
A Joke iPhone Sticker Turns Into a Business - evansolomon
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/a-joke-iphone-sticker-turns-into-a-business/
======
dpcan
Freakin brilliant.

If there's one thing people love, whether they want to admit it or not, it's
to show off that they have an iPhone.

Now there's a colorful band-aid that goes on the base of the iPhone 4. It
might as well just say "Look, I have an iPhone" right on it.

Some iPhone owners would love a way for it to stand out even more that they
have an iPhone - well, here you go.

With this product, the FLAW in the iPhone has become a way for people to
decorate their phone so that EVERYONE will notice they have an iPhone, and not
just any iPhone, the latest and greatest iPhone!

Little success stories like this are fantastic.

~~~
hugh3
Are people still showing off their iPhones in 2010? To me, all an iPhone says
nowadays is " _I may be out on the town right now, but if my boss emails me
I'll be able to reply within seconds._ "

If you ask me, the next trend will be obnoxiously low-utility phones: no apps,
no email, nothing that would appeal to your average fourteen-year-old girl.
See this graph from my favourite fashion site, which ranks the awesomeness of
phones as a combination of "exclusivity" and "senseless lack of utility":

[http://www.magnificentbastard.com/posts/ask-the-mb-
portable-...](http://www.magnificentbastard.com/posts/ask-the-mb-portable-
communication-conundrum)

Personally, I _really_ want a DynaTAC. Of course a DynaTAC won't work with
modern cellphone networks, so I really want to get an old DynaTAC shell and
insert the components from a new twenty-dollar phone. Maybe I could sell
_that_ on Etsy.

~~~
masklinn
> Are people still showing off their iPhones in 2010? To me, all an iPhone
> says nowadays is "I may be out on the town right now, but if my boss emails
> me I'll be able to reply within seconds."

I disagree for a number of reasons, but the main four are:

* I am directionally challenged and informationally hungry. A smartphone is both a lightweight GPS (which saves my life) and a direct pathway into wikipedia in my pocket (which feeds my brain). Can't get that with a low-end phone.

* I use my phone to keep up with various mailing lists (not my boss, professional mail account isn't even on the phone)

* I use my phone for offline articles reading via InstaPaper, it's often far more confortable (and simpler) than doing it on a laptop, and I can get 10mn of reading any time I have no current activity

* Because I have an iPhone (though it's a lowly 3G) I have quite a number of _pretty nice_ video games, so the phone doubles up as a lightweight portable console and avoids having to carry around a DS or a PSP (though it does severely dent the battery life of the machine)

And other, more social people, will no doubt be using their phones for their
twittering, facebooking and all other multicast communication channels which
are entirely unavailable on a Nokia 3310.

Not saying this couldn't breed a backlash due to information overload, but
seriously userland "smart" phones have been going strong for nearly a decade
in basically every first-world country but the US. Only in the US was it
confined to the business side until 2007 and the iPhone broke free from the
idea that smartphone = business.

~~~
sliverstorm
Plus, look at computers. They have almost never regressed, because they are a
tool like phones. While select few (myself occasionally included) will always
seek old-fashioned simplicity, not only is that rarely the overall trend but
it almost never applies to information-age hardware. I like having stupid-
simple hand and power tools, for example, but you will rarely catch me asking
to have features removed from my computer. I suspect this is tied to the fact
that actual physical tools have _one job_ and one job only, whereas a
computer/phone/etc is a multi-tool.

There _is_ the netbook trend, and that whole minimalist trend might hit cell
phones some time. But notice netbooks are rarely any 'stupider' than a full
blown computer- they are just smaller, a bit slower, and cheaper. Yet, a
modern netbook will still blow a 8-10 year old computer out of the water.

------
drawkbox
This one is much better. Adding function to form:
<http://twitpic.com/262n5r/full>

~~~
mcantor
It's also _thirty dollars_. Holy crap!

~~~
kmfrk
That's how Apple would have priced it.

------
nixy
Not mentioned in the article, but this band aid style sticker is a reference
to Job's joke at the press conference (from memory):

    
    
      We will be giving bumber cases until September 30th. 
      By then there might be some other solution, maybe Eminem
      will release a band aid for the iPhone which everyone will
      want to use.

------
callmeed
I'm reminded of Jason L Baptiste's comment/post about becoming a millionaire
in 3 years:

 _"Look for the accessory ecosystem ... "_

(<http://bit.ly/cjXq8f>)

Good example

~~~
blhack
Just out of curiosity, why did you go through the trouble of hiding the link
behind bit.ly?

~~~
callmeed
To me, it looks cleaner–i.e. that link was a footnote, more or less, and I'd
rather my comment be the focus (not a long URL)

I have a bookmarklet, so I really didn't go through any "trouble"

~~~
india
Fair enough but url shorteners break the web[1][2]. That is quite clearly not
a good trade-off. I avoid url shorteners unless they be absolutely necessary.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_shortening#Criticism_and_pr...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_shortening#Criticism_and_problems)

[2] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1416090>

------
Tichy
Just curious, how do they produce them? Or is it just repackaged generic band
aids? It's one thing to come up with a joke, another to come up with a
production channel...

~~~
DavidPP
Unless I'm mistaken, it's only a decal and not a real band-aid.

~~~
Tichy
I see - I suppose there are lots of printing services that offer printing of
custom stickers.

~~~
DavidPP
Yeah :) I'm soon to be a co-owner in a digital printing company. Thinking
about make some of those myself ;)

------
frossie
Well deserved, if nothing for their funny advertising copy:

For those who haven't seen it: <http://antenn-aid.com/>

_"Technical Specifications: Uhm... it's a sticker"_

~~~
danh
My favorite is _"Colors you can see with the human retina"_.

------
tlrobinson
I wonder if a thin coat of clear nail polish would accomplish the same thing
in a less ugly way.

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kujhygtfghj
The interesting point is the infrastructure behind this. Have an idea and
instead of needing to build factories, employ salesmen, visit customers - you
can build an online store in minutes (all the billing and payment handled by a
dozen sites), get the stickers printed by another online store and advertise
on HN, Reddit etc.

Build a business empire (ok a small principality) in an evening!

------
tamersalama
How did the handle supplies/manufacturing? Is it already available bandaid
with narrow dimensions?

~~~
pwim
They are vinyl stickers, so there are already many places that will make
custom ones.

------
ck2
I was thinking the other day that iphone users need a little handle that folds
out (like a stand on a picture frame) so they can hold the phone from the back
instead of the phone itself.

You'd just slip your hand through the handle and never touch the phone.

~~~
chadgeidel
Something like this? [http://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Double-Locking-Suction-
Hooks/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Double-Locking-Suction-
Hooks/dp/B000VKMMP0)

That's actually not a bad idea!

~~~
ck2
Yeah but instead of a hook, more like a suitcase handle that you can slip your
entire hand through.

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Tichy
It looks a lot better than the official bumpers.

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bvi
Absolutely brilliant. Such a simple (and a very trendy+elegant!) solution to a
well-publicized problem.

~~~
AlexMuir
Simple maybe. But elegant? It looks ridiculous. Who wouldn't just put a bit of
gaffa tape or sticky tape on. This is the sort of shit that Apple should dread
- being perceived as a pretentious brand in mobile devices, as they became in
personal computing.

~~~
DrJokepu
Also, there's not a chance in hell Apple would sell those things for $4.99 a
six-pack. It would be more like $40 for a single sticker.

------
fuzzythinker
Hmm, I wouldn't touch it unless I know it will come off w/o much residue,
which the site doesn't say.

------
billmcneale
It looks like there might be a few more people unhappy with their antenna than
Steve Jobs wants us to believe.

