No one has ever had to sleep on the couch for buying an iPhone

Despite a general lack of awe and surprise (and in some cases disappointment) after the announcement, Apple sold a record number of iPhone 5 devices on the first day they were generally available. My impression was that this iPhone announcement had the least "bang" to it when compared to ones past. Competitors are seizing on this sentiment and publishing advertisements mocking the device and its feature set.

Apple does appear to have a solid, marketable device in the iPhone 5; so, why the disconnect between the post-announcement sentiments and the record sales? The old sales axiom comes to mind: "No one ever gets fired for hiring IBM". Here's what I mean.

When the iPhone first came out, it was seen as a smartphone with a high-quality "it just works" web browser. That, combined with its nice build and touch-first story led many enthusiasts to jump on it, even though the base price was $499. That's expensive for a phone that was kind of slow, lacked 3G, and didn't even have an app store at launch. As Apple revved its iPhone offering annually, they improved the build quality, lightened the phone, made it lighter and sleeker, and most importantly brought the price down.

In addition, Apple launched the app store in mid-2008 (around the time of the iPhone 3G launch) and pushed its platform to developers. Devs initially responded with the fart apps and simple games, but soon higher-quality apps and games began to show up on iPhone screens.

It took a while, but other phone manufacturers did pivot and did revise their hardware designs and software platforms. Recent offerings from Samsung and Nokia show that you can get a nice, sleek, quality phone outside of Apple. And, browsing the Android and Windows Phone app marketplaces shows that a lot of the popular apps are available today across multiple platforms.

So where does that leave Apple and their loyal customer base? Besides brand loyalty and inertia keeping people on their platform, we have the axiom above. Or, adjusted to fit the situation: "No one has ever had to sleep on the couch for buying an iPhone". 

Customers are not buying iPhones just for the hardware quality or the current apps. They are also buying them for the future apps that will be released on the device (often first available on iOS). Apple boasts having sold 400M iOS devices, is projected to have sold 1B by 2015, and has over 700,000 apps available for purchase and/or download. These numbers draw more and more developers into the fold.

As a result, Apple has is this aura of safety. "Buy us," they imply, "and you'll get all the apps your friends have." Or don't, and risk your significant other complaining that his or her phone can't get the cool app that everyone else has.

Sure, other platforms have differentiated app experiences that are not available on iOS, but given the install base that Apple has, some level of iOS integration with competing applications is inevitable.

For competitors to succeed, they'll not only have to match or exceed Apple's hardware designs, build quality, dev platform, and app library. They'll also have to shake this notion that iOS == future proof and other platforms == app envy. Until then, the fear of sleeping on the couch will remain.

How Dollar Shave Club Is Ripping You Off

I'm a man. Like many men, I shave my face on a fairly regular basis. And, like many men, I purchase disposable safety razor cartridges that attach to handles for shaving. Now, these cartridges don't come cheap, especially the newer, multi-blade, aloe enhanced, buzzing kind.

One day, thanks to the power of social media and a viral video, I discovered Dollar Shave Club. What a snarky company! What a funny video! And they send you cheap razor cartridges every month for way less than what the big names charge! What's there not to like?

Plenty, it turns out.

You see, Dollar Shave Club resells cartridges* made by a South Korean company by the name of Dorco. Dorco also sells cheap cartridges directly to consumers. And they do so at way better prices than Dollar Shave Club.

Here's an analysis of Dollar Shave Club's pricing.

Option	Package price	Price per blade
The 4X	$6.00	$1.50
The Executive	$9.00	$3.00

The Dollar Shave Club cartridge prices includes shipping, handling, and a free handle.

Here's an analysis of Dorco's pricing.

Option	Package price	Price per blade
The 4 blade system	$24.74	$0.95
The 6 blade system	$25.00	$0.96

The 4 blade system is a combo of a 4 blade razor handle and a multi-pack of blades plus basic shipping. The 6 blade system is a combo of a 6 blade razor handle and a multi-pack of blades plus free shipping (minimum $25). The 4 blade system cost goes down if you buy a bit more to bring the total above $25 to earn free shipping.

What bothers me about this is that Dorco and Dollar Shave Club are selling the exact same thing. It would be one thing if Dollar Shave Club were selling a product direct to consumers that consumers couldn't otherwise get at retail. But Dorco is selling the exact same product directly to consumers that Dollar Shave Club is selling. Dollar Shave Club is taking that product, slapping a little marketing snazziness on top, and charging way more. The only difference I can see is that Dollar Shave Club makes it easy to purchase a small amount of blades and get a free handle (with the hope you'll stick to your subscription), whereas Dorco encourages (but doesn't require) you to purchase $25 to get free shipping. Not a significant difference in my book.

You may be doubting that Dollar Shave Club sells Dorco blades. But they are the same as far as I can tell. Here's a picture that I took recently. On the top is Dollar Shave Club's "4X" handle and blades. On the bottom is Dorco's equivalent. The only reason Dollar Shave Club's lubrication strip is a different color is that I used the blade once right before taking the picture.

So, if you're interested in Dollar Shave Club, my advice would have been to save yourself some money and buy Dorco blades. But my advice is actually to save your face and avoid these blades completely. They're not that sharp, they drew blood every time I used them, and they're just not worth it. Go with something tried and true that's still fairly cheap (like those classic Sensor blades) and your face will thank you.

*Dollar Shave Club sources their 4- and 6-blade cartridges from Dorco. I'm not sure where they get their 2-blade cartridges.

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Recycle Your Car Seat In Seattle

When it was time for us to recycle a car seat here in Seattle, we found it especially tough. Neither the fire department nor the police were willing to take it, and all we could find on the web was a single collection event a few years ago at IKEA. Not willing to just trash the seat, we kept searching for a better option.

Fortunately, I ran across the Washington State Safety Restraint Coalition. A quick email to them led me to Goods For The Planet, a store in Seattle that not only sells green goods but also recycles a variety of different items. A quick trip to the store and $8 later, and the seat was gone.

Goods recycles many things for free, including laptops, monitors, and computers, and the rest costs somewhere between $1 and $20. The staff was friendly and quick with the transaction. They're centrally located on Dexter Avenue.

My Office Door Made It On "There I Fixed It"

The door to my office doesn't want to stay open. It's as if the building leans slightly, causing the door to close ever so slowly.

With the help of a colleague, I rigged up something to keep it open. And, apparently There I Fixed It found it funny enough to post.

see more There I Fixed It

Costco vs. Amazon: Who Has The Best Deals?

As both a Costco and an Amazon Prime member, I've been wondering who has the best deals on the stuff we regularly buy. Costco is well-known for its bulk sizing and Kirkland-brand private label products, while Amazon has Prime 2-day shipping and multi-unit, brand-name offers at prices that often undercut what you can get at physical stores.

I went to Costco yesterday and inventoried the stuff we usually buy.

Glide floss, 6 count	$12.99
Pacific Natural Foods Chicken Broth, 6 units of 32oz each	$9.79
Dave's Killer Bread, 2 loaves	$6.99
Kirkland Organic Peanut butter, 2 jars of 28oz each	$7.89
Fage 0% Greek Yogurt, 35.2 oz	$5.79
Cascade Dishwasher Gel, 125oz	$8.99
Kirkland Paper towels, 12 rolls of 80 sheets each	$14.99
Kleenex square boxes, 12 boxes of 85 sheets each	$15.49
Kirkland baby wipes, 900 total	$18.99
Ziplock quart freezer bags, 4 boxes of 54 each	$9.69
Ziplock gallon freezer bags, 4 boxes of 38 each	$10.79
Kirkland diapers, size 5, 168 total	$37.99
Kirkland toilet paper, 36 rolls at 425 sheets per roll (1912 sq ft)	$17.99
Laughing cow cheese, 4 wheels	$8.35
Total	$186.72

Next, I looked for comparables at Amazon. Here's what I did:

• I looked for the exact same brand and product. When it wasn't available, I went for something comparable.
• When the amount of product on Amazon differed from Costco, I went with a per-unit pricing (ounces for the yogurt, square feet for the toilet paper).
• I always went for Amazon Prime products.
• When the product wasn't available at Amazon, I priced it at AmazonFresh (as in the case of the yogurt).

Here's the comparison chart:

	Costco	Amazon	AmazonFresh	Notes
Glide floss, 6 count	$12.99	$20.28
Pacific Natural Foods Chicken Broth, 6 units of 32oz each	$9.79	$18.66
Dave's Killer Bread, 2 loaves	$6.99		$10.98
Kirkland Organic Peanut butter, 2 jars of 28oz each	$7.89	$8.82		Substituted O Organics
Fage 0% Greek Yogurt, 35.2 oz	$5.79		$9.18
Cascade Dishwasher Gel, 125oz	$8.99	$12.49
Kirkland Paper towels, 12 rolls of 80 sheets each	$14.99	$22.15		Substituted Bounty
Kleenex square boxes, 12 boxes of 85 sheets each	$15.49	$28.79
Kirkland baby wipes, 900 total	$18.99	$25.00		Substituted Earth's Best
Ziplock quart freezer bags, 4 boxes of 54 each	$9.69	$16.49
Ziplock gallon freezer bags, 4 boxes of 38 each	$10.79	$26.94
Kirkland diapers, size 5, 168 total	$37.99	$41.28		Substituted Earth's Best
Kirkland toilet paper, 36 rolls at 425 sheets per roll (1912 sq ft)	$17.99	$31.39		Substituted Cottonelle
Laughing cow cheese, 4 wheels	$8.35		$19.56
Total	$186.72	$292.01

As you can see, Amazon comes out to over a 50% premium to Costco. In fact, I found not one product that was cheaper via Amazon. Add to that the $79 Prime membership versus the $50 Costco membership, and the disparity grows.

Am I going to give up Amazon Prime? Nope. Amazon has plenty of stuff that Costco doesn't have, and at good prices compared to traditional retailers. But for many things, Costco's combination of private-label products and bulk sizing yields way lower prices. So, I'm sticking with both.

Amazon Prime Has Completely Changed My Shopping Habits

I remember Neil at work telling me about Prime. "Your recycle bin will be overflowing," he said, as he described the free 2-day shipping offer from Amazon and the number of items he purchased from it. At the time I didn't think paying $79 a year for the privilege of shipping was worth it. Then, last holiday season we had a bunch of presents to ship across the country, so we decided to give the free trial a shot. And we haven't looked back since.

Why is Amazon Prime such a hit? Two reasons:

Shipping speed

When I need something, I can categorize that need in terms of time as follows:

• Right now!
• Today-ish
• Soon
• Sometime this month, maybe?
• Eventually, when I get around to it

Amazon Prime succeeds because it hits on all but the first bullet point. Need a whisk? Or some granola? How about some toilet bowl cleaner? If you need this stuff RIGHT NOW then Amazon Prime isn't for you. But if you can wait a day or two, then it's a great fit.

Prices

Amazon has some pretty competitive prices on a variety of goods. These are usually name-brand products in multi-packs (6 bags of granola, 4 packs of toothpaste) that come out to less than what you pay for a single unit at a retail store. Amazon doesn't ALWAYS have the best prices (nearly 7 bucks for Bon Ami?) and doesn't ship EVERYTHING as Prime. But its hit rate for us is a solid 70-80%.

Indeed my recycle bin is overflowing with cardboard boxes, Neil. Amazon's getting a fair amount of my coin these days. Prices and shipping speed together result in a convenient way to buy all but the most urgent of things.

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Henry Blodget Is A Whiner: The IPhone Is A Dream To Use

I just read Henry Blodget's first impressions of the iPhone, after he switched to it from his Blackberry. While it's good to hear that he's overall happy with the phone, I pretty much disagree on everything he thought was faulty with the phone. Perhaps I'm not as sensitive as he because I'm not cybernetically linked to my mobile device 24/7/365. Here's a quick run-down of my opinions based on his:

• Battery life. It's fine. Come on, it'll last you a day, and you plug it up at night. Turn off push may help. If you run out after 5 hours maybe you should spend a portion of those 5 hours doing something other than fiddling with a phone.
• Speed. It's fine. It's fast enough. Really, do you need blazing quad proc speed to check your twitter status updates?
• Setting up email. I got all 3 accounts (including Exchange) on my first try.
• Typing. Indeed it's great. I was worried about my ramp-up and speed but both are awesome. The autocorrect is about 90% accurate for me.
• Email. No syncing? What? When I delete a mail from my iPhone it's gone from my Inbox. Not sure what problem he is having.
• Orientation. A quick turn of the wrist fixes this when it happens. If it happens.
• Video. Awesome indeed.
• Popups. Yeah these can be annoying. I've been conditioned to dismiss them quickly. But I agree on this one.

I predict Henry will get used to some of these minor problems after a week or two. After installing and playing with some great apps, he'll wonder why he didn't switch earlier.

Advertising Experiment: Results

OK, so I more or less did the (work)-week advertising experiment. What did I learn?

• I perceive a lot of ads. Radio and TV are the main sources. Print is moderate. Some billboards. Backs of cars were a surprising blip (license plate frames, bumper stickers). I rarely perceive ads on the web.
• I see or hear a lot of the same ads over and over. Same time of day, same medium (drive into work, watch the evening news).
• Most of the ads were for things I don't buy or use. So it was easy to live by the "don't buy or use it if you see it advertised" rule. I took some exceptions near the end here, though: NBC advertised 30 rock and I was not about to go sit in another room while it was on.
• Once you pay attention to ads, you realize how many you are exposed to. You also realize how many you are likely to perceive subconsciously. It's one thing to be made aware of a product or service. It's another to be inundated by relentless messaging.

Could I take this experiment forward for longer than a week? No way. I would eventually be unable to buy or use more and more things I want or need to buy or use. The critical mass started to build near the end of my week (see 30 rock) so I'm glad I stopped when I did.

Any changes moving forward? I'm going to mute the TV more often and stop looking at billboards, that's for sure.

An Advertising Experiment

I'm going to try an experiment with advertising over the next week.

• I'm going to record every advertisement that I consciously perceive.
• I'm not going to purchase any product or service advertised in the list above.

Now, the caveats:

• I'm not going to stop purchasing or using products and services I'm already using. For example, if I see a Netflix ad, I won't cancel my Netflix subscription.
• I'm not going to count advertisements that I see at the place of business. A Shell station advertising Shell gas via its signage does not count.
• I'm going to focus on perceived advertisements. Yes, I realize that the subconscious plays a part, but I'm not going to count those ads. This will be especially true in the Internet ad space.
  

Why am I doing this? Two reasons: I want to see how many advertisements I perceive over the course of a week, and I want to see how it changes my habits, if at all. I'll post updates as I go.

Conversion Of An Email Junkie

I've always been a fan of mail. I get excited when the postperson arrives and drops off letters at my house. It's a surprise of sorts: what will I get today? Sure, some of it is junk, some of it I was expecting (like bills), but some is a true unexpected delivery of news, a letter, a card, or the like.

For a long time, I've felt the same way about email. I remember when I first got an email address (through a BBS, before the web), and found it way cool that my friends and I could leave messages for each other without picking up the phone or writing a letter. I would share my email address out, which would result in more people sending me email. More letters appeared in the virtual mailbox for me to open, as a result.

As I moved from BBSes to ISP-provided email to web-based email, my virtual mailbox became much more than a way to exchange messages with friends. E-retailers used it to help me track the status of my order. Newsletters sent me digests of information. And, yes, junk mail started pouring in from faceless people I'd never met.

For a while, I put up with it, as the ratio of letters-from-friends to all of this other stuff remained high. But slowly it waned. The spam piled up, the automatically-generated news and alerts piled up, and my email address became much less personal. The email I received was broadcast at people like me, but not actually penned to me.

Like many others I started trying out social tools like Facebook and Twitter. Slowly, I found myself spending more and more time reading up on what people were doing via these tools, as well as posting and sharing what I was up to. Daily status, pictures, interesting stuff on the web, news...these are all things I used to use email for. But now, here's this web site or app that has all of the people I would email on it anyway, where I can share this stuff. And, I get the side benefit of others being able to look over my shoulders and comment on what I'm doing, which email doesn't easily allow for.

With the arrival of our little one, there was a lot of electronic communication happening last week. The sharing of pictures, status, and congrats was done either over the phone (family, some friends) or on Facebook (family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances) or Twitter (friends, coworkers). Reflecting on that event and the amount of stuff that was communicated about it, email was used very little. I rarely checked my email address during the past week. I was instead primarily using Facebook and Twitter, and occasionally our parents blog.

Truth be told, we did send two emails: one from my wife's personal email account to friends & fam, and one from my work email to coworkers. But there was a fair bit of overlap between these two emails' recipients and the Facebook/Twitter crowd above. And the reason we sent those emails is because not everyone is on Facebook or Twitter. At least, not yet.

So, I think I'm done getting my kicks from email. Sure, I'll still have email addresses to communicate with those not on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever the next social app comes around may be. But as long as my email address resembles my post box (mostly junk, occasional news, once-in-a-blue-moon letter), it's just not doing it for me.

A New Parents Blog

In case you haven't heard, we're going to be parents soon! I've heard from many that they don't necessarily like to read about changing diapers among non-parenting posts, so we decided to start a parents blog to capture our adventures on that front: The Adventures of Baby P. I'll keep this blog baby- and kid-free as a result.

+1 To Procter & Gamble For Replacing My Broken Razor

About a week ago my Gillette razor broke while I was using it: a little piece holding the razor blade to the razor gave way, rendering the razor useless. I emailed this info to Gillette via their web site contact form. 2 days later, I get a response from them, apologizing and asking me to wait to get something in the mail. Yesterday, I open a package from Procter & Gamble that contained a new razor. Thanks, P&G!

Talk about great customer service: quick reply on the complaint, quick resolution of complaint. I'm a continued customer, and I'm blogging about my positive experience which propagates P&G's investment in resolving said complaint.

Take note, other companies. If only 1/2 of you were this responsive to your customers' needs.

The South Earns Low Scores On America's Health Index

Thanks to a tweet from my county's executive, I took a gander at the state-by-state rankings of overall health. Guess where most of the low rankings exist? That's right: the southeast.

Why? Check out some of what these states were penalized for: obesity, childhood poverty, low graduation rates from high school, high rates of the uninsured, and violent crime. And there are reasons why these issues are more prevalent in these states than others (that's a whole other post).

I know the incoming Obama administration has promised to focus its energies closer to home as compared to the prior administration. I do hope they take a hard look at what parts of the country are suffering the most, why they're the way they ware, and target some novel solutions to them. Blanket solutions like tax cuts for the middle class won't hurt, but we need something more specific to cure these states' ills.

Southern Vodka?

Not sure if this product came to be because the South was naughty or nice, but there's apparently Sweet Tea and Muscadine Vodka available from a place called Firefly Distillery. This could either be very good or very bad. I'm hoping for the former. Who wants to send me a bottle (I doubt I can get it in WA)?

Washington Mutual Can't Compete With Online Savings Rates

Funny story today: I went to make a deposit at my local WaMu (now WaMuChase or whatever they're calling it). While in line, the teller asked me if I'd ever done an "account review" for potentially better savings rates. I said no, and asked for more info. She was very vague, and said she didn't want to "say something that wasn't right" and that this other person "could sit down with me and tell me what the latest rates are".

"Surely you can give me a summary?" I ask.

"No, I really can't - but TL over here can sit down with you and give you all the info."

I know WaMu's published rates. The teller made it seem like they had something special going on. Having a few minutes to spare, I agreed to consult with this TL person.

After a few minutes, TL (who is another one of the tellers) comes by, asks for ID, finds my info, and then starts to ask me a few things.

"So, are you looking for something more liquid or something like a CD?" he asks.

"It depends," I reply. "What are your rates?"

"Well," he says, after typing on his keyboard for a few moments. "We have a CD rate around 2.75 right now."

"No thanks," I say, "I'm getting 4% savings online, through another bank. And that's liquid."

"Ah," he says. More typing. Then, "we have a long term CD at 5%. What about that?"

"No, I can beat that online, too."

"OK, then," he concludes. "That's all I can offer."

OK, so just to summarize, these people asked me to take extra time out of my day so they could quote me their published (and somewhat sad) savings and CD rates? Give me a break.

Look up yields for CDs and for savings/money market accounts, and then compare with what WaMu offers. Then laugh. Then wonder how they're going to attract retail customers now that their thrift business has evaporated, and the competition is getting tougher.

The Big Picture's 2008 In Review

The Big Picture has published an excellent compilation of photojournalists' work over the past year. I found the compilation to be a reminder of stories that were glossed over by some news sources, yet still reflect a significant part of the year's events.

Here's part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Seattle Drivers Lose All Driving Experience When Snow Hits

I have proof!

Signs There's A Snowstorm In Seattle

From the WSDOT Incidents report:

Seattle Area Incidents

Seattle Area - Thursday Dec 18, 2008 - 07:53:25

INCIDENT INFORMATION ( * = New Incident / Update )

Current Operator: Peter L. , WSDOT

I-5 NORTHBOUND AT MID BOEING FIELD MILTI DISABLED VEHICLE BLOCKING ROADWAY VERIFIED WITH CAMERA 6:11 AM

I-405 NORTHBOUND AT I-90 MULTI DISABLED VEHICLE BLOCKING ROADWAY VERIFIED WITH CAMERA 6:08 AM

SR-520 WESTBOUND AT MARYMOOR PARK MULTI DISABLED VEHICLE BLOCKING ROADWAY VERIFIED WITH CAMERA 5:41 AM


** SR-169 AT KUMMER BRIDGE CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Foot Detox Pads Are A Bunch Of BS

I'm surprised I still see foot detox pads being sold in stores and online. These things claim to pull toxins from your feet when you wear them, and brown stains on them is the supposed proof.

There are plenty of sources that refute this product's claims. Yet people keep trying to support them; check out some of the comments on this post.

Steer clear of this snake oil. Unless you really like to spend money on expensive placebos.