MELBOURNE-BASED Ruslan Kogan, the founder of the Australian-based consumer electronics company Kogan Technologies, is branching out to the US market and says his buying power will increase by over 1000 per cent in doing so.
At a press briefing last week Mr Kogan showed off some of his latest products and announced that he was ready to open a warehouse in the US State of Kentucky.
There’s some good news for his Australian customers too, he says.
Analysis done by Kogan Technologies in regards to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) indicates that any search term in Australia like LCD TV or Blu-ray, for example, the US are searching 25 per cent more.
“As soon as we go to the UK our US and Aussie customers will benefit,” he said.
One issue Kogan will face with getting into the US market is getting his SEO and branding right.
As Kogan doesn’t own the domain name Kogan.com it’s likely he’s going to have to purchase it from its owner Tucows Inc, an internet services company.
However, Tucows owned the domain name ten years prior to Kogan and have refused to hand it over even though Kogan says they are breaching his trademark.
“Our lawyers are onto it,” he said. “It was secured ten years before we came into the marketplace and we’ve had some interesting conversations with them recently because they are actually passing off on the Kogan trademark,” he added. “If you go to Kogan.com they’re advertising LCD TVs, GPS’s and Digital photo frames.”
Kogan remains confident in getting the domain name.
“We’re trying, but we’ll get there,” he said
The young entrepreneur has been undercutting the Australian market for quite some time now and says he can do it by taking out the middleman.
“The fact that containers (are) direct to here, straight to customers, none of the overheads the other companies have (and) an efficient business model, a paperless office, things like that,” are all things Mr Kogan says are the reasons he can keep his prices lower than other big name brands.
Kogan will do anything in his power to keep prices at bare minimum, including the removal of paper manuals from products.
“Sony will spend $2 printing each one of their manuals,” he said. “You’re probably not even going to read it.”
“We’ll put it online.”
When asked why he chose Kentucky he said it was mathematically the right choice.
“There’s been a lot of maths done and that’s the central point…because it’s cheaper to distribute to the rest of America.”
When commenting on his launch in America he said it was much more easier than launching in Australia because of “stupid” Australian Government standards.
“Launching into America is even easier than Australia because our government was stupid enough to select a digital TV standard that none of the world uses,” he added.
“Our TVs are more expensive to manufacture already because the manufacturing process can only be used for Australia.”
The launch of the US warehouse will also see the launch of his pro-range of LCD TVs.
“The ones with (a) built-in DVD player, USB drive and SD card,” Kogan said.
Kogan re-affirmed that once he secures the US market it’ll have a great impact on Australian prices.
“When our buying power grows to that magnitude, our Aussie customers are going to benefit because that is going to drop our prices.”
- BarCamp Sydney this Saturday June 27th (tomorrow).
- Listen to an interview from the last Sydney BarCamp.
- Register.
- Directions.
Tomorrow is Saturday June 27th and it’s time for another Sydney BarCamp to be held at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern, Sydney.
So what’s a BarCamp?
“BarCamp is an intense community event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees,” It’s community members say.
“Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to participate.”
Usual discussions at the event:
The usual discussions at the event include:
- Comparing startups in San Fransisco to Australia and whether startups should accept funding;
- Coding and hacking;
- The latest internet technology; and
- The most randomness thing you won’t even think will be talked about.
Almost 200 people have registered for the latest Sydney BarCamp, with previous ones seeing more than 100 people show up; sponsors even put in some money for food and drink.
“There’s something for everyone,” said un-organiser Jean-Jacques Halans at the last one.
“The things we talk about here touch on everyone’s life; everyone uses the internet”
Image Credit: Jean-Jacques Halans
Microsoft Australia have announced Windows 7 pricing for Australia:
From the media release:
Windows 7 Upgrade Option
Customers who purchase a new Windows Home Premium, Business or Ultimate PC from today (26 June 2009) will be able to upgrade to Windows 7 for little or no cost when it launches on 22 October this year. This means that consumers can purchase and use a new Windows PC now, while being assured they are investing in the latest technology.The Windows 7 Upgrade Option will run until 31 January 2010, and people can redeem the offer until the end of February 2010.
In addition, from now until the end of the financial year (30 June 2009) eligible Australian families can take advantage of the Education Tax Refund (ETR) on offer from the Australian Federal Government. The ETR allows eligible parents of school-age children to claim up to 50 percent back on expenses related to their kids’ education, including Windows PCs.
This incentive, combined with Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Option, makes for a very attractive opportunity for eligible Australian families who have a window of opportunity from 26-30 June 2009 to take advantage of both offers by buying a Windows PC with a guaranteed upgrade to Windows 7 and getting up to 50% of the cost back from the Federal Government through the ETR.
Consumers can check if the Windows PC they are purchasing is part of the Windows 7 Upgrade Option by:
1. Checking in-store stickers on the PC they are looking to purchase
2. Visiting the Microsoft website www.windows.com/upgradeoffer
3. Asking in-store if the PC they’re buying is eligible for the Windows 7 UpgradeFor more information on Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Option go to:
http://www.windows.com/upgradeofferFor more information on the Australian Government’s Education Tax Refund go to:
http://www.educationtaxrefund.gov.au/home/
The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy want you to change your password.
Checkout http://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/ for more info or watch the video below.
Yesterday Google launched an Australian version of its successful flu tracker that authorities believe reveals evidence of ‘Swine flu hype’.
IN HOPE of predicting and informing the severeness and scale of flu virus’ similar to the Swine Flu, Google announced yesterday an Australian version of Google Flu Trends in conjunction with health authorities’ data.
The Australian and New Zealand release follows the launch of the service Google have already deployed in Mexico and the United States.
Heath Kelly, the head of the Epidemiology Unit at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) told Tech Wired that he believed the data revealed that the current Australian flu season appeared similar to previous years when compared with Google’s results.
“It appears as though the Swine Flu is no greater than any other flu season from previous years,” he said.
“It may be able to put out the swine flu hype.”
Mr Kelly also said that multiple sources of information gathered would help provide better understanding of the flu virus, and that Google Flu Trends provided one aspect of value that could identify trends in influenza activity.
“Having additional sources of data will be even more important than usual in the current influenza season, with the circulation of novel influenza A (H1N1), commonly known as swine flu, already established in Victoria,” he said.
“It’s providing interesting data because our surveillance says there is a high rise in the flu.”
With the help of the VIDRL, Google Australia hopes to inform the general public and authorities of any threats in an outbreak of the influenza virus.
The search giant found, by analysing certain anonymous search terms, that queries related to the flu tended to be very common during the flu season each year, as you’d expect.
“Upon building this model, we found that our historical Google search data correlated well with the VIDRL’s historical data in terms of flu activity in past years,” Google said in a statement.
“As the season unfolds this year, we’ll be watching to see how well our flu model performs compared with these existing surveillance systems.”
Google’s Flu Trend tracker has already shown how powerful its aggregated results can be when it predicted the Swine Flu outbreak in Mexico; but it was all too late.
It was only after inquiries were made to Google by public health officials until it lead them to create an experimental graph that showed an increase in flu-related search terms just before the Swine Flu spread.
By using its Geolocation knowledge, Google can then pinpoint locations in terms of which state those search queries were made from and display them on a map. This can then allow authorities to pinpoint locations for quarantine of future outbreaks.
The VIDRL’s Heath Kelly said he would be watching Google’s Flu Trend tracker to “…keep a keen eye on”.
The Australian version of the website is available at:
http://www.google.org/flutrends/intl/en_au/
IN A WORLD where you could stay a fan boy of a brand such as Apple for life, could you live without your preferred laptop, phone and entertainment system for a week?
Crazy man Anthony Agius, aka @Decryption and co-founder of MacTalk.com.au, is embarking on a 5-day week without Apple to see if he can cope.
“For a full working week, beginning as of 12:01am Monday the 1st of June, I will abandon my Apple products, casting them to the fortress that is my mother’s house,” he said
Can he do it?
Anthony will be giving up the following items:
- 15″ MacBook Pro (Early 2008) – 2.4Ghz CPU, 4GB RAM, 200GB 7200RPM HDD
- 16GB iPhone 3G
- AirPort Express
- AppleTV 40GB
To replace these items he will use:
- HP Pavilion dv6-1143tx – 2.4Ghz CPU, 4GB RAM, 500GB 5400RPM HDD
- RIM Blackberry Bold
- Linksys WRT610N
- TiVo
If he doesn’t co crazy, Anthony hopes to document his day by day journey of equivalent products @ http://www.mactalk.com.au/tag/noapple/
If an apple a day keeps the doctor away then I think Anthony is going to be at the doctor every day this week.
