Telemarketers... be careful!!

Twitter gave me one of my best laughs lately. Thanks to RogerCollings I discovered How to deal with Telemarketers

It is a shame that Spanish Speakers are left out, so I will do my best to translate it:

Cómo Lidiar con los Vendedores Telefónicos (sí, esos que te despiertan de siesta, te estropean la peli o te interrumpen mientras comes...)

1. Si quieren venderte un crédito, simplemente di que te has declarado en bancarrota y que por supuesto que te vendría bien su dinero.

2. Si empiezan con un ¿cómo está?, responde diciendo "Gracias por preguntar, porque hoy en día nadie se preocupa por los demás, y fíjese la cantidad de problemas que tengo: mi artritis me está matando, se me han inflamado los párpados, mi perro se ha muerto..."

3. Si dicen su nombre y el de su compañía, pídele que deletree su nombre. Después, que deletree el nombre de la compañía, dónde tiene el domicilio social, cuanto tiempo lleva funcionando, cuánta gente trabaja ahí, cómo empezó a trabajar ahí, si está casado, si tiene hijos... Continúa preguntando sobre su vida personal o sobre su compañía hasta que sea necesario.

4. Exclama el nombre del vendedor: "Pepe, ¿eres tú? ¡Dios mío! ¿Dónde te has metido todo este tiempo?". Posiblemente, Pepe pase un mal rato intentando recordar quién eres o de dónde te podría conocer.

5. Di no, una y otra vez. Varía el tono de cada NO mantén un ritmo acompasado, incluso cuando intenten hablar. Será muy divertido si consigues hacerlo hasta que cuelgue.

6. If MCI calls trying to get you to sign up for the Family and Friends Plan, reply, in as SINISTER a voice as you can, "I don't have any friends... would you be my friend?" - No aplicable :P

7. Después de que el vendedor haya hablado, pregúntale que si se quiere casar contigo. Cuando se exalte, dile que simplemente no puedes darle el número de tu tarjeta de crédito a un completo extraño.

8. Dile al vendedor que trabajas para la misma compañía, normalmente no pueden vender a empleados.

9. Contesta el teléfono. En cuanto te des cuenta de que se trata de un vendedor telefónico, aparta el auricular, grita ¡Oh, NOOO! y cuelga.

10. Dile al vendedor telefónico que estás ocupado en ese momento y que si te puede dar su número de teléfono de casa para que puedas llamar tú. Cuando el vendedor explique que no puede dar su número de casa, dile "Entiendo que no quieres que nadie te moleste en casa, ¿verdad? ¡A mí tampoco!

11. Pide que repita todo lo que dice, varias veces.

12. Dile que es la hora de la comida, PERO pide que espere al teléfono. Activa el altavoz del teléfono meintras sigues comiendo a tu aire. Continúa las conversaciones normales y sigue hasta que se canse.

13. Dile al vendedor que estás castigado en casa, y que si te puede traer una pizza.

14. Pide que te envíen información por fax, y te inventas un número.

15. Insiste en que el que está llamando es en realidad tu amigo Pepe, intentando gastarte una broma. "Venga, Pepe, ¡déjalo ya! En serio, Pepe, ¿cómo está tu madre?"

16. Di que tienes problemas auditivos y que necesitan hablar más alto... más... y más... y más...

17. Pide que hable MUY DESPACIO, porque quieres escribir CADA PALABRA.

Yahoo and Microsoft deal

Yahoo! was the war cry we heard recently, and not only by the Internet giant, but also from Microsoft. Ballmer has finally reached an agreement that allows Microsoft to compete somehow with the Mountain View giant.

Both companies have even created a website explaining (if it was THAT good, why should they?) the benefits of their joint venture. And the market has severely punished Yahoo, while Steve Ballmer tries to convince the public and press that Microsoft's new partner is getting a hell of a deal.

So what is it, then? Is it sooooo perfect and ideal or... there is something more hidden? Yahoo! shareholders clearly think that the deal is a bad choice, and that Mrs Bartz surrendered the technology position of the company. In fact, Larry Haverty, money manger at Gamco (which has 1.6m Yahoo! shares), expressed his concerns in a FT article that Yahoo might become a consumer media company such as Time Warner and might not still be independent in five years.

Therefore, Microsoft is going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to power Yahoo! search to get a 12% of the ad revenues; Yahoo! is going to obtain a 88% of the ad revenues but will have bigger expenses because the infrastructure of the worldwide sales force and ad creation. Just to keep fighting and trying to get back some of Google's advancements in the multi-billion business that continues to grow.

Different escape clauses might indicate that they are not as sure as they seem... and in my opinion, the only winner in this scenario is Google. Antitrust issues that are making the Mountain View giant shiver might even disappear (look at PCWorld's views) because of the appearance of a new strong competitor. Will the Yahoo!-Microsoft allaince be able to stop the continuous rise of Google? Will they be able to be profitable AND compete in price AND gain positions in the search market share?

Maybe the landscape will change in the future, but not this way. Google will reign until Microsoft stops copying and innovates. Bing is not that good, guys. Change the search paradigm and stop wasting money... before it's too late.

BING, Bing, bing, BOOOM

Welcome back, Mr. Microsoft!!! It was long since we had some "little disagreements" regarding the magnificent, fast and optimized Vista, but I promise I will be again neutral when analyzing bing concept and results.

First of all, the "beta" concept has been copied from Google. Maybe it is only stating what sometimes is unavoidable: launching a product that is still in development phase. I would say that finally they recognized the risks (selling Vista beta 2 would have been an interesting concept), but there is a strong need to gain some momentum in order not to lose one of the last trains of Internet for Microsoft.

Analyzing precedents, Windows Live Search was... sorry, I cannot continue. Creepy, annoying (more than one left IExplorer because of it), slow, unreliable, commercial, not relevant... everything you don't want in a search engine, there it was.

Now bing tries to put some pressure on Google, hoping to gain market share and benefit from the huge (and growing) advertising pie of Internet.

IDC, in one of its studies, states that the worldwide Internet advertising spening was of $65.2 billion in 2008 and a predicted one of $106 billion in 2011. Not only that, but it is also more resilient to financial crisis, being more targeted and paid by CPC (Cost per Click - meaning not only attention, but customer attention and intention). For a more detailed study, the report from IAB & PwC

A perfect example could be the results of Q1 in US showed by PwC and the IAB, where decline in ad sales are compared between different media. While online revenues decreased just a 5%, real-life newspaper ads had a 29.7% decline.

Therefore, we are talking about a resilient, consistent $65.2 billion market with enormous growth possibilities. Talking about search share of that market, it would be a 45% in the US. Something around $30 billion worldwide!!!!

Well, now we know why Microsoft wants a powerful share engine. There is a strong business case behind it, let's see how they worked it out.
Graphically appealling, they Google layout has been copied - links at the top and the bottom, nothing else to give sense of simplicity, even the round letters of the name bing. Something nice is the changing and relaxing background photos, good for Microsoft!!!

What about search? Is it fast? I'm going to search FAST to evaluate both the quality and the speed of a bing search. And the results are.... WOW.

WOW. It's fast, no doubt. But... what about relevance? Developer web page, email of a Spanish telecom, an audio converter and a ferry are among the 6 most relevant results for Bing... WOW.

The image search, however, has some really nice features, being able not only to choose among size, but also layout, color, style and if people are present. Good system of thumbnails, by the way.

Disastrous News search and shopping is done through CIAO. Good initiative from Microsoft, trying to benefit from Ciao's experience and platform rather than building something that does not work - as happened with the rest of features, sorry to say that.

Why??? There is real need of replicating what Google does really well? Microsoft, stop wasting precious time and money and try to reinvent Internet search. The amount of information is reaching points where search is no longer enough, when recommendations and personalization will rule over the rest of searches. Amazon has significant advantage, but there are some start-ups as Strands that would help to shorten that gap with their recommendation engine. It is, in fact, interesting not only for Microsoft, but for many big players.

Future? Not much for Bing, that will BOOM soon...

Iphone 3Gs

Well, I really expected much more from the new Iphone. Actually... there is not much new to talk about...

The name, 3Gs, does not let much to imagination: refurbishing the old model, instant success, money maker. Nothing really new on the hardware side apart from fixing some important flaws; however, the main focus and effort, as we all imagined after the new features and enhancements of the iPhone O.S. 3.0, is situated on the apps and SW possibilities of the phone.

It was, somehow, expected. What started as a marginal side-project of Jobs in his mobile platform has shaken the whole industry, tearing apart competitors and becoming the main competitive advantage of the iPhone: who else can provide 50.000 applications to complement a mobile phone? Luckily, Apple was fast to spot it and gave maximum priority on working for developers, releasing early versions and helping them to build their precious walled garden.

Let's return to the HW to see what has changed:

to
The camera, one of the weakest points of the iPhone, has been renewed. A 3 megapixel camera, incredibly advanced when talking about fridges and dishwashers, allows also video recording -and Apple entered in the XXI Century!!.

Impressive again the SW capabilities; the features of choosing the object of focus in the camera or trimming videos "on the fly" show how iPhone can leverage the 3.0 O.S. and opens the path for future enhancements in developing apps and the O.S.


A digital compass complements the built-in GPS and the use of Google Maps. It is nice to know in which direction are you heading to, although (in my opinion) it is a minor improvement.

Other HW improvements are the increase in capacity (only models of 16 and 32 GB), battery life (if I were you, I wouldn't count on it) and the connectivity, i.e. with the Nike+ sensor.

However, and here you can really see the improvements, what offers the phone regardless of its version is amazing. Using the enhanced processing performance, the iPhone 3Gs can make the user experience even better when using features as Voice Control (long time ago I stopped believing in voice and speech recognition... let's see), the necessaries ctrl+c, ctrl+x and ctrl+v (copy, cut, paste), searches, voice memo, landscape keyboard, accesibility, Internet tethering...

As a conclusion, Apple clearly hasn't reinvented itself nor the iPhone, but has given the community of developers - its real competitive advantage - the tools to maintain the app offering leadership, to nurture their imagination and innovation... and giving the possibility to monetize their creativity, of course. Many things to do. Only 50.000 apps. Do you want to enter in the iPhone 3Gs world?

Back again!

After suffering more than expected in the 2nd-3rd term of my Programme here in Instituto de Empresa, I would like to apologize for being absent so long. I will continue to give you my insights of what is happening in this crazy world.


See you!

US in a mild recession?

There are two ways of looking at the world.

If we take the first one, or the glass half-empty, we can see this global downturn as a horrible time to get a job, to save money, to launch yourself into a start-up becoming an entrepreneur...

In the second one, or seeing the glass half-full, we could be seeing the opportunities that arise, the possibility to offer or to enter into new fields, as every soul and company have stopped every new venture, trying to save themselves from this temporary hell.

But Mr. Obama just invented another one. He sees everything FULL. A GDP shrink of 1.2 percent are his estimates for 2009. I hope he realizes that, given the revision of the GDP that showed the REAL decline (6.2% from the previous 3.8) of the US economy, preparing a best-case scenario could be disastrous for its economy.

I agree he has the duty and objective of renewing US citizen's trust in the economy, but this is too much, Mr. President...

Japanese companies were buying enormous stakes in US counterparts at the end of 2008, as the government assured the crisis would not have a severe effect there. Now, a 12% decline in GDP may show that they were wrong... maybe...

Please, optimism is great, but REALISM is needed!!!!

(I completely refuse talking about Spain... what a mess :( )

The rise of Microblogging

"It's a blog... but it's an sms... kind of strange mix, actually"

What an interesting thing, I said. It's going to be a complete failure, I thought. But, as you can see in Twitter, maybe micro-blogging and me just had a bad first impression.

But... what is really with it? A strong business model? A fantastic interface? Something revolutionary? Well... it's not more than redesigning the ancient concept of communication, actually... Just another perspective and another possibility that people have to keep in touch with their beloved ones (or the hated ones ;-) )

Professor Enrique Dans writes about Twitter it in its early stages (sorry, in Spanish; a good English introduction is in MediaShift). It is really a different thing, in which you can not only express you opinion about something, but keep in touch with someone that is far away (as I do with my girlfriend), let your mum what you are doing ;) or inform about something (BBC or NYT in journalism, Los Angeles Fire Department informs you in twitter: LAFD). So... what's all this buzz about?

The incredible thing is that, while laughing at their lack of business model, we have witnessed how it has grown more than anyone had expected. Communication in one way, asynchronous, primitive. But an easy way to communicate, an open door to express what you need when you need in less than 30 secs...

And... you know what? Tell me how many competitors are trying to copy you, and you will tell me how successful and how many possibilities (as well as threats, of course) are in front of you. And taking a look at:

Rejaw (with a Chat included)
koornk (personal shouting)

Utterly (with photos and media)

kwippy (thoughts)

BrightKite (where are you)
identi.ca (free software)
Jaiku (geographical microblogging)
Twingr (microblogging communities)

And what about its Spanish counterparts? Xmensaje and Khaces

Amazing. Maybe it's worth to take a close look at it... and wait until the discovery of the business model... or the new funding round!!!!

Virgin Mobile & US Mobile Industry Data in 2008

Hi all! I have made a little research of the US mobile Industry market in 2008 for Advanced Marketing. I hope you enjoy it!

The penetration rate has grown up to 86.1%, what means that there were 261.5 million subscribers in total. For the sake of the explanation (and lack of time), data from US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are left out.

Virgin Mobile US, owned by Virgin Group and Sprint Nextel Corporation, has experienced a steady growth since it was created, reaching 5.38 million subscribers, or a 2.05% market share (December 2008). It has to be taken into account that Helio's clients are being counted (Helio is a $39M acquisition made in June 2008).

Virgin is still partnering with Kyocera offering its phones, although LG, Samsung and UTStarcom phones have been introduced. Another interesting breakthrough has been the addition of text messaging packs and an unlimited plan (between Virgin mobiles and to every mobile in non-peak hours).

Nowadays, Virgin is the 7th mobile operator by number of subscribers in the US. To fully understand its position, nevertheless, is essential to show data from the 6 biggest players in the US industry:

1. Verizon Wireless (including Alltell): 83.7 million subscribers. 32% market share.

2. AT&T Mobility (currently acquiring Centennial Communications): 77 million subscribers. 29.45% market share.

3. Sprint Nextel (includes Sprint Network, Nextel Network, Boost Mobile Prepaid): 50.7 million subscribers. 19.38% market share.

4. T-Mobile: 32.8 million subscribers. 12.54% market share.

5. TracFone Wireless (includes NET10): 11.2 million subscribers. 4.28% market share.

6. US Cellular: 6.17 million subscribers. 2.36% market share.

Apart from this 6 companies and Virgin Mobile, there are only two mobile operators that have more than a million subscribers: MetroPCS (similar numbers to those of Virgin) and Cricket (3.84 million subscribers).

Online resources used:

American Operators (Wikipedia)

Virgin Mobile (Wikipedia)

Virgin Mobile USA (Wikipedia)

Virgin Mobile USA

GSM World

And the winner is... Spain!!!!

No more regrets, no more "what ifs". This time we were determined to win. We have taken all the steps to cross the line well ahead... and we got it.

We are always used to see Americans as the best ones. When things go well, they outperform everyone, and when things go bad, they situation is even worse. Not this time. Not in this moment. Can you hear it, my friends? Can you smell it? SPAIN IS HERE!!!!!

We're not longer afraid of your "impressive" unemployment data. 598.000 jobs lost in January, 3.7 million jobs lost since December 2007,unemployment rate of 7.6% (the highest in 16 years). But... are we supposed to be amazed?

No way. 198.838 job lost in January, 1.28 million jobs lost in 2008 (Encuesta de Población Activa), unemployment rate of 14.4% and even better perspectives for the future make us worldwide leaders!!!

We worked (or not) so hard to get it... that don't even dare to think we are going to stop here, we are going to mantain the lead. European Comission says we are going to have an unemployment rate of 18.7% in 2010. 

Don't be surprised, dear world. A country that doubles unemployment rate of the eurozone (especially "funny" is the rate in younger than 25: 29.5%), a country that adds up to 3.1 million unemployed to the total eurozone of 12.4 million is a complete champion.

Be prepared to surrender, World.

Nanotechnology

I wrote about technology for the subject of Technological Foundations of the Convergence Process:

[...]Truth is that nanotechnology is the next step in the evolution of the technology.

Nanotechnology is the science that tries to control matter on an atomic or molecular scale (for a better definition, Wikipedia). 

It is quite interesting, in the world of computers, the 2 parallel paths that are being investigated. On the one hand, Intel is defying the laws of semiconductors by reducing the size of the transistors. This means more computing power in less space, less energy consumption, faster operations... Although I'm a bit skeptic, because of the problem I'm going to explain you: 

Microprocessors have problems with temperature (overheating) because the transistors emit heat when operating; the faster a microprocessor is, the more operations it makes, and the heat emitted is higher and higher. So well, there is a problem: at certain temperatures, the microprocessor melts, so we need a cooling device. Look what happens if it doesn't work (or we remove it). That same heat, joined with effects produced by an almost non-existent separation between transistors, could make this option's future disappear. 

Returning to Intel's approach, they will experience overheating problems, as well as they might reach the physical barriers of semiconductor-based transistors.

On the other hand, the second path is the one I find really impressive and revolutionary. It uses atoms and molecular transistors not necessarily silicon-based (as Intel studies do). It will be... a life. It's the beginning of the real AI. It will reduce the power consumption, the size and the concept of computing. 

The future is here, welcome, atomic and molecular (if not alive) computers.

Extra readings:

Lightreading
Fox News

Irish Scientist
Kuro5hin

Wired

Book Marketing!

Book promotions is something that is not very common. It is something reduced to some authors as Tom Clancy, Patricia Cornwell or Stephen King, really well-known best-sellers that assure big success with their new books. But with innovative and marketing-oriented writers as James Patterson, new ways of promoting a book have been searched. Some are really new and fascinating, as book trailers.

We talked about book trailers in the Business Models Analysis classes as a new way to develop book consumption. But some concerns were also spotted:

• Wouldn't it spoil actual customers?
• Wouldn't it change the preferences of possible book buyers? Attracting customers by making them actually SEE something that takes place in the book... maybe is counter-productive, making them go to the cinema to see a film, to have a visual experience. Or not?
  

Well, in my opinion, the answer is clear: NO. It is not only something that the industry is doing in order to lose money. It is becoming more and more popular (as we can see in TrailerSpy or in BookScreening) because, in some cases, it really works!!

I would like to attract your attention at Sherrilyn Kenyon and her Dark Hunter series. It takes the concept to the limit:



What can it bring in terms of sales increases? Let me show you some of the comments:

I pictured Ash differently but he's still hot. No wonder Artemis is crazy about him. Hate her...

omg the book made me cry

dear god, this book was amazing! the first part was awesommmmmee! the 2nd, woow!

It is more than a preview, more than a promotion. It is a new way of discovering the book for new readers AND a meeting point for the traditional readers where they can exchange opinions and act (maybe without knowing it) as evangelizers. Moreover, it sparks fan's creativity, making them come up with new videos (and viral customer-driven marketing) of their beloved saga:



New ways of using new channels... I think it is really innovative and useful. Will it be the future, or just another distraction? Place your bets!!!

Meneame: introduction

Meneame has an enormous success: in fact, appearing in the front page of it can mean thousands of visits for that particular website, blog post...

However, the fact that it is a successful site (with many visitors and active users) doesn't translate into a good revenue stream. Traditional advertisers have some problems (Pablo does a very good job in explaining it here) with some of the contents, which prevents them to invest in ads for meneame.

I came up with some ideas to develop new revenue sources. I will divide them in three posts, trying to monetize Meneame

Ciao!

Smartphones & Obama

Finally, he got it. He'll be able to have a smartphone and send emails wherever he wants, informs the CNN. Blackberry wasn't a good option in terms of security, so he is going to use an exclusive technology by General Dynamics: Sectera Edge. Take a look here, is pretty interesting :)

Although he won't be able to use instant messaging in the White House...

Security online??

Well, through the blog of a friend I have just discovered two things:

1.- Internet may not be safe, but it can be even less secure than we thought!!!

2.- PS3s are a weapon of mass destruction (at least, in the www).

To get you introduced to the topic, a group of researchers made clear that they found a breach in the TLS (new SSL), and you can see it here. They used 300 PS3s in the process (please, don't dare to ask me what are they doing with that after cracking and making their own certificates).

Wow, it's more than hacking a company... it's a real potential Internet security breach. If you want their explanation, go to the project's main page.

Ciao,

Carlos

New technologies and education

When Enrique Dans told us his thought of a collaborative environment for his 2.0 class, it seemed a great idea. Taking the class actually out of the class is something that I have never done before.

Sure, some professors in the University (specially those involved with Creative Commons licenses or even GNU licenses - not just following trends, but creating them;don't worry, I'll talk about the licenses in following posts) tried to make a collaborative environment to try to enhance innovation, discussions, human relationships.

But this is new, because not only we have to write of some defined topics as this same one (the introduction of blogs, microblogging, a "virtual me"), but to expand our scope and start to express our opinion, our vision of the future, of the trends and our lives in the unknown and feared arrival of the web 3.0.

I think this experience is going to improve the learning process and also the learning curve, as it is not the same to be told what the new trend are than experiencing it by yourself.

Welcome, virtual me. Welcome, Virtual World, or better, Real Virtual World.

See you soon,

Carlos

New ways of doing things...

In the Master in Telecom and Digital Business (from now MTDB, Program taught in the Instituto de Empresa, from now on IE) there is a subject in which diving in the new concepts of Web 2.0 is asked.

More than that, we are going to dive in the new trends in order to see how they can be used as class tools. 

Be prepared to know a whole lot about blogs, social networks, micro-blogging, online documents and much more.

Ciao!

Carlos