• photos
• physical devices (which bloggers and reporters have reviewed and created articles and videos)
• device specifications
• pricing
• features

Are you ready for the January 30 launch?

I just read an article in Fortune about how Burberrry has turned around its business over the last few years to gear more of its marketing towards the younger crowd. Because of this, they’ve focused on digital properties like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The decision was challenging because Burberry already had an image to maintain. One of being exclusive. To be able to find them, shop and buy from them online would change that. The aricle says: “The approach makes Burberry a standout in the luxury business, which has historically shied away from technology for fear of eroding its aura of exclusivity.”

It was a big gamble but it paid off. Burberry’s real tech credit comes from its organically digital approach to virtually everything it now does, from fashion shows to employee communications.

Here some examples of their success:

• Sales teams in the stores, for example, were among the first to notice that larger male customers were unhappy with the fit of one style of suit. Headquarters heard about it via “Burberry Chat,” and the design team made some alterations.
• It goes beyond social media. They also implemented a global ERP system which “[allows] them to look up a customer’s name to see a profile that includes global transaction history and social media activity as it relates to Burberry.”
• Burberry’s Runway to Reality lets viewers watch a live stream of its shows, then order what they just saw and receive their purchase in weeks.

And because of all this and more, they’ve doubled their annual sales from 2007 to $3 billion.

Read the full article: Burberry’s Angela Ahrendts: High tech’s fashion model

Apple positioned the iPad as a new category which slowly ate away at the mini-laptop category. The Surface includes a detachable touch-keyboard and touchpad which means that Microsoft is positioning this to compete with mini-laptops as well as laptop. Without the detachable accessory, it competes with the iPad. But it may also entice desktop users who use Microsoft Office applications or other x86 applications. The Surface OS will have the next generation of Windows called Windows 8, which is compatible with most older applications.

So there you have it, the new Surface tablets may just eat away at multiple categories of computers. Will it succeed?

Facebook:

• To build a community where customers and employees interact.
• To craft online identity, seed conversations, enhance reputation, and distribute exclusive marketing content.

Twitter:

• To talk to customers in real time, share content, answer questions, and lead followers to Facebook, corporate blogs, and YouTube.

YouTube:

• To showcase brand-appropriate video content and improve search engine results.

Corporate blog (aDressed):

• To enhance reputation with conversational posts linked to press releases, leader profiles, and relevant third-party content.
• To post leader messages, highlight corporate culture, and improve search engine results for positive content.

The full article can be found here: How Gap connects with consumers on social media

Below are the ones I think are most interesting.

• Pinterest retains and engages users two to three times more efficiently as Twitter did at the same age.
• Etsy is Pinterest’s top source of photos. Google is second, followed by FlickR, Tumblr and WeHeartIt.com.
• Pinterest accounts for 3.6 percent of referral traffic, while Twitter is just barely ahead, accounting for 3.61 percent of referral traffic. In July 2011, Pinterest accounted for only 0.17 percent of referral traffic.
• According to AppData and Facebook, 97 percent of Pinterest users are women.
• American Pinterest users spend an average of 1 hour and 17 minutes on the site. This is more time than users spend on Twitter (36 minutes), LinkedIn (17 minutes), and Google+ (6 minutes).
• Estimated unique visitors to Pinterest.com increased by 429 percent between September and December of 2011.
• According to comScore, the average Pinterest user spends 98 minutes per month on the site, compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr and 7 hours on Facebook.
• Daily Pinterest users increased by more than 145 percent since the start of 2012.
• More than one-fifth of Facebook-connected users are on Pinterest daily. This represents more than 2,000,000 members.
• In May 2011, an average Pinterest visitor spent 13.7 minutes per month on the site. In January 2012, each Pinterest visitor spent an average of 97.8 minutes per month on the site.
• The biggest demographic of Pinterest users is women aged 25-34.
• Only 25 percent of Pinterest users have a bachelors degree or higher. The majority have a household income of $25,000-$75,000.

This About.com article explains it well: Create a Virtual Notice Board with Pinterest

One thing to note. Unlike physical pinboards you hang in your office or at home, your Pinterest pinboard can be used to share content with other Pinterest users who are following you. Sharing with others is a great way to discover and recycle new content by repinning it to your own pinboard.

New term, pinaddict: someone who is addicted to pinning images, videos, and blogs to Pinterest (pinterest.com). February 8, 2012 (4:05 p.m.)

Portable electronic devices, including music players, laptops, phones and smartphones, tablets and e-books, are becoming the every day norm. Most people own at least two of these devices and are thinking of buying another within the next 6 months. Have you ever wondered why they’ve become so popular recently?

Back in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, all of the above mentioned devices existed. Music players were Sony Walkmans, Laptops were Toshiba T1100s, phones were Motorola DynaTAC 8000X “brickphones”, and tablets were Microsoft Tablet PCs. But what was the one major annoyance that kept many of these first-of-its-kind devices from becoming mainstream? Its weight and size, and overall portability. Battery life played a role in its popularity. In the early days, the battery played a significant role in the functionality and weight of these devices. Not until battery technology advanced to a breaking point that these devices could exist.

Would you buy a mobile phone today if it only lasted 1 hour of talk time? Probably not. The manufacturers of these devices knew they had to have a certain amount of battery life, thus, the battery had to be larger. But because these devices were marketed at portable, they couldn’t weigh too much to not be functional. How long can you hold a 1 pound device to you ear for?

Only until the 21st century, could devices become truely portable. Laptops now have 8 hours of battery life without weighing more than the electronics and casement. Mobile phones can easily fit in a childs pocket with 5 days of standby time. One could argue that advancements in energy saving electronics is also key and I would argue for this as well, but the advancements in battery technology has jumped leaps and bounds over the last few years.

What does the future hold? A bright one indeed. Where music devices are held within the earphones themselves. Where laptops with full keyboards can fit in your pocket (that depends on if keyboards survive the onslought of the touchscreen). Where mobile phones are flexible and moulded to fit around your wrist. Who knows!

Similarities can be drawn to the use of search engines. The early search engines would understand key terms when searching. For instance, when searching for an antique lamp stores in the Toronto area. One would type into Google “antique lamp store Toronto”. The sentence is not something someone would guess to type in to find what they’re looking for. The user would have to be trained on this before hand.

You may be asking, why didn’t the first search engines fail like the first tablet? The reason is because there was no viable alternative to search engines back then. The only way to find websites was to either clicking on an endless number of links to find the information you’re looking for, or use a search engine. With the tablet, the alternative was the desktop or laptop computer.

Now that there are alternatives to search engines like social media, search engines will need to become more user friendly. The next step for search engines are to understand natural language. If one were to look for antique stores, they could type in “Where are there antique lamp stores in the Toronto area?” and the search engine would find it. The search engine would understand the context of the sentence (a question) and find possible results to answer the question.

You’ll notice natural language technology already being used in smartphones to understand voice commands. The Siri feature on the iPhone (and similar features on other smartphones) is a good example of this.

I’ll start by telling why I didn’t get other phones. In my last post, I stated the main reason why the iPhone wasn’t for me — customizability — and that still stands. As for a Blackberry, the very same reason. It has many more options than an iPhone, but it doesn’t have as many as Android phones. With Android, you can customize everything from icons to the fonts to the homescreen design and functionality to the motion effects to the button assignments. Plus more! It’s fantastic in that respect.

But let me tell you an underlying factor in my decision. Image/Branding. Yes, Blackberry’s image has gone down the crapper. I didn’t want to own a Blackberry because it was going out of fashion. It’s no long cool to own one. I’m not one to follow trends, in fact, I do the opposite. I tend to go for the underdog. But when it comes to Blackberry, I don’t even think they have a chance in winning the smartphone race. So I exited. As for Android, they’re at the top of their game. They have the most used smartphone OS right now, along with Samsung creating industry-leading hardware, how can you go wrong.