Apple
The Kindle: Dead, Deadly, and Dominant
Just before the launch of the iPad, I ventured the safe prediction that Amazon’s ebook reader, the Kindle, was kindling. It was doomed to be crushed by Apple’s reactionary, if magical, iPad. As hardware, the Kindle is history, but as software it is brilliant, with enduring advantages over Apple’s iBook. During the last four months, Amazon has [...]
Visa, Mastercard, or iPhone?
Google and Apple will soon compete with Visa and Mastercard to process your payments in stores, restaurants, and online. Both companies will be pulled into payment processing because both have built two valuable networks: one of developers who build apps, the other of consumers who buy them. But the developer network has diminishing returns, whereas [...]
WhyPad?
Apple’s iPad has been subject to two prevailing narratives: one sycophantic (“a magical and revolutionary device”), the other scornful (“an overgrown iPod Touch”). Here is a fast first reaction that reconciles the two and argues that for many if not most people, a tablet is in your future. 1. Well, it is revolutionary. And as close [...]
The Empire Strikes Back: iPhone 4.0
In one year Apple and Google have gone from allies to antagonists to epic combatants. The contest is really just beginning — and it is shaping up as a replay of the battle fought 30 years ago between Apple and Microsoft. At today's release of iPhone OS 4.0, Steve Jobs took a swipe at Amazon, Adobe, Microsoft, [...]
The People's Republic of Apple
Apple, Google, and Microsoft are the three most important technology companies in the world and they now mirror the world's three most important economies. Apple is China, booming but autocratic. Microsoft is Europe, wealthy, stagnant, and declining. Google is the USA, an immature but powerful force for freedom prone to arrogance and to fighting too many wars at [...]
How Amazon Can Compete with Apple
At the moment, Amazon's best selling Kindle is the king of the eBook readers. But the impending launch of Apple's iPad means that unless Amazon changes its direction and its mindset, the Kindle is kindling. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has a tough habit to break. It started when he built the Kindle and he deliberately [...]
Why the iPad Matters — even if you are already sick of it.
The PR was stunning, the product impressive, and the strategy tiresome. Apple stoked rumors of a dreamy tablet for either two years old or thirteen, depending on how you count. For six months, the leading tech blogs have been quivering with speculation about the "Jesus tablet". One blog, Gizmodo, offered $100,000 cash for an hour [...]
The Death of the Desktop?
Google today revealed details of its operating system: Chrome OS. There is a reason that they named their operating system after their browser: their operating system IS a browser. Your computer boots in seconds and up comes a browser. Take more than a cursory look at Chrome OS and you realize that Google is offering [...]
The Apple Squeeze
Have your noticed that Apple is getting squeezed? Consider these recent developments: 1. With Windows 7, Microsoft has substantially closed the performance gap with the Mac OS, thus quietly removing the major reason to switch to a Mac. Both professional reviews and personal experience confirm that with Windows 7, Microsoft got it right. In a [...]
Reinventing and Rediscovering Music
The traditional music industry is dead and likely to be more studied than missed. Every label is in trouble, mainly because CD sales decline every year, with 2009 likely to be a free fall. Every dedicated music retail chain is out of business. Only the #1 retailer matters – Apple’s iTunes. The rest, including Walmart [...]
iBrain
On two recent flights the person sitting next to me had an Apple iPhone. I asked them both "is your iPhone taking over your brain?" Both times, my seatmate looked slightly embarrassed before confessing, "actually, yes". My iPhone has been taking over my brain — or at least the digital part of it. When I [...]
A Brilliant Flashback
Saturday night I took a trip back to the 1970s and found two groups of people. One remains unchanged — seemingly frozen in time. Another group has taken what they learned in the seventies and used it to change the world. The occasion was a benefit concert for the Seva Foundation at Oakland’s beautiful Paramount [...]
Media Wants to Be Digital, Downloadable, and Free
Mooreâs Law famously describes an important trend in computer processing power: the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit increases exponentially. Specifically, Intel founder Gordon Moore observed that chip density doubles about every two years. Thanks to Mooreâs Law, computer processing is now free for most intents and purposes. Metcalfeâs [...]
Steve Jobs — Again
For Steve Jobs, it is clearly not sufficient to be the leading innovator of the age — his products must be so hot that they define cool for the entire planet. The figures boggle the mind: six years after launch 110 million iPods now play 4 billion songs. 200 days after launch, 1 million iPhones [...]
To Infinity and Beyond: Steve Jobs Does it Again
Every year at this time I make a habit of watching the finest business presentation on the planet: the Steve Jobs keynote address at Mac World. The event is held nearby, but I watch the film to see Jobs present new results, products, and businesses. On Tuesday Jobs keynoted MacWorld 2007. He is surely one [...]
Audacious. Daring. Artistic. Insanely Great. 30 years old.
CNET wishes Happy 30th Birthday to the company that won our minds by knowing our hearts. They recall that the founders used to go "door-to-door at the UC Berkeley dorms selling "blue boxes"–electronic devices that tricked the telephone network into allowing free long-distance phone calls". One of the scofflaws was Steve Jobs, easily America’s most [...]
The Time is Right for E-books
Like music five years ago, today’s book industry is ripe for an iPod. Here is why eBooks are back and why, when they hit, many brick and mortar book stores will start to look like the fading relics that many music stores do now.
