Apple iPad Delivery Problems

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Yesterday was delivery day for my pre-ordered iPad. I haven’t had time to play around with it much so I’m going to write a review in a couple of days. But I can definitely say that Apple are having serious delivery problems with the iPad in Europe.

I was supposed to meet a friend after work and had some time to kill. So I went to one of the major electronics stores in central Berlin to check out what was going there in terms of iPad hype. I was ready to take photos of happy Apple disciples holding up their new toys like relics. But as David Bowie said, this is not America.

First of all, I saw absolutely no advertising for the iPad inside the store. This made me wonder whether they were even selling it. So I went upstairs to the Apple corner where I was welcomed by the following sign

Dear customers, for iPads please refer to our customer service representatives. Maximum items per customer: 1 while stock lasts. Reorders are possible of course. Delivery date unknown. Your MediaMarkt team.

So we are taken back to the age of food stamps here.

Anyhow, I talked to some of the sales people there. The first guy said that all of them had been sold in the morning already. He wasn’t allowed to tell me how many they had on stock. So I asked him if it was more than a hundred because I didn’t see any advertising for it. He raised his eyebrows and replied “I don’t think we’re going to be selling any more of them in the next weeks.”

If you ask me, I don’t think they had more than 50 in one of the most central electronics stores in a European capital. All this means that Apple are pretty much out of stock because they got overwhelmed by their own success in the U.S.. This is also why they postponed the release date for Europe.

The bottom line is that the iPad is not going to be such a major game changer in Europe in the next weeks. They ruined their premiere and if competitors like neofonie with their WeTab or Dell with their Streak hurry up they can grab a big piece of the tablet market here.

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TeamViewer Remote Control

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Have you ever wanted to control a remote computer? Then you have probably messed with VNC-based programs in the past. But the problem is that VNC is usually tied to a very specific port. And if you are behind a router or firewall you need to configure that device to allow you access to the computer. All really complicated, especially if you’ve never heard of HTTP ports and such.

TeamViewer solves all of these problems. It’s remote desktop software available for Windows, Mac, Linux and iPhone. All you need to do is start the software and enter the TeamViewer ID of the remote machine and a pre-defined password. TeamViewer does the rest. No more worries about port configurations and possible video drivers interfering. For non-commercial use it’s absolutely free and a must for every geek.

Download: http://www.teamviewer.com (no affiliate link)

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a4uexpo Europe 2010

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Just about one week until a4uexpo kicks off. I will be in Munich for Europe’s top affiliate marketing conference from May 17 to 19.

a4uexpo will start with the usual Ignite Party the night before the conference starts. Then there will be two days of sessions and exhibit hall with a big party on the second day and a calmer fade-out event on the third day.

I will be attending a few sessions. However, most of the time you will be able to find me at the Sponsormob booth during the day. Mobile affiliate marketing is no longer a niche but becoming mainstream so we are taking our business to the main events.

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It’s the Software, Stupid

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My allusion to Bill Clinton’s famous phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” refers to the ongoing discussion about the price and value of hardware vs. software in consumer electronics.

Today Apple released their iPad, a new tablet computer that looks and works pretty much like a blown-up version of an iPod Touch. Many people seem to bash the iPad because its hardware is nothing special, also because it doesn’t even have a USB port. Why do I think it’s still a great piece of technology at a reasonable price?

It’s the software, primarily the operating system. Apple spend an awful lot of time on making things just work for the user. They invest a lot of research and development to make their products simple to use. No-one needs a manual for the iPod, iPhone or iPad. On the other side, there are even MP3 players that you can’t get working without consulting the manual.

Same thing with Mac vs. PC or iPhone vs. others. The hardware used is quite similar. The iMac isn’t using Motorola chips anymore but Intel. And the screen and the drives come from third parties too. The hardware is nothing special, designed in California but made in China. But it’s still superior because it just works. How many times have I had to help my dad figure something out on a Windows PC. I’ll just have to get him a Mac at some point.

Even if some devices give you much better hardware, their overall user experience still can’t compete. If your time is worth to you more than money, go for Apple. Yes, their products are not perfect and a bit more expensive. But with a one-time expense you can save yourself time everyday.

P.S. This post was written using the WordPress application on an iPhone. This is something I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish that smoothly with any other mobile device that I know.

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Tracking for iPhone Application Downloads

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Long time no post on the affiliate tracking front. I just want to share some exciting news with you.

As you know for a while I’ve been working for Sponsormob, the CPA Network for the Mobile Internet. We’ve released our download and conversion tracking for iPhone applicatiions. This means we can track installations of mobile apps on the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad.

Ads will be placed within other applications or on the (mobile) web. This is a 100% in-house solution and proprietary technoloy. While most of the online marketing world is still struggling with non-web transactions we went the extra mile and made it happen. We’re going to expand this to other mobile device platforms as well.

Thanks to Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit and James Coops of Mobyaffiliates for the buzz. You should check out their blogs as well:

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Good-bye AOL

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AOL is shutting down. This should really tell us something.

Ten years ago they were one of the world’s biggest internet service providers. Remeber the numerous free installation CDs they distributed like crazy? Some of them even built ash trays out of them. But that’s another story. At some point they also purchased CompuServe, remember that one too?

AOL sold their dial-up business and kept what was then very profitable for them: online advertising. They owned high-volume sites such as their own aol.com, simply because they made it the default site for their customers.

Ten years later things have changed. Advertisers aren’t willing and able to pay outrageous CPM rates anymore. That paired with some serious miscalculations internally led to a huge operational loss in the company. Their display advertising business wasn’t working anymore.

AOL is downsizing, getting rid of many advertising sales organizations. This includes Advertising.com aka Platform A in Germany, Europe’s largest display market. They’re looking for other companies to take over their business now and are in talks with the unions about layoffs.

So what do we learn from this? Well, in online media you can’t survive with a ten-year old business model. The market value of any asset slowly but surely disappears. Once you’ve reached the stage where you’re really comfortable you need to continue developing new stuff. Otherwise you fall behind because there are more smart people out there than you think.

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No more Windows

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The last day of 2009 will also be the last day of me using Microsoft Windows. This is a quick farewell to an operating system I’ve been using for 19 years. Over time it became worse and worse. Today I would describe Windows as vulnerable, slow and over-engineered. And no, Windows 7 doesn’t do it for me either.

For about a year the only reason for me to use Windows is iTunes and iPod/iPhone. Most of my other tasks could get done easily by a Mac or a free Linux distribution. Tomorrow I’m going to bury Windows and use the free disk space for my existing Ubuntu installation. For development and office work I’m switching over to Ubuntu, multimedia and iPhone stuff will be done on a Mac.

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How Not To Translate Landing Pages

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I’ve recently come across a weight-loss offer on AzoogleAds. Colon Cleanse is one of these rebilling offers which pays over 30 dollars per sign-up. The product itself is probably absolute bogus.

The landing page has geo-targeting built in. And when you access it from a German IP address it takes you to a horribly translated version on gut-free.com. If you’re a German speaker, sit back and have a good laugh:

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