Has Jobs lost his magic?
The Apple CEO and his company are struggling a bit in the increasingly converged world in which partners really matter.
By Maury Wright, Editor in Chief -- EDN, February 1, 2007
Immediate product availability has been the most impressive aspect of Apple's performance in its resurgence this decade. When Steve Jobs demonstrated a product such as the Mac mini at Macworld Expo, eager Apple fans would be able to buy the toy the next day. And generally, Apple has amazingly kept details of upcoming products a secret from the bulk of the industry. But judging by the announcements at this week's Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Jobs and Apple are struggling a bit in the increasingly converged world in which partners really matter.
The long-awaited Apple iPhone finally arrived, but fans will have to wait until summer to buy the iTunes-compatible phones from Cingular. I realize that the delay may have more to do with Cingular than with Apple, but that's the point. In a converged world, Jobs must learn, and perhaps he has, that he can't call all the shots. Unless Apple builds out its own cellular network, the company will be at the mercy of the carriers, who move excruciatingly slowly at qualifying new devices. Rightfully, the carriers are terribly afraid of customer-support issues and product returns.
The iPhone itself looks well-designed from the user-interface perspective. Of course, users of products such as the Treo have been using a touch-sensitive display for some time, and Jobs clearly overhyped the innovations in the user interface. But I expect the iPhone will generally offer among the best user interfaces.
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My questions on the design of the phone start with the features of the baseband and radio. Cingular already offers a number of UMTS-capable phones, including the HTC 8525, which also features a screen to match the iPhone as well as a full keyboard. At launch, the iPhone will support only the slower EDGE (enhanced-data-for-GSM-environment) network. The HTC weighs a couple of ounces more than the iPhone but is more capable and available now. It matches the Wi-Fi offering of the iPhone and really comes up lacking only in iTunes support—and that matters only if you've bought a library of iTunes content.
Who made the decision to launch the iPhone with only EDGE support? Why didn't Apple announce the phone earlier if it was an EDGE device? Does Apple's bluster about voice messages even matter with the relatively slow EDGE network? Without question, the dynamics of working with a partner aren't among Apple's strengths.
Apple performed only slightly better with the Apple TV announcement. Again, eager fans will wait, although perhaps only a month, to buy the product. When Apple hinted at the product last summer, my guess was that the ability to stream video would be the obstacle it faced. But Apple looks ready to launch with support for the legacy 802.11g Wi-Fi network and to offer prestandard 802.11n capabilities.
I'm still not sure whether Wi-Fi is suitable for home-video distribution. I'm researching that topic, yet again, for an update on home-video networks due next month. The Apple TV product does have characteristics that may not stress the video network. The content, presumably coming mostly from iTunes, is relatively low-resolution and, therefore, not bandwidth-intense. Moreover, the Apple TV application can buffer content to accommodate fading in the 802.11 signal.
I'm sure Jobs will boast of being the first to solve the home-video-distribution problem, just as he takes credit for the compressed-digital-music revolution. Again, he will have stretched the truth. Apple TV doesn't approach the level of the problem that carriers face in trying to deliver high-definition-video streams around a home with no buffering or latency.
What I hope I'm seeing with the latest from Macworld Expo is an Apple that will be forced to embrace more open standards. The lessons the company is learning in the handset business will surely hit home. Despite Jobs boasts to the contrary, it looks like iTunes music sales are stalling. The same will happen with video. On the other hand, a more open approach to the Apple codec and digital-rights management might ultimately serve the company much better than the current stance that limits content to Apple hardware.
Contact me at mgwright@edn.com .
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Hi Maury, Couple of points - perhaps the delay has more to do with FCC approval than Cingular - once submitted for FCC, the innards including component selection are available for all to see in high def. Hard to keep the product details a secret then!
Also, 3G anything in the handset currently adds significant power, even without taking into account an application using the additional bandwidth. This is exhibited in all the 3G phones. There is no way that either of these are goofs, they appear to be intelligent decisions and it is hard to think of any risk that could be associated with them, let alone that anything was somehow overlooked in making them.
urlgreytea - 2007-1-2 10:06:00 PST -
Wow, some real chesnuts here Maury - if you're going to be an Apple critic, then at least have the sense to think about it before typing.
First, show me a maker of cell phones *not* beholden to the carriers: Customer churn, not customer support, is more to blame for the weakness in cell phone offerings, including the iPhone. Pandering to the carriers, not the customer, is endemic. Non-upgradable software? Features locked out? There's an entire issue just on this problem alone.
You say Treo, I say Newton (and as Bruce Tognazzini reports, touch screens are a UI technology that has been waiting some time for a home). Apple has always been a company that could take an idea and make it work as well as make it look good, the epitome of a consumer product company;
You say Apple should embrace "more open standards"... Wow. The first personal computer I ever saw with built in ethernet was a Mac. USB? an iMac. 802.11? An OS that shipped with a TCP/IP stack?
I am by no means a one-eyed Apple diehard; but at least I am cognizant of the actual facts - feel free to criticize Apple (I myself do so often) but at least make it constructive.
Dean Perry - 2007-24-1 04:18:00 PST -
I think baby steps (only one carrier, which is the largest, Cingular, not multiple) is appropiate. Although 10-13 million iPhones per year is no baby step. What I saw of the iPhone makes my Treo seem so old fashion. We all know what the killer app is for PDAs, and thats making phone calls. Is Steve Jobs losing his magic? Absolutely not. I sat thru the 2 hour podcast of keynote address, and the presentation, the concepts, and the new directions for Apple Inc. It was perfect. Thats why Apple's stock soared. Now think - Blu-Ray drives and Apple. My guess we will see several Apple products with Blu-Ray drives. We will see high-end AV products from Apple soon. (Apple TV can only show 640x480 movies from iTunes. To me, the Apple TV does not do enough)
Jeff Pynnonen - 2007-11-1 17:00:00 PST -
Let's be very clear - besides Apple, there is no other company out there in tech land today that clearly understands the needs of digital consumers. The current mish-mash of products and technology from various ''partnerships'' is the key reason digital devices have not proliferated at a much faster pace. Seems like the author has failed to understand the basics of the consumer market.
Steve Gates - 2007-11-1 11:56:00 PST
