May 28th, 2009

BusinessWeek: Apple is most innovative company

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:26 am

Categories: Apple, Opinion

Tags: BusinessWeek, Senior Executive, Apple Inc., BW, Marketing Research, Strategy, Marketing, Management, Jason D. O'Grady

BusinessWeek has posted its list of The 50 Most Innovative Companies and Apple tops the list. According to the survey taken by “senior executives around the world,” Apple ranks number one with the reason given by 47% of respondents is its products.

While the 2009 list includes some stalwarts in their usual top positions—namely Apple and Google—15 newcomers have joined the lineup…These include more companies headquartered outside the U.S. than in the past, such as Volkswagen, Infosys, and Telefónica.

Rounding out the top five are: Google, Toyota, Microsoft and Nintendo.

In December 2008, BW sent out a 20-question poll to senior executives around the world. The 2,700 anonymous respondents were asked to name corporations that consistently offer inventive products, customer experiences, business models, or processes. The votes of executives who chose their own employers were disqualified.

BW has posted a full explanation of its methodology as well as the footnotes at the bottom of the table.

April 28th, 2009

The netbook blacklash

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:31 am

Categories: Netbook, Opinion

Tags: Netbook, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Hardware, Jason D. O'Grady

I guess the netbook has officially arrived, there’s an official backlash underway. Like the iPhone and Twitter before it, the netbook couldn’t possibly fly under the radar too long before someone gave them a thorough public flogging.

Because of my propensity for netbooks (especially the hackintosh variety) several people have emails me links to a recent spate of anti-netbook posts. Specifically by TUAW’s Steven Sande (Road Tested: Why the hackb00k is a fail and Dave Sparks (The Netbook Experiment).

As you probably guessed from the headlines both Sande and Sparks deride the netbook’s several (and obvious) compromises, including it’s keyboard, trackpad and smallish SSD. Geez guys, tell us something that we don’t know!

Response from some of my colleagues ranged from vitriolic outrage to passive agreement. My take on the netbooks situation comes from a heated comment thread under one of my previous netbook pieces that simply read:

It sounds like a netbook won’t work for you. Don’t buy one.

It doesn’t get much simpler than that. Before spending your hard-earned money on a gadget, do some research to see if it meets your criteria. If it doesn’t, don’t buy one.

Thank you. Move along.

Photo: Acer Aspire One Netbook courtesy of Aaronage on Flickr

April 22nd, 2009

The biggest market for the iTablet: healthcare

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:43 am

Categories: Opinion, Tablet

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Physician, Health Care, Apple Inc., Software Advice, Healthcare Industry, EMR, Tablets, Notebooks, Vertical Industries

Software Advice’s Houston Neal thinks that a Mac-based tablet computer could be the ultimate device for the healthcare industry specifically for EMR’s or Electronic Medical Records.

There have been a lot of rumors about an upcoming Apple “iTablet;” we think this new device would be a huge bestseller in healthcare. Why?

The primary barrier to EMR adoption has been ease-of-use. Too many physicians are concerned about being able to efficiently use an EMR at the point of care. Apple, meanwhile, continues to raise the bar on usability and efficiency. If Apple releases a tablet with the usability of the iPhone, we think it would go over tremendously well amongst physicians.

In fact, we already talk to many physicians that want an EMR for the Apple OS, but very few such systems exist. We think there is a big opportunity for any “first mover” EMR vendor that writes to the Mac OS and this new Tablet device.

I agree with Neal’s basic premise, that Mac OS X is perfectly suited for the healthcare industry because of its ease-of-use, touch and voice integration and mobile capabilities. Although there are probably thousands of applications and vertical markets for a tablet Mac, the demand in healthcare industry alone could be enough to prompt Apple to release it. Which which be great because then the rest of us can buy one too.

Read the rest of the article here: Mac Tablet - The Ultimate Device for EMRs?

Image: CrunchGear

April 6th, 2009

iPhone could morph into a tablet at WWDC

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:14 pm

Categories: Netbook, Opinion, Rumor, WWDC, iPhone, iPhone 3.0

Tags: Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., Netbook, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Keyboards, Tablets, Public Relations, Hardware, Peripherals, Notebooks & Tablets

Everyone pretty much knows that the third generation iPhone hardware is a lock for WWDC — so much so that analysts have already “baked it” into their financial projections. Forbes’ Brian Caulfield goes so far as to say that not releasing a new iPhone handset at the June event would be “an incipient public relations disaster of biblical proportions.”

That being said, some analysts are looking for even more from Apple this summer. Namely, an answer to the netbook threat coming from ASUS, Acer, Dell and just about every PC maker with a pulse. It’s simply inconceivable for the company that practically invented the gadget to not have a horse in this race. Apple can’t keep its head in the sand forever.

Apple is paying close attention to the netbook space and is taking a second-mover approach, just like it’s doing with the Apple TV. Cupertino is sitting on the sidelines and letting others make all the mistakes and spend their precious money on R&D. Then when the timing’s right, they’ll release a category killer that sets a new bar.

Barclays analyst Benjamin Reitzes told his clients that Apple’s “very strong free cash flow” will allow it to release an ultraportable Mac “later this year” in addition to a new line of iPhones. Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar takes it one step further writing that “[Apple] has also set in place a supply chain ecosystem to support the launch of a touch-screen tablet in [the second half of 2009].” He went on to write that “the product will be positioned between a iPhone and Mac and will likely be a platform that supports TV/Gaming/Web.”

This supports my 5/7/9 theory which goes like this: rather than take a chance with a netbook running the full version of Mac OS X Apple would be better off slowly expanding the iPhone into a mini-tablet. It could release a 5-inch screen tablet/MID/whatever you want to call it in June, with a 7-incher in the fall and — if all goes well — a full-blown 9-inch tablet to follow in January 2010.

Apple is more comfortable leveraging its early lead in the App Store/iPhone arena than it is trying to compete with tiny plastic netbooks from the PC manufacturers. Apple’s not going to get into a race to the bottom for the lowest price with the likes of Dell. It’s not their M.O. Apple would rather leverage the high level of excitement by customers and developers around iPhone and continue the magic.

Apple will address the virtual keyboard complaints with a Bluetooth stack that talks to keyboards and mice and many people will come around and realize that on-screen keyboards “aren’t that bad after all.” Sure, you’re not going to write a novel on a tablet, that’s what the BT keyboard is for.

Think about it. The iPhone is white hot right now and it’s basically become a life support system for a steady drone of iMacs and Mac Pros that are slowly becoming commodities. The iPhone, its apps, rich-media content and the services built around them are the future of the company and Apple knows it. That’s why Cupertino’s much more likely to build a lager iPhone before it builds a smaller MacBook.

Apple Tablet Concept photo: Factory City

January 23rd, 2009

The Mac at 25: GUI battles in business

Posted by David Morgenstern @ 11:25 am

Categories: Apple, Opinion, Steve Jobs

Tags: Apple Macintosh, GUI, Desktops, Hardware, David Morgenstern

It’s near impossible for new computer users today or even a decade ago to understand what the big deal was about the Macintosh. After all,  the most base cell phone in your pocket offers up a graphical user interface of menus and objects. However, 25 years ago, GUI was a firing offense in many offices.

The features and design of the original 128K Macintosh ran counter to everything that computers were supposed to be: expandable, boxy, and supporting a 5.25-inch floppy drive. This kind of machine wasn’t only what IBM offered, it was what Apple had built its success upon, the Apple II.

Instead, the Mac was portable (it had a built-in handle — something that desktop computers still could use), it was closed and opening it up yourself was a violation of the warranty, and it came with a small “high-capacity” floppy drive that used expensive 400KB diskettes. And most folks forget that the Mac was the first personal computer to come out of the box with networking built-in: AppleTalk.

Then there was the interface. Instead of a DOS prompt, whether Apple DOS or Microsoft’s PC-DOS, the Mac had QuickDraw, the Finder interface and MacWord and MacPaint and MacDraw programs. It was all about images and menus and manipulating a virtual desktop with a mouse.

This GUI was disruptive in several ways. Today, we conceive of the screen as the final presentation vehicle for data, while back then, it was hardcopy. What the Mac produced was compelling — typography, images and complex charts — even on black-and-white dot-matrix printers. When the LaserWriter and PostScript output hit the platform, the gap widened.

I heard executives who were exposed to the Mac ask their corporate IT directors why the big-budget big iron couldn’t make a simple chart like the Mac. There was no easy answer, since the Mac was designed from the ground up to deliver graphical information and the mainframe wasn’t.

Read the rest of this entry »

January 16th, 2009

Dan Lyons: Rotten reporting on Apple

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 12:54 pm

Categories: Media, Opinion, Steve Jobs

Tags: Steve Jobs, CNBC, Apple Inc., Lyon, Public Relations, Blogging, Advertising & Promotion, Marketing, Corporate Communications, Internet

Newsweek’s Dan Lyons writes that the media’s coverage of Apple bites. His rationale?

For the past six months Steve Jobs has been looking terribly ill. But only this week did Apple finally acknowledge that Jobs isn’t doing well, when the company announced that Jobs would take a leave for six months.

If you haven’t seen Lyons infamous on-the-air spat with CNBC’s Jim Goldman, it’s worth a watch. Lyon’s explains:

On Wednesday night I went on CNBC and was obnoxious enough to point out, on the air, that CNBC itself had been put into the latter camp by a Silicon Valley bureau chief who had appointed himself the official defender of Steve Jobs and Apple. Worse yet, in December, when one blog in the Valley reported that Jobs had canceled his annual Macworld keynote because “Steve’s health is rapidly declining,” this reporter went out of his way to attack that outlet and refute its report, both on air and in print. The CNBC guy claimed he had sources deep inside Apple who were telling him that Jobs was healthy. “Apple’s Jobs is (Still) Fine,” was his headline on the CNBC Web site.

Turns out, however, that the blog—a gadget site called Gizmodo—was right, and the CNBC guy was wrong. When I was on air, I pointed this out, and suggested the CNBC reporter should apologize to Gizmodo, and also to his viewers for having misled them.

Lyon’s is essentially saying that Apple tends to get a pass on most things and that he’s getting sick of having what Apple PR says treated as gospel. My favorite line in his piece:

It’s one thing for PR flacks to tell lies. That is, after all, what they get paid to do. But it’s another thing for the media to join in on the action.

So, who’s right?

January 15th, 2009

Lyons: CNBC "played and punked" by Apple spin machine

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 8:11 am

Categories: Opinion, Steve Jobs

Tags: CNBC, Apple Inc., Vertical Industries, Benefits, Healthcare, Enterprise Software, Software, Human Resources, Jason D. O'Grady

This interview of Newsweek’s Dan Lyons on CNBC is definitely worth a watch. In in Lyon’s claims that CNBC’s Silicon Valley Bureau Chief Jim Goldman was “played and punked” by the Apple spin machine on the issue of Steve Jobs’ health.

Speaking about Apple’s transparency (or lack thereof) on the matter, Lyons says that “Apple never had much credibility” and in a pointed slam at Goldman, Lyons says that there’s two kinds of reporters that cover Apple, “the kind that realize that they’re getting snowed, bullied and blocked out… and the other kind who suck up, in order to get access.”

Then, a clearly incensed Lyon’s asks Goldman to apologize to Gizmodo and to his readers for “getting it so wrong.”

Pull up a lawn chair and watch the fireworks. It’s certainly entertaining.

January 12th, 2009

Has Apple gotten lazy?

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:11 pm

Categories: Opinion

Tags: Apple Inc., Macworld Expo, Apple Mac OS X, Desktops, Corporate Communications, Operating Systems, Software, Apple Mac OS, Hardware, Marketing

I know it’s hard for a company to reinvent itself on essentially a semi-annual basis, but the fact of the matter is that Apple’s over all product line has become stagnant. iPod hasn’t had a huge enhancement since video, iPhone, although intrinsically software upgradable to add valuable feature releases, hasn’t seen anything great since Exchange support (despite much publicized need of several enhancements), and the entire desktop line hasn’t received much needed attention in a very long time. Once a revolutionary and now evolutionary force in design, Apple has gotten lazy.

Apple had a less than game-changing presentation at Macworld Expo. If you need evidence of this, just look at the value of AAPL lately.  The response from the stockholders was like a collective “that’s all?”  Even Apple has stated that more than anything, their next OS X release is going to be evolutionary, so they can’t use the excuse that manpower has been pooled to complete the release of Snow Leopard.

The only other conclusion that one could draw from this is there is some great product in development. Apple, after almost saying word for word that they don’t need Macworld Expo, must have a media event in the next 2-3 months to release whatever products weren’t ready for the event, thus showing the world that Apple indeed does not need Macworld Expo to peddle its product. Should this not be the case, and Apple doesn’t change gears quickly, I fear that Apple will lose the market share that it has gained.

(Contributed by: Mike Waters)

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December 22nd, 2008

How to prevent the App Store from becoming the Crap Store

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:35 pm

Categories: App Store, Developer, Opinion

Tags: App, Classics, Jason D. O'Grady

Tap tap tap’s John Casasanta and Classics creator Phill Ryu wrote a blog post proposing a solution for the  proliferation of crapware on the App Store. They’re the creators of Classics, which, after a price reduction from $2.99 to 99¢, has climbed the charts. It’s only been out for a few weeks and has already grossed over $100,000.

Tap tap tap has six new apps in development and are paying the developer rates that are mentioned in the article. Classics is their second App Store hit. Their first app, WhereTo, grossed over $200,000 in a few short months. They feel strongly that they can continue to develop more hits as time goes on and are investing all of their profits back into new app development because of the potential of the App Store.

What many developers fail to recognize is that there’s much more to iPhone apps beyond pumping an app out, slapping a 99¢ price tag on it, and hoping for the best. What’s also extremely important is marketing and promotion and this is what’s led to our success.

December 17th, 2008

Macworld Expo minus Apple: Traditions meet market reality

Posted by David Morgenstern @ 9:38 am

Categories: Macworld Expo, Opinion

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Apple Inc., Macworld Expo, Expo, Desktops, Hardware, David Morgenstern

Apple on Monday said it will pull out of participating in the annual Macworld Expo show. The traditional timing of the show must have contributed to the decision as well as market conditions. The move will trouble small developers hoping to get some face time with Mac influencers.

Worse, it may create an educational and pro market vacuum for ISVs at the very time when the Mac is gaining strength in the business market and even in the enterprise. The Expo has been a primary gathering for academic customers and Mac consultants.

Various industry observers are pointing at Steve Jobs show-or-no-show or whether the company has anything “big” to reveal this year. That really isn’t the point. The timing of the show has been a problem for years.

(On a personal note, I have attended every Macworld Expo San Francisco since its beginning in 1985 and others in Boston, New York and Tokyo. Longtime Mac observers will remember that there used to be many other regional Mac Expos, in the States and outside.)

While other PC-centric shows such as PC Expo and COMDEX dropped off the schedule, the winter Expo has remained. And this year, despite the terrible economy, more than 40,000 Mac fans will come into San Francisco.

While I regret Apple’s decision, I understand it. When Apple killed the New York Expo, we understood that the stores were carrying the weight of the brand marketing to customers — some customers, mostly consumers. Users can check out the new machines and software in the mall or on the street at their own time.

For Apple and some of the larger vendors, the cost of the show is compounded by its timing. The first week in the New Year is not good timing for a tradeshow, for Apple or for any vendor. The dates of the San Francisco and Boston Expos were originally chosen because of the sweet deals that the exhibition company got for holding a show at a time of the year that nobody else wanted.

Read the rest of this entry »