Did Apple disappoint with announcement of iPhone 4S?
A lot of people seem to think so. Me? Notsomuch… I’ll be getting my first iPhone when my current contract with Verizon is up for renewal. Here’s some thoughts on it:
What are the biggest newspapers in the United States? A new Audit Bureau of Circulation report gives us the following numbers (Thanks, Romenesko!) Numerically inclined readers will note that the WSJ has more circulation than the NY Times, LA Times, and Washington Post combined. Oh yeah, the big, bad liberal media….
Apple Holic – Jonny Evans argues everyone else is dead
Writing over at Computerworld, Jonny Evans makes the point that it’s everyone else, not Apple that needs to be worried. He also notes, as many have, that although the Fire is based on Android underneath it all, it’s really an Amazon tablet, not an Android tablet. (Sort of in the way that Macs are UNIX computers underneath it all.)
Nieman Lab – It’s all about the shopping The Nieman Lab has a solid point with its analysis that the Amazon Fire is all about providing a new way to consume products from Amazon. But I have to question the statement that the iPad 2 is “elite oriented” and has a “stratospheric” $500 starting price. Yes, iPad 2s do start at $500. But no one else is managing to sell a similarly equipped tablet for less. The “stratospheric” comment raises the question, “Compared to what?” Compared to a lightweight laptop? Compared to a carrier subsidized smartphone? Compared to a triple-shot cappuccino? The Fire and the iPad 2 are drastically different products and different price points. There is also the assumption that everyone’s looking for a way to avoid Apple’s 30 percent cut in what is sold through the App store. This is true. But the answer will likely be mobil optimized HTML 5 pages that will work on any tablet.
This morning Amazon announced its anticipated new tablet device, the Kindle Fire.
Some people will point out that it is based on Google’s Android operating system, which is technically true. Other people will point out that it is the first real competitor to Apple’s iPad, and that is technically true as well. But neither really get at what makes Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire such a significant product.
In simplest terms, the Fire is a 7″ tablet with a low-end touchscreen, a modest amount of storage, and WiFi only connectivity. It has no camera, no microphone, no cellular-based 3G service.
On the surface, the Fire would not appear to be an iPad killer. That’s because it isn’t.
But I do think it’s going to be a big success. Why? Because it is, if you will pardon the expression, a tablet for the rest of us.
Let me explain.
I am a happy owner of an iPad 2, which is a brilliant piece of equipment. It is a general-purpose tablet that will meet most of my computing needs when I’m away from my desk. It lets me video chat with my son in Korea, check in on my online students, take notes, do e-mail, listen to music, watch videos, view web sites, read books, and a lot of other things. But it did cost quite a bit of money, it isn’t the lightest thing out there, and it requires a connection to my computer to do a number of functions (though that is about to change.)
The thing that makes the iPad so great for me is the Apple infrastructure that goes with it. Apple designed the hardware, the operating system, and vets all of the apps that go on it. I know that anything I do with my iPad will simply work.
A lot of competing tablets have come on the market, but none of them have really taken off, largely because they miss the message of Apple’s success. They holler about how cool and powerful they are, without giving customers the total experience that Apple does.
And then Amazon released it’s tablet. The Fire is much cheaper than the iPad because it uses cheaper hardware. It is primarily a media device, not a general purpose tablet. It will do a range of functions, including e-mail, but it is first and foremost a media device. It is designed to use Amazon’s enormous online bookstore, it’s great collection of streaming music and video, and provide excellent access to the Web. It does all of this by running an almost unrecognizably changed version of Android that has been heavily customize by Amazon. And so while you can call it an Android device, that’s really selling it short. At its core, the Kindle Fire is an Amazon device.
And that’s why it will be a success.
It’s not trying to be a better iPad. It’s not going head-to-head with a great device. (Although that’s the story you’re going to be sold on it.) What it is is a great device to consume the many media products Amazon is so good at selling.
Remember, Apple is fundamentally a hardware and software company that sells media products to get you to buy their phenomenal hardware. Amazon is a media marketing company that sells hardware to get you to buy their phenomenal collection of media products.
Along with the Fire, Amazon also announced new e-ink based Kindle e-book readers.
An entry level $79 version and a touch-screen version selling for in the WiFi version for $99 and in the 3G version for $149.
These e-ink devices are lightweight, inexpensive, good-in-the-sun e-book devices that are not designed to be tablets. They are also much better at being an e-book device than either the Kindle Fire or the iPad. I’m going to be ordering one of these as soon as I decide which model I want.
So… you will hear that Apple finally has a competitor in the tablet market, and that will be true. You will hear that Amazon has a great new tablet. And that will also be true. But the reason Amazon is going to be a big success (I believe) is because it’s not trying to be better than Apple. It’s trying to be different.
So what do you think? Are you going to buy a Kindle Fire or one of the new e-book readers?
Tonight on Dancing With The Stars Nancy Grace pulled an accidental Janet Jackson Super Bowl move. Not only did she expose the same part of her anatomy Miss Jackson did, she did it for more than twice as long (close to a single second.) (Note that the link above and the video below might be considered NSFW.)
This leads us to several questions:
Will Nancy Grace’s wardrobe malfunction require a multi-million-dollar, decade-longlegal fracas?
Will every moral failing in America be blamed on Ms. Grace’s bad choices in clothing?
Any university would be thrilled to be hosting the show. And I am certain the folks at WVU are excited. But they’re also just a little bit nervous. Why? Watch this clip of the WVU – Marshall game from a couple of weeks ago. Watch to the end of the clip, for the young man wearing a certain t-shirt.
Yes, that shirt does say what you think it said. What’s more, it’s not on an isolated individual. The West F*&^ing Virginia, and other similarly rude shirts, can be seen around the WVU campus and at games.
And this is not something that pleases the folks who are responsible for the university’s image. (Let me just briefly mention that I taught at WVU for 15 years, and it is a terrific university with great students who have always had really bad taste in t-shirts.)
So the university has been putting in a big effort to keep the shirts and offensive chants at bay while the team is on the national stage.
I would like to request that if you see someone wearing one of these t-shirts that you politely ask him or her to change or to cover it up. Even wearing it inside-out would be an improvement. As you know, we have a big home football game against LSU coming up next Saturday and we would like to present a more favorable image to the millions of football fans from around the country who will be watching the game. Be polite, be courteous, be friendly-but do speak up.
Then the Mountaineer Maniacs, the student athletics fan club, created an “amnesty” trade-in program, where they would give students a voucher good for up to $20 on a new t-shirt if they traded in an offensive one. Here’s a story on it from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
The message continues with a column from John Terry at the student newspaper, The Daily Athenaeum, asking students to “stay classy” and not wear the offensive shirts:
Don’t wear “West F—– Virginia” shirts. Not only has Athletic Director Oliver Luck has asked students not to wear them, the shirts make the University and the state look horrible. Regardless of your intentions while wearing the shirt, there’s no reason you can’t leave the shirt at home and put on another one of your many WVU shirts. If you don’t have on another WVU shirt, go buy some gold paint.
Let’s try to stay away from the “Eat S— Pitt” chant. I feel like it’s kind of a given, but chanting foul language on national television isn’t a good idea. It makes the University look trashy, and it makes the students look immature and ill-humored. It will also guarantee College GameDay won’t ever come back to town.
This column is direct and comes from a student, not administration.
Finally, broadcaster Tony Caridi, the voice of the Mountaineers, had a nice commentary up on the university’s sports news site talking about how welcoming LSU fans were last year when WVU played in Baton Rouge.
We weren’t even looking for friends, just looking around at the unbelievable way tens of thousands of people can create a temporary world complete with kitchens, living-room-like accommodations, and enough big screen TVs to make Best Buy envious. The more we walked, the more buddies we made. LSU fans legitimately wanted to talk football. They knew Mountaineer personnel like no other opposing fans I’ve encountered. They were informed, they were passionate, and they treated us, along with the thousands of other Mountaineer fans, like fans are supposed to be treated.
There were no catcalls; there were no taunts and there were no imbecilic t-shirts. It was in a word, civilized.
So now the stage is set. Let’s see how well this communication campaign works to convince students to present the image the University is looking for. We’ll check back Monday to see how it goes.
I don’t have the loathing for Fox News that some people have, but I’m not a fan, either. But I have to say that I’m liking Shep Smith’s style more all the time.
In the middle of a story that basically says, “We don’t know what’s going to happen with the bus-sized satellite that’s going to fall to earth in the near future,” Smith comes out and states:
I completely blame my editor @dwainsmith for this. To quote Han Solo, “It’s not my fault….” (Note: As usual with the “Hitler finds out about memes, NSFW subtitles)
Was this the source of a Castle plot? Who knew the pizza story from last year had a grain of truth in it? Of course, @jayrosen_nyu was talking about the NY Times stating flatly in a story that something was false. He was not (apparently) interested in the source story of the Castle episode “Slice of Nick” So will this get me a retweet from @NathanFillion?
Today I’m posting an edited and updated version of something I first put up back in October 2009:
This week in my feature writing class we’re talking about a classic Esquire feature story from the mid 1960s: Gay Talese’s Frank Sinatra Has A Cold. Here is a link to the story and several commentaries about it for your consideration. (I know, not really for Intro, but many of us are either teaching or studying feature writing!)
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