Technology

Resist The Powermat, just plug your phone in the wall

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Marco Bertozzi: 22.12.09
Out Christmas shopping at the weekend I stood in John Lewis staring at The Powermat (www.powermat.com), I knew I would, I knew at some point I would come face to face with The Powermat and grapple with my desire to buy the latest gadget versus the voice of reason inside me saying, just plug it in the wall, its a rip off!

If you are not sure what powermat is about, check the video out below:

Basically you have a mat, you plug that in the wall. You then buy a cover for you iphone / blackberry / DS, whatever, you put your cover on and just plonk down on the mat and it wirelessly charges your device. If they dont make a back for your device you can plug it into a cube thing and put that on the mat, or for apple products they have a cradle that fits any ipod and you put that on the mat…CHRIST, JUST PLUG IT IN THE WALL. The upside is that it charges multiple devices, is that worth the money?

Powermat have used Facebook a lot and it does make me laugh as everyone is saying the same, why is this easier than plugging into a socket. Oh I did not mention the price..£70 for the mat and then about £30 for each individual case that goes on your device! You can see then why I was stood there in John Lewis staring at it, I wanted it, I really did, but you cannot justify it, this is a proper gimmick for now, it has no value in its current format. £100-£200 just to charge your device? As one Facebooker said..’Its a F******’ charger!

I know I will come face to face with it again and again I will have to decide whether i should buy one, normally I give in to these things but I dont think I will this time until the price is a third of what it is now. Lets not forget though that this technology will soon be built into the phones and laptops themselves so you wont need to waste money on a receiving device, thats when it gets interesting. Imagine if your phone has the technology built in and your car is the charger, just pop the phone down on the dash and you are charging, your desk, your coffee table? Bring that on, for now its a waste of cash.

Eurostar shows the impact of both Twitter and Real Time search

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Marco Bertozzi: 20.12.09
Only the other week I was writing about how Real Time search would impact a brand. I talked about the fact that real time negative PR would be presented on the first page of Google listings would make life difficult both for the company and for any attempts to carry out a PPC campaign alongside it.

Well Eurostar have done a brilliant job of bringing that to life for us over the last few days. Lets face it Eurostar has had a nightmare. Trains that are sensitive to the cold, people stranded, holidays and Christmas ruined, kids with no food, blacked out trains over night, it could not get any worse..or could it?

Yes it could if the company had no communications strategy in place, right from people on the ground to Twitter moderators or websites being updated frequently, they have broken every rule going, especially in the first day or so.

Twitter is filled to the brim with negative comments and no one has been in place to respond to them which just fuels the fire, how difficult is it? Answer a couple of questions, make an announcement or two. There is no excuse for how poor they have been. They do seem to have no paid for listings against the search term Eurostar tickets so someone remembered to pull all their advertising! Even here though, was there an opportunity to have put some notices of some sort? As it is a few random companies are wasting their budgets against paid for listings for the words Eurostar.

Click here for the new Google phone photos

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Marco Bertozzi 14.12.09
The new Google phone photos are now being leaked in every direction, there is a lot of discussion over what phone it actually is, the majority believe it to be an HTC.

The key things with this phone are:

1. It will be unlocked so open to all
2. It is Google born and bred software

It is meant to be very slick and better than the iPhone although time will tell! Click on photo below to see all the photos.

A review of digital media predictions for 2010

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Marco Bertozzi 10.12.09
As we leave 2009 we start to see the endless list of predictions for 2010, some interesting, some very topline some very specific but all worth having a read if you want to see how 2010 is going to be shaped. It is only a selection, if you want to add yours then leave a comment at the end. I have researched a fair few of them and listed out the main issues for 2010.

As I am keen to make it clear that I have used other people’s musings I have listed them below for you to have a look through as well, but my suggestions may speed things up!

1. Status updates and Tweet burn out will result in a little more culling / blocking of ‘friends’, reducing the social element of social media.

2. Real time search, recently launched by Google will mean brands need to work much harder to stay on top of the sentiments being expressed around them. People will be able to complain in an instant and have it up on the web. It will also make SEO and PPC far more complicated and require very frequent reviews of price and position vs the content around it.

3. Facebook and direct Tweets will replace personal email as the preferred route to reach people.

4. Mobile commerce taking off through a more Apple App store approach to paying for goods, anyone who buys apps on the iphone knows just how easy it is to buy loads of things that you wouldn’t if you had to put your card in every time.

5. As many companies ban social media sites at work, the mobile will be the guilty pleasure and escape from work shackles.

6. Commercialisation of the Twitter audience, I am sure it will come with a vengeance and hopefully some innovative new ad approaches.

7. Less of a prediction, more of an interesting thing to watch, the battle of online news content, to pay for or not? My view is still an Ad funded model as the victor.

8. Convergeance of video and TV. youtube and Hulu and the like taking ever more film / TV content online.

9. The rise of commercial applications as a route to making the most of the social phenomenon where shouting at your audience while they are ‘hanging out’ does not work.

10. Media agencies making some genuinely large structural, technological and commercial changes to future proof themselves in a market where the 2% margin model does not pay.

Below are a few of the links, there are many more, would be great if you added your predictions in the comments section.

http://www.digitalmediabuzz.com/2009/12/top-digital-trends-for-2010/

http://www.web-jungle.com/2009/11/07/social-media-trends-2010/

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007410″

http://www.clickz.com/3635686″

http://www.themediaonline.co.za/themedia/view/themedia/en/page1353?oid=41569&sn=Detail”>

The Apple iPhone, free with £30 of shopping

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Marco Bertozzi 26.11.09
OK it’s not that bad yet but its going that way. I have to admit I am undecided on how I feel about the way the iphone is moving. On the one hand I think that it is a great phone (in most areas) and should be available to all, on the other hand it feels as if the gloss is being rubbed off it.

Part of having an iphone was the wow factor, all those early adopters out there loved showing how the screen bent and zoomed and turned upside down etc, that was amazing at the time. Anyone who had an iphone early will have been centre of attention to the vast majority of people, if only through sheer curiosity to see this famous piece of kit. This video summed it up;

Now everywhere you look there is an iphone hanging off someone’s ear, all the other phone manufacturers have caught up in most of the technology capabilities and overtaken in some, it’s just not as interesting anymore. When the Mini launched everyone loved it but it lost something when Foxtons and now many others adopted it as their car of choice. Seeing an Iphone next to the carrots in Tescos does not feel right, where is the next level of exclusivity and novelty from them?

BMW, like them or loathe them understand this and have always brought out new cars regularly, its annoying if you buy one as it’s ‘an old shape’ very quickly, but they do it for a reason. It means those who want to pay for the latest can do and those who aspire to owning a BMW can get one second hand, BMW keep everyone happy. That said BMW were too successful and the roads are flooded with them, they are the equivalent of the iphone in Tescos.

I still love my iphone, it’s user interface and App store is still second to none but I do hope they bring out something else to wow us before that Apple gloss starts to fade.

I never thought I would say it but I am beginning to get envious of my wife’s Blackberry, now there is a company thats trying hard to bring the wow factor.