Posts Tagged ‘apple’
Apple announce one day shopping event - 25th November
November 22nd, 2011
Do you want an iPad, iPad, iPhone or any other Apple product? This could be you best chance to bag a bargain for Christmas.
Apple has announced that it will be holding a one day holiday shopping event on Black Friday which is this Friday, November 25th.
“The special one-day Apple shopping event.
This Friday, 25 November.
Mark your calendar now, and come back to the Apple Online Store for the special one-day event. You’ll discover amazing iPad, iPod and Mac gifts for everyone on your list.
Until then, browse the Apple Online Store for great ideas.”
Apple has not yet given any details about exactly what discounts will be available. Last year, Apple held its Black Friday event on November 27th and discounted a number of its products, cutting the prices of its iMacs and Macbook Pro laptops by up to 7.5 per cent
You still might be able to get better deals elsewhere, but if you’re buying direct from Apple you get that added confidence of a respected supplier.
Below is a video of the iPhone 4s to whet your appetite.
September 7th, 2011
The latest iPad 3 rumour to hit the street is all about the battery. It is apparently thinner and lighter than the iPad 2 battery according to this source.
The iPad 3 is expected to hit the streets in February 2012 or it could be as early as September as indicated in this report. The new battery will be 20-30 per cent more expensive than the current battery used in the iPad 2, which might make new iPad more expensive.
Tim Cook, Apple futures, the Tablet & Smartphone economies and the long shadow of Steve Jobs
August 25th, 2011
Tim Cook stepped up last night as the new CEO of Apple Computer, as Steve Jobs stood down, and if you were to find a better man to step into the shadow of the best company leader in the world, then you would be a genius.
Tim Cook has been joined at the hip with Steve Jobs since 1998 and probably mind-melded with the leader around 2003, when the retiring Apple CEO first found out that he had pancreatic cancer.
Tim is the son of an Alabama shipyard worker and at-home Mom. In the last financial year, he earned $59.1million (£36.3 million), including a $5 million cash bonus and $52.3 million in stock options. He has sold also more than $100 million of his stock options since joining Apple. He still rents his house in Palo Alto, California.
Tim Cook, Apple CEO: joined at the hip with Steve Jobs
To me, that means Tim is an Apple man body and soul, not an automobile salesman wannabe. He is the difference between Apple tanking and the company continuing to dominate and innovate. He comes from a different mould to the Apple CEOs who almost drove the company out of existence in the 1990s. He is a man I would trust with my last dollar.
The stock markets currently feel differently (bless!). They have given their totally rational, master-of-the-universe take on the news by selling Apple stock big-time. As an aside, if you were to search the ends of the earth for a CEO of the world’s biggest company by market value (Apple), you really would want to steer well clear of this highly-educated and terminally stupid class of people in your candidate selection.
The new Apple CEO comes into the job that effectively he has been co-owning for the past five years at least, with a clear understanding that the yo-yo’s in the trading houses (a.k.a The Future) have marked him down.
I doubt whether he, or the Apple board, will lose too much sleep. In the time he has been shadowing Steve Jobs, Apple stock has gone from $6.56 to $403. Currently (Thursday afternoon BST), it’s trading at $371.41. Time to buy!
That said, Steve Jobs does cast a long shadow. He rescued Apple from extinction and his rare genius in marketing has been a large part of the reason why the company has become the most powerful, influential and successful technology company of all time. Even ‘The Really Stupids’ in the stock exchange houses could see, finally, that Steve Jobs = Money.
Now, while they flail around like non-swimmers (always out of their depth), Apple is simply moving on. The Succession Plan has been written and rehearsed, and is now being acted out. Apple, with the retreat by HP from the Tablet space (which it championed for three years), now owns the Tablet/Slate market and I cannot see a single effective competitor.
The Tablet Economy is so new, and with so much potential, that we can only guess and discuss, and help its development. I believe the iPad will fundamentally reshape the business and consumer device sectors globally over the next five years because it fulfils the needs and desires of people who live in these sectors – indeed, they are the same people.
iPad in five years will be recognisable on the outside – the same beautiful design but unrecognisable in the way it connects to, engages with, and learns from the people using the device.
With the Tablet space sewn up for the next 18 months at least, Apple has a bigger battle on its hands with the Smartphone market. Android handsets continue to eat into the iPhone market share and only the recourse to law has put some temporary obstacles in their way.
While the Tablet market can be further ring-fenced through innovation that might include closer tie-in with broadcast TV – iPad link scanning of TV adverts, for example – the iPhone challenge is much more complex but it is a battle that Apple can win.
Rumours of a budget-range of iPhones abound and the idea makes good commercial sense. The biggest mobile handset players have seriously lost the plot, yet continue to own the budget handset space globally. The move into this market, with a handset that delivers the classic usability of the iPhone, the cachet of the brand, and at a reasonable price point, should prove exceptionally profitable.
In the applications space, Apple still holds sway in terms of business and entertainment apps that users love, for the right reasons. This also gives Apple an opportunity to move from the consumer space into the new, more fluid environment that it has helped to shape – where the lines between consumer and business device are being blurred.
Remember, Tim Cook was central to this movement and will be the leader of the brightest and best technology team in the world. The iPad and the iPhone resonate with our needs and untrammelled desires. The design and education sectors also respond, if not on price, certainly with desire to the unrivalled hardware and software that Apple continues to produce: Final Cut Pro, iTunes, MacBook, iMac, Mac Pro, iPod and iCloud.
There was a time, pre-Jobs’ return, when Apple aficionados spent their time waiting for the next big Fail. We’ve got out of the habit over the past decade and, do you know, there is no chance of us joining that Loser queue again.
Best of luck to Tim Cook – but I somehow think he’s not going to need it, even with the long and generous shadow of Steve Jobs.
We will have time to reflect and understand more about this Quiet Man of Apple over the coming year but for now watch a rare video of Tim Cook here:
Apple is on course to become the world’s most valuable technology company
July 20th, 2010
As a brief update to the earlier post about Apple winning the PR battle around iPhone 4.0 – Apple is rocking! If there were any doubts that the concerted attack on the handset’s accepted shortcomings has had no significant effect, then the financials would lay these to rest.
More than that, they would run a shiver down the antennas of Android-based competitors. As of today, Apple is very, very close to overtaking Microsoft as the world’s most valuable technology company.
You can listen to the financials here.
I’m a reluctant Apple evangelist. The company’s retentive communications are plainly weird and its elitist brand persona jars with what I believe – but it continues to innovate and sell in a unique and very beautiful way.
You could say that Apple is Steve Jobs in corporal form. His genius is to find the very best people and ideas – and then build these into objects of desire. Apple expresses – it lives – this genius.
Despite the iPhone 4.0 issues, we are lucky to have this unique talent moving the mobile space forward. Think of the Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung strategies over the past five years. They just seemed to be dealing with mobile commodity decline, and not the enormous potential of the handset as a Smartphone.
Apple shook the market and Google responded. The Droids are a serious and ongoing threat to the cultural dominance of Apple in the marketplace. That’s really welcomed and if HTC, Motorola or any other handset company can deliver a device that monsters the iPhone, then what’s to worry?
Meantime, have we seen news of the iPad sales? HP is saying it won’t deliver this year on its original Slate and Microsoft is scurrying. Is the price point beyond the desire-pain threshold for the iPad? Will we see newspapers offering free giveaways (contract-based, naturally) of the iPad in the late summer, early autumn? They need to move – and quick.
How iPhone 4.0 opened Apple’s walled garden of communications
July 20th, 2010
If nothing else, the antenna problem on the iPhone 4.0 has prodded Apple into a more open, web-embracing approach to its communications strategies.
It’s still about controlling the messages but a multi-way conversation has been started – and that means letting go of the command structure. Apple has, rightly or wrongly, been seen as anti-web and seeking to dominate, closing off the areas where it operates online.
The PR campaign around the iPhone 4.0’s problems has a different flavour. Commentators are saying that Steve Jobs was prodded into a reaction by the spectacular online/offline criticisms of the wildly popular handset and certainly an un-timetabled Apple press conference is a very rare event.
But what was most intriguing about Steve Jobs’ session in Cupertino on Friday was not the apology or the free-case offer; rather, it was his contention that other Smartphone manufacturers had models with signal problems similar to those of the iPhone 4.0.
Now, Steve could have followed the classic Apple tactic of not mentioning the competition, promoting the advantages and innovations of the handset. This time he opened the door to the walled garden and practically invited the world and their cousin to respond. He stoked an external debate – almost unheard of at Apple.
Not surprisingly, the rival handset manufacturers have come out with communications guns blazing as CNET’s Caroline McCarthy reported.
They are more than miffed by Apple’s statements but significantly at the moment they all stop short of claiming that there are no antenna issues on their models. While their responses are very robust, they are on the back foot now, as Apple releases its internal tests on rival handsets, delivering a video website http://www.apple.com/antenna/ with detailed comparative information.
Ah, but here’s where the Apple openness stops short. The site, while informative and stylish, is a one-way street. No chance to comment or share, which is a missed opportunity and one that I hope Steve Jobs reconsiders. Right now, he’s winning the PR battle by using openness effectively – and maybe Apple will recognise the enormous benefits of opening the door to walled garden even further.
Steve Jobs, Apple, insanely great friends and how to live your life
April 23rd, 2010
I caught up with two old journalist colleagues, good friends, last night - Merlin John and Sean Coughlan. We put the world to rights, celebrated Sean’s promotion to education Correspondent at the BBC, and argued geek-pop-politics until forever.
We most definitely raised our voices around the subject of Steve Jobs and Apple; I found myself trying to defend the insanely great man against accusations that Apple had moved away from education, was trying to take over and control the Web, and that the iPad sucked.
One point we did agree on was the potential for the iPad and other slates to give publishers a lifeline through connections to new and old readerships. Sean’s been busy writing books, available online only so he has a keen interest in how this market will develop. Whether Jobs wants to and can effectively wall the internet garden is still up for debate but for now, for me, he remains a hero.
This morning I replayed the Stanford University video to remind myself why I respect Steve Jobs so much - if you have time, it just might be the best 14mins 30 secs you’ve spent. This is the way I’d like to live my life, most certainly.
January 29th, 2010
Following ‘iPad‘ week I decided to look at the differing strategies of the world’s two biggest technology competitors to promote their new approaches/products.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are the traditional hero and villain of the computer world, and of course it depends on your point of view on which is which. They have been at it for some time, as the heads of their respective super brands (Microsoft and Apple), but Bill has taken a back seat at Microsoft, although he is still Chairman and of course the world’s richest man.
As you may or may not know, Bill Gates made an interesting move to open up his communications last week, by joining Twitter on January 19th, kicking off with ‘Hello World.’ Hard at work on my foundation letter - publishing on 1/25′, in reference to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest non-profit hard at work giving Bill’s billions away to worthy causes. This has pretty much been over looked thanks to the anticipation and launch of Apple’s new best seller.
Since Bill joined, he’s been collecting followers like the Pied Piper of Twitterland. To be precise, according to figures from 20 decibels recent blog post on Wednesday (nice job guys): ‘Bill Gates has 365,000+ followers (now 376,000 +) and counting and has been added to 13,056 lists (now (13,600+) His following grew rapidly after sending his first tweet. He has a whopping 14,600 followers per tweet sent.’
Here’s Bill’s latest tweet: ‘At Davos G8/G20 panel - Spain Pres. Zapatero says meeting MDGs just as important as global financial reform…‘ (When you have $50 billion in the bank you rub shoulders with some pretty important people).
Here’s some more interesting data from the guys at 20 decibels: ‘Bill’s tweets generate a very high click through rate. He has tweeted 12 links to 6 unique sites with a total of 160,161 clicks.
‘Engagement: In additional to high click through rates, Bill Gates audience engages with his content frequently. For example, his recent Tweet promoting the Gates Foundation annual letter garnered 818 Retweets on top of 13,500+ clicks.’
Pretty impressive, but then you would expect it to be. The question is why has Bill waited so long to join Twitter when his influence and understanding is so high? Could it be just that? In a scale of normal to Bill, the influence of Twitter can only offer so much more in comparison to what he already has? I hope not, as the figures above prove Twitter can be very valuable, and more importantly it has already helped him to engage directly with more people in his first week alone.
Although the iPad wasn’t officially advertised, the buzz and leaks around the story did much of the work for Steve and Apple. Apple doesn’t really need to PR its new launches anymore, well not in the traditional sense. A few strategic mentions, and the odd review leak, and the community will do the job for them. That’s not to say it wasn’t planned though.
So how was the iPad launch received? According to Trendrr there were 177,000 tweets in the first hour after the announcement, and Crimson Hexagon revealed that the content of more than half a million tweets following the iPad announcement sentiment was split down the middle with 48% percent of tweeters reacting positively, while the remaining 52% were less impressed.
(image courtesy of iStockphoto kutaytanir)
Of the 48% positivity, 29% of people wanted to buy an iPad and of the 52% of tweets that were less impressed, the majority (21% of all tweets) had a bad reaction to the name, 19% weren’t impressed and 11% were critical of all the build-up and/or just sick of hearing about it.
But this is just a small proportion of the results Apple generated from a very tightly developed and seemingly secretive launch. You only need to look at the BBC, Guardian or FT yesterday to see Steve holding his iPad, with a nice big smile, to appreciate the scale of the hype surrounding the launch.
But was the hype as positive as he might have hoped? The reaction to the iPad has been 50/50, speaking personally the functionality of the iPad is disappointing and as a product it’s not something I’ll be investing in yet. The idea itself is probably the most revolutionary element, together with the new opportunities it presents for content and publishing. However, the hype may have in fact put the final product in the shade and made it seem a little disappointing in comparison. That said, it will obviously be a success and the next iterations will, as usual, be much more interesting and capable.
So what can we learn from Bill’s low level approach and the higher profile launch from Steve over the last week? Firstly, i’ll hold my hands up and say it’s not really fair to compare the two directly. The obvious issue is that one is a consumer product and the other a campaign of philanthropy. You could also say that both Bill and Steve are super brands in themselves, and nothing helps to build interest like a bit of fame, which is true, but it is an interesting look into the different approaches that two formally old-school technology giants are employing in a world of communications opportunities.
Apple’s old school cloak and dagger approach to product launches, although successful, potentially undermined the final product by not being upfront about its potential uses, elements and focuses. By leaving the community to build the buzz and furore to such an extent they may have in fact ended up being disappointed by the false expectancy. Would a little more engagement and actual product detail have helped to communicate the real benefits of the product and avoided disappointment?
In comparison, Bill has started to take an open approach by communicating with his audience and sharing his day-to-day activity, removing this false picture of the world’s richest man sitting on piles of cash and handing it out to those that he deems fit. This is a very different approach to the path he took at Microsoft and although he has to be more open as he is the brand now, it shows evolution in thinking and perhaps something that Steve could take notice of for his next major launch.
10 professional things you can’t do with an Apple iPad
January 28th, 2010
- Edit film
- Edit images
- Create 3D models
- Create vector illustrations
- Create/edit mocap
- Compose/notate/edit music
- Create animated cartoons
- Design/edit publications
- Create and file corporate accounts
- Create/execute strategic PR plan for new “magical” device.
There’s plenty you can’t do professionally with an iPad – as detractors have been pointing out since its launch. But that’s maybe missing the point of its creation.
Steve Jobs made no apologies for declaring Apple as the company at the “intersection between technology and the liberal arts”. He’s right – no other company has done as much and with the best intentions in the generalised intellectual field.
That’s why the list emphasises “professional”. Of course, Apple does provide elegant solutions for all those expert tasks and it’s exactly why the iPad does not. It is not competing in the professional desktop or laptop markets. It’s competing in a newer space. It did not invent the pad/slate/tablet market. But it sure as hell has taken that market out of Death Niche Valley.
Other companies, like Hewlett Packard, will be launching their versions this year – I’d bet that none will be as desirable as the iPad. Why? Because Apple not only understands the power of good design, it also understands “market” for liberal arts/education better than anyone else.
The debate on whether the launch of the iPad was handled successfully goes on and Clark Turner, editor of UTalkMarketing has been helping to focus that (disclosure – there’s a contribution from me!) What is beyond serious debate is that Steve Jobs and his team have created a product that will sell in multiples of millions into a new group of customers, as well as Apple die-hards and iPhone/iPod converts.
The iPad is about three things: connectivity, distribution, exchange. It wi-fi is lightning fast (3G is a wait-and-see) so users are up, online and networking without so much as a single slow handclap.
This easy connectivity is a boon for publishers of newspapers, magazines, books, film and music. The digital distribution network just got very large indeed.
Online, iPad users can exchange, share and learn. Education, in its generalised, liberal sense, has also expanded its horizons and my colleague Lorraine Warren nails the reasons elegantly on her blog.
The iPad will appeal to a wide demographic - I can’t wait for the ads (toddlers, grannies, teens, mums and dads, mums and mums, dads and dads, singles, in-betweenies, grumpy old men…)
I know it’s an old Apple term but the iPad is “insanely great”, as much for what it does not do, as for what it does.
Stephen Fry becomes 2nd most followed person on Twitter
February 3rd, 2009
It’s official - British comedian/presenter Stephen Fry has become the second most followed person on Twitter. With over 106,000 followers, his only rival is Barack Obama.
In fact as I’m writing this post, Fry is Tweeting live from a talk that he’s giving at the Apple store on London’s Regent Street. He leaked news of the event last week through his Twitter account, and tonight his webmaster Andrew Sampson is Tweeting on his behalf. It’s proving a genius way of sharing soundbites from his talk in a genuinely interesting and engaging way - particularly for people like me who’d prefer to stay in the warm tonight!
I personally love the way in which Fry uses Twitter - he doesn’t spam his followers, but instead offers insightful titbits of information about his travels, filming etc, along with honest reflections on his daily life. From a PR standpoint, his tone is genuine and authentic, and as a result his use of Twitter has done much to enhance his public profile.
If you’re not following Fry already, I’d suggest you do!
Steve Jobs’ fake death hits Wikipedia in seconds
August 29th, 2008
It’s the stuff that editorial nightmares are made of - publishing someone’s obituary before they have snuffed it. Well poor old Steve jobs had his 17-page obituary published by the Bloomberg financial newswire last night, even if it was just for 30 seconds! The mistake was of course retracted, and a full account of events can be read on Gawker.
But even more astonishing is the speed at which Steve Jobs’ name was added to the Wikipedia round-up of premature obituaries. There’s no hanging around in the world of social media! The listing could almost instantly be viewed here, along with the names of other people who were mistakingly written off as dead including Pope John Paul II (who was the subject of three premature obituaries), Alfred Nobel (who later went on to create the Nobel Peace Prize), Fidel Castro (where Ronald Reagan’s had been used as a template) and Humphrey the Downing Street Cat!
The Bloomberg gaff reinforces the universality of newswires. According to sources, the mis-published obituary crossed the newswires and was picked up within the 30 seconds it was live for. Online authority is so important, and once news breaks, it is nigh on impossible to retrace your steps and cover things up. One tiny comment can mushroom into hiroshima within a matter of hours - so be warned!