Why are Luxury Retailers Building Up their Online Sales Models?

Discount online retailers are a dime and dozen in the web sphere, and the average consumer has been accustomed to searching for these cut rate sites and making numerous purchases from the day the lights were turned on in this virtual environment versus making a trip down to their local Sears or JC Penney’s.  However, only a few large luxury brand name companies have ventured into this e-commerce retail arena with fear of having to compete with the seemingly endless array of heavily bargain basement priced product companies (e.g., Amazon.com, Wal-Mart.com, Zappos.com, etc.) that are so prevalent when surfing the internet on laptops, tablets or other mobile devices.  But it seems as though the tide is beginning to really turn as witnessed by a few of these highly priced retail behemoths successfully building their online sales revenues and other curious (or maybe fearful of being left behind) retailers that are starting to follow their lead and take a leap of faith to the dark side digital world.

Due to the success of companies such as Net-a-Porter, an online e-tailer of luxury brand women’s wear based out of London (that had gross revenue of $400 Million ending in its most recent fiscal year in March of 2011, which was more than a 100% increase year over year), luxury brands such Burberry, Hermes, Neiman Marcus and Faberge have boosted up their web presence lately and others are sure to follow.  Those fabulously posh brands such as Chanel and Rolex may now start to re-think their strategy of sitting on the internet sidelines and not joining the fray of discounters like Target.com, because of fear of tarnishing their highly respected names.  But money talks and a big focus on customer service has really built up these virtual retail outlets to become big competitors in the war for new and repeat business, and a huge referral network to boot. 

Think about how a great customer experience from one of these ecommerce companies could catch on like wildfire and go viral in mere minutes with mention on one of the social media sites with a few tweets on Twitter, a bunch of likes on Facebook or a number of stumbles on Stumbleupon.  Although the reverse is true as well, so companies must be sure to create that positive retail buying experience, or else a negative one could spread throughout the digital space at light speed and cause a company to crash and burn rather quickly (ask Maytag about its negative customer experience with the globe’s most famous Mommy Blogger, Heather Armstrong, who literally built a blogging cottage industry by the viral success of her 10-day disastrous ordeal with her “new” Maytag washing machine).

With the advent of same day delivery (to feed our need to immediacy), money-back guarantees and 24/7 customer support, e-tailers are going the extra mile for their shoppers and that is especially important for the clientele that these luxury brands cater to.  As more and more companies take the plunge into this wired world, they will need to keep quality customer service at the forefront while at the same time offering the same top notch product lines that have made them oh so famous throughout the fashion runways of Paris, Milan and New York.  We may want the convenience of clickable shopping but we still want to walk down the street with that trendy new Louis Vuitton bag or Piaget watch on our arm…and of course purchased on that same day!  Sooo High School!!  

     

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Is it Really Appropriate for your 9-year Old to be on Twitter and Facebook? Mark Zuckerberg and Others Think So!

This question really has me thinking about how fast our technology focused culture has so drastically evolved in just the past two to three years.  The social media aspect of our lives, both in our personal relationships and in the business environment, is becoming all encompassing and will get multiplied a hundred times over in the next five to seven years.  Our relationship building skills have become so reliant on digital connections, that we feel lost when there is not some form of mobile communication (cell phone, tablet, laptop, etc.) on our person twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.  We want everything here and now and won’t wait around for information to be fed to us, in what has been described as our new ADD society.  From online dating to Skype meetings to purchasing an engagement ring on Blue Nile we have morphed into a supremely wired universe with no end in sight. 

And this focus on the digital world is not just inherent in the adult (and young adult) population.  What is now happening from even the biggest and baddest of the social media juggernauts, the all mighty Facebook, is the starting up of discussions regarding giving social media access to those in the tweener segment (9-12 year olds).  I’m sure some if not many adults (including myself) are probably screaming “Hell NO” to this possibility, especially given the rash of predators being identified across the web sphere (does the name Representative Anthony Weiner come to mind, or maybe “To Catch a Predator” on CNBC a few years back).  Why in the world would internet companies even fathom the idea of giving our youth below the age of thirteen any type of availability to the breeding grounds of such a perverse part of our sometimes sick society?  It really seems like a ludicrous idea given how we try our hardest to protect our youngsters from the evils that lurk in front of us on the computer screens.

However, it begs the question: “If we don’t teach our kids how to survive in the digital landscape, then how will they be able to learn the necessary relationship building skills that they will need in the future?”  And kids are feeding on this need by taking action themselves to gain this education.  The numbers really don’t lie, as Consumer Reports states: over 7.5 million Facebook users are under the age of 13, with 5 million of those being 10 years old or younger (Time magazine).  And because of this new consumer group popping up recently, companies are creating focused strategies to profit from this growing segment of the internet realm.  REALLY?!!  Yes, and to name a few that I’ve never heard of before but will probably be well known soon are:  Togetherville, imbee, Everloop and WhatsWhat.me in addition to the more mainstream Twitter and Facebook. 

These companies claim that there are serious safeguards against and background checks on those signing up for their websites, including ways to prevent the predators from gaining access to their young customer population.  However, as an example of where Facebook lacks in this security, their 13-year old minimum requirement for gaining access can be bypassed by simply putting in a fake age on their application screen.  What kind of security is that?!  Nevertheless, everyone in our country is out there to make a grand buck for themselves so for the time being there really is no way to stop these entrepreneurial outfits to come out of the woodworks and lend our children another form of expression with others, but having exposure to a whole world of predatorial maniacs in the process.  As this happens, it is up to us to guide our kids in how to navigate this place of social communication and how to spot the masked evildoers who are only there because of dangerously misplaced motivations.

When will this technology revolution ever stop?!  I really do miss face to face conversations which seem very archaic these days.  So High School!!   



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Top 10 Most Influential High School Movies (1960-2010)

Although anyone can think of tons of movies about high school or teens, there are a few from each decade that become historical classics for their ground breaking or influential impact on culture and society. Here’s my list of the top ten most influential movies from the last five decades:

1960's

Splendor in the Grass (1961). Starring: Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty. Director: Elia Kazan. A love story involving conflict between moralistic standards and following the heart, this unrequited romance drives the girl insane and the boy almost to ruin. This movie was ground breaking for portraying the first French kiss in Hollywood.



To Sir With Love (1967). Starring: Sidney Poitier. Director: James Clavell. One of the first films of the now-familiar genre featuring a misplaced but inspired teacher faced with a class of cynical teens. This excellent movie portrays the sexual infatuation of student towards teacher, before it was always the teacher’s fault.

1970's

American Graffiti (1973). Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, and others. Director: George Lucas. The story of two high school buddies, on their last night before leaving for college, cruising the strip and having all sorts of adventurous experiences, in an oh-so-accurate portrayal of teenage pop culture. Lots of off-camera drama with actors’ drunken antics, like when Harrison Ford got arrested in a bar fight and was kicked out of his hotel room.


Grease (1978). Starring: John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Director: Randal Kleiser. This classic musical love story between good girl and bad boy is still popular with viewers of all ages. Marie Osmond turned down the lead female role because she didn’t like having to turn bad to get the boy. Sooo goody-goody!

1980's


Breakfast Club (1985). Starring: Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy. Director: John Hughes. Story of five high school students from different cliques who end up together at an all-day Saturday detention and find out that they are really deeper than the stereotypes they live. Judd Nelson, who stayed in character off-camera, was almost fired for bullying Molly Ringwald even when the camera wasn’t rolling. Sooo high school!

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). Starring: Matthew Broderick. Director: John Hughes. This hilarious coming-of-age comedy about a street-wise teen who decides to take a day off school and drag his friends with him for a day of mishaps and adventures in Chicago will probably always be a classic. The hot red Ferrari used for most of the scenes was a remade fake, though.

  

1990's 

Clueless (1995). Starring: Alicia Silverstone. Director: Amy Heckerling. Based loosely on Jane Austen’s 1815 novel, Emma, Clueless is a fresh and funny comedic portrayal of an ultra-rich and pampered high school student wading her way through her teenage angst as a chic diva. One of those movies you can watch over and over again, and giggle every time.



10 Things I Hate About You (1999). Starring: Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles. Director: Gil Junger. A modern version of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew”, this teenage love comedy about bittersweet romances sparked the TV series by the same name and holds the interest of viewers of all ages, partly due to the intelligent script and double entendres with, of course, a lot of sexual innuendoes.

2000's



Napoleon Dynamite (2004). Starring: Jon Heder. Director: Jared Hess. A cult classic, this wildly funny portrayal of high school life is so accurate that every character reminds you of someone you knew in high school. Being weird is the norm here, or in Napoleon Dynamite’s own words, “You guys are retarded.”

High School Musical (2006). Starring: Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgins. Director: Kenny Ortega. This world-famous Disney musical is the classic story of two high school students from rival cliques who fall in love. What makes this movie so spectacular – besides Ortega’s great chorographical directing – is that it makes it okay for teens to be themselves.

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Top 4 Things That Could Be Leading us to Another Tech Bubble Bursting

Here we go again.  Don’t we ever learn from our huge mistakes from our past challenges in the technology space and finance industry?   I guess not.  Below are our top 4 reasons why we might be on the brink of another tech bubble, that could drive our fragile economy even further downstream.  Do we really have to be so friggin greedy!

4) Our society of convenience is leading to an imbalanced focused on technology innovation, good or bad.  As I’ve said in past articles, in our ADD culture we need and want things here and now or we move on.  We don’t wait for information anymore, even if in means texting while behind the wheels of our cars, having access to Wi-Fi while sitting on a 2-hour plane ride from city to city, reading the latest book release on our Kindles before the hardcover is on the bookshelves at Barnes and Noble, or watching that night’s Bachelorette on our iPad 2 trying to get home to the suburbs after a 10-hour day at the office (instead of DVR’ing it and watching it at a later time).  This has led to a huge influx of investment targeted to research and development from both companies in the private sector and from the government to help satiate our needs for immediacy in how we live our lives.  This spotlight on technology being the end all be all for our culture to continue to survive has resulted in spotty innovation at times, less focus on education investment (which has caused and is causing a frightening drought of talented scientists and engineers) and an overall feeling that if we don’t somehow get in on the tech craze then we’ll never have any real success.

3) The number of technology IPO's in 2010 made up a significantly larger percentage of the total amount than it did in the last tech boom.  Not only do we have a lover affair with technology, but again we are so tech dependent in all aspects of our lives these days that we really can’t escape the phenomenon.  Going hand in hand with this relationship is the fact that those small start-up entrepreneurial companies that are so passionately focused on making the ultimate BIG score in business, have found that if they have a strong technology bent to their offerings then news travels quickly across the Wall Street wires and give them a significant leg up against their competitors in other non-tech industries.  This has recently resulted in both investor interest and confidence some of which we haven’t really seen since the blow up we experienced before 9/11 hit.  Why we haven’t learned from the past is really beyond my comprehension, but like Gordon Gekko said in the movie Wall Street “Greed is Good”.

2) Foreign company investments are also a lot higher than they were in the last tech bubble.  Not only are we interested in investing in technology companies based here in the United States, but since we continually salivate for all things tech we are now open to opportunities for company investments that have their headquarters located in countries outside of our country.  Case in point: Yandex.  You probably have never even heard of this company.  But the Russian search engine recently raised eyebrows by scooping up $1.3 BILLION in funding from its NASDAQ public offering.  This staggering amount for a very little known company outside of the U.S. should cause us to pause for a moment and think about what represents.  It is a microcosm of what we are all guilty of:  speculation in an industry that we really don’t understand but are so amorous of due to the windfall of stash that could result. 

1) Overvaluing everything and anything that feeds our need for community.  Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the prime examples of this.  Social media is now all encompassing, and every major business on the planet is putting together teams (including hiring a Social Media Manager formerly called Community Manager) and strategies to fill this void in their overall marketing/promotions, public relations and sales efforts.  And because of this hurried focused on this area and seemingly over importance on it, valuations put on the companies that are leading the way are skyrocketing and resulting in multi-billions of dollars in net worth (on paper at least) for some of the CEO’s of these trailblazing technology pioneers.  I believe at last count Facebook has been valued at over $50 Billion and possibly as high as $75 Billion with its wunderkind 26-year old co-founder Mark Zuckerberg having a net worth today of $13.5 Billion.  And Facebook is just one of the many tech companies out there with inflated valuations that could be leading us down a very dangerous and all too familiar path.  Skype’s acquisition at the hands of Microsoft is a strong example of a high growth emerging company that wet the appetites of one of the tech majors who most experts say paid more than twice than it should have paid ($8.5 Billion at the end of the day).  It sounds a lot like 1999 all over again doesn’t it?!! 

Again, we should have learned our lesson after we busted a nut back in the 90’s when Ebay, Amazon, Yahoo, Google, eToys (oh yeah they never made it) and a host of other companies were going to make us fabulously wealth.  At least back then our economy was thriving and our unemployment rate was at a respectable level.  With our extremely challenged marketplace today and unemployment north of 9% STILL, who knows how we’d be able to handle a tech crash with the recession still lingering in our minds.  It’s time to focus on other things more important than just the hottest new technology gadget and falling in love with the company that creates it.  We have a lot more important things to invest our hard earned tax dollars in.  True and lasting innovation may actually be a result.

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Top 5 Reasons Why Retail Magnates Love the Chinese

There are people in Europe who are getting ridiculously wealthy by selling goods and services to the Far East. And of course, those in China are loving the fact that they can afford very expensive retail items that feed their desire to be like the West and show off their wares and new money. Below are our top 5 reasons why retail magnates love the Chinese.

5) Brand name whores live around the world and for the past 3-4 years specifically in the Far East.  The one billion plus population of this proud and ever emerging country has naturally given rise to a subculture that has taken the economic advantages bestowed on to them from it’s economic surplus and rising housing market by purchasing a vast amount of brand name products and services that were once out of reach to the average Chinese citizen.  And this includes brand names that extend well beyond the price range that seemed so far off the radar screen just a few years ago.  Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Zara and Rolex are just a few of the brands that are now within the strike zone for so many of the retail buyers who would normally never even think enter these stores before.  I suppose Wal-mart and Target brands are not welcome anymore?!!     

Hong Kong Model Dada Chan


4) Like a Rolex for men, a purse is a reflection of a woman’s badge of honor for the ultimate style points and symbol of status.  Yes, to men it seems like it makes no sense at all to be carrying something around that you couldn’t strap to your back, and eventually would just make your arm really sore.  However, for women it carries such a different value proposition especially when observed by other women.  For some odd reason, if you’re in possession of a very expensive handbag or purse and walking down the street, you are associated by other women as a person with style, money, sophistication and an awareness that you know what really counts when going out in public.  Very strange, and you can add expensive shoes into this equation as well, since this is a strong indicator for some people of class for both women and men! 



3) Even in the midst of a worldwide financial meltdown and economic recession, we are a global culture of hubris and need validation.  In addition to style points, for those with new money and needing a sense of increased self worth and/or just to feed their ego even more, some people just aren’t willing to hold back and keep things in more perspective with what is going on in the world around us.  It is so surprising how a nation could be on such as big spending spree as China, even though economies in other countries are falling apart as fast as you can blink an eye (think Greece, Portugal, Belgium and Ireland).  It’s great that they are the darling of so many experts out there, and that most likely they will surpass the U.S. in the next few years as the most robust economy in the world, but really now can you put the brakes on for a few minutes and put your wallet back in your pants?

2) As seen by the Olympic Games in 2008, China always does things in a VERY BIG way.  Okay yes, they want to impress the rest of the world with their show of great power and how much progress they’ve made in a relatively short period of time.  They really look like what Japan was trying to be in the 80’s (but fell flat on their faces for awhile there after their bubble really burst).  They’ve got a huge army, have their very cheap products engrained in the cultures of many different countries (especially here in the U.S.) and are a point of discussion for every major multi-national corporation throughout the global as to how their 1 billion base of consumers can be tapped into.  Brazil alone has become a major Western hemisphere superpower because of their relationship with China, and its reliance on steel made in the Portuguese speaking nation that is the foundation of their housing construction boom.  For the Chinese, size matters and it’s no wonder that their retail buying appetites are following suit. 



1) The #1, #2 and #4 wealthiest billionaires in Europe (per Forbes Magazine) have three of the fastest growing empires in the world, mainly due to retail sales in Shanghai and Hong Kong.  Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH, was the main benefactor of this surge in retail sales as his net worth jumped nearly $25 BILLION (including $13.5 billion just in the last 12 months alone) in the past two years to $41 billion overall.  I guess it really pays off to sell $1,500 Louis Vuitton bags and roller suitcases to the Chinese!  Amancio Ortega of Zara ($31 Billion) and Stefan Persson of H&M ($24.5 Billion) also saw their immense fortunes rise with the economic windfall that has made China the place to be for new wealth and spending habits that are extremely well aligned with their uptick in paychecks and overshooting of profit goals.  These three mega billionaires are hoping to god that the housing market in this leading Asian economic juggernaut doesn’t burst anytime soon.  Only time will tell, but for now they seriously riding the wave.

For those looking to get into the high end retail industry and having a true business relationship with a contact in Hong Kong or Shanghai, maybe it’s time to dust off those handbag creating skills and get to work.  You really never know, you just may be the next in line in creating your own Top 5 reasons why retail magnates love the Chinese.

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The WORST Consequence of Being a Reality TV Star

Yesterday, I was standing in a checkout line when I saw a magazine – which one doesn’t really matter – and the headline showed one of the women from Real Housewives of someplace or Desperately Real Housewives of somewhere with the headline, “Fame Destroyed My Family.”

I almost forgot to actually purchase my green tea because I was so distracted.  It’s not often that I’ve actually been struck dumbfound, but that’s about as close as I come.  All I could think was, “Fame didn’t destroy your family, stupidity did.”

Stupidity in the form of greed.  Stupidity in the form of vanity.  Reality television is nothing if not an excuse to encourage stupid behavior for the sake of entertainment.  The easiest way to create a reality program is to just pick one of the Seven Deadly Sins and come up with a framework to entice participants into reveling in the vice.

Anyone that agrees to be a part of a reality show knows what the deal is.  Perhaps in the very earliest days of the modern reality shows, people might have gotten away with saying that they didn’t realize what would happen.  However, that went out the window many years ago, possibly as early as following MTV’s first season of “The Real World.” That was 1992.

Even by the time of the first “Survivor” in 2000 with attention whore Richard Hatch at the center, it was hard to believe that participants weren’t aware of what kind of attention might come their way.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

If you’re going into a reality show at this point – after gems like “The Anna Nicole Show” and “Growing Up Gotti” – and you want anyone to believe that you’re doing it for altruistic reasons…well, good luck with that.  To want to expose yourself to the level required for producers to be able to put together a viable entertainment product requires a healthy dose of ego, which invariably leads down the path of stupidity.

So, there are no victims allowed any more in reality television.  There are no secrets.  Even wacked out quasi-celebrities like Gary Busey and Jeff Conway know exactly what they’re signing on for.  Conway’s recent death, after his downward spiral was so lovingly documented on “Celebrity Rehab,” was a sad reminder of the scuzzy underbelly of the genre.

There’s nothing wrong necessarily with seeking fame and fortune.  Mankind has been doing it for millennia.  Just don’t try to pretend that anyone doesn’t know the risks that are entailed therein.  Explorers and prospectors back in their generations knew what they were getting themselves into, and today’s reality show stars, professional athletes and pop singer wannabes are just as aware.  If you chase the limelight, you run the risk of catching it.  There is to be no bitching once it happens.

There is one way to keep stupidity from ruining a person’s life.  That would be to actually not act in a stupid way.  Of course, that wouldn’t make for good television.  The Seven Deadly have nothing on the sin of not being entertaining in the modern world.  It’s the worst – and deadliest – sin of all.

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Why are Developers in the Mobile Application World Making Millions?

According to the media hype, the new phone app market is like a modern gold rush days.

Titles such as 'Blade Infinity makes $1.6 million in five days', 'Make $100,000 a year selling Android applications' and 'Angry Birds makes $2 million per month' are enough to make a lot of hobbyist programmers sit and listen.

The developers of all walks of life are rushing into uncharted territory and staking their claim in the hope of finding their fortune in them there hills.  So we should all be involved?  Who is really making money here? App markets are really a level playing field?

Make no mistake, the mobile applications are a big business.  The potential profits are now big enough for people to dedicate themselves to building-app as a career choice.

Apple App Store has only had 10 million applications downloaded since its creation.  Add to that the millions more from Google, Android Market, Nokia Store, App World Research in Motion, Microsoft and Samsung Marketplace Apps, and you can see why this growing market is encouraging a hive of activity in the creation app.

The creation of the app phone is a revolution - is a whole new way to sell the software to advertise, to provide possible solutions to social networks and to inspire brand loyalty.  Best of all, the app users to bring their phones with them 24 hours a day.  No wonder so many brands now have their applications, and more professional clothes that are in competition with developers for an amateur site on mobile customers.

At present, however, is still a wide open market where anyone can become rich.  All you need is a laptop and the desire to have a go at some programming.  And people.  Individuals, groups of small and large companies are all united in the rush to exploit this rapidly growing market, and has led to some unexpected and impressive success stories.

As Donald Mustard, the man behind the game app Infinity Blade, told us: "It 's really like the Wild West."

Bubbles vs. Birds

One of the most famous examples of the unpredictable nature of success in the app is the battle between the birds and Angry Bubble Ball in the standings to download the game.  Angry Bird is the world's most popular game app: it has been downloaded more than 50 million times since its debut in 2009, it took eight months to make and cost a reported $100,000.

In December 2010 it was thrown from his first place in the App Store by Bubble Ball - a game of simple physics with very simple graphics, invented by a 14-year-old Robert Nay America with the help of his mother and some books from the library.

With four million downloads in a month, Robert is the latest success story App Store.  Do not be fooled, though, there's a big difference here - paid-up capital for the birds are doing Angry Rovio million per month, the company that created it, free download Bubble Ball made his creative nothing.  Well, nothing except a reputation around the world and the probability of its choice of programming jobs, she leaves the school, of course.

Competitive market:  Cut the rope was very successful, but was overshadowed by Infinity Blade

And here's the crucial point - half of the applications that make the news to reach one million downloads in a few days are free.  Yes, these people are 'millionaires app', but you will not see a penny from the sales.

Free ads

This is not a problem with vision.  Rovio released a free version of angry birds for the market of Android, with a bar of advertising on it, and ads are now making the company more per month compared to paid version - millions of dollars.
This is not an option for every application, though.  The revenue system is based on the amount of time people spend playing Angry Birds - and play a lot.

How Rovio spokesman Ville Heijari told us: "What was most impressive to us is about 200 million minutes in which our members spend on average each day with the game."  And the equivalent of the viewing figures for a small TV channel.

This has not happened by chance - a great deal of research has gone to create Angry Bird.  How Heijari said, "Rovio mobile games had produced 52 first bird Angry since 2003, so that the core team [already] had pretty solid experience in developing games."

Rovio specifically focused on conservation of users - people do not want to create an application is downloaded once and then forget.  To contribute to this, every month, the Rovio team releases an update for the application (and 80 percent of people with the game to accept the fact that the update).

Strangely, this free update also lead to an increase in new downloads of the app, probably because, as updates to encourage people to play again so new people (friends of the people, for example) are exposed to it.

With all this experience and the development cycle of eight months, made the Rovio to expect success?  "When we released the game," said Heijari, "we had a strong gut feeling that we had a very successful game in our hands, with a potential of at least 200,000 downloads. So we can honestly say that we did exceed our expectations."

Rovio cannot have expected the response it got, but soon turned to his advantage.  Angry Bird is now a brand, and a wealth of Rovio is examining all possible for-profit spin-off - keep an eye out for the TV series Angry Birds, board games, soft toys and games for PC is your way to more soon.

Profits on a Small Scale

Do not be discouraged by the numbers of Angry Birds, though - there are developers out there making a handsome profit from advertising on free applications that are nowhere near that scale.  One of them is Neil Inglis, the creator of beds at Christmas, who took time out of his busy schedule to talk to us. We asked him how he got in developing applications:

"I was a software engineer for six years, but always on a large system that took months to develop and even longer to deploy!"  He said:  "The idea of ​​being able to produce a small standalone app that meets the needs of a user and allows you to see the results immediately, I really liked it."

Inglis has developed some applications, but what was his best creation so far?  "Number of Christmas has been my most successful.  It's a small, fun application that really caters to children and families. I've had more than 1.5 million downloads and [the application has] spent some time as the Application number one top free in the UK.  The application is ad-supported revenue and leads to tens of thousands of pounds a year."

So, is the development of applications now its only source of income?  "I'm at the point where I would have supported purely on development applications," he says, "but I'm a bit 'nervous about the stability of income, so I will not give up my day job yet -."

What kind does Inglis think works best - selling applications for free with advertising, publishing or simply pay for apps?

"It depends on the type of application," he said.  "For applications in trade to the 'mass market', the advertising works really well, but you need to ship in large volumes.  For specialized applications, you'll never make enough off of advertising, no matter how targeted, so pay is the way to go.  There are still problems to convince users that it is worth paying the price of a cup of coffee for an app, but I hope that this changes in the future."

From Software News

 

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Why it Won't Suck if Sarah Palin Runs for President in 2012

Okay, you may be saying to yourself “Doc Vogel you must be out of your f**king mind…what the heck are you thinking?!”  And you probably share that view with millions of other Americans and probably with some people outside of our country as well.  With what Sarah Palin has done over the past 3-4 years and what she represents to a fairly niche but passionate group of citizens in the U.S., then it is very understandable how a number of you have this viewpoint.  However, there is some interest out there, and given the current field of Republican candidates, maybe she could be a shot in the arm for the whole party.  So below, here’s what I think why it won’t suck if Sarah Palin runs for president in 2012:

4) America loves a competitive election and Sarah Palin may be the best person to go toe-to-toe with President Obama.  This time four years ago, the field was getting extremely packed with a field of very reputable candidates to vie for the 2008 Democratic nomination, including Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, John Edwards and host of other senators and governors around the country who were extremely motivated to replace the eight-year contentious tenure of George W. Bush.  Not only did they start campaigning as early as January of 2007, but some were having exploratory teams looking into the possibility of a presidential run even as far back as the beginning months of 2006.  Fast forward to the present day, and the current crop of Republican presidential candidates is a thin field at best.  The field actually seems to get thinner every other week (e.g., Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump to name a few recently who’ve said they would not join the pack).  Barring the Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, who would also add some oomph to the field, Palin could be the only one with enough moxie to stick it to Obama during the debates.  Hopefully, this time around she knows the names of a few magazines that are sitting on the coffee table in her living room (think Katie Couric questions in the last election).

3) Sarah Palin’s star power could make for a very interesting next 17 months on the campaign trail.  With the publicity she garnered this weekend on her bus tour of America, there’s no question that whatever step she takes the former Alaska governor creates grand headlines.  Again, there is fairly large part of the country that thinks that the world would go to sh*t if Palin was elected, and Obama would win in a landslide victory anyway.  But for some reason, whatever she does she attracts some serious attention. From her family reality television show, to guest appearances on Fox News or Saturday Day Night Live, to seeing her watch daughter Bristol on Dancing with the Stars, she seems to always be the center of attention.  Yes, she’s a pretty lady, but there are a lot of good looking females out there.  I guess since she’s a former governor and has good looks and is a woman, she gives us something different to consider outside of Hilary Clinton.  Whatever the case, this lady has given political star power a whole new definition.



2) The Tea Party fanatics have a poster child other than Michelle Bachmann.  Sarah Palin gives the ultra conservative family values focused faction of the Republican party someone to call their own.  If she were to run, she definitely has more name recognition and the above described star power that Congresswoman and former Minnesota State Senator Bachmann currently doesn’t have (yet, although her star is also on the rise in the party).  Palin would just neutralize any effect that Bachmann would have in a presidential campaign, and they actually might cancel each other out in the eyes of the voters (resulting in a split Tea Party vote).  With this faction being such a strong force right now in the party, and giving full backing to a Palin presidential bid, then their voice can be heard around the country for months and could possibly help lead the former Governor to a strong showing come November 2012.  And hasn’t she been categorized by some as the female Ronald Reagan, who as former Secretary of State James Baker has said would be leading the Tea Party if he were alive today?

1) In Sarah Palin, we would have the first female presidential candidate in the history of our country.  Yes, she has many faults, clearly doesn’t have the book smarts that someone like Obama has, and seems to cherish the spotlight just as much as she wants to do some good for the country.  Also, there has been a strong negative reaction over the past few months around the U.S. to anything associated with the words Sarah Palin (if you don’t believe me, then just check out Bill Mahrer’s weekly TV show on HBO and you’ll get the point).  But what she does bring to the table is a sense of grass roots conservatism and anti-elitist sentiment that goes exactly counter to what the Democratic party stands for, and if packaged right could be a huge motivator to the Republicans boosted by the Tea Party express.  Remember, our country seems to still be divided due to the unemployment rate in America continuing to be very high (including 17% in the African American and 12% in the Hispanic communities respectively), our national debt/deficit being way out of control but the government still spending like it’s black Friday every day, our educational system being vastly surpassed by seven of the developed countries around the world in math, science and reading, and now the U.S. taking a military backseat during recent international operations (e.g., Libya).  At the very least, it will be a history making campaign, with I’m sure many twists and turns along the way.

So if her presidential aspirations do come to fruition, then pull up a chair and get ready for some fireworks folks, because this one is going to be a heck of a wild ride.  And if she falls on her pretty little face then so be it, but to me it really won’t suck if Sarah Palin runs for president in 2012!            



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