January 2012
2 posts
8 tags
Throwing Money At Marketing Won't Solve Zynga's...
Edge Magazine is reporting Zynga spent $120 million on marketing in 2011, predominantly for the recruiting of new users. In that time they only acquired 400,000 new monthly users, which basically means “they spent $300 on each new customer. Since new customers stick around for 12 to 15 months and spend around $150 during that time, this means Zynga is losing $150 for every new...
15 tags
Google+ Circles Feature Is Both A Gift & Curse
Google+ is struggling to attract the average user and induce reengagement. Why? The obvious reasons include issues of it failing to fill a legitimate need, and there is also the network effect that hampers meaningful engagement from a new user (for a new user to find value in engaging, 30 of their friends must use the site, but 30 of their friends need 30 of their friends to use it too, and etc.)....
December 2011
1 post
9 tags
October 2011
2 posts
13 tags
9 tags
“Almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of...”
– Steve Jobs
1955 - 2011 Rest In Peace
September 2011
5 posts
13 tags
12 tags
“People are consistently worried about Apples market share, when they need to be...”
– Commenter, Bloomberg Businessweek.com
15 tags
“We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives...”
– Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator (1940)
12 tags
9 tags
Smartphone Market Share Doesn't Tell The Full...
This is not an argument about which smartphone is better. Neither is this an argument about which operating system is better. This is me simply addressing why using the market share of android smart phones as a measure of success over the iPhone, does not adequately illustrate which smart phone is truly “king” in the eyes of consumers.
Apple hasn’t released a new iPhone since...
August 2011
13 posts
9 tags
“Most people live life on the path we set for them. Too afraid to explore any...”
– The Adjustment Bureau
5 tags
5 tags
“It’s in facing life’s most important decisions that intuition seems...”
– Tim Cook, 2010 Auburn University Commencement Address
9 tags
Facebook's New Sharing Features For "Posts" Won't...
When introduced to Google+ and the “circles” aspect, many were praising the “selective post sharing” features and wondering why Facebook didn’t allow you to choose who you wanted to share your posts with. Well now you can. I find the inclusion of this option to be very helpful but I’m just challenging the thought of it actually being put to heavy use. Although...
3 tags
“Being a great entrepreneur means finding the path through the fog and confusion...”
– Steve Blank, The Four Steps to the Epiphany
8 tags
HP To Exit Hardware Business... Isn't This Ironic?
I just wanted to point out that I find it extremely ironic that as Google presumably decides to enter the Hardware business (as a way to integrate hardware and software in their mobile products at first), HP is deciding to leave the hardware business due to it being extremely difficult. HP has been moderately successful in the hardware business too but they haven’t been as successful as of...
4 tags
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them...”
– Steve Jobs, 2005 Stanford University Commencement Address
6 tags
Android vs. iPhone/Google vs. Apple: Hardware &...
When I found out that Motorola Mobile possessed 24,000 patents it made sense that Google would purchase them after losing the Nortel patents. It’s obvious this will help protect Android from the Apple and Microsoft law suits, but many believe Google also wants to utilize Motorola Mobile’s hardware business. This would allow Google to compete directly with Apple in the integrated...
3 tags
A Priceless Lesson "The Social Network" Teaches Us
I recently just watched what has progressively become one of my favorite movies. I would normally talk about movies on my MCAT Review Blog, but this isn’t a post about the movie. One of the reasons why this film has stuck with me is because I feel there are valuable lessons learned from it. Below is an excerpt of a conversation between Mark and Eduardo that shows this, and the ...
6 tags
Facebook Has A Better Chance of NOT Suffering "The...
When people contemplate whether Facebook will be able to sustain its stronghold on the social networking world (in reference to the emergence of G+), the predictable and immediate response is “everyone thought MySpace was too big to take down but that wasn’t the case”. True.
The migration to Facebook from MySpace was quick (in a sense that after three years of existence from...
4 tags
Some Google+ Users Operate In A Bubble
I love G+ but one of the things I have come to notice is that although the service is great and useful, many of the hardcore users (power users) don’t seem to recognize that they are operating in a bubble. The average “hyper” utilization of this site is by people who are either 1) conscious of all things “tech” or 2) Google heads. There’s nothing wrong with...
3 tags
Little Improvements Google+ Can Make
When assessing where some improvements are needed it would be easy to focus on “face value” issues (i.e. ability to re-collapse post comments) but there are more pressing issues.
For example many users cite the abuse of The Stream on two occasions: either from power users or from posts shared by multiple people.
Power user issues stem from the fact that they tend to utilize the service at...
4 tags
My Impressions of Google+
G+ is useful, but I think it’s useful for reasons that don’t make it an immediate threat to Facebook. In my opinion, their operating purposes are slightly different and I actually believe they can coexist. If anything G+ only resembles Facebook aesthetically with “some” improved privacy settings, but to me operationally it appears to be more “Twitter” like....