Category Archives: iPhone app

Soundview App Now Available for iOS Devices

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Soundview Executive Book Summaries is now accessible through our app for the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod Touch®. Our app provides several special features for users including:

  • Access to all of your content with your Soundview login information.
  • Easily browse, search and filter your content.
  • Download content for offline access.
  • Pick up where you left off reading, listening or watching.
  • Most recent content always appears in first screen view.
  • You’ll be notified when new content is available.
  • Fast and logical navigation.

In addition, for those that are not yet subscribers the app provides a sample of our book summary, webinar, video interview and other content so others can try out what our subscribers already enjoy. Here’s what the app provides for free content:

Summary: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Soundview Live ™Webinar: Creating Presentations that Persuade with Nancy Duarte

Executive Insights™ Video: The Valuable Skill of Successful Communication with Ted Fuller of Fuller Communications

Author Interview: Marshall Goldsmith

Executive Edge™: Maximize Your Professional Value

We invite you to download the app and to let us know what you think about it. We would also appreciate your rating in the app store.

The App You’ve Known For All These Years

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I noticed this piece from PCMag.com that discusses Apple’s attempt to keep up with demand for the iPad and iPhone 4. Apple is blessed with a rare commodity built into its audience; its consumers have patience. While many businesses would love to be in the enviable position of having a backlog of orders, this can occasionally panic successful companies. The traditional theory states that every day a customer waits for an order is an opportunity for a vendor of a similar product to steal him or her away. However, since the iPhone is a much a status symbol as it is a technology tool, people are willing to wait.

But does the innovative company’s modern image as the king of cool equate to being bulletproof? Not necessarily.

I stumbled across a great video yesterday that offers a unique vision of what could happen to Apple. Rex Crum, a technology correspondent for The Wall Street Journal‘s MarketWatch Web site, found a way to tie together two entities that left massive footprints on the cultural landscape: Apple and The Beatles. Crum points out that Apple hasn’t really suffered a setback since it revolutionized music with the introduction of the iPod. He claims The Beatles also enjoyed an uninterrupted string of successes until the late-1967 television film Magical Mystery Tour. Longtime fans of either entity could easily poke holes in this argument, but I prefer to focus on the picture Crum is attempting to paint with his broad, broad brush.

Success, adoration and loyalty, whether in business or music, carry a heavy set of expectations. I think Crum misses a key point about the upside of groundbreaking success. Being a member of the absolute elite also endows those entities with an extra amount of forgiveness on the part of the audience. I don’t necessarily agree with Crum that the initial problems with the iPhone 4 could signal the start of a trend. Apple has a way of making even a bad situation work in its favor.

What’s funny about Crum’s comparison is that he ignores the long-standing feud between his two subjects. You can’t find an original album by The Beatles on iTunes. But guess what you can find? Soundview iPhone apps.Which one is your favorite?

Did You Solve the iPhone Mystery?

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This post will certainly require a little audience participation (if you kind folks are up for it). Send me a comment and let me know if you ever noticed this little idiosyncrasy before. In many advertisements for Apple’s iPhone, the time displayed on the phone is 9:42. Sharp-eyed viewers and Apple fanatics have speculated as to the hidden meaning of the clocks always reading 9:42. Is this some sort of code communicated to the masses at the request of Steve Jobs?

According to this article from PC World, the mystery has been solved, and the reason for the repetition of 9:42 in every ad couldn’t be more simple. Marketing, at its core, is the art of making an impression. Sometimes the power of digital suggestion is all that’s required to lend a helping hand to the effort. I’m sure that some people will search for examples where 9:42 isn’t displayed, while others (like the person who responded to the PCW article) will debunk the Apple rep’s explanation.

This isn’t the first instance of consumers speculating over the time displayed in an ad. For example, if I mentioned the time 10:10, would you know where you see it most? For decades consumers have questioned why 10:10 is the time displayed on the face of a watch in any watchmaker’s advertisement. The theories on this are numerous. My personal favorite, which you may have heard before, is that 10:10 is displayed as a tribute to President Abraham Lincoln. People who subscribe to this theory claim that Lincoln died at 10:10 p.m. on April 14, 1865 from the gunshot wound he received from John Wilkes Booth. By various accounts, this is completely inaccurate. Lincoln is believed to have expired at 7:22 the next morning. The most likely reason for 10:10, as far as I’m concerned, is the ability to display the watchmaker’s brand name without obstruction.

One thing about the iPhone that’s certainly not a mystery is the popularity of its applications. Soundview has some great apps for your iPhone, including a FREE “Top Business Summaries” app.

Would You Switch If You Could?

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Interesting news for all of you iPhone fans today. I read this article from The Wall Street Journal that reports on AT&T’s preparation to strengthen its network. While not clearly stated, the implication is that the wireless carrier’s efforts are due to a potential revamped iPhone release that would allow the enormously popular device to use rival Verizon’s network. As the article indicates, the new Verizon-friendly iPhone model may not debut by the end of 2010, but the potential shake-up in the wireless carrier community is enough to get AT&T working now.

The companies have been engaged in a clever marketing war for the past several months. Verizon’s “red and blue map” commercials dominate much of prime time television’s ad space. For its part, AT&T has responded with a comparable campaign. The ads feature actor Luke Wilson refuting Verizon’s claims as well as showing the strength of AT&T’s ability to run multiple applications at the same time.The contrasting ads offer a great study for marketing executives looking for positive ways of answering the criticism of a competitor.

Whether or not the release of the new iPhone model will cause thousands of subscribers to switch networks will be an interesting situation to observe. In the meantime, current iPhone users can check out Soundview’s iPhone applications by clicking this link. We’re offering some great collections of “can’t miss” summaries!

Answers About Our Product and the iPhone

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We’ve gotten a few e-mails in response to our iPhone apps. The feedback has been very positive to this point, and we’re very pleased that everyone is enjoying the apps. The one question that we receive more than any other, however, is, “When can I get a subscription to Soundview on the iPhone?”

The iPhone and its applications, as you’re aware, are constantly evolving. While we’re not at the point yet where we can offer our subscription product in this way, we’re researching it. It’s always our objective to deliver our summaries in the ways in which our subscribers want to read them. Sticking with one format for presenting one’s product is generally a means to a quick exit from the business world. You have to know when to move ahead and when to leave things in the past. Look at Kodak who announced today that they’re retiring their world-famous Kodachrome film after 74 years.

Fear not, iPhone fans. Keep your eyes on this blog and you’ll be the first to know when Soundview offers a subscription via the iPhone.