History revisited Android=MSDOS, iOS=Apple Macintosh

Aug 13 2010 Published by Ben Chong under Business, Marketing, Product

Are we seeing history repeating itself here?

Apple has been very successful with the iPhone, iPad and the newly re-named iOS operating system driving both these devices.

But Google’s Android has come out of nowhere to overtake iOS as the 3rd most popular mobile OS, as this Gartner report claims.

The advantage of Android is that it is open source and generally available to anyone wishing to make a smartphone or tablet device. This is very much like the PC industry, where the appearance of non-IBM BIOS vendors (Phoenix, AMI etc) and Microsoft’s MSDOS pretty much allowed anyone to build personal computers that were somewhat mutually compatible.

In contrast, Apple has always operated in the framework of a closed system. Apart from a brief period in the 1990s, Apple has not and does not license its operating system for use on third-party hardware.

Advantages of a closed system is that Apple has full control over the software and hardware and is therefore able to innovate and deliver an awesome user experience. The regular PC manufacturers who have depended on Microsoft to deliver that experience have been sorely disappointed by Windows 7′s inability to function well as a tablet OS.

The downside is that Apple as a single company, with finite resources, can only deliver a finite number of variants of its products. Variations are limited: amount of memory, WiFi vs 3G/broadband, color scheme etc.

On the other hand, an open system allows more participants. In the Android space, for example, we had Motorola and HTC taking the lead in delivering Android devices, but other players like Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG, Dell, Asus and a whole slew of who’s-who in the PC and mobile device industry are also jumping in.

The sheer number of players in the Android space is allowing for innovation, in both hardware, software and user experience. There is also a better ability to fill the needs for a larger number of market segments. For example, you can get simpler, lower cost devices with smaller screen sizes and resolutions or you can spring for the supersize 4″ displays in the Sprint EVO 4G or Motorola Droid X. You can opt for physical keyboards (Droid, Droid 2, MyTouch Slide) or just use the touch screen keyboard. If you don’t like Motorola’s Motoblur interface, opt for HTC’s Sense UI or Samsung’s Touchwiz.

So in brief, the larger number of Android player results in not only  economies of scale, but also economies of innovation as there are more resources to innovate and deliver on that innovation.

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The Apple Magic

Apr 12 2008 Published by Ben Chong under Business, Marketing, Product

One of my favorite web sites is Low End Mac. Be forewarned that this is truly the Mac fanboy/geek paradise, with articles on what to do with antique Macs, antique Mac of the day, profiles of said antique Macs etc.

The website also has very interesting articles about using the new Macintoshes, stories of folks who have moved from the Windows to the Mac world and various opinion pieces.

Charles Moore runs Low End Mac and he has a recent piece entitled: “That Old Mac Magic Isn’t Gone, but It Is Fading” .

He concludes the article by saying:

The Mac is now close to mainstream, and whatever else it is, the mainstream is not magic.

This is really interesting.

Apple has been using the “Think Different” concept in its advertising for many years. The old “computer for the rest of us” slogan from 1984 was just the beginning of that trend. In a way, it was a David-vs-Goliath, support-the-underdog appeal. It was also an appeal to the rebel in many of us: why be like everyone else when you can be different? Indeed, even the recent PC guy vs Mac guy advertisements imply this: the PC guy is dressed up all conservatively while the Mac guy is casual, hip and progressive (in the non-political sense).

This positioning has been effective. Macintosh sales have been very robust, especially among the don’t-want-to-be-like-my-parents, cool-is-everything college crowd. A recent report(from JPMorgan) went as far as to state that, unlike the other PC manufacturers, Apple sales will not be affected by the currrent period of economic uncertainty.

Unfortunately, the end result is that owning a Mac no longer let you stand out as much as before. Futhermore, with the move to Intel architecture, Macs are now even more like the average Windows PC, with the only difference being that the Macs come with a different operating system.

This reduction in “status” can be seen in resale values. In the past, Macintoshes kept their values very well. Owning a Mac was like owning a Lexus.  I sold my two year-old, second-hand 12″ PowerBook for just $100 less than the price I paid for it. In contrast, my fall 2007 MacBook is probably worth less than $800 (almost half its original value). Why? Because Apple sells a refurbished MacBook with slightly more advanced features for less than $900.

The changing perception of Mac ownership and increased market share means that Apple will have to review some aspects of its positioning soon. It will be hard to show that you are “different” if almost everyone else has the same computer.

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Apple: Surprising the user

Apr 10 2008 Published by Ben Chong under Business, Marketing, Product, The Daily Geek

And I am not referring to that blue screen of surprise that earlier versions of Windows are famous for.

Increasing numbers of people are shopping online. Usually, at the end of the shopping process, after you have entered your credit card information, you get a web page that confirms your purchase and includes any additional information to track or use the purchase e.g. order number, software registration code.

Common sense tells you that you should print out the web page and save it “just in case”.

Trouble is, you either end up with yet-another sheet of paper to misplace or you are at the airport with no access to a printer.

Here’s where Apple continues to pleasantly surprise.

OS X has always had the ability to print to PDF files (unlike Windows). This means that you don’t need to fork out mucho $$$$ for a copy of Adobe Acrobat to generate PDF files.  All you need to do is to print the document and then select the option to route the output to a PDF file.

With Leopard, Apple has gone one step further by automating the creation of the PDF file and where to place it. See the screenshot below.

If you just made an online purchase, all you need to do is to print out that last order confirmation page, click on the PDF button and select the “Print PDF to Web Receipts Folder” option. The confirmation web page is automatically converted to a PDF file, and saved to that folder, which is found in your Documents folder.

The screenshot below is of my online registration for the Santa Cruz Wharf-to-Wharf race. The PDF file is saved as “SignMeUp.com – Payment – Wharf to Wharf Race 2008″. How is that for a totally meaningful file name?

Rather than spending years coming up with a whiz-bang Windows Vista equivalent, Apple concentrated on features that actually makes sense to the average user. That is why as I continue to use my MacBook Pro full-time (work, school etc), I continue to be amazed at all the new stuff that I can do.

When Windows tries to be smart, it feels paternalistic: that it knows better than you and you spend time arguing with it.

OS X, on the other hand, makes you feel smart because you can now do all this new stuff!

Export to PDF

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The MacBook Pro and Leopard after one week

Mar 24 2008 Published by Ben Chong under The Daily Geek

I have been using a 2.4GHz Penryn-based 15″ MacBook Pro for slightly over a week. Previously, my computer was a 2.16GHz MacBook (May 2007 version) with a 13.3″ screen and prior to that, a 12″ last generation PowerBook.

How do I like the MacBook Pro so far?

Positives

The nice:

  • Large screen and resolution. With the 12″ PowerBook, it was hard to see the big picture on anything I was working on. The MacBook as a little better, but I still felt constraint by the vertical resolution. With the 1440×900 resolution of the MacBook Pro, I feel a little more liberated.
  • Disk space. I paid $43 more to get a 250GB hard drive instead of the standard 200GB (on the lowest end model). The MacBook had 160GB, which was also a build-to-order option at the time I bought it. This is probably psychological, but again, I feel more liberated in the sense that I did not have to check free space often. I spent the weekend working with Final Cut Express to process high definition video files and still had 80GB free. I would already have run out of space on the MacBook.

The “better than I thought”:

  • Weight. When you look at the specs, the MacBook Pro is only 0.4 lbs heavier than the MacBook. In practice, I do feel a little more downward tug on my bag, but not a lot more.
  • AC Adaptor size. The first MacBook Pros had a much larger AC adaptor than the MacBooks. The one I got with my MacBook Pro was only slightly larger although it had the same wattage (85W) as the older models.

The best thing about the MacBook Pro, in my opinion, is Leopard.

Okay, you are going to say that I could have bought Leopard for the MacBook and save myself a chunk of change. That’s true, but there’s nothing like having something installed from the factory. The good thing about Macs is that, unlike Windows PCs, you don’t get a lot of factory-installed junk and demo-ware that will actually slow down your brand new machine.

What I like about Leopard is Spaces. This is the old Unix X-Windows workspace concept. Think about Spaces as a multitude of virtual video monitors.

With Leopard, you can have up to 16 Spaces. Usually, that would have been a nightmare to deal with. Would you remember where you application is, after switching from one Space to another?

As usual, Apple has thought of everything. Pressing F8 will give you a birds eye view of all the Spaces and what’s in them.

Better still, you can force applications to open only in pre-defined Spaces.

For example, I have Parallels open only in Space #1. So when I want to access work email or work on Windows-based Microsoft Office applications, I go to Space #1. Space #2 is reserved for personal communications (Mac Mail, Yahoo! Instant Messenger, Skype etc). Space #3 is for Final Cut Express and iDVD for video editing work. Space #4 is for iTunes.

In this way, I am able to arrange my workspace such that there is no clutter or confusion. I can also leave all application windows open and at a glance, see everything I need to work on etc.

Leopard also provides user-configurable shortcuts to quickly switch between Spaces e.g. for times when your boss pops in when you are web surfing…

Spaces is still not quite perfect. Parallels, in particular, does funny things to it, especially when you use Parallels in Coherence mode: you keep getting switched back to the Space in which the Windows application is running. Sometimes OS X system or application dialog boxes get lost in all the Spaces and you have to go through each Space to look for them. This is especially when you are using a trialware software and it pops up a “do you want to register” dialog box when it starts up.

Negatives

What don’t I like about the MacBook Pro?

  • Heat. I have not dared to use the MacBook Pro on my lap yet. The bottom part of the machine does get a little hot. If the hard disk does a lot of churning, the left palm rest will get warm too.
  • The other thing I don’t like is the way to open the lid/LCD. This mechanism dates from the PowerPC days: you press a button to release the lid. Maybe, it’s habit, but I prefer the MacBook mechanism. With the MacBook Pro, I end up using my finger nail to press the button: not as elegant as I would like…
  • The MacBook Pro has a pair of light sensors that detects ambient lighting and dims the LCD/lights up the keyboard if necessary. The sensors are located under the speaker grills. The problem is that my hands tend to cover the speaker grills and so the screen darkens and keyboard backlight comes on at inopportune moments…

That is all the pluses and minuses so far. I think it has been money well spent. Well, at least until the credit card bill arrives…

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