HighEndBuzz

More TomTom news for the Holidays

You know we're a bit nutty about TomTom.  Here's the latest.

Read the latest news on the TomTom revolution.

Positioning and Counter-positioning

You'd never think the mobile GPS market would heat up.  However, the folks at Garmin are under the Soccer-mom assault from TomTom as I recently posted.  Have you seen the dummied down commercials for the Garmin StreetPilot?  Garmin is now taking an active role in attempting to attract that "gps for idiots" market.  Garmin is not just for bass fishermen anymore.  This should be interesting.

Cingular or AT&T

There's an ongoing debate that will surely work itself out in the near future.  I'm in the business of helping companies understand the value of their brand, message and product offering so I'll chime in. 

Cingular has a strong brand in respect to the new economy.  AT&T's brand is somewhat damaged.  It's seen as an old telco player, your grandmothers phone company.  Keep the Cingular name, bury the AT&T brand unless you're going after the boomer market....  FYI, kids spend more on ring-tones, talking and accessing the new media than the boomers.  Go with the Cingular brand!

Las Vegas

I just got back from the IP4IT convention in Las Vegas where I spoke on collaborative technologies, specifically Wiki's.  It was a pretty good show and the first of it's kind put on by Pulver Media.  The exhibition hall was a bit slow, but over the next few years I see them fixing that issue.  The only complaint some of the attendees had was lack of understanding the central theme of the show.  I couldn't put my finger on it either, but I'm not the typical audience.  They did a great job for the first time out.  Hopefully I'll get another invite next year.

My session was on the last day of the event...at 2:00pm.  In Vegas, this is a huge risk.  Fortunately I had a decent, not great, turnout and nobody was cock-tailing nor were there any hookers in the audience.  There were a few questions and I collected some cards.  Overall a good time.

The event was held at the Rio.  I'm still unsure about that experience.  I've stayed at the Paris Hotel and the Bellagio. The Rio is about 2 blocks off the strip and didn't have the typical casino design.  The Voodoo Lounge was very cool, although I can do without my bartender flipping bottles...pour the drink already!  The view of the entire strip from the top of the Rio (outdoors) was great and the gambling was awesome.  I only say that because I actually won quite a bit this time.  The suites at the Rio were pretty nice as well, but didn't have that Vegas flair.  On the ride over the driver told me not to expect anyone to kiss my ass at the Rio, "it's not that kind of casino"....he was right, they run it by the numbers...I can actually appreciate that.

TomTom and the Soccer Moms

We've all seen the commercials...are we there yet DougDoug?  No, the product is TomTom and the marketing is genius.  The Dutch company has demystified the crowded GPS market by simplifying it.  Soccer moms are out in droves buying this product.  Who cares about the technical aspects of a GPS, market simplicity and you'll sell a lot.

I should say you'll sell a butt-load!  Q3 results are in and compared with Q3 04' revenue is up 374%, 319% increase YTD.  They've shipped 1,292,342 units so far this year.  They did just over 444,000 all of last year.  I recently went to 2 Best Buy stores only to find they're sold out.  More advanced units are due out soon in the US (pictured), this could be the hottest product for the soccer mom market this holiday season.

BlackBerry 8700c

RIM has just...yawn, launched the new 8700c with Intel inside.  I'm not going to comment...yawn.  For anyone that has ever used a RIM device as a phone you know how painful it really is.  Here are a couple of rules to follow before you go out and purchase the device. 

Rule 1:  Buy a phone from a phone manufacturer if you want quality reception and a quality device to TALK and LISTEN with.  If hearing the other party and having the other party hear and understand you isn't important, then ignore Rule 1.

Rule 2:  RIM doesn't have such a device.  The BlackBerry is a very cool email communication tool, but their phones SUCK because of ....Rule 1.

Optional...attempt at an analogy...Rule 3:  The PC screen is a good platform to watch TV or a DVD, specifically when it comes to down-loadable video content.  The iPod is a good device to listen to music, audio books, etc.  iPods are not good devices to watch video AT ALL!

Anyone getting this?