What Recession? Apple's Not Feeling It

iPhone sales passed 5 million units sold, for this quarter alone! Apple seems to be defying the odds by not only maintaining their market share, but growing! Apple products are more expensive across the board than other brands, yet it is able to grow thanks to a great brand that people trust.

For more hard figures, check out this article.

I just got my iPhone a week ago and I'm totally in love with it! While it's a big cost, I was lucky enough to get it as a grad gift. I've had some time to play around with apps and I'm loving the Lose it! app. It's a pretty boring app, but it's so helpful in terms of keeping track of my diet and exercise. I'm also addicted to Rolando, a fun game that utilizes the gravity function of the phone. Other apps I use all the time: Twitterific, Facebook, and Shazam. KT uses Labyrinth and The Price is Right a lot.

One type of app that I wish there were more of: Movie/TV Studios. Right now, the only one I've really found is Sony Pictures, where they have trailers and news for their films. I also have the Sci Fi Wire with updates on all sci fi news and projects. I wish there were more out there like this! I would totally use a Warner Bros. one to follow updates on Chuck and Harry Potter!

Well, hopefully this is about to change. Movie studios are starting to realize the marketing potential of the iphone and blackberry. We keep these phones on us at all times, it's the perfect way to get ads to us at any time of day. Movie studios are just starting to pick up on this idea: Bruno apps where you can touch him to get him to talk dirty to you, Harry Potter app where you can play with a wand and put your face in The Daily Prophet. While these are great, I wish more studios would have one app for all their projects like Sony Pictures does. I would PAY for a Disney/Pixar one!

Would you guys pay for a movie app? Or what other apps do you feel are lacking?

(photo and more info at The Wrap)

A Miracle Chocolate!?

Apparently, the Swiss have been working hard to come up with the best chocolate, ever. It won't melt in your hands, and it's low calorie! Supposedly with all the taste of a regular chocolate, but there's no way to tell until I get my hands on some.

This chocolate won't melt unless it gets hotter than 130F! The only thing that causes it to melt in your mouth is the enzymes in our saliva. Pretty crazy! M&Ms may have to think of a new slogan if all chocolate will soon be this high tech.

Not only is it melt-resistant, but it has 90% less calories than regular chocolate! Are you kidding me? This CAN'T be real! Where can I buy this?!

For the official story, check out the TIME article here.

Motion Posters: The Next Norm in Movie Marketing

With advertising moving more and more online and digital, it's no surprise that Motion Posters are starting to crop up. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen more! They're much more engaging than pop ups and definitely no where near as annoying. Here are a few neat motion posters:



I can't find the embed code for this one, so click here to check out the Terminator Salvation Motion Poster.

Things People Like

One of the funniest sites is Stuff White People Like. Here's an example of one of the many things White People Like:

#11 Asian Girls
"95% of white males have at one point in their lives, experienced yellow fever. Many factors have contributed to this phenomenon such as guilt from head taxes, internment camps, dropping the Nuclear bomb and the Viet Nam War . This exchange works both ways as asian girls have a tendency to go for white guys. (White girls never go for asian guys. Bruce Lee and Paul Kariya’s dad are the only recorded instances in modern history)..."

Well, today I found another similar site that is pretty funny. Things Marketing People Like!
It's a smaller niche than White People, but I think it can still be appreciated by anyone. It's also predominantly picture/video based, so it's a much faster read than SWPL. Here's an example of a funny posting:

Instant messaging each other when they sit right next to each other:

UPDATE: Haha, just found this via Mediabistro:

Stuff Unemployed People Like

How appropriate in today's economic climate!

#118 Finally Finding the Remote:
"The TV is a magical device, but without the remote control there’d be no way to change the channels from their entirely-too-familiar couch crevices. So when it comes time to switch between the crappy daytime television shows that the unemployed have scheduled to watch every day, being unable to find a remote leaves the unemployed feeling utterly helpless..."

I think the commenter says it best "sanity can be hard when you're jobless", so get some help by knowing your not alone and getting ideas on what other unemployed people like!

Harry Potter IS King!

(I'll be updating this post as the figures come in)

Midnight figures just came in and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince made $22.2 million dollars in one night! It beat out The Dark Night's old record by roughly $4 million! If the film can keep up this pace through the weekend, I have no doubt it'll beat out Transformers 2 and The Dark Knight to become the king of the domestic box office.

Photo and figures from E! Online

UPDATE: 2:45pm

Nielson just released a handy chart to compare all the HP and Twilight media! Check it out here!

UPDATE: 7/16 10:30am

Looks like HP juuuust missed breaking Transformers 2 opening-day record. Ticket sales slowed in the evening, in comparison to the midnight screenings. Seems like many HP fans that waited the 6 months since Warner Bros pushed back the release from November to July didn't want to wait any longer than they had to. This puts weekend estimates at just under $200 million. I'm still hoping for a turnaround once the weekend hits, but it seems unlikely. At least Harry Potter should have better legs than Transformers 2, since fans will likely see the film again, or wait to see it, in IMAX or IMAX 3D.

Harry Potter made $58.38 million dollars yesterday. For more info, check out this LATimes blog post.

Update: 7/17 11:30pm

Thursday: HP6 made another $22 million on Thursday. This brings its 2-day total to $80 million! While it could be better, that is still pretty damn good. My new estimation - $180 million through Sunday. I'd prefer my first estimation to be true, but it doesn't look like this film has the momentum the hype and midnight showings suggested.

Update: 7/19 10pm

Weekend: Overall 5 day total for Harry Potter 6 made just over $159 million! While that in itself is considered a huge success, it definitely did not live up to the expected weekend gross after the huge buzz and record-breaking midnight take. When it broke The Dark Knight record, it showed all the promise of breaking the Transformers 2 5 day take. But, it turned out that it was just the hardcore fans who couldn't wait any longer after than they already had from the 8 month WB delay.

It's an impressive haul, and in line with Order of the Phoenix. It seems like it hasn't gained many new fans since the last movie, but when you have such broad international appeal, it's hard to get any bigger. To bring this back to a previous topic, it'll be interesting to see Twilight's opening in November. I'm sure it's going to be bigger than first one, since more people have read the books because of the success of the first movie. Now it will have all the rabid fan girls who see the movie 5 times in one weekend, as well as the new fans.

UPDATE: 7/20 5:25pm

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince conjured a record-breaking $396.7 million in global box office over its five-day opening weekend, according to a Reuters report. That figure -- including $159.7 million in the U.S. and a whopping $237 million in international gross across 84 markets -- tops Spider-Man 3's worldwide opening record of $381.7 million, set in 2007." (via Entertainment Weekly)

HP is truly a global phenomenon! This is where it leaves Twilight in the dust. :)