apple ipad's intro tv ad - the magic is in simplicity

one of the reasons we love apple products is its simplicity in almost everything in physical design, application and getting the most out of what we buy from them like i-tunes and the app store.

apple's tablet the ipad is no different. i do not think you can be more simpler than it is a large ipod touch. it is a disappointment that it is just a large ipod touch, we were hoping it was going to be a smaller or at least lighter and thinner macbook. we were saving mega bucks to get one of those just in case it will be a small, lighter and thinner macbook but it did not happen that way.

so we now have some cash saved up that we don't plan to allow apple to get at them for now. we bought apple stocks instead, which by the way has reached an all time high price of $219.08 as of yesterday's closing.

the ad like the product is a simple tv ad. it simply shows what you can do with it, mostly staying on the gestures you need to do to make it work just like you would in an ipod touch or iphone but in what at certain times felt like an awkward size - way to big. (if i hear a clink, it's my ipod touch falling on the floor but on this own it will be "thud"  or a breaking glass.)

that's it? yes, that's it.

steve jobs describes the product as "magic". the ad did not show it. look, magic is something you have not seen before or something amazing. both was not shown the ipad has. so i guess, we will need to wait for the magic to appear in the future. sooner than later, i hope.

before we end this piece, we did see magic - it was on the nasdaq when AAPL reached it's all time high price last night. that is truly magical! we are looking forward to something like $300 within the year.

steve jobs back on the job

macworld 2009 minus steve jobs - the world did not end!

applenatics and stevenatics gave a collective sigh - the world did not end when macworld started and ended without steve jobs giving the keynote address and the world did not end.

the world also did not shake with the announcements made during the event. with the kind of announcements made at the macworld, it made sense that steve jobs stayed home to rest and recuperate from his hormone defficiency.

of the new things, two favorites of mine is the new 17" MacBook Pro and lower itunes prices. the longer battery life, 8 hours of oomph is exciting.

Apple unveils software updates, new laptop


Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer


The presentation included updates to the iLife and iWork software suites, a new 17-inch MacBook Pro with an 8-hour battery and a new digital rights management-free iTunes library with tiered pricing.


Starting at $2,799 and available in late January, the new MacBook Pro features Apple's unibody aluminum enclosure, which other models received this past summer. But the big news was the battery life for the machine, which has a 40-percent larger battery capable of up to eight hours of continuous use.

--

ITunes is finally getting a full slate of digital rights protection-free music that will come in a higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding format. About 8 million songs will be available immediately, and by the end of the quarter the remaining 2 million songs also will be available without digital rights management protections.


Also, Apple is now offering music at three price points: 69 cents, the traditional 99 cents and $1.29. Most albums will still sell for $9.99. The move satisfies one of the longer-running complaints of the music labels, which have wanted more flexibility in pricing in the iTunes Music Store. Users can upgrade their existing library of songs to DRM-free iTunes Plus for 30 cents a track or 30 percent of an album price.

read in full here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/07/BUL6154I2V.DTL

macworld 2009 - the first, the last and forever

first things first, let's get this out of the way on the first paragraph ---- steve jobs is alive and will still be alive. it's just a simple thing as "hormone imbalance" that has zapped steve's body mass on its way to flesh and bones. the good news is its a very much straightforward fix - he will regain what was lost in a few week's time with a simple remedy. (200 lbs oprah, are you getting this?)

Apple CEO Blames 'Hormone Imbalance' for Weight Loss
What Steve Jobs' Weight Loss May Tell Us About His Health

By DAN CHILDS

ABC News Medical Unit

Jan. 5, 2009

Apple Inc. founder and chief executive Steve Jobs confronted widespread speculation about his apparent weight loss in a statement issued today that attributed his gaunt appearance to an easily treated hormone imbalance.

The announcement follows a flurry of speculation in 2008 about the 53-year-old CEO's weight loss, including rumors of a worsening pancreatic condition -- rumors Jobs said are unfounded.



read in full: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/CancerPreventionAndTreatment/story?id=6580484&page=1

the macworld 2009 will probably be the most special ever in the history of macworld.

it will be the first time that steve jobs will not make the keynote address. it's usually his thing to do. and when he does his thing, the apple faithful swoons to heaven, after passing through the bank to get cash to buy the newest apple product that jobs will announce in his keynote address.

it is also the last time that apple will participate in macword. many may not know it, but macworld is an IDG event, a separate company that does events for mmany industries. apple is just invited to participate, err star in it.

will there be a macworld 2010? it would be foolish for IDG not to have it. even if apple does not participate in it, they will still come. we think that is the kind of following apple has among the throngs of techno fanatics.

after macworld 2009, even without steve jobs in it, and even if jobs has more than just a hormone imbalance and he joins the great white in heaven (heaven forbid), apple is set for forever. this is question is often asked these days - is there life for apple after steve jobs.

we think there is. apple's success model has very much been defined over the years with very clear cut principles and directions, etched in ways more pronounced than the tablet that had the ten commandments in them. the strength of a company is in its strategic thinking, its brand equities. and apple's strategic thinking and brand equities are probably the clearest for any brand in the world today.

pause for a minute, and think about it - there are very distinct and powerful similarities in the mac, ipod, iphone and the itunes. there is no mistaking on what were the key strategies that made for these products being the icons and leaders in their respective fields.

macworld may not be one of those exactly, but even the one that will start in less than 24 hours tell a very clear story on the kind of equities and passions people have towards apple. blogs and newswires continue to be pregnant with rumors and speculation what will be announced and not announced during macworld. in a perverse way, the world seem to have moved on from the fact that jobs will not give the keynote address.

speculation and excitement are ripe and palpable. but here's one of the hottest speculation and rumor --- that contrary to what apple announced, steve jobs will make a surprise appearance in macworld.

macworld event - applenatics and stevenatics restless and protesting

it's brewing. there is a strong undertow but pretty soon, the closer we get to the macworld event, applenatics, apple product fanatics and stevenatics, steve jobs fanatics will bring it all on the surface. it's an event to watch out for, for very different reasons.

Steve Jobs
The ailing creator of the iPod and iPhone is next to irreplaceable.

For two years I wrote a satirical blog under the persona of Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs, and one of the recurring themes was that Jobs is not actually human but in fact is a demigod, the offspring of Zeus and a mortal woman, an immortal figure who uses his extraordinary powers to restore a sense of childlike wonder to the world by creating magical consumer-electronics products like the iPod and iPhone. This is, after all, a CEO who inspires a frightening level of adoration from Apple fanatics. These people think nothing of camping out overnight in freezing cold weather just to attend one of his speeches. No other chief executive is so inextricably linked to his company's brand and products. As one Wall Street analyst put it this year, "Apple is Steve Jobs, and Steve Jobs is Apple."

Alas, however, Jobs is all too human, as became evident in June when he appeared at an Apple conference looking frail and gaunt, causing Apple watchers to worry that perhaps Jobs had suffered a recurrence of the pancreatic cancer for which he underwent surgery four years ago. Later, word leaked that Jobs had undergone surgery in the spring. Fears flamed up again in December when Apple announced that he would not give his annual keynote address at the Macworld conference in January. Asked about Jobs's health, an Apple spokesman says that if at some point Jobs were unable to perform his duties as CEO, Apple would make this known.

Jobs cofounded Apple in 1976, got tossed out in 1985 and returned in 1997, when the company was as close to death as a company can get. Since then he has orchestrated one of the greatest turnarounds in corporate history, making Apple into the hottest brand in consumer electronics. At the end of 1997 Apple stock was trading for about three bucks a share. Today those shares trade for $96, after shooting as high as $202 earlier this year. The weak economy might take some wind out of Apple's sails, especially since the company sells mostly to consumers rather than to corporate customers, and because Apple's products are hardly cheap. On the other hand, Apple's customers are fiercely loyal and aren't penny-pinching bargain hunters. They're not likely to start buying Dell computers or Motorola cell phones just to save a few bucks. If anything, they'll just wait a bit longer before upgrading their Apple gear.

Jobs began Apple's turnaround with the 2001 introduction of the iPod, which defined and then dominated the portable-music-player market—and which became central to the resuscitation of Apple's computer line. The Mac, once derided as a toy, today is the best personal computer on the planet, period. And the iPhone is the best smart phone. Nothing else comes close. As of the third quarter of 2008, Apple's iPhone was outselling the Research in MotionBlackBerry, even though the iPhone had been in the market for only 15 months. When measured by revenues, Apple has become the world's third-largest mobile-phone maker, behind Nokia and Samsung. All this is happening just as mobile devices are poised to become the most important omputing platform.

For all this and more, thank Steve Jobs. He's not an engineer. He can't write a line of software code. He is, by most accounts, a terrible manager, prone to tantrums and abusive tirades, almost unbearable to work for. But he is also a genius —a relentless perfectionist with a keen eye for design and a Zen master's sense of which features to leave out. His products are simple, spare and elegant, with the best user interfaces in the world.

Moreover, Apple is not Jobs's only home run. In 1986 he spent $10 million to buy a sad little company that was trying (and mostly failing) to sell specialized, high-end graphics computers. Twenty years later, having renamed the outfit Pixar and turned it into an animation house, he sold it to Disney for $7.4 billion

http://www.newsweek.com/id/176318

life without meaning or steve jobs not on stage at the macworld conference

i both understand and do not understand what the fuzz is about apple's announcement that steve jobs not delivering the keynote address in the coming macworld event.

here's why i understand it. steve jobs in my mind is his generation's most brilliant marketer in the world, bar none. no one man has done what steve jobs has done - he was kicked out the company he has built after he introduced apple computers. he came back to it, but did other things - macbook, ipod, itunes, iphone and back to the mac. all those things have changed not only our digital life but also our real lifestyle. they are not just brilliantly marketed products, they were superior products that not only led the industry the products competed in, it changed it, if it did not create a whole new industry by itself.

that is a very eloquent statement on why many are disappointed that steve jobs will not be at the macworld event. apple is steve jobs and steve jobs is apple. its just not the same if it does not come from the horse's mouth itself. well steve job's mouth.

all those marvelous and life changing products are largely credited to steve jobs.

and that's the part that i don't understand. are we sure that's all of steve job's doing? how sure are we on that? steve jobs must be a superman or some alien working out of cupertino.

when apple announced jobs will not be the keynote speaker, apple stock prices dropped by at least 7%. i don't get that - investors who bought apple stocks are buying into steve jobs and not apple products? that is what they seem to be saying.

it's as if without steve jobs around, all the macs, iphone and ipod will stop working or consumers will stop buying them. it's like telling us what most people bought were not ipods and iphones but a piece of steve jobs. that sounds really sexy and poetic, but come on now!

don't get me wrong. i have long been a fan of steve jobs. on my very first trip to the US many years ago, i had asked my hosts to drive me to their cupertino headquarters and had a picture of myself taken in front of their office. and i have read everything written about steve jobs since then.

but i'm not one who thinks owning an ipod means owning a piece of steve jobs and his absence will remove all meaning on life and apple products. i would love to have steve jobs to live forever and to be at every apple event but the world will not crumble without him.

apple's product, r&d and marketing strategies are so crystal clear that i'll be surprised if they are not written in stone in some sacred mountain. having these strategies and thinking clear and solid ensures apple will thrive as a company for more years to come with or without steve jobs. unless, of course those who will replace jobs don't know how to read and can't think.

macworld will continue to be an event to watch. but it will be for a different reason. this time, it will not be for what jobs will say but it will be for what he will not say and who will say it.

after that event, i'll come back here and talk about what i understand and what i don't understand.

new and better iPods, iPod Touch coming sept 9. lower priced too?

nobody does it better than steve jobs! apple is the only electronics company, in fact consumer product that generates this much excitement and anticipation. all it's product moves are watched and in fact calendared into everyone's PDA.

this september 9 is no exception. brilliant marketing? apple owns that!

hold off purchase of the ipod and the ipod touch -- wait after september 9.



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Come September: iPods

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Apple has announced a San Francisco-based special event for September. Like past September special events—where the iPod nanos and video capable iPods have made their debut—this one will surely focus on the iPod. (The invitation, with its title Let’s Rock, iPod interface, and silhouette figure makes that clear to even unsubtle folks like me.)

And it comes as no surprise because in Apple’s eyes, September means the holidays are a scant Autumn away. That can only mean that it’s time to issue the latest batch of tempting portable media players. And, in turn, that can only mean that it’s time for us iPod watchers to don our speculation hats and ponder what September 9 might bring.


The new nano


September 2005 brought the original, scratchable iPod nano. 2006 introduced the tougher aluminum 2G nano. And 2007 saw the birth of the ittier-bittier aluminum, video-capable iPod nano we enjoy today. The iPod nano is Apple’s most popular iPod—not too expensive, easily slipped into a stocking, attractive, and capable as hell. And because it is, the company can’t seem to leave the thing alone.


Given how capable the nano is, what does it need? Right. A bigger screen. Although you can watch video on its 2-inch (diagonal) screen, viewing a letterboxed three-hour epic gives even the most robust of us a crashing headache. With the advent of the iPhone and iPod touch, those who enjoy video on the go are accustomed to watching that video in a widescreen view and on a display that can’t be covered with their thumb.

So, that means a nano with a wide screen. And that’s accomplished by returning to the old form factor—the hunk-o’-beef-jerky long iPod nano—and turning the thing on its side to watch video. Digg’s Kevin Rose has foretold just such an iPod (complete with a picture he claims is a prototype of the device) and he’s probably right. Such a nano gives us the change that Apple needs to sell customers yet another iPod and because it doesn’t feature a touchscreen and performs only iPod functions, it doesn’t eat into iPod touch and iPhone sales.


The “big” iPod

If Apple does indeed issue a sideways iPod nano and maintains the iPod touch pretty much as it is, where does that leave the “traditional” hard-drive bearing full-sized iPod? Currently the advantages that iPod has is storage and a slightly larger screen. The use of flash memory in the shuffle, nano, and touch necessarily constrain them to holding only a small-to-medium-sized media library. The full-sized iPod, currently available in 80GB and 160GB capacities, makes it possible for those with heaping helpings of media to pack a good portion of that media with them.
But storage isn’t sexy. And sexy is important if you want to continue to sell these things in large numbers.

What would bring sexy to the full-sized iPod—and keep its capabilities from being compared unfavorably to the iPod nano—is a similarly sideways display. Again, retool the form factor, keep the storage capacity up, and you provide zazz as well as utility.


The littlest shuffle

Much as I’d love to see another go-round of the iPod Flea parody, I’m pretty sure that Apple can’t make the shuffle any smaller without also making it a pain in the neck to use (and keep track of). The current clip-on form-factor is darned convenient and, should Apple add some more capacity (4GB, up from 2GB for the “top-of-the-line shuffle), round off the edges, and slap on a few different shades of paint on the things I think they can be fairly confident of their chances of selling a boatload of them during the holidays.


iTunes

A few weeks ago, in my Imagining a New iTunes entry, I suggested that it was time for a new version of iTunes. And by new I don’t mean “even more cluttered with capabilities” but rather a version of iTunes that’s more focused. This could come in the form of a reorganized interface or as a couple of different products that more specifically zero in on particular chores—managing, obtaining, and encoding music, for example.


When releasing new iPod models Apple has been known to also unveil major new versions of iTunes. Seems the timing is right for Apple to do so again. In a setting where Apple “returns to its iPod roots” one could argue that it would be easier to sell a slimmed down, music-focused version of iTunes.


And the rest

We haven’t heard a lot about iTunes in Starbucks lately. Now may be the time to provide a little refresher on that one as well as detail additional ways to obtain music—from other retailers, streaming, and maybe… gasp… in an all-you-can-eat plan that Apple takes pains to describe as anything but a subscription model.

Oh, and of course there’s the Musical Guest at the end of the presentation. I know what you’re thinking. You know what I’m thinking. But I’ve been burned too many times to mention The Name or The Group again. And frankly, I just don’t care any longer.

What I do care about is that the fall TV season is about to kick into gear and NBC and Apple have yet to make nice. Here’s hoping that the One More Thing is Jeff Zucker and Steve Jobs exchanging a big wet one before Paul McC… er McCandless and the rest of Oregon take the stage.

source : http://www.macworld.com/article/135337/2008/09/september9event.html




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read WAWAM! posts on globe's iphone launch : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/globe

read WAWAM! posts on the iphone here :http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/iphone

iPhone 3G : steve job's plan for world domination

there isn't any more simple plan at achieving world domination for steve jobs, just two sentences, well ok, three : "iPhone 3G. Twice as fast. Half the price."

everyone, both consumers and the whole mobile phone industry, knew that when steve jobs launched the iphone last year, the mobile phone industry will never be the same ever again. everyone was expecting the iphone will do to mobile phones what what the ipod did to mp3 players and personal cd players.

there were just two quirks - you can only get the iphone through an AT&T mobile service subscription and the hefty price. the first one consumers did not mind and lived with, the second, the price, they sort of complained but bought the iphone just the same. but these two quirks were both ignored and seen by rabid users as just part of the deal, it goes with the teritory of being hip and cool in owning an iphone.

if you ask iphone owners, they only have one complaint - the price. and with the launch of the new 3G iPhone, steve jobs simply erased the only product negative. there is one more extra - it runs twice as fast.

now, in marketing terms, that's a sure fire success formula at achieving world domination - price, quality (speed) and coolness. apple also announced the 3G iphone will be sold in 70 countries, promoting the iphone as a new key player in the global mobile phone industry.

The iPhone’s new business model

“Twice as fast. Half the price.”

That’s the story about the new iPhone 3G that Apple is selling, and it’s a line that was echoed by Apple VPs and industry analysts in the Moscone West spin room after Steve Jobs’ keynote Monday.

“The new price point is a very big deal,” said Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies. “With that, and the 70 countries, Apple is now a world player on the mobile smartphone stage.”

But it’s not that simple. There were a lot of financial details Jobs left out of his keynote that only emerged later in the day, in a 8-K form Apple (AAPL) filed with the SEC and a long press release issued by AT&T (T).

Apple alerted the SEC that although it had signed deals with 70 countries…

“…Under the vast majority of these agreements, Apple will not receive follow-on revenue generating payments from carriers”

AT&T, for its part, warned investors of…
“…potential dilution to earnings per share (EPS) from this initiative in the $0.10 to $0.12 range this year and next.”

What does it mean?

It means the iPhone has a new business model.

When the device was first introduced, Jobs was able to dictate some rather unusual terms. Customers had to pay full retail price for it (a practice almost unheard of in the mobile phone industry) and carriers had to share a sizable cut of their monthly revenue with the manufacturer (also virtually unprecedented).

Now, the carriers are subsidizing the cost of the phone, making up for it in monthly charges, and they are no longer funneling a share of that monthly revenue to Apple. As Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster puts it: “Apple is basically playing by the rules that all other cell phone hardware manufacturers play by.”

Pressed for specifics, Munster speculates that AT&T is paying Apple about $400 for the 8GB iPhone and keeping $199 of that. It probably pays Apple about $450 for the 16GB model, he says, and keeps $299. [Update: in a note to clients Tuesday Munster came up with a slightly higher number. He now estimates that Apple is charging carriers, on average, $466 per iPhone. Toni Sacconaghi at Bernstein Research comes in with a range that goes even higher; he believes Apple will sell the new iPhones to carriers for anywhere from $350 to $700 each.]This is a big change.

Gone is that nice revenue sharing deal where Apple socked it away as deferred income over the life of a 24-month contract — a comfortable cushion against lean quarters in the company’s future, should they ever arise.

Gone too is the nice iPhone bonanza AT&T got upfront last summer by selling all those 8GB iPhones for $599 each (minus a small commission, perhaps $80, to Apple).
But don’t cry for AT&T. As its press release made clear, it’s going to make up for that by raising the $20 monthly fee customers pay for unlimited data services to $30. That works out to $240 extra over the life of a two-year contract.

“Half the price,” it turns out, actually costs customers $40 more.

But most people look only at the purchase price when they buy cell phones, and at $199 for the 8GB model, the iPhone is going look a whole lot more affordable to a lot more people. Munster, for one, believes that Apple will more than make up in volume what it’s losing in revenue sharing.

Munster had predicted that Apple would sell 12 million iPhones in 2008, beating its own 10 million target by 20%. With the new price point, he says, 12 million “should be a lay-up.”

And what about his famous prediction that Apple will sell 45 million iPhones in 2009 — a number that he acknowledges is “way ahead of the Street”? Munster is not raising that target, but admits he’s “increasingly comfortable” with it.

apple computers : marketing magic and top quality sells

apple has for decades been a great marketing success study, it was then and in recent years it is once again that. apple's story is that of fairy tale quality, except that of course it actually happened for real. it's how one man's marketing brilliance and unwavering passion and obsession for excellence in concept and design took the brand from nothing to greatness. then kicked out of the company he made into a giant corporation, only to be restored back into position and a second time takes the company to greatness behind of all things this tiny little gadget called the ipod.

the ipod's insane success worldwide, behind the same brilliance and obsession that built the mac is being credited for reviving the company. this tiny product's excellence bar none is now propelling it's big brother the mac computer to leadership, at least in the high priced segment.

the lesson here is that marketing magic and top quality product design can not only demand a high price (and therefore high margins), it can also gain dominant leadership. i am not a fan of it, but in the ipod and mac's case, i am awed by the power called "halo effect".




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Report: Apple’s market share of PCs over $1,000 hits 66%

Here’s a new way to slice Apple’s growing share of the computer market. Last March, the NPD Group reported that Apple’s retail market share — its cut of the computers sold in brick-and-mortar stores — had climbed to 14%, a figure that’s roughly double its overall share of the U.S. market and reflects the power of the Apple Store to draw customers and move product. What NPD didn’t report at the time was the huge growth in Apple’s share of the so-called “premium” computer market — machines that cost more than $1,000.

To some extent, Apple’s (AAPL) share of this market is growing by default. Companies like HP (HPQ), Dell (DELL) and Lenovo ship enormous quantities of PCs at price points between $500 and $750, whereas no Macintosh (with the exception of the Mini) sells for less than $1,000.
Still, Apple’s share of the $1,000-plus retail market was less than 18% in January 2006 according to NPD. By September 2007, it had grown to more than 57%. And in the first quarter of 2008 it hit a record 66%.

This nugget of retail data comes from Joe Willcox, who writes the Apple Watch column for eWeek (see here). He extracted it from an interview last Friday with Stephen Baker, NPD’s vice president of industry analysis.

“Apple has got better distribution than it’s had in the last 15 years,” Baker told Willcox. They’re in the right spot right now.” It doesn’t hurt Apple that once you’re in its store, you can’t buy any computer with a screen for less than a grand. “If you don’t give people a choice,” Baker said, “people will spend more.”

http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/05/19/report-apples-market-share-of-pcs-over-1000-hits-66/?source=yahoo_quote