Big Step for Amazon – Kindle on iPhone

March 4, 2009 By

When Amazon introduced the new Kindle 2 ebook reader, somewhat overlooked was what may end up being the most important announcement of all, that Amazon was looking to put the Kindle technology on other devices. It came much faster than I expected when last  night I discovered the Kindle iPhone application was available.

The app itself is very well done and after purchasing my first Kindle book, opening the app synced my purchase right over to the iPhone, easy as can be. The reading experience on the iPhone is surprisingly good. Of course it’s no match for a real Kindle with the larger screen and eInk technology, but I was perfectly happy with the experience. You can control font sizes, create book marks and the software remembers where you left off.

It’s a significant development because it effectively drives the price for a Kindle reader down to $199 from a regular Kindle price of $359. For people who already own the iPhone, which is far more people than the Kindle device, the app to add Kindle functionality is free. This is going to put Kindle books into far more hands far quicker than Amazon could do on it’s own. It will also likely sell more Kindle hardware as well as people want to upgrade to a better reading experience. As I said in the last podcast, Amazon is in the book sales business not the hardware business. This is a great first step and I can’t wait to see where else Kindle technology shows up.

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Steve Jobs: Mortal

January 18, 2009 By

No sooner do I blog about Steve Jobs and Apple than the other show drops and Jobs himself announces a leave of absence until June. If speculation wasn’t already running wild, it’s gone completely gonzo now. What it tells me is that Steve is mortal and he hasn’t found a way to clone himself yet. Seriously, here is a short term and long term plan for Steve Jobs and Apple.

Short Term

Jobs should return to Apple as a “chief architect”. This is very similar to what Bill Gates did at Microsoft during his last few years. Basically, someone else is running the show but you are there daily to oversee critical strategy. Lessen the load of daily grinding management may extend your years at the company. In addition, it is a more easy and graceful exit without the jarring effects of just leaving when you get too sick.

Long Term

Also, while serving as chief architect, you are installing the long term solution. Take a look at Disney and you could say as well that Walt Disney was everything to Disney. Where would Disney ever be without his singular vision and passion? How could Disney ever survive without him? But it has. Disney is one of the premiere companies in the world and is as great today as it was is Walts time. But how?

I think the answer is that Walt Disney was able to inject his dna into the company in such a fundamental way that it has stuck all this time. I think people at Disney think to themselves, what would Walt do? Would this make Walt proud? Continuing to honer and stick to Walt’s principals and ideals has kept Disney strong. So it will be Steve Jobs task to inject his dna into Apple in the same way. If he can do this, I think Apple will be a strong company for years to come.

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Connected World Radio: Generational Tech

January 15, 2009 By

Technology is very generational and different generations take different things for granted. I ruminate about my own technology firsts and those of my daughters. My youngest will be of the Connected Generation or a Digital Native.

Books Referenced:

Born Digital
Grown Up Digital

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Steve Jobs Comes Clean

January 5, 2009 By

Speculation about the health of Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been swirling for over a year. People are taking more notice of his physical appearane than the products he announces at his famous presentations. Apple has been characteristicly mum on the topic, giving no indication of Steve’s real condition.

Finally, this Sunday, Steve Jobs published a letter to the Apple community talking about the real reason for his obvious weight loss over the year. It’s obvious from the end of the letter it’s something he did not want to do. Steve Jobs has never liked talking about personal matters. The problem is Steve Jobs is no ordinary individual. He isn’t even an ordinary CEO. Jobs is a personality, a rock star if you will. When you are one of the most watched and popular CEO’s in corporate America, and when so much of the health and future of your company appears to rest on your shoulders, you’re going to get the increased scrutiny.

In the new social media world of increased transparency and openness, Apple is one of the worst companies. They do not play in this world. As innovative as their producs are, Apple marketing is as traditional as ever. The Apple community is amazingly strong and creates plenty of it’s own user generated content, but Apple almost never talks directly with the community. Apple gets away with it, though, because Jobs “reality distortion field” is so strong and their producs are so strong. But this may not last forever

Until Jobs finds a way to clone himself, Apple remains a cult of personality and when someday Jobs is forced to retire, Apple will have to find it’s way without him. If you want a good profile of Steve Jobs and his personality, I recommened reading The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. The book gives you a good idea of why Apple is the way it is. With Jobs gone, I think Apple will have to change. They will have to start using more social media tactics of transparancy and engadement with customers. My goodness, they might even have to start an actual blog.

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Social Media Morning Show 8-22-08

August 22, 2008 By

Audi publishes an iPhone application for their A4 car and it’s a complete failure.

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Apple Can't Make Time For iPhone Copy and Paste

July 28, 2008 By

I’m a big Apple fan and I own lots of Apple products including a first generation iPhone. I was somewhat shocked to read some statements from Apple product head Greg Joswiak about some iPhone features customers have been wanting. As far as copy and paste goes, the article says:

Apple has a priority list of features, and they got as far as they could down that list with this model, Joswiak said

Really? Apple’s priority list of features certainly does not match up with its customers priority list because every iPhone owner I know had copy and paste at the top of that list. It smacks of the elitism that has always been a part of Apple if you look closely. We’ll do what we please and you’ll like it. For the most part we do because what they create is amazing. For all the talk of Open Source and freedom on the Internet, Apple is the most closed, proprietry company there is. So, Apple will give you copy and paste on the iPhone when they are darn good and ready and until then you will sit quietly and wait.

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Netflix and Apple TV – Great and Flawed

April 3, 2008 By

As a movie lover, I love  my Netflix subscription. I can get practically any movie ever made including many indie ones that never show near me. I pay one simple monthly fee and can watch as many movies as I can handle. I can take as much time to watch the movie as I need and return it at my convenience. It’s the kind of business model that’s made Netflix a winner and has put undue pressure on Blockbuster. What could be better?

Well, if I didn’t have to wait for the mail to get a movie. If I could sit in the comfort of my couch and order up movies instantly. Enter Apple TV. Especially with the new Take 2 version of Apple TV where rentals are part of the equation, the speed an simplicity of watching movies on demand is unparalleled.

Netflix and Apple have equal but opposite problems. Apple  has a fantastic distribution system but not nearly enough movies. Netflix has all the movies and then some, but an outdated and slower delivery method. I’m waiting for one or the other to deliver the knockout punch. If Netflix could only deliver online more effectively. Their current system for watching movies online is cumbersome, only works with Windows and is available for very few movies. So, it’s useless. Apple has very few movies available and at the rate they add movies, it will take a lifetime to match the Netflix selection. Also, Apple has some of the more draconian and lame DRM rules for rented movies. Lastly, at $3.99 per movie, it only takes 3 iTunes movie rentals to equal a basic Netflix subscription which gets you unlimited movies per month and no stupid DRM rules.

Now Apple is the 10,000lb gorilla in this match and should be able to knock out Netflix easily, but so long as Apple and Hollywood keep their heads in the ground, they’re never going to do it. I actually blame Hollywood on this one as they are mostly short sided and paranoid. I think Apple does want to knock out Netflix but Hollywood won’t let them. Hollywood execs are more scared of Steve Jobs than they are of the so-called movie pirates. Fear is never a winning business strategy.

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Social Media Morning Show 3/31/08

March 31, 2008 By

Comments on the recent Wired article about Apple and their “evil” underbelly.

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  Social Media Morning

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Social Media Morning Show 1/16/08

January 16, 2008 By

All the major record labels are now offering non-DRM music, but they are using Amazon.com not iTunes as their platform. What does it mean for Apple?

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  Social Media Morning

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Web Development in the iPhone'ed Mobile World

December 13, 2007 By

With great fanfare, Steve Jobs told the world the one of the biggest innovations of the iphone was bringing the “real” internet to a mobile device for the first time. No more junior, stripped down websites, with the iPhone you can view entire original websites as they were intended to be viewed.

Because the iPhone did not ship with the ability to run third party native applications, Jobs boldly told the development community they should build web 2.0 applications that would be just as good as native applications. Than Apple release development guidelines detailing how developers could build custom web applications formatted perfectly for the iPhone.

Thousands of web applications have sprung up for the iPhone, many of them very useful and well done. But these are custom applications that only run on the iPhone. What about the rest of the mobile market? What ever happened to the “real” internet? The point that you didn’t need to develop any kind of special or stripped down version of a site just to view it on a mobile phone? Apple has fallen into its own bear trap. I’m not complaining too much, being an iPhone user myself, but the rest of the mobile world is getting a little bit of a rip off with more development time being put into iphone specific web applications.

If you’re a business and you are looking to make some noise in the mobile market, should you create an iPhone custom web app? Probably, especially if you believe your target customer is likely to own an iPhone, but don’t forget about the rest of the mobile universe. It’s still a great deal bigger than the iPhone market, at least for now.

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