iPad mini: Who's Idea Was It? Steve Jobs or Tim Cook?

The iPad mini will be a year old soon and be replaced with an upgrade by Apple this fall.  What I want to explore here is whether the decision to rlease mini, obviously having been in the works of years even when Steve Jobs was alive and at Apple, planned all along or Tim Cook's after he become CEO.

I've got a 2013 Nexus 7 that has fit nicely into my daily workflow.  The battery is subpar given what Google advertised but it's still good enough where I can get through the day safely without running out of juice.

Having said that, the Nexus 7 is a pleasant surprise.  I can live on the Nexus, if I had not been exposed to the iPad.

That is not to say that I won't be getting a new iPad this fall.  The reason is because as good as the Nexus is, the Android tablet experience leaves one with much to desire because of the lack of a true tablet experience I'm used to with the iPad.

Still, that's not the issue here.  The issue is the iPad mini.  Steve Jobs had blasted 7" tablets as too small to use and the media bought his argument for the most part.  But the consumers did.  And 7" tablets, much cheaper than the iPad, became an issue for Apple.

So, let me throw this out there.  When Apple released the iPad mini last year, was it planned all along with Steve Jobs' blessing?  Or was it Tim Cook's own after he saw where the market was headed in terms of screen sizes and prices and decided to rush it out?

My theory?  The 7.85" iPad mini was in the works for years along with a host of other screen sizes.  But priority was given to the iPad since it was the flagship device and growing at a fast click while cannibalizing PC sales.

But with the rise of 7" Android tablets price in the $200s, Apple was compelled to respond.  First with the $399 iPad 2 to buy time until it could release the mini last year.

And to some, the iPad mini was full of compromises which leads me to conclude that the iPad mini is Tim's product, not Steve's.  First, no Retina Display.  Second, it was using an older iPad 2 system.  And lastly, the battery life was not up to the usual iPad standard.  All that together, the 2012 iPad mini felt compromised.

That isn't to say that its a bad product.  It just isn't the iPad mini with Retina Display and 10+ hours of battery life that we were expecting.  But it did its job.  It opened up the tablet market to more Apple tablets and to a wider range of consumers.

Saving Microsoft: Adopting An Apple-Google Hybrid Strategy

No one is in position to save Microsoft.  Me, you, or even the guy or gal they select eventually to be the next CEO of Microsoft.  Needless to say, that ain't gonna stop anyone from offering suggestions to the next CEO or Microsoft on how to go forward and if he or she doesn't follow those suggestions, suggest things at Microsoft will only become worse.

That's the state of where things are.  Still, there are obvious moves that Microsoft should make. For instance, find out who the folks are that have been playing politics and prevent the really smart folks from shining and get rid of them.

Also, get rid of the protectionist attitudes there.  Get rid of those who thought new Microsoft products would cannibalize existing ones like Windows or Office.  Courier could have been Microsoft's answer to the iPad but it was killed off as many suspected for the likelihood of getting people off the PC.  This includes webapps and services that could have rivaled Google.  Instead, we got Bing (which isn't bad but doesn't do anything better than Google search).

Look at what's happened.  It's an iPad world in the beginning and with an increase shipment of Android tablets, both Apple and Google's tablets have cannibalized PC sales.  Apple was right about iPad cannibalization of Mac sale.  It's better to have one company's own product cannibalize another of its own product than to get a competitor do that.

Also, bring back the innovative and entrepreneurial energy of yesteryear.  And I mean really unleash it.  I like Microsoft to do a 20% thing like Google did for its employees.  Microsoft has just as deep a bench as anyone else when it comes to talented scientists and engineers.  Let them go nuts.

Simply put, don't fear your own creations and innovations as Microsoft been doing.

Monday Is Dump On Steve Balmer Day

Okay, as you know by now (or you should if you're a mobile warrior and junky) is that Steve Balmer, the second CEO in Microsoft's history, will be stepping down as soon as they find a CEO to replace him and try to put Microsoft on the right mobile path and establish a clear viable strategy for the future.

Right now, Microsoft is treading water.  Has been for tenure of Steve Balmer's reign.

Having said that, I'm still waiting to hear more about his "resignation" which I had suspected wasn't because of the way things have been going at Microsoft in the last few years, the reception of its products to compete with Apple's iPhone and iPad and Google's Android and search.

Meanwhile, I'll doing a running update on today and maybe this week's headlines on Microsoft's future, Steve Balmer's resignation, and anything else that might be interesting.

First, headlines dumping on Balmer:

• Ballmer Departure From Microsoft Was More Sudden Than Portrayed by the Company (allthingsD):  provides some color on the behind the scene events in Redmond leading to the resignation.
• The Rise and Fall of Windows Mobile, Under Ballmer(NYT): Balmer on the iPhone in 2007 - how Windows Mobile's 60% market share went down to where Windows Phone is today at around 4%.  And this 4%?  It's mostly in emerging markets and markets where Apple and Samsung probably aren't targeting all that hard because they probably cannot sell enough high-end devices to justify a strong presence.

Those above are the nice ones.  You don't even wanna hear what the Android and Apple bloggers are saying.  Not surprisingly, most are pulling for a resurgence of Microsoft.  Why?  Because competition is good for us regular mobile warriors.  

Local Businesses Need Mobile Gateway and Passbook/Wallet

If I own a business, and it would not matter any kind, that caters to services or interaction with customers on a daily basis, I would make it my mission to see to it that I cater the mobile warriors. It'll serve to make my life (and employees's lives), customers'' lives, and the services better over all.

I started thinking about this as I sat here at a local car wash. Free WiFi is great. However, I think they can take the next step and over other mobile incentives.

• Being able to use Google Wallet would go a long way to help mobile payments and cut down on the need for a full service cashier. Use a service like Square also makes sense.
• Cut down on paperwork and offer receipts to be emailed or sent to a dedicated app for the business.
• Offer added services or incentives through something like iPhone's Passbook.

All of these mobile options, and there are plenty over ways to use mobile to expand a business and outreach, could be a good differentiator in the current economic environment we are in. It does matter if you're a national chain, a mom-and-pop cafe, or a stand at a local shopping center, offering a mobile abilities to conduct services and transactions mean that the business is offered a place on mobile users' smartphones.

 

On top of that, a a business owner, I want more of my costumers who are savvy with the fast changing and trending mobile market. It means they're young, smart and educated, and have more money to spend.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

I'll Say It Because Others Are Too Afraid: Them iPhone Colors Are Ugly

Those sickly colors of the iPhone 5C or whatever Apple's gonna call them are just downright ugly.  And this post stem from an online discussion with a friends in Asia.  And I think we need to have this discussion on a wider scale.

Here and now.  The white is okay.  But the red, green, and blue (I've seen a  yellow one) just are doing it for me. They just make me wanna puke.

And seriously, they are just not the colors that we are accustomed to seeing from Apple.  And if they are indeed the colors Apple has picked for the 5C, boy, Apple missed Steve Jobs more than I expected.

Now, there's a part of me that hopes those colors are just fake leaks from pranksters looking for attention or even Apple themselves trying to show off its competitors and the media.  Imagine Tim Cook and company trying to get Samsung to follow them.

And we have seem some of these colors from Nokia and I can tell you after seeing those in person, they are just not doing it for the consumers.

So, I wonder why would Apple pick colors that felt like the iPhone 5C are encased on cheap Taiwanese cases that you can find for like a couple of bucks at the famed night markets.

Why wouldn't Apple stick with colors we see on the iPod touch or the iPod nano from before.  Or even better, the older iMac colors.

There is something I like to offer, not as evidence, but rather a slim hope that all these iPhone 5C cases we're seeing are mere fake colors. We have yet to see what one of these unicorn iPhone 5C look like fully assembled and what the front would look like.  So maybe those shots we're seeing all over the Web truly are fake or mocked up.  Or also, that they were early colors used in the development of the iPhone 5C and nothing more came of them because Apple went with better colors.

Furthermore, consider iOS 6 change to iOS 7 in terms of designs.  We saw a lot of changes but the colors in iOS 7 are still every bit as enticing and eye-catching as anything Apple has come out with.

My guess is that they'll look like the iPod touch.  Which is fine.  And hopefully, Apple will use colors for the iPhone 5C that are more vibrant and brighter and delicious that you'll want to lick them.  Failing that, would you want Apple to just go with the iMac colors?

Otherwise, the colors I'm seeing on the Web for the iPhone 5C just makes the devices look cheap.

More Thoughts On Steve Balmer Leaving Microsoft

This is only a preliminary thought on the news that Steve Balmer will be stepping down as CEO of Microsoft.

• He screwed up Surface bad and the board wants him gone.  He had number opportunities to compete against the iPhone and Android and he failed to deliver.  With Windows and the PC market in a critical condition and at an inflection point, Windows 8 was worse than Vista ever was.  And Windows Phone is gaining shares but only because Nokia is selling devices at a loss or break-even.
• I'm excited that Microsoft might bring in someone who will rejuvenate the company and put Apple and Google on notice.  A product guy who gets it.  Not another sales guy like Balmer.  

However, I also wonder if it's too late for Microsoft.  Think Palm.  Dell.  HP.  And now more recently, think Blackberry.  Turning a company around isn't easy.  Having said that, Steve Jobs did.  When he took over at Apple, it was weeks from going bankrupt.  

Microsoft is in an infinitely better shape with billions in the bank and continues to make more money than most governments and companies.  But the new CEO has to play offense, get rid of death weight, and, more importantly, care less about making friends or Wall Street happy and willing to piss people off.

Microsoft And Batman: Every Had A Morning When You're Not Sure If You're Gonna Have A Good Day or Not

Have you had a game where you woke up in the morning, and you're not sure if it's going to be a good day or not? I have one of those mornings today. I woke up at 5 AM. As my custom, I reach for my Nexus, and I opened up my RSS feed reader.

It's a Friday. Nothing happens on Friday. Are so I thought. Still only 5 AM.

I was greeted with two headlines that I thought was a joke.

The first one was that Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, will be resigning within 12 months. I mumbled to myself, "Nah, this is wrong. He's never going to go. Microsoft is life".

However, it's got to be true. That's because I checked another source. Like Steve Ballmer or not, him leaving Microsoft is a good thing for us mobile warriors.

The second headline, that's the one that had me thinking my Friday might be not a good one.

The next Batman is none other than the man who ruined Daredevil and Tom Clancy's iconic American spymaster, Jack Ryan. Jack Ryan, who was played masterfully by Harrison Ford, will never rise again.

To all my favorite characters, one by one man, and now he's going to ruin the third. And Batman is my favorite of all of them.

This man is none other than Ben Affleck.

So you can see, it's a good Friday because Steve Ballmer is leaving and Microsoft if only be rid of someone who has been choking it to death. This is good for mobile warriors because whoever Microsoft brings as the next CEO has the opportunity to provide an iconic American company and rejuvenate consumer and business technology.

Again, it's a good Friday. I think. Again, it depends on who is the next CEO of Microsoft.

Again, it's a bad Friday. I'm sure. Because Batman is about to be ruined.

- Posted using Mobile