iPhone mail client - not up to mark

I have been playing with the iPhone's email client for a while, and found it to have a number of issues. Few I can list below:

1) Can not easily mark an email or a list of emails as "read", a feature that is so common in traditional desktop based mail clients. The only way to mark an email "read" is to actually read it, which can take a while for larger mails as they need to be downloaded in full first.

2) Email notification is not instantaneous. The minimum time one can set for auto-retrieval is 15 minutes; albeit, it can be downloaded manually any time.

3) Email and Phone do not work together in EDGE network. It works fine in Wi-Fi, but who has free Wi-Fi besides home and few other places. I think this is a shortcoming in all the major hand-hand held devices.

4) Erratic email notification - This is the most notorious of all; I am still struggling to find out how it works. Needless to say the 10 pager pocket guide that comes with iPhone doesn't have all the information to dive deeper into the gadget. It appears that the notification is made (sound or vibration) only when count of unread messages increases.

Let’s say iPhone is setup to store 50 messages on phone, and it so happens that 20 of them are unread, with the last one being unread also (50th mail). When a new mail arrives, iPhone pops out the last (50th) mail to make room for the new one. At the end of it, it still has 50 mails with 20 unread, as the decrease in unread count by the popped-out mail was just balanced by the new upcoming. And hence, no notification. If this is what it is, then it isn't that intuitive.

5) Can't create/reply/forward emails in rich text. For example if you receive an email in rich text, and reply to it, it may or may not preserve the rich text from the previous mail, but it will definitely not allow changing of fonts, etc. in any new text that you type.


However, I must admit that the rich html view of mails and finger-scroll is quite slick, and worth the money. Needless to stay iPhone is one of a kind and I am thoroughly enjoying it

Wal-Mart loosing steam

I have been following stories related to Wal-Mart for last 5-6 years. I couldn't resist my temptation to blog when Wall Street Journal wrote about Wal-Mart loosing steam in the article "Wal-Mart Era Wanes Amid Big Shifts in Retail". The retail sector in general had been lagging behind for last few quarters, mainly due to meltdown of sub-prime mortgage, credit crunch and rise in unemployment. Little did I know that company is also struggling with other macro issues as change in consumer's taste and competition from other discount retailers. It almost appeared that the company had perfected it's game-plan, after all in just over 30 years it became the world's largest company with a humble beginning in rural Arkansas.

Wal-Mart competitor's are offering convenience, quality, larger selection and better service. Most of all, consumers are now preferring quality over price. They want new things to show up on shelves; this is something that's not very easy for Wal-Mart to achieve given it's humongous size. Perhaps, Wal-Mart's Supply Chain is not geared for such rapid change in product offerings. Target, which has just-about one-fourth Market Cap as compared with Wal-Mart, offers better products, cleaner stores, and best of all almost at the same price.

These days consumers also demand quality along with better pricing, and in many cases they are willing to pay an extra for better service. For instance, take the case of Apple stores. Apple stores are widely successful, mainly due to "friendly hospitality" and the "cool-factor" at the store; none of which are seen at Wal-Mart stores.

We have to see how Wal-Mart reacts to the new dynamics of the retail-place and maintains its position.