Nanny on the air from UAE to anywhere around the glob

Etihad Airways Introduces the Flying Nanny

So you want to take a trip but can't bear the hassle of travelling with kids, or even if you can, you still find yourself running out of ideas for stuff to keep them occupied? Etihad Airways, fresh from bumping me up to business class at the last minute on my recent trip to Edinburgh (sweet-as!), has introduced something that seems 1950s-style quaint and smack-me-in-the-face obvious at the same time: The Flying Nanny.

The company has so far trained 300 of its staffers to fill this role, with plans to have a total of 500 flying  routes by the end of the year. They will be distinguished from other in-flight crew by their orange aprons, and are being deployed to assist unaccompanied minors, families with children at the gate, help with bassinet adjustments and just generally "keep children entertained while you're enjoying a nap, in-flight meal or entertainment".

So, basically parents can fly and not have the entire time they are in the air be a giant ordeal? I think this is a genius business move on Etihad's part! But I do see some grey areas and potential conundrums. For example, at what point does a child become "too much" (hey pipsqueak, the two-hour screamer on my return flight from Scotland, I'm talking to you) and is handed back to the parent? What if, um, the parent doesn't like that? And where does this entertaining happen? Not sure if you've noticed, but there isn't much room up there. Also, what will the actual nannies do? You know, the ones that travel from A to B and take care of the kids when they aren't on the plane.

The press release yields some specifics, which indicates that rather than caring for children, the Flying Nanny will basically be giving them cool stuff to do that doesn't involve watching television. And their skills are deep! In addition to simple arts and crafts, creating sock puppets and teaching simple magic tricks, "the Flying Nanny will also frequently use service items such as paper cups which can be made into hats and the Japanese art of origami to fold paper into sculptures".

All in all, I can't really wait to see this in action, although I can't promise I am going to like the sound of an excitable group of six-year-olds attempting to out-oragami each other at 35,000 feet. And I'm pretty sure I am going to wish I was making a sock puppet too.

I phone 5c it is cheap outside and inside

On Sept. 10, Apple is expected to announce a new iPhone and a (rumored, but essentially confirmed) “cheap” iPhone 5C. The price of the forthcoming “iPhone 5C” will determine its success in both the US and China, and will tell us a great deal about which market Apple is prioritizing, says mobile analyst Benedict Evans.

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It’s widely perceived that the 5C is Apple’s attempt to hold onto existing market share in the face of an onslaught of cheap Android phones, and also to grow market share in more price-sensitive emerging markets. The tradeoff for consumers is a less capable phone, but given the dearth of compelling features in newer phones, for many people it might not matter.

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The older iPhone 4, sold at a discount, is already popular in emerging markets, which is probably all the evidence Apple needs that there is demand for a cheaper iPhone. The price of that phone will, however, determine a great deal, says Evans:

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What price would Apple choose for a genuinely cheaper phone? There are four brackets worth looking at:

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$100-$150 – this is where budget Chinese manufacturers are starting to deliver usable dual-core 3G Android phones

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$150-$200 – the upper end of what is possible to sell to the unsubsidised prepay market – which is half the planet

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$200-$400 – almost certainly out of reach without subsidies but a solid mid-range smartphone price range

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Over $400 – similar price to the existing discounted two-year-old model, but with more up-to-date technology, possibly higher margins and probably an easier marketing sell than the ‘old’ phone

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Evans’s ultimate conclusion is that the new “cheaper” iPhone will be priced somewhere between $300 and $450, which isn’t much less than the $450 Apple currently charges for the iPhone 4. But each end of that price spectrum represents a compromise: Too low, and Apple sacrifices profits in the US market, where phones subsidized by cell carriers make prices below $400 look the same to people as phones that are right at $400. And if the price is too high, it represents Apple sacrificing potential market share in China, where phones are bought separately from mobile plans, and every yuan counts.