Search results matching tag 'iPod'

Powerade, iPods and running - a great lifestyle and brand partnership

2602041 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:38:00 GMT

When a synergistic brand partnership comes along that effectively taps into the lifestyle of its consumers it should be held up like an Olympic torch and applauded! So Powerade’s brand partnership with the Great Event Series, which includes the Great North Run, is logical as it attempts to differentiate itself from other energy drinks.However Powerade giving away 50,000 iPods to incentivise consumers to start running and listen to music at the same time to ease the pain is the icing on the cake.

Furthermore the winners of the iPods can download the bespoke training guide Powerade Pulse to ensure that they maintain motivation. ‘Powerade Pulse’ is a bespoke ‘Powerade’ software programme that scans a customer’s digital music tracks and creates a play list at a designated Beats Per Minute (BPM) to match that person’s running ability. This appears to be similar to Nike’s iPod accessory Nike+iPod but it takes it onto the next level and creates a bespoke playlist rather than use an existing one.

Winning iPods will of course attract more consumer attention than Powerade’s partnership with the Great Event Series and probably cost them less. However if that provides the spark for a consumer to then take up running and enter a half marathon and inspires them to get fit then that’s a great community benefit Powerade are providing. They should be applauded for this and gain some great positive association. Of course they’re not doing this for the community but to sell more Powerade but by inspiring people to run then the end result is the same.

A very cool brand partnership would be even better if they were also giving away places in the event series for races like the Great North Run but I am sure that will be coming, even if it would sell fewer bottles than winning iPods!

Is Apple finally ready to welcome The Beatles to iTunes?

2371004 — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:37:00 GMT

Can you hear it? The nothingness? The strange and gratifying silence that only comes once a year. The unnatural calm that precipitates out of every Apple September event?

Everyone is holding their breath, mouthing the same wordless question: Just what the hell are Jobs and Co going to drop on Wednesday?

For digital journalists, the stream of news has been reduced to a noticeable trickle. No one is moving, there's no shaking - it's a dry creek-bed and Apple's hand is on the faucet.

Any company, especially a plucky young start-up, would be wise to wait a couple days, maybe even a week to make a major announcement, lest Apple shows up and turns the industry on its head once more.

Apple enthusiasts have been sifting through rumours, gossip, hearsay, patent logs and their wildest dreams - for months - in anticipation of Wednesday, questioning every subtle nuance, inspecting every detail, like a jealous, embittered spouse.

For those in the know, a glaring peculiarity precludes Apple's event. It's as simple as the days of the week.

Specifically, Wednesday. Why Wednesday?

Historically, Apple events have been on Tuesdays.

Yet, Wednesday also happens to be the day MTV Games releases 'The Beatles: Rock Band'. It also marks the day the band's remastered albums hit store shelves.

Is Apple finally ready to welcome The Beatles to iTunes?

Deciphering clues is like a reliving the 'Paul is Dead' hysterics.

For instance, take Wednesday again - or 09/09/09. Nine, a famous Beatles number, as in 'Revolution 9'.

The invite to the event reads "It's only rock and roll, but we like it" - which is, well, a Rolling Stones reference - or rather a 'red herring', according to Mac Rumours, to throw us off the track of the likely Beatles announcement.

Beatles on iTunes has been rumoured for the past two years, with negotiations very much ongoing between the Beatles Apple Corp, Jobs' Apple Inc and EMI, specifically the $0.99-per-track pricing scheme that has irritated music labels since its inception.

Apple and Apple Records have a prickly history, going as far back as 1978 regarding a trademark dispute, which was settled in 2007, yet just last year Macca described the 'Beatles on iTunes' proceedings as "stalled".

Have the two sides finally buried the hatchet?

Is Apple going to launch a new iPod on Wednesday, with Beatles tracks preloaded (like it did with U2 a while back), much to the delight of millions of Apple and Fab Four fans the world around?

Sure.

But what else might happen?

iPods with cameras? This seems likely. iPods always play in the September events in one way or another, but as sales stall, how long can Apple depend these ubiquitous devices in the lead up to the holiday season. An in-house camera could certainly have Christmas shoppers clamouring for a replacement.

New iTunes? Almost certain. iTunes 9 (Number 9!), is expected to be integrated with Facebook and Twitter, marking Apple's descent into the murky depths of social networking. Perhaps a subscription package is in the works, much like Spotify has had success with, because if you can't beat 'em, just rip them off.

The iTablet? You wish, and so does everyone else, but it simply not going to happen. Not on Wednesday at least...

U2 Love Blackberry .... and Apple

1244467 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:47:00 GMT

I've just seen the new Blackberry ad, "We Love U2".

I like it...but it reminded me of something...What was it...of course, the iPod U2 ad!

A mistake? An oversight? No, I can’t believe it’s anything but a conscious effort to take a leaf out of the iPod book of marketing. After all, if you want to emulate them and beating them is not really on the agenda, why not copy them? Mmmmm...

Apple battles a blue Christmas

2371004 — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:35:00 GMT

Apple has cornered the Christmas market once again this year, as iPod sales show no signs of bowing the economic downturn.

It is ideally the perfect Christmas gift. Besides relieving a loved one the burden of being a social pariah for not owning one, it's small, sleek, still cool and relatively inexpensive.

The Financial Times reports that Amazon's top 20 electronics sales this year feature six iPods on the list, three being the iPod touch. (11 iPods in the top 50) The highest ranking iPod is the 8Gb, which costs $225 (£150) in 7^th spot. Further down in 9^th, is the 120Gb iPod classic, which sells for the same price.

However, Amazon itself claims top on the list with its wireless reading device, Kindle (I want), which retails for a cool $360 (£245).

In fact, only two products on the entire list sell for less than $100 (£65), suggesting that the recession hasn't Scrooged Christmas 2008, however next year could be a different story.

Michael Gartenburg told the Financial Times: "In a down economy, people can be willing to spend more on a premium product because they don't want to make the mistake of buying something that doesn't meet their expectations or provide long-term value."

Now on my third iPod in as many years, I'm not sure how relevant that statement actually is.

Wireless

2366375 — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:56:00 GMT

I love taking my iPod to the gym because it gives me the freedom to listen to music that reflects my exercise mood. However when using the iPod on the cross trainer, one of my favourite cardiovascular machines, I often manage to almost strangle myself. I wear my iPod with an armband around my upper arm (the earphone cables are dangling around and can get caught easily in the cross trainer).

The armband looks a bit like an oversized sticking plaster but is overall quite stylish and does the job – as long as I don’t do anything where I need the biceps. The cable issue remains annoying and I developed a rather complicated system of keeping the cable out of my way. However I then came across a much nicer solution: the Arriva headphones. You basically wear the MP3 player at the back of your head and have small cables leading into your ears.

This does solve the cable problem. The downside: it is only available for the iPod shuffle and not for other iPods. Other iPods might be too big to wear them at the back of the head. It might also be difficult to change tracks. But it is a nice idea. Apart from using these headphones for sports it might also come in handy when you don’t want other people to know that you are listening to music. Particularly if you have long hair.

Multi-Platform Viewing

1363416 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:37:00 GMT

If you own a Sony Bravia and have a web connection you will be able to see "Hancock" - a Will Smith super hero movie - before it is released on DVD. This is a Sony initiative and industry first and they are quoted as saying, "it’s about getting entertainment back into the living room.” This comment made me wonder whether I really want entertainment back in my living room. On Sunday I found myself stuck at the Eurotunnel terminal for 4 hours with nothing to do so we whipped out my ipod and watched some Ricky Gervais podcasts. I watched the final of The Apprentice on iplayer on my macbook in bed one Saturday morning and even if I could have gone into the living room to watch it I would still have watched it on my macbook because I was enjoying being in bed. Don't get me wrong, I love the big screen experience and I own a rather fantastic home cinema but I also really like being able to watch what I want, when I want, and on my platform of choice. I am not knocking Sony's initiative, it's perhaps a good idea if you are a Sony executive and your goal is to sell more Sony Bravia's and get more people to watch the movies made by your studio, but consumers are embracing having the choice that multi-platform viewing has brought to them and I wonder whether Sony would ultimately generate more revenue through "Hancock" by making it more widely available. But perhaps the pain of losing out to Apple after the ipod took over from the Walkman is still too great for them to be able to consider widening this initiative out to competitor platforms?

iPhone hang-ups as Google and Dell plot

255762 — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:06:13 GMT

As the iPhone's expensive UK tariffs are overhauled, it turns out that a quarter of Apple's phones in the US have been "unlocked" to work on other networks. You can bet Google/Dell will not be borrowing heavily from the Apple playbook when they launch their own rumoured mobile.

I'm not fan of Apple, but I have had a little look at a few and they are pretty cool. I admit some envy, when comparing them to my clunky (soon to be replace Blackberry). The other week even the builder was showing me some work he had done on his iPhone. He thumb surfed with ease. I didn't ask him if he was on O2, although I should have done.

The problem is not so big in the UK as in the US where a report yesterday said that more than a quarter of iPhones sold in the US (or one million plus) have been "unlocked" to work on network providers other than Apple's "exclusive" partner AT&T.

People have done it in the UK as well and for good reason. If you really want the phone, it is quite wrong to be forced to change network. Consumers have sent Apple a message, but Steve Jobs has never struck me as the kind of guy who listens. Apple is more about basking in the glory of its achievments (which - to be fair - are many in recent years) than engaging in customer dialogue.

Apple, of course, pursued its one mobile phone operator per country for a good reason. Healthy profits. It gets a slice of the airtime charges unlike other mobile phone manufacturers who do not. It must have sounded like a genius idea at the time of conception. I thinking it sounds less genius like now.

A study done by Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi says that if Apple sells 10m iPhones in the US by the end of 2008, 30% of them will have been unlocked, which will cost $500m (£251m) in revenues.

That news came as O2 overhauls the cost of using Apple's iPhone after just two months from the time it went on sale.

The mobile network will improve the package of its not insignificant lower rate £35 and £45 per month tariff, giving these customers substantially better deals and at the same time introducing a new "super-tier" contract costing £75 per month. Sign me up. No wait.

This comes after last week's news that sales of Apple's iPhone in the UK have fallen short of expectations. O2 sold a reported 10,000 fewer handsets than expected ,with around 190,000 iPhone handsets shifted in the UK in the two months beginning November 9.

The low figure comes despite a massive on- and offline press campaign and much press coverage aimed at enticing consumers to sign up to the product's 18-month contract, at a cost of £899, which is simply incomparable with anything else on offer in the market.

It is thought that sales could also have been hit by recent reports that Apple could soon be offering a new iPhone with twice the memory, but for the same price as the original phone.

The iPhone currently has just 8Gb of memory, meaning it can store up to 2,000 songs. However, reports last week said that Apple could soon be releasing phones with 16Gb or even 32Gb of memory.

There are, as you can see, one or two kinks in the marketing and sales strategy of the iPhone that has put a lot of people off.

There could soon be more to contend with as reports continue to circulate that Google and Dell are plotting their own launch. Plans could be out as early as next month's 3GSM conference in Barcelona.

It could give us the much speculated about GPhone. Sounds as cool as an iPhone without all the restrictive baggage that comes with Apple products. You only have to look at its new slimline Mac Air Book -- as someone on our forums pointed out: " You might get a USB 2.0 socket, a micro-DVI socket, a headphones jack and iSight webcam, but there is no optical drive, no FireWire port, no VGA, no DVI, no Ethernet socket, no chance of expanding the RAM memory or the hard drive and strangest of all no replaceable battery".

Google late last year announced its mobile operating systems Android and there was no paranoia. It was open systems. I'm definitely happy to wait.

Apple ethics

255762 — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:40:39 GMT

Apple, it turns out, is a bit like Nike. Very shiny, but if you look under the hood you find it’s all made in sweat shop camps in China and it’s not a very pleasant business.
iPods are made in a plant housing 200,000 workers in a five-storey factory secured by police officers. That's bigger than Newcastle. They are made by factory workers in China's huge no-go "enterprise zones" earning as little as £27 a month, doing 15-hour shifts, living in dormitories housing making the MP3 player.

Some wags have said that if they save for 10 months they'll be able to afford to buy one. This is true, but of course it will take another year to buy the PC needed to upload the songs.

Frankly, these reports about Apple are all a huge relief. I want to say, I told you so, I can't help myself.

Apple is one of those companies that bugs me. It has for so long been revered by geeks, nerds and techies, who have always held it up to be a company apart. A sort of rebel corporation among a sea of sameness.

You bought Apple as it said something. You know like "Hey, I'm not a PC Clone!".

Think different? Right? Well that's what the ads told the geeks and Mac heads to do, but that's just a cool marketing trick that helped to sell that idea that Apple is more decent than other corporations.

And ever more so now that Apple has gone all Intel and capable of running Windows.

When it's not. The iPod, which pretty much saved the company, has shown this in so many ways. It might be a nicely designed piece of technology, but that's pretty much it. It's also over-priced, with a poor feature set, totally unreliable and with a poor battery life.

Should you have a problem with it, good luck. It seems to me that Apple don't really want to help you. They want you to buy another one, which is what people do rather than endure poor customer care and a six-month wait.

I digress sort of. I've had two iPods. I know, it's all my own fault. I would never buy an Apple Mac, but I fell for the hype. I'm such a sucker, I feel bad.

To be fair, I only fell for the cool design and the Me2ness of it all. I wasn't under any illusion that Apple was somehow an ethical right-on company. I never saw it as any different to a Microsoft or Big Blue and the stories coming out of China this week demonstrate this quite clearly.

You know why Apple likes China. It's the low wages, long hours and China's industrial secrecy. The Chinese love police and security.

It should say so on the back of all its products with a big smiley face.

Instead, all it says on the back of your iPod should you take a look is this: "Designed in California, Made in China".

But then maybe it doesn't need to, everyone can read between the lines these days. posted by Gordon @ 9:59 AM 2 comments links to this post