Thursday, March 04, 2010

The Daily Dozen

  1. A transit map of the human body.
  2. Why modern business is bad for your mental health.
  3. When the ship is sinking is it really women and children first, or every man for himself? Depends on how fast the ship is sinking.
  4. College rankings by median salaries of graduates. I'm happy to see Virginia Tech make one of the top ten state schools. (And to see them barely edge out UVA.)
  5. Is it a man's fault if he can't tell a woman is interested in him?
  6. Google: Desktops will be irrelevant in the next three years.
  7. You are more likely to get murdered in Columbus, Ohio, Tulsa, Oklahoma, or Omaha, Nebraska than you are in Los Angeles, California.
  8. How Sony lost its way. I have been far from impressed with them ever since I made the mistake of buying one of their VAIO laptops. It's back in the shop (again) and their tech support can't tell me its status.
  9. How to think like a statistician -- without the math.
  10. What does a grip tell about you? A heck of a lot if you're a guy.
  11. Appointed attorneys are for indigent defendants.
  12. Are $150 Kindles coming soon? That kind of price is one way Amazon could give stiff competition against the iPad.

2 comments:

thinking said...

Sony is just a follower now, not a market leader. Look at how the headlines about them are always about them coming up with a competitor to this or a competitor to that. I remember when Sony used to define entire markets for new products, much like Apple does now.

Sad to see Sony lose their way.

thinking said...

Whither the Kindle? Unfortunately, for Amazon, the Kindle is likely to be consigned to a very niche market, and even then may not survive.

Apple is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, and there is no way Amazon can out-Apple Apple.

Even at 150 people who buy the iPad will not need to shell out extra for the Kindle. And there will be a whole lot more people buying iPads than Kindles.

Think of the differences: Apple is a consumer electronics juggernaut; they have engineering experience, a brand name, and a marketing and retail presence that Amazon cannot even come close to (or any other eBook vendor either).

Amazon is great for what is does, and I give them huge props for what they have achieved with the Kindle. But now they will get crushed by Apple.

I would bet that more iPads will be sold the first day of its release than there have been Kindles sales since its release.