Articles
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Skating Towards the Goal
First things first: I do not subscribe to the idea that a Bill Gates return would be a good outcome for Microsoft. Indeed, much of what troubles Microsoft today is directly attributable to Gates, particularly the Vista disaster/distraction and the Windows obsession. Still, though, there is something to be said for the power and inspiration that…
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The Magical iPad
This is part three in a series on last week’s iPad event. Part 1: Whither Liberal Arts? | Part 2: The Missing “Why” of the iPad | Part 3: The Magical iPad In The Missing “Why” of the iPad I wrote: Yesterday’s presentation covered the “What” and “How” of the iPad, but it had nothing about…
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The Missing "Why" of the iPad
This is part two in a series on last week’s iPad event. Part 1: Whither Liberal Arts? | Part 2: The Missing “Why” of the iPad | Part 3: The Magical iPad Christina Warren took issue with my article, Whither Liberal Arts: To this I have just one response. It’s the best Apple commercial in years…
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Whither Liberal Arts?
This is part one in a series on last week’s iPad event. Part 1: Whither Liberal Arts? | Part 2: The Missing “Why” of the iPad | Part 3: The Magical iPad Steve Jobs closed the January, 2010 introduction of the iPad with this now famous slide: His remarks: The reason that Apple is able to…
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iPad Predictions, Revisited
I wrote about my expectations for tomorrow’s iPad event back in August in an article entitled The iPad is like the iPod, not the iPhone. The introduction: Most folks seem to instinctively compare the iPad and the tablet market to the iPhone and smartphone market, and it’s easy to see why. They share the same OS,…
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So the 5S is (allegedly) killing the 5C. Why is this bad news?
John Koetsier, writing at VetureBeat: Apple has the prototypical good-news, bad-news scenario on its hands, with soaring sales of its flagship iPhone 5S contrasting sharply with souring sales of its “for the colorful” iPhone 5C. “Our latest channel checks confirm that Apple indeed has cut back 5C production by 35 percent and increased 5S production by…
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Open Source Apps
I’m a bit late to the most recent flareup around app store pricing – it’s been a busy week of traveling – but it’s worth noting that the trend towards free is basically inevitable and the expected result in a functioning market. To put it another way, apps want to be free just like apples want…
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Overstating the Consumerization of IT
Marco Arment, in Underscore Price Dynamics: This is the real reason why Apple doesn’t care about upgrade pricing: there’s no demand from customers. The market has shown that free apps will be downloaded at least an order of magnitude more than paid-up-front apps, and smart use of in-app purchase in a free app is likely to…
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Obsoletive
Not all products are disruptive: some are obsoletive. They are more expensive but remove the need for entire categories of products.