Apple’s next debute of it’s latest development is just around the corner. It has been a great run for them since the release of the iPhone and disrupting the mobile space, now with the latest iPad. Apple’s brand is growing strong and large and it seems they will need to come up with something new to push the boundaries. where else can they innovate? i mean, the music world was shuffled with the iPad and the iTune store (Apple is selling over 1M songs / day), i mentioned the mobile space and the iPad… what’s next?
in my humble opinion, and where i would like to see Apple moving next is two-fold.
(1) the ipad story
the ipod really rocked the world. your music, videos and photos with you whenever you go with a slim and slick device is just what we wanted. with the move into mobile and the iphone we got our cell phone to integrate with it all, a GPS and compass, video camera and accelerometers… heck, the iPhone 4 has a gyroscope which is completely untapped and will be used in various applications, from gaming to image stabilizers for the camera to new musical instruments and much more.
what i would like to see for the next ipod is a hybrid between the iphone4′s hardware and features (excluding the phone) combined with the micro sim of the ipad 3G. think about it for a moment… with all the innovation in the mobile space, the carriers still got us by the balls. ATT, when moving from the edge network on the 2g iphone to the 3g, doubled the price for the same offering. our bill is separated between data and minutes. why? the main reason is because they can. they old on to their income as much as they can, while they can (and they have been doing so for decades)… exactly like the cable companies and cable TV (which is the 2nd wish i have for Apple’s announcement, and a major vertical doomed to be disrupted very very soon… more on that soon).
what will save the day? an iPod touch with a great camera, A4 chip, GPS/compass/gyroscope and a data plan. that’s right. a data plan. no thank you for minutes, family plans or text. they are all a thing of the past. consider this: in the near future we will be paying a small chunk of money to carriers for one single thing: get us connected. calls will be done over IP (skype/google talk/fringe etc). text is FREE (examples numerous, i personally use google voice). all we need is a good connection wherever we are and life is good. it has been 7 years since i moved to the US, and until the iPhone i used the same old plastic nokia i got from t-mobile since i joined their service. the iPhone was the first phone to make sense to me to switch. an ipod touch with a data plan makes perfect sense to me. in this day and age where everyone is trying to save a buck – that device will do just that.
give us more control and stop over charging us. we want a data plan.
there is a good chance we will see this happening from one of the Google friendly networks (verizon) before ATT jumps on board. they should. an android based device with an exclusive data plan is what this market needs in order to disrupt it yet again, with the same magnitude that the iPhone had – BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE. financially more than any other reason. why not get a slick new android based phone (knowing the UX is not as fancy as the iPhone and the appStore is lacking), where i can lower my bill from $100 to $30? annually it’s $1K a year, which is a flight to Israel to visit my family.
(2) TV land
i’ve blogged about this vertical before and I cannot stress how important it is and how HUGE and important it is for every single player in the market. everyone… and i mean EVERYONE wants to get into our living room and make us forget the cable companies, who just like the carriers, over charge and really under deliver. in 2010 we really want control and we do not want to pay much for it. me personally, i do not pay for cable for over 5 years (except for the olympics and the world cup, but that will be well handeld over IP within the next years). why am i not paying for cable? because most of what i want is on the net already. consider hulu.com and veetle.com, the later is a major disrupt force to reckon with that is just getting fantastic traction worldwide. if you don’t know them – be sure to give them a whirl.
what do i want for my TV? i want iOS available for either the apple TV or any mac based computer that is hooked up to the TV. please apple, don’t make me buy yet another device in order to get the appStore on my TV. i use a mac mini that is hooked up to a 50″ plasma and i am as happy as it gets. now i want to be able to stream content, buy premium videos and download applications that are designed for the living room (did i plug in Lucid’s Koi yet?
innovation is what drives economies. the big bad massive companies are those who are trying to block it. just like ATT is not allowing us to make skype calls over the data plan (which should be considered illegal in my eyes, just like cable companies cannot throttle the internet connection of those who decide to use torrent technologies). ATT will say they cannot handle the capacity. okay then, this is high time for a major player to pick up the glove and give us what we need – an internet connection in spades (who said google white space spectrum?)
so there you have it. if you are still with me, let’s hope for some good news from Apple soon, and if not, worry you not – we will get them from the competition very very soon.
no doubt apple revolutionized the smart phones industry. apple gave the market a real shuffle when it introduced it 3 years ago. it was the user experience that made the difference – just like any apple product – from their software to their stores: it’s all about the user experience.
the world of design and user experience (UX) is shifting along with the world of mobile applications and TV.
yes, one of those old funky and full of holes punch card. that was the way information was conveyed to the computer. the design drastically evolved to the terminal and what a revolution that was. finally was can SEE what the computer can and we can layer it up with tools. like the command line. quickly the operating system that quickly evolved allowed applications like the terminal to browse files (ls -l anyone?) and much more.
AmpliTube iRig is just one of those ideas that can make people buy an iPhone. not often do i get to see apps for mobile that can serve as game changers and this is – in my humble opinion – is. as a life long big fan of music, i both play and compose music, and let me tell you: owning equipment is not something i enjoy. in fact, i do not have an amp for my guitar because i can’t be bothered to carry it around… let alone have multiple effects, pedals and what have you.