Archive for ‘Apple’

January 18th, 2010

Apple iPhone Vs. Android: Which Strategy Will Win?

In the 1990’s, Apple almost died because it tried to build a higher-priced computer, with an operating system that ran only on its own computer. Apple struggled to compete against Windows, which ran on many brands of computers, and eventually controlled the market.

Is that happening again between the Apple iPhone and the Google Android operating systems? Henry Blodget of The Business Insider thought so.

He points out that Apple’s iPhone is enormously popular, with one reason being it has so many applications available for it. But Apple has closed down the iPhone by controlling the apps system,  and the purchasing of apps.  Developers create software that only can be used on the iPhone. Google is not. Sound familiar?

Gene Munster, Senior Research  Analyst for  Piper Jeffray, believes Apple is following the right strategy. He says in an interview by Blodget:

  • Apple’s iPhone is easy to use, and that is a huge plus for it
  • The apps have been locked down for iPhone use only, but it has 110,000 apps
  • App builders want to build for a widely distributed phone, which the iPhone is
  • Apple has 110,000 apps compared to 20,000 apps on the Android
  • Apple will be the leader in 5 years with 30-40% global market share, with Android following, and Nokia will struggle behind

So the popularity of the iPhone seems to be the strong point in Apple’s corner.

Are you an iPhone or an Android?

1. Does your company tightly control its products or services (like Apple)?

or

2. Does your company attempt to share its products or services with other companies to get a part of their market (Google)?

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January 6th, 2010

Under Wear? New iPhone App “Nude It” Shows All

Ladies and gentlemen, beware the co-worker or friend who points their iPhone at you and begins laughing (or drooling).

Apple approved an iPhone app yesterday called Nude It, which allows you to point your iPhone at a victim and see them sans clothing. (Apparently ladies underwear doesn’t count as clothing, as it is reported that the app doesn’t see through them. How a piece of software knows the difference between a blouse and a bra is beyond me. And does it know the difference between men’s underwear and ladies underwear, so we girls can see all but the boys can’t? Questions that I’d like to have answered, so comment back if you get this app. )

Imagine the fun! Weekly staff meetings suddenly become much more interesting. Baseball takes on a whole new meaning. Nightclubs become reminiscent of Greek orgies. You get to check out the goods first when dating.

But then I worry about what happens when the sickos get a hold of this app. What about the child molesters and sex offenders?  Let’s hope they don’t own iPhones.

The YouTube video about this app already has over 725,000 views, and the US has been anxiously waiting the approval of this app by Apple. If there’s one thing the marketing industry can take from this app release, it’s something we already know: Sex sells. We’ll see how well this app sells, but I bet it will do just fine. And that’s the naked truth.

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December 1st, 2009

Best iPhone Apps, According to Robert Clay

Robert Clay helps run Marketing Wizdom, which is a marketing communications firm based in the U.K. He’s also a frequent visitor to the 60 Second Marketer blog and makes comments and suggestions on a regular basis.iPhone

Last week, Robert made a comment on our blog about his favorite iPhone apps. His comment was so thorough, we thought we’d share it with our readers who may have missed it the first time around.

Here are Robert Clay’s favorite iPhone apps:

I use ETERNITY to log my time usage. Very intuitive, very nice interface. Very useful.

2DO is an excellent to-do list manager with a beautiful and intuitive interface — a series of tabs to easily move between categories of to-do’s, and to move to-do’s between categories.

TWEETIE 2 is the best twitter client I have used on any platform. Very fully featured, great interface, powerful to use.

GROUPS, by the same people who do 2DO is an absolutely fabulous address book and contact organizer. it allows you to segment contacts very effectively right there on your iPhone and instantly navigate between lists. I could only wish that there was an equivalent desktop app. It blows all the others away.

CARBONFIN OUTLINER, is a proper outliner with capabilities not far short of OmniOutliner on the Mac. I find it indispensible for jotting down and re-arranging my thoughts whenever they occur, for taking meeting notes and for planning.

AWESOME NOTE is a wonderful app for taking, categorizing and fling notes in a series of folders. Very nice interface. Lots of capabilities. Lovely to use.

TAP FORMS took me a long time to discover, but it is an excellent database app that allows me to transport all manner of information with me. One of my uses is to maintain a list of books I own (I have thousands), and books I want to buy so that when I see one I like in a bookshop I can avoid buying one that I already own. It’s happened a few times, unwittingly! The other apps I tried all fell over with the size of my list. Tap Forms has been rock solid, is thoroughly pleasant to use and is very useful.

MAGIC HOUR is a fabulous app that lets you know the time in many different parts of the world. Useful if you’re travelling or working with people across the globe and need to interract across time zones. It also has a beautiful and intuitive interface.

WEATHER PRO is the best weather app I have used. It very accurately predicts weather for any number of specified locations for the week ahead. It even graphs things like anticipated precipitation, sunshine, wind speed and many other factors. An outstandingly capable app.

SHAPEWRITER is the most sensational note-taking software I have ever seen. It uses a completely new method of input. You don’t tap keys, but slide your fingers from letter to letter, lift off at the end of a word, then slide your fingers from one letter to another for the next word. It allows extremely fast and accurate input. You’ve gotta try it. It is astounding, and I believe should be licensed as an alternative input system on all hand held devices. It is truly revolutionary.

IJOT is a fantastic tool that allows you to send handwritten, yes handwritten, messages via email. People just cannot figure out how I can send them a handwritten note by email, which I do when the mood takes. Great for thank you’s and that sort of thing.

There are a whole lot more I could mention. But this will suffice for now.

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May 18th, 2009

The Short, Happy Life of TiVo

TiVo has been part of our lives for more than a decade and people who use it seem to love it. But TiVo reminds the folks at the 60 Second Marketer of WebTV and/or Apple’s Newton, both of which were technologies that never really caught on in the market place.tivologo

How can we call something that has been around for more than a decade and has sold millions of units a technology that isn’t quite making it? Because we believe the TV of the future isn’t going to be your TV — it’s going to be your computer.

Already, consumers are turning on their computers to watch programs on Hulu or YouTube. Scarier still (for TiVo anyway) is something called Apple TV. Even though there are surprising similarities between TiVo and Apple TV, TiVo doesn’t come packaged with the Steve Jobs mystique the way Apple TV does.

The problem with TiVo isn’t that it’s a bad technology. It’s that it has had trouble catching on with consumers. We’re not sure why that’s the case — we just know that it is the case.

Will TiVo go away (the way many advertisers wish)? No, it’s here for another decade or more. But will it ever dominate the marketplace as people originally thought? Nope. You might leave that up to Apple — or some other platform altogether.

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January 15th, 2009

Apple’s Steve Jobs Takes a Leave of Absence

Steve Jobs is arguably the greatest American businessperson of all time. His consistent success across many different industries has been unparalleled. Heck, even Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Henry Ford or John D. Rockefeller don’t match up. After all, Mr. Jobs has become a billionaire THREE different times in his career. First, with Apple in the 1980s. Then, with Pixar in the 1990s. Then again with Apple in the 21st Century.

Who can match that?

So, it’s with great apprehension that we report that the 53-year-old Mr. Jobs has disclosed that he has a “more complex” medical condition than previously thought and that he would be taking a leave of absence from Apple until the end of June.

In an email to his employees, Mr. Jobs wrote: “As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I’m out … Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my healht-related issues are more complex than originally thought. In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.”

Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook, will be running the show during Mr. Jobs’ leave. Mr. Cook filled in for Mr. Jobs in 2004 when the Apple chief took time off to battle his cancer.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mr. Jobs and his family as he confronts (and eventually overcomes) whatever health issues he’s facing.

All the best.

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January 5th, 2009

Update: Apple’s Steve Jobs Confirms Health Challenges

Just a few hours ago, the 60 Second Marketer posted a blog entry about how to use Apple and Google’s business strategy to grow your business in 2009.

With that in mind, we thought we’d post this news item hot of the press about Mr. Jobs and his health challenges. We wish him all the best and a full recovery.

From the New York Times:

The chief executive of Apple, Steven P. Jobs, announced on Monday that he was being treated for a “hormone imbalance” that had caused him to lose weight, but that he will be staying on as head of the company.

In a statement on Monday, Mr. Jobs said his decision not to give the keynote address this year at Macworld had touched off speculation about his health. Apple’s senior vice president for worldwide product marketing, Philip Schiller, will deliver the speech, which is scheduled for Tuesday at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

The decision to let Mr. Schiller give the address, Mr. Jobs said, “set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.”

Shares of Apple were about 3 percent higher Monday in early trading.

Adding to the speculation, Mr. Jobs, who survived pancreatic cancer, has appeared gaunt and tired at various public events.

“As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors,” Mr. Jobs said. “A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my No. 1 priority.

“Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause — a hormone imbalance that has been ‘robbing’ me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis,” he wrote.

Mr. Jobs said that he was receiving treatment and that his doctors expect that it will take until late spring to regain the lost weight.

“I will continue as Apple’s C.E.O. during my recovery,” he said.

In the statement, Mr. Jobs asked for the support of the “Apple community.

“I will be the first one to step up and tell our board of directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s C.E.O.,” he said.

In a separate statement, the board of Apple said that Mr. Jobs deserved the company’s support during his recuperation.

“He most certainly has that from Apple and its board,” the statement said.

Text of Letter by Steven P. Jobs

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January 5th, 2009

How to Use the Apple and Google Business Strategy to Grow Your Sales and Revenue

Google and Apple are two of the most successful companies of our generation, and perhaps of all time. Both companies have done an amazing job of consistently developing new and innovative products that keep users and visitors coming back for more.

What’s their secret?

If you strip away all the bells and whistles, if you eliminate all the chatter about their “brands” and “brand equity,” you’ll arrive at a very simple business strategy that both companies have ingrained into their corporate DNA.

That strategy is a deceptively simple concept that’s easy to understand and difficult to execute. It’s to have a relentless focus on the customer and user experience.

Since its inception, Apple has focused on making computer (and now other products) amazingly simple to use. Sometimes, Steve & Company have gone overboard in their pursuit of simplicity — the original Mac didn’t have any way to connect it to a network and, until recently, many Apple computers didn’t have cooling fans because Mr. Jobs felt the noise interfered with the user experience. But overall, Apple has done an amazing job of focusing on their customer experience and making the user experience as seamless and simple as possible.

Just down the road from Apple (literally) there’s a pretty well-known company called Google that has incorporated the same philosophy into their DNA. Every new innovation that Google introduces to the marketplace (Google Maps, Google Image Search, Google Trends, etc.) is designed to be simple and easy to use.

As a marketer, you should be consistently striving to find ways to differentiate your company from your competitors. We know several companies that have worked diligently on their technology only to forget that what the customer experiences is the usability of the product or service.

It’s a new year. It’s a blank slate for you and your company. Why don’t you incorporate the Apple and Google  strategy into your business model and spend this year making your customer experience significantly better than your competitors? It’ll be an initiative that will pay for itself many times over.

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November 18th, 2008

When The 60 Second Marketer Speaks, Steve Jobs Listens.

Many of our most avid readers will recall a blog posting we had several months ago called “Why Steve Jobs is Both a Genius and a Knucklehead.” In it, we pointed out that any brand that has its entire success wrapped up in one person (i.e. Steve Jobs) is setting itself up for failure.

What happens if the that person gets hit by a bus? Or takes an extended leave of absence? Or decides to become a monk? If anything like that were to happen, the entire company (in this case Apple) would tank.

Well, it’s pretty clear that Steve Jobs not only read our blog post, but he had it framed for his office wall and circulated it to his staff. How do we know this? Because the cover of this week’s edition of Fortune magazine states that Steve Jobs is doing exactly what we suggested to him — that is, to start sharing the spotlight with other people at Apple. We said sharing the spotlight would be good for the company, good for the shareholders and good for America.

Do we really believe Steve Jobs read our blog post, had it framed and circulated it to his staff? Well, no, not really. But we do believe that he’s finally realized that he needed to put his ego aside and start promoting the other geniuses at Apple, too.

It hurts us to say this, but Microsoft has done a fabulous job transferring the image of its brand from Gates to Balmer. Sure, Gates is still seen as the brand icon, but we all know that Balmer has been running the company for years. Hats off to Microsoft for knocking it out of the park on that initiative.

With that in mind, we’re happy to report that Steve Jobs and Apple have started to promote other people within the company. That’s good for Apple and good for America since it means we’ll have more fun, innovative, new products to look forward to in the future.

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October 7th, 2008

What Dell, Glaceau and Apple Know About Web Design That You Should Know, Too.

There’s an aesthetic in web design that all marketers should know about. Dell, Glaceau, Apple and other brands are already putting this aesthetic to work, and you should, too.

It’s pretty simple, really. In fact it is simple — simple, clean, sparse, uncluttered design, that is.

As with a lot of industrial design these days, Apple led the way by incorporating their clean, crisp industrial design aesthetic into their website. Steve and Company were inspired by the minimalist stuff that’s been part of Asian design for years. You can see it in their stores, their products and their websites.

Dell Computers was quick to follow suit and designed a very clean, very easy-to-use website of their own. (Check it out — the Dell and Apple websites are amazingly similar.)

Now, what about Glaceau? As mentioned in previous blog posts, those guys really have their act together. They have an incredibly likable brand personality that comes across in everything from their website to their packaging. Keep an eye on these guys ’cause they really know what they’re doing.

When you get the chance, take a spin through all of the websites we’ve mentioned here. Then check out some of your favorites and send them our way. We’d love to compare notes on who’s doing the best web design work out there.

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September 10th, 2008

Does Steve Jobs Have Cancer?

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ve pieced together that I’m both an admirer of and a critic of Steve Jobs who, arguably, is the greatest business person of all time.

Well, once again, the topic of Steve Jobs and his health has come up.

Despite all the speculation, you can rest assured that Steve Jobs is okay. The 60 Second Marketer did a dive into this subject about a month ago and here’s what we wrote:

Has Steve Jobs cancer flared up again? The short answer is “no,” it looks as though he has not had a recurrence.

In an article posted on The New York Times, writer Joe Nocera reports on a phone call he received from Mr. Jobs that reportedly started with “This is Steve Jobs. You think I’m an arrogant (expletive) who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.”

After that rather Jobsonian opening, Mr Nocera received some details on Mr. Jobs’ recent health problems.

While the conversation was off-the-record, the article goes on to say that Mr. Jobs does not have a recurrence of cancer. That’s great news on several fronts — most importantly because Mr. Jobs is a family-man and would be missed by both his family and his massive fan base around the globe. But it’s also good news because it gives Mr. Jobs time to begin sharing the spotlight with some of the other geniuses at Apple. That’s something I suspect employees and shareholders alike would welcome.

I outlined this concern in a blog entry several months ago called “Why Steve Jobs is Both a Genius and a Knucklehead.” The blog discusses the risk Mr. Jobs puts Apple in while he continues to promote himself as the exclusive face of Apple.

The danger of having Apple’s health linked so closely to Steve Jobs’ health is a scenario both Apple and Mr. Jobs should avoid.

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