Random Thursday Musings
A few random and unconnected musings:
1) Channel surfing last night, I came across this new show - a new low in television where the entire premise is breaking up couples. Like a nastier temptation island. And is is on MTV! Wow.
2) Take a look at Apple's Q3 results yesterday (Top-line points at MacRumors and AppleInsider). It must have been hard to keep a straight face as they announced that profit almost doubled and margins are near 40 per cent. A few observations: Profit is nearing a dollar a share and they are sitting on $13.8 BILLION in cash. To me that is a hard amount to spend strictly on R+D, so it would seem logical that Apple should either be looking for a strategic acquisition or to start spinning that cash out to shareholders. Second, in the iPhone hype there was a serious question as to whether the new product would hurt or help sales of Mac computers and iPods. Yesterday's results clearly illustrate that it didn't hurt. The halo effect of a new product launch, done properly, can propel an entire brand. (See Audi's upcoming R8 supercar, sold out since they built the Model T Ford.) Update: AAPL up $9 (7%) today.
3) One of my pet-peeves is when high budget marketing campaigns skimp on the crucial details, often because they were not properly explained or considered. I visited simpsonizeme earlier today, a site to promote the Simpsons Movie and Burger King and was greeted with news that the site had too much traffic. Could I please come back later. In that type of word-of-mouth marketing, you only get one chance. Don't lose it because you didn't have enough bandwidth.
4) In Bracebridge political news, MP Tony Clement has a clever (and well principled) campaign on now to save Muskoka's northern status. Smart and right, a good combo.
5) I'm going to try this new software that Janke recommends.
1) Channel surfing last night, I came across this new show - a new low in television where the entire premise is breaking up couples. Like a nastier temptation island. And is is on MTV! Wow.
2) Take a look at Apple's Q3 results yesterday (Top-line points at MacRumors and AppleInsider). It must have been hard to keep a straight face as they announced that profit almost doubled and margins are near 40 per cent. A few observations: Profit is nearing a dollar a share and they are sitting on $13.8 BILLION in cash. To me that is a hard amount to spend strictly on R+D, so it would seem logical that Apple should either be looking for a strategic acquisition or to start spinning that cash out to shareholders. Second, in the iPhone hype there was a serious question as to whether the new product would hurt or help sales of Mac computers and iPods. Yesterday's results clearly illustrate that it didn't hurt. The halo effect of a new product launch, done properly, can propel an entire brand. (See Audi's upcoming R8 supercar, sold out since they built the Model T Ford.) Update: AAPL up $9 (7%) today.
3) One of my pet-peeves is when high budget marketing campaigns skimp on the crucial details, often because they were not properly explained or considered. I visited simpsonizeme earlier today, a site to promote the Simpsons Movie and Burger King and was greeted with news that the site had too much traffic. Could I please come back later. In that type of word-of-mouth marketing, you only get one chance. Don't lose it because you didn't have enough bandwidth.
4) In Bracebridge political news, MP Tony Clement has a clever (and well principled) campaign on now to save Muskoka's northern status. Smart and right, a good combo.
5) I'm going to try this new software that Janke recommends.
Labels: business, ontario, random, tech, The World Wide Web
posted by Tim Tutsch @ 7/26/2007 09:27:00 AM
1 Comments:
At 10:10:00 AM,
The Dyce said…
But how do you feel about today's news that Apple is sponsoring a free vacation for Marge and Homer to Muskoka to the Temptation Island resort?
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