Monday, January 4, 2010

new years wish list and some predictions


first, HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone. i started the new year in a new apartment and with a huge party, and i plan on carrying that energy forward into this new and exciting decade.

nooka: i am always asked "what new for nooka next year?" but am constrained by the PR calender of my public relations people. what i can say is that 2010 is the year we re-launch the fragrance as production problems last year pretty much rendered the 2009 effort as money i could've easily flushed down the toilet! nooka fragrance got 4 stars from chandler burr of the new york times and i'm looking forward to seeing it in some great stores this year [bergdorf, barney's and nieman marcus – are you listening?]. that writ, we will have some exciting new additions to our nooka strip line [belts] and the AO wallet series. i think it's safe to leak that we will be producing a fairly innovative iphone cover. a totally new line of accessories will also launch 2010, but i'll keep that secret for now.

non-nooka predictions:
even without the release of the apple iSlate, i predict the death of the e-reader as a product category in 2012. this is solely based on my own experience. aside from battery usage issues [on the iphone], i haven't picked up my kindle since using the kindle app on my iphone. i believe the tablet computer apple releases will be the death knell of the current e-readers like the kindle and the nook – people will pay more for more features than they need. in the 1990s everyone was taking about convergent devices, and the iphone finally delivered. now let's see what's next!

i predict that google will eventually roll-out an advertising supported cell phone by 2012 and it's own network supported communication system by 2013. this will include a free global wifi system sending shutters throughout the telecommunications world. i myself will be dumping all of my telcomm stocks this year – their business models are more than overdue for a true free-market challenge. back to the nooka theme of universal communication, let's please have a global system already!

aaargh cables! this is more a wish than a prediction, but please, when will ALL electronic devices automatically communicate with each other the same way you link the iphone as a remote to your computer? there is nothing less attractive than the tangle of cables behind computers and TVs! the technology is there, someone suggest a universal standard and make it happen. one should never have to have the following conversation again: "honey, i need the HDMI cable, do you know where it is?" "is this it?" "no, that's DVI and only works with our old monitor, i need the one for the new one" "this one?" "no, but i do need that dvi to mini-dvi converter to connect the computer to the TV, so hold onto that til i need it"...

on air travel. i predict that airlines will still be utilizing mid-twentieth century technology for planes totally ignoring any innovation in airplane design that would cut down travel time. moreover, i forsee continued convoluted pricing schemes and business practices that make air travel more and more unpleasant each year. as a child, i was promised 3 hour flights between tokyo and NYC by the year 1985! since that is obviously not going to happen anytime soon, add this to the wish list: make an airline with all business class style seats and service for all flights over 5 hours and blend the cost to have a fixed price of between $1500 and $4000 RT. it may take a while to get popular, but trust me, a good portion of travelers would rather take fewer flights a year in comfort than many trips in pain. people are bigger and taller than they were when the current airplane standards were devised in the 1960s and also, we travel more and farther than 30+ years ago. people enjoy low fares, but really, a $700 RT between NYC/Tokyo is equally as ridiculous as the $10,000 RT for business class. obviously one is subsidizing the other.

colors. i feel that bright fire engine red is going to become a popular color towards the end of the year.

wildcard: nina hagen will release an electronica album produced by giorgio moroder.

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