Great Interactive from Barnes & Noble

I was reading my stream of Twitter updates and was excited about a tweet from @themarketingguy. He pointed his followers to the Barnes & Noble app on the iPhone. If you download it, it comes with a coupon for a free tall hot or iced coffee at a Barnes & Noble Starbucks stores. The tweet was simple "The Barnes & Noble iPhone app comes with a free cup of coffee." I immediatley downloaded the app to my iPhone and retweeted @themarketingguy's tweet. Barnes & Noble gets more face time with me, @themarketingguy gets validity to his tweet through an RT (that retweet speak in twitter) and I get a free cup of coffee and an app that I'm likely to use regardless. The lesson to be learned? Sometimes it's a tiny little thing (like a cup of coffee) that helps you to interact with your audience, gain word of mouth and make a great impression. Just think, already this went from app to twitter to blog. Where will it go next? Good press for a buck plus change.

image credit: webgrl on Flickr

The Apple Store, Architects and creative energy in Boston

The streets of Boston's Back Bay were alive with creative energy last night. I'm not sure if it was more to do with the grand opening of the country's largest Apple store or the crowds of architects walking the streets and taking in al fresco dining after a day of education and camaraderie at the American Institute of Architects annual conference. Perhaps it was the perfect culmination of the two, but whatever it was it made Boston a better, livelier place for it.

And about that Apple store - I'm not sure what was the better photo op, the one I caputured of the crowd still waiting to get in the doors, already two hours past opening, or the one I missed of the crowd of people across the street all capturing the same scene using their iPhones.

Apple goes hyperlocal with Boston store wrap

Apple has gone hyperlocal with its new Boston store wrap. Apple's flagship store in Boston's Back Bay is set to open soon. To help build excitement (as if the store weren't excitement enough) Apple has ditched its previous white plastic covering for some local flavor. Green Monster flavor that is. Just blocks away from Fenway, the Apple store is capitalizing on Boston's love of the Red Sox and the famed Green Monster by emulating a score board that boasts Opening Day Coming Soon.

Image taken with my iPhone (what else).

The iPhone is changing behavior

I'm a market research junkie. I love the whole process, from setting the research objectives to interpreting the data. And I'm also obsessed with anything Apple. That combination makes Rubicon's recently released report titled The Apple iPhone: Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry on the top of my reading list. download the study

These were my takeaways:

• The introduction of the iPhone has raised expectations of what information should be accessible at your fingertips (the web, maps, contacts, email, the web).
  
  
• People aged 26 - 40 are the most likely to upgrade their traditional mobile phone to an iPhone. Motorola might see their margins decline as the iPhone picks up in popularity.
  
  
• The iPhone has the potential to decrease laptop sales which will put pressure on content providers to be more agile in providing data to multiple screen sizes.
  

My three takeaways all lead to the same place. The iPhone, like the iPod, has become a success in changing consumer behavior. Consumers are no longer happy having their music in their pockets. Now they want something more comparable to their laptops in their pockets.

One of the most surprising statistics (to me) in the study was that 1 in 4 iPhone adopters was new to Apple. I would have expected a much smaller base in the first year of introduction. Perhaps the iPhone will also serve in convincing more people to trust their computer needs to Apple delivering even more market share to the company.

Now a question for you, if you have an iPhone how has it changed your behavior?

Apple's Time Capsule

The blogosphere is alight with commentary on Apple’s new Macbook Air; but my favorite item from Macworld is the less talked about Time Capsule. When I saw this on Apple’s website after Steve Jobs’ keynote (which I missed due to a meeting on the less glamorous topic of healthcare reform in Massachusetts) I jumped out of my seat and proclaimed: I have to have that! I’m terrible at backing up, although I realize the importance of it after having been burned before. So having a wireless drive that doubles as a Wi-Fi base station and will automatically back up my data for me on a day to day basis is pure heaven. Add to that one less piece of hardware lying around the house and I get one step closer to my New Year’s resolution of getting rid of 10% of my belongings. It’s an all around win. Oh, and the new functionality that just got added to my iPhone isn’t bad either…