Yearly Archives: 2013

Apple’s Brush Fire

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I wrote this in August 2012:

I just spent a few days camping in the middle of no where in central Oregon. … The forests in which we stayed are decades if not centuries old and over that time period the trees have grown quite large. We saw some that had to be 200 to 300 feet tall. But those trees form a canopy and that canopy keeps rain and sun from getting to the forest floor, snuffing out new trees in the process. Eventually, though, these trees die and fall over [whether due to age, fire, or some other natural event]. Not only does sun and rain get to the forest floor but these trees are stock-full of nutrients that new sprouts use to grow. These fallen monsters are called nurse logs.

Marco Arment, in one of the best posts he ever wrote, believes iOS 7 is the brush fire we need to revitalize iOS development:

The App Store is crowded: almost every common app type is well-served by at least one or two dominant players. They’ve been able to keep their leads by evolving alongside iOS: when the OS would add a new API or icon size, developers could just add them incrementally and be done with it. Established players only became more established.

iOS 7 is different. It isn’t just a new skin: it introduces entirely new navigational and structural standards far beyond the extent of any previous UI changes. Existing apps can support iOS 7 fairly easily without looking broken, but they’ll look and feel ancient.

I have to admit I was feeling down after last Monday’s keynote. The fundamental shift was apparent to me even at a glance and I knew we were stuck between the old design and interactivity paradigms of iOS 6, paradigms perfectly represented in powerOne, and the new vision for iOS 7.

At the same time powerOne calculator is an aging product that, mostly due to app store dynamics, has not been a cash flow positive endeavor but a product nonetheless that we love and have supported for over a decade. I felt trapped: sticking with the old design and interactivity decisions in the current version of powerOne or investing a lot of time and effort into a product that doesn’t pay for one developer, let alone the small company we are.

Then I read Marco’s post and it reminded me that all things that die sprout new life, that this change isn’t just an opportunity to present powerOne again, but also make some fundamental changes that makes it more valuable to both you and me. Back to Marco:

This big of an opportunity doesn’t come often — we’re lucky to see one every 3–5 years. Anyone can march right into an established category with a huge advantage if they have the audacity to be exclusively modern.

I’ll be invading one as soon as I can. Here’s hoping I’m right.

Disrupt or be disrupted. I hear you, Marco, and I’m following right behind you.

Designed by Apple in California

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This is Apple. This is what attracts me to the products they create. Those products aren’t always what I want and often are missing features I find so desirable, but it is hard not to feel affection for a company and product that thinks of itself so clearly and presents itself so starkly, that just fundamentally expects more from each of us.

if everyone
is busy making everything
how can anyone perfect anything?

we start to confuse convenience
with joy
abundance with choice
designing something requires
focus

the first we ask is
what do we want people to feel?
delight
surprise
love
connection

then we begin to craft around intention
it takes time
there are a thousand no’s
for every yes.

we simplify
we perfect
we start over
until every thing we touch
enhances each life it touches.

This Is Tim Cook’s Apple Now

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Ben Thompson wrote another very astute article, this time on Tim Cook and Apple:

While Jobs’ mission in life was personal computing, and Apple the by-product, Cook’s mission in life is Apple, and iOS 7 was the by-product of his commitment to ensuring that Apple endured.

The job of Apple’s CEO is, first and foremost, to understand what makes Apple, Apple. That is far more important than product sense, or operations excellence, or taste, or a million other attributes thrown around by pundits and analysts. On this criteria, it’s clear that Cook is the right man for the job. I would contend that anyone that says otherwise doesn’t understand revolutions, doesn’t understand culture, and doesn’t understand Apple.

I saw what Ben saw in this video: Tim Cook seemed happier and more lively than I’d ever seen him before. This is the first time I can remember an Apple presentation where I didn’t feel like there was something missing. It’s the first time that Steve Jobs’ ghost wasn’t standing next to Tim Cook passing judgement.

This is Tim Cook’s Apple now. And this is the first time he has let us see it.

The Upgrade Cycle

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One of the things that Apple posted on Monday was that 93% of all iOS customers are now on iOS 6. That is an amazing feat, to get almost all devices to update especially when some of Apple’s devices can’t run iOS 6. As Tim Cook said on stage, this is a huge help to developers. The ability to write for one OS release makes it much easier for us to write and test our apps.

David Smith, an independent iOS and Mac developer based in Herndon, Virginia [1], has consistently posted on his customer data as well. He has noticed that about 50% of customers update their OS version within the first week of it being launched. As he correctly wonders, it will be interesting to see how a major interface overhaul like iOS 7 impacts these numbers. As he said about developers:

Most previous major OS updates contained changes that were largely additive and served to expand what an application could do. However, iOS 7 may change the user experience so dramatically that having the same code work usefully in both contexts could become a daunting challenge.

iOS 7, which David was only speculating about at the time he wrote the article, is indeed a major departure. People in general do not like change and prefer what they have become familiar with. I wonder how many customers, who are familiar and comfortable with iOS 5 and 6, will upgrade to iOS 7? Will they just opt out of upgrading all together? Or will they grumble and upgrade anyway?

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[1] David starts every podcast with this line. It’s like a theme song after listening to him for so long.

The Center Of Apple’s World

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What jumped out at me in yesterday’s keynote was not the new features or the capabilities per say, it was the world in which Apple wants us to live and work. I knew before what I am about to say but I’m not certain I internalized it like I did today.

Apple cares about one thing and one thing only: getting you to buy more Apple products. The best way to do this is to make it brain-dead simple to move data between and use each of their products. The lens that I will see every feature and every request through now is this lens, and I believe that will help me understand the company that much better. Let me outline a few things for you:

  • The same apps run on iPhone and iPad and much of the framework is the same for Mac as well. This ability to have the same apps everywhere is a key component of what makes iOS and OS X so simple for users.
  • These apps can all be connected via the cloud. And now apps can even be created for the cloud that are comparable to their desktop and mobile peers. Apple introduces some of the most complicated mobile apps to re-create — Pages, Numbers and Keynote — all on the web. Anything created on the desktop syncs and can be viewed and edited in the cloud which can be viewed and edited on iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.
  • Gaming data is connected across all of your devices and connecting to other gamers is through the same, simple process.
  • Notifications on one iOS or Mac device, when removed, are also removed on all the other devices.
  • iTunes music can be synced to the cloud, synced to their devices, and now integrated with iTunes Radio, a free web radio service that offers integrated music purchasing.
  • Sharing photos and now video across Apple devices is as simple as adding it to a stream of photos and videos. Anyone can be invited to see that stream and even contribute their own photos to it.
  • Moving photos or other documents from one user to another is as simple as selecting their name in a popup. Apple figures out which Apple devices are near you automatically.
  • Soon music, maps and communications will automatically connect to a special in-dash car system. There will no longer be a need to look down at your device while driving.
  • Apps that used to only be available for iOS, like maps and iBooks, are now on OS X as well.

It is really easy to see what features are logically coming and which aren’t once we see everything through the “buy more devices” lens. Apps for Apple TV? No brainer. It will come eventually as without it Apple can’t move you seamlessly from individual devices to family entertainment. How about app trials? Probably never, as trials don’t help Apple sell more devices.

If you buy into Apple’s approach, if you adopt yourself to work within Apple’s preferred mode of operation, it will get easier and easier to buy the next generation of Apple gear. And that, my friends, is what makes Apple’s bottom line look so darned good.