What if you read this post through the eyes of trying to reach someone with the message of your cause instead of looking at it as a "sale"? Would it change your perspective on how you approach people with your message?

The hungry person at the all you can eat buffet is happy to take one more item. She doesn't spend a lot of time comparing this to that, or saying 'no thank you' or avoiding certain items. If it's interesting, "sure I'll try a little bit. I can always come back."

The guarded person walking down the street avoids eye contact with the homeless person, doesn't answer a request from the petition-signer and certainly doesn't help a Boy Scout with that old lady.

And this is precisely the dichotomy every cause, every candidate and every marketer faces.

Either you're selling to people who are hungry for what you offer, who are open to hearing what you have to say, who are fans...

Or you're selling to people who are actively protecting themselves, guarding against interruption or a mistake or worse.

How can you possibly have a strategy about what you're going to do next until you determine which mindset you're marketing to?

Here's the key truth: in any given moment, in any given situation, a person is either hungry or guarded. You need to decide which sort of person you'll be telling your story to, because one approach won't work on the other type of person.

[PS the mindset can (and does) change as people go through their day. At the bookstore she might be hungry for a new idea, and just a few minutes later, at the bus stop, she wants to be alone...]

I love the perspective that Seth Godin. I'm always challenged by his writing.

The worldwide smartphone market has grown 79.7% year over year, with smartphone vendors shipping a total of 99.6 million units in in the first quarter of 2011, market research firm IDC reports.

Although Nokia is still the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturer, with a 24.3% market share, its decline has been amazingly fast – in Q1 2010, Nokia held over one third of the market, with a 38.3% share.

Although Nokia’s smartphone shipments have actually grown from 21.5 to 24.2 million units, everyone else has been growing much faster. Samsung’s market share increased from 4.3% to 10.8%, while HTC has grown from 4.9% to 8.9%. Samsung’s growth has been particularly impressive, with shipments increasing 350% – from 2.4 to 10.8 million units.

Apple is also showing steady growth, having captured an 18.7% market share in Q1 2011, compared to 15.7% in the same period last year. Research in Motion is holding third place overall with a 14% market share, but, like Nokia, it’s been growing much slower than everyone else, having increased shipments from 10.6 to 13.9 million units in Q1 2011.

With Nokia looking at a tough period of transition from Symbian to Windows Phone 7, we can only see its market share declining in 2011, and we’re sure Android manufacturers, led by HTC and Samsung, as well as Apple will be there to grab it.

“The rise of Android as a prominent mobile operating system has allowed several suppliers to gain share quickly. Also, the relatively nascent state of smartphone adoption globally means there is ample room for several suppliers to comfortably co-exist, at least for the short term,” says Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

IDC recently predicted that the smartphone market will grow 49.2% in 2011, with Android dominating the smartphone OS market by 2015 with an overwhelming 45.4% share.

Here is what I predict will happen over the next 2 years.

1. Apple won't make it to number 1 but will stay at number 2 or even fall to number 3 for many more years to come. The hard part about being cool and expensive is that your market will only be so big.

2. Samsung will rival if not take over the number one spot but Nokia will reinvent itself or buy HTC which in turn will reinvent themselves and make them number 1.

3. The number of smart phones shipped will double again in the next 2 years. Most of these handsets will be running Android and even though Google is not a manufacturer of the phones eventually they will win.

What are your thoughts?

Great stuff here. I also look forward to seeing how conferences use video in the future.

Your Orange Guide To Life: Moving from attendee to participant.

April 20, 2010 in Ministry with 8 Comments

It is officially one week away from Orange 2010 I can’t believe it. I was thinking about different conferences I’ve attended over the years. I started to realize something important. The conferences I got the most out of were the conference where I was an active participant in them. You may be thinking to yourself right now….”There are more than 4,000 people registered, why do they need me to get involved….” I believe that the more you put into something the more you get out of it.

So I thought I would put together some pointers for those of you who want to maxamize your Orange experance.

10. Write down the things God is speaking to you personally.

9. Tweet the things you think would be helpful to others. You don’t tweet? Read this and come see me on Wednesday, April 28th at Chocolate Perks from 10-11:30 PM at the Official OrangeLeader’s Tweet Up and we will set you up and get you going.

8. If you have a blog post about going to orange list the breakouts you are going to and why you chose those. Once at orange write a post or two about what God is speaking to you. Leave a message and I will add you to my list orange attenders who have blogs.

7. Never eat alone. Make sure you meet a few other leaders and go to lunch in a group.

6. Don’t just spend time with your team. Have intentional team time but make time to network reach out say hi and ask questions to people you have never met before or have only connected with via twitter or blogs. You will thank me later.

5. Meet Jim Wideman. He will no doubt be spending a lot of his time in the OrangeLeaders lounge using the wifi connection and his new iPad. Jim is one of the most down to earth guys you will ever meet. Make sure you stop by have a question and a copy of his book for him to sign.

4.  Get some free coffee and some amazing conversation. The OrangeLeaders Lounge will be giving away free coffee and will be the base station for a ton of kidmin and stumin bloggers. Come by say hi.

3. Visit the venders but don’t just take a card ask the venders questions find out what they do and why they do it.

2. Make a list of questions you can ask any kids leader about how, why, and what they are doing to make a difference. Please I beg of you be prepared to ask meaningful questions for the love of all that is holy, don’t go with the default where are you from and how many kids do you run. You can learn something from someone who has 10 kids and someone who has 1200 principles are principles.

1. Attend the sessions but also attend the halls - We tend to idealize the main stage guys and gals and in many cases rightly so God has used them to do some pretty amazing things. But don’t be so star struck and nieve that you miss the guys and gals who are in the trenches like you every week. The amazing thing about orange is you are giving an amazing opportunity to build relationships that will fundamentally transform how you do ministry. How do I know? I have experienced it first hand and I will never go back to conference as usual.

Filed under: Apple Financial

Apple announces stellar second quarter earnings

by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on Apr 20th 2010 at 4:48PM

Estimates, shmestimates. Apple reported adjusted earnings of $3.33 per share, blowing past the consensus Wall Street numbers. Total revenues were $13.5B. That's more than $700 millon above even the most optimistic predictions. Gross margins up to 41.7 percent, from 39.9 percent a year ago.

We're listening in on the conference call right now, and Apple is reporting remarkable sales across the board. Apple is reporting their highest quarter of iPhone sales ever, with 8.75 million iPhones sold in the last quarter, the best sales during the same period ever. Additionally, iPod touch sales are up 63% year over year, and Apple has kept a hold on 70% of the mp3 player market, with 10.9 million iPods sold in the last quarter.

iTunes is also a profit machine, churning out $1.1 billion in revenue. 185,000 apps are now available, and there have been over four billion downloads on those apps for iPhone and iPod touch. We'll have more information forthcoming as the call carries on, but it appears that Apple is continuing to impress with their sales and reach in the market.

Apple Reports Second Quarter Results
Record March Quarter Revenue and Profit
iPhone Sales More Than Double

CUPERTINO, California-April 20, 2010-Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 second quarter ended March 27, 2010. The Company posted revenue of $13.50 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.07 billion, or $3.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.08 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.62 billion, or $1.79 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 41.7 percent, up from 39.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter's revenue.

Apple sold 2.94 million Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 8.75 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 131 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 10.89 million iPods during the quarter, representing a one percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

"We're thrilled to report our best non-holiday quarter ever, with revenues up 49 percent and profits up 90 percent," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We've launched our revolutionary new iPad and users are loving it, and we have several more extraordinary products in the pipeline for this year."

"Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue in the range of about $13.0 billion to $13.4 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $2.28 to $2.39," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO.

Tags: earnings

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All I can say is WOW!