Pull the plug?

Reader question:

Please explain “pull the plug”, as in this headline: Utah Pulls The Plug On The Four-Day Workweek (AOL.com, September 15, 2011).

My comments:

A four-day workweek? What a good idea.

Upon checking the story, I found that the American state of Utah had a plan “for state workers to clock in 10 hours a day, Monday through Thursday, to improve efficiency, reduce overhead costs and conserve energy.”

Apparently this is one of the measures to have been taken to help combat state-wide recession. However, upon close examination, lawmakers failed to “note any savings” in the program. Therefore, they have voted to end the program.

In other words, to “pull the plug” on it.

A four-day week is not such a good idea after all.

Anyways, “pull the plug” should be all of our concern here. Plug, you see, is the thing used for connecting a piece of electrical equipment to the main supply of electricity, a two-pin plug, for instance. Or a three-pin plug for the refrigerator or the computer. Hence, to connect, you plug in. To disconnect, you plug out, or unplug or you simply “pull the plug”.

Hence, figuratively speaking, to pull the plug on something is to deactivate it, to end it, to close it, to discontinue the activity. Especially useful in business, to pull the plug on a plan or business is to prevent it from being able to continue, especially by deciding not to give it any more money.

You get the idea. To further hammer home the point, though, examine these media examples:

1. Yahoo is saying goodbye to its web-based Yahoo Messenger client, dubbed Web Messenger. The tool enabled users to log in and chat with their friends without downloading the desktop version.

It was a useful tool, and rather powerful, but it has now been made obsolete by the built-in Yahoo Messenger client in Yahoo Mail. As such, Yahoo is shutting down the Web Messenger site next month.

“The decision to ‘end-of-life’ a product is never an easy one — especially when a product has been well-received by customers and members of the original team that created it still remember all the blood, sweat and tears that went into it,” Yahoo wrote.

“But, there comes a time when certain products reach the natural end of their ‘life’ and in the case of Yahoo! Web Messenger, we will be discontinuing support for it after November 1, 2011,” it said.

The reasons for shutting down Web Messenger are not exactly surprising. Web Messenger came about to fill a real need, many users didn't want to install the desktop client or, more likely, weren’t able to.

If you’re on a shared computer, or borrowing from friend, you won’t want to install the desktop app, but visiting the website is easy.

However, Yahoo Messenger is integrated in the latest version of Yahoo Mail, introduced earlier this year and rolling out to all users now.

So users will have a choice, in some cases a better one, when the plug is pulled on Web Messenger.

- Yahoo Pulls the Plug on Web Messenger, News.Softpedia.com, October 1, 2011,

2. HP pulled the plug Thursday on its TouchPad tablet device, which was launched June 1, and plans to discontinue its WebOS-based smartphones.

“Our TouchPad has not been gaining enough traction in the marketplace,” said HP CEO Leo Apotheker in a conference call. “We have made the difficult but necessary decision to shut down the WebOS hardware operations.”

Among other factors, he blamed “significant competition” for the abrupt shutdown plans.

The move marks a reversal of strategy for the world’s largest computer maker. HP paid $1.2 billion in April 2010 to acquire Palm, developer of the WebOS software that powers its smartphones and tablets, in a bid to stand out in the mobile market.

TouchPad’s untimely demise “has as much to do with the commoditization of the PC business as it does with Apple,” says Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps.

Retail presence in particular has been a problem for HP’s TouchPad, she says. Selling at Best Buy and other big-box retailers, where many similar products sit side by side, makes it hard for PC makers to stand out. That runs in stark contrast to Apple’s slick retail presence, where iPads and iPhones get prominent display and unrivaled service, she points out.

HP’s TouchPad also didn’t have the apps presence or a store, comparable to iTunes, that is necessary to drive consumer interest. At launch, HP boasted some 300 apps would be available for the TouchPad, compared with the roughly 90,000 that were available to Apple’s iPad.

- HP TouchPad is a casualty of iPad’s popularity, USAToday.com, August 19, 2011.

3. More than 1,000 jobs are under threat after retailer Carphone Warehouse announced it was pulling the plug on its Best Buy stores in the UK.

The company has launched a consultation about closing the 11 shops as it shifts its focus to selling more electronics goods through its Carphone Warehouse outlets.

Carphone hopes to find the “large majority” of the 1,100 staff roles elsewhere within the organisation.

Best Buy UK operates the so-called “big box” stores across the south east and Midlands, which were launched to great fanfare in 2009, and were intended to shake up the electronics market with cheaper prices and better customer service.

But consumer electronics has been one of the hardest-hit sectors during the downturn as the squeeze on household incomes has seen shoppers turn their backs on perceived luxury items.

The company said the market had suffered as a result of the economic downturn, online competition and the growth of new products, such as smartphones and tablet computers.

- Jobs at risk as Carphone Warehouse withdraws from Best Buy stores, Guardian.co.uk, November 7, 2011.

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.