Category Archives: iPhone

iPhone 5 Hits Stores Around the World Triggering Long Lines and Happy Customers

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Tim Cook, New CEO of Apple
On Line in New York for iPhone 5

The much anticipated iPhone 5 made its appearance on Friday, exciting buyers and sellers as it was whisked off the shelves by the thousands.

The new Apple offering is not an astounding technological breakthrough, but just a bit better in many of the ways the customers already love their old iPhones: like a super-model, its thinner, taller and lighter, and that’s about it.

This is the first product launch since Tim Cook took over Steve Jobs’ position as head wizard at Apple, and it seems his skills might not quite be a clone of Jobs’ special magic, but Cook seems to have a bit of magic of his own up his sleeve.

“We are positively surprised regarding the pace of the rollout, since we had expected a bigger impact from component constraints,” Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes said.

And what at pace it’s been, and is going to be. On Friday the iPhone 5 went on sale simultaneously in New York, Japan and Hong Kong, and a few other hot spots. By next Friday expect to see this hot-selling phone in 31 countries, and by December 31st of this year, in more than 100. That exceeds by 30 the number of countries the iPhone 4s , the 5’s predecessor, was launched from during a similar time-frame.

“His skills fit the time period and the flow of product,” said Raymond Miles, professor emeritus at Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He added that Apple may be at a stage where it needs “someone with a production vision.”

Cook’s magic seems to be working: He was able to supersede Jobs’ sales record as preorders for the 5s climbed to 2 million within 24 hours, twice the speed with which the 4s was pre-sold. Analysts and observers/investors are anticipating a similar successful launch of the smaller iPad mini in October.

Mitek Revolutionizing The Financial Services Industry

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Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK) has come out with a great system for depositing checks via the iPhone.  The company is of course thinking much bigger than this and is integrating smart phone technology into the financial service industry. There are many uses for this kind of technology. The Mobile Receipt technology can also take pictures of receipts and convert the information into expense reports. The Mobil Phax technology lets you photograph a full size page and send it as a fax. There are more services available and I am sure that as time goes on, more and more services will be developed.
What about marketing these iPhone, banking products? So far seven of the top ten banks in the United States are using Mitek technology. In this last quarter, new customer signings have more than doubled, reaching 181 banks and financial organizations. Some of the client organizations are Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Capital One, and PayPal. Charles Schwab reported that in the first 6 months of use, mobile check deposits increased from zero to forty percent of all bank deposits. Mitek is changing the financial world very quickly.
Some of the managers and  directors of Mitek are Dr. Grigori Neponmniachtchi, Josh Roach, John M. Thornton, Drew Hyatt, James B. DeBello, Sally B. Thornton, William P. Tudor, and Russell C. Clark.

Dirty Tricks and Copy Cats

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Can You Copy Technology?

Well it’s true that if someone copies what you’re doing they clearly think it’s cool. That’s all very well and good but the problem is, when people are creating new technical gadgets, they don’t want their ideas being ripped off. And it seems that that is exactly what is happening. In addition, it just doesn’t look good and most people usually want the original anyway even if the copy is cheaper. For example, when it comes to Apple products, very few people want what is bound to be a second rate imitation of the original; they want the real deal.

So what do you need to avoid when trying to get the best technology? What should you be looking out for? And, perhaps more importantly, is there ever a case when a rip-off is actually a good deal? There were some dirty tricks played by some mobile phone companies following the debut of the flip phone in 2004 by Motorola RAZR which wasn’t really very fair as those particular companies had status within the mobile phone industry that earned them brownie points amongst potential customers.

Apple’s Position?

It’s not news that Apple has had a lot of copies on the market, perhaps the most recent one being the ViewSonic Android Tablet, off of its iPad. But the question that needs to be asked is, is Apple always Little Miss Innocent vis-à-vis original designs? Perhaps not. P88 manufacturer Shenzen Great Loong Brother Company is complaining that iPad is a spin-off of that. If you look at the P88 though it actually appears more like a big iPhone than an iPad. Manufactured in China, the company’s president Xiaolong Wu said quite blatantly, that if the iPad is marketed there, “we won’t have any choice but to report them [since] it will certainly affect our sales.”

The bottom line is it’s often a bit of a chicken and egg situation in the sense that it’s not so easy to tell which came first. People interested in technology and gadgets are often looking for two things: a great gadget and pretty top notch marketing and brand name to sell the product. Copy cat or dirty tricks aren’t so important to the average Joe in the street looking for a new game or higher performing gadget.

Best Marketing Advice: Believe in Your Product

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Verizon iPhone 4 Versus iPad 2

We all heard about the craziness for the iPad 2 and how sales went completely out of control.  Apparently not so for the Verizon iPhone 4.  They did okay but it wasn’t “revolutionary.”  It was seen primarily as “just another iPhone 4” with Apple not participating so much in promotional sales, leaving it mostly to Verizon.  At the end of the day the marketing message was clear: “Verizon can’t market its way out of a paper bag.”

Verizon Not Hot on Marketing

It’s not really a surprise when you look at the company’s marketing history.  Even when it came to the Droid, it didn’t do that well and it had quite substantial opportunity since there were plenty of customers who would have settled for it over the iPhone 4.  Verizon should have jumped on the bandwagon and used iPhone for its marketing technique by selling it as an iPhone but ultimately it did quite the opposite and promoted the Droid as “the anti-iPhone.”  Well, that wasn’t going to satisfy anyone.

Learn Lessons Like a Politician

At the end of the day, to really be a success in marketing what you need to do is believe in your product.  Just like the British Labour Party in the 1980s kept trying to be a watered-down version of Thatcherism and that didn’t work, Verizon should have honed in on its own market and those who wanted its product.  Around 99 percent of Verizon’s customers are non-geek and so only required something that was like an iPhone (for a better price).  Indeed before the era of Verizon iPhone, AT&T’s iPhone was beating Verizon Droid sales by a staggering 2.5 to 1 which led to a total flop of Verizon’s Droid marketing.

At the end of the day, any marketing buff will tell you just how important it is to hone in on your own specific market if you really want to succeed in pushing your product.  Marketing Lesson 101 learnt: believe in yourself.

iPhone Apps Do it Again: This Time in Japan

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During the craziness of the catastrophe to hit Japan last week, how were people trapped about to stay in touch? What was the best piece of technology that linked people to loved ones? A 25-year-old woman from Tokyo who was traveling by train to the airport, spoke about how she managed to tell people she was okay, despite the fact that there was no cellphone network available for voice calls.

3G Saves the Day While Blackberry Is Fruitless

It was the 3G Data Network and a bunch of iPhone apps that came to the rescue. The Blackberry on the other hand, was incapable of sending and receiving messages at all. The iPhone worked, so long as you could keep charging it; it provided consistently good reception. As well, Viber was the only method out of all the networks for getting calls through (Skype was unavailable for many hours).

iPad 2 Figures: Not Surprising

Perhaps given all this it’s not all that surprising that when the iPad 2 was unveiled just over 2 weeks ago, it immediately sold out “within hours” of its launch. It is thinner and more powerful than the first model; has a camera in the front and back to enable video conferencing with photos and videos and is the same price as the first one. Even though this is really just a slight upgrade from the first, customers kept on coming, with one lady selling her spot in the line for $900 to a businessman who just didn’t have time to wait in line from 5 am and had to have the new iPad before his business trip!

Jobs Always on the Job

If Apple creator Steve Jobs just keeps getting it right and his communication tools are even helping in situations such as Japan’s catastrophe, then it makes sense that his products will keep gaining in popularity. Just make sure you reserve your spot in line early for any new Apple launches in the future; you never know, it could be more than just a great gadget; it may be your rescue tool out of a crisis.