Week 11 (#1): Bye Bye Yellow Pages

 

The Yellow Pages are yet another casualty of the digital age, with AT&T announcing its plans to sell its Yellow Pages business to Cerberus Capital Management. The business has been struggling for years since up-to-date listings became just a click away and easily accessible on the internet. Although the Yellow Pages directories go out to about 150 million homes and businesses in 22 states, they are more likely viewed as junk mail and being thrown away than as a valuable aid. AT&T attempted to stay on top of the digital age by launching YP.com but had limited success, taking a $2.9 billion write-down in 2011. Cerberus plans to put a fresh and modern spin on the business with AT&T maintaining a significant stake in the new venture.

I believe it was just a matter of time before the hard-copy Yellow Pages became extinct; after all, even novels and textbooks are being converted into digital copies viewable on tablets and e-readers. Why would any household want to maintain the burden of enormous, cumbersome phonebooks when there are more convenient alternatives to obtain phone numbers and addresses?

Source:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/09/technology/ATT-sells-yellow-pages/index.htm

Week 10 (#3): Pinterest is Third Most-Visited Social Site

Experian Marketing Services, a digital marketing firm, released a report stating Pinterest as the third most-visited social-networking site in the U.S.; behind Facebook and Twitter. Pinterest lets users "pin" photos and info from the Internet onto virtual boards along with comments. Last month Facebook had more than 7 billion total visitors; Twitter had 182 million; and Pinterest had 104 million U.S. visits (not including mobile traffic); putting it ahead of LinkedIn, Google+, MySpace and Tumblr.

Pinterest launched in March 2010, but has grown rapidly only in the past six months; traffic jumped 50% between January and February. Pinterest skews female with about 60% of users being women, and to the middle of the country; being most popular in Missouri, Utah, Alabama, Oklahoma and Kansas. An iPad app is expected soon.

Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/06/tech/social-media/pinterest-third-social-network/index.html

Week 10 (#2): StearClear...the App for Drunks

Many people age 21 and over can relate to the stress and hassle associated with being too drunk to drive home after a night out at a bar, and having to figure out a way to pick up their car the next morning. Well, thanks to a new service called StearClear, the agony of retrieving your car could be eliminated. StearClear has been up and running for only a month in parts of New Jersey and is a way to get you and your car home safely. Although several communities have some sort of designated-driver program, this is the first franchise of its kind. StearClear works off three mobile applications: an iOS/Android app for end users (the drunk people), one for the drive teams, and a third for franchise owners which lets them view a map of their drivers' cars in action along with customer requests. The drive teams consist of two people: one who drives the customer's car and the other who follows in their own car, carrying the customer.

Drivers are assigned shifts but can make themselves available at any other time as well. When customer requests come in, drivers "bid" for the pickup via their own app by saying when they can get there; obviously customers typically choose the driver closest to their location. The cost per customer is $20/per pickup plus $2.50/mile with a special rate for premium members. This pricing is around the same as local cab rides, depending on your area, but is much cheaper than a black car service.

Franchise owners pay $30,000 to buy a block of 70,000 people (around 6 to 12 zip codes) and keep 80% of the revenue. StearClear is currently undergoing its first public test, which will last for about 3 months.

Source:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/06/too-drunk-to-drive-but-still-wanna-get-your-car-home-theres-an-app-for-that/


 

Week 10 (#1): Half of all US Households Own at Least One Apple Product

According to CNBC's All-American Economic Survey, 51% of US households own at least one Apple product. That means that just over half of all US households are Apple owners! This seems like a paradox considering that just over a decade ago Apple was almost bankrupt with a market share of about 2% worldwide. Then with the advent of the iPod and iPhone and then the iPad Apple was able to gobble up market share and even create new markets! Apple truly is an AMAZING company!


The survey revealed that of the households that own Apple products, they own an average of 3, making the overall ownership rate of the American public 1.6 Apple products per household. The survey showed that Apple buyers tend to skew male, young, with higher education and incomes (77% of households making $75k+ have an Apple product). Households with children also increase the likelihood of owning an Apple product; 61% compared to 48% with no children. The survey further showed that both Republicans and Democrats are equally likely to own Apple products. 


CNBC's survey polled 836 Americans via both land-line phones and cellphones over 3 days in March.


Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/29/tech/gaming-gadgets/household-apple-products/index.html

Week 9 (#3): SpotlessCity

SpotlessCity is a new website that allows users to find a dry cleaner or laundromat in their area that will pickup and return their laundry, without the user ever needing to leave his house. Although pickup and delivery services previously existed, this is the first online-based service of its kind.


How It Works:
1) Enter in your address to find all of your local dry cleaners and laundromats
2) Select a dry cleaner and schedule a FREE pickup and delivery
3) Sit back and relax! Your dry cleaner will pickup, clean and deliver your clothes back to your home


The service puts the responsibility on the dry cleaner to follow through with the order, and SpotlessCity doesn't take a cut from the customer but instead gets a payment from the dry cleaner for streamlining their business. Dry cleaners in SpotlessCity's network operate in the Village, SoHo, the Upper East Side in Manhattan, in and around Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn, and are expanding to all of NYC shortly.

SpotlessCity's mission is: "To make city life more livable, one load at a time."


Source:

http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/28/spotlesscity-will-pick-up-your-soiled-dirty-laundry/
http://www.spotlesscity.com/Home/About

Week 9 (#2): Have Fear of Missing Out?

timeRAZOR has developed a new events-finder app for smartphones that uses the phone's geolocation features combined with a built-in recommendation engine to help suggest nearby events and experiences to users; the company's slogan is "We bring you cool events close to where you live, work & are scheduled to be." The app also integrates the phone's built-in calendar to suggest events taking place near the user's out-of-office meetings and social appointments. For example, if a user is going to be in Chicago away on business next Friday, perhaps the app will recommend the user see a Chicago Cubs game that night.


The app currently pulls in over 300,000 event listings per day from over 100 different sources, making it one of the larger events databases available.The events are organized within the app in various sections: “planned," events the user has on his calendar; “possible,” available events; “for me," recommended events; and “by me,” special events the user has chosen to attend. Users can add events to their phone’s calendar, view event details, share them with friends and even get “travel time” alerts that tell the user when she needs to leave to make the event.


Source:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/28/fear-of-missing-out-timerazor-connects-you-with-nearby-events/

Week 9 (#1): Will College Become More Affordable?

It is no secret that college tuition is expensive and getting more expensive year after year. Overall, tuition at private colleges has been increasing more than 4% each year for the past three years with average tuition at a four-year private college costing $28,500 a year. According to an article from money.cnn.com titled “Colleges slashing tuition, offering 3-year degrees,” a growing number of colleges are taking extreme measures to attract more students by cutting tuition costs or speeding up the rate at which they graduate. Some private colleges are introducing substantial double-digit percentage cuts in tuition, freezing prices, or offering pilot programs, three-year degree programs or four-year graduation guarantees. These measures are in response to consumers’ concerns about the rising cost of college, and although have been used to some degree in the past, have become more prevalent since the economic downturn. In addition to making college more affordable for students, colleges want to offer more competitive prices to attract more students and increase their bottom lines as well.


With tuition cuts or reducing the time it takes to graduate there is a tradeoff, however. Temporary tuition cuts and freezes are typically accompanied by financial aid cuts, so the money isn’t all going back to the students. For example, the University of Charleston is slashing tuition but it is also reducing the amount of financial assistance that is available to students from $15 million to $10 million. Although the quality of the education will most likely not be affected by tuition cuts or freezes (unless an increase in enrollment results in a higher student-to-teacher ratio), some fast-tracked degrees might suffer. Eliminating core requirements to graduate sooner may leave out some very basic skills like writing and reading that have an important impact on job performance. 


These measures, with their cost-savings implications, are definitely good news to students like me! Lowered tuition costs allow students to pay less money out of pocket or have less loan debt due to college expenses. Since tuition is based on credit requirements, if these requirements are decreased, students will be able to get a degree that is just as good as one that would have cost thousands of dollars more a few years prior. Not to mention we would be able to obtain the degree in a shorter amount of time!

Source:

http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/22/pf/college/cost-cutting/index.htm?iid=SF_PF_LN