apple’s wwdc ‘06 … some thoughts

while i read a bit about apple’s announcements at this week’s wwdc ‘06 — the update to the power mac, some os x leopard screenshots …

but i wasn’t able to watch the key note until this morning, and watching it gave me some time to think about the press the announcements received. there certainly was high expectations for the wwdc ‘06 when it comes to new products. a new ipod, a mobile phone, a set-top-box … and by now we all know these products did not materialize. would i have liked to see those products? yes, sure, and i would still like to see them.

but i also understand why they didn’t make it into the wwdc ‘06 presentation. this is a developer conference (and actually even in the past years, announcements at apple’s wwdcs were very much development focused). last year the intel transition was announced, and that clearly had an impact on developers. rarely were consumer products introduced at a wwdc. the power mac update makes sense since those are the machines developers are most likely to use, plus it means the end of the powermac area. the os x preview makes sense since it shows new os level changes that developers can make use of (like timeline, core animation, or the notes feature). so in general i can completely see apple’s decision not to present a new ipod or phone at this event.

now the announcements were maybe not as amazing as we expected, but i think os x leopard will have much more than we know now. will it be worth a likely cost of $125? i don’t know that is something every user has to decide for themselves. timeline for me as well as the mail update won’t cut it, but there might be other changes that will. the spotlight updates sound interesting to me. the new mac pro is certainly a great computer, will i get it, no, because i don’t need a machine that powerful, plus i like laptops. but overall the announcements were quite cool.

now i expect other announcements before the end of the year. i still think a new ipod will be announced. and while i would love to see an apple phone, i am not sold yet that apple will roll it out this year. set top box? i don’t care.

so over all, i am not a developer, but i think the announcements were not a home-run, but they were decent, and they will keep developers busy to create new great products.

now, there is one thing that really got me thinking while watching the presentation. and that is steve jobs. ok in the past wwdcs always had much more involvement by other apple staff, unlike the macworld key note which was much more steve jobs centric. but the amount of non steve jobs parts in this weeks presentation was a bit strange. there might be an easy reason for it, like he didn’t feel that great, had a cold … or a more concerning one and that is that he is, like gates slowly transitioning out of the company — let’s hope not.

ok, so overall, this was an interesting wwdc, with some great announcements, and i bet more to come over the next coming months (expect mysterious invitations send out to journalists and analysts for special events). analysts, especially those from the financial space have to become more realistic in their expectations, and do a bit of homework to know that a wwdc is quite different from a mac world.

in a state of multi-communication, information design has to adapt

yahoo news has an interesting story on a study by swiss telecom swisscom on how people use different devices to communication: How About an E-mail On That?

interesting quote from the lead research on the paper is:”…people “are very good at choosing the best media for each situation.” What would that be? “SMS is to tell you I miss you, e-mail is to organize our dinner, voice is to say I’m late, and IM is to continue our conversation,” says Broadbent half-jokingly.”

ok, i guess its not necessarily earth shattering that people use different devices and means to communicate different kinds of information. but the article goes on defining different forms of communication for each mode of communication.
“SMS, or short messaging, is “for intimacy, emotions, and efficiency”
“Mobile voice is “the micro coordination channel”"
“E-mail is “the administrative channel,”"

if this is true, and those results make total sense to me, then i think companies like espn or mtv who are spending (and one could also call it waste) millions on mobile content, should tailor their content around the way people use the devices and not tailor it around what content is already available and can easily be repackaged.

what’s the big deal about selling digital music files?

ok, so apple got into the music selling business in order to sell more ipods, and also to make it harder for users to switch to non-ipod music players. i can see the reasoning behind this. plus in a way this is a typical apple move, trying to own the whole platform in order to assure ease of use.

then pure plays come in, companies like napster. here i had a much harder time to understand why they did this, since apple already is not making much money from selling music, but they have at least the ipod to make money off. napster is just selling music and most of the money from a song sale goes to the record labels, so no huge margins here to survive a marketing battle.

labels all along tried to get into this space, like sony and others, but those things were pretty poor services from the get go and pretty much failed. then some retailers like walmart also gave digital music a try, but no one really made a huge dent in apple’s market share. one reason is they all followed a similar business model but didn’t have revenues from a highly profitable device to subsidize the music business.

and now i read that Nokia [is] to Buy Loudeye in Bid to Outdo iTunes. nokia of all the companies? what do they want with a music selling platform? ok they do have a brand, a lot of people carry around those phones, but this only makes sense if people buy music via the phone and not via the internet. now i do think that sooner or later more and more people will not only have mobile phones that can play music files, but that they will also use this functionality. but for people to buy music via a mobile phone, i think a couple of years will pass and even then i question the size of that market. if you look at how people buy music there is still a lot of browsing and recommendations involved. mobile phone sales would trigger mostly on the spot purchases, like you hear a song and you want it now and buy it, but that is a song. it is quite hard on the flimsy mobile screen to browse and pre-listen to tracks… not that some people won’t do this, but the market is small, and the per song market is also not huge. plus users will have to pay for the song and the download the whole experience is not that amazing. the computer and the web have a clear advantage here.

now nokia might think that it can sell this platform to operators. but does that make sense? the margins nokia will make off this platform will be small, just like apple’s. so the interest here would be to sell more phones. but an operators would probably not invest in a platform which only caters to nokia phones, so not a big advantage here for nokia. and for nokia to start selling songs themselves? well, do they really want to start a war with operators, the very customers of nokia’s phones and most of all networking gear? i doubt that.

–btw, i have been using the online music service emusic for a while now and it looks quite interesting. way cheaper than itunes, and you download non-drm mp3 files. the sound quality is pretty good and downloads are usually faster than itunes download times. while i usually don’t believe in pure plays when it comes to online music sites, this service is interesting since it changes the model by not doing a real subscription service, but also it is not a buy-song business either. you pay a monthly subscription but then own the songs you download. plus the drm model of the site, or better the non-drm model, is attracting mostly independent labels and with that a less pop-focused audience, probably catering to an slightly older, music-aficionado audience.

technorati redesign part 2

reading http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog i came about a post on the redesigned technorati, and it looks like i am not the only one who is a bit dissatisfied with the new look:

“All I can think off now is myspace (which I can’t stand). I liked the previous version much better, and think it worked fine and didn’t need a redesign at all. … I don’t like the pink/orange/blue combination with the existing green. There is just something about the whole site that bothers me now.”