Rubénerd!

The writers at the Brand New blog received followup from HP:

In 2008, HP asked marketing agency Moving Brands to propose new ideas for various elements of HP’s brand identity, including fonts, graphics, and logos.

HP is one of the world’s most valuable brands and has no plans to adopt the new logo proposed by Moving Brands. HP did implement some of the other design elements shown in the case study.

Old news, but I discussed HP's potential new logo at length in December last year, and I figured I should follow up on it. "Last year"... that phrase still sounds funny.

I'm relieved they're not changing their logo. HP may have lost the plot a bit in the consumer space of late, but I still hold out hope for them.

I'm a month early, but I decided to get ahead on my NY resolutions and start transferring my domains from GoDaddy to Hover. So far, so good.

Screenshot by me on Flickr.

The Moves like Jagger

I was about to launch into a technical discussion of what transferring entails, however I'm half asleep and the super fabulous Dave Winer already wrote all you need to know. He's complimented me once and insulted me twice, which if you know the guy well enough is high praise ;).

His steps in a nutshell:

1. Log into GoDaddy
2. Unlock the domain
3. Request an authorisation code
4. Go to Hover
5. Transfer the domain using the authorisation code
6. Confirm with GoDaddy

The only step where I differed was his assertion that GoDaddy's transfer confirmation email only includes a link to cancel the transfer, not approve it. This is no longer the case; they provide a link to the page where you approve or cancel transfers.

That's a lot of email

Every man and his dog is talking about this, so nothing I really could say would be anything new. What I will mention however is the difference between the number of emails I received from Hover, and from GoDaddy.

These were the messages from GoDaddy:

1. DOMAIN STATUS NOTIFICATION (unlocking)
2. DOMAIN INFORMATION YOU REQUESTED (code)
3. DOMAIN NAME TRANSFER - Confirmation of Registrar Transfer Request
4. AN IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING YOUR TRANSFER (successful transfer)
5. SORRY TO SEE YOU GO. WE'LL ALWAYS WELCOME YOU BACK.

And from Hover:

1. Please confirm your contact address
2. You transfer of [domains] to Hover has completed

I suppose the onus is on GoDaddy to confirm what could potentially be an elicit transfer, but still an interesting comparison. I'll be expecting far less spam from the folks at Hover.

Before you go, here's some upselling!

More surprising though was GoDaddy's effort to keep my business till the very end... by doing the same sales tactics that drove so many of us away. From their second last email:

P.S. Visit GoDaddy.com and SAVE 15%* off your order of $50 or more. Just use source code [gibberish] when you check out to get your special savings. Start shopping now at GoDaddy.com or order by phone at (480) 505-8821.

And the footer of the final email:

SAVE 15% OFF* YOUR NEXT ORDER OF $40 OR MORE AT GODADDY.COM!
Use offer code [gibberish].

That was the same offer code as the $50 dollar deal above. It's as if they're bargaining with me.

.XXX IS HERE!
Block others from getting your domain name.
Register your .XXX NOW!

Yay, extortion!

CASHPARKING(R)!
Make money with your parked domain!
Let us show you how...

Yay, domain squatters!

I wonder if they expect to win much business back with those exact same tactics? Not that I'm suggesting anything, but the sign of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

In the meantime, I'm really enjoying Hover :).

Hot off the heels of hiring their next CEO in as many years, HP have updated their logo again, three years after I blogged about their last logo change. Eventually they'll update and restore their consumer business too!

HP, number 3? #Rhyme

When I first read on The Twitters that HP were updating their logo, initially I was unfased. Or is it "un-phased"? I've been obsessing over too much Star Trek again recently. In any event, I expected the updated version of their logo to be an evolutionary step once more, just as their removal of the rectangle in 2008 was.

Turns out, while the logo is being heralded as an evolutionary change, to me it's anything but. In place of their original, timeless H and P letters... wait, hold the phone. H and P... HP... Hewlett Packard! And here I was thinking they just used lowercase H and lowercase P because they looked like the inverse of each other! Now that's smart!

Sarcasm aside though, what I loved about their old logo was the clever use of the letters which double-mirrored each other. You know when you dip something in chocolate, and then you dip something in chocolate again? This is what HP did with their old logo. Double everything is good. Well, almost double everything.

Degrees of separation

Their latest logo retains the classic HP 13 degree sweep, which even seems to be asserted more now in mockups of their business documents, letterheads and such. That much I can appreciate, some may scoff at trivial things like this, but the fact the angle of these lines has been a part of their corporate brand for so long and they've been able to keep it in the current design is hat-tip worthy. If I were wearing a hat.

In place of the letters however are four lines of two differing lengths, which if you're short sighted like me resemble HP if I put them on my screen and proceed to walk 20 metres away. Up close though, for some reason I keep seeing an elephant raising an arm to ask a question. Or leg, or whatever it is elephants have.

Why change a timeless logo like this that has its roots in 1941? HP is facing unprecedented challenges of late; their consumer businesses are struggling, arguably their largest acquisitions haven't gone over so well, they've gone through more CEOs than I have all time favourite anime characters, to not even speak of their mixed performance in the enterprise. The company needed a distraction, and they got one in this new logo.

Like mustard mixed with custard, branding is a funny thing. It's easy to dismiss, but sometimes a change of clothes can transform a person. Will a refresh of this logo refresh HP's fortunes? Will they start making the 16C again? I'd be happy if they did that. For now, let's just wait and see.

Thanks to the always fascinating Brand New for the graphic and information.

Andy’s Answers: How Microsoft is influencing the influencers:

Microsoft is carefully constructing a network of credible, motivated digital evangelists to spread the word about its products, says communities director Nestor Portillo. That's allowing the company to scale up its outreach, and to build relationships with customers around the world.

An even more far out idea, make products people desperately want to use and talk about, and we'll do it for you. Or to put it in the context of a film:

Technology may have created new ways to engage audiences but industry players say success boils down to something tried-and-tested - a good, engaging storyline.

I was born too late to be a part of the Fortran generation, but upon discussing the language with my sister this evening I received the following in response:

You mean 4chan?

As I said on The Twitters, I think a part of my brain just melted.

In other news, I need that font. Retro futuristic is one of the single greatest design methodologies of all time. I also need their slogan printed on a shirt.

So HP are doing another run of TouchPad hardware. Was this all an elaborate marketing stunt?

I was on a roll when I made these graphics

In macroeconomic terms, dumping refers to when a company floods a new market with products at unprofitable prices in order to establish a presence. Foreign companies flush with cash are able to sustain this long enough to drive local businesses bankrupt, and are then able to own the market and set the prices. Most free market economists consider dumping to be the only valid reason for protectionism, unless they're Libertarian.

While it's tempting to think HP have done this with the TouchPad, it fails on three counts. No wait, four counts, I'm not Discovery News!

1. Despite the firesale of devices, TouchPads still only count for a tiny fraction of the tablet market. Granted people who own Palm devices give the brand exposure, but there simply isn't enough of them for it to be considered a "flooding".

2. While it would be a masterful stroke of genius to let people think a product is dying only to have it brought back with artificially increased marketshare, we've seen no evidence that HP's marketing departments are savvy enough to have created the concept and pulled it off.

3. There's also no evidence to suggest HP's revolving door executives are creative or forward thinking enough to have instigated such a plan. Mr Apotheker was the former CEO of SAP, so we know where he stands on consumer devices.

4. I've read reports the reason why they're manufacturing more devices is due to their hardware suppliers having quotas or obligations to fill, or they have excess inventory. I'm not entirely sure that makes sense either, but it seems more likely than HP suddenly learning how to do marketing.

In Soviet Tablets, web OS-s you

While I'm all for looking deeper into the meaning behind corporate decisions and doublespeak, in this case I really am willing to believe HP retired Palm hardware due to a lack of sales. I've lamented this many times here given my belief webOS was the best mobile OS ever developed.

This spring's major security breach has blemished the reputation of Sony's fledgling subscription-music service, Qriocity. And Sony already had plenty to worry about even before the intrusion. ~ CNET

Nervousness about security and privacy of Sony data aside, they were most likely worrying about what their marketing department was smoking when they called it Qriocity. Can't be good for the corporate health plan.

Does this Qantas greeting card make no sense... or is it just me?

It was probably just me

From time to time I check my Gmail which -- now that I use PGP and my own hosted mail -- has been relegated to the role of receiving email from newsletters, site registrations and other such disposable crap so I don't have to handle it on my primary address. Handle... that's a bit of a pun, as you'll read in a second. Or however long it takes for you to read posts like this, it could very well take longer. Handling.

So I was checking my aforementioned junk email account like a good little slave, and I got an electronic Christmas greeting card from Qantas. As with all their electronic communications they never include the intended message, but rather a brief hello proceeded by a link to follow.

Hello Ruben

As 2010 draws to a close, we would like to wish you and your family a wonderful festive season. From all of us at Qantas, please enjoy this message as we share the spirit of the season.

Find out more at the link below.

[Some super long, narly link]

The link is the drink

Clicking the link, I was directed to a festive web page loaded up with... Flash. Making an exception for it in NoScript, the page loaded and I was presented with a perplexing video of a 747 having cargo unloaded, then loaded again. It looks just like any other movie player with a timeline and a pause button. Once the movie had finished, the player faded out and a thank you message appeared.

While the latter was touching, I haven't the foggist idea what the video was supposed to be for. There were no Christmas or other holiday images anywhere, no people in fuzzy red and white hats, and despite watching the whole clip in anticipation of a Santa popping out or reindeer being offloaded from cargo pallets... there was nothing. Just a video of baggage handlers and bags being unloaded and loaded from planes.

Check out the link for yourself if you so wish, and tell me if I'm missing something. I have no idea what's going on!

Well actually I do know what's going on, their marketing department wants me to talk about Qantas. Mission accomplished! Speaking of which, how funny are Trent 900s, I'll bet Rolls Royce aren't getting any confusing Christmas greeting cards from Qantas.

Commodore had sushi and sold it as fish, sadly

Best description I've ever read, from i_want_you_to_throw_ (559379) on Slashdot.

The photo is of a giant perspex Amiga sign I salvaged from a shopping centre in Malaysia that was going to throw it away. I hurriedly took a picture with my iTelephone for this post, but I'll upload a better one from my Nikon D60 soon :)

Looks like Steve Jobs has been answering questions directly again and garnering a lot of "wow he's so rude" responses. Oh yeah, and the iPod Touch is "just" a small iPad. Wait.

Personally, I find his terse answers refreshing and far more polite than the corporate, sugar coated marketing BS I'm used to reading from companies. I find it insulting when companies feel they have to talk to me like a kid instead of just telling me what they really think.

"We're solution providers that promote synergy and cohesiveness within an organisation by structuring data in more meaningful, exciting and useful ways. To continue to offer such incredible service we're requesting a temporary and completely understandable increase in our service charge..."

"We need more funds for the system."

I suppose rudeness is in the eye/ear/organ of the reader/beholder, I prefer it when people are more direct with me in real life too. Well, to a point. Stephen Bastian beating me up in high school because I was ugly or that I said something he didn't like was a bit much. That's right, Stephen Bastian, I think he lives in Melbourne now.

I've emailed Steve a couple of times, once to tell him I thought the way the press were dealing with his illness was disgusting. Never got a reply, probably a clerical error ;).