When it comes to the vast majority of businesses, the strategy is onward and upward. The customer is always starving for the next big thing and you may feel compelled to continually innovate to keep up with these demands.

That makes sense, but how do you go about handling customers who are still using your older products? At what point do you stop providing support for them so that you can divert a greater proportion of your resources toward supporting the new products?

Nowhere is this concern more prevalent than in the world of technology. I had the unfortunate experience of trying to get my (older) inkjet printer to work in a Windows 7 environment. The most recent drivers for the product, oddly enough, came from way back in 2002 and only supported up to Windows XP.

I managed to find a workaround, thanks to some help from online forums, but this was not the case when it come to an older flatbed scanner. No support. No workaround. Utter frustration on my part, since the scanner was still perfectly functional and would have perfectly suited my needs.

But perhaps that was the point. The manufacturer is giving me that extra nudge to buy their newest product rather than trying to figure out how to use the old one. After all, they’re only making money on the new purchases. What’s your take? What’s your opinion on legacy product support?

The Apple iPad has certainly taken the world by storm and this has opened up a huge market for iPad accessories. However, it seems that many of them cannot fulfill all of your needs. You have to buy separate accessories to achieve separate goals. Such is not the case (no pun intended) with the iPad Bluetooth Keyboard Case.

As its highly descriptive name will lead you to believe, this product effectively combines a protective iPad case with a Bluetooth keyboard. This way, you can keep your preferred Apple tablet device well protected on the go, while also gaining access to a true QWERTY keyboard for when you need to get in some serious typing. The iPad will never truly replace your laptop, but this will make it a suitable replacement for your netbook.

The iPad case is made from an attractive black synthetic leather and it features a magnetic flap for ease of access. You set it all up in just three steps and the fully integrated Bluetooth keyboard comes with iPad-specific buttons like Home, Volume, iPod controls, and search. The lithium ion battery, which can be recharged using the provided USB cable, can provide up to 90 hours of continuous use.

You can find the iPad Bluetooth Keyboard Case at ThinkGeek for $59.99, which is likely cheaper than buying a case and a Bluetooth keyboard separately.

Many different kinds of people choose to host their websites with BlueFur. Many of these people happen to be among the most creative on the planet and Black Box Fire is one such example.

Black Box Fire is “an amateur local theatre company based in Hamilton, Ontario, looking to do theatre that is unique and thought-provoking.” The independent company was founded in 2006 by five McMaster graduates, having since worked on The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Crazy and a Half, and The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge.

In terms of current productions, Black Box Fire recently performed The Metamorphosis, based on the novel by Franz Kafka. Its run just drew to a close, but keep your eyes peeled to their site for more updates on other endeavors. You can also contact them for further details.

Do you use BlueFur to host your websites? Let us know and we can feature you in a future blog post. Send an email message to blogfeature@bluefur.com with your name, website URL, and a brief description of what you’d like to see highlighted.

While there are certainly people out there who prefer their themes to be loaded up with as many animations, widgets, and customizations as possible, others would rather than a clean and simple layout for their websites.

Perhaps suitable to certain company blogs, the recently released Modern Blue Style offers a modern and simple style layout. You won’t find much in terms of bells and whistles, but the simplified layout is certainly easy on the eyes. If you run a water purification company, for example, a “pure” theme like this may be appropraite.

The menu is located in the left sidebar, while much of the main navigation can be found just below the header image. There is also a space already in place for taking on your website name and tagline. The blue and white color scheme is universally appealing too.

The live preview and free download link can be found at WordPress.org. The author’s page is located at webm.pl.

We search for some of the best blog posts of the preceding week every Friday and here is the collection we have amassed for today. Enjoy!

Jeremy Lim has decided to start out on a new project that he calls Espresso Shots. These showcase people that he meets over coffee. The first in the series is Katie Jeanes, founder of A Little More Good, “an organization dedicated to supporting benevolent initiatives.”

Mark Nichol approaches a subject that will likely be of interest to all fiction writers in the audience: what is the rule behind using trademark names in your work? Can you refer to the Subway restaurant or should you just call it the “sub shop” instead?

Rebecca Bollwitt has outlined the many events being planned for the Vancouver 2010 anniversary. Hard to believe that it’s already been a year since the world congregated in Vancouver for the Winter Olympic Games, don’t you think?

Raul Pacheco is known to be a very busy man, but is learning how to best manage his time. One thing he has learned is that you are not multitasking; you are cross-tasking (and it’s wrong). You’re much better off focusing on one task at a time than flip-flopping between multiple.

Tanya Desrosiers has set out on a mission. You might have read her post earlier this year about tipping the scales at over 200 pounds, so now she’s following up with a progress report. She’s managed to lose ten pounds already, which is a great start! Keep it up, Tanya.

In the Afterword section of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, he brings up the interesting case of Lexus while it was trying to break into the North American luxury car market. Lexus was set to be the first “real” Japanese luxury automobile in the United States.

Lexus, which is owned and run by Toyota, was trying to market itself as a premium product with premium craftsmanship and reliability. Unfortunately, within the first year of production, it was faced with a recall on its flagship model. Rather than take the usual route of issuing a press release and mailing the individual owners, Lexus went several steps further.

It recognizes that this relatively small recall could turn into a PR nightmare, marring the brand’s image for years to come. So, it reached out to the individual owners via telephone with personalized calls. It went the extra mile in ensuring that all the owners were treated with exceptional service, including having the car washed and the gas tank filled (free of charge) when the automobile was brought in for the service. They even flew a technician to Alaska to service a single vehicle.

Why would they do this? Because the early adopters of the Lexus brand are “mavens.” These are the car experts willing to stand on the cutting edge and these are the people who would in turn tell their friends about the great (or horrible) experience they had with owning a Lexus. Coloring their opinions with this outstanding customer service really helped to elevate Lexus to a whole new level and the marque continues to thrive to this day as a result.

In your own business, you need to take the time to find and recognize the “mavens.” By focusing more of your energies on these highly influential people, rather than having blanket statements sent out to everyone, you can have a much larger impact on your brand, your company, and your profitability.