Wow, I wonder if Jobs himself forces some of these guys (VP of iPhone or whatever) to dress and deliver speeches like him when doing keynotes.
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Quicktime Stream of Apple iPhone SDK Event
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Remember Zen, Zune, Archos Dell, Aiwa, Olympus, Samsung, Sony?
Everyone was going to come out with an iPod killer. Some of them already thought they "owned" the portable music player business.
I don't put a lot of stock in anyone dethroning Apple from their place in the Market be it an iPod or iPhone or iTouch because Apple is fast at hitting a market in a way that people don't expect and under estimate, and then quickly changing the rules of the market so rapidly that the "catchup crowd" is kept off balance.
I wouldn't be surprised that this was behind Apple entering the iPhone market $200 higher then they intended to be. The competition was first thinking that it would be easy to do the same thing, only to find that they had to scrap their plans and start over with a much lower cost factor. Now the feature set in the iPhone has suddenly exploded and requires a whole different network structure to support it, so it's not just a matter of making competitive hardware with feature rich software, but changing the entire system that supports the features.
I was very impressed with what was announced today; mostly because it was waaaaay more than what anyone expected or predicted.
Everyone was going to come out with an iPod killer. Some of them already thought they "owned" the portable music player business.
I don't put a lot of stock in anyone dethroning Apple from their place in the Market be it an iPod or iPhone or iTouch because Apple is fast at hitting a market in a way that people don't expect and under estimate, and then quickly changing the rules of the market so rapidly that the "catchup crowd" is kept off balance.
I wouldn't be surprised that this was behind Apple entering the iPhone market $200 higher then they intended to be. The competition was first thinking that it would be easy to do the same thing, only to find that they had to scrap their plans and start over with a much lower cost factor. Now the feature set in the iPhone has suddenly exploded and requires a whole different network structure to support it, so it's not just a matter of making competitive hardware with feature rich software, but changing the entire system that supports the features.
I was very impressed with what was announced today; mostly because it was waaaaay more than what anyone expected or predicted.
This is a totally different market though. Apple has not yet even earned 1% market share. There's nothing to kill... The iPod has a 72% market share, and all the others are playing catch up. The iPhone is still young but faces more competition than the iPod has ever seen...
Did anyone notice how gaunt Steve looked? It's the first thing I noticed when he came on stage. I hope he's ok, although it took everyone 9 months to even find out about you-know-what.
iWipe....
Am I the only one who thinks the remote "Wipe" feature is scary yet kewl at the same time... I can see that being a feature which may really attract large Corps that are IP sensitive...
Am I the only one who thinks the remote "Wipe" feature is scary yet kewl at the same time... I can see that being a feature which may really attract large Corps that are IP sensitive...
Anyone else notice that in the 2.0 software they changed the calculator icon AGAIN lol??? What is with them and that icon??? Sorry I didn't see the post with the pic above me. I don't like the square buttons. I like the current one.
I am so excited about all this. I have been waiting for a year to get the iPhone and it got even harder now to hold out till the 2nd gen
The iPhone is approaching the iPod effect and is about to conquer the world
I am so excited about all this. I have been waiting for a year to get the iPhone and it got even harder now to hold out till the 2nd gen
The iPhone is approaching the iPod effect and is about to conquer the world Couldn't have said it better myself! Now everyone has an iPod. In a few years and after they release the iPhone Nano, the iPhone WILL cannibalize iPods and everyone will have an iPhone.
WOW... Um, did you happen to hear what Apple announced today???
I am excited too. It is like watching the iPod back before it exploded, but this time with the iPhone we can totally see it coming.
Good insight. This sure was a fun event
anyone else think Phil was given a chance to practice his keynote speeches for when he takes over?
Yeah, I was kinda wondering about that. But I actually think that Scott spoke better and more clearly.. Phil seemed to look down at the screen and stutter a little bit. But heck, that's better than I could do... I'd probably pass out. I hate public speaking
He looks like he's getting skinnier and skinnier. Compare this keynote and a keynote from five years ago. whoa!
I truthfully think the iPhone is at its peak in terms of distance from the competition. Apple isn't competing against the no-names they did when they first brought out the iPod [which then led all the other companies to fight an uphill battle]. They are competing with multi-billion dollars like Nokia, Microsoft, RIM, LG, Samsung, Motorola, HTC, Sony Erricson, and soon Google all at once, with each having their eye on the iPhone. Thinking these heavy weight companies will be even farther behinda year later comes off as a little silly to me, personally. I mean,
My feeling is that yes, everyone else is going to be chasing Apple and may catch up and exceed them, even. But the point is that they've created a spark and a drive to do so. Mobile technology has been evolving linearly for years, one small step after another. This has the potential to be the beginning of exponential change, with products and platforms being developed faster and with more innovation than we've seen before. The fact that so many companies with so many resources have had a kick in the ass to get moving is great, as far as I'm concerned.
The IT shop I work in would absolutely not consider deploying iPhones in our enterprise without this feature. It's the first thing the anti-iPhone, pro-BlackBerry guys I work with bring up. When I told them about this and the other features being added, there was an immediate switch in opinion. Apple got it exactly right with the features they're adding for the enterprise in 2.0, including remote wipe. And keep in mind that you have to be connected to a managed Exchange account to use this...it's not like you can wipe random iPhones as you see fit. Consumers who aren't using their iPhone in a business environment will never know or care about this.
Did anyone notice that there were a number of apps already in the store when he demoed it?
What are those?
What are those?
I'd like to see that but since he's a bit down the food chain Peter Oppenheimer seems a more likely choice. If Jobs can manage to stay healthy he might have a legacy like Steve Ross of Time-Warner... Ross was considered a father to many in that company until his death. After Ross, Gerald Levin and those who followed simply were not capable of guiding the company the way he did.
The oddness of Apple is that it is a corporation that is run in many ways like a private company with Jobs, its founder, at the helm. When Jobs is gone, the true direction of the company may be lost with him. His focus on industrial design and self-contained retail is, don't laugh, inspired by the leadership of Dr. Amar Bose, MIT professor and founder of Bose, a private company. Say what you will about their product, but they are an extremely profitable organization focusing dollars heavily on R&D. They also have a strong vertical integration at the retail level... stores in which employees are instructed not to disparage the competition but sell by only focusing on the merits of their own product.
I think that public corporations spell doom for real innovation because they are predicated upon quarterly returns and transitory leadership... two things that are the antithesis of long-term sustainable growth. For Apple's scale, I think they should have remained a private company as that would eliminate the impetus to focus on the short term. It would have been more in line with their managerial philosophy.
Jobs will need to be replaced by someone who has that vision... but their compensation methodology makes me concerned in that, as Warren Buffett has pointed out repeatedly, huge option grants are a recipe for disaster where transitory leadership is concerned. It encourages HR departments to not calculate a truly well-conceived compensation package (options are treated as "play money," as Buffett put it), it falsely inflates earnings, and depending on the magnitude of the grants it occasionally allows relative short-termers entry into the Board of Directors. Their compensation structure needs to change if they're going to attract the right kind of leadership to succeed Steve Jobs.
I don't think he looked gaunt, he just let his hair grow out a bit so his face looked thinner.
iWipe could cause havoc in the wrong hands
Companies need to keep disgruntled employees FAR away from an Exchange Console.
Actually I think it's a less-than-subtle jab at HP. The brown buttons and orange/yellow equals button are on the majority of HP's scientific and business calculators.
Steve Jobs met Steve Wozniak while interning at HP. The story goes that when Woz developed the Apple I, he had to show it to HP because of intellectual property rights over anything he developed during his employ there. HP passed on it, balking at the idea that the average person would ever need a computer.
Strange irony, then, that by December of last year, Apple had surpassed HP's market capitalization, is outpacing their growth, and recently purchased about 50 acres of HP office space no longer used because of layoffs. Apple is in the process of building a second campus on that land to house around 3500 more employees.
If ever there were a pitch for a "Pirates of Silicon Valley II: Apple's Revenge" that would be a great footnote in the same spirit as the "Microsoft now owns part of Apple" footnote on the original 1999 TV movie. Almost funnier than when in 1997 Michael Dell suggested that, were he in charge, he would break Apple up and sell off the parts.
Dell is now shutting down their retail stores.
