Ronald's ScribblingsPosts
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Illiberal Democracy
I’ve come across this interesting wikipedia article, Illiberal Democracy, where Singapore is cited as a clear and distinct example.
The stance in the article is further emphasised by the following speech by NMP Siew Kum Hong. What he doesn’t say and why he had to make this speech would make very good food for thought in the light of the article mentioned above.
Happy grinning.
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Broken Telephone
What I’d learnt in business about message delivery is to pass the message directly to its intended recipient, with as little intermediaries as possible. In the place I work however, they stubbornly adhere to the contrary – message passing. If you’ve ever played the game called, “broken telephone”, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
To illustrate my organisation and the context, I’ll let you imagine an auditorium where a level of students are assembled. Each level contains 3 classes is divided into 30 people each, led by a class in-charge. Each class subsequently is divided into 3 groups with 10 people each, led by a group in-charge. Effectively, the group in-charge has at most 9 people under him.
Let’s say the principal needs to get everyone to do something such as taking out a piece of paper from their pockets, most normal organisations would have the principal go to the microphone and address the gathered directly. At most, the level in-charge would be informed and announcement made by him.
However, in my organisation, things work in a more ridiculous way. To send a message, the principal would instead summon his deputy and passes his message to him, and his deputy would then summon the discipline master and pass the message to him. Following which, the discipline master would summon the level in-charge and pass him the message; and subsequently, the level in-charge would then summon the class in-charge, and the class in-change would summon the group in-charge. Finally, the group in-charge would then summon the remaining 9 people under his care to tell them the (possibly already distorted) message – do an equipment check before moving off.
These elaborately detailed procedures happen all the time, regardless of the need nor inefficiencies.
You wouldn’t believe me if I were to tell you that the organisation that I am forced to work for is sadly hopeless and stifling.
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Apple's Care
I’ve learn a few things about AppleCare and how it basically works in the whole AASP ecosystem. A few weeks ago, I sent both of my Macbooks in for repair for various issues, ranging from bluetooth malfunction to bloated batteries.
A mistake I’d made was that I failed to contact AppleCare before I sent my machine down for repairs.
According to the AASP, the replacement of my bloated battery has to depend on Apple’s approval and there’s no guarantee that the (optional) replacement is free of charge. Exactly as they say, they messaged me a few days later claiming that Apple has refused to replace the battery and that I can purchase a new one for S$208. Based on my past experiences with AppleCare, I knew this isn’t usual and I thus declined to pay for any replacement, leaving the battery at that while I find time to contact AppleCare.
Yesterday, I finally managed to contact AppleCare and indicated the issue of a bloated battery. Upon confirmation that the battery is operationally fine but bloated, the support representative offered to replace my battery without much hesitation.
Well and good. Then, I checked my repair logs of the machine and realised that it has exceeded the magic number of 3. Gladly, I prompted the agent to check what was changed in the machine when I last sent my machine for repairs and he too noted the repair count and informed me about the replacement policy.
Well and even better. I got a new case number and am to call AppleCare again during their Australian office hours so that I can get this expedited through their customer relations department. That lies the royal trouble. I’ve got no time to call AppleCare between Monday to Friday, 9 am to 3 pm.
I guess, there’s no harm waiting as new revisions of Macbook would be released real soon.
The bottom line is this: Always call AppleCare first for any hardware related issues before bringing it down for repairs for a greater and less frustrating experience.
Come to think of it, I don’t mind getting replacements yearly now that Time Machine is working so well.
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Going On
Innovation is something that makes me go “wow” when it is introduced, with the prospect of actually owning it without too much cash required. Apple released new iPod products which are great. They continue pushing the market towards a new direction, allowing other photocopiers to continue to operate at top speed.
Thus far, there has yet to be a music player with 24 hours worth of battery playback nor a music player with 2” screen in a 8 mm thin form factor. These things, though trivial, are worth to marvelling at.
There are people around who diss these new products as an avenue for Apple to reap higher profits. They fail to see the point. Business are meant to bring in profits, but the difference lie in the innovation and integration their products bring to the market. Look at Windows Vista. The price is set high, but does the product bring any innovation to the market? Apparently not. It reeks strongly of examples of bad implementation.
However, I do agree that Apple do not price their products cheaply, but they indeed force the market to innovate in order to progress. Without the iPhone, the US phone market will continue to grow very slowly in terms of innovation. Without the iPod in 2001, the music player industry will NEVER see the progress it has seen thus far. Even though Creative made the first DAP, it isn’t the most innovative one, nor one that strive to bring technology and usability to consumers. It takes Apple to enter the market and set the standard, before other businesses attempt to reach their standard, hopefully surpassing it before Apple updates the standard once again.
Of course, not all Apple products are the most innovative ones around but they certainly leave a presence and mark. It’s the art of Marketing, product branding and placement. Whatever design released by Apple becomes the new trend, regardless of how ugly it actually looks. After all, research has shown that people are less likely to be angry towards an aesthetically pleasing but faulty product than compared to an ugly and faulty one. It applies to humans too. People are generally more tolerant towards good-looking people than compared to someone ugly.
As such, it’s always profitable to appreciate products which tie usability with innovation, packaged and brought to the hands of consumers at prices not unaffordable. Think of the Zune as a negative example – Do you see value in it? As long as Apple stays with Jobs running the show, I’m sure there are great things to come.
The news of the tie up with Starbucks to offer music downloads via the WiFi network is something I see that has immense potential. I might actually be willing to buy music this way given the convenience. Who knows, they might actually expand to offer live radio streaming and the opportunity to purchase the ‘now playing’ track under a WiFi network.
Never under-estimate the value of ideas ignited by small steps.
iTunes integration is a must for all these iPod technologies to work seamlessly without user intervention. Coverflow, WiFi Music Store, Contacts, iCal sync and more. If you’ve use Palm’s Hotsync before, you’ll appreciate the beautiful integration iTunes brings to the iPod, compared to any DAP device used alone, managed solely by drag-and-drop. With a Mac, it gets even better as it hooks into the iSync (Sync Service Framework). My Contacts, iCal, Tasks are kept in sync across my Mac, Phone, iPod, Palm (and Google Calendar with Spanning Sync plug-in), all seamlessly. Try that in Windows, and record the time it takes.
In other interesting news, here’s customer service at its finest. Steve Jobs writes an open letter to offer iPhone owners (before the US$200 price cut) a US$100 rebate, just because “Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.”
Really, it’s a matter of what you choose to see. I choose to see things in terms of opportunities and possibilities, rather than limitations and defects. The same applies to people I see.
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