Infographic Of The Day: The Rebirth Of Apple’s Product Strategy
Why Google Music Targets Social And The Cloud
Google launched its long-overdue music store today, roughly eight years into the reign of Apple’s iTunes Store, which just sold its 16 billionth song. Clearly Google has a lot of catching up to do—and that’s just with Apple. Amazon has had a digital music store since 2007 that’s known for its aggressive pricing, while Facebook recently integrated third-party streaming services such as Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio, and MOG.
Mark Zuckerberg And Sheryl Sandberg Respond To The Great Tech War Of 2012
Check out interview highlights with Farhad Manjoo on toady’s NPR Fresh Air where they talk about the great tech war or 2012.
In the old days, Amazon sold books, Google was a search engine, Facebook was a social network and Apple sold computers.
But that’s not the case anymore.
Google and Apple now sell phones. Amazon has gotten into the server business. Apple sells music. Facebook and Amazon provide online payment services. And that’s just the beginning.
“There’s 50 things loaded up on my phone at any given time, and 40 of them I never use,” says Tony Conrad, Partner, True Ventures.
It seems like a waste of such beautiful hardware not to use more apps. App Mania persists much to the benefit of Google and Apple, suddenly the gatekeepers of everything you seek on your phone.
Are apps indeed the future? Will mobile browsing crawl out of infancy and be able to power experiences on a similar scale as applications you’ve downloaded? This video explores what the future of mobile browsing might look like.
See more from our Co.Location series.
Yes it’s true. The iPod was truly a game changer for Apple and the world, but Is it Time For Apple To Kill The iPod?
Even as sales continue to slip now (though market share remains around 70%), it has had one hell of a run. Macworld has the story of its birth on October 23, 2001.
Benj Edwards:
Apple chose to unveil its portable digital music player in a low-key special event held on Apple’s campus in Cupertino. The press and Apple fans alike met the iPod with severe skepticism. Pundits openly wondered what business Apple had selling consumer music gadgets. Many proclaimed doom.
Skepticism. Contempt. Doom. Sounds familiar. Sounds like the same reaction that just about every game-changing product initially receives.
The iPod was going to be a huge failure. Except that it was the opposite. It was actually the catalyst that kick-started Apple’s run towards becoming the most important tech company in the world. An MP3 player no bigger than a deck of cards.
The Great Tech War Of 2012
Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon battle for the future of the innovation economy.
Everyone’s talking about the new iPhone 4S, which is officially due to arrive in consumers’ hands on Friday. But what are people really saying? Let’s take a look at what words truly dominate all of the major reviews so far.
Steve Jobs: A Mega, Meta Mashup in Tweets
Steve Jobs, February 24, 1955-October 5, 2011
Apple has confirmed that Steve Jobs died today. His death came exactly six weeks after he resigned as CEO of Apple. Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004. He took a medical leave beginning in 2007. In August, he announced he was stepping down altogether. Jobs was 56.
The iPhone’s Face Recognition Will Change Social Media, Gaming, Online Privacy, Your Life
Back in February 2010, Fast Company was wowed by a neat little iPhone app called Siri. “As you can see, using Siri is a lot like talking to a really, really well-informed friend,” Dan Macsai wrote in a post, which we’ve dug up here. In April 2010, Apple bought Siri. Today, Tim Cook reintroduced Siri as a primary addition to iOS 5. Turns out what wowed us then is what wowed Apple watchers today, too.
Everything will change… again.
The introduction of Apple’s iCloud will create a tipping point that will have a profound impact on consumer software and services.
Like it or not, where Apple goes, everyone else eventually follows. It happened back in the 1980s when Apple introduced the first home computer with a graphical user interface (GUI). Before that, consumers had to use command lines to interact with their computers. But once Apple introduced the GUI, other computer makers soon followed suit.
It also happened with digital music. Sure, MP3s existed before iTunes. But the end-to-end system soon created a tipping point. And it happened with tablets. The hardware industry had been toying with tablets for over a decade before the iPad. But look at the avalanche of tablets that has since ensued.
Tuesday, Google Launched Music Beta, a cloud-based music service that lets you stream all your songs from any device. Well, any Android-based device, at least according to Google. But as we learned after a day of playing, Music Beta can work just as well without Android—and that may just be where Google has a leg up against Apple and iTunes.
