There’s no doubt that users have learned to ignore ads. Click-thru rates on banners have decreased from nearly 10% at the dawn of the 2000’s to around 0.2% today. That’s why advertising is moving to where users actually spend their time: in the stream of content and social media updates.
Quotes
But Apple might not be the right behemoth to use as a benchmark for Amazon’s recent performance. In 1994, Walmart’s net sales topped $60 billion for the first time, the neighborhood that Amazon’s playing in today. A decade later, Walmart’s sales had nearly quadrupled to $256 billion. Last year, Walmart’s sales clocked in at just south of $444 billion.
If you decide that you’re going to do only the things you know are going to work, you’re going to leave a lot of opportunity on the table. Companies are rarely criticized for the things that they failed to try. But they are, many times, criticized for things they tried and failed at.
Jeff Bezos (Amazon CEO) http://blog.kissmetrics.com/lessons-from-jeff-bezos/
You know, we always have these debates: We have all this money, we have all these people, why aren’t we doing more stuff? You may say that Apple only does a very, very small number of things, and that’s working pretty well for them. But I find that unsatisfying. I feel like there are all these opportunities in the world to use technology to make people’s lives better. At Google we’re attacking maybe 0.1 percent of that space. And all the tech companies combined are only at like 1 percent. That means there’s 99 percent virgin territory. Investors always worry, “Oh, you guys are going to spend too much money on these crazy things.” But those are now the things they’re most excited about—YouTube, Chrome, Android. If you’re not doing some things that are crazy, then you’re doing the wrong things.
Larry Page (Google CEO) – Wired “Google’s Larry Page on Why Moon Shots Matter”
Woah! That is a statement. Google is an awesome company. If they manage just to make one moon shot, they will become much bigger then Apple. I’m pondering with the idea to buy some Google shares since a couple of months. Google is doing a lot of things right and has some pretty big shots in it’s portfolio with Android, Chrome, Apps, Youtube, Maps, Play,…The interview with Larry is just confirming my bullish view on Google.
After being in love with my iPhone for several years now, my attentions are increasingly being pulled elsewhere — and I’m not fighting it. I’ve been an iPhone fan ever since I first got my hands on one: it instantly made my BlackBerry feel like an ugly brick that was designed by orangutans.
Great quote from an article on Gigaom titled “Why I’m thinking of ditching my precious iPhone for an Android” I especially like how he bashes RIM.
Quote Jeff Bezos
[blockquote cite=”Jeff Bezos”]Ich arbeite auch manchmal in unseren Vertriebscentern mit. Ich machte ein Managementtraining namens Kaizen. Wir hatten einen japanischen Berater, der meinte, er sei kein Berater, sondern ein Beleidiger. Er hat uns ständig angeschrien. Eines Tages war ich dabei, den Boden in einem Vertriebs-center zu fegen, da schrie er: ‚Herr Bezos. Ich finde einen sauberen Boden großartig, aber warum kehren Sie, statt die Quelle des Schmutzes zu bekämpfen?‘ Und er meinte, es sei meine Aufgabe, die Antwort zu finden[/blockquote]
HP ‘Our next smartphone has to be done right’
[blockquote cite=”HP CEO Meg Whitman” url=”http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1838977863001/hewlett-packard-ceo-we-have-to-ultimately-offer-a-smartphone/”]We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world that is your first computing device. We are a computing company; we have to take advantage of that form factor[/blockquote]
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Quote Mark Zuckerberg
[blockquote cite=”Mark Zuckerberg” url=”http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/11/the-ceo-of-facebook-still-codes-on-the-side-but-tends-to-break-things/”]Everything I do breaks, but we fix things quickly.[/blockquote]
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You Guys Are Millionaires Right?
Then you see an app like ’101 sex positions’ or ’301 Fart Noises’ reach the lofty heights of App Store Success. They spent a week on a gimmick and made bank, you spent 6 months building an app of utility and are struggling. Let’s not even get into the long debates you get into with people about whether they should buy your $1.99 app. People will spend hours researching a $2 purchase, browsing reviews, emailing the developer, checking online forums. Then they will go to a coffee shop they’ve never been before and buy a $4 coffee. From the developer they expect unlimited support, unlimited free updates. From the coffee shop they expect nothing except mediocre coffee.
Some interesting insights and opinion from a small independent iPhone & ruby on rails developer. Link
You Guys Are Millionaires Right? Read More »