Posts Tagged ‘Apple’

Next year will prove to be an interesting year for a lot of vendors. Market leaders like Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft will face their greatest challenges and strongest opportunities, new arrivals will undoubtedly have us wondering why we hadn’t come up with a similar billion dollar idea, and in the U.S., we’ll likely have an election whose outcome will be controlled by computers for the first time. Granted, some of the concerns coming this decade will likely cause all of this to be trivial by comparison, but let’s look ahead to 2012 anyway.

Rumors of an upcoming Apple iTV have been flying for quite some time, but the latest batch of information reaching us from China has a level of detail that makes us wonder just how close this new device really is. Word has it that Apple is wrapping up negotiations with cable providers, but the hardware appears to be finalized and may be in production at this time.

In October 2001, Apple promised to unveil a revolutionary media product. Few of us expected an MP3 player. Who could have predicted that a little white box would lay the foundation for an empire that turned into the world’s most valuable IT company ten years later?

Apple’s cost of the iPhone has been inching up and it appears that the new iPhone 4S is the most expensive iPhone to build since the original iPhone in 2007.

I’m at the McAfee Focus event this week. They had Sir Richard Branson on the stage talking about leadership. He has an interesting take on leadership and Steve Jobs. Branson was one of those featured years ago in Steve Jobs’ think different campaign. Called Here’s to the Crazy Ones, the commercial ends with the thought that the people crazy enough to think they can change the world are often the ones who do.

Apple reported yet another fantastic quarter that brought in more than $28 billion and wrapped up Apple’s first $100 billion fiscal year. Unfortunately, the iPhone did not meet analyst shipment expectations, which sent Apple’s stock below the $400 mark again.

Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs passed away on Wednesday, giving in to a long and highly public battle with pancreatic cancer. Apple loses the personality that turned a sinking ship into the most admired company in the world. The world loses one of the greatest visionaries of our time. His wife and three daughters lose a loving husband and father.

One of the interesting and sad things about the iPhone 4S launch this week was that we are clearly seeing a new Apple. Most technology presentations from most companies are defined by a lack of any magic, excitement – or magic. In my field, we’d look forward to the Apple announcements, because they were different, exciting, and, yes, magical. Over the last decade, Apple had a way of having us look at their products in a way that made them appear more than just electronic parts and software. Instead, it was something aspirational, something amazing.

Seriously, Apple. How could you screw yourself and Tim Cook? Today’s keynote was a blunder at best and a setup at worst. Tim Cook needed a compelling product to launch himself into the post-Steve Jobs era. And all Apple had was an incremental update for the iPhone 4? And, Apple, you don’t really think that we are delusional enough to waste our money on a 2-year old phone, the free 3GS? Let’s scratch this one and let’s talk iPhone again, seriously.

Apple confidently ignores a trend toward accelerated browser release cycles and maintains the tradition to release updates for Safari when it has time and when it believes that users need them.

Chrome developer Elliot Poger announced that Chrome for Mac will soon be using the Skia 2D graphics library and not Apple’s core graphics anymore.

Apple will reportedly unveil the iPhone 5 on October 4. It will also be a staged launch event for Tim Cook, who can use all the help he can get to fill the big shoes of Steve Jobs, inch by inch. But Apple may now be in a position in which it is unlikely to disappoint its customers, even if the company has lost the face that defined it.