Interesting take on Google’s plans for Chrome OS.

What do you think?

How Chipotle, Pinkberry, and others win big by doing just a few things well Matt Nov 11

32 comments Latest by The Realist

The dirty little secret about simple: It’s actually hard to do. That’s why most people make complex stuff. Simple requires deep thought, discipline, and patience – things that many companies lack. That leaves room for you. Do something simpler than your competitors and you’ll win over a lot of people.

There are only three major items on Chipotle’s menu: burritos, tacos, and salads. In Chipotle’s Secret Salsa, Founder and CEO Steve Ells sums up its business model in a single sentence: “Focus on just a few things, and do them better than anybody else.”

One thing you won’t find at Chipotle is dessert. Restaurant analysts say a cookie or other dessert at the end of the food line could instantly boost sales by 10 percent or more there. Ells doesn’t care. “We’ve had 10 years of double-digit comps in a row, and we’ve done that without cookies,” he says. “So why start now? I see only the downside to adding cookies.”

The yogurt chain Pinkberry started off by selling only two flavors of yogurt: original and green tea. That meant fewer worries about inventory, machinery, recipes, and other complications that would have resulted from selling a variety of products. Instead the company focused on flavor. It’s now a chain with dozens of stores and devout fans who refer to the yogurt as “Crackberry.” (Ever think about how your product would sound with “crack” as a prefix?)

This isn’t just for restaurants either. Nintendo has won big by doing less than competitors. The Flip has won a big percentage of the camcorder market by doing less. Fixed-gear bikes have been growing in popularity due to their simple, low-maintenance design.

You can try to win a features arms race by offering everything under the sun. Or you can just focus on a couple of things and do ‘em really well and get people who really love those things to love your product. For little guys, that’s a smarter route.

When you choose that path, you get clarity. Everything is simpler. It’s simpler to explain your product. It’s simpler for people to understand. It’s simpler to change it. It’s simpler to maintain it. It’s simpler to start using it. The ingredients are simpler. The packaging is simpler. Supporting it is simpler. The manual is simpler. Figuring out your message is simpler. And most importantly, succeeding is simpler.

There are a lot of profound lessons in this post from the guys at 37signals

OK. I want one of these in my back yard. Now.

According to rumors, next Wednesday Google is set to announce music partnerships with streaming musics services Lala.com and iLike and will integrate music streams into search results.

Should be interesting to see what impact this has on music industry and Apple’s iTunes.

This is a big win for Lala.com

I’m a Lala.com user and big fan of their work. They seem to have a great leadership team that’s really engaged with their users, and I’m happy for them.

I suggest you check out reQall (http://www.reqall.com) when you have a chance.

It comes in a free version that will be more than sufficient for most folks, and it also has a paid Pro version for $25/year that is well worth it for those that need some additional bells and whistles.

I use reQall to dictate note and reminders to myself with my cell phone. I just call the reQall number and it allows me to “add” note, reminders, to-do’s, etc. You can also “share” notes to others and do some other cool things.

reQall is smart software and recognizes a lot of spoken key words that help organize your “notes to self” in shopping lists, to-do lists and more.

reQall will then email you a text transcription of your spoken message. reQall will even send you a daily reminder of all your due and overdue activities that you’ve previously recorded.

reQall does a lot more than I can cover here, but I suggest you check it out if you haven’t already.