If you’ve watched TV, or gone on YouTube, for that matter, any time recently, you’ve no doubt seen at least one iPhone ad, and possibly even a T-Mobile MyTouch 3G (Android) one. Well, if not, they’re below for your viewing pleasure (um, maybe not).
The goal of this article is to analyze two of these ads from the viewpoint of a consumer, and compare the strategies that Apple and T-Mobile are using to market their products. (By the way, I believe that T-Mobile creates the MyTouch 3G ads, not Google, as I’m sure Google would never make such a stupid ad.)
So, let’s start with an iPhone ad. Right now, please watch the one in the YouTube video above, if you don’t know what one is in general.
What do you see? Well, let’s say that I’m an average American consumer searching for a smartphone, and I see this ad. What does this ad show? Apple uses this opportunity to show us just a few cool apps available on their iPhone platform. Oh my god, look! I can keep track of my company’s economic status! I can even order PIZZA!!! Boom, just with that (oh, ya, and the killer music 
), I want to get an iPhone – not only do I just love the appearance, I can do so much stuff on it, and it just works.
Oh wait, we have the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G, too! Let’s not forget about Android (did I mention how much I love and support the Android project? Seriously, thank you Google!). Well, now I just saw that ad which is displayed above, and what do I see?
What do I see?
Um, well, I see a group of people passing the phone to one another while showing pictures of zebras and katz on it and dropping the phone/fumbling with it, oh AND the music – seriously, are you kidding me? What do I see in this ad? I see a piece of aluminum that can, hmm, play music, display a picture, wow… but wait, I just saw applications running on that iPhone!
Well, which do you think I’m going to purchase, as an average American consumer? Well, duh, the iPhone. Seriously, the iPhone ad shows productivity and entertainment, something I actually connect with and want, oh and the phone looks good, I just want to hold it and play with it, yay yay yay… while the MyTouch 3G is featured for showing pictures, people smiling, and horrible music. I’m impressed.
Ok, now, I’m not saying that I hate T-Mobile or Google, or that iPhone rocks and Android sucks. Actually, I prefer Android way over the iPhone OS, as Android is such an open system, while Apple just doesn’t have the concept of open-ness in their vocabulary.
But seriously, ok, let’s think from a normal (uninformed) consumer’s point of view (without all the snickers I included originally): we have the iPhone, sleek, fun, powerful, easy to utilise, and with a ton of useful apps, and we have the MyTouch 3G, with pictures and steam.
I’m so sorry, but T-Mobile, you seriously have to revise your strategy. Did you just see what I outlined? I outlined that when someone looks at your product, and then a competitor’s product (the iPhone), guess what? They want an iPhone, because your ad is seriously…:
a.) Boring – Unfortunately, I’ve seen these ads many times, and they are just annoying. If I hear that song again, I’m going to puke.
b.) Not connecting with consumers – In order to actually show people that they want the product, that they just want to play with your phone, you have to connect with them. How do you do this? Well, it’s hard, but the first step is to find out what your consumers want. Pictures and a cheesy message is not what they want, nor is what you want them to take away from your ad. So, find out what the people want and need and how the product addresses this, and market it about that? I hate to go back to the “pictures” theme, but seriously, was Android designed for that? I don’t think so!
c.) And that’s just the beginning…
At the end of the day, we can see that Apple has really made a good choice in hiring some smart marketers. While I do not like their products and their brand, I have to say, they did a good job in this field, as if no one buys your product, well… put simply, you should read this.
Filed under: Feature, Technology | 1 Comment
Tags: android, applications, google, iphone, iphone 3g, iphone ad, iphone vs android, mobile, mobile OS, mobile platform, music, mytouch 3g, phone, phone ad, pictures, strategy letter, tech, telephony, tmobile, tmobile ad, usability
Tinkering with iTunes, Again :(
Gosh, iTunes annoys and confuses me. As of today, I have the feeling that it’s doing the same thing to itself.
iTunes is reporting that to fully sync with my iTouch it will have to erase the data on the iTouch because it was synced with another library. First of all, I don’t remember syncing my iPod with another library, but probably I did sometime. Second of all, iTunes is effectively saying, “Hai! You synced with another library! Sucks for you, cuz now I gotta erase your data,” without giving you a comfortable way to correct the situation.
Well, anyhow, I ended up transferring all my purchases, finding local copies of my music, yada-yada, and was getting everything similar on both ends, until I got to applications. Now, first of all, I just transferred all my purchases to my iTunes library, which is linked to my account. So why aren’t the apps showing up in the applications list and diagram?
On closer inspection, they are, except that they are unchecked, and there is no way to “check all” – argggg!
Next, the worst part: when the checkbox next to “Sync Applications” is checked, a dialog pops up, “Syncing applications will erase all your applications and their data and transfer the ones in your library” (or something similar), and of course, I hit the Cancel button instead of “Erase and Sync”. But the checkbox is still checked! Let’s uncheck it. When we try to do that, we get another dialog, only this time it says: “To do this, all your applications and their data will be erased from your iPod.” What?!?!?!??! I just said I didn’t want to do that!!! ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!
Filed under: Apple, Technology | Leave a Comment
Tags: apple, arg, frustrations, itunes
“Mac or PC” – Oh Really?
I get asked this question by so many people that I’m tired of having to repeat myself all the time. It’s commonly phrased something like, “What’s the difference between Mac and PC?” or “How do you compare the two operating systems?” Well, the answer is quite simple.
You can’t.
Why can’t you compare the two? Well, because the Macintosh and Windows operating systems are fundamentally different, going deep down into the roots of Apple and Microsoft’s software practices. And what is this difference of which I speak? It’s the hardware-software relationship.
Basically, the hardware-software relationship dictates how software works with hardware, i.e. which hardware an operating system runs on. As we know, Macintosh is built to only run on Apple hardware, while Windows was developed to be able to run on as diverse environments as possible. Therefore, we simply cannot compare the two operating systems, because their overall environments are drastically different. You might disagree in that it is possible to compare UI elements – well, of course you can compare how certain parts of the interface are implemented and argue that one operating system is better than the other, and this will go on forever, but here, I wish to find the fundamental difference between the systems – what is the main underlying difference between the Macintosh and Windows operating systems? That’s why the hardware-software relationship is so important.
Now, let’s take the diversity we just identified and expand upon it a little bit to form a general view of the two sides. Let’s start with Mac, again. If we know that the OS was built to run on only Apple hardware, what does this mean? Well, it means that Apple put the kibosh on third-parties. By that, I mean that they aren’t willing to accept third-party technologies in the general development and function of their OS. Just as their hardware is limited, so are drivers – the number of devices manufactured by other companies that connect to computers through USB or other popular protocols is very small, in comparison to Windows. This just shows that Apple’s goal is not to create a system that others can contribute to, in the way that Windows runs. Really, how many times have you tried connecting a peripheral to a machine running Windows and drivers weren’t built in or available on an accompanying disk? My bet: very few.
Naturally, one could go on to assume that Apple is, in a way, monopolizing users of their operating system by creating such a bond between hardware and software. However, I do not want people to think that this article is biased – yes, I despise Mac (Windows & Linux FTW!), but I don’t want that to get in the way of our little analysis (I could write a lot about why I greatly prefer Windows over Mac, but that’s another story).
As you can see, Macintosh and Windows are very different, but the most important difference is their fundamental standpoint, expressed in the hardware-software relationship. Without these being equivalent, we just cannot compare one operating system to another.
Filed under: Apple, Feature, Technology, geek | 1 Comment
Tags: apple, different os, drivers, fundamental, hardware, hardware-software relationship, linux, mac, mac vs pc, microsoft, monopoly, operating system, os, software, third-parties, windows
Welcome to TechReevu!
I’m pleased to announce TechReevu, a new venture from my friends at the Morontown Group. They are creating a tech blog, which they have asked me to contribute to. As I take it, the blog isn’t targeted to compete with awesome ones like Gizmodo (FTW!), no… the goal of TechReevu is to provide tech updates from another perspective of the industry. Thus, some of my tech posts on this blog will also be posted on TechReevu, so check it out!
Filed under: Technology | Leave a Comment
Tags: techreevu
The League of Justice (i.e. the StackOverflow trilogy) stickers arrived today in the mail! YAY YAY YAY! Somehow or other, there were two StackOverflow stickers, along with a ServerFault and SuperUser one, in my envelope, when there should have been only three total, but this is awesome! I will post pictures of the stickers soon!
Filed under: Design, Feature, Programming, Technology, Web, cool sites, geek | Leave a Comment
Tags: .NET, C#, geek, internet, Programming, serverfault, stackoverflow, stackoverflow stickers, stackoverflow trilogy, superuser, Technology, web 2.0
I was surfing around on SuperUser today, and found a mention to a tool from Apple that I hadn’t heard of before. It’s called the iPhone Configuration Utility, which allows you to examine logs from your iPhone or iPod Touch, to apply configuration and provisioning profiles, and more. The tool is very interesting! [Download: Windows|Mac]
Filed under: Apple, Mobile devices, Technology, Web | Leave a Comment
Tags: apple, apple diagnostic tool, apple utility, configuration utility, devices, diagnostic tool, iphone, iphone app, iphone configuration, iphone diagnostic tool, iphone tips, iphone utility, ipod touch, itouch, phones, superuser, utility
On Tuesday, the awesome guys at Stack Overflow finally gave us addicted users a chance to receive some trilogy stickers! A few weeks ago, they received their order of 40,000 StackOverflow, ServerFault, SuperUser, and How-To Geek stickers, and now, if users send in a self-addressed stamped envelope, they will find some sitting in their mailbox in a short time.
As you may or may not know, I am addicted to StackOverflow. While I do not have too much programming experience (I’m mostly self-taught, though I took a course in one of the subjects), I still enjoy learning so much from StackOverflow, even if I’m unable to efficiently give back to the community by answering questions. This trilogy gives everyone, from professionals to people mildly interested in computers, the opportunity to share their knowledge and learn more, all in an open manner. StackOverflow is a great change from the old ways of sharing programming info through the internet (especially the “hyphen site” – eww!). Programming is, after all, a community activity, and StackOverflow lives up to this measure, just as ServerFault and SuperUser provide similar aspects for their respective societies.
Thus, as soon as that blog post sprang up, I decided to get some stickers! Some of my programmer friends are travelling but were interested, so I made a few envelopes.
For those who aren’t familiar with the concept of SASE, here’s how it works:
1. You take two envelopes, one preferably smaller than the other.
2. Address the larger envelope to the company you’re sending the request to. The address for StackOverflow trilogy stickers is Stack Overflow Stickers, c/o Fog Creek Software, 55 Broadway, 25th Floor, New York, NY 10006.
3. Address the smaller envelope to yourself, stamp it, and place it inside the larger envelope. Remember: DON’T seal the envelope addressed to you!
4. If the situation allows, you may place a letter or a note inside the larger envelope, too. I wrote a thank you letter to Joel Spolsky, Jeff Atwood, and everyone else at Stack Overflow, and attached it.
5. Seal the larger envelope once everything is inside, and stamp it. I used first-class stamps for both envelopes.
That’s it! Can’t wait for the stickers!
My final envelopes, sealed and ready to go.
P.S. In addition to inserting my thank you letter into the larger envelope, I also emailed it to the recipients to make sure that they receive it.
Filed under: Design, Technology, Web, geek | 1 Comment
Tags: awesome, Programming, tech, stackoverflow, stackoverflow trilogy, stackoverflow stickers, stickers, stackoverflow trilogy stickers, trilogy stickers, serverfault, superuser, serverfault stickers, superuser stickers, jeff atwood, joel spolsky, it, admin, server administration, computing, community, open-source, sase, self-addressed stamped envelope, snail mail, vinyl
Today, somehow or other, I stumbled upon the distributed processing app called GIGRIB. Developed by Pingdom, “Pingdom GIGRIB is a unique, distributed website monitoring service. GIGRIB users can add websites they want monitored, and in return their computers become a part of the GIGRIB monitoring network.”
So, I fired it up, inputed the domains I wanted it to monitor for me, and let it run. Of course, I became curious in how the app is uploading data back to Pingdom, how it’s checking uptimes (well, duh, it’s just going to the page and looking for a response), and more, so I opened my HTTP packet sniffer/web debugging proxy of choice: Fiddler. However, GIGRIB’s requests weren’t displaying there and I was too lazy to change the configuration to avoid this problem, so I decided to take revenge on GIGRIB. Naturally, when wanting to make a mild impact (meant for hilarity) on an application, the tool of choice is Resource Hacker (not that it only does mild impacts, it can do LOTS of stuff – I love ResHacker, it rocks!).
I hadn’t used ResHack
er in some time, so I didn’t bother trying to find it on my drive. Instead, I got the latest version, which turned out to have some cool new features – it visualizes the GUI of the app you’re editing and lets you change all aspects of the layout with ease, it provides a more streamlined “compile scripts” action to quickly apply changes to the file, and more! I was intrigued by these new additions, so I decided to try them out.
After changing some of the text, GUI positioning, icons, and more in GIGRIB, I got a little bored, because GIGRIB doesn’t have too big a UI (really, there’s only like two windows that have info in them – settings and about). For some reason, I had a sudden urge to mess around with some Windows configuration files. My (first) target of choice: the text of the Start button on the taskbar.
Yes, that may sound lame, but I guess I was just playing around with Start Menu customization before the hack, which is probably where the idea came from. I opened up %windir%\explorer.exe in ResHacker, and browsed to “String Tables –> 37 –> 538″ and changed the string from “start” first to “ocrap”, and then decided to switch it to a 6-letter phrase instead. After saving this final version (“ocrap” worked perfectly), I killed explorer.exe and tried to restart it thru Task Manager, when I get an error: “C:\Windows\explorer.exe in not a valid Win32 executable.” I tried re-saving, switching it back to “start” and saving again, but it did not help. Thankfully, I knew that ResHacker saves backups automatically, so I had a backup called C:\Windows\explorer_original.exe. I ran this one to fix the problem. In the C:\Windows directory, I tried again and again to undo the changes and restore to the backup, but Windows would keep resisting. After a few attempts, I thought that changing the files around in Safe Mode would do the trick, but as I was rebooting, I had a thought: Windows has many fail-safes, so why can’t this be one of them? If explorer.exe gets corrupted, would it be restored with a restart?
Well, it worked! This is why I love Windows – if something is messed up, there’s always a way to recover it, however simple or difficult.
Start menu button string location in %windir%\explorer.exe:
String Table –> 37 –> 1033 –> 578 = Windows XP default theme
or
String Table –> 38 –> 1033 –> 595 = Windows Classic theme
Note: I have nothing against GIGRIB or Pingdom, as I believe that both company and product are useful, intriguing, and helpful. I am an avid user of GIGRIB, and my experimentation with it was in no way a signal of protest against it, nor does it affect its functionality in any way. GIGRIB is a very generous program that I enjoy, so I must thank Pingdom for creating it.
Disclaimer: I am not in any way responsible for any uses (and their consequences) of the method outlined above. This is for informational use only.
Filed under: Feature, Technology | Leave a Comment
Tags: corrupt, corrupt file, corrupted explorer.exe, corrupted file, corrupted system file, explorer.exe, fail, hack, reshacker, resource hacker, safe mode, Technology, windows, windows corrupted file
Tomorrow, the 4th of September, marks the 11th year passed since the founding of the Google corporation, one of the most influential technology companies in the world. In 1998 on this very day, Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded the company in Menlo Park, California, to promote the search engine they had developed as a research project. Here’s to many more years of glory!
Filed under: Technology | Leave a Comment
Tags: 11th google birthday, birthday, google, google birthday, google company birthday, tech
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