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Category: Punditry

Google Nexus One Dies A Quick Death

Sorry I just can’t resist. I get hate mail every week from the Google fanboys who, like schoolyard bullies tell me that one day, one day, Google is going to squash the iPad with their own tablet.

These emails are very similar to those I received about the iPhone. Google was going to destroy the iPhone with the Nexus One.

Umm yeah – well Google just killed the Nexus One. Why not save the trouble of the big fancy product launch, the Google fanboy hype and the horror and just leave that so-called iPad killer you folks are hoping for back in the lab? If the performance of the Nexus One is any indicator, the only death that will be caused as a result of the Google iPad killer will be – that’s right – a suicide. The one that happens when Google kills that product too.

Next?

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by admin on July 19, 2010
filed in Punditry

Android? Sorry no iPad Killer Here

I keep hearing from all the Apple haters/Android fanboys that SOME DAY – Android is going to kill the iPad.

Sure – just like the Zune was going to kill the iPod/iTunes.

Sorry – facts can be cruel – so if you’re one of those folks who’d rather stick to your ideology than know the truth, stop reading now.

According to NetMarketShare, browsing on the iPad has already stomped on Android.

NetMarketShare says browser usage share on the iPad has already surpassed usage share on both the Android platform and the iPod Touch.  Since Android and iPod Touch units sold vastly outnumber iPad units sold, this is an indication that the iPad is used much more frequently per user for browsing.

The iPad is brand new and already, it’s proving it’s going to be tough to dethrone. In its first iteration, it’s selling one every three seconds. If it’s like the iPhone, we can expect that each rev of the iPad will outsell the previous version, making the platform even stronger.

To those who tell me the Android/Pad will kill the iPad I say – bullpucky!

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by admin on July 3, 2010
filed in Punditry
tagged ,

Morgan Stanley Bullish on iPad

By Scott Bourne

Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty issued a note to clients Monday night estimating that Apple will sell 10 million iPads in calendar 2010. This is significant because Morgan Stanley’s analysts had been predicting lower sales than most of the other Wall Street firms. In fact, this 10 million number is almost double what Morgan Stanley said just a few weeks ago.

And for those of you who are Apple stock investors, Morgan Stanley has set a new (AAPL) stock target price range of $332 to $440 by May 2011. WOW!

Maybe you don’t follow or play the markets – fair enough. But it might still be worth noting given the early charges that the iPad was all hype. All hype doesn’t drive a stock price like this. It’s nothing short of amazing in my opinion.

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by admin on June 17, 2010
filed in Articles, Punditry
tagged

The Haters Start to Relent

I predicted this. The vast majority of people who hate on and attack the iPad and its users are people who haven’t used an iPad. Once you spend some time with an iPad; and I’m not talking 15 minutes in a crowded Apple store watching a demo – then you will understand why Apple sells one every three seconds.

Take Joe Wilcox at Beta News. I am not going to link to his site. I suspect both his original attack on the iPad and his mea culpa saying he was wrong were both written mainly as linkbait. But he’s a typical example of the iPad hater.

He attacked the iPad without really having any personal experience with it. When he bought one for review, he changed his mind.

What changed Wilcox’s mind – and many a hater’s mind – is the immersive experience that an iPad offers. The much larger screen, the form factor, the edge-to-edge glass, it’s all part of a plan to draw you in. The user interface allows you to sit down and focus on one thing. That’s a lost art these days.

If you ever wonder why nobody seems to pay attention to you or why your friends are always spaced out or late, it’s because we’re all overly stimulated. We have too much information. Multi-tasking has made our brains into mush. The iPad fights that by offering us an immersive experience. It swayed Wilcox and it will likely sway other haters, wether or not they have the courage that Wilcox did to admit he was wrong.

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by admin on June 16, 2010
filed in Punditry
tagged

iPad At WWDC

By Scott Bourne

I wasn’t at WWDC this year. I was double booked. But I did have lots of friends there who regularly reported on the goings on at the conference. PadPundit’s own Andy Ihnatko was also there.

The reports from San Francisco were encouraging if you’re an iPad fan. Two million iPads have been sold. There are already 10,000 or more iPad applications. The iPad is available for sale in 10 countries and in less than 60 days will be available in nearly double that.

Apple has realized that the five million iBook downloads needed more horsepower and announced that iBooks will support Adobe PDF files. (Wait – I thought Adobe and Apple hated each other?)

Then there’s iAds. I am not sure what to think of that, but I suspect that depending on what your personal interests are you’ll either be happy or mad about it.

And perhaps the most interesting news from Apple itself was the announcement of iOS4. Apple is now a full-fledged mobile company. They’re not a computer company and haven’t been for a while. But the announcement of a new branding strategy that pushes a purely mobile OS does solidify Apple’s direction.

This is great news for the iPad owners among us because it means Apple will continue to make the iPad more computer-like in its capabilities, while maintaining its value as a content consumption device.

As for purely empirical information. The developers who used to be seen sporting their iPhones at WWDC were often instead sporting iPads. There were iPads everywhere. Developing for the iPad was clearly the heavy interest point at the conference – just as was developing for the iPhone was a few years ago.

While I remain impressed with the iPad, I’m very excited to find out what all these smart developers can do with this device once they get time and access to iOS4.

Stay tuned.
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by admin on June 14, 2010
filed in Punditry
tagged

Google Tablet an iPad Killer? Not if Android OS is the Best They Got

I’ve been using both the LG Ally and the HTC Eris since I have given up on AT&T as a cell-phone provider. I’ve used the phone, the apps, the whole nine yards for two weeks, every day. My verdict? I am NOT impressed.

It’s not just because this is a clear rip-off of the iPhone’s OS – it is. It’s that it’s a BAD rip-off.

If you are in love with the Android OS then I suspect you’ve never used an iPhone or an iPad. Why? Because if you think that slow, clunky, clumsy operating system is cool, you just don’t have the proper frame of reference.

The iPhone OS – also on the iPad – is fast, crisp and responsive. Key presses result in instant gratification. The graphics are big, bold and easy to read. The iPhone OS gesture controls make the entire experience incredible.

Now, comparing that to the Android – take everything I just said about the iPhone OS and substitute the opposite – that sums up Android.

If I had only evaluated one Android phone, I might assume it was the phone that was bad. But I tried two and both show a slow, non-responsive, clunky OS. By the way, both phones have received plenty of glowing reviews so I believe it’s the Android OS that is the problem.

Nobody’s more disappointed about this than I am. I was hoping this would be a good substitute for my iPhone. Not even close. As I sit here clicking over and over on the Text Message icon before it finally responds, I realize the Android OS isn’t going to make the Google Tablet (assuming it or something like it actually ships) near as appealing as the iPad. People who try both will flock to the iPad.

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by admin on June 12, 2010
filed in Punditry
tagged

Can the iPad Save the Print Magazine Business?

Can the iPad Save the Print Magazine Business? Not if the print magazine executives have anything to say about it.

You have to hand it to the print folks. They are going to go down kicking, screaming and in complete and utter denial.

Take this story I read at InPublishing – it’s really quite long so let me summarize it for you…

“We’re pretty old fashioned in the print business. We also specialize in denial. Despite the fact we’re publishing 90-day old news in a world that has INSTANT access to the same information we publish only for free, we think our expensive, tree-dependent, postal-dependent, out-of-touch solutions are just what the people want.”

Okay so I am fudging just a bit – but you get the point.

The print magazine business was one of the early industries to say the Internet was a fad. They continue to be in denial despite the fact that the big ad agencies are shifting more and more of their budgets online.

The iPad does exactly what the print magazine publishers need it to. It puts their old-fashioned, irrelevant about to be completely disintermediated companies back in the game. Only from the looks of it, the people running the print media business are just plainly too stupid to realize it.

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by admin on June 4, 2010
filed in Punditry
tagged

New AT&T Pricing Best Argument For A New Wireless Card Yet

By Scott Bourne

Now that AT&T has abandoned unlimited data plans for the iPhone and iPad, the argument for a wireless card has heated up. I am very lucky. I already had decided that my Verizon MIFI was going to provide me with all the Internet access I needed for the iPad so I didn’t order a 3G for myself. Those who did and who don’t change their plans in any way should be grandfathered in with unlimited data. But even though Apple has sold a total of two million iPads, millions more will be sold under the new plan which means watching those Netflix movies on your iPad could become a challenge.

Data caps on smart phones aren’t that big a deal. But the iPad is quickly becoming an essential computing device, used every day – sometimes all day, by a large number of people. That means it’s going to be much more data hungry.

Products like the MIFI typically have twice the data caps that the iPad will have using AT&T. While these devices cost more to use, they are also something you can use with other computing and mobile devices so you can share the pain of payment across many devices.

Owning an iPad without having to deal with AT&T has been a pure pleasure. I wonder if the new data caps will induce more Americans to go the same route I have.

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by admin on June 3, 2010
filed in Punditry

The iPad Bookstore – Fact or Fiction

By Scott Bourne

I’m very, very interested in the iPad book store. I think this is one of the most exciting things about the iPad. It provides a beautiful reading experience and an opportunity for lots of people to share beautiful books – including independent publishers and emerging authors.

While the bookstore is just getting built, it has more than 45,000 titles already. Some complain this isn’t a wide enough selection. That may be true, but I don’t think I have time to read any more books than that :)

The prices on these books tend to run anywhere from roughly $7.50 to $12.50, with a few rogue titles costing more and some being free. Is that too expensive? Probably. You might argue that electronic books should be a bunch cheaper since there’s no paper, shipping, storage, etc.

I did too – until I found out how the business model works. The book business has always been one of the most byzantine out there. Now with sorting out who gets electronic distribution rights thrown into the mix, it’s gotten worse.

As the author of five published books, with a sixth on the way, I can tell you the author always gets the smallest part of the paycheck. The publisher, distributor, retailer, etc., get as much as $0.95 cents on the dollar. Some authors sneak by with about a nickel out of each buck. If you’re a good negotiator, you may more towards a dime. But unless you’re John Grisham, you won’t get rich writing books.

So Apple is taking 30%. Programmers and publishers are getting most of the rest. So while I think the books should cost less, I see why they don’t.

As for types of books, it looks like more than two thirds of the titles are non-fiction. Politics, personal finance, history, memoirs and fitness are some of the most popular categories.

PadPundit will keep a close eye on developments in this space and report more information as it becomes available.

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by admin on May 1, 2010
filed in Punditry
tagged ,

Selling Images on the iPad

NOTE: Cross-Posted at Photofocus.com

So my prediction came true. The iPad has created a new market for photographers. What impact this will have on the future of photography is obviously yet unknown. But there is a new market none-the-less. You’ll either benefit from it or you won’t. If you simply ignore it and hope it goes away, well we know how that will turn out. In the mean time, those of us who are interested in moving into new markets will be cashing our checks.

I’ve launched my first iPad app. It’s called Avian Wallpaper. It contains a license to use any of 15 low-res (1024×1024) versions of 15 of my bird photos as your iPad wallpaper.

I am charging $.99 for the license. As expected, I’ve been attacked for not giving the pictures away for free. I’ve also been attacked for charging too little. (Welcome to my world :) )

I expect to be attacked no matter what I do and accordingly, I pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. That’s the nature of the Internet. But those attacks not withstanding, we’re in new territory here folks. And just as iStock changed the stock photography paradigm, the iPad may change the online photography paradigm. You or I may or may not like the change – but change comes regardless of our feelings or opinions. If you’re a pro, it’s just plain stupid to ignore it.

At this point, it’s all a great experiment. What is the best way to market iPad photo apps? What is the perfect price? Nobody knows yet, and anyone who claims they do is full of the stuff that comes out the rear end of a bull. It’s simply too soon to know much of anything. We’re talking about selling photos into a marketplace that simply didn’t exist a few weeks ago.

We do have some data. All the research I can find shows that the lower priced apps do better than the expensive ones. That’s no great shock. But at least it’s something.

It should be an exciting time for photographers. It is in fact, something to celebrate in my opinion. But there are those who are bitter about the iPad, or other things in life, and they would have you believe this new iPad market is a bad thing.

Some have proven their lack of knowledge in this area by trying to compare selling a license to use 15 low-res images on an iPad as wallpaper to pricing wedding photography. This goes beyond ludicrous. When pricing wedding photography, you’re spending hours with a family capturing their most important memories, editing, retouching and delivering hundreds or even thousands of photos for a couple to cherish their entire lives. You’re typically delivering physical prints, albums, books, canvases, or other tangible products from a one-time event. The import of a wedding, the deliverables and the market conditions surrounding that experience can’t be compared (by any sane, reasonable person) with licensing 15 images for use as wallpaper on an iPad. The market for the wedding is one family and their friends. The market for an iPad application could reach into the hundreds of thousands quickly. Wedding photography and images sold on an iPad as wallpaper are as different as professional football and Scrabble. And herein lies the rub. False equivalence is the tool of the weak, the worried, the ill-informed and the trouble maker. Don’t let these negative people confuse the issue. Chances are excellent that they have a hidden agenda.

Instead, explore this market with hope, excitement, new ideas and new approaches. I am pretty sure that someone way smarter than me will figure out an advanced business model for the sale of photos on the iPad. And this is going to happen whether or not any particular group likes it. Personally, I can’t wait!

The world is changing. Newspaper and magazine markets are shrinking. The cost of printing and shipping paper is going up. The advertising markets are increasingly interested in more electronic distribution. Younger people are more likely to “watch” a screen than they are pick up a piece of paper.

The iPad, with the proven marketing muscle of Apple’s expertise in selling online applications, represents a huge opportunity. In one of the worst economic situations I’ve ever seen, we have a new marketplace. I’m not sure how that can be a bad thing.

The launch of a new market for photography  is cause for celebration. Whether or not we get it right on the first try is much less important than making the effort. Time will sort out the details.

by admin on April 19, 2010
filed in Articles, Punditry
tagged
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