I have to say, I'm skeptical that Cook is carrying on with Jobs vision. I have expected it. I expect this xmas to be great but I'm thinking after that I may sell out my position. There are other prospects that interest me. Its been a great ride though.
On design:
Skeuomorph, affectations like the slightly askew post it note and the choices of natural background material, don't matter much to anyone except the ego of mediocre designers.
But they do matter if they become the focus, rather than innovation and usability. That's a problem if management doesn't understand the difference. I'm thinking they may be missing the boat here. Apple's attractiveness to me is visionary design. Both innovative and usability wise.
Ive may be conflicted in that with no Jobs to champion his side of the business there is no one to champion it. Ive may be the type of guy who likes to concentrate on design, and he may be unsuited to champion his division, which is the most important, in corporate politics where plenty of people are into it strictly for the power and money rather than to "change the world."
That would mean the engineers, supply chain and accountants are deciding where to put the focus. The hardware upgrades are nice but basically generic when competing with the other smart phone makers. They are not going to cut it.
The video almaxel posted is a case in point. Ive first states that the iPhone is what we all carry with us. Obviously he carries his, latest model, around his 17 million dollar mansion... but not all of us are like him... some of us own nanos... and crunch numbers on Macs... and later in the video he goes on an on about the machined aluminum. The aluminum is a fall back position, its not what Apple wanted, its a compromise. The machining is nice but its not the driving factor. It has me thinking that they are talking up this compromise as a big advance. Sounds like saleperson bullsh¡t to me.
My thinking on the new Nano as a blunder may be subjective and therefor wrong, but for me it seems to be another indication of mistaken focus.
Perhaps Ive is just getting tired of being driven. He had the time to shop for his home. He may be thinking after working long hours all these years its time to enjoy life a little and slack off. That's worrisome.
We shall see I suppose. I'm not saying (other than the nano) that these are bad upgrades. They are pretty good and pretty much what we expected.
In any case Xmas is coming. Hopefully for now this will all be enough, along with the 7 inch iPad.
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One more thing...
It seems to me that the 7 inch iPad is a capitulation to the idea that hardware is going to be where their long term profits are going to be found. Long term they are looking at services, media and apps as profit centers. |
