BACK IN THE BLOGOSPHERE . . . BITCHES!!

I know, I know -- what kind of a person abandons their blog for so long?! Me - that's who. I won't try to defend my excuses as good ones, but they'll have to do. Actually all of my excuses roll up into one fat one - LIFE!

Right around the time of my last post, my first kid was turning 1 and I was coming off my self-imposed hiatus and into a new gig leading the digital practice for GameStop.   From there it was a proverbial roller coaster of sorrow (losing my dad & best friend in August ’11 after almost a year of health issues), change (moving the family to Northern California in September ’11) and pure joy (the birth of our second kid in December ’11).

As amazing of a job as that has been for the last 3 ½ years, one of the unfortunate by-products of the gig was a “no public commentary without prior approval” mandate that made the act of blogging one of process and permission rather than harmless rants and observations.  Aren’t public companies fun?! 

Besides this small bump in the road, the GameStop gig was an amazing opportunity to yet again help a large incumbent leverage its place in the ecosystem (this time in gaming) to evolve its business to one that not only continues its market dominance in its core business but also boldly strikes out into new and adjacent businesses as a path to helping ensure future viability.  In my time there we accomplished quite a bit in a relatively short period of time, taking the companies revenues from sub-$100MM in ’09 to over $600MM in ’12.  I’m extremely proud of what we accomplished there and I look forward to the next chapter in my career, which will continue to include advising and mentoring early stage companies.

So now back to my blog.  The cool thing about reading through your old posts is that you can reflect back on how right on or full of s**t you were about stuff - and I gotta say the shovel is pretty light. One service that I blogged about (Groupon) has had quite an epic ride these last few years, two others (Tunezee and Timebridge) were acquired, another (Rixty) is still chugging along in the games sector and another (The Peek) is pretty much off the grid as predicted.

While this walk down memory lane was fun, I gotta say that the best part of getting this blog post up was surfing through all the stuff that came up when I went onto Google Images looking for an "I'm Back" image. This was the best (and safest) one I could come up with - thanks to whoever created it.

So now that I'm back on the grid I'll do my best post a bit more regularly. Looking forward to seeing what the future brings!

TAKING A PEEK AT THE PEEK

I'm sure some of you have already seen this new mobile communication device called The Peek - but for those of you who haven't, let me be the first to give you my two cents about it . . . don't bother.

What is it you ask? Quite simply, it's a portable device that is 100% dedicated to emailing and texting. According to their CEO Amol Sarva, there are a ton of people out there who want a simple to use (it only takes a few minutes to set up) and affordable ($49.95 for the device and $19.95 a month with no contracts) device that allows them to stay in touch on the go - but without having the ability to actually call and talk to people.

Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty slick looking device - and I'm sure that there will be folks out there for whom this is a perfect fit. But I personally think that there are a number of factors working against it, including:

1. Device Fatigue -- as we continue to be bombarded with more and more choices when it comes to portable devices (cell phones, smart phones, digital cameras, laptops, netbooks, etc.), at the end of the day most people want to simplify their lives and pare down on the number of devices (and power cords) they use and have with them at all times. And more likely than not, these same people will be willing to pay a premium for the convenience of less devices.

2. Email Is Becoming Less and Less Relevant -- we can't deny that we're in an age of immediacy that is being driven, in large part, by the continuing proliferation and use of telephony and texting functions associated with pretty much all cell phones these days - not to mention the meteoric rise of social communication tools like Twitter and Facebook. As a result, email is being used more and more as a third or fourth option when it comes to communication. So when faced with the choice of having a device that allows you to talk and text (in addition to a handful of other bells and whistles), or one that lets you just text and email, chances are you'll choose the former.

3. Price -- while 20 bucks a month is definitely a good deal, the reality is that most people are still willing to pay a bit more for a portable device that fits the criteria mentioned in #2, in addition to having other utilitarian features such as a camera and Internet access (through which, by the way, you can also access and use email). And it's safe to assume that pricing on mobile phone services from the carriers will only continue to go down.

Long story short -- extremely slick looking device with a price point and service that may appeal to an extremely small group of consumers, but at the end of the day, less is more when it comes to devices.