The dust has settled after my back to back Web conferences in Austin: WebmasterWorld’s Pubcon South, and South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive, and I thought I’d take a minute to compare the two. I’ll start by saying that any such comparison is beyond apples & oranges… the two conferences are quite different in scale, objective, and many other ways. Given that, here are a few areas of contrast:
Nov 012007
Tired of high tech designs that look hopelessly dated in just a few years? Longing for a more Victorian sensibility? You may need to get up to speed with steampunk, a design movement whose participants hack new tech devices (and more) into steam-era exteriors. The photo is a late-model Hewlett Packard computer repackaged by Richard Nagy into something that Arthur Conan Doyle might use to peck out Sherlock Holmes’ next adventure.
Verizon finally managed to push me into the arms of the competition. I was a fairly happy voice subscriber. I tested an XV6700 way back in March, and liked it. I decided to hold off, though, since the release of the XV6800 (pictured months earlier in various tech blogs), was supposed to be imminent. I was more than content to wait a few weeks for the superior hardware while still maintaining my Verizon relationship.
Oct 052007
Apple’s not perfect – I just chronicled a couple of their miscues in Apple iPhone: Turning Off Fans. Despite that, Apple looks like a PR and branding genius compared to AT&T. Compare the introduction of Apple’s iPhone to the AT&T Tilt. Apple announced a launch date with lots of time for anticipation to build. AT&T delayed launching the Tilt past many rumored dates, and finally announced the official release date of October 5, 2007. That’s good, but AT&T waited until October 4 to make the announcement, leaving less than 24 hours for anticipation to build. Advantage: Apple.The iPhone got mostly good reviews, although reviewers pointed out some of its shortcomings, like the battery than must be factory-serviced. The reviews on the AT&T Tilt have been almost uniformly very positive, though perhaps expectations were somewhat different for the two models. Advantage: Draw.
Oct 022007
No company in modern corporate history has developed a more cultlike, devoted customer base than Apple. I’ve often cited them as an example of what other firms strive for, or should strive for, in bonding with their customers. Now, Apple seems intent on turning the iPhone, which began as a public relations coup, into a PR disaster. Even worse, their corporate bullying isn’t targeting the competition, but rather their loyal customers. Apple has been cited as a shining star in just about every book on corporate branding; now they are rewriting branding strategy themselves. Here are the first two chapters in Apple’s guide on how to turn fans into sullen, disaffected owners:
Sep 052007
The concept of crowdsourcing – letting a bunch your users create your product, or at least enhance it – is a staple of Web 2.0. Now, we see that European social networking site Mister Wong is crowdsourcing their corporate identity by holding a logo design contest. The contest offers $12,000 in prize money, with half going to the winner and the remainder split between two runners-up.
Aug 232007
The good news is that companies, even big ones, are waking up to the power of online communities, and that they are taking steps like starting their own communities for discussion, ratings, reviews, and social networking as well as participating at other sites. The bad news is that sometimes they get carried away. The latest corporate goof was by Comcast, who apparently hired an inept PR firm to get their message out by impersonating sports fans. The site administrator at SpartanTailgate.com did some basic IP sleuthing and outed the miscreants in a post titled Wake up Martin Waymire Advocacy Communications! (Comcast hired site posing as BT fan). Oops… not very subtle. (Via Consumerist – Comcast Caught Astroturfing About “Big Ten” Channel and FanHouse.) Unfortunately, Comcast is hardly the only firm doing this.
Aug 022007
The tech world is buzzing with rumors about a Google phone. The Wall Street Journal ran an article today, quoted at SearchEngineLand, that provides some details of the development process. Apparently, Google is taking a two-pronged approach: developing their own handset, but at the same time opening up the specifications to allow other manufacturers to offer compatible phones. And, unlike Apple’s iPhone, the Google Phone (GPhone?) should be available from multiple wireless companies.
Jul 102007
Even stupid criminals know how to use Google, according to a report from Colorado Springs: Continue reading »
Jul 102007
The pageview is officially on its way out the door as a web site performance metric – Nielsen is dropping page view measurement in its Web traffic reporting. Instead, they will report the time visitors spend at sites. Continue reading »