I'll have much more to say on this shortly but I need to get two things off my chest first:
1. Apple isn't trying to decide if a niche exists between smartphones and laptops. They are trying to replace netbooks (and eventually laptops) and get people to carry the cloud with them. If you think through the logical progression of the Web, all the data we care about will exist online. The iPad is the device to access it. Very different mode than a laptop. This is the device from the future we've seen on Star Trek. You can buy it today (well in 59 days.)
2. "Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price." Something about this sentence seemed un-Applelike. As someone who struggles to come up with the "syrupy goodness" of my value props (spoken about in my free eBook) this phrase seemed too forced and wordy. It doesn't even say what it does. "Touch the Web" or "Your life to go." would have been more Apple-like to me. I just don't follow this one...
More soon.
P.S. thank you Dane for the correct spelling of niche ;)
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This is a quote attributed to Steve Jobs when the first Macintosh was being developed. His engineers were struggling with every nuance of the new machine and wanted to slip the launch until they got it just right. Steve compelled them to do better.
Today, Apple has come full circle - they ship a finished product then go back to improve it over and over again. Look at the iPod - it was great in 1999 and it is even better now. Other vendors promise something but never seems to ship it, or it comes so much later that the enthusiasm wanes.
But Apple ships. You'll see it with the Tapplet and I was going to write a similar post, but Joel from Gizmodo says it all: "Consumer audiences have grown wary of nearly a century of predictable
sleight-of-hand. We've seen too many companies promise us the future,
then fail to deliver it."
Okay, now this is getting way too fun. Far be it for me to resist from the rampant rumor mongering, but here is what I think is coming later this month:
I think Apple is going to surprise everyone. While most people think this will be a big iPhone and run apps from the App Store (it will) I think its true intent is to remake the print, tv, and publishing business the same way that iTunes remade the music industry.
I forsee a beautiful, HD video screen that will let you view all your music, television, movies, magazines, books and DVDs wherever you go.
You'll be able to subscribe to beautiful full color magazines via iTunes at 1/4 the price of buying them off the newstands and get exclusive content and video (ads too!) to enhance the reading experience. (You'll see entire websites rewritten for the device as well.)
I think Apple will strike a deal with Amazon to enable digital books to be streamed to the device via a built-in color Kindle app.
I think we'll see Apple work with Netflix (or go directly to the studios themselves) to stream movies to the device and of course they already have iTunes to handle your music and television subscriptions.
Your documents and iPhone/iPod Touch apps will travel with you too - making the device a multipurpose workhorse that will seem to many like something from the future. And you'll want to own one. Because it will cost $699. And you'll subscribe to a lot more stuff every month - buying apps and content wirelessly. And all of it will be available to view on your AppleTV when you get home since it will now live in Apple's new $1B cloud service.
Finally, the name.
I won't cover the obvious choices spoken elsewhere like iGuide, iScreen, iPad or iSlate (although iSlate would match the iPod branding in that it can be generic). I think Apple could have cut some deal with the Etch-a-Sketch folks (Ohio Arts) to call it "MagicScreen" (Magic Mouse is already in the house) and they also have the Touch and Air franchises to combine "AirTouch" Also a possibility relating their own name and their app store to create something like "iTapp" And let's not forget, Tapplet or Applescreen isn't that far fetched...
Time will tell. Oh yeah, Time will publish their magazines for it too.
I told you I loved Family Guy. Now I know why. Where else would a major show write this into the script? (Perhaps this was intentionally added to kick Microsoft for pulling out of their sponsorship at the last minute.)
But I just don't know how I feel about this. Halfway through the video I was getting nauseous (perhaps that was the camera work) but it seems like everything that Microsoft is trying to do around marketing itself as just as hip as Apple (first it was Zune packaging, then the "I'm a PC" TV commercials, the too-cute-for-business people Windows 7 ads and now Microsoft Retail Stores) seems to come off as too contrived.
Am I just being harsh? Or has all those years of selling against Microsoft tainted me. What say you?
It's been 2 years in the making, but the first true anti-iPhone ads aimed squarely at the key features missing from that platform have begun running. Check it out:
So the question is - can the iPhone be undone by a combination of better design and better marketing (the same way the iPhone put the smackdown on all the other smartphones before it?) Clearly this is compelling marketing to get people talking - but is it enough to unseat the iPhone? We know that it has piqued people's interest - but will the campaign alone get people to wait for the Android phone? Thoughts?
If you've been following my tweets and facebook profile you'll notice that Dimdim just launched version 5 today. In my spare time as their CMO, I'm attempting to use Apple's "5 Secrets" that I share in my free eBook to help Dimdim achieve success via better marketing.
One of those secrets discussed is "Empower Early Adopters." To do this, good marketers must provide simple tools to help their early customers spread the word. YouTube is an excellent example of how a simple embed code and a watermark made it possible for anyone to post video on their website. Right now Facebook is using a similar tactic to encourage others to join. Search for a friend on Google and if they have a Facebook profile, Google will report that "Jane Doe is on Facebook" with their profile picture. Click it, and you are asked to join Facebook to reconnect.
Dimdim is taking a similar approach - making it possible for anyone to sign up for free to host web conferences with up to 20 people using our free hosted version. We've eliminated any need for extra software to be installed on attendee's computers so people join your meeting with one click. We've shipped open source versions so you can download and install it on your own servers. We even post an open API guide to create all kinds of mashups. And it is working. Now nearly 2 Million people are using Dimdim.
What I believe is really exciting about Dimdim is howit can help marketers spread their words for less. Want to host a webinar to get the word out but don't have much cash? Sign up for Dimdim, schedule the event, grab our new Webinar Widget, and paste it on your site. People sign up just by entering their email address and you hold your event in Dimdim. Now people can see and hear you, watch your presentation, ask live questions and get to know you and your product. Simple! I do a weekly live webinar on Dimdim; here is that new widget - I'd love to see you next week:
Enjoy using Dimdim and let me know how it helps you or what else you need. We're listening carefully to the needs of the market and innovating as fast as we can. That's one reason why this blog gets updated infrequently. Here is our embeddable launch video - there are many more on our site.
I'm glad to see this. Seems like some people in Redmond think that with Steve out of action, now is the time to strike. I'm eager to see the commercials - not just for their creativeness - but to see if their timing is right. Apple is in danger of all fads - too much for too long tires people out. Can Microsoft become cool again?
I don't know but my gut tells me that Apple knows this and they are waiting for the perfect time to shock and awe the world again. All those iTunes dollars are funding something big...
As soon as they sense Mr. Bill & Co. have closed some psychological coolness gap, Apple will do something amazing. Or perhaps Apple's time in the sun is over for a while. We'll see.
Update: So just when I was willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, I see them up to their old stupidity again. I discovered that these ads are online, at Microsoft's own website. So I wanted to watch them. But then I got this message:
There is no way I'm installing another plug-in on my browser just to watch videos. Microsoft should know this is the kneejerk reaction of all Mac users - and most other web surfers. The videos should have been in Flash or MPEG2 or even WMV. Want to really impress those Mac guys? Offer an HD Quicktime version. But this is a marketing site who's purpose is simply to spread the word. And you have to make it easy for your customers to do this. I'm spreading the word: Microsoft still doesn't get it. Call me Steve (Ballmer) if that's not clear enough for you. Oh yeah, and read my eBook! It's a PDF and it's free.
