Cook was asked whether the iPad would replace netbooks to which he responded saying that they haven’t sold any iPads yet and therefore he cannot answer the question. He also said that the iPad will be sold in direct channels such as Apple stores and online but will soon be available in retail stores.

Cook also spoke about Apple TV which has not really gotten as much attention like other Apple products. This digital media receiver device was described by Cook as a “hobby” as its target market is relatively small, however it has grown by 35%.

This is not the first time that Google goes under investigation. Its acquisition of DoubleClick was also investigated in the USA by the FTC before it was approved. In 2008 a deal between Google and Yahoo was denied and since then Yahoo has recently signed a deal with Microsoft.

Curt says that usually to get someone to do a collaboration with you, you will need to speak to agents or someone who deals with session musicians. Social media allowed him to speak with Zoe directly, she is a fan of the band Tears for Fears and therefore when Curt approached her she immediately accepted.

Curt says he has alot of interaction with fans on his own Twitter page and posts pictures of their road trips and concerts. He also says that now that he has a collaboration with Zoe, their Twitter followers will expand as her fans will now follow him and vice versa.

The track “All is Love” became popular and a free download is available on MP3 Amazon who also have their own Twitter feed and they sent it to everyone. Zoe sent it to her 1.4 million followers and he sent it to his fans aswell. All feedback received from this track is positive, he also admits that by directly using social media they have gained alot of interest from the public.

Online Dedication

One type of holiday vacation has been seeing the fruits of social media. Ski resorts have been using social media more often to broaden their customer base. A famous ski resort, Vail Resorts, has shifted 80% of their marketing budget to digital production. They now have 3 new websites as well as facebook and Twitter accounts. Managers have said that after offering big give-aways the number of fans has increased dramatically. They also ensure that their blog is updated regularly with information that the customer wants to see and will be interested in.

Offline Action

In the end vacation resorts need their customers to show up for a holiday in order for their revenue to increase. Some holidays spots are achieving this through integrated campaigns. Vail Resorts planned a 4 day event which showed clients what their resort has to offer while attracting customers who would not normally travel to the area.

Besides conferences and give-aways, blogger retreats have also become very popular. Club Med held a food blogger camp in January for 7 days. The aim of this event was to draw attention to the resorts culinary delights. 8 well known food bloggers stayed at the resort and gave seminars while others could enjoy the amenities and could network. Blogger guests paid for their rooms, activities and food at a discounted rate and kids were able to stay for free. Public Relations Director for Club Med says that with advertising you are limited to space and need to try and squeeze everything you have to offer onto one page. Social media assists in effective branding and therefore you can advertise about a certain aspect of your resort, such as the food blogger camp. This allows these bloggers to write about their experience and potential customer like to have the perspective of a normal person who has had the experience.

It is easy to create a huge fanbase using social media, however one should still focus on quality and not quantity. Resorts need to give clients what they expect with a little something extra.

The Chrome based tablet concept is quite interesting as CNET says on its Form Factors Exploration page that the main focus for Chrome OS is netbooks but can also be used on many devices and is considering input options. Chrome would be better on a tablet or media pad type of device as it is designed to be used while sitting on your couch like what we use phones for now. After the launch of the iPad more companies will start offering and internet focused tablet or media pad type of device.

The individual market share for IE6 dropped from 31.4% to 20%. IE7 lost the exact same amount as IE8 gained from 35.2% to 14.5% share. IE8 gained more than any other browser followed by Firefox which went up by 17.1%. IE8 is now the largest single browser and it helps that Windows 7 comes standard with IE8. Chrome only needs another 5% growth to double its market share whereas IE8 can gain over 20% and still see IE’s overall share go down.

This new HipHop technology idea was introduced by one of their developers, Haiping Zhao. The technology changes PHP into C++ using g++ to compile it. With this new technology they use 50% less CPU with equal traffic and 30% less CPU usage with doubled traffic on its API tier. Facebook started developing HipHop about 6 months ago and is now used on 90% of Facebook’s production servers. At the Technology tasting, Zhao explained how the technology works and gave us insight into Facebook’s goals such as:

* Catching up with PHP 5.3
* Support Apache as a web server option
* Evolve base on usage outside of Facebook