Posts by Gareth Ward
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Hard News: Just don't call it "Party Central", in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I hope you didn't deprive his protection officers of their donut course
No, but I thought it was awfully nice of his driver to pop out to the 7 series and turn the seat warmers on 10mins earlier...
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On the RWC-triggered hospo topic, can I just say that Depot is outstanding. Yes Wellingtonians you absolutely may gloat about "your boy" showing Auckland how it's done because he freakin deserves it.
They even kicked the Prime Minister and his wife out of their seats for us (I guess it's possible they chose to leave at the end of their meal and we happened to be next on the waitlist but...)
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Hard News: Just don't call it "Party Central", in reply to Russell Brown,
Yes, I think I meant that The Cloud looks good inside, rather than out
I am yet to see it, but do have architect friends who have begrudingly admitted it's actually pretty damn good after loathing the initial concepts (tainted via the surrounding political and planning mess I suspect)
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to Patrick Reynolds,
What we need there is a lift down to the disused off-ramp [embarrassing as, NZTA]
The Auckland Plan will include a Highline-like redevelopment of that off-ramp. I don't know that access to it has been sorted (it certainly makes sense to get it off K-Rd or down the back of Rising Sun or something but it may have to be in from the Pitt St end)...
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Hard News: Complaint and culture, in reply to B Jones,
How does one, having been put off from looking at the magazine thanks to the atrocious cover (which screamed "sensationalist and unrepresentative of real obstetric practice"), get hold of a copy of the Failure to Deliver story?
This. I saw that cover in the supermarket and recoiled from it - there was no way I was going to purchase it to read the story.
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to Russell Brown,
Every person I know that has partaken in the hospitality offerings of North Wharf has had a terrible experience. Every one.
Yikes.
Although snapper and chips from the (well-established) Fish Market behind it to eat out on the wharf with the family was a great time on early Friday evening. Little steep on the $ side but thoroughly recommended...
ETA: Snap barnes...
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Every person I know that has partaken in the hospitality offerings of North Wharf has had a terrible experience. Every one.
They're probably a month late down there with regards to training, settling-in etc etc and probably 3-6 months late in terms of grabbing some of the few decent hospo staff available in the city. -
Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to Paul Campbell,
even though they look (or have looked) like a small player they can do economies of scale that others can't
And they've been so strategic with it, where others use it just to cut a few cents (again, thanks to Cook). When the Nano was designed, they locked in $1.5billion (IIRC) in one particular type of flash memory for it - not only as an (accurate) forecast of demand but also as a way to lock their competitors out of the market.
Their margin these days is amazing because they've worked it from both ends - designing products "we want ourselves" that can demand a premium (which these days is probably about right compared to the earlier premium) but also running an insanely efficient back-end.Although I can't see Cook calling Vic Gundotra (as head of mobile apps at Google) on a Sunday morning claiming a huge problem that needed fixing like Jobs did. The problem? The shade of yellow on the second "o" in Google on the Google app icon wasn't quite right :|
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Meant to add - they also create a permanent supply chain to the consumer via their hardware. A series of devices that make it painfully easy to continue to buy content for them is effectively a micro supply chain to every customer.
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Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to Russell Brown,
The hifi industry still hasn't caught up to the (IMO) massive opportunity that AirPlay and iTunes represents. Why are there not AirPlay-enabled powered speaker boxes everywhere already? Sonos killers if they got it sorted - instead Sonos saw the threat and has responded in advance. Apple HiFi or whatever it was called was probably Apple seeing this but then fell back to their famous focus and decided not to push it.
Oh and Apple's design isn't the story behind their commercial success anymore - it's their supply chain and ruthless efficiency. Even with Ives' gorgeousness Apple were never going to be the largest company in the world. The fact that they can now get great industrial design delivered rapidly to your hands in unthinkable volume at a close-to-competitive price is behind that. And that's why Cook deserves CEO.