High Def Has Arrived To My Low Def World

Television is now TV

Last November I ranted about High Definition Television and proudly proclaimed that I did not own one and would not own one until my old tube television broke.  I am here to boldly tell you that I WAS WRONG!  As I write this, I am having a High Def TV (yes TV not television) delivered to my house.  My tube TV works fine with picture quality as good as the day it came out of the box near the turn of the century!  However; I did not lie to you in my blog last year when I said I would not buy one until my old one broke.  Apparently there are invisible forces in play that I was unaware of at the time – my wife and her remodeling plans.  So, today about 11 months after I drew the line in the sand, I am entering the high def world, low def eyes be damned.

As I queried salesmen and researched online I learned a lot of how much I was “missing”.  Our new TV is a 47 inch LED, 1080p, 120 Hz, Wi-Fi enabled, 3D picture wonder of modern technology.  We sampled the 3D picture effects at the store with the stylish 3D glasses (that come free with the TV) for a minute or two and I promptly got eye strain and a headache.  I won’t be using that feature for sure as I can get a headache by eating ice cream real fast and that is a much better experience before the onset of the pain.  (Incidentally, I am on a Coffee Ice Cream kick right now.)  Now I can post videos to Facebook with my TV!  Too bad I somehow missed the Facebook craze and never got an account. 

As I enter this brave new world of high def, I will periodically keep you posted on my experiences.  I am sure you are wondering if I have a blue ray DVD player so that I can get the maximum out of my new TV.  Not surprisingly, the answer to that is no.  My DVD player is not blue and I call it Drew V. Donaldson when I am engaging it in a formal conversation and simply DVD when we are shooting the breeze over a refreshing beverage.  Do I plan to stream content using Netflix, Hulu or Hulu+ for only a few dollars a month?  What do you think? When I hear the words stream content, I think of fish, water and other stuff that floats in a babbling brook.

Before I continue babbling, let me end and wish you a good week full of high-definition images for your low def eyes.

Facebook Fizzles

What were they thinking?

A few weeks ago the much anticipated Facebook IPO (Ticker symbol FB) hit the market and the stock has disappointed so far in trading action.  As I write this, it is down about 25% from its first day closing price.  The stock performance is really not what I wanted to talk about today.  I want to talk about what was going on inside of the heads of those at the company and the underwriters who rolled this out. 

How can so much anticipation and excitement before the IPO turn into such a flop once going public?  First of all I want to acknowledge that it has been less than a month since the IPO and no one can say what the long term performance of the company or the stock will be.  That being said, how is it that after the stock was issued all sorts of problems with the company were identified?  A few big contributors of the stock price falling are the ineffectiveness of its advertising and the difficulty to take advantage of the mobile internet space.  Weren’t these issues present before the IPO?  I believe so.  What were they thinking?

Right before the IPO, General Motors announced it was going to stop advertising on Facebook because they said it proved to be ineffective.  The growth of the internet is largely coming from the use of smart phones and tablets.  This fact has been known for some time. In fact, many computer companies and chip makers have been under pressure to justify their stock prices since it is anticipated that they will lose market share to companies that make these new devices that are being used more and more for internet browsing.

I am not a user of Facebook and have always had a hard time to see the value of the company – 900 million users or not.  Yes, they do have billions of revenue from advertising but this is coming from a medium – traditional computer internet usage that appears to be losing share for an up and comer – mobile browsing.  If Facebook can’t figure out how to take advantage of this newer technology their chances of success will diminish.  See newspapers and other print advertising media for an example.

Before we write off Facebook we also need to understand there is value with all those users and all that information that they share such as demographics and their “likes”.  Maybe they can figure out a way to use that data from those 900 million users to become the next new search engine and knock Google off their throne.  For stockholders of Facebook I hope they can turn the fad of the last decade into a viable business for the future. 

Have a good week.  I know I will by actually talking face to face with my friends.

Costs… And Benefits Of New Technology

Hi, I'm a QR code

Technology has created additional needs for businesses and many people, including myself, focus on areas of these new costs that did not exist in the mainstream that long ago.  A few items that come to mind are:

• High speed internet for website, email, Facebook page, remote connectivity to the company network and E-Commerce
• Social media ad campaigns using QR Codes in mobile text messaging, Facebook and Twitter to name a few
• Data plans for smart phones
• Smart phones
• Point of sale technology – “Pay at the pump” etc

The cost of the items listed above are substantial but to be fair let’s look at things that have been reduced or eliminated as a result of the technology.  Employee productivity has gone up simply due to the ability to work when out of the office using remote connectivity to the company network and smart phones for email on the go.  Many forward-looking companies have reduced office space needed by implementing a telecommuting policy.  By doing so, other overhead costs are reduced such as electricity and office supplies since more work is being done at the employee’s home.  The employee on the other hand does not mind because they win by working from home and many times work more just because they can and bottlenecks caused from being out of the office are reduced. See the blog I wrote about telecommuting by clicking here.

The cost of point of sale equipment can be significant but also can reduce the need for labor in the form of cashiers handling customers.  It also increases the speed of the transaction so that more transactions can occur in the same amount of time. Doing more with less without sacrificing service is always a plus.  Think about the swiftness of transaction via debit and credit card versus handling cash and counting out change.  Another benefit is reduced cash drawer shortages since the amount of cash handled has been greatly reduced.  The cost of debit and credit card transactions are not inexpensive, but you must take into the account the positives when counting the cost of the transactions fees that the card companies charge   See my recent blog about credit card company fees by clicking here.

Social media ad campaigns have reduced the need for traditional advertising and marketing media such as the yellow pages and direct mail.  Many studies have also suggested that these new forms of advertising are many times more successful compared to the traditional forms.  Companies with large advertising budgets need to consider reducing their spending in traditional area and taking the savings and devote it to the new social media of Twitter, text/mobile for discounts and coupons using QR codes and Facebook to engage with their customers.

The message we need to understand is that we should be objective and look at the additional costs AND cost savings in the new age of business before making final decisions. I encourage everyone to embrace the technology available today.  If you don’t you may be left behind by your competition and may lose customers who are no longer being reached in traditional ways.

To be fair and balanced, next week I will poke fun at technology.  Have a great week.