Personalization

I’m on an airplane bound for Boston and I’m finally getting around to reading all those Business Week magazines that have piled up around my bed, office, kitchen, living room, and yes, bathroom. It sure is hard keeping up with everything I have to read around me. I get this particular magazine weekly, along with Rolling Stone every other week and Wired, Fast Company, Conde Nast Traveler, and Travel & Leisure on a monthly basis. Plus I get the LA Times newspaper on my doorstep daily along with a cavalcade of emailed news publications, blogs and newsletters that come, what feels like, hourly. Oh yea, and I knock down a book or two every month as well. I’m not complaining, I love to read and as you can tell, my interests are quite varied.

I’m drifting quickly to a complete online solution and I’d guess I’m about 2 years away from everything coming into my Google Reader, my iPhone, or my Kindle (haven’t bought one yet, but eyeing it closely) and saving the lives of a few dozen trees. Now if I could just figure out how to erase my name from the databases of the catalog companies!

Back to Business Week, November 10th issue. There were two articles that caught my attention. The first was about Sony Electronics. Specifically how a few years ago, CEO Howard Stringer stole senior Apple innovator Tim Schaaf away from Steve Jobs in an effort to make Sony cool again. The article goes on to talk about how Sony’s various companies don’t get along and how they’ve struggled to capitalize on their seemingly related slew of electronic and content properties. I remember hearing from the Sony Music New Media folks a few years back that it was easier to partner with Xbox than it was with PlayStation. According to this article, things haven’t changed much.

Basically the article states that Schaaf is making some headway, but it seems that the expectations of a much quicker turnaround are falling short. The final quote in the article is what got me typing this post:

“Apple is the Sony of the 21st century. In the past two years Sony has had plenty of time to come up with an iPhone. Why hasn’t it?”

I ask myself that all the time. How is it that Apple is the only company to tap into the public’s psyche? Why are they the only company to make us feel like they are making products for us? How is it possible that another company hasn’t made a product as fantastic as the iPod? Or as turnkey to use with iTunes? Sony could have done this, but they blew it. Now they’ve closed up their content delivery port, Sony Connect, and they are partnering with Microsoft. Microsoft? Using Windows to power their phones and their MP3 players. Hmm. Does that sound smart? I don’t know anyone that owns a Smartphone that utilizes the Windows Mobile format. But I’d say 80% of my friends and family have a Blackberry or an iPhone.

Meanwhile the Kindle has stolen the thunder from the eReader. I have a friend that has an eReader. He likes it, but doesn’t love it. Truth be told, he got it for free. My sister showed up at my house a week ago sporting a brand new Kindle. She and her husband bought one a week earlier as a gift to themselves and they LOVED it. She couldn’t wait to show it to me. I’d seen one about 2 months earlier and it was like I’d been allowed to view the Hope Diamond because they have been so hard to get. How does Amazon, a non-electronics company create a device more exciting than Sony?

The whole point of this is not to bash Sony. I am sure navigating a company that large with that many billion dollar branches is next to impossible. I just find it hard to believe that companies like Sony can’t make products that we want.

Which ties in perfectly with the other article, it was about Dell. In the magazine, there is a photo of one of Dell’s chief designers, Ed Boyd in front of a wall of laptop covers that looks like a collection of paintings. This photo got me so excited; I didn’t even have to read the article to know what it was going to say. Dell is finally going to make laptop computers visually interesting… on the outside.

What took so long? Over a decade ago Apple started producing home and business computers and monitors with color. Remember the aqua blue and the orange? It was so cool. And no one on the PC side made a move. They just kept churning out the black and the gray.

Laptops are booming. Thanks to wireless connectivity, I can sit in front of my television and surf the Net. I can type this blog as I sit on an airplane. Yes, functionality is the priority. But when I pull out my laptop at a meeting, I want it to say something. If I have a Macbook, it says that I’m creative, forward thinking, cool. If I have a Lenovo, an HP, a Sony, or a Dell, it doesn’t really say anything about me at all. I’m not knocking those computers; they just don’t make a statement about me.

Now what if could design the cover of my own laptop? What if, like my Google homepage, I could choose from a thousand great art pieces? Would I do that? I’m telling you right now, I would. And I don’t think I’m alone.

The article says that Dell is on the pathway to do just that. Today you can choose from several designs to cover your laptop. Tomorrow, you may be able to design one yourself. That is awesome. Think of the businesses that would sprout up. I have a friend who is a fantastic designer. I bet people would pay her to make custom patterns for their computers. One day I might ask her to create a custom Fanscape design to be used for a slew of laptops that I would buy for my employees.

I’m excited about the personalization. Please, make me products that make my life easier; that fulfill my needs; that make a statement about me. I’ll pay for it. Maybe not right this moment while I watch my finances, but soon.