The new iPod nano is a tour de force, the Swiss Army Knife of mobile entertainment. I'm sure there's some obscure gadget from Japan that packs more features per cubic millimeter, but I've never heard of it, and chances are neither have you. This one's a major consumer product, just in time for stimulating the economy this holiday season. Speaking as a technophile, I want one of the new nanos for the same reason I want a Dremel with 300 different bits: just because.
I'm also impressed by the new price point on the iPod Touch. Apple frequently overhypes its announcements, but the $199 price point in the US truly is a milestone that should lead to much higher sales. The improvements to iTunes and the App Store look promising as well, and I'm especially intrigued by Apple's effort to make paid apps more prominent. More on that in a future post.
But the thing that surprised me the most about Apple's announcement wasn't the features of the new products, or the absence of a tablet or an iPhone Lite. It was something Steve Jobs said when he talked about the video camera in the nano:
"We've seen video explode in the last few years," he said, showing a picture of a Flip video camera. "Here's one, a very popular one, four gigabytes of memory, $149, and this market has really exploded, and we want to get in on this."
Think about that for a minute. "There's a big new market, and we want in." Not, "we're creating something new" or "we can vastly improve this category." Just, "we want a cut."
It sounds like something Don Corleone would say. Or Steve Ballmer. But it's not what I expected from Apple.
Now, it's logical for Apple to put video cameras into iPods. A friend of mine worked at one of the companies producing cameras-on-a-chip, and he's passionate about the potential for building vision into every consumer product. It's not just an imaging issue; when the device can see the user, you can create all sorts of interesting gesture-based controls that don't require you to ever even touch the device. Instead of point and click, the interface is just...point.
So it's been inevitable that video cameras would eventually be built into things like the nano. For Pure Digital, the makers of the Flip, this ought to be a tough but normal competitive challenge. The first step is to make sure your camera works better than theirs (check). Next, since music players are becoming cameras, you might want to build a camera that can also play music.
But that's where the situation becomes abnormal. Because even though Pure Digital was recently purchased by Cisco, giving it almost limitless financial resources, it's more or less impossible for its products to become equivalent to the iPods as music players. Not because they can't play music, but because they aren't allowed to seamlessly sync with the iTunes music application.
The issue of access to iTunes has already been simmering in the background between Apple and Palm, with Palm engineering the Pre to access the full functionality of iTunes, Apple blocking that access, and Palm breaking back in. To date I've viewed it as kind of an amusing sideshow, and I didn't really care who won. I figured the folks at Palm had plenty of time in the past to build their own music management ecosystem, but they (including me) didn't bother, so there wasn't any particular moral reason why they should have access to Apple's system.
Apple the predator
The situation with Pure Digital is vastly different, in my opinion. Pure Digital pioneered the market for simple video cameras. It identified an opportunity no one else had seen, and built that market from scratch. In a declining economy, it created new jobs and new wealth, and made millions of consumers happy. It's incredibly difficult to get a new hardware startup funded in Silicon Valley, let alone make it successful. For the good of the economy, we ought to be encouraging more companies like Pure Digital to exist.
But there's no way for a small startup like that to also create a whole music ecosystem equivalent to iTunes. Yes, third party products can access iTunes music. But not as seamlessly as Apple's own products, and as we've seen over and over in the mobile market, small differences in usability can make a big difference in sales. So Apple gets a unique advantage in the video camera market not because it makes a better camera, but because it can connect its camera more easily to a proprietary music ecosystem.
In other words, iTunes is no longer just a tool for Apple to defend its iPod sales; it's now a tool to help Apple take over new markets.
In the legal system they call this sort of thing "tying," and it is sometimes illegal. For decades, Apple complained that Microsoft competed unfairly by tying its products together -- Office works best with Windows, Microsoft's file formats are often proprietary so you can't easily create a substitute for their apps, and so on. I was heavily involved in the Apple-Microsoft lawsuits when I worked at Apple in the 1990s, so I know how passionately we believed that Microsoft's tactics were not just unethical, but also harmful to computer users and the overall economy.
So it's very disappointing to see Apple using tactics it once bitterly denounced, and declaring that it's decided to take over a market because "we want to get in." If Apple can use iTunes as a weapon against Pure Digital and Palm, what's to stop it from rolling up every new category of mobile entertainment product? Where's the incentive for other companies to invest?
I saw first-hand the stifling effect that Microsoft and Intel's duopoly control had on personal computer innovation. PC hardware companies learned not to bother with new features, because Microsoft and Intel would insist that anything new they created be made available to every other cloner. And software investments were restrained by the belief that Microsoft would use its leverage to take over any new application category that was developed.
Good fences make good neighbors
There's a danger that Apple's behavior will have the same chilling effect in mobile electronics. So I believe Apple should allow any device to sync with iTunes content, the same as an iPod. But not because it's morally right or even because it's legally required, but because it's the best thing to do for Apple. Here's why:
The two biggest threats to a very successful company are complacency and consistency. Complacency is more common -- a company that's very successful starts to relax and loses the hunger and drive that made it a winner. I think we can safely assume that won't happen to Apple as long as Steve is around. But the second risk, consistency, is more insidious -- behavior that's appropriate and accepted for a spunky startup gets punished when a big company does it.
This is what tripped up Microsoft. The same aggressiveness that served it well against IBM got it a series of lawsuits and intense government scrutiny a decade later. Even though Microsoft eventually won those suits, its execs were distracted for years, and it was forced to dramatically change its behavior. It has never been the same company since. I think Microsoft would have been much better off had it proactively adjusted its own behavior just enough to pre-empt legal action.
That's where Apple is today. It has to realize that it's no longer the underdog. It's the dominant company in mobile entertainment, and the fastest-growing major firm in mobile phones. It's already under a lot of legal scrutiny for the way it manages the iPhone App Store. If it also leverages iTunes to take out small competitors, and especially if it's dumb enough to say things like "we want in," it will guarantee unfriendly attention from government regulators -- a group of people who actually have more power to hurt Apple than do most of its competitors.
The Obama administration in the US is making noises about enforcing competition law more vigorously, and look at how the EU is picking on details in the Oracle-Sun merger, allegedly to protect local companies (link). If they'll do all that to help SAP and Bull, what will they do to protect Nokia?
Apple, you don't need the special connection with iTunes to keep on winning. You've already proven that you're much better at systems design than almost any other company on Earth. The huge iPhone apps base is exclusive to you, and that won't change. By opening up iTunes, you take away an easy excuse for regulators to pick apart your business, a process that would be distracting, expensive, and could result in much more dramatic restrictions on your actions.
Ease up a little on the gas pedal, Steve. It's the best way to keep moving fast.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Ahhhh, Jazz, Art, Fine Wine & Food - All At LACMA
It's time to stroll on down
to the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
There's so much to see and do.
Do me and yourself a favor and take your lover/friend/family on over to LACMA and feel the many flavors that they have to offer sans Music and Art...
See you there. C
P.S. 9/11 victims and family, may you have peace.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy - An American Icon
There is something to be said about a man that came from such a strong Irish Bostonian family.He was the youngest child of the Kennedy family, Joseph Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald.
A man that, along with his brothers, literally made sacrifices for the greater cause - the American People.
Known as "The Lion of the Senate", along with his brothers, the late President John F. Kennedy and the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, set in motion - Change. They were three brothers from Boston, Mass., that believed in America. Oh, they made mistakes. The Kennedy brothers never professed to be perfect. They were men that lived their lives and still roared like lions when it was time to step up and protect "The People".
Senator Edward Kennedy, was the second most senior member of the Senate, after Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and the third longest serving Senator in the United States of America's history. Wow. That speaks volumes.
" The Lion of the Senate" fought to bring about better education, immigration reform, national service, the minimum wage, equal rights for minorities and gays. He also pushed for the first major legislation to combat A.I.D.S/HIV and championed the legislature to end Apartheid in South Africa.
President Obama said, “For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health, and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts.”
The Kennedy Family have certainly assisted America in the area of Civil Rights.
The average African American no longer has to live and work in second class conditions, thus living a better quality of life because of the fine fight that the Kennedys' fought during the 60's - no longer being treated as second class citizens in America. California's First Lady, Maria Shriver, still fights for Civil Rights down to this very day.Senator Edward Kennedy worked tirelessly to bring about affordable health care for all Americans, and called the health care "the cause of my life". As a result, he succeeded in bringing quality and affordable health care for so many - children and seniors and people with disabilities. Senator Ted Kennedy's dream was to bring about Health Care Reform for Americans in the form of Universal Health Care.
Edward Kennedy fought for his life, up until the end, battling cancer.
He gave up the fight last evening, August 25, 2009, just before midnight.
Rest in Peace, Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy (1932-2009).
C
Monday, August 24, 2009
A Cool Place for the Summer...
August 26 - August 30, 2009, You can stop in to the The Paley Center For Media and see what's playing. The doors open at 12:00pm. Check this out, this Wednesday, at 4:30pm, one can catch the episode of Laverne & Shirley: “Guinea Pigs”. The girls participate as human subjects in prolonged scientific experiments dealing with nutrition and sleep deprivation. (1977; 25 minutes)
http://www.paleycenter.org/assets/visit/daily-schedule/LA/Aug-26-2009.pdf
One of the many things to do is, meander into the Ahmanson Listening Room, where one can sit back, relax and listen to talk radio. I love Talk Radio!
This is such a great place to visit solo or with family. There's just so much to see and do. The Fall line up for the Paley Fest is amazing - check it out. It's such a cool place to kick up your heels...
465 N. Beverly Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210 310.786.1091
Wednesdays to Sundays 12:00 to 5:00 pm; closed Mondays and Tuesdays
I'll see you there!
C
http://www.paleycenter.org/assets/visit/daily-schedule/LA/Aug-26-2009.pdf
One of the many things to do is, meander into the Ahmanson Listening Room, where one can sit back, relax and listen to talk radio. I love Talk Radio!
This is such a great place to visit solo or with family. There's just so much to see and do. The Fall line up for the Paley Fest is amazing - check it out. It's such a cool place to kick up your heels...
465 N. Beverly Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210 310.786.1091
Wednesdays to Sundays 12:00 to 5:00 pm; closed Mondays and Tuesdays
I'll see you there!
C
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Four questions about the Microsoft-Nokia alliance
The Microsoft-Nokia alliance turned out to be a lot more interesting than the pre-announcement rumors made it out to be. Rather than just a bundling deal for mobile Office, the press release says they'll also be co-developing "a range of new user experiences" for Nokia phones, aimed at enterprises. Those will include mobile Office, enterprise IM and conferencing, access to portals built on SharePoint, and device management.
Of those items, the IM and conferencing ideas sound the most promising to me. Office, as I explained in my last post, is not much of a purchase-driver on mobile phones. And I think Microsoft would have needed to provide Nokia compatibility in its mobile portal and device management products anyway.
I understand the logic behind the alliance. Nokia has never been able to get much traction for its e-series business phones, and Microsoft hasn't been able to kick RIM out of enterprise. So if they get together, maybe they can make progress. But it's easy to make a sweeping corporate alliance announcement, and very hard to make it actually work, especially when the partners are as big and high-ego as Microsoft and Nokia. This alliance will live or die based on execution, and on a lot of details that we don't know about yet.
Here are four questions I'd love to see answered:
What specifically are those "new user experiences"?
If Nokia and Microsoft can come up with some truly useful functionality that RIM can't copy, they might be able to win share. But the emphasis in the press release on enterprise mobility worries me. The core users for RIM are communication-hungry professionals. If you want to eat away at RIM's base, you need to excite those communicator users, and I'm not sure if either company has the right ideas to do that. As Microsoft has already proven, pleasing IT managers won't drive a ton of mobile phone purchases.
Will Microsoft really follow through?
Microsoft has been hinting for the last decade that it was were willing to decouple mobile Office from the operating system, but they never had the courage to follow through. Now they have announced something that sounds pretty definitive, but the real test will be whether they put their best engineers on the Nokia products. If Microsoft assigns its C players to the alliance, or tries to make its Nokia products inferior to their Windows Mobile versions, the alliance won't go anywhere interesting.
What does this do to Microsoft's relationships with other handset companies?
Imagine for a moment that you are the CEO of Samsung. Actually, imagine that for several moments. You aren't exclusive with Microsoft, but you've done a lot of phones with Windows Mobile on them. Now all of a sudden Microsoft makes a deal with a company that you think of as the Antichrist.
How do you feel about that?
I can tell you that Samsung is not the most trusting and nurturing company to do business with even in the best of times. So I think you make two phone calls. The first is to Steve Ballmer, asking very pointedly if you can get the same software as Nokia, on the same terms, at the same time. If you don't like the answer to that question, your next call is to Google, regarding increasing your range of Android phones.
Maybe the reality is that Microsoft has given up on Windows Mobile and doesn't care what Samsung does. But that itself would be interesting news.
I would love to know how those phone calls went today.
What does RIM do about this?
It has been putting a lot of effort into Apple-competitive features like multimedia and a software store. Does it have enough bandwidth to also fight Nokia-Microsoft? What happens to its core business if Microsoft and Nokia do come up with some cool functions that RIM doesn't have? Are there any partners that could be a counterweight to Microsoft and Nokia? If I'm working at RIM, I start to think about alliances with companies like Oracle and SAP. And I wonder if Google is interested in doing some enterprise work together.
Of those items, the IM and conferencing ideas sound the most promising to me. Office, as I explained in my last post, is not much of a purchase-driver on mobile phones. And I think Microsoft would have needed to provide Nokia compatibility in its mobile portal and device management products anyway.
I understand the logic behind the alliance. Nokia has never been able to get much traction for its e-series business phones, and Microsoft hasn't been able to kick RIM out of enterprise. So if they get together, maybe they can make progress. But it's easy to make a sweeping corporate alliance announcement, and very hard to make it actually work, especially when the partners are as big and high-ego as Microsoft and Nokia. This alliance will live or die based on execution, and on a lot of details that we don't know about yet.
Here are four questions I'd love to see answered:
What specifically are those "new user experiences"?
If Nokia and Microsoft can come up with some truly useful functionality that RIM can't copy, they might be able to win share. But the emphasis in the press release on enterprise mobility worries me. The core users for RIM are communication-hungry professionals. If you want to eat away at RIM's base, you need to excite those communicator users, and I'm not sure if either company has the right ideas to do that. As Microsoft has already proven, pleasing IT managers won't drive a ton of mobile phone purchases.
Will Microsoft really follow through?
Microsoft has been hinting for the last decade that it was were willing to decouple mobile Office from the operating system, but they never had the courage to follow through. Now they have announced something that sounds pretty definitive, but the real test will be whether they put their best engineers on the Nokia products. If Microsoft assigns its C players to the alliance, or tries to make its Nokia products inferior to their Windows Mobile versions, the alliance won't go anywhere interesting.
What does this do to Microsoft's relationships with other handset companies?
Imagine for a moment that you are the CEO of Samsung. Actually, imagine that for several moments. You aren't exclusive with Microsoft, but you've done a lot of phones with Windows Mobile on them. Now all of a sudden Microsoft makes a deal with a company that you think of as the Antichrist.
How do you feel about that?
I can tell you that Samsung is not the most trusting and nurturing company to do business with even in the best of times. So I think you make two phone calls. The first is to Steve Ballmer, asking very pointedly if you can get the same software as Nokia, on the same terms, at the same time. If you don't like the answer to that question, your next call is to Google, regarding increasing your range of Android phones.
Maybe the reality is that Microsoft has given up on Windows Mobile and doesn't care what Samsung does. But that itself would be interesting news.
I would love to know how those phone calls went today.
What does RIM do about this?
It has been putting a lot of effort into Apple-competitive features like multimedia and a software store. Does it have enough bandwidth to also fight Nokia-Microsoft? What happens to its core business if Microsoft and Nokia do come up with some cool functions that RIM doesn't have? Are there any partners that could be a counterweight to Microsoft and Nokia? If I'm working at RIM, I start to think about alliances with companies like Oracle and SAP. And I wonder if Google is interested in doing some enterprise work together.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
The Dodgers vs. Chicago Cubs & Susan G. Komen for the Cure®
When was the last time that you took your son or daughter to a baseball game?
"Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet - they go together in the Good Ole USA!" - Remember that commercial? It was priceless.
Well, the Dodgers will play the Chicago Cubs on Saturday, August 22, 2009 - the game starts at 1:10 pm, but guess what? The Dodgers are supporting the Susan G. Komen Bat for the Cure® and would love for you to participate in purchasing a limited amount of V.I.P tickets.
Funds raised from Bat for the Cure® will make it possible to carry out the Los Angeles Affiliate’s mission to provide our medically underserved and uninsured populations in with screening, diagnostics and treatment for breast cancer.
Your children - your family - will remember the event for ever. Now, isn't that priceless?
There are three different packages that one can purchase:
Ultimate Fan $275
· Admission to the Komen pre-game luncheon
· Loge level ticket to Dodgers vs. Cubs game
· Tour of Dodgers Clubhouse
· Batting practice on Dodger field
· Refreshments during batting practice
· Commemorative event photo on the field
Super Fan $200
· Admission to the Komen pre-game luncheon
· Loge level ticket to Dodgers vs. Cubs game
· Tour of Dodgers Clubhouse
· Warm up and refreshments on Dodger field
· Commemorative photo on the field
Fanatic $125
· Admission to the Komen pre-game luncheon Loge level ticket to Dodgers vs. Cubs game
Tickets to this momentous event are available@http://www.komenlacounty.org/
Susan G. Komen for the Cure®
11845 W. Olympic Boulevard, Suite 645W Los Angeles, California 90064 Phone 310.575.3011 Fax: 310.477.7042
...One-Two-Three Strikes you're Out at the Old Ball Game!
See you there.
C
"Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet - they go together in the Good Ole USA!" - Remember that commercial? It was priceless.
Well, the Dodgers will play the Chicago Cubs on Saturday, August 22, 2009 - the game starts at 1:10 pm, but guess what? The Dodgers are supporting the Susan G. Komen Bat for the Cure® and would love for you to participate in purchasing a limited amount of V.I.P tickets.
Funds raised from Bat for the Cure® will make it possible to carry out the Los Angeles Affiliate’s mission to provide our medically underserved and uninsured populations in with screening, diagnostics and treatment for breast cancer.
Your children - your family - will remember the event for ever. Now, isn't that priceless?
There are three different packages that one can purchase:
Ultimate Fan $275
· Admission to the Komen pre-game luncheon
· Loge level ticket to Dodgers vs. Cubs game
· Tour of Dodgers Clubhouse
· Batting practice on Dodger field
· Refreshments during batting practice
· Commemorative event photo on the field
Super Fan $200
· Admission to the Komen pre-game luncheon
· Loge level ticket to Dodgers vs. Cubs game
· Tour of Dodgers Clubhouse
· Warm up and refreshments on Dodger field
· Commemorative photo on the field
Fanatic $125
· Admission to the Komen pre-game luncheon Loge level ticket to Dodgers vs. Cubs game
Tickets to this momentous event are available@http://www.komenlacounty.org/
Susan G. Komen for the Cure®
11845 W. Olympic Boulevard, Suite 645W Los Angeles, California 90064 Phone 310.575.3011 Fax: 310.477.7042
...One-Two-Three Strikes you're Out at the Old Ball Game!
See you there.
C
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Nokia and Microsoft, sittin' in a tree...
Multiple sources are reporting that Nokia is hedging its bets on mobile phone software:
-- The New York Times says Microsoft and Nokia will announce Wednesday that Microsoft is porting Office to Nokia's Symbian S60 phones (link).
--TechCrunch, quoting the Financial Times in Germany, claims Nokia is planning to dump Symbian in favor of its Maemo Linux operating system (link).
--Om Malik says he asked Nokia about it, and the company denied plans to dump Symbian. But the company also said, "recognizing that the value we bring to the consumer is increasingly represented through software, there is logically not just one software environment that fits all consumer and market needs." In other words, we have an open marriage with Symbian (link).
In one sense, this is absolutely not news for Nokia. It has been playing the field for years, trying to prevent any single company from gaining control over mobile software (and thereby imposing a standard on Nokia). The change is that in the past, most of that energy was aimed against Microsoft.
Microsoft too seems to be bending its standards. With the exception of the Mac, Microsoft has been extremely reluctant to license Office for other operating systems. In the past, if Nokia wanted Office, it would have been expected to license Windows Mobile.
But now both companies feel threatened by Apple and Google, and all of a sudden that ugly person across the dance floor looks a lot cuter.
The real question that no one seems to be asking is whether most customers will care about any of this stuff. Most Nokia smartphone users are blissfully unaware that their phones have an operating system, let alone whether it's Symbian or Maemo. They just want the phone to work well.
And speaking as a former Palm guy who dealt with the mobile market for years, putting Microsoft Office on a smartphone is like putting wings on a giraffe -- it may get you some attention, but it's not very practical.
Don't get me wrong, I like and admire QuickOffice, which is probably the leading Office-equivalent app in the mobile space today. It's a cool product, but for most people the screens of smartphones are too small for serious spreadsheet and word processing activity. It works, but it's awkward and produces eyestrain. Most people who have a serious need for Office on the go will just carry a netbook.
So Nokia and Microsoft will both get some nice publicity, but the announcements mean very little to the average user. What both Microsoft and Nokia need to do is create compelling new mobile functionality that's better than the stuff being produced by Apple and RIM. Until they do that, all the strategic alliances in the world won't make a significant difference.
=====
Update: The announcement this morning was more subtle and perhaps far-reaching than what was reported yesterday. I think the strategic situation is still the same as what I described above, but there might be more value for users than I expected. More thoughts after I have a chance to digest the announcement.
-- The New York Times says Microsoft and Nokia will announce Wednesday that Microsoft is porting Office to Nokia's Symbian S60 phones (link).
--TechCrunch, quoting the Financial Times in Germany, claims Nokia is planning to dump Symbian in favor of its Maemo Linux operating system (link).
--Om Malik says he asked Nokia about it, and the company denied plans to dump Symbian. But the company also said, "recognizing that the value we bring to the consumer is increasingly represented through software, there is logically not just one software environment that fits all consumer and market needs." In other words, we have an open marriage with Symbian (link).
In one sense, this is absolutely not news for Nokia. It has been playing the field for years, trying to prevent any single company from gaining control over mobile software (and thereby imposing a standard on Nokia). The change is that in the past, most of that energy was aimed against Microsoft.
Microsoft too seems to be bending its standards. With the exception of the Mac, Microsoft has been extremely reluctant to license Office for other operating systems. In the past, if Nokia wanted Office, it would have been expected to license Windows Mobile.
But now both companies feel threatened by Apple and Google, and all of a sudden that ugly person across the dance floor looks a lot cuter.
The real question that no one seems to be asking is whether most customers will care about any of this stuff. Most Nokia smartphone users are blissfully unaware that their phones have an operating system, let alone whether it's Symbian or Maemo. They just want the phone to work well.
And speaking as a former Palm guy who dealt with the mobile market for years, putting Microsoft Office on a smartphone is like putting wings on a giraffe -- it may get you some attention, but it's not very practical.
Don't get me wrong, I like and admire QuickOffice, which is probably the leading Office-equivalent app in the mobile space today. It's a cool product, but for most people the screens of smartphones are too small for serious spreadsheet and word processing activity. It works, but it's awkward and produces eyestrain. Most people who have a serious need for Office on the go will just carry a netbook.
So Nokia and Microsoft will both get some nice publicity, but the announcements mean very little to the average user. What both Microsoft and Nokia need to do is create compelling new mobile functionality that's better than the stuff being produced by Apple and RIM. Until they do that, all the strategic alliances in the world won't make a significant difference.
=====
Update: The announcement this morning was more subtle and perhaps far-reaching than what was reported yesterday. I think the strategic situation is still the same as what I described above, but there might be more value for users than I expected. More thoughts after I have a chance to digest the announcement.
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