Google’s product is YOU & ME – the user of their services.

There’s only one way to understand Google’s business model, which is to understand that Google’s services are not products. In fact, Google has only one product. And that product is you. Or, rather, us — all of us.

…Advertisers are Google’s customer. What do they sell to advertisers? They sell you. Or, at least, they rent you out, or provide access to you.

Now most of us are fine with this. We get great products like Google Search, Gmail or Google Analytics because we’re being harnessed for the data we create & compile.

You’re a pig living in a nice house where you’re fattened up. While you won’t be pork chop in the end, advertisers still get to buy you – or access to you.

Google’s recent policy changes, though viewed as mostly harmless, brings to light the fact that – when there’s a change in Google, you can’t really do anything about it.

…for the first time, it is combining data across its Web sites to stitch together a fuller portrait of users.

Consumers won’t be able to opt out of the changes, which take effect March 1.

If you don’t like the policy changes, what can you do? Where would you go?

Personally, I’m stuck on Gmail. I can’t really imagine a scenario where I use any other email platform. I use Google Search all the time. I use Google Analytics on my sites.

I’m stuck. But this presents opportunity. Those who aren’t comfortable with Google’s new direction will want another solution. There’s a market for people who prefer PRIVACY and ANONYMITY.

My guess – it’s going to be a pretty good market to dive into.

Privacy & Anonymity. I bet you some people are willing to pay for it.

A friend of mine told me about Senco Link. He said they could fix it up as long as the unit was still under warranty. My unit is less than a year old (since it was purchased from an Apple store in Shangrila) so I decided to have it checked out.

Guess what they did? A tech guy opened up the box, checked the serial number, and said “Yeah, we can fix this.”

I was in a bit of a hurry so I left my unit and was wondering at the back of my mind – “Would I be paying for anything? I hope the repairs aren’t too expensive.”

2 days later I get an email:

This is a response to your unit repair.
AR Number : 26614
Reported Date : 2012-01-18
Category : iMac (27-inch Mid 2010)
Product :
Complain or concern : Smudges on LCD.
Status : Waiting for Parts
Last Update Date : 2012-01-18 03:52:12
Remarks : Waiting replacement part. (Availability of part is 5-7 working days.)

“Oh crap.” I thought. “This might be expensive.”

A week later, another email came:

This is a response to your unit repair.

AR Number : 26614
Reported Date : 2012-01-18
Category : iMac (27-inch Mid 2010)
Product :
Customer Name : Apao , Elymar
Complain or concern : Smudges on LCD.
Status : For Pick-up
Last Update Date : 2012-01-25 06:26:43
Remarks : Your unit is ready for pick-up.

“Awesome!” I exclaimed. I decided to get the iMac this morning and saw the tech lady handing my something to sign. My eyes widened to what I saw:

At first I thought I was going to pay for P35,000. It turns out it’s covered by the warranty.

Wow. So I just have new replacement LCD for my iMac. For free.

I feel like a winner.

Makes me want to get the Apple Extension Warranty.

You’ll notice that Apple has already been influence in several industries – pc, mobile, tablet, music, movies and even retail. Now it’s diving deep into publishing by giving writers a way to not just WRITE, but also to CREATE the visuals and effects for their eBooks. Books and magazines won’t be static anymore. The storytelling experience will be vastly enhanced.

My personal guess – Along with this tool could be a way to release ebooks directly to the iBooks Store. This would completely bypass traditional self-channels like Lulu or Amazon.

Apple is going to be a publishing house and anyone could be a writer.

Amazon, with it’s own Kindle fire, could do two things:

1. Learn from Apple’s self-publishing tool and make its own version that publishes directly to Kindle Fire.
2. Find a way to directly allow users to publish to Amazon as well (using Apple’s tool).

Given iPad’s current tablet market share, I’d strongly consider option 2.

We’ll see when Apple releases their new tool.

Don Jaime Zobel De Ayala was there too. First time I’ve seen him up close.

One of the key questions asked Camacho was – what do schools need to do to have more people like Camacho? To which Camacho replied something like – education is driven by industry demand.

True.

Same reason why there are a lot of talented Filipino Web Designers. There is demand for relatively cheap yet high quality web design work. Fortunately for web designers, it’s easier to have access to this industry online.

Not the same as Product or car design. It’s more tedious and expensive to create life-size prototypes of cars (which Camacho shows in the talk).

Makes one ask – where is our vehicle industry? I’m quite sure Jeepney design would have been an interesting field for many Filipinos. Would have been our Jeepneys look nicer and produce less pollution.

The security guard, seeing I was waiting, talked to me and asked what I needed.

At that point I found myself thinking – Isn’t it odd that my first point of contact for a Sales inquiry was a security guard?

I told this story to my officemate. He has been to an official Apple Store in the US. He told me – in the retail environment there, everybody is a point of sales contact. Every ‘Genius’ you talk to can close a sale for you.

It is noticeable that other stores like the HTC store & Jump Experience center are following Apple’s retail style (with centered product placements, well-lighted and eye-attracting visual designs).

Now I recall visiting the Jump Experience Center a few months ago and one of the points made was the fact that the Jump Staff could only refer and not really ‘sell’.

How odd was that? I’m willing to purchase a business solution right there and then – but they had to refer me to another PLDT business unit.

Ron Johnson (former head of Apple Retail Operations and now CEO of JC Penney) attributes the success of the Apple Stores to the ‘right’ experience:

People come to the Apple Store for the experience — and they’re willing to pay a premium for that. There are lots of components to that experience, but maybe the most important — and this is something that can translate to any retailer — is that the staff isn’t focused on selling stuff, it’s focused on building relationships and trying to make people’s lives better.

Now I’m not into retail store management but I am a potential customer to both Globe & PLDT-Smart. My shopping with Globe was started with a security guard and my shopping at the Jump Center ended with a referral.

Maybe that’s how the shops here think Pinoy culture works.

They just lost me as a potential customer though.

Apple’s design seems to never go out of style. It’s the black slacks and white button down shirt, never at the cutting edge, but always appropriate.

I like Microsoft’s Metro design as well but Joe Dombrowski points out how classic Apple’s look has been.

It’s like getting an old style-German vehicle (like a Benz) versus a flashy Japanese pimped-up ride.

Which would you go for?

The verdict, if you read the tweetstreams, is a clear knockout win by Smart.

For smart – the entire Powerplant Rockwell mall was reserved for the event. I’m told that you needed only to have a Smart Phone number to enter the mall and get FREE movie passes, coffee & food. I’ve never seen a company do this before. Bring a hype and deliver on it with a big WOW from people.

In contrast, Globe seems to have been a relative snorefest.

It was not a grand launch. The launch was just right — party, food, booze, entertainment and the product itself. There were no lavish raffles and giveaway to attract people and subscribers.

I remember a book I’ve read – Untitled: Thoughts on the Creative Process by Blaine Hogan

Blaine mentions two important words – Surprise & Delight. This is what’s needed to wow people. Smart seems to have achieved that here if you read what the people on twitter say:

From Anton:

antondiaz OurAwesomePlanet.com
Objectively, #SmartiPhone4S has the right endorser, the best launch party, & cooler plans vs.#globeiphone4S. Great job to the launch team!

From Yugatech:

abeolandres Abe Olandres
Wow, Smart just bought the entire front page of Manila Bulletin today. #smartiphone4s

Reserve an entire mall. Offer everything inside for free.

Pretty impressive, Smart.

He mentions that if there was the iPhone, The Windows Phone and the top of the line Android back 5 years ago all out at the same time, people would probably buy the Windows Phone. He seems to be quite impressed with Metro.

Wikipedia:

Metro is an internal code name for a typography-based design language created by Microsoft…

The response has generally been positive for Metro. It’s modern and focuses on content as the main UI. The idea is – instead of just icons – make the actual content (what’s inside) the UI. This is consistent throughout the Windows Phone experience.

Syncs with my thoughts on Typography and design. When you strip away all the pictures and media on a site and you are left with all the text, how the text looks like begins to really matter.

The style of the text itself already conveys meaning to the reader.

If you want the site to be informal and funny, use comic sans. If you want to be more classic yet formal, use Helvetica. If you want to be stylish and personal, go use a script font.

So when Apple computers started using new stylish fonts on the Macintosh when it first came out, people raved about the beautiful fonts not only because it was different, but also because you could convey meaning, beauty and art with just words and letters.

Aren’t we lucky tech as evolved to be much more humane? :)

—-
Feedback to the verge peeps:

Nexsus seems to have been misspelled.

Samsung’s offensive:

Apple with Siri with Plex as shown by a hacker:

I’ve not held a Samsung II S yet. I don’t know how it works. Fact is I just have a lowly iPhone 3GS phone that still works remarkably well despite being 2 generations old.

Between the two (a Samsung & an iPhone), I’d still get the iPhone.

Why? Samsung’s ad just told me about the fact the their phone had better specs. People already knew that.

That hacker video just showed me how Siri is going to be like a year or two from now.

Now imagine having that iPhone4S with Siri. It counts the number of times you’ve called today & measured your voice stress tone. As you go home, it interfaces with your Apple TV and asks you “Would you like to watch a relaxing video?” Emotion prediction. Won’t that be killer?

Between better specs & better experience I’d go with the latter. It’s like giving me a whole cake when all I wanted was a slice with the chocolate bits.

But that’s just me.

While my experience with a related technology (an Xbox360 Dance Central game) has been memorable, I question Craig Mundie’s commentary downplay on the Siri:

People are infatuated with Apple announcing it. It’s good marketing, but at least as the technological capability you could argue that Microsoft has had a similar capability in Windows Phones for more than a year, since Windows Phone 7 was introduced.

These are completely different user interfaces. While you can wave your hand and gesture commands with OmniTouch & the Xbox Kinect, it doesn’t compare to just telling your computer to find the nearest restaurant or gas station.

So for TV viewing experience, you can wave to change channels or just tell Siri to change a channel & save a show. Which would be a better and easier way to do it?

This reminds me of StarTrek’s computer system & the Holodeck:

Enterprise computer = Siri. Holodeck = Xbox Kinect (?)

Apparently, we didn’t need to get to the 22nd century to feel like a trekkie.