On Board-On The Ground

Breaking away a little from the tech side of the blog and onto the marketing. I just came across this company called Jumbohostel, who have taken a plane and turned it into a hostel.

The jumbo, which was built in 1976 was in serious need of repair after its company went bankrupt in 2002.

” I was getting ready to expand my hostel business in 2006 when I heard about an old wreck of an aircraft for sale at Arlanda. Since I had for a long time wanted to establish my business at Arlanda, I didn’t hesitate for a second when this opportunity struck”, Oscar Diös explains.

Oscar Diös previously owned and ran the hostel Uppsala Vandrarhem och Hotel.

In December 2007, Oscar received the permits to move his hotel to the entrance of the Arlanda airport, and in January 2008 the plane was moved to its construction site gutted, and the work began. The plane/hostel is expected to be ready by next summer.

I think that this is definitely going to be a major attraction to this noname place in Sweden. It should surely draw plenty of free press because it’s a great story that includes real innovation.

Here are some pictures of the concept design.

– Aryeh

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1523726&w=425&h=350&fv=]

more about “untitled“, posted with vodpod

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Second Thoughts- Hardware vs Software

I know I wrote before that the cellular industry is becoming a software-dominated market, but there are still some signs out there, that I might be wrong about that. Take HTC for example. I remember when, not so long ago, HTC was a no-name generic type of company. They were the type of company that made handsets somewhere in the Far East but pretty much no one heard of.

A lot has changed since those days. HTC started making such good hardware that they have become one of the, if not THE, most dominant players in the cellular world today. They are now making phones for giant corporations like Palm, Google, and Microsoft. So maybe hardware does still appeal to some, and the software trend we seem to be entering, will take some time to really take over the market.

Alternatively, maybe what people are really looking for, is a combination of the two. They want a beautiful piece of hardware that’s form factor makes it easy to operate, alongside a user friendly, easy-to-use interface, and a fast and responsive operating system. Oh yea, and let’s not forget this week’s buzz word, an app store.

-Hillel

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