David Feldt Proud father. Entrepreneur. Builder. Catalyst. Accelerator. Guide.

Vista Launches with a “Wow”

The New York Times reports today on yesterday's Microsoft Vista launch. According to Steve Ballmer, it's “the biggest product launch in Microsoft’s history” and the rollout will be backed by a first-year marketing budget of hundreds of millions of dollars. Microsoft has 500,000 industry partners worldwide who have a vested interest and are obviously betting (praying?) that the Vista launch will be a success. “I hope your forecasts are right,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president for personal computers at Hewlett-Packard. “We’d all be thrilled.”

A Microsoft funded study by the IDC predicts that “this ecosystem should sell about $70 billion in products and services revolving around Windows Vista” in 2007. So, will the world upgrade to this latest version of the MS operating system? More than 90% of the world PC market already use the previous generations of software from Microsoft.

The key question is: "Why upgrade?". According to Bill Gates, Vista is "easier to use". Will this be enough of a reason?

If one looks at the launch photo above, one senses a surprising (and significant) lack of enthusiasm about this launch - look at the body language and facial expressions. Do you notice any smiles? Any enthusiasm? Any sparkle? It may be the biggest product launch in Microsoft's history, but they don't seem too excited about it.

We shall see.

Storytelling in 90 Seconds

DepicT! (www.depict.org) is a short film competition for amateur / budding filmmakers to tell a story in 90 seconds. The brief was “to uncover distinctive voices - originality, imagination, and the ability to engage the audience with a compelling idea told in a mere 90 seconds.”

The 2006 shortlist is here - the contest has been held each year since 1999 – check out the site to see all of the winners over the years.

This is an inspiration for all of us who tell stories for a living.

Anti-trust law and the M&A industry

Here's a wonderful 2 minute sarcastic view of the Telco space by the inimitable Stephen Colbert:

The big winners are the M&A industry (the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley et al have made billions / tens of billions of dollars)

Some of the biggest telco-related M&A deals (thanks to Wikipedia) in the past 10 years have been:

• MCI Communications; with WorldCom; created MCI WorldCom (1997) ($44 billion, Stock: 100%) (Department of Justice, MCI.com)
• Verizon; Bell Atlantic/NYNEX, GTE, and AirTouch Cellular
• Vodafone; with Mannesmann (completed February 2000) ($183 billion, 100% stock) ([3])
• SBC and AT&T (Announced January 31, 2005; Closed October 31, 2005 valued at Apx. $16 Billion) [4] [5]
• AT&T and BellSouth (Announced March 5, 2006; Closed on December 29, 2006 valued at Apx. $86 Billion) [6] [7]
• Verizon with MCI (Announced February 14, 2005; Closed January 6, 2006 valued at Apx. $8.5 Billion) [8][9]
• Sprint with Nextel(Announced December 15, 2004; Closed August 12, 2005 valued at Apx $36 Billion) [10] [11]
• Cingular and AT&T Wireless (Announced February 17, 2004; Closed October 16, 2004 valued at Apx $47 billion) [12][13]

The Wii Weight Loss Program

Six weeks ago, a Philadelphia man started a new weight loss program. His idea? Play Wii Sports for 30 minutes a day. Today he published his results and pictures.

He was able to drop 9lbs, 2% body fat, and 3.5” off of his waistline! Now, if only I could find a Wii in stock at my local Best Buy