People come to the Apple Store for the experience — and they’re willing to pay a premium for that. There are lots of components to that experience, but maybe the most important — and this is something that can translate to any retailer — is that the staff isn’t focused on selling stuff, it’s focused on building relationships and trying to make people’s lives better.
What I Learned Building the Apple Store - Ron Johnson - Harvard Business Review

Head To Head: Siri Vs. Google Voice Actions

Some interesting findings here… apparently Siri is just a personality layer on top of search.

Maybe John Sculley leaked Siri technology announced today 17 years ago?

Google Bids High for Hulu (via AllThingsD)

My money is on Amazon winning here. Instant Video + Hulu would give Apple’s Netflix + iTunes a run for their money.

Have The Tablet Wars Begun Or Is It Just The End Of The eReader Era?

Amazon Kindle TabletsWell, well, it seems our friends at Amazon are preparing to get into the tablet game after all. MG Siegler over at Techcrunch has seen and played with a prototype and has written up his impressions. What I find most interesting in all of this is the branding and control over the user experience that seems almost Apple-like.

So have the tablet wars begun or are we just watching the end of the dedicated eReader era?

Time will tell but if anyone can break into Apple’s iPad market, it’s Amazon. But they have chosen to not directly compete with the iPad in the initial release but take on eReader rival Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color. Like B&N, they are forking Android and writing a unique user interface on top of the Android kernel (reported to be Eclair but it would not be surprising if it turned out to be Froyo). But unlike Barnes & Noble, Amazon has a lot more content to sell than books and magazines which does not bode well for the second generation Nook Color unless it comes out for less than $200. The 7-inch Amazon Kindle will completely grab the Nook Color customer with the value proposition of books, magazines, movies, TV shows, music, and the web for half the price of an entry level iPad 2. It will be the must-have holiday gift if they get it out in time and have produced enough to meet the strong demand. And many customers will see this as a viable alternative to an iPad unlike every other Android, QNX or WebOS tablet. That’s because Amazon seems to have put together an end-to-end customer experience like Apple pioneered with the iPad 18 months ago.

The branding also seems brilliant here using the well-known Kindle brand. That brand started out meaning eReader hardware but over the past year or so has also included software on the iPhone, iPad, Android, WebOS and other mobile platforms. So now Kindle means content and not just eReader or eBooks to consumers. Placed on a 7-inch tablet along with the Amazon Instant Video and mp3 store, the Kindle brand could become as powerful as the iPad.

But it’s early days and I have yet to see and use this device. I certainly will pick one up when released and post a review here as I think Amazon is onto something really interesting here.

minimalmac: Namaste, Steve. The world has benefited much in the past 35 years since the Steve’s invented personal computing (or at least popularized it). The innovation momentum of the past 14 years since Steve Jobs returned as Apple CEO is staggering. iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad. But the company will continue to dominate it’s niche even after Steve leaves for good for a long time. I don’t think this time is that final departure but if it is, we’ve had a heck of a ride in AppleLand this past decade. Get well soon, Steve.
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minimalmac:

Namaste, Steve.

The world has benefited much in the past 35 years since the Steve’s invented personal computing (or at least popularized it). The innovation momentum of the past 14 years since Steve Jobs returned as Apple CEO is staggering. iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad. But the company will continue to dominate it’s niche even after Steve leaves for good for a long time.

I don’t think this time is that final departure but if it is, we’ve had a heck of a ride in AppleLand this past decade. Get well soon, Steve.

Can Apple Live Up To The Hype?

About 4 hours from now the technology world will turn their attention to an Apple event in San Francisco. Like others over the past 30 years, Steve Jobs will take the stage and announce some new products. But today’s announcement seems as game changing as the iPhone three years ago; perhaps more so. And like that announcement, the hype leading up to the event tells us that Apple will unveil a new type of personal computer based on a tablet design.

Tablet computers have been made for over a decade in one form or another in the PC industry, usually relegated to vertical, form-heavy applications. I’ve seen them used in hospitals and car dealer service centers. They are only mildly interesting since Windows has not been changed much to accommodate the required pen input device. These tablet PC’s are also quite expensive which makes them a niche item with consumers.

By all accounts, the Apple tablet (rumored to be called the iSlate) will be a full-on consumer device. A fusion of iPhone, ebook reader, personal video player and MacBook. It will run on some sort of tweaked iPhone OS ensuring it will have tens of thousands of apps on launch later this spring. Connectivity will be provided by standard wifi and optional 3G from multiple carriers. Content subscriptions will be available via iTunes for movies, TV shows, newspapers, magazines, ebooks and, of course, music. The iSlate will change the computing paradigm forever just like the iPhone, Mac and Apple // did.

The only problem is all of this is rumor and speculation. Mr. Jobs has a history of canceling announcements at the last minute due to leaks. And I expect there will be a slew of other announcments today. Things like the 4th gen iPhone (probably available on all U.S. carriers), rethought Apple TV, updated iWork and iLife, speed-bumped MacBook Pros. These alone would count as “new creations” and cover the announced theme of the event.

As I write this post, the top half of Techmeme is all about this mythical Apple tablet. Clearly the hype machine is preparing us for something big today. If this device is an overgrown iPod Touch or iPhone, many will be disappointed (not me, that’s exactly what I would like to see; $399, please). But if anyone can meet and even exceed pre-launch hype it’s Steve Jobs. I know I’ll be watching at noon for what he’s got in store for us.


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Links for December 13th through December 23rd

Shared links for December 13th through December 23rd:


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Books Need To Change



This weekend I got to play with the Barnes & Noble Nook ebook reader at their Mall of America store. The design and feel of the device is superior to Amazon’s Kindle 2 and the Android-based bottom color LCD screen makes browsing and buying books as intuitive as the iPhone. The problem is the user experience for doing anything else which is more confusing than what’s on the Kindle right now which itself is not great. By the time I got my hands on the new Sony ebook reader at Best Buy I was convinced that the problem is not the idea of ebook readers but the E Ink technology they are based upon that emulates a paper book.

The book form factor has had a nice run over the past 1,500 years with the last major technology boost in 1450 with the invention of the printing press (or 1230 if you are from China). Since then it’s been continuously improved but has remained about the same from a user experience perspective for hundreds of years. Why digital books have to emulate the established print model doesn’t make sense to me when a color LCD reader can include video and other interactive features that would change the medium as much as the printing press did. In the future, books might look more like podcasts than printed words on a white background.

So I think the book needs to be changed in order to thrive in the digital era. All the existing E Ink readers of today will look very dated in just a few years when interactive digital book readers arrive. Or it could come a lot sooner if Apple decides to launch a 6-inch iPod Touch.

Posted via email from Marketing Technopologist


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Trade Shows Are Toast



[caption id=”” align=”alignright” width=”202” caption=”Image via Wikipedia”]Steve Jobs at Macworld[/caption]


And it took Steve Jobs to give it a proper send-off:
Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.

Apple announces final MacWorld, Steve Jobs won’t deliver keynote - Engadget

Apple gets conversational marketing and is abandoning traditional outreach in favor of high-touch venues like their retail stores. I also expect to see them cut back on print advertising this year and focus on their important constituencies: mainstream consumers, media professionals and developers with online and broadcast channels.

I’m going to miss the Stevenote at MacWorld, but we’ll still be hearing from him in other venues next year, I expect.
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