Friday, October 15, 2010

That Thing Between The PC And The Smartphone

iPad with on display keyboardImage via WikipediaSteve Jobs, when he unveiled the iPad, claimed that the iPad was that thing between the PC and the smartphone. He famously called the PC the truck and the iPad the car. I disagreed. I did not think, I don't think the iPad is that thing between the PC and the smartphone. It is one of the things in that space, but the definitive device between the PC and the smartphone has not arrived yet. Whatever it is, it will try to render both the PC and the smartphone unnecessary.
Apple Insider: Apple component allocations point to new form factor sub-notebook: Activity within Apple's supply chain throughout the better part of 2010 has shown signs that the Mac maker is gearing up to introduce a new notebook that doesn't fit into any of its existing hardware designs ...... d a new MacBook Air .... "true" multi-touch Macs.
Something that is not as small as the smartphone, but approaches it in weight would be nice. The screen has to be decent size. You should be able to make and receive calls. There has to be the webcam option. Could you fit a camera into it?

But then major advances in the software behind the keyboard have made the tablet more appealing. If you can type away on the tablet like on a netbook, I mean.

And in the mean time Apple's shares keep getting pricier. Steve Jobs is on a roll.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Texting Teens

Texting on a keyboard phoneImage via Wikipedia
Nielsen Wire: U.S. Teen Mobile Report: Calling Yesterday, Texting Today, Using Apps Tomorrow: No one texts more than teens (age 13-17), especially teen females, who send and receive an average of 4,050 texts per month. ..... Texting is currently the centerpiece of mobile teen behavior. 43 percent claim it is their primary reason for getting a cellphone, which explains why QWERTY input is the first thing they look for choosing their devices. ..... All of this texting activity has come at the expense of voice. .... popular apps such as Facebook, Pandora or YouTube.

The teens of today are the adults of tomorrow. Teens are trend setters. The shift from texting to apps is early stage but is pretty telling.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Sculley: Scum

Steve Jobs for Fortune magazineImage by tsevis via Flickr
Cult Of Mac: John Sculley: The Secrets of Steve Jobs’ Success [Exclusive Interview]: In 1983, Steve Jobs wooed Pepsi executive John Sculley to Apple with one of the most famous lines in business: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?” ...... Sculley is best known today for forcing Jobs’ resignation after a boardroom battle for control of the company. ...... “It’s impressive how he still sticks to his same first principles years later.” ..... “I don’t see any change in Steve’s first principles — except he’s gotten better and better at it.” ..... “I don’t have any contact with Steve these days,” Sculley said in one of our initial emails setting up the meeting. “He’s still mad he got pushed out of Apple 22 years ago… ...... beautiful design .... At that time, nobody was doing this in Silicon Valley. ...... Apple wasn’t just about computers. It was about designing products and designing marketing and it was about positioning.” ....... ‘How can I possibly ask somebody what a graphics-based computer ought to be when they have no idea what a graphic based computer is? No one has ever seen one before.’ ...... showing someone a calculator, for example, would not give them any indication as to where the computer was going to go ....... a perfectionist to the end. ..... He felt that the computer was going to change the world and it was going to become what he called “the bicycle for the mind.” ...... He was a person of huge vision.” ...... He’s a minimalist. .... He simplifies complexity.” ..... ability to reach out to find the absolute best, smartest people ..... extremely charismatic and extremely compelling in getting people to join up with him and he got people to believe in his visions even before the products existed .... he personally did all the recruiting for his team. He never delegated that to anybody else. ” ..... At the other level he is working down at the details ..... “bozos.” That was his term for organizations that he didn’t respect. ..... “I can’t remember more than a hundred first names so I only want to be around people that I know personally. ....... Steve would shift between being highly charismatic and motivating and getting them excited to feel like they are part of something insanely great. And on the other hand he would be almost merciless in terms of rejecting their work until he felt it had reached the level of perfection ....... Bill was brilliant too — but Bill was never interested in great taste. He was always interested in being able to dominate a market. ..... . He was not a designer but a great systems thinker. .....
Steve Jobs Should Never Have Been Fired


Proves my point. This guy was too dumb to even have contemplated firing Steve Jobs. You have to at least be in Steve Jobs' league to have the option to make a decision like that. Sculley and other scums cost Apple a full decade and more.
Cult Of Mac: Apple Cracks 10% PC Market Share For First Time in Decades: Apple had 10.4% of U.S. PC shipments in Q3, making it the fourth largest computer maker in the U.S. ..... Lenovo showed the strongest growth among the top five vendors worldwide. ....

Enhanced by Zemanta