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."

Comments

Amazing insight from Mr Genius

[MasterOfUniverse]

"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.

Re:Amazing insight from Mr Genius

[ksheff]

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!

Uh-oh, they're catching up! Someone tell Apple!

[Tibor the Hun]

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?)

Re:Uh-oh, they're catching up! Someone tell Apple!

[DeathMagnetic]

I don't think anyone's predicting the fall of Apple, but rather just stating the obvious. The competition is catching up. Unless Apple unveils some big surprises next week, there's no denying that the competition is positioned much better than they were a year ago. Apple's in no imminent danger here, but they are losing ground, and rumors about the next-gen iPhone suggest that there won't me any major innovations coming from them any time soon (and no, OS updates to include features the competition already has don't count).

As for the Palm Pre, it hasn't achieved anything yet, much less established itself as an iPhone-killer, but it's a little premature to write it off due to lack of apps or lack of actual customers. It hasn't even been released yet! Most reviews have been very favorable and put it at least in the same class as the iPhone, which is a big step from where we've been for the last couple of years.

Re:Uh-oh, they're catching up! Someone tell Apple!

[david_thornley]

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.)

Re:Uh-oh, they're catching up! Someone tell Apple!

[CuriHP]

How can you possibly misspell QWERTY? It's spelled correctly on the damn keyboard.

Re:Uh-oh, they're catching up! Someone tell Apple!

[jhoger]

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.

Re:Uh-oh, they're catching up! Someone tell Apple!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, he *is* an MBA student.

Heh...

[vjmurphy]

"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.

Re:Jobs Health

[LSDelirious]

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

News reporter reading level

[bkaul]

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.

Re:A crippled phone imho

[aristotle-dude]

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.

Re:"Catching up" is the key phrase

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

Re:"Catching up" is the key phrase

[Tanktalus]

Good God, man. Stop beating about the bush and tell us how you really feel!

(I see you prefer the "pansy" approach - I'd probably favour something a bit more severe.)

Re:"Catching up" is the key phrase

[cowscows]

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.