Pepsi challenge-esk , but not a drop of coke insight….iPods aren’t the best sounding

Cowon, are simply one of the giants of the MP3 world in Korea.

Headed up by their CEO, Mr Park, they successfully have a higher share in their home MP3 market than Apple!



Why is this? Well many factors could be identified, which may lead to this trend that bucks the global one.

The Koreans are fiercely loyal to their home companies. If you’ve ever been, you’ll know Samsung make everything there, from cars to fridges and everything in between. If it’s Korean, it’s better than foreign. Simple.

Designs are home grown, so more suited for the traits of the Korean consumers, who aren’t that bothered with ultimate memory size, in stark contrast to the UK, and US markets. In these markets, MP3 memory is viewed with the same aspirational sense as getting a bigger engine in your car. i.e. do you want the V6 or V12 sir? Larger is better. Well until the latest downsizing econo-frenzy began.

Sound is genial on the Cowon products thanks to Golden Ear’s implementation of BBE+ in portable devices.

Yes Mr Parks nickname in Korea is Golden Ears, which he earned at Samsung when they realised he could detect subtleties in sounds that the other TV Audio engineers missed. Far from a Bond villain, unless you are one of Cowons competitors, Mr Parks attention to sound defining detail has been filling his customer’s ears with delight for many a year now.



For this challenge Cowon (using the S9) are our Pepsi, vs. the Coca Cola in this challenge, the iPod Nano.

The setting for this challenge was Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh. Home of the Royal Yacht, frequent roadworks, occasional seasonal fairs, and one of the best kept evening shopping secrets in town, as its quiet!



With the Queen having dis-owned the yacht a while back, and refusing to remove her crown for the PX100’s, I had been hoping to obtain the Royal Seal. However he declined me too.

We therefore looked for random members of the general public to take part in our challenge. Some more random than others (in their attire and understanding) all were keen to try any pretender to the iPod throne, but could they tell the difference?

To make this challenge fair, we conducted it with the same music tracks, at the same compression, using the same headphones, Sennhiesser PX100’s. Your players were hidden within plain brown boxes and the members of the public were simply asked to tell us whether box 1 or box 2 contained the better sounding device.

Now 279 went through the trial, and of them 79% opted for Box 1. Box 1 contained the Cowon S9.

The Pepsi has beaten the Coke, the Cowon has defeated the Apple, simple.

Golden Ears 1 – Steve Jobs 0

Jon Bentley used the new Cowon J3, the S9’s successor this week, as the sound source for his headphone review, because it “sounds better than iPod”. I like John’s reviews. He actually spends time with products trying them out once he’s familiarised himself with them. No rush just thought. See his review here ;

http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/videos/other/web-tv-94-cowon-j3-headphone-buyers-guide

Still with Apple selling more iPods in an hour than Cowon do in a month in the UK market, the fearsome power of the Apple brand, and iconic nature of iPod once again brush off another also ran.

For those of us that favour performance over form, and simply want the best sound quality that is possible, take a tip from Golden Ears, and buy a J3 (or an s9/i9/e2). Your music will quite simply sound better on it, for 64 hours…………

NLP will help you improve your blogging - simple………….

Simple - by ensuring that you are using the correct words to appeal to everyone.

Neuro Linguistic Programming can help you improve your blogging appeal, in many ways, but the most fundamental, and indeed one of the first things you learn in NLP is the ability to recognise which predicate people are.

Furthermore, being aware of predicates, ensure you cater for your audience adequately, covering each of them.

Get this right and more people will enjoy your blog, more often. They will see what you are blogging about, hearing your message, feeling where you are coming from.

In English grammar the prediate is “that which is written or said about the subject”.

For example;

Scotty raced his car
Ed looked at the big picture
Mark listened the rhythm of the rain as it thudded on the roof of the office

In a nutshell, you will find there are 3 main predicates;

1. Visual
2. Auditory
3. Kinesthetic

Fantastic you cry, but what does this mean, and how is that going to help communicate more effectively?

Answer – Very simple.

Now that you know that these “groups” of people are out there, you can begin to tailor your use of the language to better fit each of these groups, ensuring that as you do so, you are appealing to each with equal measure.

So what words appeal to which individuals? This chart will help you;

From reading through this chart you should now be able to see the value of this blog, be able to tell others (retweet) so that they too can grasp what I’m saying.

In one sentence above, I’ve covered all 3 groups. Next time you have a presentation or maybe go to a show, listen, look, and catch on to which predicate the performer is, and observe how well they do in addressing all 3 in their performance.

Billy Connolly is superb. I find him highly amusing. He appeals to all 3 predicates verbally. If you can find a YouTube clip you will be able to see him building visual representations with his hands. He is however highly visual. Approximately 80% of us are, and his miming, making representations with his hands is just another way of doing that.

Do you have someone that you just cant get on with? Which predicate are they? You might find that this failing is actually just because you both listen, talk and discuss things in different predicates. This could be the crux of this issue. You cant communicate.

Tip - Try identifying and using their predicate, and see how that helps.

How do you do this?

This is actually very entertaining, once you listen, grasp, and focus on these subtlities in language patterns.

Want to put it to the test? At your desk? Here’s one for you to try;

The next person you speak with, try and work out what the primary predicate is? Cheat – use the chart above and see if you can hear or sense which predicate group they fall in to?

People can been multiple predicates, but by and large we all have one that is more dominant than the others.

This technique can help in every aspect of life, from sales, to romance, and for all the everyday conversations and emails in between.

Hopefully if you enjoyed this blog, you’ll look below, see the comments box, tell me your thoughts, and I look forward to getting a feel for how useful you found this.

Apple extinct? It so nearly happened, then along came the Special One………

At university I did a dissertation. Yes Dad I actually did do some work there, in between the exams, lectures, parties and sports.

It was on Audi, and how the launch of the new A3 model would impact a brand, which back them was associated with large family estate cars, and rallying, than lifestyle based BMW challengers. In the 90’s entering the market ruled by the golf and focus was a bold manoeuvre.

Look how Audi have done since then. They now have the number 1 selling premium car in the UK, the A4, and their ties with the past, while still present have moved on significantly. But Audi were in trouble before this.

Now look at the similarities with Apple. Since 2001, when the first iPod launched, their market appeal and audience suddenly changed in an arguably unprecedented way.
Let me be frank. I’ve made a lot of money from not selling Apple, haven’t been a fan of their MP3 products, don’t use their Macs, and find changing to use a Mac a real PITA. I remember the first time I had to find the browser………safari…..are you kidding , who called it that? (without telling me!)



Share prices have moved $8.90 or so, to now trading at a Microsoft worrying $270+, with its first fiscal quarter of 2010 showing a quarterly profit of $3.38 billion on sales of $15.68bn.

Of that Europe accounts for $5bn in revenue.

IPod now accounts for $3.4bn, and iPhone $5.578bn.

Contrast that with a company which in 1992 was foundering, on the back of having lawsuits dismissed against Microsoft and HP. In fact for most the 90’s, the uncertainty, changes of direction, Apple breaking tradition by licensing its technology to outside firms had nearly brought it to its knees.

Bizarrely enough in 95 Apple had £$1bn worth of unfulfilled orders, after failing to appreciate how popular it’s latest PowerBook laptop would prove!

Debts by 1996 had reached $816m, a familiar figure for most Man United fans, and like Man Utd debts increased, as it was soon $1bn by 1997.

Having said that 97 was to prove a good year for Apple. Steve Jobs, initial Apple founder, iThing launcher and keynote speech giver extraordinaire came back on board as a “special advisor” – now when you think about the word special, in business or management, Jose Mourinho stands out. Steve Jobs was to become Apples “special one”.



With a surgical approach, Jobs cut 15 of Apples 19 products, discontinued the licensing agreements (that had spawned many Apple clones) and withdrew Apples involvement in printers, scanners, portable digital assistants, and peripherals, re-focusing on the core business of desktops and laptops.

Wider reaching measure included shutting plants, laying off staff, selling shares to rival Microsoft for a $150m cash injection.

By 98, Apple sales had dropped from $11.5bn in 95, to $5.9bn, however they were making money again. A profit of $309m was soon increased to $601m in 1999, and with it the share price leapt like a salmon by 140% to $99 per share.

Key dates for Apple;
1976: With $1,300, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer, Inc.
1980: Apple converts to public ownership.
1982: Apple becomes the first personal computer company to reach $1 billion in annual sales.
1985: John Sculley assumes the helm after a management shakeup that causes the departure of Jobs and several other Apple executives.
1991: PowerBook line of notebook computers is released.
1994: Power Macintosh line is released.
1996: Acquisition of NeXT brings Steve Jobs back to Apple as a special advisor.
1997: Steve Jobs is named interim chief executive officer.
1998: The all-in-one iMac is released.
2000: Jobs, now firmly in command as CEO, oversees a leaner, more tightly focused Apple.

Now enough of the history lesson, most of us are familiar with the stark contrast in fortunes that the iPod range brought in 2001. Having battled through the computer wars, re-focused, and re-aligned the strategic direction of the company, the iPod was Apples soon to be Golden Goose, and armed with the Jonathan Ive inspired designs for iMac.

The brand was now sexier than ever, with every note book and desktop iMac looking sexier than the last, the early iPods made way for their later models, the movement in to Nano, the price points were bringing Apple products in to an age group of consumer that previously would have only seen an Apple product in an office.

They had a product that was now touching an entirely new customer demographic, and revolutionising the music industry. ITunes by 2008 has more than 5bn downloads.

I remember being told once that Apple retailers had been told that the iPod was really the reward for them selling the Apple brand, such was the breadth and depth of the new customer footfall that would subsequently be beating a path to their door. The “icing on the cake” as it were.

I was surprised in 2005 to be invited to meet with Apple, near Heathrow. I was awarded with the first iPod only reseller contract in the UK.

It was a bizarre meeting, where my fruity counterparts displayed such genuine enthusiasm for their product that they wanted to sit and see me “open” an iPod. The depth of thought and analysis from such a simple task was evident, although I didn’t want to break their hearts by telling them I had 100 imported ones sitting in my warehouse! Not for long, demand was crazy.

Kids had the brand, adults were being pestered over the Xmas rush with the must have gift being an IPod. In 2005 the demand was so strong that going through December I had £1.1m of them on backorder with Apple. Supply was the challenge as the phenomenon took effect. The value of the Apple brand was growing almost daily, and a whole new customer base was making its way out in to the world. Converted by the sheer genius of the simple design.

Those that tried to challenge have all but failed, or had to appeal to niche markets to survive.

Iriver lost sight of their “strengths” to try and make a Nano rival, the H10. They wrote some colossal cheques, had billboards with some lady taking a bite out of an Apple, and what happened? They nearly folded. Brand loyalty was just too strong.



They went with colour screen, they made the battery replicable, it sounded as good if not better, and it even had its own dock, more file format support, and drag and drop functionality on the computer for music file transfer, but despite all of this, the consumer voted with their feet, and Apples market share strengthened further. Design over function? There was clearly more to the new generation of post Walkman music devices than simply sound quality.


The Apple mantra or design ethos of making products that were the “peoples”, and designed for people with little technical knowledge ensure that with the user interface wizardry of iPod it became the industry standard.

How many calls I fielded during this time from other manufacturers wanting to know quite why every single review of their Mp3 products, was featured against the IPod. Didn’t the journalists know there were other products out there? They did, but they all owned IPods.

Well the “anything but iPod” message was out there, quite literally;
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/

As people flocked to see the competitors’ products, waited for Sony to do something, anything, and considered the audio genius and ease of use of iRiver and Cowon.

However, Apple, with its by now iconic iPod, one stop shop in iTunes, Apple Stores opening up in every locale, was on a roll.



Upon visiting their first store in Glasgow I remember realising that HUGE investment they were making, the fact that their technical support team numbers more than the entire John Lewis electronics department staff nearby, and the design…….damn them. Flawless, minimalist, typically Apple.


IPod peripherals, a market to tread carefully in for the reseller, but by 2006 worth in excess of $1bn.

With no warnings about iPod revisions, your stock could be worth a fraction of its value within 24 hours if you didn’t heed the signs;
1. Supply eased
2. Supply vanished
3. Lead-times increased dramatically
4. A rumour surfaced

Simple then???????????????

iPod accessories had now become such big business, companies were springing up everywhere, and attending dear old Steve’s keynote speeches to be first to get the dimensions, aligned meant of the iPod connection socket, and get them on the phone to the factory, typically in China, to get the deigns re-worked and the product shipped.

The arrival of iTouch and iPhone simply blew the remaining competitors further of the sales charts! Wow. Apps followed, and a new word/term/gaming/monetisation opportunity was born. Apps became their own phenomenon, with the best bit being this;

An App is only limited by your imagination – I’d love to run a campaign with one of the Nationals, and see what ideas come up. T3 this has some good articles on Apps this month, and even tells you about the chap that designed the first Tube App.

A call with my then 12 year old cousin Kirsty confirmed the world of MP3 had again moved with Apple.

Unfortunately her iTouch had got water damaged, and a replacement was needed. What do you want it for I asked? Please list in order of importance what you will use your MP3 player for. Here are the answers;

1. Email
2. Apps
3. Games
4. Video
5. Music

Apple had now, in the iTouch and iPhone, done that thing that marketer’s dream of - Excluded 95% of the competition at a stroke, by taking its consumer/customer through the decision making process from blissfully unaware. I.e. before the customer is aware that the need for this functionality even exists, and no-one else has a product that can do it, so pricing is now irrelevant for approx 90%.

In fact you could argue that has been part of the key to Apples utter dominance of the portable music market and iTouch and iPhone has given it this chance again.

Now the iPad has landed. It’s done it again! People are buying them because they hear the hype and think they are missing out. With the promise of the touch pad PC for years, Apple once again have simplified the concept, in some ways reduced the functionality from the traditional PC or laptop, and in the process they sold 3m units in a staggering 80 days!

I recall chatting to some industry people when looking at the basic stats of the iPad and the consensus being that at that price, with that spec, it wasn’t going to do that well. I didn’t know the PC market, although I should have realised how this was closer to an iPod boom about to start again!

Then in a break from tradition, I bought one.

Wow.

It’s now the second Apple thing I use, along with my iPhone. Damn their ease of use, perfect interface and apps. They tend to travel with me now, the iPad I have even taken to using for presentations – and guess what – every time I present on it, the presentee then wants an iPad!

Steve, let it be said, you are still on fire.

I may hate your keynote speeches, apart from when you can’t get connected, and you always look like you couldnt be bothered coming in your badly fitted jeans and black polo neck. I may have sworn at you a few times since the last firmware upgrade made my iPhone run with the speed of a ZX Spectrum, and I may tremble with fear at the post speech stock value of parts of my warehouse, but what a transformation!

Axis - another iPod dock or maybe not - the Revo is packing power

Well, when i say power i mean 8 watts, but this is small enough for your bedside table, and unlike the flat screen, the wife will hardly notice your new turbo charged iPod dock alarm clock - a stealthy gadget if you will.

However, those wee audio experts through on the West seem to have thought of everything, even ensuring that i was censored until today at 12pm! I understand chaps. (bet Scotty wished i was under NDA after his last trip to Edinburgh!)

Sony sent me through their latest Bose "Soundock" killer. Well, it may sound pretty good, but it looks identical to the previous 5 Sony docks, and they didn't exactly have the Angela Jolie factor.

Boston Accoustics. Hmmm. A massive favourite in the US as they design the speaker first rather than simply making the speaker fit, as so many dock manufacturers do, they sound awesome, but need more functionality. Thier other USP is colour, and the fact you can paint the mesh grills to tie in with decor, for the more fashion conscious, feng shui, Gok Wan types.

I like Revo for a few simple reasons.

1. there products are simple, honest and well priced




2. they are the underdogs when you look at the DAB market
   
3. they are great people to work with




4. they value their brand, no muppets supply their new products

So, when Colin arrived last week keen to show me the Axis, instead of dismissing yet another iPod dock, out of mind, i actually had to pay attention, and as well i did.

Firstly, dock your iPod, iPhone, iThing and it does what it says on the tin. The remote gives you control of the ithing also - hurrah. But tres simples.

Sound is impressive for the size of the unit, a bit like a one man band, surprisingly noisy, but in a more controllable way than the shambles i saw in Princess Street the other week. Well balanced, rounded way, and an 8 watt amp helps with the oomph. Nxt speaker technology wont be a line for the ladies, but it does re-produce sound well.

However, what make this more exciting for the home user is the ability to no just use this with iPod, which can be of huge benefit, if ;

• you tend to get stuck listening to your other halves music ("where did that track come from???!!"


• your music is boring or you are bored of it


• you haven't updated your music collection in years

So here's what I like and what makes this a bit special, and let me know your thoughts too!

1. Last FM compatibility - £3.99 per month for 5 million songs and a playlist to party to (if Barry White is a rocking, dont come a knocking)


2. Internet Radio - more stations that you could shake a stick at, albiet it some may be of the "Deliverance FM" , singing round a campfire, trauma inducing variety.

With an interface as slick as one of Mads's chat-up lines, you can be sure this is , not only a doddle to set-up, but also, a joy to use.

It also falls in under the £200 price point, which makes it even more seductive...........

I've no idea what they do in Lanark (again comments welcome), but those boys from Revo keep coming up with cracking wee products. John Lewis think so amongst others......

What would make a great set of comments though is what you would like to see in your iThing dock? Integration of Apps, wireless speakers, 2.1 sound, the ability to sync different units in the house?

10 things that may suprise you about Apple's iPod

We have a lot to thank Apple's iPod for..........

Back in the early noughties, the iPod in the picture above was launched, the music industry was subsequently forced to re-invent itself, and the consumer began in embrace music technology as never before.

The online revolution in music had begun, while the vast majority continued with their Walkmans and portable Cd players, blissfully unaware of what was happening online. (Sony was thinking that the Mini Disc was the future - oh dear!)

People had no idea what MP3 was, but even your dear old Gran had heard of iPod.

It would become the iconic industry standard/industry leading product, who'd have guessed this product would be the one to turn Apple around? Would lead to a revolution in the mobile phone market? Would turn out to have 80% market share in the MP3 player market in the UK?

But did you know;

1. Apple's much famed user interface, a huge part of the reason for their market dominance, was actually using Creatives patents, and this action ended up with Apple writing a cheque for $100m, effectively a license for using these patents.

2. The original iPod creator Tony Faddell, or innovator, actually had his idea turned down by Philips and Real Networks before ending up at the doors of Apple.

3. The name "iPod" was originally intended to be used for Apples Internet kiosks, which never saw the light of day.

4. In 2001 Apple sold 125,000 units world wide of the then $400 USD/ £300 hard drive based device (started at a mere 5GB!!!)

5. Jan 2004 saw the launch of the mini, with a 4GB micro drive, and in 5 funky fresh colours!Total sales of iPod accelerated to 20 million units by the end of 2005, also in part helped by the U2 special edition model, which was black with a red wheel!

6. Early iPod battery live was notoriously poor, with battery estimated at 300-500 charging cycles. (battery replacement specialists rejoice, and lawyers - a new market was born)

7.It took until Gen 5 iPod for the colour screen to feature, Gen 6 for video. Even a USB connection (rather than firewire) was saved for Gen 3.

8 The Sept 2005 Nano was so easily scratched that a class action lawsuit was filed against Apple, and they subsequently all shipped with protective cases (sound familiar to you iPhone 4 owners, the "case" solution that is). By 2006 the market or "ecosystem" that had developed for iPod accessories was valued at more than $1bn.

9.Luxpro issues a lawsuit against Apple alleging "an "unending aspiration" to hold a monopoly of the worlds supply of potable media players crushes the smaller players underfoot.". This was a countersuit to the one Apple filed alleging constant copyright infringements.

10. On average there are over 600 new apps arriving in itunes every day! Connor Mulcahey, the downloader of the 1 billionth app, got a $10000 itunes card, and ipod touch, the Time Capsule and a Mac book Pro.

Despite the controversy, despite the errors (seemingly still continuing with iPhone 4) people still love this brand and this ever expanding product line. Check out the queue below, a scene replicated seemingly every time Apple announce another iPod, iPhone or iPad all round the globe!

They have re-invented the way we use, store and listen to music, they then did the same things with the mobile phone market, and now with iPad I learnt today that laptop manufacturers are scaling down production due to the spectacular success that is iPad. Yup, estimates suggest that alone Apple are selling $374,000 worth a day. All with iPod functionality of course!

Luxpro have a point in their lawsuit. Not in the merit of it, but in terms of monopoly. In fact the iPods dominance has been resemlblant of Schumachers Glory years in F1. Nothing has come close.

Indeed the main rivals to the iPod are now fading fast! Samsung shut down their dedicated MP3 section in their R&D facility last year, Creative are fading due to years of losses in an attempt to keep their market share, Rio argueabley the first world first consumer MP3 player producers went bankrupt years ago after a big deal with DSG turned sour (after the customers point blank refused anything but iPod).


Sony desperately trying to re-establish the Walkman brand name, once a brandname of collosal value (when tapes where all the rage!) have spent the last few years playing catch up since forgetting their desire for proprietary music formats, but always seem to lose traction, just as they are seemingly closing in.

From there you move to Korea, where Apple only rank about 5th in the Uk market. Korea is actually the hotbed of MP3 development. Companies such as iRiver, and Cowon rule the roost, such is the fiercly patriotic natire of Koreans, although the iPhone is now very much sought after.

Now, how does the iPod stack on when compared with its rivals on sound performance? That is most definately a question for next time, and a Pepsi Challenge style , blind, listening test.

As you might have seen last night, Jon Bentley on the Gadget Show used Cowons J3 as his benchmark player for his latest headphone test, and in his online review states it has superior sound quality to the iPod. How will consumers find this?