Apple sent a second apology for a total of 90 free days to all current users of MobileMe. The service has been a pain in the butt for Apple ever since it’s launch, tarnishing Apple’s good name, and Jobs has put Eddy Cue who is head of iTunes in charge of sorting out the MobileMe mess and make it great.
Apple has long time since understood the power of enabling. They enabled designers some 20 years ago with the realease of the Macintosh, the GUI and together with Adobe, made the Postscript language usable.
In more recent times, Apple started listing 3rd party apps, sorted in categories and nicely presented, thus making it really easy to find software you needed. A really simple thing, really. It was easy to add the software (for developers) and it was easy to get it (for users). Later, Apple did the same thing with widgets for Dashboard. Top 50 list, featured app, etc. Really easy to find and install what you needed. When you downloaded a widget, you were automatically asked if you wanted to install it (or update, in case you already had a previous version), and then if you wanted to keep it.
This is crowdsourcing at its best. Apple only needs to provide the framework. 3rd party developers did most of the work writing the apps and supporting them.
When Wordpress, the most popular self-hosted blogging platform in the world – also driving this very blog, did the same for their plugins some time in 2006, they saw dowloads increase 15-fold. All they needed to do was make it easy for developers to list and present their plugins and presto, users started finding them and using them, which led to more plugins being developed, and contributed to the massive growth Wordpress has seen since version 1.5.
Both Apple and Wordpress have also added ratings to allow users to promote stuff they like. They both make top lists available so casual users don’t have such a hard time finding the most popular items. That’s what you have to do if you want to go mainstream.
And now, Apple does it again with the App store for iPhone. And they take it even further. Read the rest of this entry »
Nokia bought Symbian the other day in what is clearly a desperate move to catch up with Apple. Let’s see how that plays out. Apple, however, still has the great advantage of also offering desktops and laptops, plus the necessary sync between all devices.
People don’t want to do everything on their tiny smartphone’s screen, some things you want to take care of on your desktop/laptop and then sync over. Nokia has a lot of software to write to make this happen. In addition to the hardware and software lead, Apple leads by leaps on the GUI side. And, they have iTunes with it’s enormous amount of content. Nokia is trying to take on that too, with Ovi, but it won’t be easy.
How come Apple managed to sneak up on Nokia like this?
You might also want to read these commentaries on what’s happening by Mashable and Signal to Noise.
Daniel Eran Dilger wrote an interesting piece about Apple’s PA Semi acquisition where he ponders the reasons Apple might have for doing this, for many, seemingly odd deal.
While the transition to Intel has afforded Apple tremendous new opportunities, the downside to using commodity chips is that Apple’s roadmap is now closely tied to Intel’s. That means there are fewer surprises Apple can pull off and less differentiation between Macs and generic PCs.
Apple has invested heavily in building software tools that spin processor intensive tasks out to specialized hardware.
By developing more its own integrated components, Apple could potentially save money, support new proprietary features, and throw copycats off its trail and force them to develop their own devices from scratch. As Apple blazes into uncharted territories by accelerating its iPod line into a new series of WiFi mobile devices, cost savings, differentiated features, and difficult to copy designs will all become increasingly important. PA Semi’s hardware expertise can help in that regard.
So, in short, Apple is betting on built-in or add-on acceleration chips to stand out from the increasingly similar competition. Snow Leopard’s Grand Central and OpenCL technologies are additional proof of this direction.
Usually, when people in Finland - the birth home of the mobile phone giant Nokia - are asked what phone they will buy next, the answer is “a Nokia, again”. But now more and more people add “or an iPhone”. The competition is heating up in the Nordic countries, and TeliaSonera just managed to make a huge deal.
A new deal with movie studios where they would start releasing movies simultaneously online and on DVD is expected soon.
Here’s the story.
As some people predicted when NBC left iTunes doors slamming to pursue Hulu.com, they would be back within a year. I’m sure Apple will be glad to have them back, NBC has a lot of good content at the moment (Heroes, House MD, etc).
Hulu.com has been getting some good press, it’s a nice looking site, but they clearly don’t have the muscle iTunes has. Both Hulu and iTunes have been struggling to add TV shows and movies to international iTunes stores, and things are starting to move along a little lately. But maybe NBC is realizing they better stick with Apple before they get left behind.
Haven’t had time to write much lately.
As you already know Apple has had a busy first two months this year.
So, what did I get right this time? Read the rest of this entry »
A funny commentary on the looks of the two democrats that are running for President, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
That is, Mr. Obama’s site is more harmonious, with plenty of white space and a soft blue palette. Its task bar is reminiscent of the one used at Apple’s iTunes site. It signals in myriad ways that it was designed with a younger, more tech-savvy audience in mind — using branding techniques similar to the ones that have made the iPod so popular.
“With Obama’s site, all the features and elements are seamlessly integrated, just like the experience of using a program on a Macintosh computer,” said Alice Twemlow, chairwoman of the M.F.A. program in design criticism at the School of Visual Arts (who is a Mac user).
Clearly, Obamas site looks much better. Jason Santa Maria makes some interesting remarks though, later in the article, and suggests that the busier look of Hillary’s site, although not so pretty, might talk louder and be more noticed.
She will be the next president though, trust me on that.
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