Beyond Kindle: Is Amazon Readying an Android Tablet? | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Beyond Kindle: Is Amazon Readying an Android Tablet? | News & Opinion | PCMag.com: "Beyond Kindle: Is Amazon Readying an Android Tablet?"

When the iPad first debuted last April, there was chatter that it would be a Kindle killer. But quite the opposite proved to be true. In fact, according to one study, 40 percent of iPad owners also have a Kindle. This has proven to Amazon that if it does produce its own tablet, it won't necessarily mean the end—or the transformation—of the Kindle line.

What the Heck Are We Doing on Twitter? - Josh Bernoff - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

What the Heck Are We Doing on Twitter? - Josh Bernoff - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review: "What the Heck Are We Doing on Twitter?"

What makes Twitter unique is that it accomplishes all five of what we called the Groundswell objectives — the essence of relationships formed through social applications. But companies must still start by picking the one that works best for them. Here are some examples of how to tap each with Twitter:

• Listening. Use tools like Twitter Search or Radian6 to keep an ear on what customers are saying about your brand. We do this ourselves, noting who mentions Groundswell, "Bernoff", or Forrester (my employer). Don't get fooled — Twitter does not represent an unbiased cross-section of your customers. But shifts in Twitter sentiment — a surge in mentions of your competitor's brand, for example, or a rise in posts that associate your product names with words like "love" or "sucks" — are indicators that changes in sentiment are brewing.

• Talking. It's absurdly easy for your company to Tweet about how great it is. It's also pretty close to worthless: no one is going to sign up to follow a Twitter account that does nothing but tweet links to your press releases, positive reviews, and product announcements. But if your tweets are actually helpful to customers, they will follow you. For example, Dell has attracted 1.5 million people to follow its tweets about deals on overstock and refurbished computers at @DellOutlet. At many media organizations, reporters Tweet about their stories and insights. These feeds are useful to customers, which is why they have so many followers: signups spread through "word of mouse."

• Energizing. On Twitter, energizing comes down to finding people who love you or write about you and retweeting them — or persuading them to retweet you. For example, San Diego State University uses Twitter to connect with its alumni, while Dunkin Donuts seeks out and retweets fans writing about it online — like a pair of guys who were attracting fans by blogging as they flew JetBlue to 25 cities in a month.

• Supporting. Twitter is perfect for identifying and helping customers who need problems. Why do this? Because it changes the character of their tweets, from "I have a problem" to "You solved my problem." AT&T has a team of more than four people responding to service requests, which has helped keep them off the Twitter "Trending Topics" from people complaining about holes in the company's mobile network. Comcast heads off service problems at @comcastcares. Best Buy has over 2000 staffers responding to Tweets for help at @Twelpforce, reinforcing the company's helpful reputation.

• Embracing. Can you use Twittter to get ideas on how to improve your products? It's not easy, but it can be done. Intuit's all-hands-on-deck response to tweets about its TurboTax products during tax season not only help keep stressed customers happier, they provide insight into the software's sticking points that the Intuit team uses to improve the product for the next release.

We've seen many companies succeed in each of these objectives with Twitter. We've seen lots of others fail, by setting a Twitter account that is unevenly staffed, or doesn't have a strategy behind it. So if you want to succeed, don't ask, "should we be on Twitter?" Ask "what are we going to do with Twitter?" Then you'll be on a path to a successful strategy.

Supermarket Competition: The Case of Every Day Low Pricing -- Lal and Rao 16 (1): 60 -- Marketing Science

Supermarket Competition: The Case of Every Day Low Pricing -- Lal and Rao 16 (1): 60 -- Marketing Science: "Supermarket Competition: The Case of Every Day Low Pricing"

Every Day Low Pricing (EDLP) strategy has proved to be a successful innovation resulting in higher profits to supermarkets adopting it in competition with Promotional Pricing (PROMO). Conventional wisdom attributes this success either to lower costs or to EDLP better serving time constrained consumers, while discouraging cherry pickers who seek promotions. However, it is unclear that such cost savings are being fully realized since EDLP stores also engage in price promotions. Also, continued existence of PROMO stores means that costs are not the only factor, and they compete effectively without relying just on the cherry pickers. Furthermore, experimental evidence suggests that a supermarket cannot obtain higher profits by merely setting constant low prices, leading to the question: exactly what makes EDLP successful? This question is of particular relevance to both academics and practitioners who have been intrigued by the success of this retailing strategy. More generally, the retailing issues addressed in this paper, the economic analysis of competition, and the empirical findings should be of interest to the broader community of researchers and managers.

We investigate the factors contributing to EDLP's success by analyzing the competition between supermarkets through a game theoretic analysis of a market consisting of both time constrained consumers and cherry pickers. Key features of our model are: consumers shop and purchase a basket of goods based on priceannouncements by stores and rational expectations of unannounced prices; stores carry more than one good and compete through prices, service, convenience, and appropriate communication strategies; and no exogenous cost asymmetries. We derive the conditions under which retailers choosing different strategies (EDLP and PROMO) is a perfect Nash equilibrium.

Our analysis shows that the EDLP store's offering of constant every day low prices is an equilibrium outcome, endogenously determined. Successful implementation of the EDLP strategy involves communication of relative basket prices, implying that merely setting constant low prices is not viable. We further demonstrate that while time constrained consumers find every day low prices at EDLP attractive and cherry pickers the promotions at PROMO, clientele effects are in fact more complicated. Specifically, in equilibrium the PROMO store offers a higher service level as desired by time constrained consumers and the EDLP store a lower service level in keeping with the needs of cherry pickers. This choice of service by the two stores results in a cleaner segmentation of the market. The higher relative basket price and service at the PROMO store results in a larger base of time constrained consumers to shop at the PROMO store and a larger base of cherry pickers to shop at the EDLP store, even though some cherry pickers continue to visit the PROMO store to avail of the price specials. In this way, our results contradict the conventional wisdom on EDLP strategy as being mainly geared towards time constrained consumers. Finally, industry profits are higher in an EDLP-PROMO equilibrium than when stores adopt identical strategies.

Our analysis and results also offer a more complete characterization of the EDLP and PROMO strategies. Indeed, we show that EDLP and PROMO strategies are positioning strategies, rather than merely pricing strategies, with different elements: price/promotions, service, and communications. While the EDLP store uses basket prices to attract both segments, the PROMO store uses service and price specials to compete in the time constrained and cherry picking segment, respectively. Given these different approaches of the two stores, the communication strategies of the EDLPand the PROMO stores emphasize these differences as well. In this way we show, as suggested by Corstjens and Corstjens (1994), that positioning in a retail context involves developing multidimensional strategies appealing to all segments, while each element of the strategy may focus on a different consumer segment. This is in contrast to the traditional view of segmentation in which different products in a product line, for example, are designed to appeal to different segments.

We complete the analysis by examining the data from the trade press and a survey conducted in a major metropolitan area. These data, while limited in scope, support our theoretical results.

Key Words: retail competition; every day low pricing; segmentation and positioning; consumer expectations; game theory

Saffron

Saffron: "About Saffron"

Saffron purchased at retail is monstrously expensive: around $44 for a quarter-ounce. But, amazingly, it's easy to grow in the home garden. (What makes it expensive at retail is not any difficulty in growing the plant--it's just a variety of autumn crocus--but the hand labor required to harvest the spice itself in quantity; but in quantities suited for household consumption, and for occasional much-appreciated gifts, it's no big deal.)

Saffron crocus bulbs are now available from several well-known home-garden seedsmen, who usually ship at the right time of year for planting. The bulbs you receive should be about the size of a healthy garlic clove.

There are only two easy "secrets" to readily growing your own saffron: 1) do not let dormant bulbs get materially wet, much less sit in wet ground; and 2) harvest timely. (We'll elaborate below.) A Spanish commercial saffron-grower's web site says "The cultivation of saffron needs an extreme climate; hot and dry weather in summer and cold in winter." Sound like any place we know?

Cultivars

Modern saffron is entirely hybrid and does not set seed at all--all propagation is vegetative. "Cultivars" are very rarely mentioned by home-garden seedsmen in connection with saffron, though there are certainly plenty enough out there; one, Crocus sativus 'Cashmirianus', is said to be an especially fine producer in northern gardens (we could only find one vendor, about 50% more than plain saffron crocus bulbs).

What is most important, however, is that you buy bulbs only from a reputable seed house, making quite sure that what you buy are saffron crocuses, not autumn meadow crocuses (sometimes confusingly also called saffron crocuses); be utterly sure you are getting real Crocus sativus, not Colchicum autumnale.

Planting

Your chosen seed house will probably send you the bulbs at the right time anyway, but the best time for initial planting is in early fall, typically about the start of September for our area; bulbs planted then ought to bloom (and thus provide a harvest) in the autumn of the immediately following year.

Saffron's life cycle is like this: in the autumn, it puts up leaves (which look a lot like a vigorous clump of grass), which continue to grow through the winter, often reaching 18 to 24 inches; in spring, around April, that portion of its annual cycle ends, the leaves die down, and the underground bulb goes "dormant"; then, with the return of autumn, the bulb breaks dormancy and sends up new leaves, then its flowers, and the cycle starts over. We need to know this because the one thing that will for sure kill off saffron is having its bulb stay damp for any nontrivial amount of time during the plant's dormant period. If a dormant saffron bulb sits in wet soil, it will very quickly rot completely away, leaving naught but a damp husk for the puzzled gardener's probing fingers to find. So from roughly April to September (more exactly judged by the plant's actual performance), it needs to be in dry soil.

(Naturally, there will hardly ever be any autumn flowers in the very year you plant.)

Gardeners worried about winter low temperatures can keep the containers indoors till the worst of the winter is past, but that is probably unnecessary in our climate (it is considered reliably hardy to at least Zone 6, -10° F.).

Around here, we get about an inch of rain a month in May and in June, often in the form of heavy storms: that can be fatal to outdoors saffron. Thus, we are best to plant our saffron bulbs in some sort of container (or containers: we use two 1' x 2' boxes for two dozen bulbs) that can be moved from indoors to outdoors twice a year without herniating.

Courageous souls can try growing them in ground outdoors; the crux is making very, very sure that your soil has superb drainage--a south-facing raised bed might work. They are, of course, perennials, so wherever they're set is where they'll be forever. Or one can try growing them completely indoors, but reports suggest that they do not perform as well without some outdoor time.

As to how many bulbs to plant: You should get three threads from each saffron plant. Experienced cooks will generally know how many threads they're likely to use in an average year, but for a rule of thumb figure on three threads per person for a main dish flavored with saffron (so, as an example, a family of four having a saffron-spiced dish on average once every couple of months, 24 plants would be needed: 3 threads x 4 persons x 6 meals a year / 3 threads a plant).

The planter-box soil should be rich, fairly sandy, and--above all--well-drained. Plant your bulbs 2 to 3 inches deep and the same 2 to 3 inches apart.

Growing

Crocuses do not need all-day sun, but they should get at least several hours a day. When they are in their growth stage (but never while they're dormant), water them lightly every other day. Cultivate shallowly with a light hand if weeds poke up.

When leaf growth emerges in the autumn, harden the plants off, then set them outside, preferably in a spot not only sunny but somewhat sheltered. They can tolerate a lot of cold, so the hardening-off need not be terribly prolonged: just avoid shock. In the spring, start keeping a close eye on them; when the leaves start dying back, probably in April, stop watering and bring the plants indoors for the summer. Again:do not water them once the spring leaf die-back begins.

In the autumn, the plant will break dormancy and leaves (with flowers soon to follow), will start coming up. When the first new leaves emerge is the time to reinstitute watering, harden the plants off again, and move them back outside.

The other "success secret" to growing saffron is harvesting: you've got to watch the plants daily at the right time of year and harvest from each the day it's ready--you cannot put this off and get satisfactory results. Each flower yields three stigmas (filaments or threads), which dangle from the throat of the flower. If the stigmas are not picked on the day the flower opens, or the next morning at very latest, they start to deteriorate. (Typically, new leaves appear in early September and flowers in early to middle October, but Nature follows her own calendar each year.)

When you find a newly opened flower, wait till any morning dew has thoroughly evaporated, then cut the flower. Remove cut flowers to a convenient work area--say a well-lit kitchen counter--then take a pair of tweezers and gently and carefully extract the three red-orange filaments, or threads, that you find in it--each of which should be about an inch long. Have a a secure container for plucked threads (ideally a small bottle) ready to hand, lest any blow away.

Keep watching your crop even after all bulbs have yielded a flower: it might happen that you get lucky and get a second, or even a third flower from a given bulb.

It's also important to thoroughly dry harvested threads before bottling them up for storage. Some sun-dry them (taking due care that the ultra-fine threads can't get blown away). Others use applied heat, which is OK if it's gentle heat applied over some time--remember, we want to dry the threads, not roast them. Perhaps the easiest technique is to lay them on a paper towel, with a sheet of glass or clear plastic over them to keep them from blowing away, then leave them on a sunny countertop for a while.

Saffron bulbs multiply readily, and can (and probably should) be divided every few years. Applying a small amount of balanced fertilizer annually when the bulbs break dormancy will be beneficial.

Relevant Links

Besides any links presented above on this page, the following ought to be especially helpful.

• Saffron - from Gernot Katzer's immensely valuable Spice Dictionary

• Plants For a Future Database: Saffron - lots of data on the plant, and links to yet more

• The Truth About Saffron - extensive review of its biology and taxonomy

• Saffron -- Crocus sativus (PDF) - Crop and Food Research, New Zealand

• "Richland man specializes in spendy spice" - a 1997 article from the Tri-City Herald newspaper about an eastern Washington amateur saffron grower (now only at The Wayback Machine site)

• Saffron Cultivation - good general discussion of its growth needs

isabgol

Psyllium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Ispaghula"

Environmental requirements

[edit]Climate

P. ovata is a 119- to 130-day crop that responds well to cool, dry weather. In India, P. ovata is cultivated mainly in North Gujarat as a "Rabi" or post–rainy season crop (October to March). During this season, which follows the monsoons, average temperatures are in the range of 15–30 °C (59–86 °F), and moisture is deficient. Isabgol (P. ovata), which has a moderate water requirement, is given 5 to 6 light irrigations. A very important environmental requirement of this crop is clear, sunny and dry weather preceding harvest. High night temperature and cloudy wet weather close to harvest have a large negative impact on yield. Rainfall on the mature crop may result in shattering and therefore major field losses.

[edit]Soil

Isabgol grows best on light, well drained, sandy loams. The nutrient requirements of the crop are low. In North Gujarat, the soil tends to be low in nitrogen and phosphorus and high in potash with a pH between 7.2 and 7.9. Nitrogen trials under these conditions have shown a maximum seed yield response with the addition of 22 kg/hectare (20 lb/acre) of nitrogen.

[edit]Seed preparation and germination

P. ovata has small seeds; 1,000 seeds weigh less than 2 grams. Under ideal conditions of adequate moisture and low temperature 10 to 20 °C (50 to 68 °F), 30% of seeds germinate in 5 to 8 days. The seed shows some innate dormancy (3 months) following harvest. Attempts to eliminate this dormancy period by scarification, or by exposure to wet or dry heat, cold, ethylene, or carbon dioxide, are ineffective. Post-dormancy seeds show reliable germination in excess of 90% at 29 °C (84 °F), with lower rates of germination as temperature is increased.

[edit]Cultivation

The fields are generally irrigated prior to seeding to achieve ideal soil moisture, to enhance seed soil contact, and to avoid burying the seed too deeply as a result of later irrigations or rainfall. Maximum germination occurs at a seeding depth of 6 mm (1/4 in). Emerging seedlings are frost sensitive, therefore planting should be delayed until conditions are expected to remain frost free. Seed is broadcast at 5.5 to 8.25 kg/hectare (5 to 7.5 lb/acre) in India. In Arizona trials, seeding rates of 22 to 27.5 kg/ha (20 to 25 lb/acre) resulted in stands of 1 plant/25mm (1 inch) in 15 cm (6 inch) rows produced excellent yields. Weed control is normally achieved by one or two hand weedings early in the growing season. Control of weeds by pre-plant irrigation that germinates weed seeds followed by shallow tillage may be effective on fields with minimal weed pressure. Psyllium is a poor competitor with most weed species.

Plantago wilt "Fusarium oxyspirum" and downy mildew are the major diseases of Isabgol. White grubs and aphids are the major insect pests.

The flower spikes turn reddish brown at ripening, the lower leaves dry and the upper leaves yellow. The crop is harvested in the morning after the dew is gone to minimize shattering and field losses. In India, mature plants are cut 15 cm above the ground and then bound, left for a few days to dry, thrashed, and winnowing.

Harvested seed must be dried below 12% moisture to allow for cleaning, milling, and storage. Seed stored for future crops has shown a significant loss in viability after 2 years in storage.

[edit]Yield potential and performance results

The contract price for 95% purity psyllium husk set by the Indian Basic Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Export Promotion Council for April 1988 was $1.65/lb F.O.B. ($3.63/kg). This price is up from $1.14/lb ($2.51/kg) set in 1985. The average seed yield of P. ovata in India often exceeds 1 tonne/hectare (1000 lb/acre). Net yield of 95% purity husk after milling would be 275 kg/ha (250 lb/acre). Average gross revenue from milled product at 1988 prices would be $412/acre ($1030/ha). The costs of production and milling in the U.S. are unknown but would certainly need to be determined in order to analyze the potential profitability of a commercial psyllium venture.

[edit]Economics of production and markets

The U.S. currently imports and consumes approximately 8,000 tons of psyllium annually. A continued expansion of this market seems likely due to the high level of interest in natural dietary fibers. No variety has been tested in the Upper Midwest but it would seem that the varieties that are grown in India would not be suited to production in this area. A major cultural problem limiting psyllium production in this area is the shattering characteristic of the mature crop. Some success has been achieved by cross-breeding high yielding Indian varieties with varieties that are more shatter resistant. Until shatter resistant varieties are available, production of Isabgol is likely to be restricted to environments that consistently provide a cool dry harvest season.

isabgol - AgricultureInformation.com

isabgol - AgricultureInformation.com: "ISABGOL (plantago ovata Forks.)"

.It is an annual stem-less herb, a native of Persia, now grows as a cash crop on about 16,000 ha in the Mehsana, Palampur and Banaskantha districts of Northern Gujrat, India is the largest producer of isabgol and exports seed and husk worth Rs 25 million annually. The husk is the rosey-white membranous covering of the seed which constitutes the drug and is given as a safe laxative, particularly beneficial in habitual constipation, chronic diarrhoea and dysentery.

Isabogal is an irrigated rabi crop which remains in the field for about 4 months. The crop is grown in marginal, light, well-drained sandy-loam to loamy soils having pH between 7 to 8. It requires a cool climate and dry sunny weather or light showers cause seed shedding.

After harvesting the kharif crops,e.g. jowar(Sorghum vulgare), the land is brougt to fine tilth and laid out into beds of convinient size for irrigation. It is preferable to mix with the soil 15 cartloads of well-rotted farmyard mannure per hectare during the preparation of the land.The optimum sowing time is early November ; sowing however, is extended till the end of December, but the delayed sowing decreases the yield. The seed rate is 7.8 kg per hectare. Seeds are small and light about 6000 to a gramme and are sown by broadcast. They are covered thinly by raking the soil. A light irrigation is given immediately. Germination starts in 6 to 10 days and the crop is given the second irrigation after 3 weeks and a third one at the time of the formation of the spikes ; thus the crop needs 6 to 7 irrigations.

Isabgol makes a moderate demand for nutrients. Usually,25 kgof each N and P per hectare is given at plantation.The crop is given 1 or 2 hand-weedings during the entire growing period. The plants are about 50 cm high andeach plants gives out between 25 to 100 tillers,depending upon tje fertility of soil and wheather conditions. The plant bears the flowering spikes in about 60 days after sowing and matures in the next 2 months.The yellowing of the lower leaves is an indication of maturity,confirmed by pressing a spike between two figers when the mature seeds come out. The crop is harvested close to the ground in the early morning hours to avoid looses owing to seed shedding.The harvested material is stacked for 1 or 2 days,made to be trampled by bullocks, winnowed,and the seperated seed crop is collected . A boldseeded crop fetches a better price.

The seeds are processed through a series of grinding mills to seperate the husk, and about 30 per cent husk by weight is thus recovered . The husk contains a mucilaginous substance.

Powdery mildew sometimes attacks the crop and is brought under control by spraying the crop with wettable sulphur, e.g. 'Karathen' and 'Sulfex' two or three times at 15-day intervals after the apperance of infection. White grubs are reported to damage the roots ; soil treatment with 5 per cent Aldrin or Lindane to protect the crop is given at the time of the last ploughing during the preparation of the field.

MSI Windpad 100 tablet

7 New Windows 7 Tablets: In Pictures CIO.com: "7 New Windows 7 Tablets: In Pictures
Hardware makers both well known (HP and Asus) and obscure (Hanvon and Pegatron) are putting the final touches on Windows 7-based tablet PCs to take on the iPad and Android Tablets. Here's a slideshow of the most anticipated Windows tablets due out for the holidays or early 2011."