1. “Who wants to hear actors talk?” (H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927)

2. “I think there’s a world market for about five computers.” (Thomas J. Watson, chairman of the board of IBM, 1952)

3. “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.” (Decca executive, after turning down the Beatles, 1962)

4. “640K ought to be enough for anybody.” (Bill Gates, 1981)

5. “Next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput”. (Sir Alan Sugar, February 2005)

Borrowed with pride from all over the place.

When going to Columbia Flower Market the other day I came across Seamus Ryan’s photo studio – a little photo art studio where Seamus exhibits his art and does lots of fun little art projects in which the public can participate.

There is one particular project I came across which grabbed my attention called ‘Evidence’:

“In this project we asked the public to reveal all that stuff they carry around with them. Handbags were emptied and pockets turned out to give a rare insight into what people just can’t leave home without. Participants were responsible for their own arrangement of items. What these images say about their owners is subjective. They do, however, show how dependant on gizmos and gadgets many of us are.”

Check out the website and the wonderful insights you can draw. e.g. what brands do people tend to carry around with them, what kind of mobile phones are used, what are the preferred chewing gum brands etc…

Some observations of the most common items…

Those pictures have been taken in London, so not surprisingly most bags contain:

• An Oyster card – note the power of wallet branding – IKEA is a brand that appears everywhere as sponsor of those wallets, great branding impact!
• An A-Z

Items you can find in (nearly) every bag:

• Mobile phone
• Cash
• Hair brushes (for girls)
• Chewing gum
• Vaseline lip balm
• Medicine (that really surprised me, that nearly every bag contains some kind of pills)

Predominant brands across the bags:

• iPod
• Marlboro
• Extra
• Vaseline
• Kleenex

Ever thought about what your bag content is saying about you?

Apple’s recent quarterly results made interesting reading…

They sold 2.22 million Macs, 3.79 million iPhones and 11 million iPods. What interested me most however was the relative size of these figures and the likely share of the respective markets that they represent.

Despite the huge impact, widespread respect and undoubted appeal of both the iPhone and Macs they are both very minor players in their markets.

The iPod is the “pear” to these “apples” with a much larger share of its marketplace and much higher unit sales. Unfortunately for Apple it also seems to have the lowest profit margins. Analysts have estimated that the iPhone is Apple’s most profitable product with a gross margin of about 43 percent, compared with estimates of 35 percent for the Mac and 25 percent for the iPod.

Looking to explain some of this difference it may be the lower profit margin means the relative price premium you pay for an iPod versus other MP3 plyers is smalller than the premiums for iPhones and Macs. However a key difference for me is that the iPod isn’t just the product but part of a vetically integrated offer linking almost seamlessly with iTunes. It is this link with content, a link which other hi-tech manufacturers like Sony recognise, that adds to the appeal of the product and ultimately its performance in the  marketplace.