Best Brands, Innovative Products 104
conq writes "BusinessWeek just came out with its best global brands list. The list is quite similar to last year's with Coke topping it. The brand with the highest growth year over year: Google. The comment: 'Its recent inclusion as a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary confirms what competitors feared: Google means search to an army of Web users.'" I thought this tied in nicely to tappytibbins' story. They write "eWEEK.com has posted a feature with their picks of the 25 most innovative PC products of the last 25 years. Their #1 pick is a bit uninspired: The IBM PC. Down at #8 is the Mac. And is Apache really more of an innovation than Linux?" From that article: "15 - Palm Pilot: With an almost Zen-like minimalism of both software and hardware complexity, the Palm Pilot was no more than users needed?and exactly what many wanted."
Watch out Coca-Cola! (Score:5, Funny)
Number 1, Coca-Cola had better watch their back for Number 2, Microsoft!
With Microsoft's flair for chumming up to other businesses, just before "innovating" their own brands right into that market, one must be cautious.
New from Microsoft: Microsoft Cola Soft Drinks! Available in the following popular flavours (as determined by Microsoft's own R&D department.)
Please check www.microsoftcola.com/support periodically for updates and patches to our famous beverages
MS Cola FAQ (Score:5, Funny)
MS cans are complex devices. While they are engineered to world class specifications and thoroughly tested, it cannot be guaranteed that it will function in all conditions. Please take the following steps before contacting customer service:
Ensure you have the can oriented correctly
Ensure you are lifing the tab - This is located at the top of the can
Ensure sufficient force is being applied to lift the tab - Check finger for any breaks, muscle tears, or other abnormalities which may cause insufficient force to be applied
Why must I agree to a EULA before opening my drink?
EULAs are standard throughout the beverage industry. They are designed to clearly communicate your rights, as well as the rights and limitations of Microsoft, its partners, and subsidiaries.
My drink is coming out of holes in the can other than the one for drinking
This is a known issue. Please apply the latest security patches to address this issue
MS Cola went up my nose when I was laughing, and it hurts
Microsoft is not responsible and does not support such use of soda as outlined in the EULA. For information on development of undocumented soda use please navigate to the developer forum: microsoft.com/MCola/developer/forum.htm
I purchased a 12 pack, can my kids drink some of the soda?
Sharing is prohibited for the standard home edition of MS Cola. Multi-user packs are available for purchase as a seperate product.
How can I beta test Crystal Microsoft Cola?
Beta testing has not begun. You may subscribe to the CMC Newsletter for the latest information on this development product.
When will CMC be available
Crystal Microsoft Cola is scheduled to be part of the Vista launch event.
Re:Watch out Coca-Cola! (Score:4, Funny)
They would be destroyed. Heh.
Re:Watch out Coca-Cola! (Score:1)
The irony came a few years ago when the marketing hucksters was selling iTunes on Pepsi bottlecaps. (or was iTunes 'selling sugar water'?!?)
Re:Watch out Coca-Cola! (Score:1)
Re:Watch out Coca-Cola! (Score:2)
Re:Watch out Coca-Cola! (Score:1)
Re:Watch out Coca-Cola! (Score:1)
Re:Watch out Coca-Cola! (Score:4, Funny)
http://www.google.com/googlegulp/ [google.com]
Re:Watch out Coca-Cola! (Score:1)
Microsoft is always playing catch up to Google:
Heinz watch out! - Microsoft Ketchup!
But. . . (Score:3, Funny)
I think I'll start a brand and call it RTFA (Score:2)
BTW - Microsoft is listed as the second best brand, right behind Coca-Cola.
It doesn't matter if you like Coke or not, it doesn't matter if you like Microsoft or not, their "brand" is out there.
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
Google's Brand (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Google's Brand (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's a pretty strong indication of brand value when the name of your company becomes a commonly used verb in the english language. [wikipedia.org]
Re:Google's Brand (Score:5, Informative)
Nobody I know ever says that they "Yahooed it".
I think it's a pretty strong indication of brand value when the name of your company becomes a commonly used verb in the english language.[link to wikipedia/googling]
Google (as a verb) is accepted in the Oxford On-line Dictionary [weblogsinc.com], too.
Not sure Yahooligans caught on. I'm certain it was even frowned upon in some countries where Hooligan has a stronger negative connotation than it carries in the USA
Re:Google's Brand (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually common use decreases brand value. Once people stop associating the word with the product, the value is lost. For example, when somebody mentions aspirin, do you immediately think of is as the aspirin brand, or the generic term for acetylsalicylic acid?
Re:Google's Brand (Score:2)
Only worthless if you don't own it (Score:2)
Companies are under no obligation to keep their trademarks. Plenty of companies give up on brands that aren't worth what it costs to advertise them. They spend billions to build and maintain the
Re:Only worthless if you don't own it (Score:2, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin/ [wikipedia.org]
Bayer lost to war, not genericization (Score:2)
Wikipedia indicates that the rights to the "Aspirin" name were purchased from the U.S. Government by one Sterling Drug [wikipedia.org], and it was they who lost the trademark in 1921 [wikipedia.org] because it had become too genericized -- not Bayer.
In short, Bayer lost their trademark because they were on the wrong side of a w
Re:Only worthless if you don't own it (Score:2)
When the a group of singers called themselves Band aid and made the song "Do they know it is Christmas time at all" the company that owned the Band-Aid brand had to send ask them to stop. They then granted a license to use that name for one year free of charge. That is why the name has been changed ever since to Live aid.
I doubt that the owners of the brand where really wanted them to not use the name. Talk about your bad press. The problem is if they had not defended it the
Re:Google's Brand (Score:2)
Re:Google's Brand (Score:2)
It does matter if "googling" is not longer associated with google.com. If the brand has widespread disassociated use, it could be deemed generic like "Raisin Bran." Do you think most people would know that Yahoo's "Google Search" service was different than Google.com?
That's why companies have lawyers who write letters to TV networks and newspapers, about improper us
Re:Google's Brand (Score:2)
Re:Google's Brand (Score:2)
Examples:
"Xerox" is the common verb people use for "photocopy", but people don't think of the Xerox company when using that word, they're just referring to photocopying in general. And Xerox is no longer the top photocopy company even though people use "xerox" as the verb for "photocopy".
"Kl
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Google's Brand (Score:2)
Re:Google's Brand (Score:1)
And when everyone says iPod they only mean the player from Apple right? Sure, that's what it should be, but a lot of people will say iPod in reference to any mp3 player (yes, that does irritate me), and the same goes for Google to mean web-search. I really don't care what the specific definition says in the latest version of Webster or wherever (c
Re:Google's Brand (Score:2, Funny)
Let me guess. You paid all that extra money for a 'name brand' iPod, eh?
Re:Google's Brand (Score:1)
If by extra money you mean I spent just over a hundred dollars on an iPod that would have cost $300 (got a Powerbook at the same time and there was a promotion to get a $200 rebate on any iPod) then I guess you could say that. Of course I've only used Macs in my house since we first got one in around 1988 so I probably would have bought an iPod eventually. Anyway, for the majority of the time I use my iPod as a portable drive for file
Re:Google's Brand (Score:1)
You're perpetuating the myth of the 'loyal Apple customer' who will buy whatever is shoveled out of Cupertino. Minus the heavy discount (which is just padded on as part of the extra you paid for the Powerbook in comparison to a third-party laptop) that iPod is some pretty expensive portable storage. Go to good old Walmart (they're not as fashionable as the Apple store, but far
Crash and burn (Score:2)
Sure I do.
"What happened to the red car man?"
"I freaken yahood it into a freaken wall".
I took a look at the list of brands in TFA. Q-riste, I'd only want about 7 of them in my house. What a bynch of crapola.
fat lot of good it's doing TiVo... (Score:2)
But TiVo is in financial trouble.
Even before the iPod, Sony didn't make a large fraction of the "Walkmans" sold in the US anymore.
Very few demoliton saws sold are actually Sawzalls, or circular saws actual Skil saws.
I don't know why people keep drawing a connection here. A shorthand gets adopted, and that shorthand might be a companies' trademark. But I dunno if there is a real strong link there.
Re:Google's Brand (Score:2)
(Their recruiting was with hotjob).
Some of their services developped as extensions of their portal. They did it well enough though and still maintain an interesting mix of services, such as the ones you described (finance, personnals...). This is the whole POINT of being a portal, a one stop for all your information.
I do check news on yahoo, while i search on google. However, the news market online is much smaller than the
Sheesh! (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, clearly nothing ever came of that.
Re:Sheesh! (Score:2)
Re:Sheesh! (Score:1)
The Mac is the pinnacle of "could have been" technological innovation. It was leaps and bounds ahead of the competition in it's day, but many things worked together to keep it from becoming the dominant personal computer on the market.
LK
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Sheesh! (Score:3, Insightful)
The PC was IBM's third try at a desktop computer. The failure of the first two was responsible for the short time allowed for the development of the third.
64K, no floppies, no color...
Re:Sheesh! (Score:2)
While this is true, you should read the linked article instead of what someone wrote in the Slashdot fragment, because it actually lists the top 20 most _influential_ products. And as the whole reason for it being there in the first place is the 25th anniversary of the IBM PC, the fact that the IBM PC is at the top of the list is not particularly surprising.
Re:Sheesh! (Score:2)
pffft ... crappy list (Score:3, Funny)
what a strange list. (Score:1)
Re:what a strange list. (Score:1)
Yes
Do we not know this? (Score:2, Insightful)
What if I think that Linux is more influental than Apache. Am I now wrong because Buisness Weekly says otherwise? I thought these were opinions. You know, use what you think is best, which is influenced by the job at hand...
If these just are opinions (or even surveys of opinions), do we need them? And, better yet, do we need them on
Re:Do we not know this? (Score:1)
I find the article title misleading. "Best Brands" are (essentially) the ones that make the most money. Now, why is this in hardware, on Slashdot? Most of them don't even seem to be tech companies...
I must be missing something
car brands (Score:4, Interesting)
Toyota = 7
Mercedes = 10
BMW = 15
Honda = 19
Ford = 30
Volkswagen = 56
Audi = 74
Hyundai = 75
Porsche = 80
Nissan = 90
Lexus = 92
Re:car brands (Score:2)
Re:car brands (Score:2)
List of innovations, or a popularity contest? (Score:4, Informative)
Other bad picks:
- the Palm Pilot... no mention of Apple Newton or Atari Portfolio.
- Windows 95... back then jokingly called "Macintosh 89".
- Microsoft Office... Appleworks for the Apple II, anyone?
Re:List of innovations, or a popularity contest? (Score:2)
Re:List of innovations, or a popularity contest? (Score:2)
Re:List of innovations, or a popularity contest? (Score:3, Insightful)
The IBM PC wasn't innovative in the sense that it wasn't the first personal computer. It was, however the first computer widely accepted in business/corporate environments. It was no doubt more influential than any other computer of its time.
The Palm Pilot was popular, influential and, quite frankly, a great product. The Netwon, which was far more innovative was expensive and had terrible handwriting recognition.
AppleWorks was
Re:List of innovations, or a popularity contest? (Score:2)
True, the Newton was expensive, but terrible handwriting recognition? Not after the first revision. My 110 has better handwriting recognition than my MS PocketPC PDA. The Newton's recognition continued to improve up to the end. Only the first Newton, the 100, had really poor handwriting recognition.
The Palm was heavily influenced by t
Re:List of innovations, or a popularity contest? (Score:3, Funny)
I dont get circumcision
Re:List of innovations, or a popularity contest? (Score:1)
Re:List of innovations, or a popularity contest? (Score:2)
Re:List of innovations, or a popularity contest? (Score:2)
Of course, NONE of that would be possible in today's patent environment.
Linksys by Cisco (Score:2, Insightful)
"Cisco's decision to lead with its Linksys brand for consumers hasn't made the company a household name yet, but it's helping."
I don't understand why Cisco doesn't push their name harder in the consumer market. They bought Linksys some time ago... so why don't the Linksys boxes say "...by Cisco!" on them somewhere? Just to gather geek cachet?
Informed insight welcome.
Re:Linksys by Cisco (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Linksys by Cisco (Score:1)
Re:Linksys by Cisco (Score:2)
Apache vs. Linux (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Apache vs. Linux (Score:2)
innovative? (Score:2)
Broadly speaking, NONE of these items are actually innovative, almost every one of them is an item that built on the idea's of it's predecessors. Successful, yes, innovative, no, sorry. A good example, the IBM PC, successful only because IBM didn't defend it's IP, innovative?, name something about the IBM PC that wasn't found in an earlier computer/operating system.
How we forget (Score:4, Insightful)
"With a brand that said 'business machine' and an open architecture that invited third-party innovation, the IBM PC transformed the IT industry."
It seems we forget that when the PC was first introduced it was closed and proprietary. It wasn't until Compaq clean-room reverse-engineered the BIOS that the PC revolution really got started. If IBM had had their way the PC would have been locked down and controlled by IBM forever. Remember they used to call clones "IBM compatible." After Compaq started the cloning revolution, and Microsoft moved to make IBM-specific aspects of DOS irrelevant, not long after that IBM started to become less and less relevant. They no longer directed where the platform was going. By the i386, one could no longer talk about IBM-compatible. IBM tried to start over with a proprietary system (careful not to let cloning happen this time) withe Microchannel Architecure. Fortunately the market said, we'll stick with ISA, VESA-Local and PCI (even if MCA was superior at the time). Had IBM been successful in keeping the PC proprietary, I don't know what computers we would be using today. Maybe DEC alphas or Sparcstations. Or maybe we'd be paying $10000 a pop to IBM.
Re:How we forget (Score:3, Insightful)
I use a Mac. The more things change, the more people still buy the same ol' "locked-in" stuff. And yet, it works so well that I don't feel like I paid too much. A lot, but not too much. Vendor lock-in isn't as bad as most paranoid
Re:How we forget (Score:1)
I'll hold out for Phoenix/AMI reverse-engineering the IBM BIOS. It allowed inexpensive clones to be manufactured. That, plus FedEx/UPS/etc shipping created a vast market for the garage shops.
I purchased a Kaypro AT clone back in the day with Phoenix BIOS. It was such a close PC clone, I had to purchase PC-DOS, not MS-DOS to run on it. It beat the Compaq AT equivalent to market by several weeks.
Re:How we forget (Score:1)
Actually, when the IBM-PC was first introduced, you could buy the Technical Reference Manual. It included all the schematic diagrams along with detailed technical info about all the hardware and add-on cards.
All the hardware components of the IBM-PC were built using commercial off the shelf (COTS) chips and components. There were NONE of the custom ASICs that plague many of the other 'PC type' systems of the era.
The tec
Re:How we forget (Score:2)
What about Head On? (Score:3, Funny)
Mod Parent Up!!! (Score:2)
What a useless top 25 list... (Score:3, Informative)
How about the list itself? It's like they chose some of the things randomly -- example; VMware is a great piece of software, but is it really more essential to the workplace than Windows and Microsoft Office, two programs end-users make heavy use of daily? And why list Linux in general, then Red Hat? That seems somewhat disingenuous. Plus, they missed a few pretty big ones, like the Internet, ethernet, CD-ROMs, VoIP and mice. Looks like the intern had a pretty busy week, coming up with this list all by himself.
NASCAR (Score:2, Insightful)
Apache Linux? Yes. (Score:1, Insightful)
Sony (Score:2, Interesting)
And so once again we see that the way Slashdot sees the world and the way the rest of the world sees the world are sometimes at quite unusual odds...
Re:Sony (Score:2)
That's because nerds in general have different sets of priorities from non-nerds, and Slashdot reflects this. Unfortunately, the Slashdot breed of nerd also seems unable to grasp the fact that nobody else in the world gives a hoot about the things that they think are important.
Some things people care about (in no particular order:
Their families
Wages
Being popular
Sex
Th
Re:Sony (Score:1)
'Nerds in general' actually defy any narrow categorization. I know of nerds who specialize in all kinds of different ways, i.e. 'Calibration Equipment Nerds' and 'vintage gasoline engine Nerds.'
Re:Sony (Score:2)
Agreed. I should indeed have been more specific.
"'Nerds in general' actually defy any narrow categorization. I know of nerds who specialize in all kinds of different ways, i.e. 'Calibration Equipment Nerds' and 'vintage gasoline engine Nerds.'"
Again, you are right. I've met butterfly and moth breeding nerds and nerds who have steamrollers,
Re:Sony (Score:1)
A few days ago I was eating lunch in a cheap storefront Chinese Resturant, and a family at another table were having fun with the fortunes in their fortune cookies by tagging on '...in bed' at the end, a common and amusing practice. A fortune cookie would read "You will prosper"; it would translate "You will prosper in bed."
Anyways...
I think a similar amusing practice can now be made by adding '...on Slashdot' to the end of va
Where the heck is AT&T (Score:2)
Re:Where the heck is AT&T (Score:1)
Is eWeek on crack? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Is eWeek on crack? (Score:2)
This isn't, however, to say the list isn't a load of hooey.
Linux over Apache (Score:1)
You must be kidding, right? With Apache market share being 63% [netcraft.com] and Linux being what? Like 3%? Even if we're talking just about servers, it's got less then 30%. [kryogenix.org] With Apache leading the web server innovation and Linux just trying to replicate more advanced OSes in OSS context (if we're talking about desktops)...
The IBM PC was unimpressive in 1981 (Score:3, Interesting)
On Apache vs. Linux: Remember, Linux was just a rewrite of UNIX. Nothing amazing there.
Re:The IBM PC was unimpressive in 1981 (Score:1)
And the specs for that expansion slot (along with complete, commented, detailed schematics of the entire system) were published and available for a (then) nominal fee.
I have the first edition of the IBM PC Technical Reference Manual to offer as evidence.
This was in the same spirit as the 'expandable' original Apple II and it fostered much the same community around itself.
And where is the mighty palmpilot now? (Score:3, Interesting)
Where is what I should have? A super thin version of the beloved palmpilot I got in 1997! The Palm V had the form factor right smack on. The screen technology is what palm should have spent the money on; not uninspired "me too" features.
Why, oh why, does my $70 Gameboy SP look great outside and in, and my $400 palm can barely stay charged through a day of use? I recently went back to my palm V, because at least, it did what I wanted.
Hey, Palm Executives and Product Developers:
PULL YOUR HEADS OUT OF
Re:And where is the mighty palmpilot now? (Score:1)
Re:And where is the mighty palmpilot now? (Score:1)
I can carry a Palm III in my pocket anywhere I go. The hard plastic case protects the innards, and the 2 AAA batteries last for months, not weeks. And I have the Code Warrior development environment for P
TFA Says Influential, Not Innovative (Score:2)