We get interesting information everyday from reading articles in newspapers, blogs, company websites and even from conversations we overhear or have ourselves. Shark Bits is an entry post where I share my thoughts on recent articles, events and conversations. Indulge yourselves with new information.. you’ll find that a bit of information a day will go a long way.
To Rid or Not to Rid—What’s the Big Idea?
I read an article in The New York Times about Gadgets You Should Get Rid Of (or Not), and it was pretty interesting to read other people’s responses to the article. Listed among what should get purged are desktop computers, point-and-shoot cameras, a camcorder, USB thumb drives, a digital music player and a GPS unit. Some of you are probably reading this and gasping for explanations, as I did. Quite frankly, I agree to toss out everything listed, except for the digital music player.
The iPod falls under this category. I know the music function is integrated in the phone, but who would want to get interrupted by a ring in the ear, especially when you’re in the middle of a hot jam you haven’t heard in a while in the midst of 40,000 shuffled songs? I sure don’t. I’d rather take the L and carry the extra 4.9 ounces in my pocket. I’ve even seen people carrying around their iPhone and their iPod. Do you really find it a nuisance?
Looking around my room in search for other gadgets that missed the list, I glanced at the spine of a book The Polaroid Book. It got me to start thinking about Polaroid cameras and how its made its exit once the point-and-shoots came along, and now it’s back because there’s a handful of people who still embraces the concept. One of my co-workers said, “That’s what I don’t like about this list. Somebody writes about getting rid of something, the world does it, and then somehow… the product makes a comeback, and you regret getting rid of it.” Her response was a comment made in regards to the just the tip-of-the-iceberg concern; the thing about Polaroid cameras is that it’s not the device that people love; it’s the whole idea of it. Sure, nowadays we are able to see what a picture looks like before we decide to get it printed, but what other cameras allow you to instantly capture a moment and develop it in an instant?
Soon, You Can Leave Your Wallet at Home, Too
Speaking of leaving things at home, there was another article talks about how you’ll be able to leave your credit cards at home in the near future, as well. Apparently, your phone will be able to act as a credit card where you would swipe your phone instead of your plastic card. When the app for consolidating frequent flyer cards into your phone and scanning barcodes from it evolved, that was the first indication that could have had a lot of us predicting this would happen.
This leads me to wondering… Will we be able to start leaving IDs at home because it’s in our phones? Will police officers and club bouncers start scanning our phones to ensure it’s a real ID? Can photoshop alter the photo ID and make every ID out to be legit? An even bigger concern if this does happen is, will our identity remain secure? I wonder if this fuse in technology will continue to do us good in such a way it seems to have been in the future.
Panasonic’s Slogan to Prevent Ridding the Extra Gadgets
A few months back, Panasonic’s initiative was an ad campaign to increase sales in their point-and-shoot digital cameras. The slogan was “If it has a ringtone, it’s not a camera” here in New York City’s subway trains. I thought that was a great way to intervene with people’s “My phone does everything, so I don’t need a _______” way of thinking.
The more integration put into technology these days, the more functions a single device will be able to do. The more functions a single device will do, the more people will buy that single device. What do you think would eventually become of the Electronic industry? Asides from the obvious of creating another tool that will be able to do the unheard of, companies will need to go up notch or two on their products’ abilities and marketing tactics.
» See product information here
The Nook Goes Up a Notch, Now it’s Your Turn Kindle
When the Nook entered the E-Book industry, rumors flew across the sky about the possible threat to Amazon’s Kindle. Almost immediately after, B&N reinvented Nook and created NookColor to ensure itself it wouldn’t lose against the Kindle and iPad. Yet, while waiting on the battlefield, the Kindle remained standing tall in first place. Unable to just watch their gadget get tossed, B&N added capabilities to its NookColor. While keeping its original functions, The NookColor upgraded their operating system to enable Adobe Flash content in web pages and implemented the Nook App store. Now that NookColor has lined itself up with Android’s Tablet, the Kindle definitely needs a step up. Because the Kindle was the first E-Book Reader and was able to stand ground in first place, I have great faith that it will continue to outshine its competitors. We’ll see what the future holds for the Kindle—perhaps implementing HTML5 will bring Amazon’s sales through the roof!
Marketing in an Already Established Market
Let’s dissect a particular product: Beats by Dr. Dre. When Dr. Dre entered this market, he knew that he wasn’t creating an original product. Here in New York, not a day goes by without you spotting some dude (or dudette) rocking Beats by Dr. Dre. For a city whose occupants are constantly on the go, the signature headphones are too bulky for its own consumers. So what about it is so appealing? We ignore the “bulk” because its design is sleek and stylish—living in a city like New York, style is surely vital. With other gadgets slowly fading out, Dr. Dre managed to get his headphones—a product that competes with many other companies in the market—in. Let’s dissect Beats in order to see what else has been occurring currently.
Dr. Dre, a phenomenon in hip-hop world, is the creator of the product. That alone is a credible face attached to the reason why, even though the product is nothing new, it’s a must-have. Beats’ signature colors are red and black with a hint of white. Not only do those colors make a bold statement, but also when you think of hip-hop, this combination of colors come to mind. Think ‘The Source Magazine’ and ‘XXL Magazine,’ two magazines that immediately come to mind when you refer to hip-hop.
Dr. Dre made sure his product stays in this lane. To top it all, the packaging of the product is designed in a way that leaves you feeling good about the purchase; a positioning statement is printed on the durable box, reinforcing that without Beats, “people aren’t hearing all the music.”
I like to tell myself that the “random” purple headphone was designed to represent FUBU, the signature color for the first fashion line that entered the urban, hip-hop market. Makes sense, right? Maybe a bright pink headphone will come out next to appeal to the female market—to rep Nicki Minaj. Haha!
» See the entire line of Beats products
