October 30, 2007 • 9:32 pm
I am not sure if there will really be a “rebate” but the notion of building a company around the same type of love affair people all over the world have with their phones is very clever indeed. Americans have had this affair with their cars for decades but the mobile phone is the object people all over the world love. If the electric car can be introduced to consumers the same way a phone plan is initiated then the barrier to entry will be minimal and attractive.
This is an innovative piece and with the backing they have it is beyond “could happen” and in the realm of happening. This will not happen in the good old USA at first but other countries will adopt this and like the mobile phones, we will get a version that barely resembles the orginal vision because of all the companies who had to get their sticky fingers in the mix.
Time will tell and by the time the warranty is up on the Prius, I can get one of these and upgrade the batter via thrid-party on the Toyota. Petrol? What petrol?
Visit projectbetterplace.com
Filed under: Differentiation, Environment, Positive Change , , alternative fuel, electric cars, prius, shai agassi
October 9, 2007 • 7:49 pm
There are a lot of films to watch in my Netflix queue and sometimes a film pops up on Sundance or IFC right before I go to bed. Sure I have Tivo but there is something about documentaries that seem to hover in the “soon to be deleted” bubble but on DVD I seem to watch them right away.
The documentary “We Feed the World” by director Erwin Wagenhofer was done in 2005 and it seems like it shold have been long ago. Why have western cultures trusted everything that is grown and sold at markets for so long? Sure, the price is part of it but when farmers would rather grow vegetables that will look better, taste worse, and ruin the land and any future harvests because of our shopping habits, then it is two colliding forces: 1. poor shopper education influencing the industry and 2. corporations taking advantage of the ignorant shoppers by providing retailers with engineered end of life products. I can only blame myself for falling prey to the the same thinking. If it looks good, it must taste good. Wrong.
But this film goes much further and the main takeaway for me was the fact that we have a global food surplus for over 60 billion people and yet 100,000 people die of starvation every year. Nobody should die of starvation in 2008. Malnutrition cases should be able to drop in half by 2010.
Things are changing now and the internet – and positive change organizations – is becoming the vehicle for the voice that has been suppressed for too long.
http://www.we-feed-the-world.at/en/facts.htm
Filed under: Environment, Positive Change, Poverty , corporate farming, documentary, globalization, starvation, we feed the world
October 1, 2007 • 5:49 am
What an opportunity that was missed by Apple to be able to have $100 – $200 of the dollars that was padded for profits in case the phone did not meet expectations to go to worthy causes. Look at what Good Magazine is doing:http://www.goodmagazine.com/subscribe
Then we have the One Laptop per Child program and to be honest, I am sure these children in rural areas would rather have an iPhone. But either way, a create the $200 iPhone or a step up to the current positive change plate and promote that a portion of proceeds that go to an organization of your choice. That would have been a much better idea than to pad the phone and then surprise people with conditional rebates.
Shame on you Apple. And after the critisism and reply for environmentally sound practices and manufacturing you should know better. Look at the products that people are supporting because they can buy their gadgets and feel good also. Didn’t you have a “Product Red” iPod Nano?
http://www.joinred.com/
I hope the next generation iPhone is as globally concious as the current generation iPhone users.
Filed under: Differentiation, Positioning, Positive Change
