OK so actually a lot of the time Apple gets it wrong, their US-centric approach has given us locked phones, locked and therefore useless DVD drives and, in conjunction with the RIAA and MPAA a crippled iTunes in outside of Nprth America. (That last one is solveable – but lots of lawyers are required to …
Category Archives: Internet Business
It’s the Gelato, not the brand
Somewhat by mistake I found myself reading something that Kevin Roberts had written – he apparently has a blog in NZHerald. This post was about new Queen Street, Auckland, Gelato shop – Giapo, and here’s what he had to say about it: The store has been created as a Lovemark and is dripping with Mystery, Sensuality, …
Finda and Yellow: they had already lost
Business listings is a winner take all game right? After all – why would you have more than one set of Yellow Pages in your house? So Yellow’s purchase of Finda is a great move. Right? Well not exactly. When was the last time you used Wises, Finda, Yellow Pages or UBD? My answer is …
Final Ferrit: The governance failure
Part four of a four part take on the end of Ferrit. We started with Market Space, then site idea and execution, and business economics. This is hopefully the last Ferrit post, but the most important in this series The Governance Failure There were failures at a number of levels from Telecom, including poor strategy, …
Final Ferrit: The business economics
Part three of a four part take on the end of Ferrit. We started with Market Space, then site idea and execution, and governance failure will finish things off. The economics The business result had to be razor thin commissions, if any. The site depended upon the larger stores providing volume of products, which they …
Final Ferrit: The site idea and execution
Part two of a four part take on the end of Ferrit. We started with Market Space, and business economics and governance failure are next. The idea of the Ferrit site So while there was a space, the proposed way to address that space was flawed. The problem was that the proffered solution didn’t offer …
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Final Ferrit: The market space
Design flaws led to Ferrit’s downfall sings out the Independent, but it’s a bit more complicated than a pithy headline. I’m quoted in the article, and so am providing a bit more background to those quotes. I also promise that these are the final blog postings on Ferrit. Really. So here is a four part …
More commentry on Ferrit’s rise and demise
Perhaps we will never know, but some details are emerging on the likes of Twitter and personal emails. I’ve also had a conversation with Ralph Brayham, which is sadly confidential. All I can say that I won’t be purchasing Ferrit. Let’s start with the most interesting ones: Telecom’s own press release Telecom has decided to …
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The blog and twitter comments on Ferrit closing
Here are what other commentators are saying about the Ferrit closure. It is certainly a popular topic, and the themes are recurrent and certainly entertaining. Everyone brings a slightly different perspective, and it is worthwhile checking them out. This is also makes a snap nice survey of the New Zealand internet/business blogosphere, including a couple …
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The reasons Ferrit failed
Ferrit’s failure has been tipped enough times in these pages – so to make it easy here are the main posts over the past 2 years. I believe that Ferrit failed for three main reasons: Very poor usability, with the site proving far too difficult to use, especially at launch. This turned away customers, and …
Want to start a business to reduce the road toll?
Mathew Sanders raises an interesting point is comments to the last post. It is very difficult to report poor driving in New Zealand. It seems it is also difficult to do so in Australia. In other countries there are a few non-governmental sites that are sites in this space: betterdrivingplease (UK, 18000 reports, activists, plate based) …
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Will the iPhone be the new Nintendo DS?
Over at MoGeneration they have made some predictions for the iPhone in 2009. Nothing too radical, but clearly what happens with the iPhone is crucial for developers. Top of the list is a subscription payment model. I’m not so sure – perhaps that is wishful thinking, but developers and users would love it. With iTunes’ excellent payments …
A really great year at Pollenizer
For an example of a “really great” year, check out Pollenizer. We at Lingopal started working with Phil Morle and then Mick Liubiskas as individuals early in 2008, and by the end of the calendar year they had formed a company, hired staff, found premises and helped 32+ companies on their path to and beyond launch. It’s all …
The top one thing to change at eBay
A while back I posted a list of the top 10 things eBay could do to improve: Top 10 things to change at eBay I now believe I missed the most important one: 0: Introduce auto-extend on auctions. Auto-extend makes the auction last for, say, 30 seconds longer each time a new bid is received. Trade Me …
eBay’s horror year
It’s not farewell yet, but eBay’s descent in 2008 has been staggeringly complete. I was intending to write about it, but Dinah Balk has done that already. Here it is – 2008 – the year eBay lost its mojo. I’d also call it “How not to run an auction site” or “Compulsory reading if work …
Lance Wiggs 