Wow, your 700w will sync your music, movies, address contacts, bookmarks, and other miscellany without user action? That's a huge improvement over the Palms I used in college:)
Rather, the Palms synched at the push of a button, but I still had to set up the software and such on my desktop.
ANyway, re: build quality. I don't know that build quality is better, but in 2001 when comparing a 5gb iPod to a 6gb Creative Nomad Jukebox, the iPod won based on: 1) Size 2) Form factor 3) Usability 4) UI 5) Durability (stainless steel+acrylic vs injection molded plastic)
Re: Hip. Why is the iPod, and Apple, hip? Because they targeted consumers with the iPod! All the other MP3 players, with their arcane use models, buttons, and software, self selected for geeks. Unfortunately geeks aren't hip.
Re: n-gage. You had to remove the battery to change games... On a cell phone. Why not just download games over the network (which happens now). The n-gage was decimated because the competing GBA was half the price, with 10x as many games. In two years the n-gage only had 50 games; by the time it hit 50 games, Nintendo had the DS out, and that is killing everything right now.
If Apple released the n-gage, besides the Apple logo, it would have had: 1) Integrated storage instead of cartridges (see iPod, iPhone, vs memory cards/cartridges) 2) Touch screen (see DS, iPhone, iPod's touch scroll wheel, vs buttons) 3) Larger screen (The n-gage screen only takes up 1/3 of the device. The GBs take half, the iPhone takes 4/5s, and the iPods take 1/2) 4) Apple would make the games downloadable (see iPod+iTunes store, for music, games, and movies)
Of course... this describes the iPhone, doesn't it?
1) Apple manages to do this by making the iPod as perfect as they can. People actually like using it. 2) No one else has managed to be "hip". So yes, everyone tries, but so far Apple is the only one that has managed, with the iPod. Nintendo is a close second with their DS and Wii. 3) The n-gage was a disaster. Comparing the n-gage to an iPhone is like comparing a sour grape to an orange. 4) Apple has this effect because they do things right, with the iPods, iTunes, and iTunes store.
Your Treo is not targetted at consumers. Are there ads for the Treo on billboards, subways, or prime time TV shows? Does it make it trivial to synch your data, your email, your bookmarks, your movies, and music? By trivial I mean, no user action, just plug into your computer! Does the UI make it easy to access all those features? Not being able to access a feature is about the same as not having a feature in the first place.
Then the killer... is this something your parents can do? Your neice? Your next door neighbor?
That's Apple's secret. The iPod is accessible to everyone, not just geeks.
1) How many smartphones target consumers? The analogy here is iPod:iPhone::geeks:businesspeople
So the iPod opened up the MP3 player to nongeeks in the same way the iPhone will supposedly open up smartphones to non-business people.
2) How many YouTube players actually use H.264 instead of Flash? Right now I think it is one... for the AppleTV
3) YouTube is the next TV; that is why it is a big deal, higher quality and more widespread use. How many consumer phones play YouTube right now? My phone doesn't. I've not seen a flash capable smartphone either.
Tada! Which is why Apple has released Safari for Windows.
The circle is complete:)
1) Apple release Safari for Windows beta (for developers) 2) Apple releases iPhone (profit!) 3) Apple releases Safari for Windows (for everyone) 4) Virtuous cycle commences wherein Safari hits 10% (5% from Mac, 2% from iPhone, 3% from Windows) 5) Developers continue to develop webapps/sites for Safari/Mac/iPhone 6) More profit!
It is if there is sensitive data on the Flash card. Say social security numbers, credit card numbers, financial statements, or government/security issues!
You only know that you think it will be boring... when the Wii is spectacularly set up for FPS (the wiimote as a gun, for example), as well as all the other genres.
Funny... there is already Linux PCs with completely customisable UI, thousands of PC cases... and unfortunately, second to Windows/Apple in terms of music and video support.
Somehow I don't see a losing formula on the desktop suddenly becoming viable when you change form factors.
The iPhone and it's ilk are still going to rule the roost, I think.
An iPhone: Handheld, large cell phone size Out facing camera Inside LCD screen
Take a picture of a newspaper, OCR it, submit it to Google translations or some other website, and within three seconds (assuming a network connection) you get an English translation.
Has a built in microphone; speak into it, and assuming wifi or cell, you can have a 'live' translator reply via chat in English text.
Cost? $499.
You won't see what you are proposing (which requires easily 10x more processing power) for 1/5 the cost.
If you really want it, you either need to accept trade offs or pay for what you want.
It's hard to argue cognitive dissonance when iPods make up 70% of the market... Of course you can also argue that the same cognitive dissonance occurs with PCs because Windows makes up 95% of the market too.
Except with Apple it is how everyone loves iPods and with PCs it's how everyone hates Windows...
Apple's rationale is pretty simple: They were making an MP3 player, and they wanted to keep margins high, costs down, simplicity up, battery life up, and usability up.
If they wanted to make it play radio, they could have; as you say, it's trivial. However the fact that they have sold over 100m iPods without a radio justifies their rationale: The market they are targeting doesn't need/want a radio. It's too bad you can't be satisfied with a radio attachment, there are several, but I know I haven't listened to the radio in about three years, myself.
The money gets passed on. Think of it like momentum. I buy a CD, artist gets their $0.50. I sell the CD to a friend, artist doesn't get a cut but now I have another $9 to spend on another CD.
Compare this to only downloading. I buy a CD, artist gets their $0.50. I upload the music and half a million people get the song; artist gets nothing, I never get an additional cent to buy another CD.
Your manager doesn't want choices. They want the right decision. Going technical doesn't help them make the right decision. Neither is giving them choices (though using the Decoy effect is very efficient).
Give them the right choice. You know what the requirements are. You know if it's too expensive, or too difficult, or too time consuming. So make the right choice and then give it to your manager.
Give them the explanation only if they ask for it. Give them the alternatives only if they ask for them.
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Wow, your 700w will sync your music, movies, address contacts, bookmarks, and other miscellany without user action? That's a huge improvement over the Palms I used in college :)
Rather, the Palms synched at the push of a button, but I still had to set up the software and such on my desktop.
ANyway, re: build quality. I don't know that build quality is better, but in 2001 when comparing a 5gb iPod to a 6gb Creative Nomad Jukebox, the iPod won based on:
1) Size
2) Form factor
3) Usability
4) UI
5) Durability (stainless steel+acrylic vs injection molded plastic)
Re: Hip. Why is the iPod, and Apple, hip? Because they targeted consumers with the iPod! All the other MP3 players, with their arcane use models, buttons, and software, self selected for geeks. Unfortunately geeks aren't hip.
Re: n-gage. You had to remove the battery to change games... On a cell phone. Why not just download games over the network (which happens now). The n-gage was decimated because the competing GBA was half the price, with 10x as many games. In two years the n-gage only had 50 games; by the time it hit 50 games, Nintendo had the DS out, and that is killing everything right now.
If Apple released the n-gage, besides the Apple logo, it would have had:
1) Integrated storage instead of cartridges (see iPod, iPhone, vs memory cards/cartridges)
2) Touch screen (see DS, iPhone, iPod's touch scroll wheel, vs buttons)
3) Larger screen (The n-gage screen only takes up 1/3 of the device. The GBs take half, the iPhone takes 4/5s, and the iPods take 1/2)
4) Apple would make the games downloadable (see iPod+iTunes store, for music, games, and movies)
Of course... this describes the iPhone, doesn't it?
1) Apple manages to do this by making the iPod as perfect as they can. People actually like using it.
2) No one else has managed to be "hip". So yes, everyone tries, but so far Apple is the only one that has managed, with the iPod. Nintendo is a close second with their DS and Wii.
3) The n-gage was a disaster. Comparing the n-gage to an iPhone is like comparing a sour grape to an orange.
4) Apple has this effect because they do things right, with the iPods, iTunes, and iTunes store.
Your Treo is not targetted at consumers. Are there ads for the Treo on billboards, subways, or prime time TV shows? Does it make it trivial to synch your data, your email, your bookmarks, your movies, and music? By trivial I mean, no user action, just plug into your computer! Does the UI make it easy to access all those features? Not being able to access a feature is about the same as not having a feature in the first place.
Then the killer... is this something your parents can do? Your neice? Your next door neighbor?
That's Apple's secret. The iPod is accessible to everyone, not just geeks.
1) How many smartphones target consumers? The analogy here is iPod:iPhone::geeks:businesspeople
So the iPod opened up the MP3 player to nongeeks in the same way the iPhone will supposedly open up smartphones to non-business people.
2) How many YouTube players actually use H.264 instead of Flash? Right now I think it is one... for the AppleTV
3) YouTube is the next TV; that is why it is a big deal, higher quality and more widespread use. How many consumer phones play YouTube right now? My phone doesn't. I've not seen a flash capable smartphone either.
I suspect this is the future, however.
You will be chatting with another engineer, then take a call and realize they are 10 years younger than you.
Tada! Which is why Apple has released Safari for Windows.
:)
The circle is complete
1) Apple release Safari for Windows beta (for developers)
2) Apple releases iPhone (profit!)
3) Apple releases Safari for Windows (for everyone)
4) Virtuous cycle commences wherein Safari hits 10% (5% from Mac, 2% from iPhone, 3% from Windows)
5) Developers continue to develop webapps/sites for Safari/Mac/iPhone
6) More profit!
If those services work with Safari, why wouldn't they work with an iPhone?
Probably as big as the "I want a computer but not for work" market is.
:)
Which, if you look at Apple's existing marketshare, seems to be at about 5%
It is if there is sensitive data on the Flash card. Say social security numbers, credit card numbers, financial statements, or government/security issues!
iPhone developers
More Mac friendly websites
Increased QA coverage of the codebase
You haven't been keeping up. Notebooks are growing at a faster rate than desktop sales, and have already overtaken them in retail:l l+desktops/2100-1047_3-5731417.html
http://news.com.com/PC+milestone--notebooks+outse
How do you know if you don't own a Wii?
You only know that you think it will be boring... when the Wii is spectacularly set up for FPS (the wiimote as a gun, for example), as well as all the other genres.
Funny... there is already Linux PCs with completely customisable UI, thousands of PC cases... and unfortunately, second to Windows/Apple in terms of music and video support.
Somehow I don't see a losing formula on the desktop suddenly becoming viable when you change form factors.
The iPhone and it's ilk are still going to rule the roost, I think.
Reread your description and price again.
An iPhone:
Handheld, large cell phone size
Out facing camera
Inside LCD screen
Take a picture of a newspaper, OCR it, submit it to Google translations or some other website, and within three seconds (assuming a network connection) you get an English translation.
Has a built in microphone; speak into it, and assuming wifi or cell, you can have a 'live' translator reply via chat in English text.
Cost? $499.
You won't see what you are proposing (which requires easily 10x more processing power) for 1/5 the cost.
If you really want it, you either need to accept trade offs or pay for what you want.
Weird. iChat is SIP:r otocol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_Initiation_P
Why would you need to port Skype when iChat comes free with the iPhone?
iChat can do video with all other cam equipped Macs and voice with all mic equipped Macs.
On top of that, it can interoperate with the AOL video/voice client.
It's hard to argue cognitive dissonance when iPods make up 70% of the market... Of course you can also argue that the same cognitive dissonance occurs with PCs because Windows makes up 95% of the market too.
Except with Apple it is how everyone loves iPods and with PCs it's how everyone hates Windows...
Why bring in pettiness when everything he said was true?
You asked for a rationale and I gave it to you. I never said it was a great one, only one that worked.
:)
If you want to know why Apple doesn't offer it now? They want to kill radio
Apple's rationale is pretty simple:
They were making an MP3 player, and they wanted to keep margins high, costs down, simplicity up, battery life up, and usability up.
If they wanted to make it play radio, they could have; as you say, it's trivial. However the fact that they have sold over 100m iPods without a radio justifies their rationale: The market they are targeting doesn't need/want a radio. It's too bad you can't be satisfied with a radio attachment, there are several, but I know I haven't listened to the radio in about three years, myself.
The money gets passed on. Think of it like momentum.
I buy a CD, artist gets their $0.50. I sell the CD to a friend, artist doesn't get a cut but now I have another $9 to spend on another CD.
Compare this to only downloading.
I buy a CD, artist gets their $0.50. I upload the music and half a million people get the song; artist gets nothing, I never get an additional cent to buy another CD.
Civil disobedience also means going to jail and suffering the consequences of your actions.
Your manager doesn't want choices. They want the right decision. Going technical doesn't help them make the right decision. Neither is giving them choices (though using the Decoy effect is very efficient).
Give them the right choice. You know what the requirements are. You know if it's too expensive, or too difficult, or too time consuming. So make the right choice and then give it to your manager.
Give them the explanation only if they ask for it.
Give them the alternatives only if they ask for them.
Read the patents. They cover, "The web" as we know it.
Was it obvious in 1993?
In 1993 I was still using BBSes and modems, DOS and terminal windows, and playing Castle Wolfenstein. I certainly didn't think of it then.
Considering IBM created these patents in the 1990s. Some as early as 1993.
Prior art is kind of hard to find.