BizThoughts

I know a few people who waited on line for the new iPhone. I'm sure you do too. The buzz & excitement has been huge. For the last few weeks, you couldn't read a tech blog anywhere without reading about the new iPhone.

I even remember hearing that a scuffle broke out at the Palo Alto Apple (AAPL) Store. It's like the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii all over again.

Except that this time, the iPhones… haven't sold out?

Ars Technica just reported that there are still plenty of iPhones left.

24 hours ago, few thought it would be like this. Mad people were lining up in New York City days in advance of the sales. People camping out, people trying to sell their place in line for hundreds of dollars. And then there's "Mike," who I met at the North Shore Mall (just north of Boston), who walked in and bought his iPhone and accessories this morning, without so much as waiting in line 5 minutes. …

We've heard from readers who were standing in lines all over the country; those same readers are reporting that there are loads of iPhones left in NYC, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Indianapolis, and everywhere else.

Want one? No need to rush. Just mosey on over to your local Apple Store and I'm sure you'll find one.

In Apple's defense, it's not that iPhones aren't selling. They are. Perhaps they just stocked their inventory well. There are reports of sales volumes being in the thousands. Blackfriars' Marketing predicts that 500,000 iPhones will be sold this weekend alone.

Damn!

If that happens, then I predict services like Cellswapper.com are going to explode. They're going to get a ton of swappers soon, with new iPhone owners unloading their old phones.

And even better, if you're in the market for a new cell phone, perhaps you can find a good deal here! I mean, think about it—there will soon be 500,000 iPhone owners desperately trying to give you their old phones & contracts. It's a cell phone buyer's market!

It's generally believed that using your own products is a good thing. You're eating your own dog food, so to speak.

Dave Shen, a former Yahoo! (YHOO) employee, suggests otherwise. He writes:

I would put forth that the blindness that happens with being comfortable and focusing on yourself and your own company is precisely the way you get blindsided by some fast moving kids out of college developing something that is so cool and compelling and you see them gaining traction only after you've fallen behind.

What's the best way to combat this?

USE THE BEST PRODUCT OUT THERE FOR WHATEVER IT IS YOU DO. (Emphasis his)

That's pretty sound advice. Using the best product for your needs, even if it's not your own, is a great way to understand why it, and not yours, is the best product out there. And if you feel bad about not eating your own dog food, you can think of it as "competitive research."

"You know, I'm semi-retired right now," said the cab driver. "I was able to do that through investing in the stock market."

"Really?" I asked. "How so?" I decided not to bring up the fact that he was driving a cab.

"I have a degree in Chemistry. I used to work for a dot-com. When the dot-com bombed, I was left with some money. I used that money to begin learning the stock market."

The car sped down the 101 and darted between slower cars. "I started small," he continued. "First, I invested only a little. I read a lot of websites and magazines and books. I studied a lot. Everyday. My wife would come home and complain about all the financial reports I had throughout the house. I told her, 'But this is how I'm making us so much money!'"

I laughed. "So you built up a portfolio through reading all this stuff. Let me guess, you're a value investor?"

He smiled into the rear-view mirror. "No, not really. I invest in one stock a year."

"One stock a year? So… you don't diversify your holdings?"

He shook his head with a grin. "Nope. I spend six months researching and researching. Then, after six months, I select a single stock I want to invest in for that year, then I put all my money into it."

"Interesting. Sounds risky for the average investor, but since you're an educated investor…"

"Exactly," he added. "For six months, I study everything about a particular company. I study the executives, their backgrounds, how many shares they hold. If the CEO holds many shares of that company, that's a good sign. If he's selling most of his shares, that's a bad sign."

"True true," I laughed.

"I study the product, the market, it's competitors, everything. Even if the stock has a sudden spike while I'm researching, I don't buy it. I only buy it after I've completed my research and am very certain that it's a good buy."

"You must be a very patient man."

"Yes, I am very patient. You have to be if you want to be a good investor. I've been doing this for thirty years now. I started doing this at a young age. In the twenty years since I started the one-stock-per-year model, I've only lost money once."

"WHAT??"

He nodded with a broad smile. "Just once. I started with penny stocks, since they were very cheap. Even now, I'll purchase low-priced stocks. Right now, I'm holding about 50,000 shares of a $1 stock. So when it moves up to $2 and $3, well…" he beamed.

"Wow." I shook my head. "That's awesome."

"When I started, I didn't have this much money, of course. In the beginning, I lost a lot of money. Just like everyone else in the dot-bomb. But every time I lost money, I'd study my decision making analysis to understand why I made this mistake. I'd study the stock more, the company more. I analyzed why the stock lost money. And I used those learnings to improve my investment decisions going forward."

"And now you're semi-retired," I stated.

"Yes. Now I am semi-retired." We pulled up to my destination. He stopped the car, then turned around. "I tell you, investing is a very important skill. You should learn it. Start small and study your mistakes in the beginning. Do a lot of research and be very patient. Do that, and you'll be able to retire too."

I thanked him and got out of the cab. I waved as the cab drove off. Only in Silicon Valley can you met a semi-retired cab driver who makes his money with $1 stocks.

Now for some Friday fun. I have a guilty secret.

I've been secretly coveting lolcat sites, like I Can Has Cheezburger?.

I didn't follow them the first time around. When the second wave came, I caught it and started surfing it with glee.

(I blame LOLTrek for getting me into lolcats. Someone pointed me to that link and from there, I've been hooked onto lolcats ever since.)

I know, I know. But what can I say, I'm a fan of corny jokes. And lolcats are about as corny as you can get.

So when David Friedman of Ironic Sans suggested Lolcatvertisements, I thought to myself: HAHAHA!

The way I see it, companies have about a week or so left in the life of the lolcat meme to come up with some clever ads that use the lolcat format.

Take a pizza and burger joint, for example. They could start with a picture of a pizza delivery guy, with the caption "I'M IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, DELIVERING YOUR PIZZA" or it could have a picture of a burger and fries with the caption "YES YOU CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER."

I know, I know. The lolcat thing is fading again and lots of people can't wait for it to die. But it still makes me chuckle. Hehe.

"I forbade my daughter from opening up a restaurant," said the restaurant owner.

"Why?" I asked. "You started a restaurant; a few of them, actually. You were very successful. Shouldn't you be happy that your daughter wants to follow in your footsteps?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm not." He paused and fixated on the tablecloth. "I came to this country a poor man. I worked hard, very hard, every day of my life to build these restaurants."

He held out his arm and patted his bicep. "I had to use the muscles in my arms to build these businesses."

I nodded.

"My daughter, I gave her an education in this country so she wouldn't have to work hard like me. Same is true for you. Your parents came to this country and gave you an education too. What we want from you, our children, is to work smart, not hard."

He patted his forehead. "Use the muscles in your brain, not the muscles in your arms, to build your businesses."

He sat back in his seat and sighed. "That's why I don't want my daughter opening up a restaurant. And that's why I wouldn't advise you to open up a restaurant either."

Sometimes I come up with random business ideas. After reading the article, "Desperate Botnet Battlers Call for an Internet Driver's License" at Wired.com, this idea came to me.

What if there was a service that helped you clean off all the spyware and viruses on your computer? Their overall mission would be to improve the security and performance of your computer, of which cleaning up spyware and viruses is just one step. There are many other performance-enhancing steps also.

They would target non-tech savvy households with computers. The positioning would be around how insecure and fragile your computer is without the proper protection. Which conjures up imagines of laptop condoms in my head, for some reason.

Oh, but then there's Geek Squad. This is pretty much what they do right now. Except that they're not really positioned just for computer security and performance. Hmmm. I suppose this business idea could be a marketing idea for them too.

Problem is, I don't know of many non-tech savvy households with computers that actually use Geek Squad. I'm not sure why. Maybe people think Geek Squad is too expensive. Maybe they don't even know what Geek Squad is.

The service I'm talking about would aim for those not being served by Geek Squad. Some audience research could determine an available segment there somewhere, I'm sure.

Perhaps the price could be promoted at the forefront, so people know this service is affordable. They'd be known as The $20 Jiffy Lube for Laptops or something.

High school kids could make up the staff, keeping internal costs low and computer knowledge high. Because, as everyone knows, the younger you are, the more you know about computers.

I'm not sure if vehicles are necessary, like with Geek Squad. If house calls are requested, perhaps a pizza delivery model could work, where the employee drives his/her own car and is reimbursed for gas. As the business expands, a fleet could be considered.

A storefront location would be important though, to show legitimacy and professionalism. Otherwise, why would you be willing to drop off your personal laptop to a bunch of strangers? Also, this would give the high school kids a place to do their magic.

So basically, this is a computer repair shop marketed as a spyware & virus cleaner to people who notice their computers getting slower or who are paranoid about malicious software. Hmmm. Think it'll work?