Idea Clerks

Why being third is best

idea guy — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:30:45 +0000

When starting a business there is what’s called the first mover advantage. This has it’s upsides and downsides. Usually being first means you get to have marketshare and really grow your business like amazon.com and apple. However this isn’t always the case. There are times when it’s more advantageous to take some time and see what businesses are doing and how you can improve on them. This has happened many times such as google and facebook. Each took existing ideas and made some improvements that gave them advtanges over their competitors. This is a way great way to ensure that you have a viable business model. Of course you also have to know how to gain marketshare from existing companies whose territories you are moving into. For google, it was the notion of having better search results over the leader yahoo! . For facebook it was about exclusivity and building a better user experience than leader myspace.

Whose next? YouTube can be usurped and by some instances they are by the likes of Hulu and Bliptv.

What business will be taken on next? Woot.com has an interesting model that could be considered a comptetitor to amazon.com one which has a unique twist with it’s 1 deal 1 day gimmick.

I’d like to see YouTube be challenged by companies with better tools as well as partnerships with products such as the Flip and the like.

Who’s next?

New iTablet details? Welcome to the macbook touch

idea guy — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:52:27 +0000

According to a ’source’/rumor, there is going to be an Apple tablet announced by the end of the year, and won’t be your typical tablet format meaning it will sport a multi touch screen. It won’t look like an enlarged ipod touch with a home button, but instead just be a large screen, like similar tablets, however the innovation with this product will be the embedded webcam in the middle of the screen vs above the screen like other drawings have depicted. specs wise it will be on par with the macbook, and will join the macbook family as the macbook touch. This tablet will have a virtual keyboard and all of the tablet goodies, but where it gets interesting are the emulators….it will be able to run app store apps through an emulator/virtualization program. The best apps displayed will be those that are built for the opengl2 as in those used in the new ipod touches and iphone 3GS.

Another interesting addition will be the ability to remote control/touchpad the macbook touch using the ipod touch or iphone’s 3G and 3GS. unfortunately for those like me who have the iphone 2G, we are SOL. The killer app/feature however wont be the remote control but the ability to use the ipod/iphone as a second screen for the macbook touch. The video I saw, of which I wish I could post, showed the user watching a video and then “throwing” the video onto their iphone. the video then started on their iphone. It actually looked like it was a flash player or the new quicktime on the macbook touch so not sure what was used on the iphone. Perhaps a new version of quicktime that has been rumored to play flash?

Either way, the iTablet, or the macbook touch will definitely be a product where Apple shows just how innovative they can be, given the so-so product updates recently.

what this blog is about

idea guy — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:59:03 +0000

This blog will attempt to give advice and ideas for how to improve your business. We’ll also give ideas for new business opportunities.