It’s Called Opportunism
Cnet News reported that an Alabama woman has filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming the iPhone 3G’s network is slower than advertised.The basis of the suit is misleading advertising where Apple claimed that the new iPhone was going to be “twice as fast at half the price” and it has not lived up to that claim.
Unless some sensible judge tosses this out soon, it will most likely become a major class action suit with thousands of otherwise happy customers jumping on the bandwagon and claiming problems with their 3G iPhone.

Even More People
There was no let up in shopping as the Made In Hawaii Festival went into its second day. People came early and stayed late. It was a chore to work your way up or down any of the aisles in either of the two Blaisdale buildings.

Is Traffic All You Need?
If traffic was all that’s needed to insure success, no one could fail in this environment. However,  traffic isn’t enough all by itself. The behavior of the person seen by those making up the traffic is an even bigger factor.

“It’s So Slow”
When asked how the show was, I assure you that some will say, “It was so slow.” This “salesperson” sitting and reading something while in the midst of this heavy traffic may as well have been out in the desert all alone. People will not stop and interupt someone that is engrossed in something else. To get busy, get busy.

Day One of Three
The opening day of this year’s Made in Hawaii Festival attracted huge numbers of people there for one reason, and one reason alone; to buy stuff!

Pictures Worth 1,000 Words
It was elbow to elbow today at both Blaisdale buildings today.

Best Buy Jumps in on iPhone Business
AT&T has had a sweet deal since the inception of the iPhone, being the only retailer authorized to sell it outside of Apple itself. 
The free ride has ended, and as CBS News reported, Best Buy now has the availability to sell the iPhone from its 970 full-size stores and 16 smaller stores. They claim to have upgraded their computer systems to handle cell-phone activation and spent 250,000 hours training its employees, but from personal experience I would be slow to buy it there.
It is suspected that Radio Shack will be the next retailer to get in on the iPhone frenzy. They already sell AT&T phones, but not the iPhone. AT&T continues to be the authorized provider, but time will tell on that as well. What looks like a big windfall, could become a disaster if they don’t stay on top of the service side. 

It’s Creeping Back In

On November 16, 2006, The Department of Health made Hawai’i the 14th state to go smoke-free and enacted a comprehensive law that protects workers throughout the state from exposure to secondhand smoke.
The very next day the air and shopping experience at Ala Moana Shopping Center became much better.
Now, just a year and a half later the security people at the mall do nothing to stop violators of the law, and the mall has even begun returning the ash cans just outside the doorways of many stores; this one at Long’s.
At the time of its announcement The Department of Health said, “This law will result not only in better work environments and public places throughout the state, but it will reduce tobacco–related illnesses and save lives.”
While there’s no doubt that things are better than before the law, I must say that a walk through Ala Moana Shopping Center without smelling smoke is becoming highly unlikely.

More Annoying Airline Fees
American Airlines is changing Incentives into disincentives. They still call it their AAdvantage Awards program. A better term might be “Taking Advantage.”
They are discontinuing travel award tickets that require a miles plus co-payment, with Sept. 30 being the last date to claim such an “award.”
And get this, you can now “buy miles” with the airline’s buyAAmiles program.
There’s More:
-There is now a requirement of a nonrefundable co-payment of $150 to claim upgrade awards used with most discount fares when traveling between North America and Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.
-A non-refundable co-payment of $50 to claim one-way upgrade awards with most discount economy fares when traveling between the continental U.S. and Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, or when between North America and Central America
-A $350 non-refundable co-payment when claiming one-way upgrade awards on discounted economy fares when traveling between North America and Europe, India, Japan, China, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.

It’s no wonder that the airline industry is in such disarray. Changes like this will alienate your best customers and drive them on to another carrier. Grabbing more money is not the answer; offering more services at a fair price is the way to get more money; it always has been.

Greed Doesn’t Pay
My Dad drummed it into my head to, “Get a little bit of money from a lot of people”. He added, “If you deal with the masses you can live with the classes”. As tourism is dropping in Hawaii we see costs going up in order to get more money from those coming. This has become a vicious cycle. I’m all for selling more to the people who are here, but not by charging them more for the same stuff.
The airlines, restaurants and hotels are pricing each other out of business rather than making smaller margins on more people. Daddy used to also say, “Volume will make up for a multitude of sins”. 
While it’s true that you cannot be losing money and make it up in volume, you can make less money more times and do well with more volume.

PBN Survey
Pacific Business News just asked its readers how to get more people to come to Hawaii, and the overwhelming majority said to lower prices. When people feel like they are getting a good deal they will spend more. Las Vegas was built on this principle.

It Always Has
This article in today’s Honolulu Advertiser is right in line with the media’s reputation for fear mongering rather than solution reporting. If the concern is really to stop the drop in tourism, and tourist spending, then the negative talk must stop.

STOP IT!
Stop telling us how bad things are in general and start telling us specifically how good some people are doing in spite of the challenge of a few less customers. Focus on the 86% that are here rather than the 14% that are not. The negative news reporting creates an excuse for those doing poorly, their bosses begin to buy it, and things get worse. Before you know it the good customers (86%) are being ignored because of the ones (14%) who are not here. People coming to Hawaii for a vacation are not concerned about the price of gas! They want a pleasant memory of Hawaii; give it to them!
I have a computer chock full of positive evidence that opportunity is as good as it ever has been. Unless you are accustomed to doing business with 100% of the people here (maybe ABC Stores) your customers are still here; take good care of them!

Light… But a Lightweight
I gave my new MacBook Air the “acid test” the past few days by taking it to Maui. Fortunately this was only a “one nighter”. There were numerous times that I was longing for my Sony Vaio. One was when trying to work with Excel. The Apple version just doesn’t work as well. Then came Internet connecting. Although I bought an Apple ethernet converter, it wouldn’t work in my hotel room. The Westin in-room wireless got me on line alright, and I was able to receive e- mail, but couldn’t send any out.

Three things saved the day; one was gotomypc, the others were my Sprint Wireless Card and iPhone; all products I had before buying the MacBook Air. I was also dissappoited by the lack of free wireless connections. The Island Air terminal at Honolulu Airport claimed a wireless service, but wanted $9 for a connection. Here again I used the Sprint Card.
It appears that about the only advantage I have found so far is the weight, and get this; the nifty keyboard light seems to have stopped working. Now that’s a bit soon for a three week old machine. I am off to the Apple Store to see what they say about that one. Stay tuned…

Maybe Mobileyou
As I continue to struggle with various aspects of Apple’s new Mobileme service I am reminded of just how critical a new product can be to a company’s success and reputation.
I found the iPhone to be such a wonderful tool that I spent $3,300 in the Apple Store for a computer that I don’t need (I already have four and I can’t even type). My thinking was that once I learned how to use it that I might switch over to Mac exclusively; that would mean thousands of dollars more for Apple and many strong referrals from me.
BUT, after spending several hundred dollars more trying to get a $99 a year add-on working, I now find myself sorry that I ever walked into the Mac Store. What a shame! In addition to the time and money I have spent with “experts” trying to make this thing work, I have also spent a great deal of time reading up on what others have to say about Mobileme. Mac Forums has a poll showing 246 users responing to the question, “Are you satisfied with Mobileme?” The results were, 127 (51.63%) saying “No”, and 119 (48.37%) saying “Yes”.
I had numerous people send me a link to this article by Walter Mossberg, who said, “If Apple does get MobileMe working smoothly, it could be a terrific service. But its way too ragged now.”
Then I got a link to this article written by David Pouge in the New York Times entitled, Apple’s MobileMess. This article talked mostly about the problems with Mobileme e-mail, which I haven’t even attempted to use yet.
Fortunately, my problems are pretty much behind me. I still have a minor issue or two, but nothing I cannot live with until the “Mobilemess” is straightened out, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth for the Apple employees at the “Genius Bar” that set it up wrong to begin with. Yes, first impressions are lasting impressions.