Most of the corporate world will now likely admit that social media has shifted from a buzzword to a valuable channel for connecting with customers. That being said, the question now focuses on location and quantity. We’ve taken a look at where B2B and B2C marketers are investing their efforts in social networks, as well as how future spending may get allocated among existing social networking sites. Take a look at the infographics we developed, and feel free to share them.
Steve Jobs did an interview session after the Apple keynote last week where he covered, amongst other things, his attitude to Google and Adobe Flash. The man didn’t mince with words, branding Adobe as “lazy” and Google’s “don’t be evil” mantra as “bull****”. I have a lot of respect for him, but I must admit to being disappointed with his comments.
Apple’s enmity with Google is somewhat understandable, what with Apple firing Eric Schmidt from their board of directors due to conflicts of interest, and Google entering the smartphone market with the Android OS. But their problem with Adobe is considerably more unfathomable – it can be argued that Adobe saved Apple when they were at their lowest ebb.
So, yesterday was the big day. Mr. Jobs came out, did his “reality distortion field” thing and announced the Apple iPad. On the surface, it’s a typically technolust-worthy Apple device with a ton of cool features. But is that enough? I must admit, I’m somewhat on the fence about it. It’s certainly a beautiful object, as is almost everything designed by Jonathan Ives, but what will be its niche?
There are a bunch of missing features that the blogosphere has exploded in a paroxysm of discontent about – namely, the lack of ports, the lack of Flash support in the browser, the lack of a camera, and the lack of multitasking. Will these things cause the iPad to be stillborn, or is it not even aimed at these people? Did we set our expectations too high?
Whether or not you choose to manage it, your company DOES have an employer brand. That brand represents the cumulative reputation that prospective and current employees associate with your career opportunities. What that ultimately means, whether your business is a global enterprise or a small emerging business, is that people are thinking (and maybe even talking) about what it’s like to work for you.
The intertubes are awash with speculation regarding Apple’s big product announcement next week. Will it be the fabled tablet? Will it be some other paradigm-shifting innovation of earth-shattering, elephantine proportions? Maybe. But, let’s be honest here, none of us know for sure what it’ll be. But, if it is the tablet, it’s not like it’s something new. So, for the sake of this blog post, let’s assume it is.
Tablet-style computing has been available for a while now. From the nascent days of Apple’s own Newton (pictured at left), through the Palm Pilot and the briefly popular UMPCs, to today’s touchscreen laptops, it’s not a new technology. What’s going to sell Apple’s tablet will be the software. In order for Apple to succeed with a tablet, they need to come up with something that you can’t do on any other form factor.
The problem with tablet computing is, nobody’s managed to actually make it make any sense. What would you actually use it for? Why would you use it instead of a regular laptop? As any iPhone owner will attest to, using a touchscreen keyboard to actually do any work with isn’t easy. In fact, it’s downright frustrating. Ever tried writing a blog post on an iPhone? I have. No keycaps to feel, so no touch-typing, no tactile feedback… so, let’s assume that it won’t be targetted at the word processing or blogging fraternity. What if you’re just a regular Joe or Josephine who only wants to browse the Web? Again, as the iPhone has proven, a multitouch-enabled browser can work well, but again, what additional utility would a tablet have in this regard over a netbook with a proper keyboard? And then there’s media. A tablet would work very well as a video player – the screen’s big enough to actually watch a film on without hurting your eyes. But there are dedicated devices for that already, or you still have the option of a netbook or laptop. Same goes for e-reader functionality, and so on.
