways.

Let’s say your app is called Yowza. When the shop is pitching new clients, they can say, hey, we’re the shop that made the wildly popular application Yowza, with 50,000 downloads. Come work with the best. Or better yet, some CEO sees his kid playing with the app, figures his company needs something like that and yells, “Johnson! Get the company that made Yowza on the line and have them build us a killer application! And money is no object!”

Other examples of loss leaders are ones that choose to drive users to their more profitable web site, to events, political campaigns, or in the case of the Audi A4 Challenge, they hope users literally drive to a showroom for a new car. One revenue stream that caught me by surprise was when I looked at Urbanspoon’s website. While they do serve unobtrusive ads in their app, they tag themselves as “The world’s leading provider of time-critical dining data.” Not to be lost in all this is the millions of interactions that users make with the program. Companies like Urbanspoon could find a source of revenue by reselling this valuable data that they collect to market research groups or other entities.

Revenue Model 3

Price: Paid applications, at a low price point
Audience: Mass Market
Model: Straight revenue
Examples: iFart Mobile, Yahtzee, Sim City, Games, others
Outlook: Variable

This category covers everything from games like Yahtzee to Japanese language translators to NYC Subway Maps to farting applications. And that’s just the sample from my phone. These particular apps range from 99 cents up to 4.99, and while I use some more than others, I don’t regret the few dollars I spent on any of them. And isn’t that the idea? In the short term, getting thousands of people to say what the heck and dropping a buck can lead to some pretty fast profits. But as in any industry, over the long term the fly-by-night outfits will fade away and only apps that provide clear value will rise to the top.

However, recent rumors have Apple creating a premium game section with apps priced at $19.99, only open to a restricted number of large publishers. If Apple rolls out its next generation phone more beefed up for gaming, this segment could grow rapidly.

Revenue Model 4

Price: Paid applications at a high price point
Audience: Niche Market
Model: Straight revenue
Examples: I am Rich, iRa Direct
Outlook: Percolating

Probably the first application to mine this market was one called “I am Rich,” which simply charged someone with more money than brains the tidy sum of $1,000, with the only value they receive is a glowing red icon on their phone, and bragging rights on the geek yacht. The app was later pulled from the store.

But I also came across a program called iRa Direct. The company behind it, Lextech Labs, has a goal of “making it easier to interact with complicated technology systems while mobile.” Their application, which costs $499.99, brings the ability to view live action surveillance video cameras from your iPhone. Let me say that from their screen shots, the video looks amazing, the amount of tech-speak they throw around makes it look like they put a ton of engineering into this, and their sister company, Lextech Global Services, either really knows what they are doing, or is the evil corporation from the original RoboCop movie.

So could this app be worth $500 bucks to the correct audience? I have to believe it could, and that there will be many more scenarios like this. I’d like to think that any future apps that will cost several hundred dollars, will be based on programs and systems far more complex than More Cowbell.  Thus, the development of these programs will have longer lead times to get to the mobile space, so I’m sure there are R&D labs filled with coffee-charged programmers coding away as we speak.

Revenue Model 5

Price: Paid applications at a low-mid range
Audience: Niche Market
Model: Straight revenue
Examples: Winepad
Outlook: Profitable

This is the area that intrigues my entrepreneurial streak the most. Applications in this space don’t need the huge marketing budget to get noticed above the clamor of thousands of other mass market programs, nor hope to get lucky that your app strikes it big after getting featured in an Apple commercial.

I recently heard the story about an iPhone application called Winepad on the Internet Business Mastery podcast. Billed as the iPhone app for wine geeks, it replaces a real-world product, the wine journal. While I must admit I had never seen or heard of one, it instantly made sense to me. I know there is a large population that not only adores wine, but obsesses over it. Hey, I’ve seen the movie Sideways. I can easily picture aficionados logging the name, vintage, price, rating, color, clarity, aroma, taste and their personal comments in a leather-bound journal and sliding the bottle’s label in as a bookmark. But why do that when you can do the same thing on your iPhone with just a few taps, and take a photo of the bottle with a simple click. It’s brilliant, and just $2.99.

But here … here is where it becomes genius. Genius! With the code optimized for Winepad, he promptly rolled out Beer Pad. Is it a mass market American beer, a tiny microbrew, a German Lager, a British Ale, or an Irish Stout? Just record it in your iPhone. If you’re a bartender that works at a brewery that swaps their kegs out daily, or a home brewer that tries out different batches, this app seems targeted to you.

You want more genius? You know it didn’t take him long to roll out Whiskey Pad.
Same program, new audience.

So what do YOU think will be the best revenue model for future iPhone applications.

Drop me a line at MarketingGuy [at] wired.com and let me know.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to grab a 2004 Shiraz and contemplate a new idea…

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You might also enjoy:

I’m Special – How I transferred 250 contacts from my Sprint phone to my iPhone

Ad Campaign Showdown – iPhone vs. Microsoft

Follow me on Twitter!  www.Twitter.com/HopkinsonReport

More »

While those in the online marketing world live and breathe social media, we have to remember that outside our inner circle, there are still millions without Facebook accounts and that many think Twitter is a Looney Tunes character.

In this article, I analyze which companies effectively drove their message home, and which ones fumbled their big opportunity. After all, a TV spot during the big game is expensive; extending that brand to your audience via social media costs far less, and is often free.

Play Episode as a Podcast (recommended):

Or read as a blog post:

The commercials were judged on the following two criteria:
1) Was the spot effective in driving their marketing message
2) Did the website deliver on that message

SUPER BOWL CALIBER
E*Trade - The smart-talking baby commercials are hysterical, and may have just coined a new golf term, “shankopotamus.” You watch the spot, you laugh, and you know what the product is about. Upon arriving at the web site, there are links to view the commercials, including even more hysterical outtakes. Bonus: E*Trade bought the Google keyword shankopotamus.

Monster.com - The online job site had two marketing tactics, and they nailed them both. In the first, the “Need a new job” campaign was funny, and closes by saying that Monster has a redesigned website, with a call to action to check it out at Monster.com. Upon arrival there, they use clear, casually-shot online videos of employees to walk you through the new features. The second tactic was promoting their “Fandemonium” contest, co-sponsored by the NFL. The commercial was slick, and the microsite at NFL.Monster.com delivered.

WINNING UGLY
GoDaddy.com - The domain registration company is known for their puerile advertising campaigns, and this year

was no different. I’m guessing their brainstorming sessions didn’t go long before settling on “breast enhancement” and “computer geeks spying on women in a shower.” But as a test, I turned to one of my guests at my party, a Russian immigrant taking English as a second language and trying to keep up with the festivities, and asked her three simple questions. What is the name of the company? What do they sell? Where would you go to buy their product? She aced all three questions. The TV spot ended by urging users to visit their website to watch the “uncut” versions, and despite being a bit busy, they have plenty of step-by-step guides to get you started.

Cash4Gold.com - This might be the definition of winning ugly. Ed McMahon looked like he is a step away from the grave, and MC Hammer’s serving as the poster boy for rapper’s excess has clearly jumped the shark. I won’t pass judgment on what message boards across the ‘net say about the legitimacy of the company (it isn’t good), but the intent of the ad and the website is crystal clear. A Google search, even using “for” instead of “4,” yields 3 sponsored ads at the top, Super Bowl specific ads to the right, and the # 1 natural search result. They’ve done their SEO homework.

PLAYOFF CONTENDERS WITH A FACEBOOK FAIL
Careerbuilder.com - The “12 Days of Christmas” of hating your job commercial was entertaining, and you can’t miss the URL that brings you to their website. I found the landing page much less inviting than Monster, but quickly perked up when I saw their attempt at Facebook integration. Finally, some social media! However, Facebook connect offers to a) bring my Facebook friends onto Careerbuilder, and b) let Careerbuilder post stories to my wall. I’m not sure I’d wish either of those on anyone in my network.

Cars.com - The “David Abernathy Lifetime of Confidence” TV spot was engaging, even gripping, and held the attention of my guests. Again, you can’t miss the URL, and the landing page is clear and uncluttered, with a small but obvious banner leading users to their Super Bowl landing page. But the scene in the commercial where Cars.com is seen on a phone didn’t let me know if there was a true mobile application, and their attempt at social media fell short. With 100 million people watching the game, they can’t be happy that less than 300 joined David Abernathy’s Facebook page. My favorite wall comment? “What exactly made you confident in so many areas of your life, yet not in the area of car buying?”

ALL OFFENSE, NO DEFENSE
Doritos - Were the commercials entertaining and munchie-inducing? Yes sir. But the call to action was the somewhat long and difficult to remember “snackstrongproductions.com,” with the worst part being that the URL redirects to Doritos.com! Why not just use Doritos.com!?!? Once you get there, forget it. The website looks like an over-produced blockbuster movie. We’re talking nachos here, people!

Gatorade G Mission - Classic Gatorade. Peyton Manning, Tiger Woods, and other top athletes. The website? Um, I think I’m in the wrong place.

SEARCHING FOR A NEW COACH
Pedigree - The play-by-play: we’re off to a good start, with various zoo animals gone wild. The payoff line comes… “Maybe you should get a dog.” OK, that’s kind of funny. But who is this? Then they show the Pedigree logo, with a blue ribbon. I’m sorry, I’m still not sure who you are yet. Then another line, “The Pedigree adoption drive. Help us help dogs.” And… end. So what’s the problem here? I STILL don’t know who you are, and you ask us to help you, but don’t say how to do it! How can you NOT have a URL here? So I find my way to pedigree.com, and they have a decent website. And finally, a company with an iPhone app. But while they get props for Google keywords, they lose points for the one I saw that still had the placeholder “Ad Text goes here” displayed.

Denny’s - This experience had all the back-and-forth as the game itself. The “Thugs” spot started out serious (is that Martin Scorsese?). Then it got funny. Then it got interesting… they are giving away a free Grand Slam breakfast to everyone in America. Great! But wait, no URL for more information? Is there a catch? How do I get this? Well, of course I figured out it’s just Dennys.com, and the directions are clear as day. All is well in the world. That is, of course, until I enter my New York City zip code to find out there isn’t a restaurant near me. Game over.

REVIEWING THE GAME FILM
After co-writing the article “Super Bowl Advertising 2.0” after the 2007 game, I had high hopes that the ads had progressed after two years of learning. Yet the arsenal of social media resources we use in the industry daily, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, online video, iPhone applications, and texting, went largely untapped.

It’s clear that with 100 million people around the world tuning in, adding something like a Twitter address that is understood by a small fraction of the audience would dilute the message. But while the Twitter audience is small, aren’t they amongst the most influential? Why wouldn’t they want to reach this group of hyper-influencers? Oh wait… they’re probably going to write a blog post on it anyway.

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You might also like:

Turn your girlfriend into a football fanatic

Ad Campaign Showdown – Apple vs. Microsoft

Follow me on Twitter

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Wouldn’t it be great if ALL companies…

• Took their customers to free dinners
• Sent their users flowers when they’ve had a bad day
• Received a 99% positive referral rating
• Had an entrepreneurial blog and irreverent newsletter
• Had a Twitter following so passionate that users solved problems
• Instilled a little bit of “magic” into everyday life?

Well, if you’re a marketer, a manager, or public relations rep trying to improve your company’s image, then my interview with Saul Colt, “Head of Magic” for the online invoicing company “Freshbooks,” is a must-listen.

Our 20-minute conversation is a marketing case study for using social media and “retro marketing” to grow a loyal following. We discuss:

• How Freshbooks was born out of frustration that many freelancers face
• Why they take their customers — even non-paying ones — to free dinners
• What just might happen if you get stood up on a blind date
• His title, and what happens when the “Head of Magic” heads to Las Vegas

• Why he has a Love-Hate relationship with Zappos.com
• The iPhone promotion that differentiated them from every other company
• Their CEO’s blog post “The 7 Ways I’ve Almost Killed Freshbooks“
• How their iPhone app helps on-the-go freelancers keep better records

To learn how to use current social media tools like Twitter, Blogs, and Newsletters build your brand, listen now:

Play Episode as a Podcast:

Download via iTunes:
Play Episode

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Helpful links:

About Freshbooks | Freshbooks Tour | Twitter.com/freshbooks | Twitter.com/Hopkinsonreport

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Get a Room! An entrepreneurial couple gives marketing tips for startups.

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