My EMBA Journey

Apple has scheduled its release of iPhone in the next few weeks. Now most important question in everyones mind is "Can iPhone become the phone of the decade?" In my opinion it has all the juice to become an innovative product of this decade. iPhone might even catapult the success of Apple's own iPod.



I believe Apple is entering an upward trend in digital entertainment with iPhone. Following are the traits I think would be an instant success

1. One touch call
2. Visual voicemail
3. New SMS functionality
4. Complete Internet browsing(Safari)
5. Google Maps, Google Widgest
6. All your Google extras
7. Built in sensors
8. Multi touch & Intelligent keyboard


Challenges facing iPhone

Currently iPhone is tied to AT&T Wireless which is a bottleneck. Not many customers have a great opinion about AT&T when it comes to signal strength and customer service. This issue is similar to DRM problems faced by iTunes customers. Wireless spectrum in US has to change in order to accomodate the growing need for independent wireless equipment sellers and carriers. This model has been time tested in Europe and Asia. It has lead to booming equipment design and innovation in cellphones. Customers are free to use their desired models wrather than tied to a single model for more than 1 or 2 years.

Already there is a drop in iPod sales, would iPhone become a competitor to iPod?

As we all know Nintendo's Wii has become the hottest selling video game player than Microsoft's XBox and Sony's PS3. I wanted to see what lead to the success of Wii. I was thinking what did Nintendo's marketing team did to achieve this success.



I came across an article in BusinessWeek related to Wii the most successful video game console from Nintendo. This article explains how a conservative company such as Nintendo learned to ease and let go the control, which eventually brought the huge success which it is enjoying today. One of the most notable and innovative marketing program is the Ambassador program in which friends and families were invited to play Wii. Nintendo conducted a massive sampling program by inviting people to play in 25 malls. Around 300 trained staff helped to yield 1.1 million physical interactions and 90 million impressions.

This is a great example of how social networking can be used effectively by a marketer to make inroads in to the league of big boys

How Nintendo Learned to Chill Out

My team went for a International Trip to Poland and Praque, I couldn't make it to the trip for family reason. I will be taking the trip to China in April 2008.

Following are the pictures from their trip

Ernesto's International Trip pictures

Monica's International trip Pictures