Posts tagged Apple

Building and dismantling the Windows advantage

Asymco:

Considering the near future, it’s safe to expect a “parity” of iOS+OS X vs. Windows within one or two years. The install base may remain larger for some time longer but the sales rate of alternatives will swamp it in due course.

The consequences are dire for Microsoft. The wiping out of any platform advantage around Windows will render it vulnerable to direct competition. This is not something it had to worry about before. Windows will have to compete not only for users, but for developer talent, investment by enterprises and the implicit goodwill it has had for more than a decade.

This is pretty staggering. And everyone thought Windows had won.

It looks like a smaller iPad is definitely on the way

Good piece by MG Siegler on the growing speculation about a smaller iPad.

No doubt some will say that Apple is responding to the Google Nexus, but Apple will have had this in the pipeline for a long time.

I’ve long been sceptical of Apple’s need to enter the smaller tablet market but when you look back at the iPod, Apple has history of releasing an initial device and then creating new variations to reach different audiences.

For me, the current size is just perfect. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want the smaller device. But there’s no doubt that there’s many who would. And Apple is unlikely to ignore them when there’s money to be made!

Samsung Galaxy S III: With great flexibility comes great complexity

David Pogue, New York Times:

Of course, with great flexibility comes great complexity. The phone bombards you with warnings and disclaimers — sometimes upside-down. You really need a Learning Annex course to master this thing.

The review is largely positive, but this caveat serves to highlight a major difference in approach between Samsung/Android and Apple.

Apple takes on Google in struggle for world domination

Dan Gillmore:

The iPhone 5, likely to be introduced in the third quarter of this year, won’t be significantly better hardware than the best Android devices, if it’s better at all, but it will be sold by a company that doesn’t abandon its customers the minute they spend their money.

Telling observation.

"Humanizing technology"

DiogeneX:

For those of you who watched the Keynote, you will no doubt have seen the “Thank You” video. I believe this is what makes Apple’s approach to the (mobile) computing space so very different from many of its peers. Where some of its competitors market arena robot death matches, Apple shows how its technology is helping to open the world to the blind, to the impoverished, or to those for whom even basic communication is a struggle. You get the impression that someone there gives a damn about the people using their products.

Humanizing technology is not the only marketing tactic. But it resonates, especially when it’s authentic and not a slogan.

Really good observation about one way Apple differentiates from its competitors that is rarely picked up on.

I wonder where Samsung got their design inspiration for this from

Do they have zero self-respect? They certainly don’t have my respect. This is a shocking level of design ripoff from Apple. I’d be embarrassed if I was the maker of this product.

Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Pixar’s Ed Catmull on Their Friend, Steve Jobs (Video)

Good interview by Walt Mossberg at the D10 conference with Larry Ellison and Ed Catmull—both friends of Steve Jobs—where they talk about Steve, his accomplishments, what made him successful, and why no one can ever be quite like him.

Highlights of interview with Tim Cook

This is a great highlights video of a 75 minute interview at D10 conference with new Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Apple working on an iPen

Cult of Mac:

The site Patently Apple Wednesday posted a detailed analysis of a new Apple patent application for an iPen, a vibrating pen that makes noise.

The application describes a haptic stylus containing a tiny speaker, which is designed to be used on touch screens.

Interesting. And the article makes some interesting observations about how Apple may use it.

How Tim Cook is changing Apple

Adam Lashinsky, Fortune:

A 14-year veteran of the company, Cook is maintaining, by words and actions, most of Apple’s unique corporate culture. But shifts of behavior and tone are absolutely apparent; some of them affect the core of Apple’s critical product-development process. In general, Apple has become slightly more open and considerably more corporate. In some cases Cook is taking action that Apple sorely needed and employees badly wanted. It’s almost as if he is working his way through a to-do list of long-overdue repairs the previous occupant (Jobs) refused to address for no reason other than obstinacy.

Very insightful piece exploring how Tim Cook is changing things at Apple since becoming CEO.

Apple's move away from Google Maps is high risk

John Gruber, Daring Fireball:

This is a high-pressure switch for Apple. Regressions will not be acceptable. The purported whiz-bang 3D view stuff might be great, but users are going to have pitchforks and torches in hand if practical stuff like driving and walking directions are less accurate than they were with Google’s data. Keep in mind too, that Android phones ship with turn-by-turn navigation.

Astute observation from Gruber about the implications for Apple of their moving away from Google to their own mapping service. At the very least they have to match what Google already offers which is no easy task. And, ideally, they need to push ahead in such a way that leaves Google behind. Big, bold move by Apple.

Apple to ditch Google Maps

Mark Gurman, 9to5Mac:

Apple will drop the Google Maps program running on iOS since 2007 in favor for a new Maps app with an Apple backend. The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience.

It’s been no secret that Apple have wanted to break any reliance on Google for any core services. It’s also been no secret that Apple have been working on their own mapping service for quite some time. So, whilst this comes as no real surprise, it is still a pretty significant step.

If the above report is correct, the transition away from Google Maps will happen with the next version of iOS due out later this year.

How Apple will become a mobile carrier

Whitey Bluestein, GigaOM:

Apple will provide wireless service directly to its iPad and iPhone customers. First, Apple will sell data packages bundled with iPads. Then it will sell data and international roaming plans to iPhone customers through the iTunes Store. And in time — sooner than many think — Apple will strike wholesale deals with several mobile operators so that Apple can provide wireless service directly to its customers, as Apple Mobile.

Interesting prediction. And certainly not too much of a stretch to imagine this happening.

Apple’s response on its tax practices (and how Tim Cook handles things differently to Steve Jobs)

Over the weekend The New York Times published a piece entitled ‘How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes’. Apple then chose to publicly respond with a statement that I’ve linked to in full above. Here’s the first section though:

Over the past several years, we have created an incredible number of jobs in the United States. The vast majority of our global work force remains in the U.S., with more than 47,000 full-time employees in all 50 states. By focusing on innovation, we’ve created entirely new products and industries, and more than 500,000 jobs for U.S. workers — from the people who create components for our products to the people who deliver them to our customers. Apple’s international growth is creating jobs domestically since we oversee most of our operations from California. We manufacture parts in the U.S. and export them around the world, and U.S. developers create apps that we sell in over 100 countries. As a result, Apple has been among the top creators of American jobs in the past few years.

What is interesting to me as an observer of Apple is not so much Apple’s tax practices, but their decision to speak up and respond at all seems like a real shift in how Apple handles situations like this. If Steve Jobs was still at the helm, you can be sure that Apple would have said nothing at all. Steve wouldn’t have felt the need to respond. Since Tim Cook has become CEO we’re seeing Apple respond much more frequently to these kind of situations. There’s no doubt that, despite being fully bought into the Apple culture that Steve created, Tim is very much his own man and adding his own stamp on things.