Why isn’t there Microsoft Outlook for iPhone? Obviously, because Apple and Microsoft would rather beat each other to death. But Microsoft loses this one. I’ve been a loyal Outlook user forever. I dig deep into the tasks and notes. But I switched to an iPhone (from a Windows phone) — and Outlook tasks and notes […]
Advertise your competitors to gain credibility
August 8, 2010
Gas station chain Murphy USA has a popular phone application called the Cheap Gas Finder that shows the best gas prices in town — even when competitor’s prices are lower. It’s genius. Because even if you occasionally buy from someone else, you look at Murphy’s app, logo, and brand every single day. And over time, […]
Cthulhu: Bad names stop word of mouth
February 6, 2010
A great quote from MyTVWithoutPity: The problem with films with unpronounceable names is that word of mouth drops down significantly. I can’t imagine too many invites to Cthulhu. This is great lesson for anyone naming a product. If you want someone to talk about it, you need to give it a name that people can […]
Punish the Troops: Ban Facebook in the Military
August 4, 2009
{Here's a re-post of my latest for the Huffington Post.} Your high school reunion. Your best friend's new baby. Your sister's birthday party. You'll never see those pictures because you're in the military and the Department of Defense wants to turn off Facebook and Twitter for our troops according to a great story by Noah […]
The future of shopping: Amazon Remembers
June 28, 2009
Amazon Remembers is an astonishing tool. It's buried inside the Amazon iPhone app. You take a picture of something. Hit submit. Amazon figures out what it is. You get a link to the product page on Amazon. I tested it on the most boring product I could find: A bottle of water. Five minutes later: […]
Palm Pre: Missing the word of mouth opportunity
May 27, 2009
Excitement started to build for the Palm Pre phone after the January consumer electronics show. Everyone said it was amazing. I was eager to try it, even though I had bad coverage from Sprint years ago. This was a chance for Palm and Sprint to win me back. So I waited. I signed up for […]
Newsletter #732: The “Focus On the Little Things” Issue
May 21, 2009
{Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I Thought of That Email Newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the left.} It's too hard to talk about all your features and benefits. Instead, give everyone something simple to talk […]
Get on stage
March 7, 2009
Apple created an iPhone application that lets you advance slides in a presentation from your phone. Important? No. Useful? A bit. Great word of mouth? Definitely. They figured out how to get a key group of influencers — speakers and presenters — to pull out their iPhone in the middle of a speech. Now that's […]
Get My Newsletter
*Third-party newsletter (Privacy Policy)
Contact Me
I'd love to hear from you. Use this form, please.