Welcome!
At last, my inaugural post to Applebox!
Welcome to all and sundry. Its great to finally put the Applebox concept out there and see what people think. The wheels are in motion; we are working hard on getting our first store up and running, and the technology is finally in place. It’s great to have Sarah on board - I’ve been lucky to pry her away from the film and events industry.
Who woulda thunk it? I’ll soon be working in a video store! Richmond (Melbourne) is our target area, although we’ve got a couple of irons in the fire. It’s going to be interesting going into retail - we’re a new breed of clicks and bricks and keen to see where it takes us.
There’s soooooo much planned on the web side of things, but gotta start with the basics. In a web 2.0 world where social networks reign supreme, we’ve got boring stuff to do first: stock and inventory, the in-store system, content management. These back of house systems have gotta be in place - the rest will soon follow.
We’re away!
May 5th, 2007 at 8:32 am
YAY! Finally! Gettting the system up to testing stage has taken a helluva lotta work (and yes some might say obsessive work), congratulations Simon on keeping the faith. Can’t tell you how excited I am to be a part of this, it’s gonna fly.
May 5th, 2007 at 8:35 am
simon, it was really hard to work out how to leave a comment. I clicked until I worked it out but for us non technical types there wasn’t a “leave a comment” or “blog away” option. …… I am such a good tester for your “have no patience for time wasting technology” market!
May 5th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Ok - Lets have a look at the blog layout - I can add a ‘leave a comment’ link to make that clearer …
May 7th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Like the iTunesy look. Easy to use and with that inspiration I can imagine that there are a few obvious developments to come.
We currently use Quickflix and what I like about them is that I don’t have to go and pick vids up. We are not an ‘I want it now’ dvd family but I like having a couple of dvd’s lying around for when the kids or we want something. Last night for example Nellie and I watched Kenny cause we had the time to and it was there.
I also like the lists that you can build for the kids and us and the ‘Other people who watched this also watched…” type of feature. Celebrity lists are a good way of doing that and I like that feature.
I don’t like not knowing what we will get from Quickflix but because I build the list it is not such a big issue. It will always be something we want.
As Sarah will tell you though, ultimately I just want to get it down the line… but I guess we all have to wait for that. Sarah reckons seven or eight years at least, she probably heard that from you, Simon. I reckon sooner.
May 7th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Yaay Simon and Sarah,
Well done.
I like seeing the little pics with each genre, need to have that drop off with a pizza and bottle of red in the future.
Had a play with the search, got pissed off when I plugged something in and nothing came up, didn’ know if it was broken, or just dumb!!!
Love the look
May 7th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
great effort so nice to see something concrete to have evolved from all that hard work. The things I liked about it were……..
*the overall look, crisp and clean modern, moving with the times kind of vibe
*the feeling that there is an endless amount of scope for the concept to grow with time and technology
*I love to be organised and like the idea of being able plan ahead and reserve something earlier in the day so I know I can work late and not have the evening spoilt because we couldn’t get what we were after for that night in
* I like the visualness of being able to click on the picture and read the blurb
* being able to search for all movies with certian actor etc is a good benefit
What I didn’t like………
*The search function didn’t stand out for me it needs to be bigger or bolder and with some box thing to click on for an explanation of how to use effectively and a box to click to search rather than ‘enter’
*there are times when I would like a straight forward alphabetical list of titles if I couldn’t exactly remember a title or because my spelling can be a bit shite
*for me I would commonly rent TV shows because my schedule means I am not often home to watch a series and I found your colllection lacking in that regard, things like (and only a boy would omit this classic) sex in the city, but also alias, sopranos, love my way. This sort of thing would be 2/3 of what I have rented lately. Showed a friend who lives in richmond and said he would def use service but for me I need a delivery option for it to be perfect. Looking forward to the opening party……..
May 7th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
So you all know. i have a back catalog on order of 300 more titles as well as latest release top 20 films for the past six months. Also have all the TV stuff coming, its just taking a while to imput them as we need to get the episode info in etc. No fear we will have Love My Way, Sopranos, Star Trek, Queer as Folk and all the usuals. As well as some choice tv like Carnivale.
May 7th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Hi Tom,
yep - Quickflix surely has a place. Not having to pickup DVDs is pretty cool! Sarah and I did try it in our product research :-). We liked having a DVD delivered to us, but we also found that we kept forgetting to post it back, so it made our turnaround of another DVD so much longer (we were only on a 2 DVD rotation plan). And like you say, not knowing what you might get next isn’t ideal.
Lists are a big thing - and the Quickflix recommendation engine helps as well. With APPLEBOX I really want to hook in to creating networks of friends who rent, so that they can see each others lists, and get recommendations that way. I’m keen for everyone to create lists and publish them, so if I didn’t have any friends using an APPLEBOX store, I could just see other lists as well.
And the ultimate - down the line. That would be fantastic agreed. I do think its about 7 years away before it gets significant traction - beyond the early adopters. Good topic for a blog post … and thanks for your feedback!
May 7th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Hi Jill - yep that SEARCH has got to be improved. Thanks for showing me as well (heh - the advantage to having testers live nearby!). What happened was you clicked on the word ‘Search’ below to action the search - and nothing happened. Then you hit return but the focus was no longer on the search field, so nothing happened! Aaaaaargh! Its on my bug list … thanks!
May 7th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Hi Ruth - wow - thanks for your detailed points. I agree! You’ve highlighted all the reasons why we love APPLEBOX. And I also agree - the search I’m going to have to refashion. And yep - the TV collection is lacking at the moment, not from lack of stock, but I just haven’t yet got the data in (as Sarah mentioned). Alphabetical list I can do - I wasn’t sure how useful that might be? But I’ll jot it down on my list.
Home Delivery!!! It is definitely on the cards. The local pizza joint can deliver - so why can’t the DVD shop as well? And then join the two and we’re in business! Once the first store is in place and we’re trading, we’ll be looking at it. There’s still the problem of dropping back the DVD - but at least the delivery part is a simple one!
Cheers, and thanks for your feedback.
May 8th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Well I just think the look of the Logo is just terrific. So imaginative. It looks like a row of DVD spines lined up. Was that intentional? Really clever and visually pleasing…
Good luck with it all. It is a great idea.
Ben x
May 8th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Yes yes - the Logo is inspired. Quite clever really - it’ll be everywhere before you can blink! THANKS BEN!!!!
May 8th, 2007 at 11:32 am
LOOKING GOOD !!!!!
i’ll browse more later and leave you a bit more dignified feedback,
for now…… LOOKING GOOD !!!!
May 8th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Hey, how good is this?!! Am totally impressed. Found everything easy to use, fabulous to look at and the concept, as I’ve said before, is brilliant…..being the kinda chick who likes to alphabetise i reckon that’d be a good option to have.
YAY! to both of you….i think it’s ACE!!!!!
May 8th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Oh and Simon was also no probs with access on the old dinosaur PC!!
May 8th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Thanks Tjeerd! (disclaimer - Tjeerd is my neighbour and has no option but to say cool).
Thanks Rach! I’m also impressed - an old PC over a dial up connection. Thats gotta be a double whammy. But think about that poor little macbook that sits there and doesn’t get online … soon little book … soon …
May 8th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Wow!!! So that’s what you’ve been doing with yourself!!
Sexy, snappy and a delight to navigate around. The search is great (although the search icon suggests there’s some drop down function). The screen is beautifully uncluttered - there’s plenty of room on our little 12″ mac. Maybe the 3 images that always appear at the top of the main UI screen could have a little more room…
Well done, Sime!! Exciting stuff.
May 9th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Thanks Dom! Yep, that search input has got a few flaws, and the drop down triangle is another one - consider it gone in the next release!
May 24th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Guess who’s little book is now cruising the web at top speed!!! Makes Applebox whizz on like a roooly fast car during grande prix! Liking it lots.