Apple, you need to hire an in-house crank
Posted on 10. Aug, 2009 by zevmo in Apple, iPhone, Technology
I am an Apple fanboy. I admit it.
However, it doesn’t change my abilty to desire more from the company that I love. As we in the tech community all know, Apple tends to go it’s own path, shall we say, when it comes to products.
For instance, the company makes it’s own hardware and software. This desktop/laptop HW control point of view has served them well in recent years. Market share is up, and the products are solid, and we pay a price for it, regardless of form and function. But Apple has gone into the cell phone market, and this is a whole different animal of contracts and reliability of the cell provider. And now these devices, like the iPod line altogether, are trying to survive by Apple’s culture of desktops. Meaning, you release a product every year, or so, and expect a strong segment of your loyalists to naturally upgrade.
The problem is, Apple tends to give people what it thinks they want, but comes up just short of delivering all the things people really want. The biggest example was copy-and-paste in the iPhone. Hell, I had copy-and-paste on my Newton! And they were saying, ‘people don’t want that’… wrong. It is almost as if Apple says, OK, we want this product to live a 3-5 year lifespan, so we could make a device that has these 3 features now, or we could just release each as a HW/SW update over each of the next 3 years. That way, we will always seem to be constantly innovating and addressing what the customers really want!
Another example, AppleTV. It is a great product, I use it almost every day. Most notably, it needed a cablecard to make it exactly the right product for the Media Player market. And the processor isn’t exactly speedy, as any Boxee user will tell you. Perhaps the Mac Mini should be merged with this product line, as it should have in the beginning.
iTunes and iPhoto libraries are not only big, but they are often shared by several members in the same family. This would seem to be a perfect opportunity to release a shared iLife server platform (call it iHome, or whatever) and it would seem to be a perfect mesh with the Time Capsule platform. So, nu, where is this product?
The iPhone 3GS was another example of a missed opportunity. In many ways, this was a really ridiculous product decision that ended up being more about the release date for the OS than about the iPhone HW itself. Apple needed to release the 3.0 software with a new HW platform, regardless of the customer complaints regarding the original 2 HW releases thus far. So, as usual, they didn’t listen to the loyalists in the community and went the way of over-selling an expensive HW upgrade, essentially for a software release.
So, what did Apple give us loyalists with the 3GS? Certainly they did give some things that are quite impressive. They gave us a faster processor, a digital compass, video, auto focus camera (kind of), Voice control (software- should be in 3G too), better screen (slightly), and faster network access (from the stinky-poo, AT&T- but that is another issue).
The 3GS does video really well. I agree. It is a great feature. Best thing about the upgrade. However, where is my forward facing camera? Why can’t Apple be the ichat over wifi mobile device?
OK, the 3GS has a compass. I am sure this will be of huge benefit for the upcoming, overpriced GPS Apps coming out. I am no hater of this feature, but it is not a show-stopper.
But, most importantly, what did the community want? Biggest request, a removable battery. How can you try and compete in the blackberry and palm market segments and have to be tethered to a cord or a power sleeve? I am all for form and function. The beauty of design is a wonderful to showcase. But almost no one that I know carries their $300-500 iPhone without some form of cover/case/protective wrap. There are a few here or there, until their first drop, and then they are off to the Apple store to get a case. So, other than on the first day they took it out of their box, it is meaningless to the vast majority of consumers if the back of the device has a removable battery. For corporate customers, or the Realtor who lives on the phone by way of bluetooth, the phone just doesn’t have the juice for a full day of work… and it should!
How about running multiple apps? I guess if you had that extra battery, it would help!
A fresher, more desktop-like interface? Inquiring minds want to know! Simple is good, but there is a difference between simple and outdated by design.
So what is the lesson learned here? Apple needs a person/group, in-house, to be the vocal advocate for the fanboy and the trends that require, neigh demand, these progressive changes to occur. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, are the reason why Apple still exists. We actively recruit people to the cult of Mac. We buy the products regardless of the shortcomings in our sometimes overeager expectations. We defend our territory and we deserve a voice. The group needs to actively be on Twitter, in the chat groups, on the blogs, reporting back to the mother ship on the expectations of the community and offer a QUICK resolution of the problems or desires of the on-the-ground users.
Palm, for one, is desperate. But because of this, they are doing what Apple takes forever to do, make frequent, radical changes based on the daily feedback of it’s users. Apple has to get a little of this sense of urgency. Otherwise, they are going to relegate their mobile market share to the annuls of the past. Android is marching closer and closer.
Please, Apple, form a group as part of the development and engineering teams, to directly challenge future enhancements to ensure market desires and real-world needs. This goes against the, top-down structure of your historic product planning, but it is the only way to provide the very best platform for your users with features they desire. The marketplace is becoming more proactive, as companies are floundering for survival. The problem being the immovable slumbering giant, is that these smaller, more aggressively flexible companies/products may end up passing you by.
As a shareholder, as a Mac Evangelist, and as a Techoholic, please consider this idea… need a hug?
