The Great Website Debacle

As many of you whom follow Inertial Zen Designs most likely know, things around the office lately have been fairly busy as our Website underwent some redesign work.

In the course of a week, copy was rewritten to improve Search Engine Optimization. Elements reworked to allow for responsive design that makes the code look good and improve mobile consumption was also completed. All of this was done to create a better user experience.

However if you happened to point your browser towards the website on Monday and into Tuesday, you might have noticed that something was missing.

The Website itself was gone.

Now this little detail has not escaped Me and I am currently in a waiting game that is caused by a lack of standards.

You see, My website address is registered with a domain company, My files stored with another company who does the hosting. A move that was done as a security measure.  The problem though is how the domain company was requesting and displaying the files from the hosting server. The result, some features were  not working correctly.

To combat this, changes were made in how one calls for the other. Those changes though have to repopulate over the World wide web, and that can take days as no two connection points update their databases at the same time windows. some taking minutes, some multiple days

And that is why Inertial Zen Designs Website has been unavailable. Sorry for any inconvenience.  

Smart Watches: The Over Priced Accessory

After watching the September 9th announcement from Apple, and focusing on their entry into the Smartwatch market, I actually found myself having a few thoughts on the matter, and keep in mind this is going to be covering what I consider a issue with Smart Watches in general, not just Android or Apple related devices.

The primary issue is Price. For this blog lets look at three models, the Motorola  Moto 360, Samsung Gear Watch and Apple's Watch. Prices for each of these devices, which are, as advertised, accessories and priced as follows (based on MSRP)

Moto 360 ........................ $249.99
Samsung Gear ................ $329.99
Apple Watch ...................$349.99

Some may at this point be saying "so where's the problem, the prices seem reasonable to Me" and if these were stand alone devices there would be no issue what so ever. However these three examples are all classified as Accessories.

ac·ces·so·ry

akˈses(ə)rē/

noun

1. 1.

   a thing that can be added to something else in order to make it more useful, versatile, or attractive.

That's right they are add ons to make a user's mobile device more useful, versatile or attractive.  Each of these devices serve a function of being a go between access point for a Smartphone user. They enhance the use of something, in this case the Phone.

Now using the iPhone for example lets look at this in two situations. First lets say the User decides on wanting the iPhone 5s.  

Depending on the configuation the use picks this option off contract is a $640 minimal cost, and a maximum cost of $700 without a contract.  With a contract that phone goes down to $100, that means that if  you buy the phone straight out, the cost of the Accessory is half that of the phone, but if you pick it up on a 2 year contract, you end up paying three and a half times the cost of the phone's upfront cost just to have a interface which allows you to not take the phone out of the pocket to check details.

With the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus this becomes even more interesting. The breakdown on full price purchase of the Phones are as follows 

                         iPhone 6               iPhone 6 Plus

 16 GB              $ 749.00               $    859.00

 64 GB              $ 859.00               $    969.00

128 GB             $ 969.00               $ 1,079.00

then add the $349 Accessory to things, it can add up quite quickly.

and the same can be said for the contracted prices on these devices.  Now I'll admit I actually like the idea of the Apple Watch. it has plenty of aspects where I could find it convenient.  As I live with a disability the idea of being able to just look at a wrist mounted display could in many ways make life easier when on the go, however and again this is just my opinion, these watches should have been priced in a range of about $60-$125.

After all, the are not a stand alone device, they are what they are marketed as, an Accessory.

Have any thoughts on this, I invite you to leave comments