Apple's 3G iPhone Costs About $173 To Build, iSuppli Estimates

The original 8 GB iPhone cost $226 to build. iSuppli attributed the 23% decrease to component price declines.

Free Beer If You Read This Post

Sometimes distorting the truth is a good thing.

I just got back from a speech at the California Accounting and Business Conference. I was asked by the public relations department to deliver a speech since Sage as a sponsor gets a free speaking slot. The title given my talk was Client Accounting Systems. The subtitle was What CPAs need to know to help their clients in 2008.

Rather than give a technology speech on the title, I decided to focus on the subtitle. The talk was a combination of the dangers of solutionism, Blockian consulting theory, and Khalsarian questioning techniques. All duly cited as having influenced me.

The material, while great, is not important. My point here is that had I entitled the session The Dangers of Solutionism or Asking Great Questions to Help Your Customers Understand Value, I doubt that a) the organizers of the conference would have let me give the speech, and b) even if they did, no one would have come.

I had about 100 people who all initially sat in their chairs as if they were in Old Sparky. Most were reading a book or doing email on their crackberries. It was the classic, “I am here for the CPE crowd.” Within seconds, I got their attention, “Do you mind if I don’t use PowerPoint?” Head snaps from the people reading.

Overall, we had a great session, le de coup de grace was at the end when a fine gentleman who sat in the front row came up to me afterwards and said, “Sonny, I am in my seventies and I have never been to a better presentation.” HSD!

By the way, there is no free beer.

First Official Podcast

We are pleased to post the first official podcast from the VeraSage Institute. Please note that it takes a few minutes to download.

In this podcast, which runs a little over 12 minutes, Ron Baker and Ed Kless conduct a dialogue about the basics of Pricing on Purpose (aka Value Pricing). It is our hope that this will be the first of many, but we need your help. Please give this a listen and provide us with any feedback via either comments to this post or email.

Once we have three podcasts released, we plan to submit them to iTunes so that you will be able to manage them more easily.

If We Don't Have A Copyright Czar, People Will Die?

We've already questioned why the White House should play the role of copyright cop. Hell, even the White House has said that it doesn't want to appoint a copyright czar, but that hasn't stopped various legislative efforts to force a copyright czar on the White House -- and it appears that more efforts are on the way.

Business Week is running a rather weak piece looking at the issue, that appears to accept as fact every talking point from those pushing for the establishment of a copyright czar. While the article briefly notes a few quotes from those who oppose it (buried at the end of the article), it does absolutely nothing to dispel the false or misleading reasoning by those in support of a copyright czar. It quotes the totally bogus numbers about "losses" to the economy, without noting that those numbers are very much disputed and inaccurate.

However, the most troubling part is that the article plays into the worst and most inaccurate talking point of all that's used in favor of a copyright czar: that the public is put at risk without one. The article notes (as a way of brushing off the quotes from those worried about a copyright czar):

Jeffrey Thurnau, counsel to auto parts maker Gates, showed senators counterfeit timing belts that he says could put drivers, passengers, and other motorists in danger. "We want better coordination between enforcement agencies,"

The subtext: we need a Copyright Czar or people will die. Except, that's simply not true at all. The issue described by Thurnau has nothing to do with copyright, and everything to do with consumer protections. You don't need copyright law to deal with timing belts that don't live up to code -- and pretending we do is simply a lie repeated by Business Week.

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Google Hit With $1 Billion Lawsuit Over Trade Secrets

Tech startup LimitNone says Google stole software for migrating data from Microsoft Outlook to Google's Web-based e-mail service.