Apple's Mac can Beat the PC....in Time

I think that there is a pretty straightforward way that Apple can make inroads into the home computer market, it just will take a decade or so.....children.

Apple needs to work on the education system, and literally grow its user base.

Imagine what would happen if Apple gave away 50 computer labs per year to grammar schools across the country. Young children getting their first experiences (outside the home of course) would be on Macintosh. Parents, being what we are, always want to make sure our kids have EXACTLY what they need to succees in school (have you ever been in a Staples in August???). If the kids use Mac in school, we're far more likely to want them uing a Mac at home. 

Now think about the number of students per year that Apple has just influenced. Let's assume 300 students per school times 50 schools = 15,000 potential new customers each year. Then there is the peripheral gains due to siblings and parents, who then become evengelists for the Mac. After 10 years of doing this, Apple will likely have effected about 1/2 million potential customers. 

Apple is in a unique position to make this work even more than most companies could. All they have to do is integrate some type of educational package on the Mac with the iPod and/or iPhone. If Apple had THE educational product suite, there really would be no stopping them.

Please post any comments you might have on this. I can't wait to read them!

United Airlines Drops Customer Service Phone Line - BITTER

I can't even believe that I legitimately saw this so I had to verify it on a few different sources. United Airlines has decided to stop accepting customer comments via telephone and will only be accepting e-mail and snail mail. And yes, the year is 2009.

I can't imagine what went on in that board room. "Hey, our stock's dropped 90% since 2007 and our industry is in tatters. I've got an idea! Let's stop letting customers talk to us on the phone. We know how much they love the uncertainty of sending a message off into the abyss without ever knowing if they'll get a response. Yeah......that's the ticket!"

I'm getting visions of an old Saturday Night Live sketch of Tom Hanks and Jon Lovitz at their high school reunion. "Heeeeello, customer........and Goooooood Bye Customer. She didn't even notice us...."

This is surely the last desperate act of a company about to close its doors. "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your CEO speaking. For your safety, please assume the corporate fetal position immediately." As more and more of the world is adopting more and more ways to communicate with their customers, this is really a move that I don't understand.

I have the distinct belief that soon, the e-mail will be cut off too and the only way customers voices will be heard is either picketing outside the UAL headquarters, or perhaps while being interviewed by the local news crew about sleeping in the airport because their tickets are no longer valid.

Point of disclosure. I was holding a return ticket from Africa on Pan Am when they went under...

Good luck, United Airlines. I don't see you competing with the big dogs very much longer. Companies like JetBlue are going to beat you every time. I will give you this, though. You have definitely created a Purple Cow that will turn heads. It's just for all the wrong reasons.

United Airlines, for disregarding all sensibility and shutting down your customer service phone line, you get a BITTER. 

President Obama, the Housing Plan and the Stupidity Tax - BITTER

"The plan I’m announcing focuses on rescuing families who have played by the rules and acted responsibly," the President said, "by refinancing loans for millions of families in traditional mortgages who are underwater or close to it; by modifying loans for families stuck in sub-prime mortgages they can’t afford as a result of skyrocketing interest rates or personal misfortune; and by taking broader steps to keep mortgage rates low so that families can secure loans with affordable monthly payments." - President Barack Obama

I could not be more infuriated by the above statement. President Obama says that he is trying to help those who played by the rules and acted responsibly. This plan is estimated to help 9 million homeowners with mortgages, out of roughly 52 million, I think. This is about 20% or 1 in 5. Are you trying to tell me that 1 in 5 current mortgage holders was in some way duped, swindled, or pushed into something that they didn't understand? Are you trying to tell me that all of these homeowners who are or are near underwater on their mortgages (owe more than the house is worth) had no idea that they were drastically overpaying for their homes? I refuse to accept any of this nonsense.

I'm not going to deny that some level of predatory lending went on, but the rules of real estate didn't get written recently, like so many other Wall Street financial instruments. Investors may have something to cry about given the complex nature of the things they bought and the potentially unscrupulous ratings agencies who left things rated too high for far too long. Homeowners had better think again.

The rules of buying a house have existed for a very long time. You should be able to buy a house that costs roughly 3 to 4 times your gross income. If you make $50,000 per year, you should be buying a house for about $200,000. That's not a $200,000 mortgage. That's the house price. Over the last few years, people and banks seemed to forget about that pesky 20% downpayment. The vast majority of people did not play by these rules. It was not uncommon over the last few years to see people buying houses as much as 10 times their gross income with ZERO downpayment. Banks didn't care since they were dumping the mortgage on Wall Street anyway. But no sane human being can honestly stand in front of me and tell me they truly thought they could afford these houses. And I don't care what kind of sub-prime, interest only, or even less than interest (kudos Washington Mutual on that one) mortgage product you were offered. The basic rule of a loan is, you eventually have to pay it back. All of it.

And then there are the other group of homeowners who are lining up for their personal bailouts, the fake home equity line of credit folks. These are people who had houses before the bubble but, upon learning that their houses were exhorbitantly valued now, decided that they would cash out massive amounts of money in home equity loans, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. And what did these newly "fake wealthy" people do with this money? They went to Best Buy, BMW, and Bermuda. Seriously, has anyone even looked at how fast big screen TV's have made their way into living rooms in the last 5 years?

I was in the market for a new home in 2003, when I bought what I could afford at the time. I bought a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom condo. I splurged on a new television because I had the cash and happened to watch a lot of TV. I bought a 46" widescreen rear projection model. I was the first person I knew with a TV that big. Now almost everyone I know has that size or bigger, and oh yeah, theirs are all LCD or Plasma. People spent so much money that for the first time in our history, we actually had a negative savings rate. This means people were spending, on average for the entire United States, more money than they were making.

I recall hearing a radio news program a few months back about some financial counseling going on outside Washington D.C. and the intent was to make you feel bad for the people whose stories they told. Then they paraded out the story of a young guy who saved for years, bought his house, but now couldn't afford his payments. But then the young guy starts talking about how after he saved his money and bought his house, he decided to upgrade everything inside the house to the latest and greatest appliances, etc. How can I feel sorry for that? That's someone making some very stupid choices.

That's what President Obama is doing to us now. He is creating what I will now call "The Stupidity Tax". People that have ACTUALLY PLAYED BY THE RULES AND ACTED RESPONSIBLY are being punished. People that did not spend outside their means and have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for house prices to come back down are basically being screwed by this administration and our President. Not only are we not going to be able to buy a house, because of the anything and everything the Administration (combined with the Fed) is doing to artificially prop up house prices, we now are having our tax dollars, via the Stupidity Tax, used to keep many undeserving and downright stupid people in the houses they can't afford!

On top of all that, the Bush Administration tried out some of these same tactics last year. What happened to all the homeowners that were helped out, whose mortgages were modified? Over 50% of them went back into default within the year. Absolutely ridiculous.

And what about the speculators? That's right. What about all the people who are holding mortgages on homes that they don't actually live in. A significant portion of the home forclosures involve vacant investment properties that were bought for the sole purpose of "flipping". Should we feel sorry for people who saw 1 too many shows on TLC about making easy money this way? I don't think so.

I really wish that Obama would stick to what he said in his campaign by forcing people to take responsibility for their own actions. It insults the intelligence of the vast majority of Americans who used good judgement over the last few years to claim that he is only helping those that acted responsibly. If he were doing that, he would accellerate the normalization of housing prices so those people who should really be able to afford one could go out and buy one.

Unfortunately, many of these people simply need to get out of these homes. They can move into rentals and jumpstart the economy by paying a landlord some money instead of a bank.

A special thanks to Patrick Killelea, whose website I have been reading for several years now. He has been one of the few advocates of truth in the housing bubble for years before it was popular. 

Hess Gas Station - BITTER

This one is as much a rant as anything. I've just decided this evening that I will no longer get gas from my formerly favorite gas station, Hess. The gas station by my house has 14 pumps in a newly remodeled (completely torn down and rebuilt) location. 

Every time I go there it takes unbearably long. They typically have 2 workers that have to handle all 14 busy pumps on the side of a major highway. These 2 gentlemen handle the pressure of the situation by moving at the speed of a snail looking for directions. I don't necessarily blame them. I blame the manager who is in the little store inside who clearly does not care at all about the situation outside to staff the location properly. 

Further, the Hess company has decided in its infinite wisdom to put in a security measure which prevents customers from pumping the gas themselves. It's a swipe card that activates the pump so you can't do it yourself even if you want to. Fortunately, they can't stop you from finishing the "pump process" by putting the pump back on its holder and taking your receipt.

Last but not least, and this goes out to all gas stations who do this, when did it become the acceptible standard to leave the customer's credit card sticking out of the pump while the gas is flowing? Why can't you just reach over and hand it back? I'm honestly surprised that there are not more credit card thefts from gas stations. It would be unbelievably easy.

Hess spent tons of money to make a location look really nice and didn't bother spending any money on attendants. It's going to look real nice from now on as I drive by at 55 mph.

Hess, today you get a last straw BITTER. I'll be going to the Exxon up the road 1/4 mile.

NHL - Show the Game Clock During Intermission

I'm watching tonight's hockey game on television, something I've done at least a thousand times before, and something hit me during the intermission. How nice would it be for the TV network to mirror the experience at the hockey arena by posting the time remaining until the start of the period?

This is a basic courtesy to the fans that is done before the game and in both intermissions that would translate beautifully to the televised experience. 

If they did this, I could get a few things done between periods without worrying if I was going to miss the start of play. 

NHL (and NFL, NBA, etc.), please start showing the time clock during the pre-game and intermissions. Thanks.

(Yes. I know this is my first post without giving a bitter or a better. I can't really express all my thoughts in that format.)

Toyota Sales - BITTER

I'm pulling this one out from last year because it really gets me still to this day. I was in the market for a new SUV in August of 2007 and I went into my local Toyota dealership to inquire about leasing a Highlander. Everyone is very nice and we drive one around a bit. We like it and decide to sit and work the numbers out with the salesman.

This is where it goes south.

The salesman starts trying to convince me to buy the car. He tells me for just a little more than the amount I'd be paying on the 3 year lease, I could do a 5 year loan and own the car. I tell him that I don't want to own it. (My father has been a mechanic for 30+ years and highly recommends against owning your car from a maintenance cost perspective.) I tell him that I don't want to get locked into owning an pure gasoline vehicle, given what I viewed as oil troubles on the horizon that would lead to mass adoption of alternative engines.

Now we get the "big gun" from the back room. I repeat everything to him and he treats me like I'm ridiculous. He then goes for the bottom of the car sales scum barrel and rolls out this line, "Well, if you can't afford it...." at which time I told him, "Thanks but no thanks." My family got up and walked out of the dealership and ended up leasing a Honda Pilot instead.

So we go another 9 months into the future on this story and what happens? Oil starts the skyrocket toward $145 per barrel, gas goes over $4 a gallon, and the SUV market falls through the floor while everyone under the sun is trying to score a hybrid. Granted, the oil market crashed and normalized again, but it still doesn't change the fact that the car market was changed forever because of where we are in the history of fuel.

If I remembered the name of the "big gun" I would definitely have gone back to Toyota and had some words, but instead, I'll just have to give Toyota a BITTER.

Fisher Price - BETTER

Last year, we bought our son the Fisher Price Smart Cycle. This is essentially a stationary bicycle that plugs into the television. In order to progress in the game (often a road, with graphics similar to the ancient Enduro...) the child needs to pedal the bicycle. The faster he/she pedals, the faster the game play. In addition, the child does need to steer as well.

Long story short, one of the pedals never quite worked right. It just wouldn't fit into the cranks the right way and would always fall out. So we basically had a one pedal bicycle which as you can imagine was useless. It sat in the corner unused for about 11 months.

As I was about cart this very large toy out to the dumpster, I was met with some very sad faces. I put it back in the corner and decided to make a call to Fisher Price, which I thought would amount to nothing. I spoke to a very nice woman and asked her if she had ever heard of my particular problem. She said that she had, but not in a long time. Once I gave her the serial number, she acknowledged that my Smart Cycle was one of the older ones that was prone to this issue.

(Actually, there must be lots of pedal issues still, since they have a special page explaining the assembly.)

What she told me next shocked me. She told me to cut the wire off the Smart Cycle that connects to the TV and mail it in to Fisher Price. Once they got it, they would send me a new Smart Cycle. She e-mailed me the shipping label and the instructions and having done what she asked, I received a brand new Smart Cycle in the mail this week. My son is obviously very happy.

Fisher Price, for great customer service, gets a BETTER.