You are monotonous and boring - why the simple white iPod is your fault.

Expressions of human creativity options in our flood of consumer electronic products are severely limited this year, once again, despite the new array of apple products that hit the store shelves last fall and this spring. This coming Christmas will be no different, which will be decidedly and distinctively boring! For all the new apple iphone 3G users - you can be grouped in here as well. Yes, the design is very technical; matte pastels, black, white and shiny, large clear screens and in some cases fewer buttons. But what is the customer really getting? Is the new iPod age of fashion and style expected to be this boring and relentless?

A new Ipod Nano, Ipod Classic, Ipod itouch, or the multifunction gadget the iphone, or the latest iPhone 3G - the sameness is too apparent. A box that carries music or allows you to talk with others; nothing more and nothing less. Everyone talks style and fashion, but they don't walk it. With millions of these devices out in the market, what can possibly distinguish your teal ipod from the other hordes with a teal colored ipod? Nothing in my mind. The interesting thing is that the people who get these devices, want several things in particular by getting into this group - prestige, yet everyone has them as well, so what is so prestigious about it?

Despite apple marketing the product as a possessive "I" in ipod, there really is nothing here to instil the "I" for imagination, or even better, "I" for individual. What about "my" style for my own ipod? Everyone knows this - the "I" in iPod is simply for apple "income".

So who's fault is it? Well, if you go back to the use of the mass-production assembly line with Ford, didn't he say something that "you can have it in any color you want, as long as it is black". So, does this mean that we have not evolved any further? Yes! However, for those who are looking out for the next big thing - don't think mass-production; think mass-customization… mass-production is far too easy for any 3rd world (and, as we have seen with apple, any 1st world) company to start-up and run, but not very effective for the consumer where everyone walks around with exactly the same thing. And yes, I am part of the problem too - I too have the iPhone, and a couple iPods - but mine are uniquely different and way cooler than yours...

Since the Renaissance, humans have supposedly perpetuated creativity into their daily lives. This pattern, that shade, this painting, that fabric design and the list goes on. Yet suddenly it has ended with the arrival of the ipod. White, black, and now a few muted simple colors. A rainbow perhaps, some will say? Maybe a 6 flavoured Skittles™ rainbow, but that is about that. Not an explosion of color and creativity by far. The failure to capture the artistic and creative side of humans is not entirely Apple's own fault - all MP3 manufacturers like iRiver, Sony, Creative, etc. can share the same blame. Like I mentioned, mass-production is easy, just color it 1 or 2 colors and you've got a hot seller (thanks again, Mr. Ford)!

In light of this, a trend that is taking shape is people's desire to continue the creative renaissance on their own, with their own personal ipods and MP3 players. Despite consumer electronics manufacturers like apple, consumers are using this boring white space as their own visual canvas. Consumers can now use the exterior surface of their ipod as a canvas to paint with, and delight themselves with their own fascinations, creativity, fashion and style. There are numerous examples of this, by enhancing the surface of the ipod - jewels, engraving, cases and vinyl skins. Skins have been the only tool however that allows for the most sophisticated level of personalization and customization, with visual imagery.

Gaining popularity, these self-adhesive vinyl skins can be found for a wider range of portable electronic products, including cell phones, laptops, game systems, etc. Sadly, limitations still exist with most skin manufacturers with "premade" off-the-shelf designs such as yellow flowers, blue pocka-dots, or green stripes; the same conundrum exists, where the skin designs are made by some buyer or graphic designer in some unknown locale. This again is the failure of mass-production; a mass-production company simply has no real idea as to what each customer wants or needs to truly reflect their style, and then has the gall to manufacture millions of them as a mass-produced nightmare for the masses.

That being said, there are a few companies like mytego.com and skinit.com that offer skin customization to the consumers. This means that each consumer can actually design a skin, exactly the way that they want - not from some premade design that may not fit their own definitions of style and coolness. Whether it is a new and hot fashion pattern, or a picture of themselves with their friends at the beach - people can actually use any visual design that they have to be creative, and style up their ipods with anything imaginable. These companies have entered the world of mass-customization - where the customer truly chooses what it is that they want, and when exactly they want it.

One of the leading custom skins manufacturers, mytego.com, like skinit, takes this one step further with complete customer-designed and customized skins for their customer's own ipods. Colloquially called the "Tego", mytego.com provides the online tools for anyone, regardless of fashion sense or creative license, to design and create exactly what they want their TEGO skin to look like, with absolutely no limitations, except that of their own imagination. Mytego then manufactures each Tego skin specifically for that person, and ships it promptly to them.

Designs are finally able to reflect the personal tastes and styles of each and every customer, without end. This is the brave new world of mass-customization and the growing power of the consumer; the ultimate choice of design and style by every individual person - the power of the consumer to make their own choices. Despite starting the world as a white or black apple orb, most consumers are quickly making sense enough of it in time to say, "this is mine, and I want it to look exactly the way that I want".

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You're not cool - I am. What is cool & finding the cool factor.

I'm a firm believer in the fact that every single one of us thinks that we are in fact "cool". I think, err, know, that I am cool because of the clothes that I wear, my long hair is cool, what I do is cool, how I do things, etc. Everything about me is sheer and utter coolness! I live cool and I breath cool. I even bleed cool. I'll bet that I am way cooler than you. How do I know this? Well, because I am cool. Simple. Right!

You're probably thinking, what the heck is this guy talking about; 'I'm way cooler than him'. 'My coolness is scales above this guy'. Or, 'what makes this dweeb think that he is so cool?'. Or the ultimate coolness challenge to anyone - 'prove you are cooler than me'. Is there ever any downtime for being cool?

Here is the formula for Coolness (which is pretty close to the square root of pi, but then again trigonometry is pretty cool)

5% aspiration + 95% self-perception + 10% public awareness + 46% individuality + 15% actions + 22% verbal + 99% what others think about you.

Wait, this doesn't add to 100% - but I guess that is my point. Coolness doesn't add up to 100 either.

So, who is really cool and who decides what is cool. Is it all just about self-awareness? Is it just about our own perception and a look into our own little worlds, that each one of us, is supposedly the master? Who can judge coolness and how do we address the coolness chasm - for those who are decidedly not cool.

Being as cool as I am, I am going to go out on a limb ('cause that's what cool people do) and give you my hypothesis of ultimate coolness. Rest assured, the fact that I am stating my opinion makes me genuinely cool, but I digress momentarily.

There is no real tangible coolness. Coolness is what you think it is. Being cool is how you perceive your world. It is all about your perception. Want to test your coolness (and my theory)? Just go ask someone if they think you are cool. They will look at you kind of funny, quickly think about potentially losing coolness by admitting to themselves that the person asking is, or could be cooler than the person being asked. And of course give you an answer - BUT, probably indirectly, such as 'your socks or shirt is cool', or the purgatory of coolness - 'maybe', or 'depends'.

Now, imagine the potential coolness conflict here - a "cool" company, asks their "cool" users whether or not they are cool. Of course, not wanting to detract from their coolness, they then say that yes, such and such idea from this cool company is in fact cool. It should sell (not like hotcakes though, as hotcakes are definitely uncool) - and of course make everyone rich. Guess what - it doesn't always happen - does that then make these people completely uncool, or just out of cool job? What if a 5 year old says, 'hey grandpa, that cane is really cool', to which grandpa then says, 'I'm going to buy some stocks in this company, because my grandson says its cool'...

The neat thing about coolness is that, like I stated, it is all about their own world. Its about coolabilty - your inner most style and sense to become instantly cool. Making the choices that reflect what they are about, and creating a personal style. Whether they are 5 or 55, and everything in between (and beyond of course, as old people can be cool too), coolness is about them and their own personal self-perceptions.

This is where the new trends of individual design, personalization and customization is getting a foothold. Does everyone have an ipod - pretty close; does everyone have a cell phone - yes. Is it not decidedly uncool though to have the exact same one that everyone else does? This means that everyone has to admit that they are no cooler than the person beside them on the bus with the same ipod. Where is the individuality in these massive groups of people? Apple would make you think from their ipod ads that all it takes is a simple silhouette with a few cool colors thrown into the mix. I guess that with this in mind, what they are really saying is that it is ok to be the same as everyone else. Uncool, perhaps? But only if you think there is a coolness scale, with 6.7 billion human graduations, which I think is pretty much everyone of us.

There are a few companies who truly "get" this customer perceived self-induced coolness - the companies that work with everyone as part of the real long tail of customization, where everyone gets their own choices to be in their own coolness, including cafepress.com and mytego.com, to name a few.

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