Now that the iPad has established it is the alpha dog in the market, Amazon has slashed the price of its Kindle to $189 from $259, and Barnes & Noble’s Wi-Fi-only version of the Nook will retail for $149. Those are prices that are almost to good to pass up. With the arrival of iOS 4, which brings Apple’s iBooks app to millions of devices, e-readers are also getting a new competitor: the iPhone. Although the iPhone lacks the larger screen and more book-friendly interface of the iPad, the barrier to entry is now ridiculously low, since all a current iPhone user has to do is download the free iBooks app and start browsing for titles with no extra hardware required. This drop in price has everything to do with, in my opinion, the dominance of the iPad in its early release. However if you are purely using these devices to “read” with then I just don’t think you can shy away from these prices. Would you get a Kindle or a Nook at those prices? I think I would! Remember we have all the accessories you could ever want for your E-reader or any other electronic device!
The idea to start this blog came from the fact we are good at our day to day operations that people rarely notice how we pride our selves on our customer service. So getting back to this theme I wanted to share an experience I recently had with our customer service guys that I felt went unnoticed.
Here at Abacus we have been embracing social media for some time now, and we have built what we feel is a great community.
Our fans/followers/customers/clients/partners make it really special for us. We have been getting some amazing responses on all of our platforms, specifically Facebook and Twitter! Recently one of our amazing community members had a great Idea for us and wanted to get a hold of me. She wanted to discuss her idea on the phone because it would be much easier to explain. Well she sent me a Facebook message to me saying give her a call. The only problem with that is I wasn’t able to check my messages on Facebook for a few days!
So she called our out of this world customer service line. She got a young man who asked her issue. You might think that since her reason for calling would not affect our bottom line or was not regarding a product problem that this young man would just brush her off…… WRONG!!! True to the Abacus customer service style, our customer care representative tracked me down. Since I was slightly “off the grid” it wasn’t easy, but he didn’t stop until he found me. Why? He did it because it was important to our customer. He had no clue what the idea was, just that she wanted to tell me directly and that it was about social media.
This may seem small but trust me, most companies would simply brush this aside. “Oh you have an idea for social media, um…… whats you number?”
Then we never hear from the person again, and guess what? That fan/follower/customer/client/partner is no longer any of those things. She would have become something horrible… a competitor!! The good news is she is not a competitor and its thanks to our customer service.
I want to hear some customer service stories from you guys. Good or bad. Lets hear it. I love reading this stuff. To me its this one issue that sets apart companies. No matter if you sell Printer Ink, electronic accessories, or even dog food, you MUST have good customer service!
Steve Jobs is an amazing man. He has changed the way we consume our media. He recently said that the development and release of the new Apple Tablet will be “The most important thing I’ve ever done”. This is mind blowing to me. It comes from a man who headed the creation of the iMac, iPod, and iPhone. These three devices have changed our WORLD, but he thinks this tablet device will bring the most change of them all.
So what will make this super device so…..super? Well the truth is we don’t really know. What we do know is that it will be pretty cool. Operating the Tablet will make us feel like we are the captain of the Enterprise. Imagine the iPhone, with the power of the iMac all in one sleek package you could carry around in a folder. Plus its all touch screen!!
In Apple’s press release for its strong Q1 2010 earnings, Jobs said the following: “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.” What’s odd is that not only does Jobs (or anyone at Apple, for that matter) usually make no comments about as-yet unannounced products, but why would he do so in a release about the previous quarter’s earnings — which have absolutely nothing to do with the tablet? He simply had no reason that he had to make that statement. I can only interpret that as he’s just that excited about what he’s going to unveil on Wednesday.
I plan to write more on this product when it comes out and we, the public, know more about it. I just had to put this blurb out there because if a genius like Steve Jobs is this excited about something then…..I am freaking out!!!
Break for hysteria of release……
OK so I wrote the first part of this blog post the day prior to Apples release of the iPad, as it in now being called. I thought it would be cool to release my thoughts pre press conference and post, once I had seen the specs and the goods of the product. First let me just start by saying that Steve Jobs is a genius. Whether you love or hate the iPad you have to admit Jobs brilliantly crafted the hype around this thing.
Since the release, or presser, for the iPad there have been several camps. The first camp is the iPad lovers (for the record I am in this camp). The second is people who are just not thrilled but don’t care either way, they just feel like it is a big iPhone. then there is the third camp, these people HATE the iPad. It is crazy to me how passionate some peeps are when it comes to the backlash on this thing. I am not trying to convince you one way or another on it so I will let you seek these people out.
I just want to give you my quick opinion on this new gem from Jobs. Like I said I love it. To me it is a brilliant combo of the iPhone, iPod, and a kindle. The iPad will be used so much more in business environments thanks to its size and ease of use. Think about a construction company who is out in the field and needs to look t a set of plans, they can just pull out the iPad and easily navigate through a set while making notes. The size makes it so much easier to do this. This will also be of great use in the medical field, where doctors can cary this around like a clipboard and get up to the second patient data as well as have all the records easily stores at their finger tips. I am just blown away at the possibilities.
I have said it before and I will say it again that the brilliance of the apple products is iTunes. Now that developers will be making apps specifically for the iPad and all of its functions it will be unstoppable. Amazing job Jobs!
