Wed 7 Jun 2006
A new survey conducted by Nokia concludes among other things that two thirds of people asked globally would replace their MP3 player with an appropriately enabled mobile phone. Well I already did that. Last month, when I realized that the Nokia 6280 allows for up to 2 GB of MiniSD storage I simply put my secondary (yes the iPod is slowly degrading) device to rest permanently with my kitchen sound outfit. I love my new converged mobile gear = my phone. The interface is of course not that perfect, but the sound is even better with the standard headphones than on my 2G iPod with some pretty worn out Etymotic ER6 HighEnd in-ear phones. And when I’m on the move the whole music-to-answering-calls-and-back cycle is just perfect. So in conclusion, I believe that Nokia’s survey is onto something true about the very near deflation of the iPod hype (even if it’s a quite convenient conclusion for Nokia), as I’m normally quite mainstream in such matters (…early adopter… moi 
). Just another reason for Apple to INTRODUCE THAT FRIGGING PHONE!
Via PSFK
June 7th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
This is typical. Just when I brought myself to buy one, the iPod is on it’s way out.. *sigh* However, I like the nano for exercising (and I guess I don’t take calls while running anyway), so I’m not ready for Nokia
June 7th, 2006 at 8:11 pm
Oh yes Anders, you’re right. I forgot the running situation. That obviously still leaves room for nice little (flash ram based) devices. And the iPod Nano is just beautiful (which is a state seemingly never reached by mobile phones. Why has that become a law of nature?)
June 13th, 2006 at 10:52 am
www.iphone.org - tres tres interesting, n’est-ce pas?
June 13th, 2006 at 10:59 am
People are getting real desperate. This is just a mirror of Apple.com isn’t it? Perhaps this massivee expectation will only postpone the launch of a phone. Certain analysts has claimed that Apple simply cannot meet their own criterias for ‘innovation’ with current hardware, and that’s what’s holding back the launch. Then again, here we go again nurturing the extreme hype that Mac is so brilliant in orchestrating.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
It used to be “doing an Apple vs. doing a Microsoft” i.e. Doing an Apple: Excelling at technology vs. Microsoft: Excelling at marketing. Things have changed, though I do suspect that Apple really excell at both disciplines these days. Then again, some of us “old” Apple users (since early spring 1995) really miss the time when we were in opposition, when we were the “weird”, peace-loving (you would’t want to control cruise missiles or run the tactical internet in combat situations on a Mac, wuld you?) and creative bunch, while the others were the pie-charters and spreadsheeters etc. Apple is certainly great, but, like google, they are not necessarily the good-small company doing great stuff anymore. Switching to Linux or another OSS OS could be the oppositional way of being really hip-geek again, but then again, OSS and freeware is rapidly being appropriated aswell…and of course I couldn’t run all the lush iLife stuff or Logic 7.2 that I couldn’t do without. Me suck!
June 16th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Oh, and another reason to potentially loathe the big apple:
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71138-0.html
- this one’s ugly!
June 16th, 2006 at 11:25 am
Oh yes Mads. Apple is bound to get flamed by the ‘creative class’ sometimes soon. The same segment that’s more or less stuck on Apple’s products (due to various aesthetic and functional acceptable reasons) are also the one driving the ‘ethical economy’ (http://blog.actics.com/?cat=6). Very soon these well informed creatives (lefties) will inform Apple that we’re beyond the era where good design was ‘ideologically progressive’ enough for a brand trying to stand out. Enter values and ethics. Apple has been coping so far due to ridiculous little competition on the IT market occupied by producers that still think the buyers are mainly pimpled teenage boys interested in ‘horsepowers’ and ‘large memory'’. But more and more parameters decide the choices of consumers and at some point (soon) they will demand BOTH design AND social responsibility as entry point qualities of major brands. Apple simply cannot stay one of the worst performers in recycling in the computer industry or Jobs being the social anti-dote of Gates’ active social commitment for long without consequences.
To relate quite concretely to what my mind’s is filled with professionally, the development of Actics’ ethical management tools, the case of Apples self-absorbed conduct is very illustrative of what we believe is the present market transition. From ‘design’ and ‘innovation’ being the differentiators to being default and rather the interweaving of your business with valuable social and cultural processes that define success. The whole point of Actics is to help people and companies through this transition toward more socially comprehensive business models. For you to actively take part in this inevitable shift you can start by nominating Apple at Actics’ new service to test the mass of concerned Apple users. When we go public with a service that essentially allow for multivocal coaching on ethical conduct, brands with a lot of active web users like Apple but old fashioned management values could get into troubles. We’ll see.
June 16th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
Well, Apple is reacting in the usual defensive way: “We are obeying all laws and sticking to the industry code of conduct.” http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8I937780.htm?sub=apn_news_down&chan=db Yes, but you see, you’ve trained us to expect excellence so we expect you to push the envelope on social matters as you’ve done with design.
June 18th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Yeah, and now even the former good guys (i.e google gone china, deli.icio.us and flickr gone Yahoo and now even wikipedia gone…well, sour: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/technology/17wiki.html?th&emc=th (I’m guessing you’re registered with NY Times…if not, it’s free (actually as in Free Beer…). Anyway, what are we to make of all this? http://www.itu.dk/research/inc/?p=69