2007 April | Mark Evans

Hey, We’re Talking Tech

April 30th, 2007 | No Comments | Posted in Podcasting

On this week’s Talking Tech, Duncan and I (Kevin’s away) take a meandering path through a bunch of different topics - not all of those elegantly linked.

We start by looking at the strong quarterly results from Apple and Microsoft, which reaped the dividends of strong iPod and Vista sales respectively. I ask the naive question about whether the iPod can continue to sustain its amazing growth. Duncan’s responded by comparing Apple to Madonna but wonders if the iPhone bring the whole house of cards down? In terms of the dark stock options cloud hanging over Apple and Steve Jobs, Duncan predicts Apple shares could tumble $30 to $40 if Jobs is forced to step down.

In talking about Microsoft and the Xbox, we spent some time looking at the strategy behind the Nintendo Wii. Instead of competing with high end graphics machines such as the Xbox 360, the company dumbed down its product and went after everyday consumers.

Duncan uses this as a classic case of disruption - coming up with just a good enough product, rather than a pefect product. There’s a good article in the latest issue of Business 2.0 on the Wii.

On the local M&A front, entrepreneur Randy Charles Morrenâ€™s RSS email service, Rmail, gets some love from Mark after selling the company to NBC Universal. By the way, DuncanÂ has a new job as director ofÂ Canadidan research for technology, media, telecommunications and life sceiences with Deloitte.

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Is Someone Ripping Off Huge MacLeod?

April 30th, 2007 | 1 Comment | Posted in Aside

Michael O’Connor Clarke stumbled across a blog called Pickleshane, and noticed a lot of similarities between the cartoons that appear and work done by Hugh MacLeod (aka Gaping Void). If anything Pickeleshane has drawn a lot of inspiration from Hugh. Draw your own conclusions….

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Canadian Online Ads Top $1B

April 30th, 2007 | 1 Comment | Posted in Advertising/Marketing

What’s happening with the online ad market in Canada? For whatever reason, the market surged last year by 80% to a record $1.01-billion - driven by a 120% spike in classifieds to $272-million, a 79% rise in search to $353-million and a 58% jump in display to $364-million. It’s like many Canadian advertisers suddenly realized the Internet had finally become a viable and attractive medium after sitting on the sidelines for far too many years. Still, if you do some back-of-the-napkin calculations, the Canadian market is still only two-thirds that of the U.S. market if you use the traditional 10:1 ratio formula.

With a year of robust growth behind it, IAB Canada expects the market will grow by another 32% in 2007 to $1.34-billion. ” “While it took us 13 years from when the first banner was served on the Internet, until now, to reach the billion dollar mark in Canada, it may only take us another two to three years to reach the second billion,” said IAB Canada president Paula Gignac. “Fascinating times indeed.”

One thing that strong growth has caused is huge demand for experienced online salespeople. If you look around, everyone - including the big guys such as Yahoo, MSN, Sympatico and AOL - is hiring. The problem, however, if you’re looking to hire is supply is limited, especially if you want someone with a few years of online sales under their belt. At b5media, we were lucky a couple of months ago to snag Chad Randall as our sales director.

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Communications 101: How to Communicate Better

April 29th, 2007 | 23 Comments | Posted in Main Page

This post, which is about how and why we use different tools to communicate, has been gnawing at me for a few months. In thinking of a title, I toyed with “Why E-Mail Sucks”, “The Return of Voice” and “The Devil is the Digital” but, in the end, “Communications 101″ seems most best way to describe the communications conundrum many businesses are grappling with as the world becomes less personal and more digital.

First, a little background: I work for a company, b5media, with employees scattered around the globe. We epitomize the border-less, work-anywhere corporation. We live and breath off communication tools such as Skype, e-mail, the occasional phone call, and rare (but extremely valuable) physical gatherings of the entire team. As a result, we are - for the most part - a digital communications company. This compares (contrasts?) with my own background: I’m a people-person; someone with a lot of friends, colleagues, acquaintances and family. And I’m a communicator, both personally and professionally. I enjoy meeting and talking to people. If you sense there’s a bit of a difference between b5media’s communications approach and mine, you’re right. But the reality is the structure of b5media isn’t going to change. So what do you do? You adapt, you push the communications envelope by encouraging people to communicate with you in different ways, and you focus on being more effective and clear when you write e-mails, do instant-messaging and make phone calls.

Note: It’s important to be clear there is a difference between having the “gift of the gab” and communicating well. This post is driven, in part, by my personal goal to become a better communicator. Note II: I’m reading a book called “The Simplicity Survival Handbook”, which offers many tools/techniques to communicate better, including a suggestion that the key to writing shorter, better e-mails is a system called CLEAR: connected (how does it impact current projects and workload); list next steps, expectations (set ‘em), ability (how will things get done), return (what’s in it for me).

With six months of being a Digital Don Quixote behind me (tilting at thousands of e-mails and SMS messages ), here’s my approach on how to use different tools to communicate effectively.

In Person: By far, the most effective and powerful way to communicate. The ability to read body language, facial expressions, intonation, etc. makes person-to-person communications work and work well. It can also change the tone of a relationship. Think about how a long e-mail or phone call relationship took on a new dynamic after you met someone in person for the first time. You may never meet that person again but the relationship will always be warmer, more comfortable…and, well, better.

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Cool Way to Discover Music

April 28th, 2007 | 2 Comments | Posted in Music

As a discovery tool, the Web never ceases to amaze. Last night, my brother twigged me on to a cool new music site called 20ltd.com. Here’s the concept, which is definitely different: the site offers 20 items at a time. When those products sell out, that’s it, they’re gone - just like shopping at traditional store. So what you’ve got is a cool supply-demand-scarcity combination featuring really great music. The silver-lining is even if you don’t buy anything, you still get to listen to the music, which we did for hours. I hope the new U.S. streaming music royalty regime doesn’t kill it!

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Whew, I’m Not a Blog Addict!

April 28th, 2007 | No Comments | Posted in Aside

With four blogs on the go, I was really worried about becoming a blog addict. Fortunately, I scored myself against this list, and, for now, I’m not one. Of course, my wife would tell you otherwise!

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Whither the Pageview?

April 27th, 2007 | 2 Comments | Posted in Aside

Does the pageview have a future? Or will the online world look to unique visitors, time-spent or attention (what’s that?) to determine the success of a Web site. The Globe & Mail’s Mathew Ingram wades into the conversation with a column looking at the pageview’s future. Personally, the exercise of measuring a Web site’s traffic is like looking at a big bowl of fruit. There’s lot of choices but people will pick the one that appeals to them the most. In the online world, this usually means picking the measurement tool that’s the most flattering. Whether that resonates with advertisers is another question entirely.

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Has the Blogosphere Stalled?

April 27th, 2007 | 7 Comments | Posted in Blogs

According to Valleywag, (based on a post by BusinessWeek’s Blogspotting) the number of active blogs within the blogosphere has plateaued at 15 million, which is a far cry from the 70 million tracked by Technorati (the difference, apparently, lies in the number of active and inactive blogs). Not sure if this is a trend or a break in the action but it does put the spotlight on the reality that while setting up a blog is easy, writing one is difficult after the initial enthusiasm dies off. Even someone like me, who spent 15 years writing every day for newspapers, finds it a challenge at times to pump out posts every day. To blog well, you need commitment, energy, passion and, ideally, a solid hour or two a day to write. That’s a lot to ask of anyone.

Then, there’s the money. A lot of people thought they could make some decent coin writing a blog but if you’re depending on AdSense to pay your mortgage, you’re dreaming because Google has got the game tilted wildly in their favour where they make a lot from every click, while you’re lucky to make a few pennies. Another factor could be the explosive growth of MySpace and Facebook, which provide people with the ability to write and share their thoughts without setting up a traditional blog.

If the 15 million blog figure is, indeed, accurate, I’m torn. On one hand, it’s disappointing to see the medium lose some of its momentum. On the other hand, the disappearance of blogging wannabes, personal diaries, etc. may be a healthy development if it raises the profile of blogs generating solid content on a regular basis. Update: By “wannabes”, I mean people who think blogging is so cool, only to abandon a blog soon after they start because it’s too much work.

Update: Fred Wilson (aka A VC) doesn’t think blogging has stalled at all and dismissed CNet’s assertion blogging is a bubble. “I don’t think it’s a bubble. I think its a revolution. We are taking over the media, slowly but surely. And this revolution isn’t going to burst.” Amen, brother!

Here’s a chart from Blogspotting:

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“A” is for Apple, “B” is for Booming Sales

April 25th, 2007 | 2 Comments | Posted in Apple/iPod

A, B, C as easy as higher sales and profits, as well as booming sales of Macs and iPods. The numbers tell the story: a 36% year-over-year jump in Mac sales to 1.51 million units while iPod sales soared 24% to 10.5 million units. “The Mac is clearly gaining market share, with sales growing 36 percent — more than three times the industry growth rate,” said Apple major domo Steve Jobs.

Here’s my prediction: Apple will have Microsoft back on its heels for years to come. With a cool design, a far better operating system (combined with Vista’s less than stellar debut), the power of duo-core Intel processors and a sweet set of standard applications (the only external software you really need is Firefox and perhaps Microsoft Office), the Mac is the superior machine. Combine that with the aura of the iPod, and you’ve got a powerful way to drive sales. Maybe I’m become such a Mac-ite, I need to get an Apple tatoo but the Mac and iPod is hot, baby!

For more insight, check out IPDemocracy. as well as my favorite Apple blog, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Update: Apple shares cracked through $100, which GigaOm asserts has taken the spotlight off company’s vexing stock option problem and, in the process, saved Jobs’ job. Meanwhile, the New York Times has a story looking at ex-Apple CFO Fred Anderson, who has been sued by the SEC.

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Judge Nails RIAA

April 25th, 2007 | No Comments | Posted in Music

According to TechDirt, the Record Industry Association of America’s legal jihad is running into a few hurdles: lawsuits incorrectly targeted, as well as attempts to weasel out of paying its legal fees. Yesterday, a judge ruled the RIAA has to pay its legal costs. The re-affirmed decision can be found here.

While the RIAA is focused making sure consumers actually pay for music rather than using P2P services or cheap, quasi-legit services such as AllofMP3.com, another issue that continues to boil and brew is how much consumers actually want to pay for music period. According to a recent eMarketer study, the magic number - drum-roll, please - is 99 cents, which is otherwise known as the price that Steve Jobs also believes music should cost as opposed to the $1.29 a track suggested by EMI recently.

“Consumers favor keeping prices at the dollar-per-track level that Apple established when it rolled out its iTunes Music Store four years ago,” eMarketer analyst Paul Verna said. ” When Ipsos Public Affairs asked what consumers thought of the price, more than 70% of respondents rated it as either “fair” or a “bargain.” Only 19% felt that 99 cents was “too expensive.” Here’s a chart that shows how consumers feels about 99 cents.