All restaurant recommendations are in FriendsChoices.com

Dear readers, friends,

You can now see all restaurants/hotels recommendations,...and much more on our new website: www.friendschoices.com

It's a new generation community travel guide on which recommendations and made by trustworthy members;

We hope you'll enjoy it, it's for free :-)
Cheers

Quand Facebook rachète Blackberry (RIM)

Eh bien, dans une étude sur la Stratégie de HTC, nous avions déjà prévu en 2009 les difficultés que RIM aura s'ils ne modifient pas significativement leur business model essentiellement basé sur leur système de messagerie, en rentrant dans la bataille des smartphones et des market places.
Le BB messenger, principal raison du succès de RIM à l'époque où la 3G n'était pas encore arrivée, était le seul réel système de messagerie mobile en temps réel. L'arrivée de la 3G avec les applications Skype, MSN et maintenant Whatsapp et Viber sur les smartphones auront enlevé à RIM leur principal avantage compétitif. Ne pouvant concurrencer les iPhone, Android et Windows phone sur les principaux facteurs de succès de leur éco-systèmes respectifs, à savoir le système d'exploitation, les appareils et leur market place, RIM était voué à la chute.

Les tentatives faites par RIM avec le Torch et leur nouveau market place n'ont pas vraiment pris. Du coup, ils étaient contraint à se battre à armes inégales en face de poids lourds, et donc rentrer dans la spirale infernale baisse d'activités-réduction de coûts. Du coup, un nouveau plan social sera annoncé prochainement, et l'entreprise mise en vente.

Et voilà qu'un poids lourd pourrait se porter acquéreur, avec Facebook qui a les poches remplies par leur nouvel introduction en bourse.
Quel est l'intérêt de Facebook de racheter un malade comme RIM?

Il faut voire ça dans la nouvelle révolution numérique Web 3.0, qui a amorcé une convergence sans précédent des différents systèmes informatiques, télécoms et appareils. Ainsi, l'appareil, qu'il soit ordinateur, téléphone, tablette, TV, Game Box,... n'est plus qu'un périphérique qui permet tous types d'utilisation multimédia. On peut ou on pourra donc téléphoner (visio), regarder la télé, surfer sur le net, jouer,... à partir de n'importe lequel de ces périphériques.
Avec son nombre impressionnant de membres et de temps de captage de leur attention, Facebook rentrera de pleins pied dans cette nouvelle bataille de captage d'audience ou d'attention des personnes. Il n'est donc pas surprenant qu'après RIM, Facebook ne crée un TV box et ne vienne titiller d'avantages Google et Apple. Ainsi, la page Facebook sera la page de départ de la TV, ordinateur, téléphone,... Et on pourra donc téléphoner à partir de son profil Facebook.

La révolution continue, et la bataille aussi :-)

New iPad or iPad 3 or iPad S or iPad+: is it really worth all this?

Once again, Apple guys proved that they are marketing Geniuses. Doing this huge Buzz around the New iPad for just a few products evolutions. Unbelievable how daring they are, or how blindlessly they are loved by their fans.

In the same way the iPhone 4s is super close to the iPhone 4, the New iPad is super duper close to the iPad 2. What's weird though is the name of the new device: The New iPad.  Everybody was expecting the device to be called the iPad 3, but I am not sure if it would have been really understood by the clients. Is it a good branding? I am snot sure that it is, unless they will start again the numbers in the following one. Otherwise, what would be called The New iPad when the next one will arrive in one year? The Old New iPad?

Now what's new in this Device?
From the external design, almost nothing.
- The screen is a new retina which significantly enhances the quality of the image; For sure it's an amazing display
- The A5X processor, obviously quicker, is needed to support the new screen
- The 5 megapixels cam which was launched on the iphone 4s
- The 4G - LTE integration
- New pictures and videos applications

For the details of these evolutions, you can check out Apple's website, they explain them in a much sexier way than I do ;-) ( http://www.apple.com/fr/ipad/#video )

And as when the iPhone 4s was launched, the question we ask our selves is if it's worth all this communication   around the "new" device, which, in other industries such as in the Automotive, they would'nt even dare call it a face lift. At the best, a new version with a new engine and some new functionalities.
And here comes another question: in technological devices, how much is the importance of external design v/s the inside components? Before Apple created the iPod's/iPhone/iPad's magical trend, how much did people care about the external design of laptops v/s their performance?
In my opinion, thanks to Apple's trend breakthough, the cursor shifted significantly from the practical/reasonned buying attitude to the emotional one. Therefore, the external design took a much bigger importance, which strengthens the feeling that despite big performance improvements in major elements (processor, screen, cam,...) most of the customers won't feel like it's a really "New Product". Will I want to sell my iPad 2 or iPhone 4s to buy the new ones? Of course not!

I must admit that Apple is super strong in Marketing, being able to give momentum to product improvements, and blending it as if it's a new product. But until when will they be able to play this game?
The competition is getting stronger, with Android and Windows OS becoming seriously close to iOs in terms of stability, user's experience,... and much better in terms of personalization (for Android). In addition, Samsung, HTC, Motorolla and Nokia made huge efforts on their products designs and features. For how long will Apple resist by introducing these slight improvements?

Nevertheless, let's admit that Apple are geniuses when it comes to managing their products life cycles. It's obvious that the iPad2 is still one of the best if not the best tablet on the market. So why should they launch a brand new product with new external design and take the risk that the design would'nt be as liked, spend money on production/supply costs when they still can continue growing with the current one. Just by improving the performance and being able to sell it as a "New" product, they continue maintaining their sales curve and amazing margins.

The good part is that I will still be happy to use my iPad 2 for at least a year, and will see by than what will come out on the market.

Cheers Steve, your pupils are still maintaining the path ;-)

Loubnane: My favourite Lebanese restaurant in Paris

It's definitly my Lebanese address in Paris. Being from Lebanese origins, I tried tons of Lebanese restaurants in Paris (there are in total more than 600 in Paris!). 

I adopted this one because the food is of very good quality, the service is friendly, and location is great, between boulevard Saint Germain and Notre Dame de Paris.
I particularly advise to take the Mezzé formula, traditional Lebanese starters, but who are more than enough for a full meal. The mezzé formula is about 25 EUR/pers, and consists of 9, 14 or 18 different plates depending if it is for 2, 3 or 4 persons. You will hardly have a better quality-price ratio in Paris for a Lebanese restaurant.
In addition, the owner Kamal and his son Mathieu are big connaisseurs in wine, and they propose exclusive Lebanese wines who are excellent.

For more information and pictures, follow the link:

http://www.friends-choices.com/recommendation-details,,,Chateau-Le-Cedre-Bleu,0,0,48.html?PHPSESSID=22da4313deb92f7e9e9d7c7fd4f901e0

Test of Autolib in Paris: and I've adopted it!

I've been testing Autolib for one week now, and it's a great way of transportation in Paris, something in between taking a cab or the traditional public transportation (Metro, Bus,...).

The principle is pretty simple, it's a fleet of a 1000+ electric car (3000 by end of 2012) that can be rented from several hundreds of dedicated stations (1200 by end of 2012) in Paris ans its suburbs. Once you register and get your electronic badge, the rental can be done very easilly.

Registration process: it can be done in one of the dedicated stations for memberships. You have in each one of these stations a steward who will help you step by step. The hole process takes 10 minutes and you need to have with you an ID, your driving license and a credit card. You can see the membership's stations by following the link: http://www.autolib.eu/stations-map/

Rent a car: you can check out on the map available cars in the stations near you, whether from your computer or by downloading the Autolib application on your smartphone. You can than go straight to the station to take a car or book a car by calling Autolib assistance on 0800942000 (normal local call). They will book you a car in the station you want for 30 minutes. You can also book a place in the station near the place you're going and you'll have up to 90 minutes to park it there. You can find all the details of how to take a car on the website http://www.autolib.eu

Here's the test drive feedback:

Onboard equipments: you have a touch screen which includes a GPS, a Radio, and the Assistance information.
It's very practical because you can see on the map all the nearby stations and if there are available places. Nevertheless, the GPS sometimes indicates weird tracks, wereas it avoids almost always the Periférique and sometimes the system reboots or jams.
There's an assistance call button below the screen and it's very practical too. You can call them for any problem or to book a place in a station. I tried several time in week days and week ends, and they are pretty available even at 2am.

Driving sensations:
The bluecar has an automatic gearbox, with only Neutral, Drive and Rear options. As it is an electric car, there is no engine noise, but just a sort of light wistle of the traction system. For people that are not used to drive automatic gearboxes, they should be careful in the beginning, and always remember that we use only the right leg to drive.
The acceleration is slow in the beginning, which is good in order to easilly park/unpark the car. Once you go over 10km/h, the acceleration is good and you arrive pretty quickly to 50km/h. On highway, I could reach 110 km/h maximum although I thought thatthe car would go to 130 km/h.
The car is light and pretty high, which gives a sensation of instability when turning in medium/high speed, which reminds you that it's a city car. Braking power was satisfactory when I did an emergency stop.

Car Autonomy: the theoteric autonomy is 200km but in reality it's probably less. I took a car at 21h00 and went to Charles de Gaulle Airport (42km), stayed there 3 hours (-6%), and came back to Paris (42km). So in total I spent 60% of the battery for 85km and 3 hours of parking. The outside temperature was -2°c.
So it's more than enough for Paris and it's region.

State of the cars: although the cars are still very new with many having less than 100 kms on the counter, they are often dirty from outside, reducing even the side visibility. Fortunatly, cars were acceptably clean from inside, similar to normal rental cars. I think that Autolib should find a way to clean the cars more often.

Price:
1 to 7 days membership: 1st 30 min=7 EUR 2nd 30 min=6 EUR, 3rd 30min=8 EUR (Minimum rental time= 20 minutes)
Yearly membership: 1st 30 min=5 EUR 2nd 30 min=4 EUR, 3rd 30min=6 EUR

For a 30 minutes ride, it will cost 5 EUR in Autolib, 1.7 EUR by public transport, and more than 35 EUR by taxi.

In conclusion: I find the Autolib system very interesting, much more convenient than public transportation (especially at night) and much cheaper than taxis. Often using Autolib to go out at night will cost you even less than taking your own car as you don't have to pay the parking and the gazoline.
After having tested it with a weekly membership, I will definitly take the year membership which will make the usage very affordable and very convenient to me. I hope that they will keep up with the good service and that they will clean the cars more often.

Steve Jobs est mort le 5 Octobre: Adieu l'artiste!

Décidément, le lendemain de mon premier post sur mon nouveau blog concernant la sortie de l'Iphone 4s, voilà que Steve Jobs nous quitte.

Je ne mettrais pas sur ce poste un résumé de la vie de Steve Jobs, Wikipedia le fait beaucoup mieux que moi, la preuve en suivant le lien ci-joint: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
Ce que je souhaite discuter est l'impact que peut avoir un PDG sur le succés de son entreprise. D'ailleurs, certains commentaires sur mon post précédent ont déjà lancé le débat.

Dans quelle mesure le PDG d'un Groupe comprenant des dizaines de milliers d'employés peut faire la différence. Après tout, ce n'est pas lui le designer des produits, le programmeur,...
Qui chez Apple a eu l'idée de mettre l'"i" avant le Mac, a eu l'idée de l'Ipod et d'Itunes, qui ont par la suite évolués vers l'Iphone et l'Ipad?

Evidemment Steve Jobs n'est pas le seul artisan du succés d'Apple. Néanmoins, le style de Management de Jobs, impliqué, agressif, exigeant, visionnaire, perfectionniste, sachant s'entouré, ont grandement façonné la culture d'Apple, tournée vers l'innovation, la qualité et le design.

Même si le PDG ne fait pas tout, son rôle consiste à savoir tirer le maximum de ses troupes, d'insuffler une culture et une vision partagées par tous. Ainsi, dans une entreprise les employés vont oser, et dans d'autres ils n'oseront pas. Dans une entreprise il y aura dans les réunions de développement une dominataion des designers et dans une autre leur absence totale face aux programmeurs (je vous laisse deviner l'un et l'autre).

Après tout, la meilleure façon de juger de la performance d'un PDG et bien de comparer l'état de l'entreprise qu'il a dirigé, avant et après.

Et bien qu'il est eu des déboires dans les années 80 et 90, il est incontestable que Steve Jobs a réussi à révolutionner le monde de l'informatique et de la technologie, et ce à plusieurs reprises.
En ce sens, nous vous disons, Adieu l'Artiste!

Iphone 5 v/s Iphone 4S: la montagne qui accouche d'une sourie

Décidément, Apple nous surprendra toujours pas sa capacité à créer des événements à partir de simples évolutions. Ok, l'Iphone 4S dispose d'un processeur plus puissant, d'une meilleure caméra et d'une antenne plus performante, mais bon, on s'attendait à mieux quand même. Le clou c'est de voire la vidéo de présentation sur http://www.apple.com/iphone/#video-4s où ils nous expliquent que l'iphone 4 était déjà si fabuleux qu'il n'y avait quasiment pas besoin de sortir un iPhone 5.

D'autres mauvaises langues attribuent le non lancement de l'iPhone 5 à des problèmes de fiabilités de l'écran fabriqué par Wintec (25% des écrans des iphones). Cet écran couvrirait l'intégralité de la face avant (enfin!) et le défaut n'apparaitrait qu'après l'assemblage de l'appareil, augmentant les problèmes de production. Ce défaut est apparu sur certains modèles HTC;

Mais est ce raisonnable de penser que si ce problème qualité est la raison réelle de l'ajournement de l'iPhone 5, Apple aurait elle eu suffisamment de temps pour concevoir et lancer l'iPhone 4S avec l'intégration d'un nouveau processeur et d'une nouvelle caméra et antenne? J'en doute.

Pour l'iOS 5, j'attends de le tester avant de me prononcer. J'espère en tout cas qu'il gommera les défauts de la fonction téléphone, qui est loin derrière celle de HTC sense en terme d'ergonomie.

A nouveau, Apple nous a montré son génie dans la gestion de vie de ses produits, en maximisant les ventes au travers du lancement d'évolutions à petits pas, et en faisant à chaque fois, un événement. Quand je pense qu'ils ont osé lancer l'iPad 1 sans webcam,... Trops forts.

Google v/s Microsoft by David Bach

Article from HBR:

What's Google's Best Strategy for Fighting Microsoft in the EU?
9:45 AM Tuesday April 5, 2011
by David Bach

Rather than delving into many ironies of Microsoft accusing Google of similar anti-competitive practices to the ones that resulted in billions of dollars in fines against the Redmond company over the past decade, let's consider what Microsoft's move means and how Google might respond.

By filing a complaint with the European Commission last Thursday, Microsoft has taken its battle with Google into the 'nonmarket' domain — the social, political, and regulatory space where the rules governing market competition are set and enforced. Better than any other technology company, Microsoft knows — painfully well — that the nonmarket domain forms part of the competitive playing field. It also knows that firms can shape this part of the business environment through deliberate strategies.

Microsoft's complaint is additional fuel for an investigation launched by the European Commission several months ago that was triggered by a prior complaint, which alleged that Google gives preferential treatment to its own services when displaying search results. The new complaint focuses on YouTube, embedded search boxes, and (lack of) portability of advertiser data. It accuses Google of "walling off access to content and data that competitors need to provide search results to consumers and to attract advertisers," according to Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith.

If the European Commission concludes Google has broken EU competition law, it could impose fines of up to 10 percent of the company's global revenue, or almost $3 billion. As with Microsoft, however, the real threat isn't money — Google sits on more than $25 billion in cash. The real threat is twofold. First, drawn-out litigation could divert top management attention and cause serious reputation damage. Should the European Commission conclude that Google indeed deliberately manipulates search results in its favor, "don't be evil" could go the way of "beyond petroleum" as far as corporate mottos are concerned. Second, there is a high probability Google will be more constrained moving forward. How much more depends on how skillfully the company manages the challenge.

Broadly speaking, Google has two possible lines of defense. The first is to claim that it simply does not have a dominant position in the markets for Internet search and search-related advertising. That's a tough sell in light of their more than 90 percent market share in Europe. Microsoft tried the same tactic when defending their dominance of the desktop operating system market, pointing — not unlike Google today — to the fact that intense competition and the need for constant innovation meant that even 90 percent did not constitute a monopoly. The second line of defense is to demonstrate that the company does not abuse its dominant position, i.e., that it does not privilege its own services in search results. To do this, the company would have to be a lot more transparent than it has been to date, particularly when it comes to the secret algorithms underpinning its core products. From a pure market perspective, such transparency seems foolish. Google's algorithms are right up there with the recipe for Coke as the most closely guarded trade secrets. But from a nonmarket perspective, a transparency offensive may be the way to go. Indeed, what is happening to Google now was probably inevitable — it's the scrutiny that comes from being No. 1. Just ask Walmart, Goldman Sachs, or McDonald's about the perils of market leadership. All of them began to face tremendous nonmarket pressure precisely because they were the leaders of their respective industries.

Perhaps the best advice for Google is not to repeat Microsoft's strategy. Accused of using its dominant position in operating systems to beat out competitors in other markets, Microsoft built much of its defense on legal technicalities and technological minutiae. The strategy brought Microsoft to the brink of a government-ordered break-up in the US and earned it a decade of costly litigation in Europe. In the end, it lost both in the court of law and in the court of public opinion.

The nonmarket environment has its own rules. Technical or legal hair-splitting often doesn't work. This is the realm of politics and the media, and in this domain perceptions are everything. Microsoft's move reinforces the perception that Google has become a bully that needs to be controlled. Only a charm offensive and a lot more transparency can put such perceptions to rest.

David Bach is Professor of Strategic Management at IE Business School and directs the school's Center for Nonmarket Strategy

Loubnane

Where:29 Rue Galande, 75005 Paris
01 43 26 70 60
It is the oldest restaurant in Paris which I only discovered after 20 years here! It's now my favourite Lebanese restaurant in La Cité Lumière.

Food: 5/5
Food is very tasty, home made. They have a great 18 dishes Mezzé for four persons.
Place: 4/5
The restaurant is just big enough with 2 stories; Above for normal meals and below a nice cave with belly dancing shows on WEs. The place is clean with a typical old parisian decor.
Service: 5/5
The servers as well as the owner are friendly and attentionate. You feel as if you're in Lebanon.
Price: 4/5
Afforedable prices for a Lebanese restaurant. The 4 persons Mezzé formula (18 dishes) is at 95 EUR, so when you include drinks + desserts it's around 35-40 EUR/person. In my opinion, best price/quality ratio.
Overall Grade: 5/5
My favourite Lebanese restaurant in Paris.

LEBANESE IN PARIS

Hi folks,
I'm bac online after a few months! And guess what, moved back to Paris. So Lebanese in Madrid becomes Lebanese in Paris.

Cheers
Joe