production

Why start-ups fail

Most start-ups fail. There are lots of reasons, but in my experience, the most common cause is that they develop technology and not products. Lots of people confuse the two terms, but the distinction is critical in start-ups. Here's why.

According to the book Marketing High Technology by the field's godfather, Bill Davidow, "Marketing must invent complete products and drive them to commanding positions in defensible market segments." Bill called this the Strategic Principle.

In case you've never heard of him, Bill Davidow was senior vice president of marketing and sales at Intel, where he helped the Santa Clara company to become the chip goliath it is today. Later, he founded Mohr Davidow Ventures, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm. The man has credibility.

Let's break down the Strategic Principle.

The first part means this: it's one thing to develop technology that does something cool, perhaps even something that's never been done before. It's another matter to deliver a complete product that meets a critical market need better than the competition. And by "complete product," I mean hardware, software, infrastructure, sales channel, promotion, customer service--the whole nine yards.

The second part means that if your product does not have what it takes to be a market leader, then you might consider segmenting the market more narrowly. Perhaps the product will then have a chance at sustainable market leadership. The catch is that the narrower segment still has to be big enough to be of interest from a business standpoint.

Now tell me, who can argue with Bill's logic? What company, start-up or otherwise, doesn't need marketing?… Read more

Explanation for the XPS M1330 delays, Part II

Sometimes sequels are better than the original.

Dell tried again to explain to its customers why the fancy new XPS M1330 notebook they ordered has been delayed. A follow-up to Tuesday's entry was posted to its official Direct2Dell blog Friday afternoon. Judging by the comments on Dell's posting earlier in the week, customers were, well, less than impressed by the company's first try at an explanation.

Dell gives considerably more information this time around. A big reason for the delays? Dust particles in the paint. Specifically, if you wanted your laptop slathered in Crimson Red or Pearl … Read more

Dell customers rant over notebook shipment delay

Though the wait for the Dell XPS M1330 notebook to ship appears to be over, the effect of the delay could last longer, thanks to Dell's own corporate blog.

If you're peeved over the tardy arrival of your tricked-out M1330, you're definitely not alone. Hundreds of postings to the Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker's Direct2Dell blog show that many customers aren't just impatient over a product delay--some say they feel mislead.

The Direct2Dell blog was introduced to communicate with customers and the media, and has thus far been a positive communication and public relations tool … Read more

Newbie's Guide to Google Reader

What is Google Reader and why should you use it?

Google Reader is a free, Web-based reader for RSS feeds. You can find feeds on nearly every Web site. RSS feeds offer a simplified view of Web content down to just text, pictures and videos--minus the site's style and formatting, which can sometimes hinder or befuddle casual reading.

Google reader lets you subscribe to these feeds as easily as typing them into your browser's address bar, and lets you read them like you're browsing through e-mail. There are many online RSS readers available, but Google is one of the best. It's easy to get a grip on Google Reader basics, but there are several tips and tricks that can make it extremely productive.

Setup: Finding RSS Feeds

As mentioned earlier, nearly every site has an RSS feed, and you can usually find it by scrolling around and hunting for the little RSS logo (a little orange box with three white waves). What makes Google Reader particularly useful is that it can take any old Web site URL and find the RSS feed on its own. If you don't quite remember the name of the site, or the exact URL, Google Reader has a built in directory you can search by keyword. There's also a neat feature called "bundles" that has over a dozen themed groups of preselected feeds you can subscribe to at once. Adding one of these bundles organizes the newly subscribed feeds into a handy folder.

Organizing

Once you get going with Google Reader, you'll likely have a bunch of sites that need organizing into groups. The easiest tool to handle this is folders. To begin this process, just click on manage subscriptions in the lower left-hand corner of Google Reader's main page. This will take you to an options menu where you can create and delete folders and feeds, as well as quickly categorize the feeds you have into folders.

To change or make a new folder, there's a drop-down menu on the far right side of each feed. To make a new folder, click on it, and pick the New Folder option. After naming it, the feed you clicked on in the first place will automatically be sorted into this folder. Once you've created a folder, you can quickly add several feeds by clicking the drop-down button on the far right to change folders.

Seasoned Gmail users might be familiar with "starring" and labeling, Google's simplified version of managing feeds and stories instead of folders. Google Reader is no different, letting you star or tag posts with labels for quick sorting later on. There are two ways to star a story--either click on the star icon on the top left of a story, or add star option on the bottom left. To read through just starred items, pick the starred items feed on the top left menu.

Labeling is a slightly more complicated affair, but a powerful tool to swap through genres of feeds with just a few keystrokes. Like stars, you can tag any feed item on the fly by clicking the edit tags button on the lower right hand side of the story. You'll notice right away the story has automatically been tagged with its parent folder. To actually search through tags, you'll have to use a simple keyboard shortcut by pressing G followed by T. This will pull up an overlay that lets you sort through stories by tag using your keyboard arrows. We'll get into more depth on keyboard shortcuts in the advanced tidbits section below.

Continue reading to learn how to read and share feeds, along with some advanced tidbits for taking your reading to the next level.

Mom's brain as the family's Web 2.0

Among two-parent, Mom and Dad families, most women feel that the "Mom" role means that her brain becomes not only the family's collective memory store, but its search engine as well. Even Google can't answer questions such as:

"Mom, where's Princess Leia's shoe?" (At the bottom of the blue box in the playroom.)

"Honey, are we out of toilet paper?" (Look in the kids' bathroom.)

When are our property taxes due....when is my next dental check-up...what day is the dog's birthday?… Read more

Taking the measure of the computer warranty scam

Credit Microsoft for moving fast to try and recover from its Xbox stumble. Truth be told, management didn't really have an alternative but to pledge to fix the faulty consoles immediately. But I'm not about to strain my throat singing hosannas.

U.S. customers used to be covered by a one-year warranty (!), while European Xbox owners had two-year coverage. Now every Xbox owner in the world will be protected for three years. What do I think? As former New Jersey Nets forward Derrick Coleman once put it during a particularly touching moment with the press, "Well, whoopty … Read more

Why the iPhone scares the crap out of me

The other day I was talking on my cell phone and tried to walk into Trader Joe's through the exit door. I looked up to find a row of registers blocking my way and a guy with a name tag looking at me funny.

"Hey man, why don't you get that thing out of your ear?" he said, not entirely without humor.

He had a point.

It's ironic. I make fun of people who drive around with these things glued to their ears. I imagine they can't stand a minute alone with themselves and their thoughts. Hungry for distraction, desperate for human contact, they talk, talk, talk.

I have a neighbor who I think had her cell phone surgically attached to her head. It has to be; it's always there. I heard that one of her kids was actually born that way. I'm thinking it's a new genetic mutation that will eventually propagate through the entire human race.… Read more

Mobile software for vacationing workaholics

There is a particular social type that can't completely relax on vacation without knowing that the means to access their work is nearby. For that courageous bunch, undeterred by their family's best efforts to retreat to the least technological of leafy hamlets possible, is a collection of top-rated mobile productivity software. Happy Fourth of July.

Take data with you The $50 price tag on Documents to Go may seem steep for the casual consumer of Microsoft Office documents, but for Palm users who might need to view Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations by the light of the fireworks, … Read more

iHype: Is the iPhone today's Cabbage Patch Kids?

My friend Chad, a techie and savvy lawyer at a tech firm, and I had lunch today where we spent more time pawing at my iPhone than catching up. He said to me that he's been reading blog after blog, review after review and lusting after one of these puppies. Apparently, there are now outages of the 8 gig, which validated my 10-hour wait, in some part.

Anyway, in the midst of sitting at a street cafe on Belden Lane on a sunny day in San Francisco we were more focused on the hot little item in our hands … Read more

Zoho optimizes office suite for iPhone

Zoho, the suite of Web-based productivity tools that's often considered the most formidable challenger to Google Apps' domination in the field, has entered the iPhone app blitzkrieg. It just announced iZoho, a version of its software that's been optimized for the iPhone's touch-screen architecture. Currently, you can only view existing Zoho documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, as well as edit the Zoho Notebook documents.

You can check out iZoho's Web site from your PC and see the neat sliding interface whenever you click on anything. No, it won't rotate if you turn your computer sideways!

The … Read more