Alec Saunders SquawkBox

The web sure is an interesting lab for testing and quantifying some of the accepted “truths” of marketing. What is first mover advantage in a market worth? In First-mover advantage, Infoworld reports on the results of a study comparing price increases at market (and mindshare) leader Amazon to the same price increases at lesser known competitor Barnes and Noble (barnesandnoble.com).  A 1% increase at Amazon resulted in a .5% drop in sales, but at Barnes and Noble the same price increase produced a dip of 4%.  The Amazon customer is much less price sensitive, it would appear.

Could it just be conditioning? After all, a common strategy for a company that is second to market is to cut prices.  Are Barnes and Noble customers more likely to be price shoppers as a result?

From CNET: Briefly: Mailblocks CEO and WebTV founder dies.  Cause of death unknown. 

I am blown away.  I had only a few opportunities to work with Phil at MSFT, but always found him intelligent, softspoken, and willing to listen to someone with a good idea. 

VoIP: Beyond Cheaper Phone Calls. Subscriber acquisition is a big expense, no doubt.  That’s an area that VoIP can’t solve, and if anything, it will become a bigger problem as VoIP services promote churn away from the incumbent monopolies.