Apple Envy

by Sarah Browne, Thursday, Jan 11, 2007 5:00 AM ET

NOW THAT APPLE'S INTRODUCED ANOTHER drool-worthy product, my guess is that Consumer Electronics Show executives will make sure that next year's 'Gear Gone Wild' will steer clear of Steve Jobs and Macworld.

If there ever was a CES killer, it was Apple.

With some 10,000 products on shimmering display at CES, headlines round the world beamed on just one: the iPhone.

Outside the ballroom moments after Michael Dell's keynote on Tuesday, I tried to ask one of the attendees what he thought of the new Alienware product, The Hangar. But he shooed me away with a flash of his Treo. "I'm trying to get stock prices. If Apple announces a new phone, the stock is going to pop."

Market analyst Robin Wansbrough: "Damn. I didn't get a buy order in."

Wall Street did respond with a 5% jump in the newly-named Apple Inc's stock shortly after the launch. No such pops from the rest of the consumer electronics industry.

On the shuttle bus to the Las Vegas Convention Center, there were scattered comments about Windows Vista and Intel's Multiply Your Grooves demo but plenty of scuttlebutt about Microsoft's sour grapes over Apple.

"Robbie Bach has a point. Will the iPhone be the iPod or the Newton?"

"What do you expect Microsoft to say?" put in a rep from Australia.

In the press room, it was evident that reporters were zipping back and forth from CES to Macworld. In Las Vegas, it seemed, it was easy to find a bigwig to interview. In San Francisco, Apple was doing its usual tightlipped embargo on product demos.

The bloggers were going gaga:

"Why do people talk so much about Apple? Because people /love/ Apple. People love their MacBooks, iPods, etc. They'll love their iPhones. Whereas most people don't give a s--- about their Dell boxes." (Diego on Scobleizer.com )

At lunch, a Hollywood entertainment exec who declined to be named because her clients are hyper-sensitive about the cool factor, told me: "Nobody does cool like Apple. It was hard to focus on the scene in Las Vegas while waiting for the other shoe to drop in San Francisco. Now that its dropped, maybe we can get back to dishing about Blu-Ray."

Sarah Browne is a strategic consultant, researcher and writer based in Carmel, Calif. She can be reached at sbrowne@redmondbrowne.com. This article originally appeared on MediaPost.

Letter From Las Vegas
by Sarah Browne, Tuesday, Jan 9, 2007 5:00 AM ET

YOU CAN'T MISS MICROSOFT'S GIGANTIC signs for Windows Vista. They're in your face the moment you step off the plane in Las Vegas, as loud and insistent as the jangle of the airport slot machines. You instantly get the message that billions of dollars are at stake in Sin City.

And yet, Bill Gates' 10th annual keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Sunday night was anything but in-your-face.

Despite having plenty to show off, including the upcoming Jan. 30 launch of the uber-experiential Windows Vista, to some, the speech lacked that elusive element insider audiences at CES crave: buzz.

But while the crowd was busy speculating about what Steve Jobs is going to announce at MacWorld, a good chunk of them were likely missing a major take-away from Bill's speech: Microsoft was sounding like an honest to goodness consumer products company. In fact, with all the consumer-speak I was hearing Sunday night, I could have closed my eyes and easily imagined that I was at Kraft or Gillette. Oh I know, Microsoft has long talked a good consumer story. Still, it's no secret that the company's comfort level was always on the business side.

But Bill used words like "sharing" and "collaborating" and "communicating" and for a change, it didn't sound like he was secretly wishing he could sneak back to enterprise. Oh sure, every so often he mentioned business productivity, especially in tandem with the new Office 2007. But the bulk of his address centered solidly on the consumer, especially the family, and "community." He carefully laid out -- and even repeated -- statistics like "the 2 billion digital photos taken last year" or the "65% of us who have digital cameras"; the 40% of U.S. families that own multiple computers. He said "kids now spend more time on the PC than watching TV." He talked about "tools of creativity" and building parental controls into the Windows Vista system. And the word "safer" came up repeatedly, a subliminal mantra in the social media landscape dominated by MySpace and YouTube.

The statistics Bill touted also match up nicely with an array of new products announced Sunday. If you're taking a couple billion digital photos every year, your family is going to need one of the terabyte-big Home Server devices powered by Windows Server Software to back up and store those treasured pictures, videos and music. The Home Server can link up with information stored on everything from a PC to an XBox to a Zune and can even be accessed remotely. Xbox, now positioned as a giant gaming community, gets a cool upgrade, too. Soon new software will allow the Xbox 360 to act as a gateway to IPTV. Now the kiddies can get their TV and their PC.

Thankfully, Sunday was not Bill's swan song. Although his full-time stint at Microsoft ends in 2008, he said he would be back next year.

"After that I'm not sure they'll want to invite me because I might talk more about infectious diseases," he said, referring to his philanthropic work. "If they want me, fine."

This article originally appeared on MediaPost.

Sarah Browne is a strategic consultant, researcher and writer based in Carmel, Calif. She can be reached at sbrowne@redmondbrowne.com

Mommycast Moving Into Omnimedia
by Sarah Browne, Tuesday, Jan 9, 2007 5:00 AM ET

THERE OUGHTA BE A BIG red sign at the entrance to the Consumer Electronics Show: The Hype Starts Here. Aside from the parties and the schwag and the schmooze, the real hoopla's in the numbers. Everybody's spinning statistics and as a market researcher I can't help but sometimes hoot right out loud.

Which is why I was so delighted to literally stumble upon a genuinely hype-free, solid success story: the podcasting duo called Mommycast.

Paige Heninger and Gretchen Vogelzang , two Virginia Moms with seven kids between them -- are the brains -- and the voices -- behind this growing phenomenon. The duo chats about everyday topics from home in Virginia, reaching legions of Moms (and Dads) too time-compressed for traditional types of face to face community.

The mission of Mommycast is "to hold the world together, one child at time," a phrase Gretchen told me came to her in one fell swoop just days after they decided to try their first podcast back in 2005.

Theirs is the proverbial American success story: Learn about new technology (Gretchen's husband Paul told them about podcasting and Apple's Garageband). Experiment with new technology. (Gretchen's brother is an acoustics whiz; Gretchen credits his expertise in creating a professional quality from the inception.) Stay true to your target and wind up as one of the first podcasts posted on iTunes. Get big enough and good enough that sponsors come to you. Enter Porter-Novelli, Atlanta, to handle the interactive buy and assist with execution. Next come the Hollywood agents (Endeavor).

Eventually you're sitting in The Venetian ballroom during the massive Consumer Electronics Show with Edelman's Microsoft account managers. You're juggling meetings and interviews and strategizing a move into omnimedia territory with books, television and countless other opportunities in the hopper.

You only have to check out the Media Kit posted on the Mommycast site to see not only their solid success but how far their version of pod marketing has come. What makes this duo unique in the realms of podcasting is that they're actually making money. "Lots of it," Gretchen told me. "North of six figures." Aside from their first major $100,000 sponsorship with Dixie, the paper-goods company, they now have deals under discussion with a list of heavyweight consumer products companies any content provider would envy, not just the podcasters.

They've also drawn the attention of other major players: Microsoft and Disney. Gretchen and Paige, were in fact, among the recipients of the now infamous laptops Microsoft sent to bloggers.

For me, cynical researcher looking to sniff out hype, the satisfying part of the Mommycast success story is that these smart, tech-savvy, heartfelt Mommies have managed to win the monetizing wars by tightly targeting what has been widely perceived as a non-traditional audience for these emerging participatory media tools.

Podcast advertisers have typically gone after a young, tech-savvy male demographic. That group is now stumbling all over each other. So are the bloggers, trying to eke out revenue, while sponsors eager to reach that sweet spot of Moms 25-54, are eagerly searching out Mommycast.

Note: The sexiness of the female market is hardly new, although perhaps it has been largely unheralded in Web 2.0. Think back to iVillage, which was originally an AOL Greenhouse property called Parent Soup. iVillage is now owned by NBC and from what I can tell every morning as I watch the Today Show, iVillage seems to be driving Today Show programming.

Aside from the appeal of their rapidly growing audience, (Gretchen said there is a surprisingly high pass-along rate with their podcasts), sponsors are also apt to be dazzled by the depth of sincerity and passion this duo feels for their sponsors. It's important for them to be comfortable with the product lines. Passing on traditional interruptive commercials, they opt instead for what Gretchen dubbed "NPR-like" sponsorships, with guaranteed intros and mentions per show.

The Mommycast grassroots voice and approach is genius, especially in today's uber-hip, yet under-monetized, social media landscape. Gretchen, in fact, doesn't have a lot of heart for social networks targeted at Moms: "Those things take a lot of time to keep up, which Moms don't have."

Speaking of which, the Edelman folks were begging Gretchen to stay over for Microsoft's Vanishing Point promo. Gretchen was resisting. She wanted to fly home to Virginia to see her children before next week's MacWorld visit.
I haven't been able to reach her on her cell, which may mean she's flying high over Sin City on the way back to Virginia.

I have a feeling Moms all over the world will be hearing about her choice on the next Mommycast episode.

This article originally appeared on MediaPost.

Sarah Browne is a strategic consultant, researcher and writer based in Carmel, Calif. She can be reached at sbrowne@redmondbrowne.com

(Originally appeared on MediaPost)

Letter From Las Vegas
by Sarah Browne, Wednesday, Jan 10, 2007 5:00 AM ET


WHEW! JUST WHEN I THOUGHT this year's CES was about to be a celebrity-free event, Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger turned on the starpower during Monday afternoon's keynote speech. Sandwiched between a glossy, nearly I-Maxian preview of the company's new Web site and a sneak peek at the third movie in the bodaciously successful 'Pirates of the Caribbean' series were ESPN commentator Don Tirico, followed by LOST's Evangeline Lilly and Matthew Fox, and finally, prolific producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Despite the major media company dazzle that was perpetually and bombastically on display, starting with the opening Monday Night Football parody featuring everyone from Paris Hilton to CEA president Gary Shapiro, Iger repeatedly drilled home the central concept of 'empowering consumers' and delivering content in convenient, timely ways anywhere and everywhere, on platforms from mini mobile to the big screen. Iger touted the company's pioneering status as the first to post content on iTunes, plus the fact that 'Disney provides more hours of HD programming than anyone else' and that 'no one else delivers more content in all ways.'

Like his counterpart at Microsoft who opened the Consumer Electronics Show Sunday night, Bob Iger and company seem to be enthusiastically "getting" the surprisingly abrupt shift in the balance of power between corporation and consumer. In describing Lost's ultra intense, cultish audience who wield an unusual amount of clout, actress Evangeline Lily put it bluntly (but adorably): "We're at the mercy of the fans. Our producers are constantly going online."

Thanks to this to hell-with-content, consumer-is-king new trend, Disney is now morphing into a kind of do-it-yourself Disney, first at ESPN, where sports fanatics (like me: please don't retire, Brett) can create their own MyESPN page, and soon, at the new Disney.com. Dubbing the new site "the digital doorway into Disney for children and parents," Iger promised it would be a "robust, broad and deep entertainment experience" and significantly, tie into the "explosion of personal media experiences." Customization now comes in all types and flavors, from choosing features or "channels" based on age or gender to choosing an immersive character world of say Fairies or Princesses. Disney's 1-click customization immediately "transforms the entire Disney experience."

In addition to improved navigation, the site will feature a built-in videoplayer. Videoplayers and in fact, all things video are pretty much de rigeur these days but especially important if the target is a High School Musical fan. And just in case Mom never studied Festinger's theory of Stimuli Overload in her college Abnormal Psych class, now she can see it upclose-and-personal in her own family room when the kiddies log on to Disney's new X-D or Xtreme Digital, which sounds like it was designed by one of my kids' focus groups. Essentially X-D feeds into existing multi-tasking behavior and simply enhances it the Disney way. With X-D, kids can watch a video, play a game, surf the web and IM with friends, all at the same time.

Taking the concept of personalization to an even higher level, kids can create a 'My Disney My Way' channel, mixing and matching content, and even publish it so other kids have access. Upping the participatory media quotient even more, these channels can be experienced like a multi-player gaming system, with rewards and status as in 'where I stand in the community.' These customized communities or 'virtual worlds' can be designed around a Disney property like Hannah Montana, the Pirates Channel, Narnia, Create A Fairy or whatever your little consumer heart desires.

Moms will be happy to hear that the richly experiential features on this newly revamped Disney.com are free. For now.

But it wouldn't be a major media company speech if the obligatory piracy issue hadn't been raised.

"Getting the balance right between convenience and pricing is a challenge facing all of us," Iger said. "The best way to combat piracy is to bring content to market on a well-timed, well-priced basis."

Switching smoothly from piracy to Pirates, Disney is again tapping into the rich reserves of the Pirates franchise by introducing Pirates of the Carribean Online, a free multiplayer online game scheduled to launch this spring.

The audience, probably 3,500 strong, was also treated to a scene from Pixar's new animated movie from famed director, Brad Bird, Ratatouille. From what I could tell, the film seems to be about a rather smartass, all too realistically furry rat who has culinary ambitions beyond fromage.

And was that Rupert Murdoch sitting in on Iger's talk? Someone who looked suspiciously like him zipped past me and almost tripped on my Toshiba schwag bag. Although Disney.com and MySpace are at opposite ends of the social media landscape, as they say, keep your friends close ....

Sarah Browne is a strategic consultant, researcher and writer based in Carmel, Calif. She can be reached at sbrowne@redmondbrowne.com

So I'm here at CES. Arrived in a frenzy last night after almost being shipped off to air Siberia due to the latest avalanche in Colorado. I shivered in the Salt Lake City airport, gawking at the snow-capped mountains surrounding the city, and remembered why I live in California.

Thankfully I made it to the Sands in time to pick up both my press badge and CES Unveiled.

It took mere moments for both the bad buffet and the stimuli overload to set in.

I don't even need to check the calendar to know that CES is but a mere ziplock-bag-through-Security away. My jammed emailbox is the dead give-away, filling up with so many invitations, press releases and announcements that my poor Blackberry is already begging for another New Year's de-tox.

I'm looking forward to Saturday's CES Unveiled: The Official Press Event of the International CES. It's a 'sneak peek of the hottest product debuts' along with the Innovations Design and Engineering Honorees Showcase. Some 80 'leading technology' companies will be there including Samsung and LG. I'm guessing this event will be the official beginning of the Battle of the Mondo HD TVs. Last year it was an inch-by-inch shoot-out, with Panasonic's 103-inch plasma giant taking the prize.

Funny thing is, every year we come to this digital entertainment extravaganza and spend hours gawking at these monster screens while we listen to sales-souls hawk countless innovative features and benefits. And yet, the reality is -- and let me switch to my Research Hat -- a significant chunk of America is gobbling up these gorgeous, giant HD models and never actually watching HD. They know they want the latest gizmo but unless they stumble upon a savvy salesperson at the local Circuit City or Best Buy, they aren't putting all of the confusing pieces together. Despite the healthy jump in sales, HD remains a mystery to many.

The truth of virtually every device, gadget, piece of software or hardware, is that most users tap into at most, 60% of the product's capability. From my days doing research for Microsoft's brilliantly bloated Office Suite, I remember writing that nugget into report after report. Microsoft kept coming up with utterly genius features (not Clippy!) that few ever used.

This then is one of the challenges of CES. Even writing for my audience of smart-ass, cynical, media pros and tech-savants, I have to temper my excitement over these glorious new geegaws. Does it matter that people simply buy because its shiny and new and that alone makes it uber-cool?

No discussion of CES would be complete without a mention of the late love-it-or-hate-it uber tradeshow, Comdex.

Does anyone else feel a tad out of sorts the week before Thanksgiving? Does anybody else miss that humongous flower cornucopia off the Bellagio lobby? Do you miss Spencer the Katt parties or the Micrografx Chili cook-off?

Nope. Didn't think so.

When I first started covering tech and what was then dubbed new media in the early nineties, CES most decidedly took a backseat to Comdex. Comdex was the kingpin, ruling the tech tradeshow roost for some 25 years, growing from a few thousand attendees to some 200,000 at its peak, with a million + square feet of exhibits. There were massive booths devoted to (then) vaporware like Memphis and Bluetooth, legions of booth babes in plunging leopard and sequins flogging software they didn't understand, and throngs of blue-shirted salesmen standing guard over shiny displays.

Eventually, Comdex grew so rambunctiously out of control that the Computer Dealers Expo was virtually unrecognizable.

I remember when AOL sent me and a group of my fellow Greenhouse Partners to CES. It was 1996, the year when The Spot, the first true Internet soap opera with its hot n' hip inhabitants, was all the rage. At the time, I wondered why AOL's powerhouse of baby-faced Harvard B-school grads hadn't sent us to Comdex instead. Now I see that it was the proverbial writing on the wall. As early as 1996, CES was beginning to pop one of Las Vegas' biggest tradeshow bubbles.

In the end, Comdex couldn't quite figure out how to morph its heritage with the evolving Internet and the swift convergence of entertainment-media and technology.

Comdex finally, officially, bit the dust in 2004, leaving the swag and the swagger to CES.

As I may have mentioned a few thousand times, I am a Starbucks-card-carrying fan of what's new, what's next, what's twinkling in some myopic geek's eye. (Note: this mantra does not apply to my actual clothing, unless the uber-stylish Shuffle can be considered apparel.)

So imagine my blood pressure now that the official countdown to CES has begun. Yes, the annual overstuffed smorgasbord of the brand-spanking-new is less than ten days away. All over Las Vegas, cabbies and cocktail waitresses are shuddering in anticipation of geek-style tips and customers in bad T-shirts lugging 40-lb schwag bags. The 40th Consumer Electronics Show --or as it is now rather grandly known -- International CES -- opens on January 8, 2007. 150,000+ attendees are expected, including a growing number of international visitors, along with a parade of bigwigs from Bill Gates to Michael Dell, Disney's Bob Iger and CBS Les Moonves.

I am wondering how it will compare to last year's EEMU (Entertainment-Electronics Mash-Up), starring among others, Sir Howard Stringer of Sony and most of the cast of the DaVinci Code, that is, Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, Dan Brown and Brian Grazer. As tends to be the way with these shindigs, Tom Hanks and his odd hairdo pretty much upstaged Sir Howard's eloquence about the Sony Reader, the PlayStation Portable and HD expertise.

Stay tuned.

Well, it's almost a new year so I guess it's a good time to start a new Daily Bee. Somehow in the switch from old Blogger to Blogger beta, a big batch of posts vanished mysteriously. It's my own damn fault. It's not like I haven't been a beta tester for a zillion years. I know the consequences and still I can't resist. I am perpetually hooked on the next thing. New is my nirvana.

So welcome to the new Daily Bee. Enjoy the buzz.