Tag Archives: BBC

Is this the future of shopping? Showrooming and paying to browse.

Leave a reply

My first blog for a few months – this article caught my eye and is on a similar vein to some of my previous ones about the future of shopping.

A very interesting article from the BBC on “showrooming”.  Something you may have never heard of but like me something you do lots.  So what is it?

The peril of showrooming - BBC

You’re out shopping with the family and browsing a high street bookshop (for example) and find something that takes your fancy – your normal reaction now is to scan the barcode and check the price on Amazon (pretty much the de facto online shop for us all) and no surprise it’s cheaper.  You then order online and a couple of days later it arrives, backed up by the great service that Amazon provides.  The high street bookshop clearly loses out here and there isn’t much it can do – they have more physical shop space to pay for and staff to help customers.  Or is there?

Showrooming

 

We all do it.  And it saves us money as online is normally (much) cheaper.  But it doesn’t help the high streets stores.  Charging for browsing is an idea to tackle this growing problem and it only needs to be a small charge, that you get knocked off your bill in the shop if you buy anything from them.  I like it – it makes sense and it’s easy to do.  But unless the prices come down in the shops, it’s not going to help long term get us back on the high street buying, which is what’s needed.

Another interesting article over on Euromonitor talks about other ways retailers are looking to address this problem – in-store discounts, store loyalty schemes, online price matching and more.  Some I can’t see working – loyalty schemes can apply online and the likes of Amazon have their own loyalty scheme (attached to their credit card); online price matching hasn’t caught on – any price matching that is done now is very restricted and never includes online as it’s more often than not too big a difference to match.

Euromonitor - showrooming prevention

Jessops, HMW and Waterstones in the UK have all had this problem and in some cases suffered massively as a result – and gone out of business.

Is it too late for the rest of the high street to change?

 

Connected content – it’s nearly time!

Leave a reply

I’ve long preached the time when we’ll be paying a single fee that covers all our home connectivity and includes unlimited access to all the content we would ever want (music, videos, games, books and more), and all through a single joined up service provider that knows what they’re doing and where it all just works (including how I access everything and when – so a big mobile and hardware bit).

Are we there yet?  Nope, but there are some very clever interim solutions and ways to almost get some of this.

I caught up with a good friend this week who I’ve not seen for some years and we were talking about the joys of using Apple devices and in particular how good Netflix was on it.

Image

So far I’d resisted the Netflix move.  Just couldn’t convince myself it was worth it and that it would be that good.  But I took the plunge today and boy am I impressed.  On the Apple TV it really is as if it’s a content channel with the same great Apple usability as the Apple TV box.  And even the little Nobles can successfully navigate it.  There are box sets on there to watch, that I’ve recently bought the physical DVDs for – yes I know it’s physical but I couldn’t find digital anywhere for the right price (until now).  My DVD collection (that has been getting smaller as we move to a digital world) is now pretty much obsolete thanks to Netflix – minus Disney and Star Wars (technically though that’s also Disney).  They’ll all come I’m sure – they’re already on Lovefilm and similar.

Image

So my Apple TV is now looking even more appealing.  The music link is still missing – sure I can link to my iTunes library but I want more content streamed, not my library only.  Spotify can plug that gap for the music but it’s not on the Apple TV (yet).

I can only see this getting better and very quickly.  Whether we need Apple to bring out a physical TV box I’m now not sure.  Their little Apple TV box of magic does it all and plugs into any screen I want.  I can control it with my iPhone and it works.

Total connected content as I described above?  Not yet.  My broadband, phone, TV and content are all with many different (carefully) selected (good) providers – including Sky, BBC (care of the license fee), BT, O2 and now Netflix.  But thanks to good devices it’s all joined up and it won’t be long before we see some very clever services coming in that offer more or all of it in one package.

Anytime, anyhow and anywhere – IS coming soon…!

Link

Silence for a bit too long – new position back up in the city (London) and lots to do, so quiet on the blog front.

US court to rule on ReDigi’s MP3 digital music resales

But a very interesting article I saw tonight – yes again on the BBC – about a pending court ruling about whether MP3 music files can be resold.  Hmmmmmmm.  Makes you wonder.  As an individual I bought them, as long as I’ve not copied them I should be able to re-sell them.  I can do it with physical goods, so why not digital?  For a business though?  Well why not – you get second hand shops (including for music, videos and games and books) for physical goods and they’re total legal and everyone’s happy about them. What difference does it make that it’s digital, just a different medium for consuming the content?  None really – other than it’s potentially easier to copy the content.

One to watch in the courts – and will it set a precedent?  US only?  Music only?  Watch this space…

Content over consumption – coming soon

Leave a reply

A topic that I’ve been thinking about for sometime now and with my own children growing up immersed in technology, have been wondering if content over consumption is or will be a problem.  Is anyone else thinking about this?

Content is everywhere and so accessible and at lower and lower prices, and everybody is creating and publishing their own content.  Blogs, videos, photos, apps, web-sites, Facebook pages and more.  When we access and consume all this content are as focused as we should be?  Are we spending the time the content deserves or needs to understand it properly?

I’m a big fan of digital media and technology and yes I buy into the anywhere, anyhow and anytime philosophy.  I like to be able to decide when and where and how I access the content and what content I’m accessing.

Mrs. Noble’s not convinced about my 2 screen policy in the living room – i.e. watching TV and using the iPad or iPhone at the same time (be it for browsing, Twitter, e-mails or anything).  Her argument goes that I’m not focused on the one activity – one content consumption activity – so I can’t be getting the most out of it.  She has a point and a good one.  Yes it does take a lot for a TV programme to grab my attention fully but unless  I consume the content and focus on it and nothing else, am I off to a bad start?

What got me really thinking about this was a BBC programme that’s on now, called “The Men Who Made Us Fat“, with Jacques Peretti.  The title of this grabbed me and I thought I’ve got to watch it, as it’s surely all about self control so I was dying to see what they had to say and how it can be possibly be someone else’s fault.  But I stand corrected – it’s an eye opener to say the least.  Some critics of the programme disagree – quite harshly – but it makes some very very good points and there were a number of pivotal points over the last 40 or so years that have contributed to over consumption of food, that you can’t argue with.

Keep with me, this is relevant to the subject of content over consumption as you’ll see…

These pivotal points include:

  • The availability of cheaper high calorie food – through sugar and corn syrup.
  • The new idea of a snack – food consumption away from the traditional meals.
  • Counter service food – fast food and takeaways, food when I want and where I want.
  • Food manufacturers creating new low fat alternatives but still full of sugar.
  • And food anywhere, anyhow and anytime – it’s everywhere you go.

And these have all contributed to a growing over consumption of food and yes the related health issues – particularly in the Western world.

Now back to content – let’s look at the similarities…

  • The mass availability of cheap rich media content – e.g. from YouTube.
  • Content snacks as cheap small pieces of content – e.g. music tracks and short episodes.
  • Counter service – content anywhere I want through iTunes, Amazon, Google etc.
  • New types of content from creators – e.g. apps for £0.69.
  • And content anywhere, anyhow and anytime – what the consumer is wanting.

Content over consumption is coming and for some it’s already here.  Is it a problem though?  That’s the million dollar question.  I don’t think so if we manage the consumption properly – and this is down to individuals and parents.  Moderation is the key word and content is good in the right amounts and when appropriately filtered for the little guys.  We don’t want to stop the trends we’ve got now, with everyone being able to create their own high quality content – and build up those associated creative (and technology) skills.  But at the same time we don’t want to create a bottomless content pit where you can’t sort out the good from the bad easily and become overwhelmed by the volume.

Yes content is king but it’s about quality not quantity.

And some thoughts from the Dalai Lama to finish on…

60 of the best photos from the Jubilee weekend

Leave a reply

Some very cool photos from the long weekend we’ve just had in the UK celebrating 60 years of The Queen on the throne, thanks to LBC 97.3.  Not just one of the great radio stations out there – with some pretty amazing presenters and talk shows (and no music), and great great conversations, sometimes controversial, sometimes very funny and sometimes way out there.

And it wouldn’t be complete without some photos from the BBC as well would it – click on the Union Jack below (or the Union Flag to use it’s correct technical name – as Mrs. Noble keeps telling me).

In true UK style it rained for the Thames Pageant but millions were out in support, lining the banks of the Thames.  Some pretty amazing shots showing the number of people and all in very very patriotic moods with flags flying!  Sadly we weren’t in the crowds – we were in the Royal Albert Hall doing our bit with a Jubilee sing-along concert and had a amazing afternoon.  A very very feel good weekend for Britain.  No-one does ceremony like we do!

Royal Mail show us how it should be done – London Olympic tickets

Leave a reply

Despite the fiasco about booking tickets for the London 2012 Olympics and the lack of thought that seems to have gone into the whole way the tickets are sold to UK residents (and how user friendly the systems aren’t and how the system couldn’t handle the demand for tickets, I could go on but that’s not what this blog post is about), the tickets we did get have arrived.

A very nice package, with tickets and a bit of information about the event.  It’s for rowing, which is over in Windsor, so not London, but they’ve very kindly included 4 travelcards for us to use on the day to get to the event in London.  Hmmmmm.

And they’re standing area only but the cheapest “seats” or tickets so not too unexpected.

Don’t get me wrong, I may sound not too positive about all this but I am.  It’s going to be an awesome summer in London and as I’ve said in previous posts, this is London’s year.  Plus with the Jubilee celebrations this weekend, it really doesn’t get much better.

I was at a conference in London this week about the online Olympics and the technology behind the scenes is incredible.  Never have there been games before where the demand for online media has been so great.  Back in 2008 for the Beijing Olympics, social media services like YouTube, Twitter and even Facebook were still growing up.  In 2012 it’s a completely different story, social media is pretty much everywhere and being used in all sorts of different ways, by consumers (of all ages), brands and everyone else.  The demand on the back-end infrastructure for storage, distribution and more is going to be unprecedented.  The task of forecasting what to expect will have been no small feat, and no doubt is still changing and being fine tuned.  The plans around redundancy and how to fix problems – with the technology – will be something else.  What the BBC have planned is fantastic – their Sports page on their web-site is the centre piece and the experience you’ll get on all devices – personal computers, tablets, mobiles, smart TVs and anything else, is going to be so good that it will almost (maybe not quite) be a better more immersive experience than actually being there!  That annual license fee we pay in the UK for the BBC doesn’t look too bad.  The planned 24 live better than HD (as we know it) simultaneous video streams is impressive to say the least.  This really is the first global online digital Olympics.  Right up my street – in both ways!

The BBC have got it right, lots they’ve learnt from that amazing service that is the BBC iPlayer and other global British broadcasts they’ve done – the Royal Wedding last year for example.

But the ticket system and booking events, we’ve not got it quite right.  One shining light here though – and the subject of this post – is Royal Mail.  That amazing British institution that just works so well.  Where else in the world can you post a letter or anything for that matter and know it will arrive anywhere else in the country pretty much the next day.  Yes the prices have just gone up, but it’s still worth it.  Interestingly as well, a postman I was speaking to only this week, said it’s one of the few services you still pay for before they deliver and actual give you the service.

Having had a few e-mails from the Olympic organisers about when roughly to expect the tickets to arrive, you kind of sit back just waiting and hoping.  This morning, I got an SMS message and e-mail from Royal Mail telling me the tickets would arrive today.  They then arrived care of our very friendly local postman Mick, with a big smile on his face.  Signed for with the mobile pad he had and then literally less than one minute later another SMS message and e-mail confirming they’d been received.  Now that’s proper service and a very very good use of the latest technology.  Keep it up Royal Mail, another reason Britain is brilliant.

How fast can they run these marathon things?

Leave a reply

2 hours 3 minutes and 38 seconds is the current world record set last year in the Berlin Marathon by Patrick Makau Musyoki.  That’s an incredible time.  Average pace around 4 minutes 43 seconds per mile – for 26.2 of them.  And Roger did just one in just under 4 minutes a few years back (see last post).  That’s a long long sprint that Patrick did.  Nothing short of awesome running.  And in the morning of that world record run, he said his body wasn’t feeling good.  It’s clearly a perception thing…

Not only can he do the marathon in just over 2 hours but he can run a 1/2 marathon in 58 minutes and 52 seconds (but that’s only the 6th fastest 1/2 marathon time ever).  And about 5 miles ahead of me!

Can we (and I use “we” in the very wide human sense) ever break 2 hours?  Or is there some physiological limit built in to us?  Current consensus is that yes we can do it and we will – it might take another 20 years or so but it will be broken.  Which makes sense – we’re so close now and have come down by nearly 50 minutes in the last 100 years.  It will just require someone with the genes all right and perfect race conditions (and a little bit of hard training).

Here’s a great article on from the BBC on this – written in April 2011 before Patrick broke the record.

Time for the taper

Leave a reply

Last long long run done last week – 21 miles – and a grand total last week of 46 miles.  With only 18 days left until the big day, it’s all about reducing the number of miles now and letting the body recover slightly.

Aiming to cut back by about 1/3 on miles this week, and then the same over the next 2 weeks.  So far this week have done 1 x 12 miles and 1 x 10 miles, both at marathon pace and 10 miles planned today – with 4 x 1 mile intervals – so 32 in total.  Next week some speed work (and about 20 miles total) and then the final week a few easy light runs (about 10 miles total).

Nice article here from the BBC on tapering – from 2005 but all valid.

Not long now!