Apple’s Next Product: iTv?
July 13, 2007
No, I am not refering to Apple TV. I am speculating about a possible upcoming product. Looking at the trends, I cant help but speculate on this. You’ll find details on why I think it makes sence for Apple to do a TV.
In a recent (I actually wrote this prior to iPhone release) Q&A Session, Steve Jobs said the following.
Q: So many analysts have suggested that with the expected success of the iPhone, Apple is about to be transformed into a different kind of company. What’s your take?
Jobs: I hope it doesn’t change Apple too much, we like it the way it is. We’ve got two strong legs on our chair today — we have the Mac business, which is a $10 billion business, and music, our iPod and iTunes business, which is $10 billion. We hope the iPhone is the third leg on our chair, and maybe one day Apple TV will be the fourth leg.
We know that iPhone (and its successors) have the potential of being a third leg to apple adding another $10Billion.
On the other hand, anyone who have used Apple TV can easily say that it doesnt have the capability to be another leg (I mean another $10Billion business). I see Apple TV as an experiment to test the waters for a possible TV product from Apple. Having released excellent 30” displays and products like Apple TV, I dont see Apple far from doing an iTV.
…and BTW, if you remember, Apple initially named its current Apple TV as iTV initially. If iTV is supposed to be the third leg, it suites its current naming convention. But why did it change the name, well, I can guess there is another product named ‘iTV’ that is on the way. Apple is just testing the waters with its AppleTV.
When this happens, assume that iTunes playing a more central role. It is the only application that’ll connect the four legs of Apple – The Macs, iPods, iPhone and ofcourse iTV. Now with a Computer, Phone, Music, Movies and a TV, Apple will completely control your living room. I am not going to say no as I love their products.
The next questions is, how can iTV be better than current TVs? Well, there are lots of things you can expect. Here are a few quick ones.
- Current Apple TV will be part of iTV (streaming photos, movies, audios, movie trailers, YouTube etc)
- TV will have a web cam embedded for virtual family gatherings
- Wont you love it if your TV has WiFi (to Sync photos, music, movies from iTunes)
- Tivo like functionality to record your TV
- Your iPhone or your Touch Screen iPod becomes the remote for your TV (or even the keyboard for your TV)
- If you get a call on your iPhone while watching TV, it’ll show up right on your TV
- With Steve Jobs on Disney’s board and with iTunes succesful, it sure can get all the content
Anyway, this is all speculation. But if I were to bet on Apple’s next category, it would be this one.
No wonder Apple dropped ‘Computers’ from its name.
Facebook + Spock can be a KILLER Integration
July 12, 2007
Robert Scoble responds with a great post to some of the discussions going on regarding Facebook. Reading through his post, one part caught my eye. Facebook is not good at, as Scoble explains, is capturing the information regarding a person and a relation. To quote him…
Second, how could the friends definitions and ties be improved? 1000 ways. I’ll be honest, I don’t use the at all. I just add you as a friend and don’t put any details in there about how I know you. For one, adding that kind of detail is a competitive advantage for me and for PodTech.
For instance, my first result is for Danny Krimgold. I’ve never written about Danny. You don’t know who he is. But he was one of the first people I talked with on Netmeeting back in 1996. He was in high school then and I could tell he was damn smart. I kept in touch with him as he went to Cornell, got a masters in computer science, and now is working at McCann Erickson as a project manager. There isn’t a good way to tell Facebook how I know Danny. In fact, I found that there isn’t a good way to tell Facebook how I know people for about 70% of the people I know through the Internet. So, I just leave them all blank. I guess the best choice in NetMeeting is the “met randomly” choice, but that sounds so stupid. So, I leave it blank.
In my view, there are two areas where Facebook can be further improved.
- Easy way to find the right people
- Good way to capture relations
This is exactly where Spock shines. Spock finds people and it does it well and keeps on improving as more people are on it. Earlier I was searching for ‘Matt Marshall’ on Facebook and I find 200+ people in Facebook. If I do the same search in Spock, I get more than 500 results. But if I search for ‘Matt Marshall VentureBeat’ in Facebook, I get no results (I know he is on there) while Spock is spot on with the correct result.
As Scoble says, the relation ships are not captured well in Facebook and I completely agree with him. Again, this is where Spock shines. The ‘Related People’ section in Spock is very flexible and can greatly help Facebook.
I can go on with different scenarios. I think Facebook and Spock can be a great couple. Will it happen? Lets wait and see.
Scoble’s Spock video is here.
iPhone Experience: 5 Days Later
July 4, 2007
I want to jot down some of my experiences with iPhone in the last 5 days. First of all, I should say, I LOVE it. I cant imagine myself switching to any other phone now. If you are a gadget freak like me, I recommend getting it. But if you are not, I’d say WAIT. It is soooo 1.0 product.
Why do I say it is 1.0 product? Well, it crashes. It crashes so often, it gets frustrating at times. In the last 5 days, I have seen applications crash tens of times. Just today I was using Safari and it crashed….it crashed 8 times in an hour. I see this as the biggest issue. I really hope Apple will fix this issue soon.
I really like the way music fades out when a call comes in and when the call is done, it simple fades back in. This is awesome. But I really wish they use this concept for others too – Like Music-Safari especially if both these apps cannot work together. If I play Music and then open Safari, guess what happens – CRASH – both safari and iPod. I have seen many other scenarios like this which will crash different iPhone apps. I have also seen YouTube and Mail apps crash several times.
Another key issue with the iPhone is, it is VERY hard to operate it with a single hand. You’ll need both the hands to make any decent entries/changes. The interface is designed for two hands. You sure can operate it with one hand, but you’ll drop it one day. Ofcourse, the iPhone can withstand a drop, but not a flat-drop if you are unlucky.
Many people say they use their mobile for their email. My question is, how is it possible especially when these email apps have no filters. Am I missing something here? Currently, I get about 250-300 emails a day. Not all are addressed to me. There is no way to filter and fetch emails addressed directly to me. I hoped that the email in iPhone will have filters. But it doesn’t. So I cant iPhone for my work email. This is sad. But I love the email app, it does work well for my personal email.
Overall, I love my iPhone, but I do hope that the issues will be sorted out soon. The good news is, everything is software in iPhone. A simple update one day could fix most of the issues. Its like SaaS in that sense.
