Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Guitar Hero in the Back Seat?

Is it true that everybody wants what we have at home in the car?
Is it really enjoyable to play TV game in the car?
I can’t believe it. I would like to relax in the car to listen to music, see outside of the car, and chatting with family or friends. So TV in the car is too much, why is TV game in addition? I think it is just used as service in order to sell cars. Almost everybody may not be interested in them. But if they are free service, nobody rejects it. So car dealers buy them and equip it. The time when car dealers could afford to spend such costs, it worked well. But now according to the global recession, almost car industry is in bad condition and it can’t afford to spend such costs. So from now, what people don’t want is difficult to sell. 

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Does Microsoft Need to Make its Own Mobile Phone?

Why hasn’t Microsoft windows mobile become popular in mobile market?
It is easy to understand if you touch it. 
It is just small pc, not suitable for mobile phone.
GUI is very poor. Applications are not stable.
Who would like to see file system like PC in mobile phone?
Who would like to reset it? 
About PC, there is no choice about OS and Windows has already become standard.
But mobile phone is different. We don’t have to care about the compatibility with PC. 
We just want one which is easy to use, cool and enjoyable. 
Important thing is to see customer needs. Don’t follow company’s point of view.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Palm Preps for the Pre

What has Palm been doing for mobile market recently?
Almost all people forget Palm. I don’t know what the strength Palm still has.
At least, Palm has to prove to the strength compared to iPhone.
Actually, the style that users can install variety kinds of applications from after market was promoted by Palm about 10 years ago in PDA market. Now iPhone imitates the same style. But it becomes more popular and iPhone has other unique features such as iTunes, rich GUI. So it would be difficult for Palm to appeal to consumers. 
What should Palm do now? I am afraid it is too late to change the strategy.
If it were a little early, Palm should have focused to corporate market. It might have been appealed with use case of the combination between PDA and network application.
But in that market, there is already occupied by Blackberry. 

Monday, January 26, 2009

Lowering the Price on Pocket HD Video

It is amazing that HD video can be sold just about US$150, even if the quality or function is not so good, HD is HD. It must be clear than current SD Video cameras. 
But who is the target? Some digital cameras have the same function. Of course, the prices of those cameras are higher than Pocket HD video. But people would like to buy one who can cover several functions as one device. So maybe target is focused to people who are interested in YouTube. I am not sure how many people would like to upload to YouTube. But I think there are variety kinds of people in the US. So It is enough for manufactures to focus such niche market. If in Japan, there are only target called Otaku and it is a little share of market. So just imported goods are enough for them. 

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Economic Conditions Hurt... Even if You're a Monster

I am worry about the company producing really high value product with a little premium price confront difficult business statue due to the global recession.

I know Monster cable. I know the prices of their products are higher than other none brand products. I know there are really value about sound. When  I was a student, I couldn't afford to buy such products as a guitar cable. And I didn't make sure the difference.

But I borrowed such high value cable and used it last year when I am already middle age, I really understand its value and I replaced my cable. So even if we use good equipment, if we don't care about the cable, we will not be able to success.

Then my concern is that if consumers try to buy cheep products, such companes can't continue to sell high value products as so far. So they may stop to sell these products or increase prices more to cover drop sales. The result is that it would be difficult for us to enjoy real value things and get heart-tugging  impression. 

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The Internet and Trip Planning

I think one of the most useful usages of the internet is used by travel service.
It has helped us to make a decision to go travel. It has given us ideas where to visit.
We can check hotel rooms, travel root, and even restaurant menus before arrival.
But on the other hand, it may give us less fresh and impressed feeling when we get there. Only checking the web site of travel service gives us as if we already went there. 
When I went to Egypt when I was a university student, if the internet service were already available, my travel might have been a little boring. Without it, I could make plans travel root on site by myself and enjoy flexible travel.
Of course, I might not have had to find hotels late night.
I hear that travel abroad is getting less popular among Japanese students. It may affect economic issue, however, 
I think that increasing attraction of travel is another cause through checking the web site. 
So when we use the internet service, we had better be careful not to get too much information and too much fixing plans. 
In particular, it is very important for me to keep freshness for many things as well as travel. 
So I usually don't see previews of movies or read criticisms of books before getting them.
Only rough overview is enough. 
Anyway, to enjoy life, it is important how to use internet.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

GPS and Driving Safety

I don't like to hear about the car technology except for save energy.

Car industry has to focus this issue. Otherwise, people don't want to buy cars.

Thanks to oil increase last year, people have noticed that cars are 

not good for environment and costs too much, even if oil price is

down for the time being.  In addition, due to the global economy recession,

most peopole can't afford to purchase such a luxury.