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09
Feb 11

Focus

Hoarce Dediu; Why focusing on a few products is hard:

But “focus” is the willful rejection of this theory. By saying no to alternatives you increase risk disproportionally to the reward. If you have the means to maintain a portfolio it certainly seems imprudent not to do so.

So why would someone want to focus?

The answer is that too much diversification is dangerous. It’s dilutive to everything the company uses to create value: its resources, its processes and its priorities. It dulls the mind and tarnishes the brand.

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16
Jan 11

Apps are a Bigger Deal than Music

Horace, in his understated way of saying things, talks about iOS app downloads:

“Growth like this is hard to get one’s mind around. Not only are downloads increasing, but the rate of increase is increasing.”

His chart where he compares app downloads to music downloads in the iTunes store helps. The iTunes store became the biggest music retailer in less than 5 years after initially opening, displacing Best Buy and Wal-mart. Note the speed of getting to 10 billion downloads:

Personally, I have 223* apps in iTunes, and there are three iOS devices in our house. Doing the math, I get 74 app downloads per device.

* After a one-time attempt to vainly delete the unused ones.

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11
Jan 11

iTunes Challenge

I need your help. Or at least I think I do. It’s a technical problem.

Here’s the situation:

I have a media iMac at home. I have an iPhone and an iPad that sync music, podcasts, books, apps, movies, and photos to this media machine. I don’t sync the contacts, calender or email through iTunes as those go through the cloud.

I recently started using a MacBook at work. I’d like to switch synchronizing the iPhone and iPad to the work machine. I’m not sure entirely why. Some vague reasons that have crossed my mind:

  • It’s a nicer and faster computer than my 5-year old iMac.
  • I could download new apps or books from iTunes instead of searching within the App Store on iOS.
  • New podcasts would download during the day to listen to on my commute home.
  • I’m more likely to sync to my work computer than my home machine.
  • The old iMac’s USB doesn’t charge the iPad at all unless the screen is off, so I’ve started charging both devices at work.
  • I don’t really use the iMac at home other than to store stuff.

The problem, however, is the media. Podcasts will download on their own, so that doesn’t seem to be a problem. And with iTunes Sharing, I can sync the files — or at least a lot of them, but I won’t get the play counts and I don’t have the space for all of the media (the iMac has a pretty full 1/2  TB drive). And it only works at home when I actually have the work computer on with iTunes running. Yet, there does not seem to be a way to sync smart playlists (maybe I just recreate them? but again, the play counts which are vital to many of my smart playlists, are missing). And iPhoto synchronizing from a shared library is manual only. This is a bigger issue, because my wife and I take lots of photos of our kids, and I really appreciate how new photos taken with our SLR or iPhone just magically show up on the iPad after a sync.

So … is this a fictions first-world problem that I invented and needs no solution? Or is it a real problem? How would you solve it?

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04
Jan 11

AirPlay

Adam Lisagor on Why AirPlay Is Important:

“AirPlay is important in the evolution of media because the tech infrastructure Apple has been building for more than a decade is finally maturing enough to reach that holy grail of weightlessness.”

The idea that you can easily present a slide show, play a video or movie, play a song, play a video game or whatever … from the device you are holding to the TV on the wall is very intriguing. No need to switch remotes, configure the “source” for the video, or anything else. Just choose “play” and choose “that screen over there”. Weightless indeed.

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24
Dec 10

iOS Quality Apps not in Android Store

Gruber on app stores and the philosophy that shapes them:

“The differences between the iOS App Store and Android Market are a microcosm of the differences between Apple and Google. Apple is a retailer, a purveyor of well-crafted goods that people will line up to purchase. Google is an advertising company that builds popular services that command large audiences.”

He makes a good point on the quality (and type) of apps you find in each store:

“iOS’s best apps could exist for Android but don’t. Android’s best apps couldn’t exist for iPhone. In theory, then, Android could be beating iOS in both regards. Android could be the platform with exclusive apps like Reeder, Twitterrific, Things,Simplenote, Instagram, Calvetica, PCalc, and Pastebot — in addition to the exclusives it already has like Swype and home screen replacements that the iPhone can’t have. What I find interesting is that Android just doesn’t have apps like this.”

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