Could iPod have helped the Jennifers?

silhouette 2.0
Originally uploaded by myuibe

Watching this week's episode of the Apprentice when two Jennifer's were fired made me realise that some guidance round the fantastic markets of Marrakesh would have helped them complete their shopping lists much more easily. I was also struck by the level of ignorance (kosher, halal!).Then some more prompts arrived:

AlwaysOn Talked of Apple shifting balance in mobile quoting
Apple is doing for handset makers what upstarts like mig33 and Thumbplay are doing for mobile software companies -- tilting the balance of power in the wireless applications market away from the big carriers.
The article talks of the software start ups distributing software direct to users bypassing the wireless carriers and goes on to describe the  funding available for software start ups, e. g. described here which states:

"The older business model, which put startups at the mercy of the big wireless providers and required lots of up front development costs with no guarantee that the resulting application would find a home, is quickly becoming extinct......

We've been watching several interesting mobile application startups here on Vator.tv, including NearbyNow, which CEO Scott Dunlap calls "Google for shopping malls." The application allows users to find products and services at specific shopping malls while they're out shopping or before they leave home.

So we know from the episode of the Apprentice that the mobiles work in the Marrakech Soukh; there is a need demonstrated by lead customers and start ups are addressing this area... we need a local entrepreneur to put it all together and..... is iPod the platform for winning negotiations in the soukh!

Image from BBC via the Guardian. Shows one of the Jennifers!

Remember Steve Jobs' words on creativity:

Picture uploaded  by whatcounts. Used with thanks under CC.

" Creativity is just connecting things. You ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.
That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they've had more experiences or have thought more about their experiences than other people.

"Unfortunately, that's too rare a commodity. A lot of people haven't had very diverse experiences, so they don't have enough dots to connect and they wind up with very linear solutions."