Far from CES, it's my Yoga Mamas focus group. Which gadgets would we buy?

Posted Jan 9th 2007 7:14PM by Sarah Gilbert
Filed under: Consumer Experience, Rants and Raves, Apple Inc (AAPL), Comcast Cl'A' (CMCSA), iPhone

I'm not exactly on the forefront of gadget desire. Sure, those shiny pretty things are fun, but I'm not willing to lay out cash until I'm really sure I want something. I only got wireless for my laptop in November 2005. I can count the months I've owned a camera phone on my fingers. I've never, ever surfed the web or emailed from a "mobile communication device." I don't even have an iPod.

And yet. As soon as I laid my eyes on the shiny, sexy photos of Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s new iPhone -- a cell phone, iPod, movie player, camera, and "mobile communication device" in one, I called my husband. He's been threatening to buy me the biggest, fattest iPod for months, though I insist I don't need one.

"Will you buy me an iPhone?" I asked him. "You have six months to save up!" I'm already planning out how I'll use it to take and email photos of my sister-in-law's new baby, due in July, straight from the hospital. Melly Alazraki chimed in almost immediately -- she wants one, too.

I started emailing my friends, the urbanMamas (a.k.a. Yoga Mamas). We're like a ready-made focus group for professional women who blog but are otherwise far from the cutting edge of gadget-savviness. "Do you want one?" I asked.

The answer: yes, yes and more yes. (And one "no" because "I like the iPod and phone together, but I dislike having the Internet available anywhere anytime. I already waste too much time on it.") We've been waiting to enter this market, and Apple has given us the appetizer we needed.

What else at CES has my focus group opening up "budget.xls" on their computers to find some room for new goodies?

It's even a bit prosaic: the Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) TiVo. I've been a Comcast subscriber for years and I hate switching. Now Comcast provides my phone, high-speed internet and cable, and I'm a heavy user of On Demand -- I'd rather do my taxes than switch to a different provider. For the past five years, that's meant no TiVo for this household, and I'd never heard anything good about the DVR capabilities Comcast could provide.

Now Comcast is putting TiVo software on the company's cable boxes. Hurray! Naturally, no one knows when it will be released, or how much it will cost (guesses are from $9.95 to $19.95 a month on top of cable service), but it's certainly a hot topic. I can't wait to be able to replay our favorite Backyardigans episodes over ... and over ... and over ...

Tags: aapl, apple, apple iphone, AppleIphone, ces, cmcsa, comcast, comcast tivo, ComcastTivo, consumer electronics show, ConsumerElectronicsShow, iphone, tivo, tivo comcast, TivoComcast, urban mamas, UrbanMamas, yoga mamas, YogaMamas

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-10-2007 @ 12:49AM

Thomas Nawn said...

remember, Apple is awash in money. as of sept 06, close to 10 billion in cash and securites and no long term debt.I expect a hugh buyback, possibly this month. every quarter the cash keeps rolling in. they will have to do something this year. perhaps a special dividend. they have never paid a cent to the stockholders. they need to reward us who held on even during the times the stock traded in the 50's