Yes it is.

I agree with this article on many fronts. Rafael writes about how his generation - which I guess I’m part off - does not see anything new in the iPhone as released by Apple.

Of all the products Apple has churned out, the only thing I have purchased is an iPod. But I must say that since I purchased a mobile phone with built-in Windows Mobile 5.0 - I no longer use the iPod. I’ve got a 2GB memory card in my phone, enough for a good selection of music. And I can do a ton of other stuff with my mobile phone that I can’t do with my iPod - thanks to the included Office-like functionalities.

The iPod and all other mp3 devices are intermediate devices. They will disappear as soon as they’re integrated into mobile phones. No one wants to carry around these two devices if they could comfortably sit in one. So with that in mind it is just a product that Apple HAD to launch to protect future market share - and as usual, they did it with a marketing boom (nothing wrong here!). At the end of the day there’s nothing new about the iPhone.

I’m much more interested in the Apple TV product. It offers the functionality of connecting your TV set with your PC to allow you to see or listen to pictures, music or video stored on your PC. There are many alternative products available that do the same but they are mostly smaller niche brands. Apple could really make a hit with this product.

I believe the brand that is able to take the seat in a household’s living rooms by connecting up TV sets with PCs and storage servers in the house will be the next big hit. So far the big brands in this area are Microsoft (XBOX 360) and Apple (Apple TV).

Microsoft is - so far - still largely positioning the XBOX 360 as a gaming focused device, so with Apple focusing the Apple TV solely on connectivity it might open up this market and bring TV-PC connectivity to the masses.

Stay tuned!

Matthijs was in a crazy mood this evening - playing with my shades.

He looks like Ray Charles…

Okay here’s another Hong Kong frustration. Number two in the series, as number one was about Hong Kong office lifts.

This post is about 7-Eleven and my annoyance with the fact that they’re one of the many Hong Kong retailers and businesses that have picked up on a part of the local community’s liking for collecting garbage collectables.

The latest in their series is a hello bloody kitty pin. I’m sure it comes in a hundred varieties and that it’s a ‘limited edition’ etc. (bla bla bla). Now their brilliant marketing idea is that lots of people would like to collect these annoying little space wasters and are now triggered to go and buy their things in 7-Eleven rather than the local Park’ n Rob, Wellcome, or elsewhere. Eureka the concept of customer loyalty is born - give your customers lousy gifts and some of them will come back to get more and spend more.

Here’s the little bugger:

There are many reasons to make a point out of this:

1. This is not a stand-alone case; 7-Eleven has done this for ages, and many other stores are doing similar things.
2. Many people get this tossed into their bags or hands unasked, so I’m sure many hello bloody kitty pins end up straight in the bin, unwrapped.
3. It is a waste of energy.
4. Discarded unused gifts do damage to the environment.
5. Hello Bloody Kitty is just hugely annoying in itself and enough of a reason to kick this up big.

I’m sure 7-Eleven analyzes the ROI on these rubbish marketing actions, but I wonder how they do it. They’re in the business of small ticket, low value impulse purchases and the majority of people would just go to the nearest shop to purchase these items, whatever name it has or whatever incentive it offers.
And 7-Eleven is just so bloody big here that you just drop into one on every street corner.

A hello bloody kitty pin can only appeal to a very specific segment of 7-Eleven’s total customer group - do they really spend more if given lousy little gifts?

I’m afraid they do - but in fact there’s probably a bigger and higher value segment that is getting increasingly annoyed by these actions.

So what you gain at the bottom end, you’re loosing on the top end.

I say here’s what we do with ‘em hello bloody kitty pins:

On my way back to Hong Kong from Singapore…

That city in the background is Singapore and we are in Sentosa Island. Hot and humid, so having some cold drinks to refresh.

We took Matthijs to the Zoo this morning - his favorites are the zebras.

Always good to be in Singapore!

Here you can check out what’s going on in the plaza live.

Heck - I just saw my ferry leave, missed it!

In the top right you can see Hong Kong Disneyland. You can even watch the fireworks if you watch this page at the right time (8pm evening mostly).

(The image may take a while to load - give it a minute…)

http://www.marcdelange.com/2007/01/15/live-webcam-discovery-bay-hong-kong/

Live Webcam Hong Kong
Discovery Bay Webcam
Hong Kong Disneyland Webcam
Webcam Disneyland

Being in Korea for a few days gave me a buzz in terms of what the future holds in terms of TV and TV broadcasting technology.

Although the rest of the world is still awaiting HD broadcasting, this has already become mainstay here in Korea. At least 6 of the local Korean channels I zapped by on my hotel TV are broadcasting in HD, and 2 of them with Dolby 5.1 surround. It didn’t quite come out on my hotel room TV which was a basic CTV and not a big screen LCD or plasma, but I can see how Korean families with 42 or 50 inch HDTV sets are already getting the crisp and detailed picture that the rest of the world is waiting for.

The US is also making headway in HDTV broadcasts, but I believe it’s still limited to a number of specialty channels.

In Korea, many of the mainstream channels are filming their own production work in HDTV, which puts them at a next level of adoption.

Besides this, I passed a huge 80 inch plasma screen in Seoul - took this picture of it. It is HUGE! I’m sure the same is true for its price tag…

Folks - have a very good new year.

Ours started with a beautiful day - clear blue skies and a pleasant 25 degrees. We’ve spent it lazing around in Discovery Bay while getting over the mild hangover of the eve night’s champagne.

Matthijs was feeling ill but in the video you can see he’s happy to be outside the house for a while and enjoy the sun.

He’s now starting to say more and more words, and for instance every time he sees an airplane, he’ll point at it and yell “a ba”. Which indeed is the right baby language word for airplane I believe.