Followup and random thoughts....
SciAm's Oxygen Issue
http://www.sciam.com/1999/0899issue/0899currentissue.html
and MIT's site
http://oxygen.lcs.mit.edu/
HP's Cooltown latest update
http://www.cooltown.com/mpulse/0102-index.asp
IBM's Pervasive computing
http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj38-4.html
http://www.research.ibm.com/thinkresearch/pervasive.shtml
http://www-3.ibm.com/pvc/index.shtml
or the whole enchilata
http://www.ibm.com/Search?v=11&lang=en&cc=us&q=pervasive+computing
Some thoughts,
cell phones - in Europe they are the primary way people access the internet, not desktops as in America. So, how is Apple Europe going to address this?
Notice cell phone displays are getting bigger and bigger - it's the screen size that counts - but against this is the need to be able to carry the thing easily and hang it off your belt or pocket. So it seems to me we need to seperate the two devices - one for networks access and one for display (user interface) tie it all together wirelessly - add value to the equation by letting each one still be useable without the other just less functional -
1. the link still has speaker and mic for audio only and keypad for dailing - small postage stamp screen for call ID and phonebook lookup
2. pad has functions of most organizer PDAs such as stored notes, lists, calendar all static until network connect is re-established.
[Seeing your reply AmbitiousLemon now so......]
Actually much of what needs to be done it there - the hardware that's needed exists - the storage capacity, processing power and wired and wireless links exist and are cheap enough. What holds us back is the software standards and the fact that no one company controls it all or enough don't agree to work together to bring the pieces together.
That's why I wish Apple would get out of the "we make the best PC" vaccuum and look at what people want. Apple controls the hardware, software and networking to do this on a home scale. If they did it, as always, others would follow.
We will know when we have gotten along on this path when computers start disappearing. Perhaps the new iMac is a step in that direction IF HOW IT FITS INTO THE BIG PICTURE IS RECOGNIZED. People don't generally sit at computers all day (at least not willfully). We prefer couches, lazy-boys or outside at a cafe or in an automobile. So computing power needs to move there. And most people don't care to communicate with keyboards or a mouse. We talk, we listen and we have spent 10,000 years scratching with a stick on a flat surface. So computing power needs to move there too and in that way. I see nothing from Apple to address either of those needs.
As to Europe, would it risk so much for Apple to develop a PDA to link with say a Nokia phone via bluetooth and start to move them off desktop/laptop only revenue? Their market share on desktop/laptops is almot unmeasureable so either two things must happen:
1. some revolution in desktop/laptop computing must happen - like redmond slides off the face of the earth in a quake and all remaining microsoft software gets destroyed or forgotten on the millions of desktops it already exists on - NOT VERY LIKELY
or
2. concede the desktop battle to windows, not publicly but research wise, sure keep making a profit on the 5-6 million of us who buy mac but set a longer term goal on next generation computing that needs to happen in the cars, sofas, cafes and mobile phone users of the future.
iPod shows that that can happen, comuter hardware and software are not the only revenue stream Apple can have.
SciAm's Oxygen Issue
http://www.sciam.com/1999/0899issue/0899currentissue.html
and MIT's site
http://oxygen.lcs.mit.edu/
HP's Cooltown latest update
http://www.cooltown.com/mpulse/0102-index.asp
IBM's Pervasive computing
http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj38-4.html
http://www.research.ibm.com/thinkresearch/pervasive.shtml
http://www-3.ibm.com/pvc/index.shtml
or the whole enchilata
http://www.ibm.com/Search?v=11&lang=en&cc=us&q=pervasive+computing
Some thoughts,
cell phones - in Europe they are the primary way people access the internet, not desktops as in America. So, how is Apple Europe going to address this?
Notice cell phone displays are getting bigger and bigger - it's the screen size that counts - but against this is the need to be able to carry the thing easily and hang it off your belt or pocket. So it seems to me we need to seperate the two devices - one for networks access and one for display (user interface) tie it all together wirelessly - add value to the equation by letting each one still be useable without the other just less functional -
1. the link still has speaker and mic for audio only and keypad for dailing - small postage stamp screen for call ID and phonebook lookup
2. pad has functions of most organizer PDAs such as stored notes, lists, calendar all static until network connect is re-established.
[Seeing your reply AmbitiousLemon now so......]
Actually much of what needs to be done it there - the hardware that's needed exists - the storage capacity, processing power and wired and wireless links exist and are cheap enough. What holds us back is the software standards and the fact that no one company controls it all or enough don't agree to work together to bring the pieces together.
That's why I wish Apple would get out of the "we make the best PC" vaccuum and look at what people want. Apple controls the hardware, software and networking to do this on a home scale. If they did it, as always, others would follow.
We will know when we have gotten along on this path when computers start disappearing. Perhaps the new iMac is a step in that direction IF HOW IT FITS INTO THE BIG PICTURE IS RECOGNIZED. People don't generally sit at computers all day (at least not willfully). We prefer couches, lazy-boys or outside at a cafe or in an automobile. So computing power needs to move there. And most people don't care to communicate with keyboards or a mouse. We talk, we listen and we have spent 10,000 years scratching with a stick on a flat surface. So computing power needs to move there too and in that way. I see nothing from Apple to address either of those needs.
As to Europe, would it risk so much for Apple to develop a PDA to link with say a Nokia phone via bluetooth and start to move them off desktop/laptop only revenue? Their market share on desktop/laptops is almot unmeasureable so either two things must happen:
1. some revolution in desktop/laptop computing must happen - like redmond slides off the face of the earth in a quake and all remaining microsoft software gets destroyed or forgotten on the millions of desktops it already exists on - NOT VERY LIKELY
or
2. concede the desktop battle to windows, not publicly but research wise, sure keep making a profit on the 5-6 million of us who buy mac but set a longer term goal on next generation computing that needs to happen in the cars, sofas, cafes and mobile phone users of the future.
iPod shows that that can happen, comuter hardware and software are not the only revenue stream Apple can have.