Auren Hoffman's Summation Push for the week of May 25, 1998

You can visit my thoughts and reflections at http://www.summation.net or you can be lazy and wait for these tidbits to be sent right to your in box (subscribe and unsubscribe information is at the end of this e-mail).

This issue:
* Industry Insights: Mac Attack
* Industry Insights: Music Boulevard
* INDUSTRY INSIGHTS: Amazon v. Barnes and Noble
* Hoffman Spam Index
* Summation Push Picks Links

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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS: Mac Attack

So everyone's talking about Apple's new iMac and its sleek new look. I have to say that I'm not that impressed -- and this is someone who put himself through college with a Mac Classic (of course I now use an always unstable NT Pentium II).

The iMac (or wimpMac) is an inexpensive computer who's only thrill is its look. But do consumers really buy computers that look cool? The iMac does not even have a floppy disk drive (though I admit it is a rare day when I ever use a floppy).

I think Mac needs to make a BIG computer. One with a floppy drive, CD ROM, networking card, modem, cool mouse, keyboard, cup holder, document holder, big monitor, you name it. Apple needs to build the Homer Simpson of computers -- and keep it cheap.

The new Mac should be BIG because size does matter. I think Apple could co-market it with McDonald's and call it the BigMac. ... but I digress ...

Bring back Gil.

(all rumors and insights sent to auren@summation.net will be kept confidential)

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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS: Music Boulevard

Last month, Music Boulevard offered $15 gift certificates to anyone who wanted to by a CD. Word spread very quickly and it meant a lot of CD's for many folks (including that Beck CD I have been craving. My girlfriend got three classical music CD's -- all for under $15 including tax and shipping).

Was it a good marketing strategy? I think so. For those thousands of people that scored their free CD, they now see Music Boulevard as the on-line place to buy over CDNow and amazon.com

Of course, the people also saw that Music Boulevard's prices were quite high and they might stick to buying CD's in their local store.

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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS: Amazon v. Barnes and Noble A

mazon was again on my list. As many of you know, I am book-buying nut and love books -- especially biographies. I wanted to buy a biography on Mark Hanna (a fairly famous U.S. political persona of the Industrial Age) and went to the Barnes and Noble site to order the book.

Guess what? No dice.

B&N did not carry even one book on Hanna. I finally had to go back to old faithful, Amazon, though the book was out-of-print and they are currently ordering it.

(all rumors and insights sent to auren@summation.net will be kept confidential)

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HOFFMAN SPAM INDEX:

Check out what's happening with Spam at: http://www.summation.net/spam.html

The Hoffman Spam Index is updated weekly.

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THIS WEEK'S LINKS:
* Garage.com (http://www.garage.com) -- Guy Kawasaki's new venture that helps starts up start-ups
* Silver Island (http://www.silverisland.com/) -- cool service where you can build a customized Internet radio station
* theDJ.com (http://www.thedj.com/) -- cool service where you can build a customized Internet radio station (sounds familiar) 

SUMMATION