A slew of opinions have hit the web over the past few days directly surrounding the methods behind Apple’s App Store. Primarily focused around pricing, distribution and marketing, the debates have grown heated, and Apple has remained silent.
This article has some fascinating insights into a developer's application on the app store and how promotion impacts its success (or failure). Read More.
Apple App Store Controversy Continues
Computer Ads of Yesteryear
Check out these ads from days gone by. How many did you own? I actually owned the TRS-100 portable at right.
Click Interview with Woz
Check out this fascinating interview with Steve Wozinak, co-founder of Apple Computer, which he did recently for UK's Click.
Lawyers Turning to Macs?
For some time the legal profession has been known for its closet use of Macintosh computers. Attorneys have always had a tendency for the upscale, which explains part of the phenomenon over the years, but there has always been a more practical side, and that is reliability and security.
Here is a link (direct link below) to an article titled, "Why Macs and Why Now?" from Law Practice Today.
http://www.abanet.org/lpm/lpt/articles/mac11081.shtml
Word for Mac has Many Issues for this User
Since I am a corporate Mac user, I must use Microsoft Word every day. I admit the latest version of the software seems to be somewhat unstable. Here's a post from a user who is absolutely fed up with what he calls a "pathetic, totally unreliable piece of crap" software.
Read his comments here.
Apple Flush with Cash. Acquisitions Anyone?
With Apple now cash rich and a very stable technology company, it seems logical it might be looking to make some strategic acquisitions as struggling companies become bargains.
This post on the Wired blog, Epicenter, is interesting speculation if nothing else. How much is $25 billion in cash. What is means is Apple could buy companies like Dell, General Motors, Adobe, Sun Microsystems, Nintendo, Nvidia, Netflix or the country of Iceland.
Obviously, not all - if any - of these acquisitions would be smart for Apple, but it does give the company a strong strategic advantage in troubled times.
Read the post here.
MacBook Key to Apple's Future
Today's highly anticipated event in Cupertino seems to be good timing for Apple, which continues to be on a roll as it slowly build market share in the laptop market.
Here's a good summary and some observations from Fortune magazine.
Powerbook - MacBook Design Retrospective
Next Tuesday's MacBook event will usher in another design direction in the Powerbook/MacBook legacy.
Here's a great article about (with video) about past directions.
Old School Meets Mac!
This photo is too cool! Check out the guy with pen and paper compared to all of the mainly Mac computers in the room. Click on photo to enlarge.
Bloomberg Gaffe - Steve Jobs' Obit
We all know publications write "pre-death" versions of obituaries for famous people. Well, Bloomberg let theirs about Steve Jobs get out. Here it is via Gawker and an article about it in eFlux Media.
The Beginning of MacWorld
Here is an interesting article about the original MacWorld magazine that Kev Kitchens of Low End Mac received from a friend. I call the coming of the Macintosh the start of a revolution in computing.
How the iMac Changed Computing
There's a great article on the MacWorld site about the original iMac that started shipping on August 15, 1998 - yes, 10 years ago today! Here's an excerpt:
The Bondi blue wonder heralded the return of Steve Jobs as a visionary leader for Apple, and it halted Apple’s mid-1990s financial freefall. Initially marketed as an easy-to-use gateway to the Internet, the iMac transcended that simple role and redefined the desktop PC market—not to mention consumer industrial design—forever.
Direct link:
http://www.macworld.com/article/135017/2008/08/imacanniversary.html?lsrc=rss_main
iPhone ARM to the Rescue!
Check it out!
Hands full? Get the iPhone arm by ZDNet's Andrew Mager -- I’ve been having trouble managing all of my gadgets lately, but my buddy AJ Vaynerchuk sent me this solution. Props to all the interns at Revision3, and the cast of Internet Superstar for putting this together.
Looks Like Fun is Over at Psystar
Apple is suing Mac clone maker Psystar, according to web reports. This is from Computerworld:
"Apple Inc. has filed suit against Psystar Corp., the computer maker that in April started selling Intel-based systems with Mac OS X pre-installed. Apple is charging Doral, Fla.-based Psystar with copyright and software licensing violations, according to court records and a Florida attorney." Read Article
iPhone is "Windows 95 for the 21st Century"
Joe Wilcox of Apple Watch compares Apple's revolutionary smartphone to Windows 95 and the coming of a new age of mobile computing. Here's an excerpt:
"Windows 95 was a remarkable moment in personal computing. Its successor has come.
"But not from Microsoft. Apple has launched the defining platform of the early 21st century. The PC is dead—or will be. Long live the smart phone, er, iPhone." Read Article
Apple blossoms with growing cash balance
By TODD BISHOP
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The biggest cash pile in the technology industry has historically belonged to Microsoft Corp., but now it has some company, and it's a familiar name: Apple Inc.
Microsoft has reduced its cash balance to $26.3 billion through large stock buybacks, dividends and acquisitions. The balance was more than $64 billion less than four years ago.
Meanwhile, Apple's balance has been growing -- reaching $19.5 billion at last count -- as a result of the cash generated by its Mac and iPod lines. Less than four years ago, its stockpile was $5.5 billion.
The trends have implications for both companies. Cash translates into the ability to consider acquisitions and other potentially business-boosting deals. Apple has cited those types of possibilities when Wall Street analysts have asked about its plans for its cash. Microsoft had been planning to borrow money for the first time, before it withdrew its $44.6 billion Yahoo bid Saturday.
Keeping too much cash on the balance sheet can raise eyebrows among investors, who often want companies to reinvest the cash in the business -- where it holds the promise of a greater financial return -- or to return the money to shareholders through dividends or stock buybacks.
"Stock buyback programs and other forms of returning the cash are discussed with the board from time to time," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, in a Jan. 22 earnings conference call. But Apple's current preference is to "maintain a strong balance sheet in order to preserve our flexibility to make strategic investments and/or acquisitions," he added.
Investors are now watching Apple's growing cash balance in
much the same way they did Microsoft's a few years ago.
"From purely a financial standpoint I think they're overcapitalized," said analyst Andy Hargreaves, who covers Apple at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland. "You'd like to see them return that in one way or another, or put it to work."
Apple has historically built its business from the ground up, preferring smaller strategic acquisitions of technology and talent. If the company continues to follow that pattern, that means it's not likely to reduce its cash pile through a blockbuster deal.
"I don't really expect them to do anything with it in the near term," Hargreaves said. "I think that (Apple CEO) Steve Jobs' experience with this company and the cycles that it's been through has taught him to be very, very conservative, and save for the rainy day."
Microsoft's Bill Gates has traditionally taken a similar approach. But as the company's cash pile reached legendary proportions a few years ago, and it settled some of its most costly antitrust challenges, investors were pressuring Microsoft to do something with the cash.
In July 2004, the company announced plans to spend about $75 billion in cash -- including $32 billion in a special dividend, a $30 billion stock buyback, and a commitment to increase its regular dividend. The company continued to make regular stock buybacks in recent years.
One idea behind stock buybacks is to reduce the number of shares on the market. That, in turn, helps increase a company's key ratio of earnings per share.
But Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo cast the situation in a different light. The company's proposal funded the deal half in cash and half in stock.
Even at that, Microsoft said it would have needed to borrow an unspecified amount to finance the acquisition.
The situation changed Microsoft's approach to stock buybacks, at least temporarily.
In the quarter ended March 31, Microsoft bought back slightly more than $1 billion worth of its own stock -- compared with more than $6.7 billion repurchased during the same quarter a year ago. Microsoft finance chief Chris Liddell told analysts in an April 24 conference call that he wanted to "maintain the most amount of flexibility" for the Yahoo deal.
As a result, Microsoft's balance of cash and short-term investments rose for the first time in two years. Its $26.3 billion balance, as of March 31, was $5.3 billion more than it had on hand a quarter earlier.
Microsoft hasn't said how it will approach the cash issue now that it has walked away from the Yahoo bid, but any other Internet-related deal it would pursue would be unlikely to require so much capital.
iPhone stats confirmed; it runs my world
This is a great article about one consumer uses his iPhone. It's hard to argue that a computing revolution has begun!
By Michael DeAgonia
April 25, 2008 (Computerworld) Recently, I read an interesting report regarding iPhone use. Market research firm iSuppli Corp. found that many people use iPhones in ways that differ markedly from other phones, especially in categories that until recently weren't that important to most users.
We don't use it as often for phone calls as other cell phone owners.
And while we text message about as often as those who own other phones, we're much more likely to be checking e-mail, surfing the Web, watching videos or YouTube clips, or viewing photos.
What surprised me the most out of all of iSuppli's statistics is that iPhone owners spent less than half the time actually making calls -- 46.5% -- compared to 71.7% of the time people use other phones for calls. At first, I had a fleeting moment of defensiveness; I wondered if they were insinuating that the iPhone isn't good for voice calls. I hadn't noticed any problems with either my 8GB phone, or the newer 16GB model I replaced it with earlier this year.
It turns out voice quality isn't the issue. "This usage pattern shows Apple has succeeded in producing a true convergence product that consumers like to use for multiple purposes," said Greg Sheppard, chief development officer at iSuppli. "Apple has come as close as anyone to achieving a balanced convergence in mobile handset features and usage."
My curiosity piqued by the report's findings, so I set out to document how much I use my iPhone.
How it was B.I. (Before iPhone)
Before the iPhone was released, I lived in what I call the "Dark Time." As a former Motorola Razr user, the only time I felt anywhere near comfortable using my phone was when I made calls. That was it. To me, the Razr was just a phone. Because of either bad software design or the limitations inherent to static, button-based hardware -- or a combination of both -- the Razr's functions were poorly implemented.
For example, accessing the Internet felt less like information gathering and more like I had lost a bet. The experience was flat-out unpleasant. First, the software was terribly slow, even though the Razr browser was rendering mostly text. Second, the mobile Web it offered up looked nothing like the Internet. I've seen the Internet and that's not it. WAP browsing may have been a compromise, but its execution in software is slow, cumbersome and inefficient.
Since I had to navigate my way through a maze of vague commands and menus, I avoided the Internet on my Razr. The contacts and calendar applications were useless, too, given the hoops I had to jump through to keep them synced with my Mac. The same was true of e-mail, directions and the other functions the Razr could theoretically offer. No wonder I used it mostly for phone calls; I couldn't do anything else very easily.
I've started paying attention to my iPhone use, and I've found that similar to the findings in the report, I use my iPhone to make calls about half the time. The other half I spend browsing the Web, checking personal and company e-mail, playing games and using most of the available features -- and then some. (Yes, my iPhone is unlocked so I can add unofficial apps, and it will remain so until Apple releases a newer version of iPhone software in June.)
What surprised me even more than how accurately the report reflected my usage is the amount of time I spend on the device itself. After a few days of focusing on how often I use my iPhone, I've realized that not only am I using it more for calls than I did with the Razr, I've found that I also used it much more overall than any other portable device I've ever owned, iPod included. Until this report made me step back and take a good look, I never fully realized how iPhone-dependent I have become.
A day in the life
To illustrate, a typical day goes something like this: When the iPhone alarm wakes me up each morning, a swipe of the screen silences the alarm and brings up the Weather widget. With one gesture, I have enough information to plan my wardrobe and departure time, all before I'm even sitting up. Because the iPhone remembers the last-used application before it locks itself, any app can be used in this way.
Next, I click on the Home button to get to E-mail and the Calendar so I can prepare for the day mentally. Once I'm out of the house, the iPhone is linked into my car stereo, so it's always on as an iPod. And because my iPhone is also how I keep in touch, I never miss an e-mail, a text message or a phone call because of loud music -- the music mutes automatically when a call comes in. Since I commute daily from Orlando to Tampa, Google Maps lets me know what kind of traffic I'm facing, which helps me plan my routes.
Once at work, most of my day is spent staring numbly at progress bars, waiting for software to install. For those idle moments, dynamic content by way of the iPhone's mobile Safari browser and YouTube access is a godsend. The iPhone's media capabilities and its always-on cloud connectivity break the monotony, and since it's also my communications device, it keeps me always accessible. That's a downside, too: I'm always accessible.
Focusing on my iPhone use startled me into realizing that if my iPhone broke, or if Apple suddenly stopped making it and I had to use another brand, I'd be lost. I wouldn't know which device suited me, despite all of the competition in phones out there, because, in one way or the other, they're all wrong for me.
I felt that way before the iPhone's release, but now that I've used Apple's design and have grown accustomed to it, how can I go back? I tried to figure out why that was and realized that Apple made a few key design decisions early on in the iPhone design process that just happened to evolve into exactly what I was looking for.
Compatibility, multitouch nailed it for me
Obviously, based on your own needs and wants, your mileage may vary, but I was always specific about exactly what I wanted in a phone: one that comes with Mac software, easy connectivity and no hassles. So right off the bat, Apple nailed it for me by making the iPhone automatically Mac compatible, seamlessly importing my contact and calendar information. Of course, Apple didn't stop with Mac users; the iPhone works on various flavors of Windows as well, meaning it offers out-of-the-box cross-platform support. Who else does this?
Advantage two for the iPhone is multitouch. Everyone seems to be doing flat screens now. There were a couple of touch-screen devices on the market before the iPhone, but their interfaces were tacked on to existing mobile operating systems, which seem to be programmed to spite users. Plus, rival touch screens were the opposite of responsive, giving those awful bank ATM touch screens a run for their money. Not surprisingly, the design never caught on except with the most forgiving -- or masochistic -- early adopters.
It is because of this experience with touch panels that the mainstream media, consumers and cynics watched with curiosity when Apple first presented the ground-up redesign of OS X and its apps for mobile devices. The fact that the entire interaction lived and died by the intelligence and responsiveness of the touch screen was instant debate material, and every competitor was quick to dismiss the technology. Flash forward a year later and everyone who had dogged the idea now has their own touch-screen "iPhone killers."
But only Apple has multitouch matched to a user interface that's clever, intuitive and slick enough to take advantage of the technology. The lack of intuitive multifinger interaction alone makes any so-called iPhone killers merely iPhone wannabes, relegated to an audience comprising those that who can't or won't buy an Apple product for whatever reason.
With the iPhone, the simplicity introduced in the iPod remains, and the multitouch interface make all functions equally accessible, regardless of what feature they offer access to. From purchasing music to finding the nearest gas station to navigating through songs, iPhone's multitouch capabilities and Mobile OS X make things easy. The iPhone actually feels more like what must have been the original concept for the iPod in the literal sense: my entire life in my hands, with the ability to instantly sync with my computer, though no longer bound to it.
More missed points
Detractors are quick to play up the limitations of the iPhone, which are set by Apple itself. Some limitations, such as third-party application installs and enterprise support, will be taken care of with the June software release. And the long-rumored 3G iPhone is apparently just around the corner.
But there are other limitations that won't be as quickly remedied. Although the iPhone and iPod lines support the most popular music store in the world, the fact that that store just happens to belong to Apple and offers support for only a limited amount of available codecs doesn't sit well with some. But Apple would rather support specific codecs -- and support them well -- than spread itself thin supporting too many options poorly. It's the same philosophy Apple applies to its computers and operating system. What you leave out is as important as what you add in when it comes to ease of use.
As new iPhone features and support for enterprise use become available, the iPhone's reach into dyed-in-the-wool geeks resistant to Apple will expand. For those looking for a multifunction device that is actually useful in everyday life, I can say this: The iPhone remains the most user-friendly device I've ever had. Others agree.
Perhaps the most telling of all statistics comes from a March ChangeWave survey in which four in five iPhone users (79%) said they're very satisfied with their devices. The next highest percentage of happy owners came from BlackBerry users (54% are very satisfied), and LG and Sanyo owners (40% who said they're are very satisfied). The statistics speak for themselves.
Given the dramatic evolution of the iPod since its introduction in 2001, it's easy to see how, over time, the iPhone could spearhead the next major computing platform. Just in the next few months, we have the expected arrival of faster -- and possibly redesigned -- 3G iPhones, along with the release of a software development kit that should result in a slew of new apps.
Given that I couldn't resist moving from the 8GB model to the 16GB model when it came out, I see little chance that I'll be able to hold off from getting the next model when it finally appears. By then, I expect third-party applications for the iPhone to make it the Star Trek device I always thought it could be.
Michael DeAgonia is a computer consultant and technologist who has been using Macintoshes and working on them professionally since 1993. A Neal award-winning writer, his tech-support background includes tenures at Computerworld, colleges, the biopharmaceutical industry, the graphics industry and Apple. Currently, he is working as a Macintosh administrator at a large media company.
32 Years of Apple; 32 Memorable Products!
From www.arstechnica.com
Today is not only April Fool's Day—it's also the anniversary of Apple's creation. In honor of Apple on the company's 32nd birthday, we are honoring a list of 32 of (what we consider to be) the most memorable products in the company's history. Some of these are obvious, some less so, while some just hold a special place in our heart.
Check it out here.
Check it out here.
Sales pitch: 'We remove Vista'
This is from Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog:
After reading today's story about Windows Vista's first year, reader Bruce Finlayson of Seattle sent along this photo that he snapped in October outside a computer store in Milford, N.H. ...
I made some calls to computer stores in Milford (pop. 15,000) and confirmed that the sign appeared in the window of A&D Computer, across the street from the town square. Shop manager Aaron Kaplan said they were prompted to put it up because so many people were having problems with Windows Vista, including compatibility issues with older software and trouble adjusting to the interface.
"A lot of people didn't like using Vista, and a lot of the manufacturers forced people to go up to Vista," he said.
What was the demand for the service? "We had a lot of people coming in and asking about it," Kaplan said. "Of all the signs we put up there the last two years, at least, we probably got the most response out of that one. A lot of people coming in."
Kaplan said they've since replaced it with a different message, but they're thinking about putting the Vista removal message back up.
Apple Rolls into 2008 with New Products
CNNMoney has an excellent article on Apple's prospects for 2008:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Apple had a banner year in 2007. The stock more than doubled thanks to strong sales of the new iPhone, revamped iPods, and updated Macs.
But that was last year. Now investors want to know if Apple can live up to Wall Street's lofty expectations for 2008.
Tech stocks have taken a big tumble so far this year and Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) is no exception, with shares falling about 10 percent.
With that in mind, investors will be paying a lot of attention to what Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs has to say during his keynote address at the company's Macworld show on January 15th.
Last year, Jobs unveiled the iPhone at Macworld. So Wall Street is hoping Jobs can once again deliver some exciting news to get the stock back on track.
A new 'Touch' for the iPod
Investors will definitely be looking for any announcements about updates to the company's popular iPod. Despite that product's runaway success, some analysts say that Apple has started to reach the saturation point with its portable media player. "Everyone who wants one has one," said Technology Business Research analyst Ezra Gottheil.
Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt also wrote in a recent report that he's concerned about slowing growth in iPod sales.
He cited the fact that the number of iPods sold in the company's fiscal fourth quarter, which ended in September, increased just 17 percent from a year ago, down from 50 percent growth in unit sales in the company's fiscal first quarter.
But just before the holiday season, Apple released the iPod Touch - basically an iPhone without the phone. The device's ability to access the Internet and its emphasis on video makes it more than just a standard iPod. So analysts said they are confident the iPod Touch could rejuvenate sales growth for the iPod product line in 2008.
Apple could also benefit from falling component prices. McCourt noted that NAND flash memory chips, which are used in the iPhone, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, and iPod Touch, have been getting steadily cheaper, which could boost the amount of profit Apple generates from the iPod and other consumer electronics devices.
And analysts said that other announcements from Macworld may also be viewed positively by investors. Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research, predicts Apple will unveil an update to Apple TV, a device that lets people view videos stored in their iTunes library on their television sets.
There has also been speculation that Apple will announce plans to allow movie rentals on iTunes through a partnership with News Corp.'s (NWS, Fortune 500) Fox studio. Gottheil said that even though revenue from iTunes is still relatively small, anything that can help increase movie and music downloads would be helpful since this should also boost demand for new iPods.
Thin is in
Of course, Apple still relies heavily on computer sales -- even though the company dropped the word "Computer" from its corporate name last year and now generates more than half of its total sales from non-Mac products.
At this year's Macworld, analysts suspect the company will round out its MacBook line with a new ultra light notebook.
A highly portable computer with long battery life and a flash drive instead of a delicate hard disk is something that Apple doesn't have right now, said Chowdhry.
He argues that if Apple unveils a new MacBook, that could open Apple's laptop line even further to new customers.
Gottheil disagreed with the idea that an ultra portable would bring in new customers. Still, he said that even if Apple simply got existing Apple fans to buy newer MacBook models, this would still benefit Apple because the new MacBooks would likely generate higher profit margins.
And that would be good news for Apple shareholders since Mac sales have been what's really driving growth for the overall company lately.
In the company's fiscal fourth quarter, Mac sales rose 40 percent from a year earlier to $3.41 billion. iPod sales, on the other hand, increased only 4 percent to $1.6 billion. So if the iPod Touch isn't as big a hit as analysts expect, the company will need to depend even more on the Mac to keep sales and profits growing.
No worms in this stock
With all this in mind, how will Apple's stock fare this year. David Bailey of Goldman Sachs wrote in a report earlier this month that he doesn't believe 2008 will be as "explosive" as last year, but that Apple's stock should head higher over the next twelve months.
He expects Apple's upcoming fiscal first-quarter earnings announcement, which includes sales during the key holiday shopping season, to prove that Apple is still a great growth stock.
Apple will report its results on January 22. Analysts predict revenue will grow 32 percent to about $9.4 billion and that profits will soar 40 percent to $1.60 a share.
Apple's string of healthy results come at a steep price, however. The stock trades at nearly 35 times fiscal 2008 earnings estimates.
That's much higher than the valuations for rivals Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) and personal computer maker Dell (DELL, Fortune 500), which trade at 19 times and 13 times earnings forecasts for this fiscal year respectively.
Still, Apple has consistently smashed Wall Street's earnings per share estimates over the past year. And the company's projected earnings growth rates of 30 percent this fiscal year and 22 percent a year, on average, for the next few years, is much higher than most other large tech companies.
Chowdhry said investors should probably not try and make short-term trades on the stock though. He warns that investors who buy now just because they think Jobs will make an announcement at Macworld that will send the stock higher could be setting themselves up for disappointment.
But analysts said Apple is a good buy for long-term investors who can avoid being influenced by day-to-day volatility. Investors who want to make a bet on the company's ability to keep coming out with the hottest new gadgets and delivering strong earnings will eventually be rewarded.
Visa has Very Few Fanboys
Check out what everyone is saying about Microsoft's "new" operating system here.
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