Christmas
HMV goes bankrupt after 91 years in the disc-selling business
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/15/hmv-goes-into-administration/
The first time we mentioned HMV on Engadget was back in 2009, when the British retailer discounted the PSP Go — ironically, one of the earliest devices to do away with disc-shaped media. As the picture above shows though, HMV’s history goes back much further than that. Its first store opened in 1921 under an elaborate neon sign featuring the company’s emblem of a dog listening to a gramophone beneath the words “His Master’s Voice.”
Fast forward to today and the old-school seller has suffered gravely from the same online shift that has affected many others. It has called in administrators after failing to negotiate new terms over its bank debt, and unless a buyer steps up to take over the chain’s 240 stores then as many as 4,350 people will be let go.
According to Metro, the many HMV gift vouchers that would have been given and received over Christmas are now effectively “worthless.” On the other hand, the British personal finance guru Martin Lewis reckons gift vouchers shouldn’t be thrown away as they may be redeemable one day, or there may be a chargeback option if they were purchased with a credit card.
[Image credit: London Express / Getty Images]
Source: Martin Lewis (Twitter), Metro, Guardian
Santa crammed more tablets than smartphones into Christmas stockings
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/28/more-tablets-than-smartphones-activated-christmas/
Assuming you were a non-naughty-lister who didn’t get the proverbial coal lump, it looks like that gift under the tree was more likely a tablet than a phone this No
Android Has 47% Of The Mobile Market (GOOG, AAPL)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/android-market-share-2011-12
The Android platform reaches just under half the mobile market at 47%, according to the latest numbers from comScore.
iOS is sitting pretty in second place at 28.7%, followed by BlackBerry at 16.6% and Windows Phone at 5.2%.
comScore’s numbers also reflect a growing population of smartphone users — for the 3-month period ending in November, 91.4 million people owned smartphones, up 8% from the previous 3-month period.
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See Also:
- Microsoft’s Biggest Mobile Problem Isn’t That It’s Late, It’s That The Phones Aren’t That Great
- It Sure Looks Like Apple’s iOS Blew Away Google’s Android Over Christmas Weekend
- ANDY RUBIN: There Were 3.7 Million Android Activations Over Christmas Weekend
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Apple And Google Get A Record Breaking Christmas (AAPL, GOOG)
Apple and Google activated a record breaking number of mobile devices this Christmas, according to Flurry analytics, which delivers mobile analytics to developers. Flurry has 140,000 apps running its software, and believes it can track every new Android or iOS device activated.
Between December 1 and 20, 1.5 million Android and iOS devices were activated daily on average. On Christmas day, a record breaking 6.8 million devices were activated, a 353% increase over the rest of the month. It’s also much better than 2010, when 2.8 million devices were activated.
Don’t miss: The First 15 iPhone Apps You Must Download
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See Also:
- CHART OF THE DAY: Google Is Activating 700,000 Android Devices Daily
- CHART OF THE DAY: The Facebook iPad App Crushed Facebook On The iPad’s Web Browser
- CHART OF THE DAY: How Apple’s Magazine Subscription Plan Helped Sell More Copies Of Popular Science
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The End Of Google Search Is In The Palm Of Your Hand (GOOG, AAPL)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-end-of-google-search-is-in-the-palm-of-your-hand-2011-12
The funny thing about anti-trust cases against technology businesses is that technology businesses may sometimes monopolize a platform – but the platforms they monopolize are always on fire.
In the 1990s, Microsoft came under attack because Windows dominated the PC.
But then the Internet made the operating system you use to access it from your PC irrelevant.
Now Google is getting scrutiny in Washington and in Europe because it owns so much of the search market.
But did you know that you hold the end of Google search is already in the palm of your hand?
Google makes money because people search the Web for stuff they want to buy (or for information about stuff they want to buy). Google brings them back a list of Web pages and ads. The ads are often as relevant to these commercial Web searches and the links, and so users click on them, ringing Google’s cash register.
But here’s the thing. I buy lots of stuff on the Internet, almost. I buy groceries. I buy movie tickets. I buy plane tickets. I book golf tee times. I order pizza. I buy Christmas presents from Amazon.
Google doesn’t take part in any of the transactions at all.
That’s because I do all this commerce not through the Web or through Google search; I do it through apps on my phone.
Check it out:
]
Now, at some point, I do search for these apps, just like I would search for Web pages. But I don’t use Google search to find them. I use Apple’s Apple Store.
My search results look like this.
Right now, Apple isn’t showing any ads in them, but that’ll change. When it does, it will mean less money for Google ads.
The good news for Google is that its mobile operating system, Android, owns a healthy slice of the smartphone market. It will be able to put ads in its own app store.
The bad news is that share is much smaller than its market share in search, where it also faces much weaker competition.
SplatF’s Dan Frommer made an awesome chart illustrating this:
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See Also:
- THE APPLE INVESTOR: Is Apple Seriously Going After Microsoft’s Kinect?
- If Google Really Wanted To Screw With Apple, It Would Do This
- Eric Schmidt Distances Google From Smartphone Spy Software Carrier IQ
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A False Groupon Offer Ruined Christmas In This British City
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/groupon-uk-christmas-york-2011-12
A false Groupon offer for a Santa’s grotto in the English city of York has lead to the resignation of one of Santa’s elves, reports the Telegraph.
Groupon mistakenly sent out an email to parents saying that the grotto would be offering a festive train ride. It wasn’t, and when 2,000 families turned up with vouchers from the website and learned of no train ride, it wasn’t a pretty scene.
It is reported that the grotto’s staff received so much abuse from angry parents that one of Santa’s elves resigned, unhappy at the treatment he had been subject to.
It is thought that Groupon may have confused the grotto in York with another one in the nearby city of Hull, which did have a train ride.
The mistake comes as Groupon is under investigation by the British Office of Fair Trade with the company reportedly violating 50 advertising regulations this year.
The Telegraph reports that the company could be taken to court over the violations and may face both criminal and civil charges.
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See Also:
- Everyone Who Has Used Ticketmaster In The Last 12 Years Is Getting A Refund
- The New National Defense Authorization Act Is Ridiculously Scary
- People Are So Outraged At Coca-Cola’s Holiday Cans That It’s Abandoning Them After Just One Month
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Comparing Watch Brands via Search Volume
Two insights from this chart:
1. people buy watches for Christmas
2. overall search volume has been on the decline consistently for years
3. only watch brands which are mainly watches (vs Cartier which also makes jewelry, etc.) and also not generic words (e.g. omega) are detectable
Watch brands which are generic words like “omega” or “citizen” are hard to distinguish from the search volume for the generic word.
What can search volume tell you?
When people shop for luxury goods like Tiffany, jewelry, rings, etc.- Christmas, Valentines, and Mother’s Day, respectively.
Is it a good idea to try to sell your house in the winter? (probably not)
When the government’s “cash for clunkers” was launched (August 2009)
Whether people are getting more involved in their personal finance? (looks like it)
Whether people think the economy has turned around? (probably not yet)
Interesting Search Observations – chocolate covered cherries vs chocolate covered strawberries
Chocolate covered cherries are more popular (more searched) at Christmas; but chocolate covered strawberries are more popular at Valentines. By observing what people pull for, we can derive insights that are useful in business strategy, inventory planning, and marketing (by ads around chocolate covered strawberries for valentines but cherries for christmas)
Source: Google External Keyword Tool – Search Volume Trends
via Niall McKinney, uTalk Marketing. At Valentines, women need more help picking gifts (search volume for “gifts for guys” consistently higher every February for the past 5 years). But “gifts for girls” shows dramatically higher volume every Christmas.
Best Buy / Circuit City stores physically touching each other
this is on Fifth Avenue between 43rd and 44th streets in New York City.
In thinking about retail … this helps illustrate the tremendous challenges they face.
- online switching costs are pretty much zero — just type another URL; these two stores are physically touching — just walk next door
- they carry much of the same inventory from plasma TVs to computers to home stereo equipment to software, CDs, DVDs, etc.
- they both sell Apple iPods; consumers have already decided to buy an iPod for Christmas (for some reason), which store do they walk into? what differentiates the store with the blue awning from the one with silver letters? they both have “black friday” discounts but the price ended up to be about $1 from each other; both have geeks on staff, one called Geek Squad and the other Fire Dog
- and then there’s Amazon.com which is tax free and offers free 2nd day shipping.
THIS is a challenging marketing problem for retailers such as the ones pictured!
Digital Consigliere
Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.
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