Jason is not always right

I have been told that a few of my recent posts have been more on the negative side of life, so here is a more light-hearted one.  Today’s post is about dreams…

A few years back, I was sitting with some of my roommates talking about the future and we starting talking about money.  I made the comment that I wanted to be so rich that I could eat beef jerky everyday.  What does this tell you about me?  1) I have simple dreams 2)  I love beef jerky and 3)  I don’t ever need to make THAT much money.

Sometimes when I am buying a high-priced item like a $1100 airline ticket to Taiwan, a new laptop computer, or even something smaller like new brakes for my motorcycle I think about the cost in terms of beef jerky.  A plane ticket, or 523 2oz individually packed Jack Links beef steak jerky, or 137 packages of Tillamook beef steak nuggets, teriyaki or original.  Mmmmm…  I wish I had some right now.

I figure I need about $1000 dollars a year for my jerky budget, to be content.  (Although I think I may die from heart failure first.)  That would make me happy.  (Jerky, not heart failure.)

Now you know what I want for my birthday

I finally saw a Mac commercial that I did not like. For clarification, I don’t particularly like most of the Mac commercials I have seen, but I have not disliked them either. I saw one yesterday that I did not like.

The commercial itself was ok. It presented the build-up and suspense around a secretive “new” phone that was going to be the iPhone killer. Turns out this “new” phone is just the new iPhone. I thought this part of the commercial was fine, even kind of clever, except for the fact that the key sales point was that it is everything you like about the iPhone, but 2x faster and half as expensive. This is where I have a problem.

Yeah the handset it cheaper than it used to be, but the data plan has increased in cost 33%. The new iPhone is not cheaper at all, in fact it is $160 more expensive than the old iPhone. Do they really think we are that stupid? (Yes, they do.) So, if you bought your phone and never activated it you would truly have a sweet desk decoration at half the price of the old iPhone. But you can’t even do that. You’re not allowed to buy an iPhone and not activate it. (Unless you want to buy one on the black market.)

source: (Only one out of 997 out there) consumerist.com

It would be similar to if Honda sold you a “new” Civic for 8k that could only run on $13 per gallon “special” gas. I guess Americans jumped all over the subprime party, so why not market phones in the same way.

Market the iPhone because it is cool and because it is the best phone out there, but don’t sell it because it is 2x as fast and half the price of the old iPhone. Make more of those trendy iTunes commercials and call it a day. Don’t make stupid commercials that are deceiving, you don’t need to.

Here it is -

I like this for a lot of reasons. I like it because it is green. I like it because it is a good way to exercise. I like it because it sounds like something I would use. (If I lived in a compact, big city.) I like it because it is cheap and convenient.

I like it for all the above reasons, but the main reason that I like it is because it is just one of those ideas that seems so simple, fills a real need, and yet no one has ever done it before these guys. They not only thought it, but they did it. Will they succeed? I don’t know. But I will always be a fan of people who just do it.

Source: http://www.bikedispenser.com