Slashdot Mirror
Apple To Face Challenge At WWDC
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."
"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.
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."--Howard Zinn
"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
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.
According to reports, Apple will have a slew of iPhones from 4GB all the way up to 32GB.
The data/rate plans will most likely also change.
Apple is going to corner the smartphone market from the top down, like they did with the iPod.
In fact to top things off even further, I bet they spun off Rubenstein and Co to make the "Pre" to appeal to the more RIM business type crowd who see's the iPhone as just a toy, not a tool.
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.
Oh yea, prepare for a market assault by Apple.
Short RIM.
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.
Despite being a "developers" conference, I'm calling it. 30" OLED displays. You heard it here first.
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
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:
Now to be fair, I'm probably limited by the fact I use Outlook on the desktop and have no desire to use MS Push (who wants work emails arriving on a weekend?) or send all my data to Google's services - but some of this is pretty basic that even Palm had in when they were king of the world and pushing out black and white V series products.
If they put all that in, then I'd never need to go back to Windows Mobile. Fingers crossed.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
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.
"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
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).
maybe that's why we haven't seen much of him lately, hes been hard at work on a new iPancreas, which will not only produce insulin but will transmit blood sugar levels to his iPhone via bluetooth
Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property; A Corporation is the legal fiction that property is a person.
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.
We recently had a local news crew visit my place of employment, a research laboratory. Those interviewed were told to explain things at a "7th grade reading level." I think that explains a lot of the inane comments made by people in news interviews.
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"
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"
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.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's even harder to drive while texting as it is to drive while talking on the phone! Talking takes one hand and texting usually takes two. You can't drive with two hands on a cell phone; what the hell are you going to hold your beer with?
I don't agree that it's popular mainly or even largely because of the "cool" factor. Or even if you think it is, how in fact did it become viewed as "cool"? I believe it's because it's easier to use than other phones. So the features that it does have, even if they are fewer compared to other smartphones, are easier to access. So the user's experience is more powerful overall. It's kind of an Ahmdal's law of interface design -- adding more features at a certain point makes no difference to the user. You also need to make those features usable. Hell, my iPhone is easier to use than my Mom's "simple" Nokia.
Currently hooked on AMP
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.
hes been hard at work on a new iPancreas, which will not only produce insulin but will transmit blood sugar levels to his iPhone via bluetooth
If that is what it takes to get full bluetooth support on my iPhone I hope that Steve's other organs fail also.
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).