“Overall, it is deeply impressive how many things Apple got right [with their iPhone/iPod touch SDK],” Michael Mace blogs for Mobile Opportunity.
MacDailyNews Note: Michael Mace is a principal at Rubicon Consulting, and former Chief Competitive Officer and VP of Product Planning at Palm, former VP of Strategic Marketing at PalmSource, and former director of Mac Platform Marketing at Apple.
Mace writes, “We still need to see more details on terms and conditions, and a lot will depend on Apple’s execution, but here are the problems they appear to have solved:”
• Making mobile applications easy for users to find and install
• Not taking too large a cut from developers for their third party app store
• Streamlining the app certification process
• Exposing a very deep and rich API set
• Kleiner Perkins’ $100 million venture iFund for iPhone developers. “Makes Google’s $10m contest for Android developers look like a popgun.”
“It has been obvious for at least six years that all of these changes were needed in the mobile market, but until now no one in the US and Europe has had the courage / political muscle / intelligence to carry them all out. The other mobile platforms now look pretty pathetic by comparison,” Mace writes.
“Nokia seems to be focused on a strategic positioning activity around seeing who can collect the most runtimes, while Apple is solving real developer and user problems,” Mace writes. “It’s a striking contrast.”
“Right now Apple is changing the terms of the competition faster than the other guys can react, which is exactly the right way to beat a group of larger competitors,” Mace writes.
More in the full article – recommended – here.
all they need to do know is release a related piece of hardware that most people didn’t see coming, and release it within the next 6 months.
nano phone, touch tablet, whatever, just something closely related that will add even more momentum in the consumers eyes. end game.
I wonder what Michael would be saying if he still had his position at Palm….
Damn it’s still almost impossible to download the iPhone sdk, it’s too chocked up with enterprise and software developers to downloading it
Michael Mace also previously worked at Apple (before working at Palm).
mark (aka Mr. Obvious, Dr. Echo, Total Moron),
That must be why MacDailyNews stated exactly that in their note: “…former director of Mac Platform Marketing at Apple.”
Is it any wonder that I’m so tired?
And we all know which camp Zune Tang”™” is in with his Windows Mobile Media device: the “pretty pathetic” camp. In fact, with his rah-rah Gates/Ballmer brown-nosin’ fanboi-ism one could call him the Champion of Pretty Pathetic!
Of course, we’ve known this for years and years. This is just the latest affirmation.
— Hano
shen:
End game? What are you thinking? Excellence isn’t a destination, it’s a journey. Thankfully, you are not making decisions at Apple, fanboi.
@shen,
Actually, I think you’re pretty much correct. A related piece of hardware that could share the resulting iPhone apps would just add more momentum to a new mobile platform ‘standard’. And ‘Afib’, yes, it could result in an endgame to this round of defining the new standard for portable computing. These things do have eras that are ruled by the winner of the previous era’s game. Microsoft and Nokia ruled the previous game. The new game is turning into a rout for Apple.
I got my SDK!! Whoohoo!!!
All this “the competition won’t know what hit ’em” nonsense is pretty hilarious. Don’t forget Microsoft still has the revolutionary Windows Mobile and the marvelous Zune up their sleeve. You MAC lemmings seriously think Redmond can’t put the two together and destroy Crapple once and for all?
One more element you MAC sheep are forgetting is Microsoft is great at partnerships. How about this formula: ZunePhone + Verizon = a behemoth to be reckoned with.
And don’t get me started on the “Apple is solving real developer and user problems” garbage. Puh-leeeeeeze. Microsoft did that years ago. That’s the real end game.
Your potential. Our passion.™
I wonder what Michael would be saying if he still had his position at Palm….
Yes. However, he would not be saying it in public.
” Nokia seems to be focused on a strategic positioning activity around seeing who can collect the most runtimes….”
Could someone explain what “runtime” means in this context, please?
Maybe he wants his old job back?
Do you think Micro$oft will release Word 2008 for Mac Lite for the iPhone! I don’t think it could go on enough of a diet.
“Yeah, but it doesn’t do 3G! They can’t sell 10m without 3G”
suck on that for a while
http://projectdiaspora.org
One more thing… We still have UMPC and the SPOT-watches technology coming up! It WILL kill the iPhone you know. And as a back-up theres always the CD-ROM (remember Bill tought this woulde be the next great thing – not the hyped Internet)
Your potential. Our passion.™
Tergenev:
You and shen define success as some possibly measurable but undefined quantity reached in the indeterminate future. If you are so sure that success is an “end game” then provide a clear definition of success in numerical terms achieved on a preset date, fanboi. According to your logic, Apple has failed because it has a miniscule percentage of total PCs or operating systems sold each year. I doubt that you would agree that OS X is inferior to Windows Vista or XP based on simple arithmetic alone.
Unless Apple is constantly and consistently meeting new goals, setting new standards, and developing new products it has failed. Success isn’t an “end game”, it’s pushing the envelope, being relevant, being innovative, and repeatedly doing the same.
@Silverhawk
Apple already have the capability to read M$ office files. I bet they can also edit them too. Not too sure if they want to release that though.
@ M. T. MacPhee,
Java Runtime will run Java apps on their phone, Cobal Runtime will run Cobal apps and so on.
Cobal on a cell phone?
Microsoft Press Release.
Hell’s Kitchen, South Lucifertania— March 12, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates testified before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology at 10 a.m. EDT on the future of innovation and U.S. competitiveness. At a hearing to commemorate the committee’s 50th anniversary, Gates focused on issues of U.S. competitiveness, including education and work-force development, and explained one of Microsoft’s recently failed cell phone projects with fellow developer, Atari. Mr. Gates told the committee about their attempts to merge the modern cell phone with the 3.5″ floppy disk. The Microsoft Floppy Fone™ was to compete against Apple’s market leading iPhone. Gates explains that there is a surplus of these 3.5″ floppy disks, and merging them with cell phone technology would stop them from going to landfills, which is great for the environment. “It also allows the end user an immediate way of backing up the phone’s data” said Gates. “We’re not sure how Apple even addresses the issue of backup. Apple really scares us up in Redmond, because I’m pretty sure Apple uses witchcraft to make the iPhone work. What else could it be?” Gates retorts.
Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) had to pause the proceedings when a bald, sweaty middle-aged man started throwing chairs in the back of the chamber. Security was called in and the man, claiming to work for Microsoft, was removed from the building.
Mr Gates also added, “We really thought the new Floppy Fone™ had the best chance for the US to be competitive, merge both new and older proven technologies, and also improve the environment. We just can’t figure out why it wasn’t a hit?”.
Hano…
Since you haven’t figured it out for yourself, ZuneTang is JOKING. Sarcasm, irony, etc.
It’s good to see that Apple is doing this iPhone/touch SDK RIGHT!
AGAIN, they’ve managed to take a collection of parts and put them all together in a way that really works. All while trying to provide balanced benefit to everyone along the chain. It certainly worked with the iPod, contrary to what the cranks and whiners out there might say.
Silverhawk…
Good idea, but I’d settle for Pages ’08 Lite.
Of course it would have to be named Word Lite so the hapless PeeSea drones would consider using it.
He is so right. Microsoft and Nokia will never understand what hit them…
How about iWork Lite?
@Big Al
Thank you. It makes sense. Uhh, I mean the words on the page now form an English sentence with meaning for me.
As an aside, I have actually programmed in COBOL!
Bring on ALGOL and SNOBOL. Get that runtime count up!