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Fluke Yellow Trademark | SparkFun Electronics

https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1428

US company SparkFun is forced to incinerate 2,000 multimeters because they are yellow. They were intercepted by the US department of homeland security (keeping the world safe from illegal multi meters! 😉 on the basis of a US International Trade Commission Exclusion Order. But this is all terribly wrong. The original trademark text of the Fluke trademark filing:

Indication of Colors claimed: Color is not claimed as a feature of the mark.

Description of Mark: The mark consists of the colors dark gray and yellow as applied to the goods. […]

Well that’s nothing if not confusing, but I’d reckon that in a legal sense, the first sentence is rather relevant: colour is not claimed as a feature of the mark.

There is another factor, which is that multi meters have existed for many decades of course, first analog (70s/80s) and later digital (90s, possibly earlier) – particularly the digital ones have actually always tended to be yellow, regardless of brand. It’s just one of those things. So at least an all-yellow case far predates the Fluke trademark.

So what it comes down to in this case is that Fluke’s trademark is awkwardly phrased and was accepted anyhow. Then a trade commission ruled on something specific, and thus customs (hum no, wrong – dept of homeland security – but why them and not customs!?) now gets to enforce it all. Possibly to Fluke’s benefit, but it doesn’t aid the market as a whole so it’s detrimental to all consumers and many companies. It’s not any individual’s “fault” as such, but rather a series of mishaps that culminate into silly – and now it’s costing SparkFun. Quite likely there are many other instances currently happening because of this. Very sad.

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At Apple shareholder’s meeting, Tim Cook tells off climate change deniers

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/03/at-apple-shareholders-meeting-tim-cook-tells-off-climate-change-deniers/

“When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind,” Tim Cook (Apple CEO) said, “I don’t consider the bloody ROI.” He said that the same thing about environmental issues, worker safety, and other areas where Apple is a leader.”

“If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock.”

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More Apple iOS devices sold than Windows devices

http://qz.com/176643

Apple’s Mac desktops and laptops may still count for a fraction of the global market for PCs, but when you tally up all the different devices (iPhones, iPads, etc.), the number of devices sold by Apple now exceeds the number of Windows-based PCs and mobiles shipped worldwide.

Regardless of whether you like Apple (or Microsoft), it’s an interesting observation, and in my view a very insightful one. The boundary between the different types of devices (desktops, laptops, tablets, mobiles) is really quite artificial as people do the same things on the different devices and that’s what matters. Reading and responding to email, as well as different social media interaction, simple lookups of information online, and even other work such as working on text or spreadsheet documents, it isn’t confined to a limited subset of these devices. So in my opinion, the analysis is valid.

From the Upstarta perspective this is also interesting as it shows how Apple’s long-term strategy appears to finally be paying off. For a long time they were essentially going head-to-head with Windows on the desktop and laptops, and even with the success of the MacBooks they weren’t gaining much ground.
Microsoft’s mobile strategy has been beyond dismal and I predict that even the acquisition of Noka won’t make a difference there, but Apple has brilliantly captured as distinct chunk of the mobile devices market – and while people do tend to hop back and forth to for instance Android, the overall market is huge and Apple offers something very specific that others can’t easily touch.

It’s not about the specific features of the phones at all. Sure, the overall quality of the hardware is good. But what Apple sells is not mobiles and tablets, it’s fashion and other social statements. It’s not competing directly with other mobiles, and thus other mobiles are not directly competing with it. Sure there’s overlap, but companies who don’t understand that they’re not exactly in the same space will never truly capture their market potential.
Just like Apple stores don’t sell hardware and software, they sell an experience. You can buy an iPhone online and often even have a new model quicker – yet people are happy to stand in a queue outside an Apple store, and mill around for hours once inside… the reasons behind that are important to understand.