The new dedicated section for tablets helps both consumers and retailers.  I have often mentioned in previous blogs and reports that in the chaotic world of tablets, where a consumer is challenged to find differences between tablet A and tablet B, “touch, test, and feel” play a very important role.  In many consumers mind, a tablet is either the iPad or a device running on Android.  And in the iPad dominated world, “touch, test, and feel” becomes even more important for Android vendors.  Only when holding a device in hand, can a consumer tell whether he/she likes the wedge-shaped design of the Sony tablet or the rubberized back of the Toshiba Thrive.

A better organized retail space also helps improve the shopping experience.  A consumer is more likely to visit a chain where he/she will find a good tablet selection at a single location without much wandering around.  Better in-store management improves the shopping experience, which helps convert potential buyers into actual buyers and eventually create repeat buyers.

As the category continues to develop, vendors are also investing in dedicated end-cap displays.  End-caps are expensive and definitely a sign of promotional investment from tablet vendors and space commitment from retailers.  Companies like Apple, Motorola, Samsung, Amazon, B&N, and even Taiwanese player Asus have positioned their tablets in dedicated end-cap displays.  These end-caps definitely attract customers towards them first before they move on to check all other tablets.

Tablets are experiencing strong growth in the market and are expected to surge to between 70 and 75 million units this year.  With that, it is fair to say that by creating dedicated in-store tablet sections, retailers got their act together just in time.

Our President, Gary Peterson, is a very busy man.  So busy in fact that he often times does not have enough time to squeeze in all of the events that he is invited to into his hectic schedule.  When the demands of running gap intelligence keep him tethered to his desk, it often comes with major benefits to the rest of the company because he will pass the “work perks” our way.

In case you missed the very exciting news that was announced at our 2011 holiday party, gap intelligence purchased season tickets for the 2012 Padres Baseball season.  Peterson was invited to enjoy “Lunch on the Field” and was unable to attend.  His loss equaled Senior Project Manager, Katie Hess, and my gain.  Aren’t we the two luckiest gappers in the whole wide world?

Our hospitable contact through the Padres organization, John Torris, rolled out the red carpet for us yesterday!  Hess and I had the pleasure of touring the stadium through the underground tunnels that few get to see.  We rode in super-secret elevators that few get to ride.  I kept murmuring to Hess, “look how cool we are”, as we wandered the halls beneath Petco Park.  Once we finished making our way through the stadium to the field, we couldn’t help but gaze in awe at the beauty of Petco Park.  Although there were a small group of other season ticket holders enjoying this perk as well, the stadium was for the most part deserted.  Torris was nice enough to indulge my need to get my paparazzi on and he also showed us where our seats are for the 2012 season.  Lunch was amazing!  They set up a buffet in the dugout.

As Hess and I sat enjoying lunch we both couldn’t help but smile.  Torris was nice enough to load us up with Padres swag bags full of all sorts of loot.  We rubbed elbows with several other season ticket holders and had the most fantastic time.  We even had the pleasure of meeting the Padres GM!  I was excited for baseball season before but this totally pushed me over the edge.  Can’t wait for the 2012 baseball season to begin!

The quick answer: yes, if you’re price sensitive. “They’ll come into a market behind Intel and then do what they do at a lower price,” said Deron Kershaw, an analyst at Gap Intelligence.

Ultrabooks are skinny, light laptops that attempt to combine the portability of a tablet with the productivity of a laptop.

How low can AMD-based systems go? “Our…solution will enable a full featured, high-performance user experience well below $1,000 (US). Look for offerings (systems) around mid-year,” said an AMD spokeswoman in response to an e-mail query.

So, what does “well below” mean? Kershaw thinks some AMD systems could go as low as $500. If that happens, AMD would undercut the least-expensive Intel systems at mid-year by about $200. Indeed, Hewlett-Packard has been marketing a popular AMD-based Pavilion dm1z ultraportable for a couple of years (see image above), showing that decent AMD-based systems can be very inexpensive.

AMD’s Ultrathin technology will compete with Intel’s ultrabooks. 

(Credit: Advanced Micro Devices)

As a yardstick, Toshiba will bring out a new Satellite series of Intel-based ultrabooks later this year targeting an entry price of $699–or possibly lower. (Toshiba’s Intel-based Portege Z835 ultrabook has been on sale at Best Buy for $799 and has dipped occasionally to $699.)

Of course, not all AMD systems will compete with Intel in the lowest price ranges. More full-featured designs will be priced accordingly. “AMD certainly brings more to the table than low cost,” the AMD spokeswoman said.

That includes graphics processors (see image above) that typically out perform Intel’s graphics solutions–though AMD’s CPU (central processing unit) performance lags Intel. And AMD may have a tougher time in the future making the argument for faster graphics, as Intel devotes more and more resources to improving graphics and multimedia processing on its chips.

In the end none of this branding may even matter that much, however. Ultimately, ultrabooks and ultrathins will be the mainstream. And we’ll be back to the same age-old Intel-AMD rivalry. Oh, and throw Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, and Nvidia into the mix too when PC makers bring out Windows 8 designs with ARM processors from those companies inside.

It’s a good thing that when I’m not manipulating all that awesome data here at gap I moonlight as a knitting teacher and can make my own sweaters.  Yes, really!  I work weekends at a yarn shop and I whip out samples for designers in my spare time (haha).

Our mascot, Herbie, tagged along with me to work this weekend.  He was quite the character, flirting with my students and hamming it up for other visitors.  Here he is making himself comfortable in one of our displays.

Of course, he kept dropping hints about getting some hand-knitted goodness for himself and I couldn’t resist.  By the end of the day he was able to walk out the door proudly wearing his very own gap intelligence sweater.  It pays to be a mascot, wouldn’t you agree?

I graduated from Colorado Mesa University with a degree in Business Marketing. I played for the Women’s soccer team, but never managed to make it through a whole season without tearing an ACL. After three knee surgeries in a matter of three years, I decided to hang up my cleats and live up my last year of college. After graduation, I wasn’t quite ready to jump into the “real world”, so I jumped flight with two of my best friends to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. I spent four months living out of a backpack, staying in hostels, studying bus routes and not knowing what I was going to eat next. I didn’t have a care in the world. I feel blessed to have seen some unbelievable places, made some amazing new friends, and did some incredible activities. When my money ran out, I did what most everyone my age seems to do. I moved back in with my roommates, also known as my parents. Being back under my “roommates” roof, I immediately began to soak up the advantages: free food, free laundry, and free rent. I started bartending and quickly saved up some cash. That was a great lifestyle while it lasted; however, I was ready for a career change. 5 months ago I moved my life, on a whim, to sunny San Diego! My boyfriend got offered a job out here and I couldn’t let him enjoy the ocean without me =) I soaked up the beach bum life for a few months and then landed this sweet job with gap! So sweet that on my first day I was invited to the company Christmas party. Talk about getting your feet wet! It was a fantastic time and I quickly realized how great this company is. Although I have only been working here for about a month, I enjoy what I do, and continue to learn something new each day. I can’t wait to learn another excel shortcut! I feel very privileged to be a part of the gap team. Besides not living close to my family and friends, I’d say I’m a happy gapper!

Go Broncos!

Here at GapU we’re super stoked to start planning all the fun/educational student activities for the duration of the new year. To kick things off, we’ve invited gap intelligence camera analyst extraordinaire, Scott Peterson to join our Board of Directors. Scott was voted People’s Choice at the 2011 Gappy Awards and we couldn’t be more pleased to have him aboard (no pun intended!). Get a load of this guy!

While nothing has been set in stone, current areas of focus at GapU have circled closely around competitive ping pong and/or air hockey, guest speakers to bring in outside knowledge, and outdoor adventures for all. We’re looking forward to some cool classes, fun parties, and spirited sports throw-downs. Ultimately, everyone here at gap is going to have a hard time avoiding a good time in between mind-blowingly awesome fits of data analysis.

Happy new year!

Through the years I could never find the words that perfectly matched my motivations for gap intelligence.  Business books, seminars, and most colleagues stressed the same two things: cash flow is king and profits, profits, profits.  Cash flow and profits are certainly important for a business to survive, but  have never driven me – they ring empty.

Recently, I finished Walter Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs and the final chapter largely consists of his subject’s own reflective words while facing the end of his life.

Leave it to Steve Jobs to give me my muse on page 569.

“I hate it when people call themselves “entrepreneurs” when what they’re really trying to do is launch a startup and then sell or go public, so they can cash in and move on.  They’re unwilling to do the work it takes to build a real company, which is the hardest work in business.  That’s how you really make a contribution and add to the legacy of those who went before. You build a company that will stand for something a generation or two from now.  That’s what Walt Disney did, and Hewlett and Packard, and the people who built Intel.  They created a company to last, not just to make money.  That’s what I want Apple to be.”

Ditto.

Our eighth year is also when we took some big swings as a company.  We went through a significant metamorphosis from a firm focused on what and how we do business to why we are in business.

The why.  That’s our 2011 in a nutshell.

But let’s go through the year in gap intelligence:

In January, gap intelligence moved into our fifth business location:
1) 345 15th Street
2) 1380 Garnet Avenue
3) 3300 Third Avenue
4) 701 C Street
5) 2448 Historic Decatur Road

The new office is about 7,200 square feet of pure awesome and located in a freshly renovated business park called Liberty Station.  Renovated in 2005, Liberty Station was formerly the Naval  Training Center for the Pacific Fleet and just about any World World II Navy seaman passed through this facility.  The designers did an amazing job in modernizing Liberty Station, but at the same time kept the spirit of the Corps in the walls and surrounding grounds.  Our offices are a converted barracks that touch the old quad – you can almost hear Reveille echo in the night…..

New office space for the inside, new website on the outside:

Special thanks to Steve Stadwiser and Cathy Nerenberg of Sessionwise for development.

A bit of controversy with the new website is its very unorthodox right-side navigation bar. I love it!

2011 Kick Off

Our annual kick-off was held in February and we toasted to a successful 2010 and laid plans for what became a phenomenal 2011.  Beyond the new categories, projects, and initiatives that we would embark on, we focused on our why.  Why are we in business?  Do we work for revenues and profits or do we want gap intelligence to be a different kind of company?  By the end of the day we realized that we have an opportunity to become something very special.  We recognized that we all give roughly 1/3rd of our day to our work and that time is something that should be cherished.  We have to make that time rewarding, fun, engaging, powerful and impactful.  From that day forward we will strive to make our work at gap intelligence contribute to something bigger than us, bigger than the company, and create an environment that generates an unparalleled spirit…..we’ll have fun.

Here is our 2011 mission statement:

“gap intelligence is a values-led corporation. We strive to deliver the highest quality of research and service to our clients, expand opportunities and professional growth for our team members, and operate a company that recognizes the central role that business plays in our community.”

“We are driven to contribute to something bigger than ourselves and trust that our hard work will turn into something great and that we’ll have fun along the way”.

Now that is sweeter than YooHoo.

We launched several big initiatives that February day that would impact not only our client facing services, but also the team within gap intelligence.  No initiative proved to be bigger than gap University (www.gapuniveristy.net), our own institution of higher education.

gap University aims to build a strong and united community by sharing ideas and skills in a fun and creative way.  Our team consists of people from a wide range of skills and backgrounds and we wanted to collectively share our experiences with each other.  While other organizations hold mandatory meetings on invoicing or cold calling, gap intelligence wanted to go a step further (make it fun) and create our own University.

gap University Professors hold classes twice a month that cover subjects both professional and personal.  We held classes on giving presentations (Professor Young), Conducting Meetings (Professor Peterson), Photography (Professor Peterson), Bug Ticket Generation (Professor Cowan), Baking (Professor Greetis), and Social Media (Professor Stone).  The school has its own Dean (Dean Dahukey), Department of Athletics (AD Keenan Thomson), and fraternity (Gamma Alpha Pi).

For the record, the gapU Beach Volleyball Team lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Here is our Freshman Class of 2011:

gapCon

Our first annual gapCon was held in early May.  gapCon is a convention that celebrates ourselves – our culture and our people.  In short, we wanted to give our analysts a forum to conduct market presentations in a group setting.  Instead of forcing analysts to give presentations to a half empty room of imprisoned co-workers, we wanted to make gapCon a “gap intelligence” event – so we made it fun.

This video says it all.

gapCon blossomed into something bigger than we ever dreamed.  Headlined by our opening speaker, San Diego City Councilman Kevin Faulconer and technology keynote speaker Kelly Abbott, gapCon made the local news.  At one point, three television news crews covered gapCon and highlighted the launch of Social Media app mygivingtweet.com.

Here is the coverage!

gapCon 2012 is scheduled for June 8th and is free to the public.  RSVP at info@gapintelligence.com

Another Press Mention:

Speaking of press, our own Mobile Computing Analyst, Deron Kershaw, made national news with his insights on falling notebook computer prices.

Habitat for Humanity

In June 2011, gap intelligence made a difference in our local community.  After raising $1,500 for Habitat for Humanity, gap intelligence went to National City to help build a home for a family in need.

The experience was extremely rewarding as it gave us a chance to give back to our community and make a difference in San Diego.  The day was also fun for a me personally, as I got to play with countless power tools – jigsaws, power sanders, and nail guns.  We climbed scaffolding, hung panel, put up a chimney, and installed a HVAC system.

Giving back could not have been more fun….and exhausting!

Приветствия в Узбекистан

Most people don’t know that gap intelligence’s unique culture expands across international borders.  Our team located in Tashkent, Uzbekistan contributes significantly to our market intelligence services, but also embraces the spirit of gap University and giving back to the local community.

The Tashkent team has held gap University classes on Art, Self Defense, Microsoft Excel, and baking and has made a tremendous effort to give back to the city of Tashkent.  This year, the team decided to help sponsor an orphanage in Tashkent and just recently was a contributor to a Christmas event that donated toys to the children.

The why of our business, contributing to something bigger than ourselves, translates to any language regardless of region, continent, or government.  Team Tashkent’s daily efforts to deliver high quality services and giving back to their local community is no less important than our work here in San Diego.  2011 was my first visit to Uzbekistan and I was overwhelmed with pride to know that we are working with such great people.

The Awards:

Have I mentioned that we won some awards:

San Diego Best Places to Work Finalist

Inc Magazine’s Top 5,000 Privately Owned Companies – #1,814

San Diego’s Fastest 100 – #39
 

Texas A&M University
The May’s School of Business – Aggie 100 (#44)

While its great to be recognized, I am always reminded that the rewards do not come from slick sales and boastful promises.  Our success comes from our people and a culture that empowers them to make a difference to the business and to the community.

Susan G Komen

In October, gap intelligence raised funds for two causes that are close to home.  Susan G Komen for the Cure and American Lung Association Fight for Air.  I doubt that anyone of us doesn’t have a loved one that that has suffered from cancer or is impacted with lung disease.  The gap intelligence family is certainly not alone and this year we made great efforts to raise funds to help these causes.  In 2011, the gap intelligence team raised nearly $13,000 for Susan G. Komen for the Cure walk and thousands more for the American Lung Association and The Jimmy Fund.

This little company is doing great big things.

Did I mention that we launched a new Data Center?

We try to make everything at gap intelligence fun including how our clients gather our information.  We use a shopping cart system to organize and share our information with others.  Our clients can customize their own “Headlines” page just like Facebook and can even give themselves their own avatar.   Now that’s fun!

My avatar looks like Ashton Kutcher, because we look so alike…

Holiday Parade & GAP Awards

2011 ended with our annual Holiday Party and G.A.P Awards Show.  On December 3rd we hopped on a float and were a part of the Ocean Beach Christmas Parade, a first for the company and one of the most fun events we have ever been a part of.  Thousands of people lined the streets and waved at our passing “Retro Christmas” themed float that featured a disco dance floor, disco balls, and retro-costumes.

The G.A.P Awards headlined the evening as the coveted “gappy” was given to dozens of gap intelligence team members.  Some of the highlights:

Most Valuable gapper – Tom Young
People’s Choice – Scott Peterson
Presenter of the Year – Deron Kershaw
Leader of the Year – Jake Fishman
Team Spirit Award – Sarina Dahukey
Nickname of the Year – Diedre Kennedy aka Dr. Dre
Hardworker of the Year – Gurpreet Kaur
Rookies of the Year – Erin Vogelsanger & Natasha Belak-Berger
Impact Player of the Year – Liana Greetis
Research Assistants of the Year – Taryn Poppelewell & Mike Broome
Can’t Live Without You Award – Laurel Popplewell
Professor of the Year – Joshua Stone
#1 3T (Time, Treasure, Talent) – Katie Hess
Lean on Me Award – Kendra Gebhart
and many others…..

2011 was a remarkable year for this company.  We found our why and with it we accomplished things we never thought possible and I have never been so proud of a company.  We raised close to $20,000 for local charities this year.  We built a house, supported an orphanage, and we won some awards along the way….

My hope is for all of you who contribute to gap intelligence whether as a client, a vendor, or a friend, that you know your support is turning into something great.

We have even bigger plans for 2012 and we welcome you all to join us for the ride.

It’s going to be fun.

DCv3 R5 keeps all of the great features of our old data center, but adds a number of new applications that makes the experience of gathering and sharing our valuable information more effective and fun than ever before.  I’ll walk you through a just a couple of our new applications.

Our Headlines tab functions as a landing page for our clients, where they can quickly find the latest information on the categories they follow.  The previous data center showed a default list of product categories that were displayed in alphabetical order.  While our clients loved the Headlines page, many complained that the categories that were most important to them were not at the top.  Say for example, you wanted to see reports on the Television Industry, but had to scroll through B&W Laser Printers, Brazil Supplies, and Digital Cameras to get to the TV category bubble.

DCv3 R5 allows our clients to customize their Headlines page.  You can arrange category bubbles in the order you like, expand / collapse category bubbles to conserve space, and you can un-follow a category to remove it from your Headline page.  Here is an instructional video starring me!

One of the most popular introductions from our previous data center is our use of a shopping cart to collect, share, and download reports.  Feedback was very positive, so positive in fact that the single shopping cart used in the old data center was not enough for most of our clients!  Our clients want the ability to manage several shopping carts at the same time and share those carts with specific groups or date archived for later retrieval.

With the new DCv3 R5, we have given our clients the ability to create as many shopping carts as they want.  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, SEVEN….make as many as you want.  Each cart is also given its own unique URL, so instead of emailing your co-workers a massive ZIP file, just copy and share the link so they can download your cart directly to their machine.

Here is another video (starring me!) that talks about our shopping cart system.

One more innovation is our digital archive of print advertisement circulars.  Through DCv3 R5, our clients are given a modern image browser that allows them to quickly navigate through retail advertising circulars.   Pages can be blown up to their largest size and you can download an entire circular with a single-click, or select individual pages to share with your co-workers.

These are just a few of the new innovations gap intelligence has delivered with DCv3 R5.  You won’t believe it, but development on DCv3 R6 is already on the way for February 2012.  The next refresh of the data center is set for June 2012 with the launch of DCv4 – a platform that we believe will change the way our clients communicate with each other.  gap intelligence intends to combine our timely market intelligence information with social networking.  DCv4 will be a platform for our clients to quickly find, share, and discuss market information with each other on a secure platform.  Imagine your US headquarters being able to discuss product features directly with your manufacturing teams in Asia.

All of our data center innovations come from the great feedback that we receive from you.  Please keep your questions, comments, and suggestions coming to dcv3@gapintelligence.com.  We are excited to show you what is next.

The culture of our office is something that is truly unique.  Instead of simply having a boring standard holiday gathering to celebrate the end of the year we like to mix things up a bit.  This year we decided to try something completely different; we entered our company in the Ocean Beach Holiday Parade.  Our theme was simple, “Retro Christmas”.  The float was decorated in a 70’s Theme.  We all dressed up in retro themed costumes.  We handed out tons of loot to the families that lined the streets.  It was such a great way to get in the holiday spirit.  As the sun set over OB I couldn’t help but feel lucky to work with such a fun group of people.  We had the BEST time!  It was so much fun being a part of the parade.

After the parade was over we headed to Old Venice in Point Loma.  We had the entire back patio reserved for gap.  The patio was decorated with sparkly lights.  It was a beautiful night to take a moment to toast each other’s successes over the last year.  Our President, Gary Peterson, presented the highly coveted G.A.P. awards.  One of the exciting things this year was a change in the award name and design.  Our awards are now shiny gold statues called “gappys”.  They are similar to the Emmys…but cooler of course.  We all dined on delicious Italian fare and enjoyed tray passed cocktails.  We even had a “Step and Repeat” with our company logo.  We partied well into the evening.  Everyone had a wonderful time.

Among the many highlights of the night, the most exciting announcements included our 2011 office gifts.  Peterson announced the following three amazing gifts:

1)      Office beach cruisers so we can ride around Liberty Station on bikes in style

2)      A ping pong and air hockey table in our back conference room

3)      2012 Padres Baseball Season tickets

The three gifts bestowed to us are a part of what makes gap so special and the culture of gap is what makes working here so much fun.  These three gifts have the office buzzing with excitement!  Here’s why…

Our office is located along the water in San Diego.  I have now been enjoying what I like to call “Bike Breaks”.  It’s such a luxury to be able to take a short break during the day and feel the wind in my hair.  There is something about riding a bike that makes you feel like a kid again.   Yay bikes!

Our office has four large conference rooms.  One of the rooms never really saw much activity…until now.  The conference room table has been removed and replaced with a ping pong and air hockey table.  How sweet is that?  I can’t wait for the first tournament to begin.  The new “She’s in a meeting” will really mean that a ping pong game is going strong.  Yay ping pong!

San Diego’s Petco Park is the home of the Padres.  While I am a San Francisco Giants fan through and through I love going to Padres games because Petco Park is awesome.  I can’t wait for the 2012 season to begin!  Knowing that baseball tickets are going to be available for us the entire year is so exciting!  I can’t wait to soak up the sights and smells of the ballpark.  Yay Baseball!

In a nut shell…gap ROCKS!  We are so lucky to work at such a sweeeeeet company!