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Apple To Face Challenge At WWDC

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the little-engine-that-had-to dept.

Amanda Callahan writes to tell us that Apple's upcoming WWDC could be quite a test for the Cupertino powerhouse. They will most likely be missing Steve Jobs for star-power and have extremely high expectations to meet in order to maintain their edge. Thankfully it looks like Jobs will be rejoining Apple later this month with a good prognosis after facing severe health issues. "The competition is now catching up. Palm, Google, Microsoft, Nokia and Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, are all at varying stages of developing and introducing their own iPhone-like devices and software, along with easily accessible stores for the small programs known as applications, or apps, that run on those devices. In some cases, those companies are releasing a greater variety of phones, on more wireless carriers around the world, than Apple. To maintain its advantage, Apple must preserve the impression that it is far ahead of rivals when it comes to the capabilities and the 'cool' factor of its devices."

31 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. "Catching up" is the key phrase by DavidR1991 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "the competition is now catching up"

    Assuming they've kept their edge, that statement is the key: They lead, they don't follow. That's why the competition are catching up to them, and not the reverse. Provided they keep doing that, there is little room for error to occur

    1. Re:"Catching up" is the key phrase by timeOday · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Remember, Apple managed to vault from late-comer to leadership in the first place. The blurb is just hand-wringing about things being as they have always been! Competitors are at "all at varying stages of developing and introducing their own iPhone-like devices and software, along with easily accessible stores for [] apps"... "In some cases, those companies are releasing a greater variety of phones, on more wireless carriers around the world, than Apple." That was all true even before the iPhone; Apple was among the last companies to introduce an iPhone-like device! Just as the iPod was one of the later mp3 players on the market, yet became the standard by which others were measured.

    2. Re:"Catching up" is the key phrase by EvilNTUser · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "the competition is now catching up"

      Assuming they've kept their edge, that statement is the key: They lead, they don't follow. That's why the competition are catching up to them, and not the reverse. Provided they keep doing that, there is little room for error to occur

      That's an amazingly arrogant attitude that Apple would do well to not share. Apple may have the edge in ease of use, but they never had an edge in anything else. If the competition can catch up on designing good user interfaces before Apple can catch up on hardware and features, there is actually very much room for error.

      I get that the UI is most important for many, but it's lame to ignore everything else.

      --
      My Sig: SEGV
    3. Re:"Catching up" is the key phrase by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you're one of those text-while-you-drive people, tactile feedback is a must -- it's impossible to touch-type reliably on the iPhone (you can do it, just expect some gibberish).

      I swear if I ever see you in public I will kick you straight in the balls (assuming you have them). If you text while you drive you should be summarily dismembered while still alive and fed to demons in the farthest depths of hell.

      Hang up your god damn phone and drive you stupid piece of shit!

    4. Re:"Catching up" is the key phrase by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I love the anachronism "hang up your god damn phone," in reference to a device that no longer hangs to disconnect, in reference to an act that doesn't involve an open line.

    5. Re:"Catching up" is the key phrase by cowscows · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're right, but you're missing the piece that a lot of people don't see. Creating good software is hard. Cramming a new piece of hardware into a piece of plastic is the easy part. Designing an interface that makes that piece of hardware more useful can be a lot harder.

      That's the only reason why a computer company was able to walk right into the phone market, and on their first try create something that all those old phone manufacturers are now rushing to catch up to. I'm willing to bet that Apple's employees overall spent way more time getting the software right than they did deciding what hardware to put into the iPhone.

      And then the app store is a whole other beast. Apple had a lot of experience from the iTMS, they had a ton of infrastructure in place, and they even already had end-user software in place to tie it all together. Most of their competitors have to build similar systems from scratch. They've got a good example to follow now, but they've still got plenty to figure out.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

    6. Re:"Catching up" is the key phrase by s73v3r · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, there were other mp3 players before the iPod. But arguably Apple was the first to do it right. As in, make something that people actually wanted to use, and was easy to use.

    7. Re:"Catching up" is the key phrase by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Police report or it didn't happen.

  2. Uh-oh, they're catching up! Someone tell Apple! by Tibor+the+Hun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So the competition has millions of devices in user's hands, a unified and attractive app store, and an established ecosystem?
    (And that's even ignoring the music juggernaut on the other side of the coin.)

    Which competition is even close to this kind of market?
    Not trolling, not flaming, just asking.

    Seems like everyone nowadays is granted a writing/analyst position if they can predict the fall of apple, or gloat about the upcoming features coming from microsoft.
    (I'm also not saying that competition is bad, just that Apple right now doesn't face any coherent competition. Take Palm Pre as an example... Different hardware models (for sprint and verizon networks), crashy app store, lack of apps, web-based apps, lack of actual customers, and worst of all, predicted shortages at introduction. WhoTF decided it would be a good idea to have that kind of a release against the upcoming iPhone v3?)

    --
    If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
    1. Re:Uh-oh, they're catching up! Someone tell Apple! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      I believe Microsoft has millions of Windows Mobile devices in users' hands, an established ecosystem, and the app store is forthcoming in the next version of Windows Mobile, Android's finally rolling out more phones, so they're going to start picking up steam, since they already have the app store.

      And really, fuck Palm.

    2. Re:Uh-oh, they're catching up! Someone tell Apple! by One+Louder · · Score: 3, Insightful

      With all due respect, your MBA economics teacher seems pretty clueless about the actual market. Success in the market has almost nothing to do with hiring programmers and making hardware. In the vast majority of cases, it's all about marketing and product positioning, and most market segment leaders have held that position for far more than two years.

      Where's the "iPod killer"? Who's displacing Skype? Where's the auction site competing with eBay? Who's coming up to challenge Google, Craigslist, Amazon, Facebook? Some of these companies have been at the top of the heap for over a decade, with no serious competitor in sight.

      Many of these folks are leaders because of the network effect of their services - something programmers and hardware can't change.

    3. Re:Uh-oh, they're catching up! Someone tell Apple! by david_thornley · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Tulips and iPhones will still exist, but they won't be fetish objects to otherwise normal people any more, and so their prices will no longer reflect emotional baggage unrelated to function or utility.

      Except that emotional baggage isn't what sells iPhones. It's primarily function and utility.

      I am, of course, referring to easy-to-use function and utility. I can use my iPhone for pretty much any of its intended purposes quickly and without hassling with the interface. That wasn't true of the last phone I had: it did quite a few things, but it never seemed worth figuring out how.

      The iPhone does a whole lot of things simply and intuitively. That means it has more effective functionality, for a great many people, than phones that are theoretically more capable. Moreover, the iPhone is a lot more fun to use.

      This doesn't mean the iPhone is unstoppable. It does mean that an iPhone killer is going to have to be easy and fun to use, and not just laden with functionality and a manual that's more text than the average American reads in a year. It does mean that any iPhone killer is going to be mocked by Slashdot as being lame, of course. Many Slashdotters are quick to label anything they don't immediately understand as irrational and unpredictable.

      Nor do I think people are going to discard their iPods in favor of guitars. People have wanted recorded music since it became available (with the player piano, say). People are going to keep iPods or whatever gets popular instead, and quite a few people are still going to learn to play the guitar, because that fulfills a slightly different need. (And my wife still won't let me practice the nose flute in the house.)

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    4. Re:Uh-oh, they're catching up! Someone tell Apple! by jhoger · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah in my MBA program they just taught that you need to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, and you make strategic and tactical decisions to achieve that. You pick niches with high barriers to entry, or you find ways to establish high barriers to entry. Intellectual property, brand equity, channel development, etc. are all ways to get sustainable competitive advantage.

      Every industry is somewhat different as regards what options exist for doing that.

  3. Maintain the impression they're ahead? by Reality+Master+201 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If their competition is rushing to follow what Apple's doing by making iPhone-like devices, then it's more than just an impression that they're ahead.

  4. Apple's is losing its margins by Animats · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Apple is about profit margin. Apple has enjoyed much higher profit margins than its competitors. That's starting to slip as iPhone and iPod prices come down, and the cheaper competitors get better.

    Apple's reaction so far has been to raise iTunes prices. Something better than that will have to be done next.

  5. Heh... by vjmurphy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Palm, Google, Microsoft, Nokia and Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, are all at varying stages of developing and introducing their own iPhone-like devices."

    So Apple, as a newcomer to the industry, is now making others in the same space play catch up to them. Real competition is a good thing. Definitely Palm, MS, Nokia and RIM had more than enough time and expertise to make a iPhone like device before Apple did, yet they didn't. So now they get to play catch up. I hope they do create real iPhone killers, because it then puts Apple on the spot to improve.

    --
    Vincent J. Murphy
    Spandex Justice
    1. Re:Heh... by twidarkling · · Score: 1, Insightful

      By "iPhone-like devices," they usually mean "thing with no actual keyboard." I don't want one like that. I like physical keys. Because they actually work. You've always been able to get apps by searching around a bit for Windows Mobile based phones, and probably for others as well, so the App Store idea is just collecting and monetizing them. Frankly, an iPhone isn't that special, beyond the large touch-screen. Everything about it had been done before in one manner or another. Apple just gathered it in to one place and shellacked it. I will grant they did it well, and it's pushing other companies to include greater number of features, but does a phone really NEED an accelerometer? How about we start getting phones with a good vibrate feature so that I can feel it while it's on my belt?

      --
      Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
    2. Re:Heh... by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Definitely true. Palm should have had an iPhone, 2 years before iPhone. Instead they gave up much of their touch-screen real estate to a chicklet keyboard, and other established advantages, to build a blackberry clone. Big mistake on their part.

  6. Re:Cool. by Rycross · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A lot of people will weigh the cool factor quite heavily when buying a $200 (not $600) device. For that matter, a lot of people weigh the cool factor extremely heavily when buying cars, which are significantly more pricey than $200. Its why Apple has managed to dominate the market with a functionally inferior (in terms of feature set) MP3 player (and many would argue the same about the phone).

  7. A crippled phone imho by VMaN · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Multitasking, a memory card reader and installing non apple approved apps.

    Features that apple COULD implement tomorrow, but won't.

    That's why I'm rockin' android and will never buy an iphone in its current crippled state.

    A real shame, as the device definetly has potential. It's not about hating apple, it's about hating that locked down feeling. That is probably not an issue for most people out there, but for me they are dealbreakers.

    1. Re:A crippled phone imho by aristotle-dude · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Multitasking, a memory card reader and installing non apple approved apps.

      So you would be willing to sacrifice stability, security of your data? If you don't care about stability and the risk for malware, you can always jailbreak your phone and install that kind of crap yourself. A memory card reader? So I take it that you don't use picture software like Picassa or iPhoto to organize your photos? You are aware that the iPhone has 8-16 and potentially 32 GB of storage in the new models built in?

      Features that apple COULD implement tomorrow, but won't.

      They won't because they are interested in serving the majority of customer's needs rather than serving niche concerns at the expense of security and stability as well as battery life.

      That's why I'm rockin' android and will never buy an iphone in its current crippled state.

      A real shame, as the device definetly has potential. It's not about hating apple, it's about hating that locked down feeling. That is probably not an issue for most people out there, but for me they are dealbreakers.

      Good for you. Have fun with your device of your choice but you should realize that your expectations are part of a small niche and most people just want a device that works well on a consistent basis.

      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  8. What price drops??? by hellfire · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's starting to slip as iPhone and iPod prices come down

    Ummmmm excuse me? Which iPhone or iPod price drops are you talking about? Since the iPhone was out last year it's been $199 for 8 GB and $299 for 16 GB. I can go to the store right now and see the exact same price.

    Apple's reaction so far has been to raise iTunes prices

    iTunes prices did not increase. They adopted a variable price method so popular songs could be more expensive during their popular period while less downloaded songs could be cheaper.

    If you'd like to be an apple hater, please go right ahead, but please do so with correct information rather than stuff you pull out of thin air. There's plenty of other things about Apple you can complain about.

    --

    "All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"

  9. Well I can give you one by hellfire · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Search the whole device for something. There is a wedding coming up in the next couple of months. Only way to find it? Hunt for it manually.

    That's coming. There will be a whole new search device page coming in OS 3.0. This was explained in the developer preview meeting they had back in march. You can download the video from Apple.com. Unfortunately that's the only thing on your list that was explained in any detail in this developer preview.

    --

    "All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"

  10. Re:iPod market take over repeat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The fact that the Pre id's itself as a "Apple iPod" to iTunes for synching may mean Apple is turning a blind eye or somehow involved with Pre.

    Ummm, you do know that Blackberries have been able to sync with itunes for years, right? They call it mediasync:

    http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/media/mediasync.jsp

    Short RIM.

    Right. Just as soon as the iphone gets push email, a keyboard, real management features, and real security. Here are the blackberry certifications. Who has audited the iphone? Nobody, because it has no security.

    Do you think there is a reason senior executives (and the US president) all use blackberries? They could choose any device, and strangely enough it isn't the iphone.

  11. Re:Cool. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Its why Apple has managed to dominate the market with a functionally inferior (in terms of feature set) MP3 player (and many would argue the same about the phone).

    Perhaps the device itself is functionally inferior (in the event you have things other than MP3s, AACs, or Apple Losslesseses), but due to its exposure, compatibility made my decision for me. As in, for effectively any modern make of car stereo, I can find some way to directly interface my iPod to it. Not through some line-in hack or other "just spit audio out the car speakers" method, but through some interface wherein I can keep the iPod itself stuffed in my glove box (negating the "cool" factor if nobody sees it) and control tracks and such from the radio's front panel. Anything else, I'd have to keep the player out in the open, make sure it's not going to fall all over the place, and fumble for it rather than the radio if I want to skip a track.

    The same goes for a whole horde of other "iPod compatible" devices (countertop radios, alarm clocks, etc); they all go through the docking interface, allowing them to control playback in addition to playing the music, and not resulting in a line-in hack that just drags out another redundant set of buttons.

    I've seen it said before on Slashdot: If the rest of the MP3 player market would get together and make a single, unified interface and protocol like the iPod's docking cable that allowed control and audio output without having to care who made the device, what model it is, etc, etc, THEN Apple would be on the run. But as it stands now, you have the iPod and you have a bajillion other viciously incompatible MP3 players. Will I be able to get an interface cable for my three-year-old Kenwood car stereo for a Zen? What model Zen? How about a Zune? The no-name piece of junk that came free with my Dell? Who knows? But I can Google "Kenwood iPod adapter" and quickly figure out what MP3 player I'm picking up without hassles or guessing.

    Make no mistake, I'd rather have a cheaper MP3 player available to me, but for compatibility's sake, I'm sticking with my iPod.

  12. Re:PIM tools by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm hoping for better PIM tools. I'm currently using an iPhone at work (I can pick any device so I change regularly) and having spent a lot of time with Windows Mobile I'm missing a lot of its basic functionality. For example with the iPhone I cannot:

    • Sync notes even though there is a notes application
    • Sync tasks, as there is no tasks application (why? it's pretty basic!)
    • Label a calendar appointment as private. Everything is visible to people who have read access to my calendar until I set it on the PC.
    • Set the location of a meeting as free, out of the office or tentative. Everything is busy.
    • Differentiate between tentative meetings and ones that have been confirmed.
    • Snooze a reminder. It either nags you or gets dismissed when you unlock the phone and never comes back.

    I also use my iPhone for work and find its PIM tools lacking. What's worse is Apple has apaprently decided to go with data stores that are not accessible to other software apps; so iambic / CESD / et.al. need to create new data files if they want to create an iPhone app. That probably means no push synch, which would make those apps useless for me.

    Of course, that's in keeping with Apple's insistence on total control of parts of teh user experience; which while useful in maintaining the end user experience is very limiting in terms of development in those areas.

    As a result, I am looking at the new N95 or going back to a Treo just to have the functionality I need.

    --
    I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  13. Re:PIM tools by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If the iPhone doesn't do all those things that you need it to do, and your old phone does do what you need, why did you switch in the first place? Imagine if someone walked up to you on the street and told you "I'll sell you this phone for $600. It does about half what your current one does. Some of your most used features aren't available on this one." Would you go for it?

  14. Re:Amazing insight from Mr Genius by RudeIota · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Amazing insight from Mr Genius"

    "If they start making products people don't want, and start losing users, then Apple's strategy will run into problems," said Benjamin Reitzes, an analyst at Barclays Capital.

    Microsoft
    To be fair, everyone seems to hate the company and have nothing but bitter contempt for all of their products... but Microsoft is indeed doing OK.

    --
    Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
  15. Re:Amazing insight from Mr Genius by ksheff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's nice to have contracts binding all major PC OEMs to install whatever you shovel out the door. Apple doesn't have that luxury in the smartphone market, so it must continually improve the product, service, and value to the customer. What a concept!

    --
    the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
  16. Re:Cool. by Professor_UNIX · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you're using the car's radio to control the iPod then what is the point in having the iPod in the first place? Why not just make cars with built-in MP3 players and 160GB SSDs for storage? Add WiFi to the radio so you can sync the songs between your car and home PC while it sits in the garage overnight. The only thing halfway "cool" about iPods were they had a pretty decent user interface, although the requirement to use iTunes to sync your music over instead of just drag and dropping music into a music folder on the device sucked.

  17. Re:But $600 is probably closer by Wovel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    iPhone Data planes cost the same or less than every other smart phone plan AT&T offers, and AT&Ts smart phone data plans a fairly comparable to everyone elses.

    This just another one of those things that sounds so terrible until you realize it is exactly the same for every other device in the class. Which carrier offers smart phones unlimited data access for the same price as using a "dumb" phone (for lack of a better word).