This is just a hunch but the must-have gift this holiday season maybe the Nabaztag. What's a Nabaztag? It's a “smart” rabbit featuring moving ears and lights that uses wi-fi to connect to the Internet. This lets it do everything from reading the news and Web sites to providing weather reports and the time. It can let you know when you have new e-mail and even even tell your children to go to bed. Invented by two Frenchmen, the Nabaztag has been a hit in Europe. The company has started to make a major marketing and sales push in North America where the Nabaztag will sell for about $150. Nabaztag made a big splash this week at Demo where it thrilled seasoned tech watchers such as CNet's Rafe Needleman and GearLog. Would I want a Nabaztag? Well, if it helps put my kids earlier, it would be worth the money.
Zip.ca Going Big
In Canada, entrepreneurs never seem to dream big enough. They want to be successful but few of them talk about conquering their markets. Zip.ca, which aspires to be Canada's NetFlix, appears to be an exception to the rule. The Ottawa-based company wants to raise $25-million to enhance its marketing and advertising programs, as well as expand its 52,000-title DVD library. In Canada, $25-million is a big chunk of change but Zip CEO Rick Anderson sees no reason why the privately-owned company can't have revenue of $100-million (about 10X current sales) and a 300,000 DVD library in a few years. With video downloads becoming all the rage, Zip has already positioned itself with technology to deliver downloads and streaming video, although Anderson believes the download market is moving forward slowly.
Update: A story on Zip's plans in the National Post can be found here.
Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Tom Keating has a post recounting his efforts to cancel his Vonage service. It's pretty funny but insightful into Vonage's customer service and competitive challenges.
Pearl Now or Pearl Later?
The BlackBerry Pearl is getting rave reviews (Walter Mossberg, the NYT's David Pogue, Mark Evans 
, etc.) and sales have been extremely brisk (some stores apparently sold out in the first week). That said, I'm wondering if news about a Pearl-like BlackBerry with a QWERTY keyboard (called the Blackberry 8800) will take some momentum out of the Pearl's sales. To be clear, there are a lot of people excited about the Pearl's cool look and feel and the fact it comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera as well as a video and music player. There are, however, some people less than enthused about the SureType keypad, even though it seems as easy to use as a QWERTY keypad. As information about the BlackBerry 8800 starts to escape from the geekdom (a.k.a. Engadget, BBHub, etc.) to the mainstream press will consumers decide to hold off on buying a Pearl until the 8800 is launched? As much as the Pearl is compelling, RIM may need to ramp up its marketing to show people how easy it is to use the SureType keypad.
Update: According to Think Secret, Apple plans to launch its iPhone exclusively with Cingular early next year. The iPhone will feature a 3-megapixel camera, iTunes and iSync.Apple apparently believe iPhone shipments will be 25 million in 2007. Engadget also has a post.
Rural Broadband? Yes. But How?
If you've got a PhD in mathematics, you may be able to figure out how Canada's telecom regulator, the CRTC, created its formula to collect money from the carriers for the deferral account. (It has something to do with consumers being over-charged for local telephone service in urban centres.) The bottom line is the account contains a whopping $652-million, most of which is supposed to be spent on expanding rural broadband. While everyone agrees it makes sense to bring broadband to rural communities, the $652-million question is how to do it. In February, the CRTC decided most of the money should be given to Bell Canada and Telus, who would, in turn, invest it in rural broadband networks. Others think the money should be given back to consumers. To be honest, rural broadband has never been a cut-and-dry issue in Canada. The idea is universally endorsed as good social and economic policy even though it can be a difficult ROI argument to make sometimes when you're talking about serving very small communities. At one point, Liberal MP Brian Tobin talked about spending $4-billion to roll out broadband to rural Canada but that was more politics than reality. Perhaps the most sensible route are the private-public partnership in Alberta (SuperNet) and B.C. (Network BC) where broadband networks being extended to hundreds of rural communities. A key part of SuperNet is its provides wholesale access to ISPs so competition is allowed to emerge to give consumers the luxury of choice. Perhaps it's time for rural communities in Ontario and Quebec to start demanding a SuperNet of their own.
Update: This post is based on the Federal Court of Appeal's decision to give two consumer groups the opportunity to appeal the CRTC's decision. For thoughts on the court ruling, check out Mark Goldberg. The New York Times has put the spotlight on rural broadband in the U.S. with a story in Sept. 28th's newspaper.
TechMeme's Business Model
Clearly, TechMeme has a large audience; now it's rolling out a business model (note to Web 2.0 start-ups, a business model is something that generates revenue to keep the lights on) through sponsorships in which companies can have their blogs prominently featured. So why the sponsorship route over banner ads or Google AdSense? TechMeme's Gabe Rivera explains this “approach over banner advertising are numerous. “Click-throughs” can lead to the visitor browsing, commenting on, and even subscribing to the sponsor's blog. And a sponsor has direct control over what appears on Techmeme simply by posting.” It's an interesting model based on three key issues: it is obviously attractive to companies that have blogs; these companies need to see TechMeme as an attractive place to advertise; and you need a pretty healthy potential advertising base to make it work. For companies with blogs, a TechMeme sponsorship deals suggests your blog better be interesting/compelling/information and regularly updated – otherwise you risk attracting traffic only to disappoint visitors. So how many corporate blogs fall into this category? Does this limit the number of potential TechMeme sponsors? Another issue is how much these sponsorships cost and their ROI. How many technology companies with high-quality blogs are willing to advertise on TechMeme. Will TechMeme appeal to Web 2.0 start-ups used to operating lean and mean? If so, will they spend money on TechMeme sponsorships as opposed to attracting blogger coverage? To his credit, Rivera has rolled out a unique business model that at first blush seems fairly appealing. For companies looking for exposure and prepared for visitors, it's yet another online advertising option. It will be interesting to see which companies embrace the model and how much attention they receive.
Update: Jeff Jarvis provides some insight into the cost of sponsorship and its CPM rate, while Mathew Ingram talks about why he likes the model.
Update II: In the spirit of TechMeme's sponsorship model, TheGoodblogs is offering Web start-ups, which can't afford a $2K or so a month on advertising, the chance to have a free exposure on their cool blog discovery widget.
