Thanks for the link Hugh.
And, my favorite link Jobs’ Greatest Hits — A Timeline
So, is he the CEO of the decade? Is he one of the most innovative manager/leaders ever?
What do you think?
OK, I usually support just about anything Apple, so I need to give some equal time to those not so supportive.
CIO Magazine Published a Slide Show 10 Thing to Hate About the iPhone
Care to Add?
Care to Argue?
Ok, here is some more information and a look at the Plastic Logic eReader. Looks pretty cool to me.
We read that the Que may be actually targeted at something other than the Kindle. ” But Archuleta also repositions the Que as something a little different to merely being a Kindle killer e-reader device. He notes “Que enhances business performance and gives you a competitive edge.” The business angle’s also played up with mention of support for PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel…and there’s even the intriguing phrase “powerful tools for interacting with and managing the content.” That implies you may be able to do more than just annotate documents on the Que–will you be able to actually edit them, or run a Powerpoint presentation? We can’t tell yet, but it certainly seems that Plastic Logic’s Que will enter the e-reader game right at the top end, perhaps tending toward limited Tablet PC capabilities.”
What do you think? Pretty cool? Will the market handle a “premium product”? Does this seem to square off with the new tablets that we read are coming? DO you want one?
I learned about this new book from an article and short video on the INSEAD KNOWLEDGE website.
The article is “The Innovation Manual“ and we can see from the perspective of a marketing professor a number of key points, many of which we have discussed in our classes, but it serves as a great reminder about the “basics” .
David Midgley, the author of the book, uses the example of the Apple iPod and the business model it created. Once again, we see this model coming out as a key to success. Further, the role of customers in product/service innovation and development. We also read about the importance of an innovation culture and the challenges of maintaining a culture of innovation. The book promises to tell us all about it.
What do you think of the reminders here? What should be emphasized more? Less?
In a Forbes.com article we learn that this Apple, “App Store” thing is now huge. The article, “Sony Gets Vicious for App Store” we read of another product that has adopted the service/partner parallel. Can we launch a product that does not have a service component or an “Information Dimension”?
Will this mean success for Sony’s PSP? Will it just keep the product in the game?
What do you think? When should it have thought about this NPM strategy?
Fast Company published a posting with a video circa 1987 called “Screw Microsoft’s Courier: Apple Had a Better Idea 22 Years Ago” The posting has another video you might enjoy as well.
What do you think about this posting? Do you like the original or the “latest version”?
A FAST COMPANY blog posting talks about a recent patent by APPLE that could undermine their sustainability movement positioning, however, there is another interesting concept and this is “active packaging”.
From the post ” According to Apple’s patent, such packaging could receive power “provided by a direct power connection to an external power supply or by one or more wireless power techniques. A data signal may be provided by one or more direct data lines to the electronic media device within the packaging, or the electronic media device may enable an integrated wireless network interface to receive a data stream while housed in the packaging.” Traditional plastic polymer backings present in Apple packaging could be printed with wire traces to supply power, ground, and data to the enclosed device.”
While this does add more packaing, especially electronics and other items most people are reducing due to their sustainability efforts, this technology may provide a competitive advantage through better promotion.
What do you think? Competitive advantage or are they damaging their own “green” positioning?
Design, and by that I do not mean “engineering design” is central to successful new products. An article entitled “Creating Cults and Culture with Design“ from FAST COMPANY. The article talks about APPLE (of course) but also gives examples of other companies that are successful. Southwest Airlines and METHOD. However, one of the issues is that everyone wants to be APPLE and tries to create “APPLE-like” products, which are really not innovative. To create your own “iPod” one must have design as one of your business objectives. The article mentions the role of the CEO. From the article “First, is design on the CEO’s list of legacy objectives? If not, the design activity is often about creating better window dressing or optimizing a product for usability–but not about creating a remarkable offering. There just won’t be the organizational will that standout products require to survive the corporate development processes. Companies that deliver these kinds of products and services have a creative and empowered culture that wants to understand the customer and that goes the extra mile when perfecting the design. This kind of culture has to come from the top”.
What do you think about “Design”? Is it part of your organization’s strategy? What do you think of Southwest as an example?
In Stephen H. Wildstrom’s column entitled “Meet Cisco, the Consumer Company“ we red that Cisco, long a technology company is now becoming a consumer company. It is taking its shot at “convergence” which we have discussed in some classes; convergence is is where computers, entertainment, and the internet come together.
We can already see that HP, APPLE, SONY, and Microsoft are working in this (convergence) space. Is the wireless network the place to pull this all together?
CISCO is coming out with the “Conductor” a wireless home audio device. Interesting. I already have a Cisco wireless router in my home; seems a logical extension. The article points out that Cisco is already working with the cable companies, it may have some trouble keeping both their B2B customers as well as their B2C customers happy.
What do you think about Cisco’s moves? What are your thoughts on convergence?
In Stephen Wildstrom’s article “Windows 7: A Sight for Sore Users” he tells us that Windows 7 will address some of VISTA’s “annoyances”. He tells us that they borrow from OS X (APPLE) and seem to feature simplicity (GOGGLE?).
From a product design standpoint, what can we learn from this? What are the driving trends? Will Microsoft get it right? (I expect so, especially if they learn from APPLE and GOOGLE).
Wildstrom tells us that “printers should all work fine”, this is a relief.
What do you think? Should they be innovating? How? Which direction? Should they set the trend?
An article in Business Week entiltled “The Apple App Monster” talks the number of iPhone owners that have downloaded 15 apps each in the last six months; which seems like it would be a great “market” for developers, but goes on to suggest that it is not a money making business model. Who’s business model is this? And why is it working? Is there a suggestion here about new product managment models, or issues in management or some kind of trend in information technology. I happen to think that comments and that there may be lessons to be learned for observers for businesses.
What do you think? Lessons Learned? trends?
Thank you to Mike for this question as well…..
The article Apple’s iPhone And Google’s Android: Mac Vs Windows All Over Again asks: is this PC vs. Mac all over again?
Thanks Mike for the suggestion of this post.
An article entitled “Steve Jobs Laughs off Health Fears” about the MacBook Launch brings up the rumors about Steve Jobs’ health (which he does not want us to talk about) but Mike asks “What happens to Apple after Steve Jobs? Past history suggests a dire outlook. When Steve Jobs has been at the helm the company has thrived. When he wasn’t there the company limped along ( I had my own twisted death watch going in the late 90s, I was sure Apple was toast, then Steve Jobs came back…).”
Well, what do you all think?
