LinkedIn reinvented the recruiting industry. Prior to LinkedIn, the hiring process was supply driven. When it was time to find a new job or professional opportunity, you simply dusted off your resume and looked on a static job board site such as Monster, CareerBuilder or Craigslist for listings…
Links
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Dirt.: Why Dirt is the LinkedIn of the real estate world
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The “Cheap iPhone”
A few thoughts on the latest report of a “less-expensive” iPhone by Jessica E. Lessin for The Wall Street Journal:
1) This report seems to surface every year, including by the same Wall Street Journal that is reporting the news today.
2) That said, there does seem to be more gathering momentum around the idea of a “cheap iPhone” this time around. I smell a faint hint of Apple.
3) But Apple already sells “cheap iPhones”: the iPhone 4S is currently $99 with a two-year contract and the iPhone 4 is free with the same contract. Hard to get cheaper than “free”. (But: see point 6 below.)
4) So perhaps this has to do more with perception. The current cheaper iPhones must lose some luster as they’re simply older devices at a discounted price. Maybe this new “cheap iPhone” would be a complete makeover with the same internals as the older models but with a new build to entice buyers.
5) Along those lines, I find it hard to believe Apple would simply do a “cheap iPhone” — it would have to be a different product from the flagship version in some other way. Offering various colors is an obvious approach, but I think there would have to be something else as well. There are no “cheap iPads” or “cheap iPods”, there are significantly different versions (iPad mini, iPod nano, etc) at different price points.
6) Or perhaps this is all simply meant for other markets where the iPhone does not sell as well (and subsidies matter far less, or don’t exist at all). As WSJ notes, the iPhone is still the top selling smartphone in the U.S. But that’s not the case in other markets, and China has been particularly troublesome. Apple probably doesn’t want to just cede a billion potential users to cheap Android devices.
7) But I don’t think Apple would do a device just focused on particular foreign markets. Their product lines are very simple and for the most part worldwide. I imagine that any “cheap iPhone” would be on sale in the U.S. as well. So… pre-paid?
8) I do think Apple has to be careful here. While Gene Munster doesn’t seem too worried about the margins (thinking this phone would attract users that wouldn’t normally buy an iPhone), if such a device was popular enough, it would definitely drive down Apple’s famous margins. Users, of course, won’t and shouldn’t give a shit about that, but investors will (and Apple should — the iPhone dominates their bottom line). Just wait until we see what the iPad mini does to the margin this quarter.
Why does it necessarily have to drive down margins?
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Dirt: How we’re improving Dirt
We hope everyone had a relaxing holiday.
We’ve been busy. We launched the first Dirt release right after Christmas and haven’t stopped since. We’re excited to see that quite a few of you have already claimed your Toronto properties. Thank you to all of you who took the time and to those who…
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Can living in laneways fix Toronto’s density issues?
Toronto is usually looking skyward for housing solutions, but the city might find some answers right it its own backyards.
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Single User Utility In A Social System
One of the most important lessons we took from delicious was the value of single user utility in social systems. It might seem odd that systems designed to leverage interactions between people can have (should have?) single person utility. But I strongly believe they should.
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Dirt: We’ve launched!
We have great news: we’ve launched!
We would now like to invite you (Toronto homeowners) to claim your property on Dirt and discover what the crowd thinks it’s worth. Maybe you’re thinking about selling in the next year; maybe you just renovated; or maybe you just want to do a check-up on your…
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Matt Gurney: Realtors declare themselves threat to public safety
Locked in a battle with the Competition Bureau, the country’s largest real estate board said it couldn’t share client data because it would put the public in danger. Problem is, they’ve had to admit that that information is already being freely shared with the public. By realtors.
Matt Gurney: Realtors declare themselves threat to public safety
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Toronto Real Estate Board weighs enhanced online listings
“While the Toronto board allows real estate agents to provide information – such as the number of days a house has been on the market and previous selling prices – by hand, telephone or e-mail, they are not allowed to create websites where customers can look up the information on their own.”