During last night’s 3G iPhone launch it became apparent that the only way Apple thinks they can achieve the aim of 10 million sales by the end of 2008 is by slashing costs and (I assume) subsidising handsets. This is very much the behaviour of a big mainstream brand looking to achieve financial success through widening their market, which stands at odds with much of Apple’s current premium/niche status.

Big mainstream brands, such as Sony or Nokia, offer a range of products in a variety of sizes. Apple offers a small range with very little flexibility and you are required to fit to their digital vision. Want a smaller laptop? Sorry, that’s not what Apple does - here, have a lighter, more expensive one. Want to be able to use Real player on you internet phone? Sorry, we’re worried that it’ll compromise the overall Apple experience (but the overall experience is compromised without it dammit!) - you can wait a while for that.

Apple’s ‘any experience as long as its black’ ethos stands at odds to the ‘let a thousand flowers bloom’ stand point of more mainstream brands (even Microsoft!), and stands at odds to the modern consumer demand for flexibility. This ‘design for life’ outlook works with devices as simple as music players, but things like phones are much more complex, and have many more competing demands made on them.

For Apple to attaint the 40 million sales one analyst quoted, they might have to change their attitude sharpish. But in doing so, will they have to change the bloody-minded-ness that made them such a stand-out success in the past decade?

Read the rest of this entry »

xyz

Software developer Adobe are set to join the raft of online photo editing applications with the release of Photoshop Express.

Currently available in beta form Express will be completely web based so that users can use it with any type of computer, operating system or browser. Online photo editing applications have found huge popularity over the past few years and in releasing Express Adobe must compete against long established rivals such as Picnik and Photobucket. The release of Photoshop Express highlights a broader trend in which software developers are increasingly focusing on online services instead of stand-alone applications. Adobe hopes that Express will function as a marketing tool and part of a strategy to create up selling opportunities.

(via Wired)

Television and printed advertising in Japan is increasingly discarding the URL in favour of search boxes which contain a recommended search term.

The phasing out of the URL seems like a logical next step in engaging with consumers. In an age of user-friendly online interfaces the URL seems archaic and confusing to a generation who lack the technological literacy to understand the Internet’s structure. It also supports the fact that people increasingly enter natural language into search engines as a means to find out more about brands and services.

(via Cable Blog)

The new website for Toyota’s Scion concept allows new and existing owners to reshape the cars badge into their own personal coat of arms.

The Scionspeak website allows users to design personal mascots from 100’s of pre-designed individual elements, ranging from Japanese anime flowers to a three person family. Use of the website is completely free, but users must pay to have the logo’s printed as window decals or airbrushed onto the bodywork of their cars. This is an interesting reflection of how brands operate as ever more direct vehicles for self-expression. It is also an example of how established brands are attempting to cash in on the credibility of social networks and provide a platform for users to connect with one another.

(via New York Times)

With the handwritten letter becoming a thing of the past and the standardisation of chip and pin payments, there are fewer and fewer incentives to refine our handwriting or even scrawl our signature. Technology is commonly assumed to make handwriting redundant.

Bimoji then is an interesting exception. Translated as ‘Beautiful Letters’ this Nintendo DS application which helps you brush up on your calligraphic skills.
(via fivebyfifty)

The complexity of mobile devices and peoples increasing dependence on them is giving rise to a range of tuition services which help them get to grips with complex devices.

The latest illustration of this comes trend comes in the form of mobile phone ‘sommeliers’. The Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport are planning to train a task-force of experts, who will be on hand to guide consumers through the maze of complicated mobile functions and tariff options. Ironically the scheme may not make things much simpler for consumers as they are already offered potentially conflicting advice from the shop staff of large carriers, such as NTT DoCoMo.

(via Mainichini Daily News)

The backlash against battery farmed chicken and global shipped produce is inspiring a generation of young, middle class New York residents to leave their city apartments and set up their own organic farms.

The Greenhorns (a documentary by Serervine von Tscharner Flemming) focuses on the growing number who are setting up small farms and applying to sell their produce at Union Squares Greenmarket. The growing market for organic and locally sourced produce has made running such farms far more profitable and has lead Michigan State University to offer a one year farming certificate program. Over the past 3 years the number of certified organic farms surrounding New York has more than doubled.

(Via NYT)

Pictured above is the M01 Beginner - a handset targeted at 6 year olds. Two years ago the mobile handset industry began to actively target not just adults and teenagers, but increasingly tweens (those aged 8 to 12) and even children as young as five.

According to technology research firm IDC 31 million new young users will join the market before 2010. Children’s mobiles are a fascinating example of a product which attempts to balance the needs parents and children. On the one hand the adoption of mobiles is largely driven by parental concerns. As being a ‘good parent’ is increasingly defined by your ability to keep constant surveillance over your children mobile phones seem like a tempting to do doing so. On the other hand there are increasing concerns over children’s dependance and even addiction to mobile phones. This recent article from The New York Times lists teenage behaviours such as texting friends in the same room (so as not to be heard by parents) as evidence of the fraying relations between parents and their children. Danah Boyd offers a further commentary on this issue here.

(Via NYT)