Their success will be short lived.

The Chrysler 300M, Ford Mustang, and the Hummer are all hot cars now. But if your success comes from gimmickry and nostalgia it will not last long. Look at the Ford Thunderbird or the Chevrolet SSR. You are going to have to roll out a new novelty each season and have your cars be discarded like out of fashion clothes. The only sustainable advantage will be better designs for everyday use, not cereal box prizes.

Beeping must be stopped!

An impassioned plea to product designers everywhere: Stop beeping! There has never been a situation in memory when something beeped, and I was happy that it did so. My coworker was awakened in the middle of the night by a beeping cell phone. It's battery was running out. So what! I'll take care of it in the morning.

My Honda beeps when I try to open the door and it is locked. I can figure that out. I am going to disconnnect the whining piezo when I find it. My neighbor's car honks its horn when it is started remotely. It wakes me up. My smoke detectors beep once every two minutes when their batteries run out. I can't tell which one is beeping.

The beeping for trucks and equipment backing up must be revisited. More people have died from auto accidents due to loss of sleep from this beeping than have been saved by not getting run over by a backing truck.

How about these design principles: if you must beep, allow me to turn it off. Allow me to turn it on, for accessibility reasons, if the beeping is meaningful.

The measure of a successful product.

The iPod is so successful that kids in Brooklyn are killing other kids for one. Steve Jobs called the father of the boy who was killed. What a strange situation to be in. Your product is worth more than a human life (at least to those who place little value on a human life).

Employee Pricing - Good Job GM

In case you're thinking that I only attack General Motors: So GM has given it's employee pricing to everyone. Bold, brilliant and revolutionary! Is it a mystery why it is appealing to have straightforward, transparent and fair pricing instead of haggling with a salesperson and their imaginary manager? It works for every other product! (Except real estate).

Everyone is worried how they are going to stop the program. They can never stop the program. The program is an adjustment of prices to the actual value of the product in the marketplace. And everyone else who has artificially inflated and unsustainable MSRPs is going to have follow suit (Ford).

For the employees, yet another benefit that is lost.