Dec/080
How not to show customer appreciation
Showing that you appreciate your loyal customers is a good thing to do, but doing it the T-Mobile way is not very appreciated. I just received a promotion from T-Mobile for being in the top 5% of their most loyal customers. It gives me a free companion plane ticket if I buy one from them at regular price. What a nice thing for them to do, right? I decided price out a flight from Oakland, CA to Tampa, FL for March 2009. The cost of a single round trip ticket was $815! Then I thought maybe it was spring break week for college students and Florida is a popular destination and therefore would drive the price up. So I checked Expedia.com and found the exact same flight for two passengers at $845. So what T-mobile is telling me is that my eight years of loyalty is worth, $30. The fact is that I was more content with them before they sent me this promotion. Now that I know my loyalty is only worth $30 to T-Mobile, I should shop around for a higher bidder. Maybe I can get $35! 
Jul/080
Apple’s new iPhone causing lines to form by chance?
I was speaking with a friend this weekend about the new iPhone and he was surprised that Apple with all its technical abilities could not setup a better system for all their fans to get a hold of the new iPhone than to have everyone stand in line for five hours to purchase one. Well, that was not by chance. Steve Jobs wanted the launch to be so inefficient. There are lots of benefits to having people wait five hours to buy one.
First and most important of all is PR. Every newspaper I read had an article about the iPhone craze. All the people walking by the line will certainly notice the launch. The bragging that happens after a fan has stood in line for five hours to obtain one is going to be more than five months of non-stop blabbing (probably through his new iPhone).
Secondly when someone exerts so much effort to getting his hands on the device, he will love it more than life itself for a certain duration of time. That love for the new iPhone will translate to an irrational love for Apple and resulting in Apple sell more products to these iPhone owners.
The launch was very well orchestrated. Well done, Steve!