Big Buzz & Influencers: iPhone Release & Google...
Google's got it, iPhone has it and McCain needs it. It is all about influence, buzz and connecting. By the end of this week Steve Jobs will unveil the new iPhone. Will it have GPS? Have you noticed all those cell phone towers going up EVERYWHERE? That is how the iPhone currently triangulates position, not by satellite. Personally I wonder if bee colony collapse disorder is related to cell phones; others think it is pesticides or pollution. But that is another matter. The buzz this week is all about what new designs Steve Jobs will unveil and how YouTube is the edgy political tool (Obama is way out front but I can't watch the viral videos on my Treo or my tv.)*
Regardless, the birds and the bees, the facts of life: our mobile tech devices are extensions of ourselves, just as media theorist Marshall McLuhan predicted. Smart phones are the way; my husband is sticking with the Blackberry as he loves the Qwerty keyboard. I have stuck with my Treo for the same reason. But I'm waiting to see and shift and glad I have Apple and Google stock.
Google? Google's Android, an internet access feature, will come out later and will open up other phones so our computers will be in our hands with cloud computing (I'm liking my Google stock, too). Watching the Google-owned YouTube videos influencing the campaign* makes me think of the potential of this market, both to impact our presidential campaigns and for advertising in general. Google now owns the biggest television station on the planet: YouTube will likely generate $200 million this year and maybe $350 million the next for Google --just 1% of Google's sales. Google's US paid ad clicks jumped 20% in April so while US consumer confidence is at a 28-year low, things might be turning around. Google News is gaining legs. Google Docs is what I've used since I published my blog study project online after I published it serially on MotherPie. Google Maps has introduced rooftop geo-coding for 50
million homes and businesses in the U.S., which significantly improves
mapping accuracy. You'll see that address searches in Google Maps will
now often return results with pinpoint accuracy. Google Earth's newest free version enables you to see 41 new cities in
3D, including Boston, Tampa, Zurich, Hamburg and Tokyo, along with
much faster 3D building rendering, new navigation control down to
street level, the ability to view the sun at any time of the day, and
more. We've also brought Street View from Maps to Earth and added 12
new languages. Google Reader I don't like (I use Bloglines). Google Health? I'll cover that later.
I am watching my Apple stock this week. Mac hits record 7.8% market share in May (thanks to the very crummy Vista) and 67 countries will offer the iPhone for sale before the end of the year.
*on the flip -- Google's YouTube buzz is the new influential tv ad for this campaign and it is non-paid but potentially very lucrative for Google and yet another indicator of our trends, our times.
Niched, user-generated YouTube videos, produced and posted at no cost, go viral. When you think that the most-watched (750 million viewers) tv program ever was Prince Charles' wedding to Diana Spencer in the 80s, you'll realize how much we've changed.
McCain's presence on YouTube isn't great and he's lack of mojo there is an example of the generation gap that Republicans are facing and an example of how Obama's supporters are engaging and active in showing support. I've written about the importance of connecting, and we moving away from authority-driven top-down communication to collaboration. "...that gap is morphing into a chasm," said Frank Luntz, a veteran GOP pollster. The LA Times writes that an anti-McCain video had more than 1.5 million views last Sunday, but it was up to 1.6 million already just hours after the newspaper released that statistic. “John McCain’s YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare” is the video's title, which might be dismissed as partisan hype but for one thing: It's true and indicative that no longer can spin be spun. It is constantly reformed and reiterated. According to the article: "Six of the top 10 videos returned by a 'John McCain' YouTube search Thursday pegged the 71-year-old as inconsistent, extreme, wooden or a combination of the three. (The one clearly favorable piece came from the McCain campaign and focused on his Navy service.)"
Search for Barack Obama and you'll find videos that are positive and uplifting, ranging from the “Yes We Can” viral video (with almost 13 million views, it is the best buzzing non-paid political ad ever) to a clip of the Obama's speech on race after the brou-haha sermons of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.
The fact that you can go online to get the information --Obama's 37-minute political speech has had 4.5 million views -- shows that a good performance and message can reverberate and stick. And why Google's YouTube is the new tv.
Soon, we'll all have all we need to know in our hands. iFuture. youSee.
The iPhone and Pop Icons
The Architecture of the Apple
Apple Creatively Soldiers On
Mac & Apple: Innovating Beyond the Market Today
Apple Creatively Soldiers On
My new computer has Vista loaded onto it, with all its irritating features. Oh well.
I'm a comparative tech Luddite. I have a cell phone but don't use the features. I like my digital camera but don't fool around with it as much as I once did.
My two faves are my laptop and my Sony6 Reader. I saw someone using a Kindle on the plane, and I thought it looked clunky.
Posted by: Hattie | June 03, 2008 at 11:24 AM
The "6" is a typo.
Posted by: Hattie | June 03, 2008 at 11:24 AM