Steve Jobs and his team sure did a great job of getting out the iPad.. And what a wonderful price point.
However, there are some things that the iPad v1.0 lack. As with the original iPod and the iPhone 2G, the most desirable features will surely show up in iPad v2.0
Shortcomings of the iPad:
-- No camera. Thus no way to video chat using Fring. And why hasnt Apple bundled its own iChat and Photobooth with the iPad.
-- No multitasking. Maybe we would have to jailbreak the iPad again to use the Backgrounder.
-- iPhone control. Somehow, I want to be able to make calls from my iPad through my iPhone. Somehow..
-- Support for the Mac OS X apps. Sure the App Store apps are fun. But I think that they are just that - fun. I want to be able to do serious work on the iPad. It would be the only device I would carry to my office.
-- Bluetooth headset support. Just picture this situation where you want to voice chat with a friend over Fring. Would you hold up the iPad up to your lips (as if sipping from a plate) ??
I have always wanted to visit the Apple Store.. and so Brodie and I hatched a plan to visit their flagship store downtown in Fifthe Avenue. It is bang opposite the Plaza Hotel.. and it is the most populous areas in New York.. Have a look at the mindblowing design of Apple's creation..
This is the flagship Apple Store in Fifth Avenue in NY. This is probably the most crowded store I have ever seen in the whole of America. Go Apple..!!
Its got a glass staircase circling down and a glass lift to take you up. The glass cube is on ground level.. and the rest of the store is underground.. Pretty cool, huh ?
Thats later in the evening.. on 24th December.. The Store was restocking.. and it was vacated for about half an hour.. so the crowd was just loitering outside..
Just look at the crowd inside.. Believe me.. this is the most crowded store I have ever seen..
India and its people have a way of turning everything on its head...Take a look at the internet..
The internet, when it became mainstream, ate into the revenues and marketshare of magazanies, tv shows, films and music and newspapers...The traditional media began to die in the wake of the Internet behemoth...People would rather love to notice an ad on a website and follow thru than see the same ad in a newspaper and follow thru...
In India however, the reverse is happening...
We have internet companies advertising in the papers, on the radio and on tv !!!!
WTF is happening ???
My professor of C++ says that nowadays there are extremely few projects that are executed using C++...Very few companies are running projects that require system level programming...Programming that requires deep understanding of the interrelationship between the hardware and the software...
This has been the popular opinion for quite some years now...and application development is the sexiest tag a programmer can ask for...making apps was where the moolah lay...
Yet...there are many situations today which prove that system programming is very much in the know...and that fundamental changes that are required in certain fields are accomplished only by system programming...
True innovation, I believe, is driven by the evolution of how low level software converses with the hardware...if we can innovate at this level...if greater performance is extracted at the lower levels...then apps naturally run better and perform better...
Truly pathbreaking devices that are in the news today are the result of awesome system programming...that is...writing software that controls the hardware very tightly...
The OLPC required great amounts of code rewriting to give the end user the benefits of low-power and low-cost computing. Although the OS is based on Linux...it is a highly customized edition that runs as the frontend...
Next...the Asus eeePC...the thin white 7-inch netbook pioneered by Asus...although the hardware is not new as is presumed...the reason behind the high success of the eeePC is the highly intuitive Linux edition that it runs on...The software makes it friggin easy to use even for grandma..!!
Next in line...is the highly desirable iPhone...As it is understood by very few...the true high points of iPhone lie not in its hardware...but in its UI and software...The iPhone runs a mobile version of the most sophisticated OS in the world...Mac OS X. And engineers at Apple have been constantly laboring on the OS since Steve Jobs took the stage in 1997...
Although these are but 3 examples...I have to tell you that I am writing this off-the-cuff...deeper thinking will reveal many more...
And making apps will continue to remain sexy...but they remain sexy because of the groundlevel innovations and feats of engineering...
I dont understand why Steve Jobs wants to limit his Apple to the US only. Why isnt he focusing more on India and Hong Kong and Korea and Japan and Europe...
The thing is...products like the iPod and the Ipod Touch and the iPhone havent taken off in the above regions as they should...And the reason is the people from these areas do not see why they should buy from Apple...
Apple could a lot more better if it focuses its marketing here...
And another thing is...non-innovative companies like Microsoft and Nokia and Samsung have gripped the Indian market...teenage college students sing praises of Vista..aarrgh...Yuck !!...The people around here need to be told of the real thing...Who the real leader is...
And finally, since Apple products arent successfull here...no one else can adopt the same way that they have gone through without eschewing a hundred patents in the process...Only the fake cheapstake China products make the money here...Not because of innovation..Not because of clever marketing or brand positioning...But because they are flooded in the market...and are dirt cheap...
Wow...
Just a month since the public is caught unawares by the global economic slowdown and companies are already scrambling to cut costs... "counting the office staples -- minimizing printouts -- taking a rickshaw than a taxi -- switch off lights in the day"...all these measures are taken by myriad companies...
Jet airways, Future Group's Big Bazar, TCS, SAP AG, Cognizant....just a few to name those who are the latest to the cost cutting bandwagon...
But you know what...these remedies is like giving band aid to a person having a heart attack...
The fresh hires are being pushed onto the bench right from their first day...many are not being trained...those who are the real hard workers in a company are told to put off their vacations...
These are just the things that will crack out any hacker who is on the prowl for a job...Startups can leverage this situation...Talent will be cheaper than ever...The bargaining power will be back to the one who is hiring....
This is the same situation that took place when Microsoft was in court over the monopoly case...Programmers and talented people fled the company...and came over to Google in droves...Google became a magnet for talent...And that is still one of the greatest assets of the company. And now, its time for Apple for world technology domination.
So these cost cutting plans and layoffs are good for us... Yay..!!
Style and excitement are the only things that shall set apart the lovable companies from the rest.
An emotional bond with the customer is anytime better than a rational reasoning why your products are better.
A small fan following of product loyalists is way more effective than passive mass consumers.
Irresistible products are better than feature-rich products.
At a conference lately...Vinod Khosla...the legendary Indian vc in silicon valley...said that his bets were on the clean energy innovations...
Khosla completely believes that silicon valley has 'got it'...and that it will deliver to the world the best clean energy solutions ever thought of...Khosla has also said that he is happy to poke around for new ideas...and he is trying to recognize the next black swan...ahem...here comes the kicker...
by definition...a black swan is like a slap in the face...like a dunk in iced water...like a brick in the nuts...black swans are events which are rare...which are happen very fast...and which have wide-reaching impact...
Now if Khosla is looking for a black swan...he might also be looking for a dunk in the water... ;)
The reason why we don’t hear many mobile users saying that I bought this and this app from so and so site is that there exists no such infrastructure from which the users could buy mobile apps.
First of all ...online buying is virtually nonexistent in India. and the majority of the users who MY buy apps are teenagers...and most of them do not have credit cars...those who do have credit cards are the people in their 20s...and these then transfer the files to the teens...so the basic reason why people don’t buy money is that they don’t have the money required in the format.
Next...users are still afraid of online transactions...even a geek like me hasn’t processed his first online transactions...How would I then expect normal people to do so??...
thirdly...many users do n
ot have access to good quality stuff...almost all the apps out there are never sorted on a quality basis...quality assurance is nonexistent.
fourth...almost all of the mobile app sites are and seem dodgy in nature...with their hundreds of ads and popups...and useless and dead links...finding good software...nay...software is pain ...and may take up to one hour for a good app to be searched and installed....
Fifth...instead of calling the people to where the apps are...why not take the apps to where the main buyers are??...why not install Bluetooth enabled app dispensers in the central foyer of every college....of every office??...a few ads on the equipment could pay for the hardware....replication of software has zero costs....
next...people are not educated as to what purposes they put their mobiles to use...calling and texting make up 70% percent of the total features used in all the users...nationally...making them aware ..And making the apps fun to use will bring hordes of new users...
We will need to accept cash at the app dispensers...and why not have a drm type thing for the apps too...of course...Like the iPods...only 3% of mobiles might have drm apps...But then...like the iPod mania...we could have a mania too...
The main frustration the app developers face is the difference in mobiles OSes and the thousands of different mobiles...each having its own different control set...the boon of the mobile manufacturers has become the bane of the app developers....developers never know if the end user will be having a scroll wheel or a d pad or a touch screen or the resolution of the phone...
"Those who care about their software should make their own hardware" -- Alan Kay.
Live emulators should also be possible at the app dispensers so that the users can also try out the app before they make the decision. This crucial feature is grouse not only in mobile apps but in the case of computer software too...live emulation should be possible over the net...always...
The apps should be priced so low that should take the fun out of stealing... (Provided everyone else steals for fun like me :))
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