Halo Homage: The Future of Gaming

This video paying homage to last week's Halo launch had my family rolling on the floor laughing. It's probably the best "if you extend the trend indefinitely you get..." analysis I've seen. And of course, the more you know about the video game market and Halo, the funnier it is.

MIT donates to Harvard -- at least in the form of Halo 3 garb

I always love MIT hacks (having participated in some minor ones myself when I was there), and this one is both priceless and harmless (as most are). And Microsoft should be happy: it was free PR for the Halo 3 game launch.

Technorati Tags:
Games, Marketing, Microsoft, Halo 3, MIT, Harvard

Memo to Steve Jobs: fix these customer issues before they fester

I may be an Apple fan, but I do think that Jeremy Horowitz over at iLounge.com has brought up four legitimate customer issues Apple should fix. I attribute these issues -- defective iPod touch screens that Apple charges a restocking fee to take back, "Made for iPod" accessories that Apple broke with the new iPods, et cetera -- more to neglect than malice, but that doesn't mean that Apple can ignore them.

Apple needs to get a customer-advocacy SWAT team together and make these customers happy again. A happy customer will tell their friends about their experience, but ones that feel they've been wronged will tell everyone they know -- and that just erodes all the brand work Apple has done over the past decade. And if it means another apology from Steve Jobs, so be it. Apologies are always better than lost customers, regardless of whether you are a $25 billion company or a Mom and Pop shop.

Technorati Tags:
Apple, Brand, Customer experience, iPod, iPod touch, Marketing, Jeremy Horowitz, Made for iPod, Games, Steve Jobs