Since the return of Steve Jobs to Apple they’ve just gone from strength to strength with a few missteps along the way.
iMac
iPod
iPhone
iPad
iTunes
MacBook
MacBook Pro
MacBook Air
Apple Stores
the upcoming iCloud that we hope launches better than MobileMe
the App Store
That’s a lot of winners.
Now Apple is making inroads into the corporate market, the potential to become a massively dominant player is within their grasp.
Will they ‘screw the pooch’? Sad to say that a very possible scenario.
If you look at the recent launch of Final Cut Pro X you’d have to say that was pretty comprehensively screwed up. Apple managed to piss off a vast majority of editors with that one. I know they’re saying just wait for the updates and all will be good, but people don’t want to wait for the updates. They want it to be good when they get it.
That’s kind of like buying a Porsche and discovering that the wheels are on a boat from Outer Mongolia so you’ll just have to wait until they arrive and THEN everything will be really good. Promise.
The truth of the matter is that Apple do not, and appear to never have, understood the corporate market. Sure they understand it better than the Gnomes of Mountain View, but they don’t get it like Microsoft do.
I talked about this some time back in this old blog entry at Anthill. Apple just don’t seem to get corporate customers, but, there is a chance that this may change with the Commonwealth Bank deploying 4000 MacBook Air laptops to replace their fleet of Dell laptops.
If they don’t screw things up at the Commonwealth and they can learn about what corporates want, they might, just might, figure out how to crack this market sector.
That being said if anyone can screw up a deal like this its Apple.
Showing posts with label iMac. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iMac. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
The best Tech Industry Analyst on the Planet.
Each morning people look to their inbox to read the latest piece of financial prognostication from the merchant bank employed augury.
With bated breath they wait to see what pearls of wisdom they’ve gleaned from reading the entrails of some dead animal, or the patterns of the clouds, flights of birds or even the alignment of the planets.
The readers of these inarticulate Nostradamus like ravings then trade their hard earned on the basis of these obscure prophecies. They also pay good money to get these ‘briefings’.
I’ve met the best Tech Industry Analyst on the planet. My 5 year old.
The other day I was in JB Hi-Fiand something struck me.
As I was walking through the computers I noticed that all the kids (and a lot of the adults) were happily playing with the iPads, iMacs and MacBooks. Most of the people in the store were also rocking an iPhone.
The Windows machines - and there were a lot of them (mostly from Dell) didn’t have a soul fiddling with them. JB Hi-Fi (at least at this store) were giving over about 20 meters of shelf space to these machines and I wasn’t seeing anyone show any interest.
In fact they had an Alienware laptop on display. I mean this is a rockstar of a gaming laptop with horsepower to spare, glowing lights, backlit keyboard, awesome performance and no one was giving it the time of day.
Now I don’t know how much Dell pay JB for the shelf space, if anything, but, I also noticed that JB had all Dell stock marked down. Still no one was buying, or even remotely interested.
Here’s why I’d be worried if I were Microsoft. All the kids, and I mean ALL the kids. Wanted to play with the Apple gear. They were waiting for a turn and I’ve seen this in other places too.
I remember many years back, kids would want to line up and play with Windows machines. Yeah. I know. Somebody’s going to talk about games and gaming. The demo XBox and Playstations weren’t being used either.
The kids wanted to play with the Apple gear. I even heard some kids complaining when their parents wanted to leave the store because they wanted to keep playing with the equipment.
If so many kids want to play with Apple equipment and not Windows - in a few years, when they’re making the buying decisions I think Microsoft will be in a pack of trouble.
They’re losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation of buyers.
With bated breath they wait to see what pearls of wisdom they’ve gleaned from reading the entrails of some dead animal, or the patterns of the clouds, flights of birds or even the alignment of the planets.
The readers of these inarticulate Nostradamus like ravings then trade their hard earned on the basis of these obscure prophecies. They also pay good money to get these ‘briefings’.
I’ve met the best Tech Industry Analyst on the planet. My 5 year old.
The other day I was in JB Hi-Fiand something struck me.
As I was walking through the computers I noticed that all the kids (and a lot of the adults) were happily playing with the iPads, iMacs and MacBooks. Most of the people in the store were also rocking an iPhone.
The Windows machines - and there were a lot of them (mostly from Dell) didn’t have a soul fiddling with them. JB Hi-Fi (at least at this store) were giving over about 20 meters of shelf space to these machines and I wasn’t seeing anyone show any interest.
In fact they had an Alienware laptop on display. I mean this is a rockstar of a gaming laptop with horsepower to spare, glowing lights, backlit keyboard, awesome performance and no one was giving it the time of day.
Now I don’t know how much Dell pay JB for the shelf space, if anything, but, I also noticed that JB had all Dell stock marked down. Still no one was buying, or even remotely interested.
Here’s why I’d be worried if I were Microsoft. All the kids, and I mean ALL the kids. Wanted to play with the Apple gear. They were waiting for a turn and I’ve seen this in other places too.
I remember many years back, kids would want to line up and play with Windows machines. Yeah. I know. Somebody’s going to talk about games and gaming. The demo XBox and Playstations weren’t being used either.
The kids wanted to play with the Apple gear. I even heard some kids complaining when their parents wanted to leave the store because they wanted to keep playing with the equipment.
If so many kids want to play with Apple equipment and not Windows - in a few years, when they’re making the buying decisions I think Microsoft will be in a pack of trouble.
They’re losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation of buyers.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple CEO - its iMargeddon
It was always going to happen.
Jobs was never going to stay as CEO forever.
The fact that he resigned the way he did was smart, and good for Apple.
Despite what all the ADHD afflicted Wall Street wunderkinder think, dumping shares and claiming doom and gloom because their spreadsheet models say so, this isn’t as big a problem as everyone thinks.
Different situation. Gates resigned after the rot had set in and handed the reigns over to Monkey Boy. Vista was already in the works before Bill resigned, he just left the big steaming pile for Ballmer to deal with.
This time Jobs, appears, to be leaving with Apple going from strength to strength.
The other day I was in one of those Home Maker Super Centres.
The 5 year olds wanted to play with iPads and Macs. I mean all of them. They weren’t lining up top play with Windows 7 laptops or someone else’s tablet.
Want to know what tech trend to follow look at what floats the boat of a 5 year old.
I don’t really think iMargeddon is here - but if you do I’ll offer you a couple of bucks for your Apple shares.
Jobs was never going to stay as CEO forever.
The fact that he resigned the way he did was smart, and good for Apple.
Despite what all the ADHD afflicted Wall Street wunderkinder think, dumping shares and claiming doom and gloom because their spreadsheet models say so, this isn’t as big a problem as everyone thinks.
- Jobs is a long term thinker. He knew this day was coming and has been busy preparing.
- While the common view of Apple is that its a company built on one tent pole, and that tent pole is Steve Jobs - there’s more to the company that just him.
- Jobs brilliance lies in the fact that he can look at technology and distill it down to something that is accessible to the “I just want it to work” crowd.
- I’m willing to bet money that he’s been explaining this rationale to everyone in his inner circle.
- Apple’s product line for the next 2 years are already in the pipeline.
- Apple’s engineering mules for the next 4 years of possible products are in the pipeline.
Different situation. Gates resigned after the rot had set in and handed the reigns over to Monkey Boy. Vista was already in the works before Bill resigned, he just left the big steaming pile for Ballmer to deal with.
This time Jobs, appears, to be leaving with Apple going from strength to strength.
- The iPhone 5 due ‘real soon now’.
- The Mac grabbing market share like Ballmer grabs futile acquisitions.
- A very successful patent war being fought against Samsung. The timing on this is interesting too.
The other day I was in one of those Home Maker Super Centres.
The 5 year olds wanted to play with iPads and Macs. I mean all of them. They weren’t lining up top play with Windows 7 laptops or someone else’s tablet.
Want to know what tech trend to follow look at what floats the boat of a 5 year old.
I don’t really think iMargeddon is here - but if you do I’ll offer you a couple of bucks for your Apple shares.
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