So Far, So Awesome

I’ve been using my iBook for a good couple of months now, and I’m very pleased with it. Some of the software I’ve used far exceeds what I could ever find on Windows, and I’ve spent more (of my own) money on applications in the last two months than I did in 12 years on a PC.

Here’s a quick list of what I’m using (outside of the usual):

• ecto
• OmniOutliner Pro
• OmniGraffle Pro
• NewsFire
• TextMate
• Kinkless GTD
• Adium
• iWork (I just hope they have a spreadsheet on the next release)

I actually feel far more productive, especially on development. I just wish NewsFire was as good as FeedDemon, and I’ve not yet found a web development environment to match TopStyle Pro, although StyleMaster looks like it might be a decent alternative.

Technorati Tags: apple, osx, software

Now I'm Gloating

Twice in two days? OK, now I’m gloating :-) This one’s from almost two years ago.

BBC (24 February 2005): Takeover talk boosts TiVo shares:

Shares in TiVo, the digital video recorder pioneer, have risen sharply on speculation that it could be bought by Apple Computer.

dwlt (31 March 2003): Apple Thoughts – Part II:

Imagine Apple bought TiVo (current market cap: $300 mn, and probably quite a close cultural fit).

I’ll leave you with this quote from PVRblog:

We may never hear anything else about this rumor but there’s certainly plenty of reasons why an Apple/TiVo merger could work.

iTunes 4.5 Adds Music Videos

iTunes 4.5 to add iMix, videos, trailers, WMA import, more:

In the new Music Video Section, which currently has 72 videos online, users can watch the video of a song and below the video purchase the song while they watch.

Almost what I suggested, but they’re missing a trick:

I would pay, say, $1.49 to own a copy of 50 Centís P.I.M.P. video and many, many others.

Not that I, as a mere UK citizen, can actually buy anything from the iTunes store…

Apple Will Never Produce a Media Center PC

eHomeUpgrade reports that Steve Jobs says Apple will never produce a Media Center style Mac computer. Jobs is quoted as saying that “We’re not going to go that direction” and “Jobs said that video recording is processor intensive and is best left to a device that is not doing other things such as playing games or running spreadsheets.”

This could be interpreted as being that Apple won’t introduce a Mac to do such a thing, but they might introduce other devices which can be connected to the Mac (it’s the digital hub, right?), as I’ve suggested before.

Maybe I should say that I have these things on “good authority” or “from a source close to the company”, and create myself an analyst alter-ego?

iTunes for Windows

I know everyone’s blogged about it already, and some people are having a few teething problems with it, but I just felt I had to write about this. After a couple of minutes playing around with the store (and being in Europe, I can’t even buy anything), the CD completely died for me. When this is available for me (wake up record companies!), I will never buy another CD for personal use again. Ever.

Now, since I’ve only had my sweet-as-a-nut Arcam CD72 for not quite two years, I don’t say that lightly.

Perhaps Arcam could start producing a digital media server? No matter how often I write it, no-one seems to pick up the challenge (or, at least, do it well). I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a real business opportunity there…

I don’t believe I have ever reacted to a piece of software the way I have to iTunes (one of the guys in the office just shared his playlist, and it just appeared on my iTunes without me doing anything—it was just there).

To echo Russ, I need to get a Mac so I can react like this more often…

Update: This post shows that some people aren’t getting on very well with iTunes for Windows, but on my Pentium 3M 750MHz, I’m seeing an average of 3% CPU time, and have had no playback problems at all so far.

Wired on Apple and Sony

Josh McHugh from Wired has a slightly different take on the similarities between Apple and Sony (previously by me here, see also here and here).

I doubt that would happen—but what if Apple bought SonyEricsson? SE’s handsets are almost what Apple would produce, but they just lack that Apple sparkle…

Believe me when I say...

BusinessWeek Online expand on my prediction...

I’ll add to that by saying that I don’t think Sony get the networking side of things as well as Apple do.

I said that, too!

I’m starting to wonder if it’s not very simple: Apple is trying to become an appliance company

Yep, that’s what I said on March 31…

Analysing the iTunes Business Model

Via Don Park: Glenbrook Opinion : Micropayments Redux at the iTunes Music Store

Has Apple broken the code on micropayments? Yes and no.

iTunes XML

JY Stervinou looks at the iTunes backend (so to speak) JY’s weblog

iTunes 4 is a beautiful example of a “specialized browser”.

Duh

Commentary: Breaking the digital music logjam | CNET News.com

...but it won’t get Apple out of its 5 percent ghetto in the PC business.

Who says it needs, or even wants, to? I’m not going to say it again…

Probably. ;-)

More on iTunes Music Store

Fortune has a good article: Fortune.com – Technology – Songs in the Key of Steve

It seems that the lock-in for the service to the US is mandated by the record labels, and the licenses for the music last for 12 months. This is a high-profile experiment, for the record companies at least, and will be interesting to keep an eye on this. I expect we’ll see some numbers at Apple’s next quarterly statement (due 16 July).

I think it also shows how a new, digital only, record label could emerge, hooking in to iTunes (and the similar services that will appear) to promote their artists. Serendipity is one of the most powerful intrinsic aspects of the web, and is something that Amazon is tremendously good at establishing for its users (“People who bought that, also bought this”). I don’t know if iTunes is setup for this or not, but it should be.

The other interesting aspect that comes out of this is Apple’s “invisible” piracy protection, Fairplay. News.com has a bit more here. If they can get this working with QuickTime, and possibly hooked into iTunes as well, I would pay to download music videos as well (not all of them; stuff by Gorillaz or Fatboy Slim).

Journalist Karlin Lillington has posted some thoughts as well, and she’s even used it!

Just watch. We’ll have more people using the iTunes Music Store in the first day than Pressplay or MusicNet have even signed up as subscribers—probably in the first hour.

... the iPod is the most obvious new line of business, steering Apple onto the home turf of consumer-electronics giants like Sony and Matsushita.

iTunes Music Store

News.com: Apple unveils music store | CNET News.com

So no real surprises, but I guess that’s good. It seems like this is everything a digital music service should be, though I haven’t delved in deep yet. I hope it supports huge amounts of obscure and out of print releases – that should be the real power of digital distribution, and something that Amazon have played off since they started.

The iTunes 4 software looks like its been done exactly as you would expect, which is a great start.

Here’s my problem: why on earth is this only available in the US? I’ve been thinking about getting some sort of Mac for a while now, and this announcement was the winner for me (about 1 month ago, it’s not been much of a secret ;-) ). So why limit to the US (not even available in Canada)? Can anyone enlighten me? I can only assume this is a record label requirement.

But my, that new iPod looks good :-D Apple must be a cool place to work again…

Finally...

News.com: Apple tunes up for music pitch

Apple Computer has scheduled a media event for April 28, an occasion the company may use to debut a new online music service that has been in the works.

Bring it on…

More Apple News

The Register have posted an article which details a reported Apple Mac Wireless Tablet (iPad?).

A wireless living room tablet is something I was musing about the other week as well, but wouldn’t OS X be a bit big for such a device? Surely Palm OS would be a better bet?

Additionally, Think Secret have a report on a new 30GB iPod, which states that Apple will unveil details of their digital music service at the same time the new iPod’s are revealed. We shall see…

Follow-on to Apple / Universal Music

Further to my earlier story, Dave pointed out this post.

Well argued, and buying Universal (or any content company) certainly isn’t a wise strategic move move for Apple. Historically, mergers between software and hardware companies like this haven’t been happy (think Disney/ABC or Sony/Colombia).

It all lends more credence to my earlier consumer electronics argument. If you ask me.

Apple to buy Universal Music?

Well, after my sweeping statement declaring that Apple was a consumer electronics company, looks like they’re following the Sony route of buying the software to go with the hardware: Report: Apple Seeks Vivendi Music Unit

I guess Steve took my advice to heart…

Apple Thoughts - Part II

Last week, I wrote that I’d had some thoughts about Apple. This is the main course of what I was thinking about…

With the introduction of the iPod, Apple become more than just an iconic computer company; it became a consumer electronics company. Apple has long been at the forefront of making electronic things easier, hence its largely proprietary stance on protocols until recent years. Rendezvous, Apple’s brand name for ZeroConf technology, looks like it will make as big an impact as AirPort (WiFi), FireWire (IEEE.1394), or USB in these terms. All of which is great, and rightly makes Apple a very cool and highly respected company.

However, to survive in the very long term, Apple needs to find a new growth area. Desktop computing probably isn’t it and as beautiful as the XServer may be, server machines certainly isn’t it.

Which brings us back to: consumer electronics. With the iPod, Apple showed that it could create a highly desirable, high performance piece of kit, which connected intelligently with desktop computers. Apple understands the power of the network, the importance of quality, the importance of usability, and (of course) drool-inducing aesthetics.

Here’s my point: Apple’s real competitor is Sony, not Microsoft, Dell or Sun.

Consumer electronics is a $100 billion per year market (in the US alone). For a company focused on producing top quality, digital network ready equipment with $4 billion cash in hand, it could make quite a splash. I’m pretty damn sure that I’d find it a home.

Imagine Apple bought TiVo (current market cap: $300 mn, and probably quite a close cultural fit). It would have the clout to make the digital VCR a mainstay in living rooms across the world. And you might even be able to programme the damn thing as well. In fact, why not integrate it into the television set? Now that’s a digital TV!

Imagine Apple introduced a CD player with a FireWire port on the front and a multi gigabyte hard drive. Every time I played a CD, it would record it to said hard drive, attaching album/song information along the way. I could then connect my digital audio player of choice to the unit, and synchronise my playlists. Or, I could stream the audio to speakers anywhere in my house over whichever wireless network I had available.

Imagine Apple bought Palm (current market cap: $296 mn) or Handspring (market cap: $95 mn), and both definitely close cultural fits. It would have the spiritual successor to Newton in its hands, and be able to create the PDA it so clearly wants to (cf new iPod features). This new PDA would also make for a pretty handy universal remote, which could provide more detailed UIs for the TiVo and the CD player.

The electronics industry has created so many technologies for connecting things together over the last 10 years, that it hasn’t actually stopped to make interesting products with those technologies. And if any company can take technology and turn it into something useful for and usable by non-techies, it’s Apple. It will be interesting to see what (if any) new products are unveiled in the coming months, and whether Apple will transcend any further to the consumer electronics sector. (And Steve: if you read this and decide to act on any of my ideas, all I ask is that you cut me in on the action somehow).

Apple Succession

(This one’s deliberately designed to troll my good friend Hewligan)

I was thinking about Apple yesterday as I lazed in the spring sunshine, and I’ll write up some more of my thoughts later.

However, one of the things that came to mind was this: who will succeed Steve Jobs? Apple have obviously been through this process before with John Sculley (ex-PepsiCo) and Gil Amelio (ex-National Semiconductor), neither of whom were overly successful, and the board eventually succumbed to Jobs’ reality distortion field and re-hired him.

Seems to me like Apple is a lot like Microsoft in this regard: the company is essentially a projection of the founder. Steve Ballmer may hold the CEO title, but no-one doubts that it is still Bill Gates that runs Microsoft.

However, the day will come when Apple – or Jobs – needs to pick a successor CEO. And that’s not going to be an easy task, so although the date (barring tragedy) is someway off, are Apple’s board thinking about this now? (Yes, I’m assuming that Apple will still be around for some time :-)

They tried somebody from a consumer product background (not technical enough), and from a technical background (not consumer-oriented enough), but finding someone with Jobs’ potent mix of both… that’s a hard call. Maybe there’s someone within Apple who could do it? I’m aware of one person who may fit well (I don’t actually know him, but am aware of his career path to date) – I’m not going to say his name out loud though.

In just over 20 years, Apple has gone from a quirky start-up to a stand-out icon of the computing industry (I would say the only iconic company of the industry), and I do hope it is here for a long time to come: even if only to keep pushing the industry forward rather than dominate it. Considering this from a potential investor’s point of view, succession is going to be (I think) the key factor in the long-term success of the company.

What do you think?