52 posts tagged “apple”

McDonalds and Microsoft are Improving

4 days ago
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A new series of McDonalds commercials shows two hipsters discussing McDonalds' new espresso. When the word "McDonalds" is uttered, the hipsters recoil, and then one admits that they like McDonalds. Then the other admits it too, and they riff about how they're tired of being pretentious, and head off to the nearest McDonalds franchise.

I think these ads are fantastic because they're at least partially realistic. In the last decade we've been treated to the "Isn't it hilarious how fanatical our fans are?" ad countless times, but they're never for brands that anyone feels that strongly about. Brands that really do get people crazy like Apple and Harley-Davidson don't run ads like those. So instead it's some Sprite commercial where a guy builds a spaceship out of Sprite bottles because he wants to Obey His Thirst ... in space.

But the McDonalds ad doesn't pretend people are fanatical, or even neutral. They openly admit that McDonalds isn't cool, however briefly, before continuing with their pitch. And allowing this little ray of reality to intrude on what ends up being a pretty generic new product pitch makes all the difference. By making a tiny bit of fun of their bad PR, they look clued in. This is something McDonalds some trouble with, and these ads address it well.

Microsoft?

I am a big time Apple and Microsoft watcher, so Ballmer's quote about Apple a few weeks ago gave me pause. Rather than continuing with the approach that made Microsoft, often referred to as the "ecosystem" strategy, Ballmer openly announced that they're moving away from it. In favor of Apple's "own everything" strategy. Because the ecosystem strategy doesn't work for fantastic user experience.

This is huge. It's like America saying capitalism isn't working well, so they're going to try communism. It's amazing that they're going to pivot to an approach they have always looked down on, and it's doubly amazing that Microsoft, who is traditionally more arrogant than Apple, is admitting the need to change.

It's huge enough that I'm a little scared for Apple and AAPL. There are two reasons that Apple has been able to differentiate itself in the last decade: owning the hardware and the software, and Microsoft's apparent refusal to admit that their strategy needs improvement, allowing Apple to get away with murder without a real response from Redmond.

Now that Microsoft has admitted it has a problem, they might start achieving great things again. Apple should be worried.

RIM Looking for Cocoa Engineers

May 1, 2008
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RIM, maker of the Blackberry, is apparently hiring Cocoa engineers. And this is another reason why I don't like RIM.

Clearly they're not hiring these developers to write iPhone apps. With requested skills like "synchronization", they're obviously looking to fix a glaring hole in Blackberry support: Blackberries don't work on Macs.

So 5 years ago, when rumors of an Apple-branded phone started up, RIM didn't do anything.

2-3 years ago, when Apple pointedly say "it's not like we're sitting around doing nothing" in response to a question about an Apple branded phone, they did nothing.

1-2 years ago, when Apple's Mac marketshare started accelerating upwards, they did nothing.

18 months ago, when the iPhone was first rumored and then announced, they did nothing.

About a year ago, when the iPhone launched to rave reviews, they did nothing.

Six months ago, when it was obvious that the iPhone was in second place only to RIM, they did nothing.

And now that Apple is about to release 3rd party apps at WWDC in June, RIM has decided maybe they should do something.

I've never thought this company was particularly visionary, and their UI has always struck me as Windows 3.1-like. And I could be wrong about both of these things.

But there's little doubt they don't understand their competitive landscape. And all the understanding in the world won't keep them in first place longer than a year or two longer.

Anil Dash and Apple, Part Two

Apr 18, 2008
2 comments

I recently wrote that Vox isn't good with Safari or iPhone and that one of their head honchos doesn't like Apple. And I was wrong about everything.

I said Anil is the company's CTO, which I thought he was at one point, but I didn't bother to double-check. He's a Vice President (Chief Evangelist) for Six Apart.

I said Vox doesn't support the iPhone, which is an over-broad statement. Of cource Vox.com loads on the iPhone, I just wish there was an iPhone specific version available. But that's a wish, not a big failing on Vox's part. I know they have to prioritize, and adding an iPhone version may well be on that list somewhere. Also, I work in web software, I know better than to say "It don't work!" without actually explaining the issue.

So here's one: when I use Safari in the rich text editor and I start a new paragraph, Vox converts my two line breaks to three. That's my single complaint with Safari on Vox. It's not that big a deal, and I know Safari's often been the odd duck with rich editors that rely on advanced DOM scripting, so it's hardly unique to Vox. I just had my "Anil hates Apple" conspiracy theory all revved up, and didn't bother to, oh, file a bug or something.

As for Apple, Anil and I used to disagree on all sorts of stuff on Metafilter many years ago. One of the ongoing things we clashed on was that I'm a big time Apple fan and Anil (like many) stresses Apple is just a company, not a cult, nothing to be worshipped, and certainly not perfect. Sometimes that central point (which I agree with) sounded a little more like "Apple sucks, and so do you." (see also: owillis)

But Anil has a Mac now (and so does Oliver Willis), while still contending that Apple is just a company, and he's frustrated that any criticism of Apple causes such an uproar, as if you're not allowed to discuss Apple rationally. And I agree that the Apple crowd does get too persnickety about criticism.

So my post was wrong, wrong, wrong, and mean spirited. I apologize.

You Keep Telling Yourself That

Mar 7, 2008
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So Apple announced its plans for iPhone development, and to me its clear that they are about to storm the market with almost no resistance from its competitors. No one else controls both the hardware and software, so no one else can offer as seamless an experience. There's a reason Microsoft's Zune isn't generic hardware with Microsoft software - in this new world, you need to control the software if you want your hardware to compete.

I've been reading reaction to what I consider to be unequivocally good news for Apple and its customers, and most people agree: this is big. But the beauty of the internet is that I can easily find people who don't just disagree, they disagree in hilarious and stupid ways.

"Apple fans like to be reemed [sic] over and over again"

Ok, so Apple has expanded its user base dramatically over the last decade, not only with Macs but with iPods and now the iPhone, and it's because they're finding people that love being taken for a ride. So if this theory is right, they'll stop growing once they find people that love to be abused.

"It's their incessant advertising"

Apple has always loved advertising, and is only recently starting to regain marketshare. In fact, the "switcher" ads from a few years back didn't seem to do much to stop Apple's slumping market share, and those ads were on constantly. So if this theory is right, Apple could stop advertising now and they'd disappear, since they're all sizzle and no steak.

"Apple is worse than Microsoft"

I'm hearing this a lot from Microsoft people over the last few years. And I see where they're coming from. They think Microsoft did well and got punished, and now Apple is doing well and should be punished too. And taken through such a simple lens, I guess that makes sense. But I've read up on Microsoft's DOJ case quite a bit. There are some details about Microsoft's actions in the 90's that go beyond the common sob story of "we were punished for innovating!"

And while those details take a while to explain, here's one that doesn't: Microsoft was found guilty of being a predatory monopoly. When you are a monopoly in a vital sector, you are held to different standards. Period. Apple, with its 70% iPod marketshare, and 28% US smartphone marketshare, isn't even close. I don't think they ever will wield the kind of overwhelming dominance over computing the Microsoft once did.

But will they make lots of money? Yes. And are they going to crush Microsoft in the next wave of computing? I think they will. But don't expect a DOJ case about it.

"People only like Apple because of their design"

Yep, that's a lot of it. When Windows was "good enough", people went to Windows instead of the Mac. But Apple is once again much better at software design, and it shows in their rising marketshare.

But would people buy iPhones and iPods in these numbers if they ran Windows Mobile? Don't count on it.

"Wah wah wah wah wah."

Get used to it.

Apple HDTV is Coming

Jan 13, 2008
3 comments

I talked this up last year and now I'm going to bring it up again.

Apple has everything it needs to make a television. And they should. And I think they will.

They're Good at Displays

Apple has made displays for a long time, and they're considered to be high quality.

They Already Have the Technology

An Apple television would basically be an Apple TV (the small $300 device they currently sell) in a television set form factor. They have the hardware, they have the software.

It's Not Just a Hobby

Don't believe Jobs when he says this is a hobby. The tell was when he explained himself by pointing out that "no one has figured this out yet". He always keeps expectations low with this kind of talk before moving into a market. He said it about color iPods, playing video on iPods, PDAs (this never launched but it was worked on), the iPhone, and the idea of stripping OS X down to fit on an iPod.

This Gets Them in the Living Room

Apple wants to be in your living room, and they want it bad. They already sell the $300 Apple TV, and will continue to for all the people that like their current television sets. But by making a full sized HDTV, they have a TV set that automatically gets on the internet, downloads subscription movies, television shows, and music, and syncs everything up with your iPod and iPhone via iTunes.

They're going to do it. It's just a matter of getting the Hollywood deals lined up, then getting the subscription service set up. Their biggest competition, laughably, will be the XBox 360. So when my mom asks me how to rent movies online with her TV set, I can tell her to get a gaming system with media playback tacked on, or I can tell her to get Apple HDTV.

For the vast mainstream of people that don't want to download movies through a game system, the choice will be clear.

So Great It's Like Magic

Jan 12, 2008
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Do you know about Migration Assistant? If you have an old Mac and you buy a new one, you can hook a cable between the two machines and all your settings, apps, documents, music, etc are sent onto the new computer in a perfect copy. It's really quite wonderful.

And it's not only for new Macs, as I recently learned.

Recently Sarah and I decided to trade computers so I could work more effectively. (her computer is newer, can run windows, and has a microphone, which I will need in my new job) And think about that for a second - what if someone wanted to trade computers with you? What would you do?

Most people would do their best to back up their data, then wipe both machines and bring the data back on. Which takes a long time, and I personally always forget something, like unix command line utilities.

But with Migration Assistant, I could just hook the two machines up, wait several hours for each transfer of files, then reboot and presto. Sarah's desktop looked exactly the same on my old computer, and mine looked exactly the same on Sarah's old computer.

Like magic.

"Something Is In the Air"

Jan 12, 2008
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Macworld is in a few days, and there are already banners at the convention center that say "Something Is In the Air".

And the odds are on an ultra-light Macbook, called the Macbook Air. I imagine it'll be the consumer-level Macbook but smaller and lighter, and therefore more expensive. Which is cool, I can't wait to see it.

But I want the "air" reference to be about something else entirely. I want Apple to embrace media "in the cloud". The rumors are already running rampant that they will finally offer movie rentals through iTunes for $4. Which is a fantastic idea; rather than having to drive to the store or wait at the mailbox, you can get immediate satisfaction via iTunes.

But I want more. I want to be able to subscribe to music in the iTunes store for a monthly fee. Say someone tells you about some hot new CD. Today your options are to buy it, steal it, or not bother listening to it. Buying it is a pain if the album sucks. Stealing it is illegal and difficult unless you know what you're doing. So most people just don't bother following up on recommendations.

With subscription music, the friction is essentially eliminated. You go to iTunes, find the album, and download it without paying anything new. Now your iPod has the album and you can listen to it at your heart's content. I use Rhapsody and it's truly a killer app. The only thing that's missing is iPod support. And Mac support.

So the new laptop will be awesome. 10 hours of battery life? Booting in less than a minute? Less than 30 seconds? Super light? Sign me up.

But I really want "air" to mean "the internet cloud", as in "download any tv show, any movie, and any song you want from the internet for one fixed price." I even wrote Steve Jobs an email pointing him in that direction, in the unlikely event he hasn't already considered it.

Don't Eat Your iPhone

Nov 10, 2007
3 comments

I just watched some CNN video discussing whether or not the iPod headphones and iPhones are toxic.

It was interesting seeing how the information got layered in.

First, we were told there was some troubling news for Apple that says that iPod headphones and iPhones themselves may be toxic. Then we learn that it's the iPod cords, not the earbuds themselves.

Then we learn that the materials in these products have been banned in California, especially in toys. And Apple has been sued.

Then we're told that Greenpeace opened an iPhone looking for toxic chemicals and found them. .1% is considered the upper level of acceptability and iPhones have 1.5%.

Things aren't looking good for Apple at this point. But then:

We're told that it's hard to quantify how much of a risk these things really are. The testing has only been on animals up until this point. Studies are inconclusive regarding human contact.

And then we learn that to release the bad chemicals, you need to heat or scrub your iPod cables. The anchor even asks "would you have to heat your iPhone to get this type of poison in?"

And then the resident expert says "It's a good question. We don't know. These studies have been done on rodents."

He goes on to say how little we really know about this stuff, and that Apple is going to be completely removing one of the two bad chemicals in their phones by 2008.

And then, at the very end of the segment, the anchor clarifies something.

"But just to point out, in this study, the rodents were actually fed the chemicals, right?"

It turns out that is correct. And it's unclear if skin contact or breathing it in is harmful at all, even to rodents.

The anchor seems to understand how silly this segment is, and starts to close it down. "So the immediate takeaway from this is 'don't eat your iPhone or earbuds.'"

Despite the fact that the expert just admitted that breathing in or skin contact hasn't shown ill effects, the expert adds helpfully "Or breathe it in!"

Wow.

iTunes Radio on the phone

Nov 5, 2007
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So something called iTunes Radio is coming. From least exciting to most exciting:

1. It could be a way to play streaming radio stations to your iPhone. If you're on wifi.

2. A way to use "back to my mac" to stream your home computer's music to you no matter where you are. If you're on wifi.

3. A music subscription service. Unlimited music for $20/month. If you're on wifi.

The gPhone

Nov 1, 2007
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I find it interesting that so many people think the gPhone from Google is going to compete with the iPhone. Even if Google wanted to take Apple on, UI-wise, they would fail. It's that simple.

But they don't want to. Apple and Google have a close working relationship, and they're not interested in harming each other; they want to make great products that consumers love. And harm Microsoft.

The gPhone's special sauce will be how inexpensive it is, and how open. And there are going to be some amazing things happening on the server side, such as owning the 700 mhtz spectrum, to be able to provide WiFi access to anyone anywhere in America.

But compete with the iPhone in the high-end market? Not going to happen. Even if they wanted to make a better UI than Apple, that's simply not in their bag of tricks as a company.

If Google sets up a cool network, the iPhone will be able to play on it one day. That's the big story here.