Technology – Blackberry Bold 9900 Unboxing
Here are some photos I took of my Blackberry Bold 9900 unboxing. Admittedly, this is actually the first Blackberry I’ve ever had the privilege of using every day and though I realize that the company is really going through some rocky times at the moment I have to say that overall this unit is physically quite nice.
Technology – Playstation Vita First Edition Bundle Unboxing
Here are a series of shots of the Playstation Vita First Edition Bundle unboxing that I took on launch day. By now this bundle has long since sold out here in Toronto although the actual Vita unit itself can be found virtually anywhere. Is this a sign of slow sales? Well, truth be told it is an excellent mobile gaming unit but so far it seems to have only been adopted by true diehard video game fans and hasn’t yet cracked the much larger casual market.
Business: Face-Palm
Why do people watch reality TV? While there are plenty of reasons one might point out I am sure a huge percentage of people tune in weekly just to see how ridiculously bad/awful/ridiculous things are for those “performers” and are elated that compared to them, their own situation seems imminently much better. There is some sort of sadistic emotional resonance going on when people watch other people implode whether through economic hardship or plain old romantic failure. The list of disasters these virtual families go through make day time soap operas seem tame. Nevertheless, in terms of the business world the same phenomenon can be seen except instead of virtual families we revel in watching big hulking corporations explode before us in a cacophony of sheer stupidity.
Xbox 360 – Unique Avatar Gifts for the Holidays
For those individuals who are looking to give a unique gift to a diehard gamer here is a website at cafepress that provides avatar-based gifts for those with Xbox Live accounts. While the inclusion of avatars initially met with much criticism from some diehard gamers who thought they were too kiddy-like in appearance and served no purpose they have proven to be resilient enough for Microsoft to keep using them in games and through their social services. There is no argument however, that Microsoft devised them in reaction to the positive consumer response from Nintendo’s Wii yet in fairness the Rare studio designed avatars have much better range in movement and generally have a pleasant next-gen sheen which the Wii lacks.
Marketing – Polycarbonate to the Rescue
Nokia continues its global campaign for its Lumia line of Windows Phone devices and while initial reports range from them doing below expectations to higher than expected all we can say for sure is to wait for Nokia’s quarterly results which will no doubt shed light on how well it did or didn’t do. When rumoured sales figures come in as low as 500,000 to higher than 2 million it shows that many have no idea how well Nokia can execute as the Lumia is essentially a re-launch of the brand.
Marketing – Going For the Jugular
As many fans of mobile phones will probably already know Apple and Samsung are not the closest of corporate friends right about now as both companies are locked in a massive litigation battle regarding patents. I won’t bother to get into the nitty-gritty of the various issues but anyone can merely go to Google or Bing and do a search to find out how each company is taking this very seriously.
WP7 – The Amazing Everyday
Well, the day every Windows Phone 7 fan has been waiting for has finally arrived with the launch of Nokia’s Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 smartphones that debuted today at Nokia World 2011 in London. After a ridiculously bad year that has seen its share of the mobile phone market plummet Nokia is in serious need of a turn around and judging from today’s initial reviews it certainly seems as if the company at least has a shot to stop the bleeding and stabilize itself. People who have been following Nokia will probably remember current CEO Stephen Elop’s rather grim yet frank email leak earlier in the year where he outlined in fine detail just how he thought that Nokia was standing on a burning platform and in serious danger of becoming irrelevant.
Business – It’s a Red Ocean Out There
I’ve chosen to reply to Shennie’s comment in a new post as I ended up writing far more than I thought. Here is what she wrote regarding my previous post on the iPhone 4S:
“I have to honestly say that I was a bit disappointed too. I was expecting an iPhone 5 with bigger screen, because all the other smart phones are trending towards bigger screens. I wonder why Apple has decided to stick to the current screen size instead of upgrading it… Is it because of cost issue? Or is it a design issue? I’m sure Apple fans are willing to pay a premium price for it. Oh well, I guess some people just have to wait for their iPhone 5, but some people will still get the iPhone 4S as a placeholder till the iPhone 5 is released.”
