Productive Organizer

The more I read about Apple’s business strategies, the more I had the idea that Apple is more than just a marketing genius. There is a group of engineering genius, ux genius and brightest business minds supporting him.

In this weeks Bloomberg BusinessWeek, there is a great story illustrating how Apple achieves great pricing, manufacturing and shipping advantages to make them the most successful supply chain in the world.

It is not too long ago where business school was studying Dell’s great inventory supply chain system. Soon we will be learning about this as well.

Apple have been so far ahead in their product design, conceptualization, integration and delivery. This caught all their competitors unawares and everyone is trying to brush up on their innovation and systems integration.

How then did Apple reinvest their huge huge cash war-chest? By growing their network effect and competing in different ways that the competition do note have the bandwidth to bother about.

At the end of the day, Apple is still a hardware manufacturer and the way to stay up and make others stay down is to keep cost low and increase others’ cost.

Most of Apple’s customers have probably never given that green light a second thought, but its creation speaks to a massive competitive advantage for Apple: Operations. This is the world of manufacturing, procurement, and logistics in which the new chief executive officer, Tim Cook, excelled, earning him the trust of Steve Jobs. According to more than a dozen interviews with former employees, executives at suppliers, and management experts familiar with the company’s operations, Apple has built a closed ecosystem where it exerts control over nearly every piece of the supply chain, from design to retail store. Because of its volume—and its occasional ruthlessness—Apple gets big discounts on parts, manufacturing capacity, and air freight. “Operations expertise is as big an asset for Apple as product innovation or marketing,” says Mike Fawkes, the former supply-chain chief at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and now a venture capitalist with VantagePoint Capital Partners. “They’ve taken operational excellence to a level never seen before.”

To ensure that the company’s new, translucent blue iMacs would be widely available at Christmas the following year, Jobs paid $50 million to buy up all the available holiday air freight space, says John Martin, a logistics executive who worked with Jobs to arrange the flights. The move handicapped rivals such as Compaq that later wanted to book air transport

For next year, Apple appears to be pursuing the same tactics. It has already said via its annual report to the SEC that it will spend “$7.1 billion for product tooling and manufacturing process equipment.”

I have a feeling Tim Cook brings a different ball game to the table. But there is a risk there, should they focus too much on making this their competitive advantage and go laxed on product design, they could falter.

Apple perhaps are teaching everyone not just a lesson in product design but on business strategies.

[Read full article at Bloomberg BusinessWeek >>]

Om Malik mentioned this week how many of us are debating on the wrong area. Instead of thinking who would win out, Google? Amazon? Facebook? or Apple?

What is definite is which old tech industry is going to suffer. As an investor in shares it affects you to know that a company that performs really well with a iron cast business model may be ripped wide open by these new tech companies.

This could be classified as substitutes or blue ocean. Do read this.

Today’s Internet-centric communication device (for the lack of a better word) is in competition with the old way. Thanks to new chip technologies, cheap sensors and fast growing networks, the idea of what is a phone has changed. This is leading to behavior changes and new interactions. They are behaviors of a new connected life. These new behaviors will change many different parts of society and business.

At the launch of the iPhone 4S, Apple chief executive office Tim Cook

[Read full story here >>]

With iOS 5.0, Apple introduced iCloud, which enables the users to store the following in iCloud, Apple’s own cloud storage:

1. Email
2. Contacts
3. Calendars
4. Reminders/To-do
5. Browsing history
6. Notes
7. Photos
8. Documents / Storage
9. Backup

Now depending on whether you prefer to do that, there may be reasons why you would not want to do that.

For myself, I do not want to tie in to Apple’s Tech Network so much. The downside is that you may have to rely on many other cloud services and storage solution.

In time, average consumers might find this to be a huge switching cost. This is great for Apple. For folks who want to buy Apple’s stock, this is a great upside.

How I would prefer is to set up my cloud solutions this way:

As you can see, for me to get this to work, I would need to cloud sync to Google and Apple separately

1. Toggle those services you want to sync to “Off”
2. Toggle those services you want to sync to iCloud to “On”
3. For Notes, you would need to create a @me.com account.

But the real question which I dare not try is: Can we use Exchange Sync to Gmail and iCloud at the same time?

Have anyone tried that and whether it works?

Amazon’s recent announcement of Kindle Fire, Touch could be seen as a bad thing for Apple but essentially I think it is a good thing.

For one thing, Apple is trying to shift the consumer behavior to digital for books, media consumption.

This shift needs strong pushers and Apple will be happy Amazon helps them along as well. It is abit of a co-orpertition. The market is big enough for the 2 of them.

In more familiar terms, Amazon is becoming the Wal-Mart of digital media to Apple’s high-end suburban mall. Where Amazon relies on vertical control to drive down prices (let’s not forget that it continues to use its size and balance sheet to drive down ebook prices much in the way Wal-Mart pioneered,) Apple offers a luxurious, controlled environment. An app builder brings the iPad user into his universe with the same control over the atmospherics that Abercrombie has over the music, lighting, fixtures and staff.

Amazon obliterates the brands that stand between the consumer and the content; Apple steps back and relies on the app makers to build an audience and drive sales of its devices. So far, the only misstep Apple has made as a “landlord” has been to try and charge too high a rent and drive some of its anchor tenants away (e.g., the Financial Times and Amazon.)

Having viable platforms on both ends of the economic barbell is a huge plus for almost everyone in the digital media game. First of all, the faster we make this transition the better it will be for everyone—even those who will lose revenue and market-share as ad-based media declines. Squeezing the last juice from the ad-supported media has given us  all manner of bizarre hook ups between content producers and distributors. At best, these are stop-gap measures like today’s ABC News-Yahoo! announcement. At worst, they’re serious sinkholes like content farms.

[Read the rest here]

Being both a software engineer, technology commentator and user experience enthusiast, Steve Jobs to me have been nothing short of inspiring.

Great Systems Integrator

What stands out first and fore most was that whether it is an MP3 player, personal computer or a phone, he does not watch watch his competitors or what the consumer wants, he creates a Blue Ocean and provides consumer the answer what really works for them or how it should work for them.

Let me just say that I have used my fair share of smartphones since the palm, windows CE days and I have never encounter a device that is just so right in every way, whether it is the navigation, the focus on smooth scrolling the detail to what mainstream needs. There are not geeky integration into their product just because that is the current technological advancement.

The amazing thing is that the industry should have know this because its so intuitive yet they don’t provide for us but this man did and for that we really have to thank him for how he push the industry to be so consumer centric.

Great User Experience

Before Apple really went mainstream with the MAC OSX, IPOD and IPhone, Human Computer Interaction was not high on the industry agenda. Sure it is a good to have but the focus is on functionality and more functionality.

Steve showed that great user experience can command a premium, enhance their brand, create a following and be a competitive advantage.

To see how much emphasis he placed on details to provide that great user experience take a look at what Google’s Vic Gundotra, the current nemisis of iPhone have to say about Jobs:

One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said "Caller ID unknown". I choose to ignore.

After services, as I was walking to my car with my family, I checked my cell phone messages. The message left was from Steve Jobs. "Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said.

Before I even reached my car, I called Steve Jobs back. I was responsible for all mobile applications at Google, and in that role, had regular dealings with Steve. It was one of the perks of the job.

"Hey Steve – this is Vic", I said. "I’m sorry I didn’t answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn’t pick up".

Steve laughed. He said, "Vic, unless the Caller ID said ‘GOD’, you should never pick up during services".

I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I’ve already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.

"I’ve been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I’m not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject "Icon Ambulance". The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.

Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products. They have been a part of my life for decades. Even when I worked for 15 years for Bill Gates at Microsoft, I had a huge admiration for Steve and what Apple had produced.

But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I’ll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

To one of the greatest leaders I’ve ever met, my prayers and hopes are with you Steve.

Great Disruptor

He created one of the most disruptive company in history. The music industry doesn’t know how to make sense of the music piracy scene and he created a device people would use and distribute music through it. That probably save the industry.

He make the retail market and phone manufacturers sit up and be serious (after they all say he is going to fail) about how the industry will change with their product offering.

How have Steve Jobs influence you?

I was over at forums.archosfans.com and saw that many have gotten their hands on the Archos GEN8 tablets.

It’s a great device from the youtube videos that I have posted and makes you think that for once we have finally got something:

1. Good screen size (7 and 10 inch)
2. WIFI and BT
3. Good processor Cortex A8 1 GHZ
4. adequate ram 256 MB (wish it was 512MB)
5. Micro SD card expansion
6. And a whole lot of others

This could be the one that will kick iPad’s ass.

Sadly it is not to be. I find that the offerings once it reaches Singapore is expensive.

For an Archos 10 inch comparable to iPad at 8GB is SGD 499 and 16GB is  SGD 599.

An iPAd 16GB WIFI version is SGD 728. That’s only 128 bucks more than the 16GB Archos 16GB. It makes a tough decision but if the Archos delivers greater value than the iPad, it might be worth while to go with the Archos GEN8 101.

Archos greater value than the iPad?

The thing that Apple does well is release a device with good quality control and for the iPad it has a lot of value because it has

1. a lot of good todo list
2. a lot of good note taking app
3. a lot of good ebook readers
4. a lot of good pdf readers

The existing third party apps really add value and it is easy to find them on the app store.

Compare this to the Archos

1. No Android Market place (that is without a hack). The softwares on AppLib is much lesser than that of Android Marketplace
2. There are good ebook readers, both with kindle and nook and kobo support
3. No good PDF readers that are prominent
4. Note taking apps are not meant for 7 or 10 inch
5. Same for To-Do apps.

In terms of quality control, Archos seems to rush out their tablets such that the people at the forum is facing a lot of issues

I have spent all afternoon having nothing but problems with my just received Archos 101

Most of the issues are due to the touch screen but also the firmware. I had to do a low level system restore to get it out of a perpetual rebooting.

2 times I have got it stable and reload some apps only to find that I put it down for 1/2 hour and its unusable.

I called the supplier who I purchased it from and they said 25% of those shipped out are being returned.

Archos seem to like there name being associated with carp unreliable buggy equipment, how can a company survive when they let out such equipment for sale. No wonder there will be non available for another month, its because they might have finally twigged that it a bad idea to Piss 25% of your customer base off.

A not very happy 101 owner (not for long though)

Now I wonder how many people generally encounter this on the iPad

Here is a buyer of a Viewsonic Tablet and what he thinks of his purchase:

I have the viewsonic, let me tell you if you think archos rushed theirs out wait til you get this one. The hardware is impressive HOWEVER:

- no 1080p avc(or even 720p)
- my wifi works 20% of the time
- you need to reboot whenever you put int an sd card for it to see it
- no flash
- no app store
- random factory resets on it’s own.
- touchscreen keeps going dead in spots.
- screen angles are terrible(only real hardware complaint)

Viewsonic says they don’t know what’s defective hardware and what will be fixed with FW, and FW will come “sometime in the next month”

don’t get me wrong this platform has amazing potential, but for now it’s going back and i’m thanking my lucky stars I kept my a101 pre-order alive.

And comments about the support:

I’m used to messing around with the kit and so will most people here. If I was in isolation I would have considered I was unlucky. But when I call tech support for the company I purchased it from they said 25% of the sales were in the process of being returned. 25% that 1 in 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I purchase a product I do not expect to have to do system resets, reboots, calibations every 1/2 hour to keep it going. £300 is a lot of money to me. I wanted the tablet and stumped up the money to purchase it against my normal practice of being cautious and letting things settle first.

Now I was really Pissed of when I made the first post. I waited in for 2 days while delivery people failed to bother to deliver adhere to there “next day delivery” promise. Then only to find that it failed to work. I did not say though either that the acceleration failed to work at the start either. I had to do every thing with the screen upside down to the way the stand wanted to be laid out. Only after the first full reboot

The reason I have not posted before is I only had got the device today, but I had been reading the forums in anticipation. So when I get pissed of were do I go? I make my self herd.

If you read my posts I do say that if your one of the 75% who’s does work then all well and good, I hope you fall into that camp. But a device that can change from minute to minute, there is something wrong and until they sort that I cannot recommend it.

Remember what I said 25% returns, I feel sorry for the retailer.

Remember that in Singapore I pay almost 100 SGD more for the Archos if I buy it. But that is probably the cost of having warranty. Warranty and Support is very important if you do not know how well the product is built.

Pricing

I have highlighted some problems with Android’s identity and Custom ROM issues but essentially if these manufacturers wants to compete they really have to

1. Focus on delivering what the user wants
2. Have adequate support and build a good community via responsive feedback and support
3. Being a great systems integrator
4. Great price for value given

We are not seeing this currently.

In this ZDNet post, the author talks about competitors still cannot reach iPad’s pricing point:

In recent days, tablet pricing details have emerged. To wit:

• Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab will run you $499 for a Wi-Fi version (top right). That price matches Apple’s iPad pricing and Samsung is packing in some key hardware features. But Samsung isn’t likely to move the needle on thwarting Apple.
• ViewSonic announced its ViewPad Android devices (bottom right). The ViewPad 7-inch version will run you $479. The 10-inch version will run you $629. Both versions are Wi-Fi with no 3G.
• The HP Slate 500 has Windows 7 will cost you $799. Even though the HP Slate is geared for business use, there were plenty of chief information officers with iPads at the Gartner powwow last month.
• Will Research in Motion’s pricing on the PlayBook even be in the ballpark? We don’t know yet, but it’s unlikely.

These prices illustrate how aggressive Jobs was at the iPad launch. Apple had the device and the pricing to arguably grab at least an 18-month lead.

So what happened?

• Apple built its own chips to take on an industry that clearly wasn’t ready for the iPad’s launch. It will take the Android ecosystem another rev on the product cycle just to approach what Apple has today.
• The players taking on Apple all have some sort of restriction. Apple has its own components, software and design specs. Apple also doesn’t give a hoot where it gets its parts. Now contrast that with rivals. Samsung as a massive tech conglomerate has a few built in advantages, but it’s Korea’s champion. The company is not going to go to China for parts.
• The software ecosystem isn’t ready. Microsoft is cramming Windows 7 into a tablet. HP has the webOS waiting in the wings. Android isn’t quite tablet ready yet. Apple had the ecosystem and operating system. Apple just had to add a 10-inch screen.

A few weeks ago, it appeared that Jobs was just ranting about Android on the company’s earnings conference call. But one thing he had right in that well-documented rant was the pricing model as iPad mote.

“Our potential competitors are having a tough time coming close to iPad’s pricing even with their far smaller, far less expensive screens. The iPad incorporates everything we’ve learned about building high value products from iPhones, iPods and Macs. We create our own A4 chip, our own software, our own battery chemistry, our own enclosure, our own everything, and this results in an incredible product at a great price. The proof of this will be in the pricing of our competitors’ products which will likely offer less for more.”

Conclusion

I was pretty hyped up about these Archos Series. Now not so much really. As an end user, I want a great user experience at great value.

I thought the Archos GEN8 101 or 70 could be it. Now I am not so sure. I could probably get a better reading, surfing, personal information management experience on the iPad, even though its out of my pricing range.

All in all Android is a great OS but the manufacturers are still not getting it.

Apple this week announced their iTunes social networking service called Ping. While we all know how social networks normally starts by connecting to other networks and sharing contacts. Apple doesn’t seem to be very forth coming sharing.

And facebook isn’t that happy to share this one way relationship as well.

Steve Jobs was surprisingly candid with All Things Digital’s Kara Swisher yesterday — he reportedly told her that both Facebook and Apple had spoken about integrating more closely with the new iTunes social network Ping, but Facebook asked for "onerous terms that we could not agree to" regarding Facebook friends connecting on Ping.

He didn’t elaborate, obviously, but you can see in Facebook’s public documentation that Apple probably wouldn’t have appreciated handing any more of its network over to Facebook than it did. All Ping seems to be at this point is a system of "liking" certain content (specifically on the iTunes Store, to the frustration of many of us who want to do it directly from our personal library of music), and if Facebook required that all of the "like" buttons went their way, you can see why Jobs wouldn’t agree.

Turns out that even after Ping’s launch, things got even more fractious between the two companies — Apple did kick off Ping with the option to add friends with Facebook Connect, but Facebook blocked access when it was discovered that Apple wasn’t playing by the rules. It’s actually an open service, unless Facebook decides that it isn’t, and apparently Apple’s Ping network was an unwelcome guest with a lot of traffic since Apple didn’t come to terms with FB ahead of time. Apple removed the service from Ping, but you’ll still see some notes around suggesting you can bring in friends from Facebook.

So. Looks like Ping is already making a splash with much larger social networks. If Apple can build up its network without using Facebook’s services, it seems much less likely that they’ll find a way to share users in the future. As you can see above, Facebook is still implemented on iTunes, in the form of sharing albums and songs that you like, but it’s completely separate from what’s been built for Ping.

[From TUAW >>]

Here is a rumor that Apple is trying again to compete unfairly:

Suppliers in Asia are reportedly telling customers that no 10″ LCD or OLED panels are available, as Apple is buying them all.

“We were designing a product for a customer and we needed 10-inch screens, but we’ve been trying for months and can’t get one from any of the Asian suppliers,” an anonymous source told TG Daily. “We were told that Apple preordered them all. All 10 inch LCDs, and all 10 inch OLEDs too.”

Apple has been known to gobble up flash memory supplies from various manufacturers to guarantee parts for iPods, and more recently iPhones, so a similar issue cropping up with displays comes as no surprise.

The odd thing about this information, though, is that Apple is reportedly buying up OLED panels as well. Rumors have suggested Apple may move to OLED technology for the tablet, as a few devices—digital cameras, cell phones, and notably the Zune HD and Nexus One—have begun incorporating them. However, a 10″ OLED would likely be cost-prohibitive, even at the rumored price of around $1,000 for the tablet. Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner recently told investors that his supply chain checks pointed towards an LTPS LCD display, like the one used in the iPhone, as being more likely.

[Ares Technica >>]

I never have been a big follower of the development for the Zune HD, but since discovering this video, i realise that Microsoft might have a serious product to compete with the PSP and the iPod Touch in the gaming arena here.

Its got better graphics and touted to have better sound quality (not hard to beat, Apple have some really bad sound chips) But the screen size is so small! I wonder how you are gonna enjoy it without speakers as well.

I think this might be an infant step but get more developers on board Microsoft. Then we can start talking

Chanced upon this post at ghacks on the possible released of Apple’s Tablet product. While the issues brought up by ghacks is sound and rational, I believe that Apple would have the skills to address this.

• The OS Problem – The tablet will be a very unique device. It is exactly halfway between the iPhone and the MacBooks. So there are two choices for Apple – scale up the iPhone OS or scale down OS X. Logically, scaling down the full sized OS X would pose a lot of problems in terms of expectations and engineering. Scaling up the iPhone OS makes much more sense. But then, what do you tell the app devs? Here’s a new iPhone OS resolution and specs, make apps for it? The third choice is making a whole new OS. But that would mean forcing users to learn something new and making things more complicated (three OS’ to maintain). We are lazy people.
• Usability – Will someone please tell me how the hell am I supposed to use this tablet? I am almost certain that I can’t hold in one hand because it will be too heavy. Besides, I would really like to useboth hands on a 10.6inch touchscreen. Also, Apple would be loath to include a kickstand on the device, which would totally destroy the aesthetics of the curved and polished back that it apparently has. So the only remaining way is to keep it on a flat surface parallel to the ground and bend over to use it. As a blogger I already spend too much time sitting badly and getting backaches. I could live without more. So unless Apple makes this thing levitate in mid air, this does not look very useful to me.

• The Portability Problem – Would you really like to carry around a 10.6inch glass tablet? I thought not. It will fracture all too easily. This structural problem can only be overcome by making A) a toughlid for it or B) a touchscreen built out of shatterproof, bulletproof, extra tough glass that can take a straight punch to the face and stay intact. The second option would make the device far too expensive and the first would make it the lid an almost redundant piece. Detachable or not, it would not be very helpful about the portability and usability.
• Processing Power and Performance – With battery life already an issue, one must  wonder – how much processing power would this tablet have? Something around 600MHz like the iPhone 3GS just won’t cut it for this large a device. You need to have something fairly muscle-bound, like an Intel ULV or Atom at the very least. Now think of a netbook and think of the frustratingly sluggish performance. Apple would probably need to artificially block multi-tasking on the tablet as well. Bummer.

• Weight And Battery Life – All that screen space and whatever the processing power is, requires power. And everyone knows that more battery power means more weight. So what would you rather have? A 3-cell battery that does not last long or a 9-cell battery that makes it impossible to carry the device for too long? And let’s not talk about the screen brightness. Forget working under direct sunlight; let’s see this device remain workable in a brightly lit room without dying in an hour.

Think about it. This is a revisit of a previous unworkable idea. If its unworkable now, why would there be so much news on it?

I am certainly looking forward to this. Not just to see if it works, cause i certainly see value in a 5-7 inch device, but i wanna see how the other companies will react to the tablet.