Google comes to the video chat party…..forgets to bring nibbles

That’s right, Gmail (which I think is still in beta) has a brand new party outfit – video chat. I remember signing up for Gmail about five years ago mainly because of the huge amount of storage space it offered at the time. For a while, it was my preferred email host until I discovered the wonders of a combined .Mac email, iChat and .Mac page (now MobileMe) and I’ve hardly used. But, will this make me take a second look?

The one big thing that the Gmail version has over its competitors is that it doesn’t require any additional software, running alongside the Gmail web app. Another big plus, it works on both PC and Mac. As with iChat and Skype, users can chat via video and instant message each other at the same time….not sure why you’d do that, but hey.

MyTake – I’ve used the MSN version, Skype and iChat and I have to say, iChat wins hands-down. I haven’t seen this of course, but it’s going to have to do a lot of hard work to beat the boys from Apple. Being late to the party is not good for Team Google, especially as the verb has been taken – “shall we Skype?” Also, not everything has to be a web app – a little bit of software is good. Having said all this, how many things has Google got wrong? Check it out, I’m going to.

Ad wars - Mac Vs PC continues

These are the times when it's great to sit back and be a consumer. I posted a while ago on the new Microsoft PC adverts, which I think are really cool, and also on the South Park take-offs, which are cool in their own unique way. Now, here's the latest from from Mac camp.

Interesting that this is all happening around the PDC and Microsoft showing off Windows 7 and Azure. As Microsoft prepare to take on Google with cloud computing, Apple is busy highlighting the perceived shortcomings of Vista. Is this a war of two fronts that Microsoft might end up losing? Nope, but it's entertaining.

MyTake - The current economic climate is going to force a much harder game from marketeers where the focus is going to be on product, product and product. More specifically, why your product is better than your competitors and what their product is doing wrong. In the end, the consumer will be in quite a good spot, but then again, so will companies that have strong products.

I'm a PC....and me...and me....and me

My Apple obsessed brother will probably kill me for putting this on my blog, but I actually think it’s a really great advert. I have to admit, I actually liked the Jerry Seinfeld adverts as well, though I appear to be the only one that does. 

 

I think Microsoft has done the right thing by focusing on the diversity of their audience. For all the criticism we throw at them, they have revolutionised they way we work, live and play and I think that this advert demonstrates that in more ways than one. 

MyTake – I think the Apple boys are probably sitting there thinking “bring it on”, because this is what they (Apple) do best. In all honesty, I don’t think that Apple will get drawn in to a war of adverts, I think they’ll probably change their creative, but also lift the bar at the same time. Microsoft have struggled when it comes to marketing, especially on the advertising side, which is interesting considering the PR side of Microsoft is very well run compared to that of Apple. But - Microsoft, pat on the back, it’s a good advert.

Let the Android party begin

If you’d have asked me my opinion about the mobile phone industry pre the iPhone, I’d have told you that it needs a good kick up the ass because we’re all sick of hearing about wap and video calling. Then the iPhone came along and set the bar (a far bit) higher and challenged the rest of the market to follow. And followed they have, every other manufacture has produced a so called “iPhone killer” to take on the boys at Apple. The problem is though, it’s not just about the hardware, is it?

Enter Google and their Android. The guys at Google know a killer app when they see one, so you’d probably be fairly safe in saying that Android is going to be the next installment in an already glittering portfolio. The news today is that T-Mobile in the US is going to be the first to show off a handset (HTC) featuring the software at a conference in New York on 23 September.  It’s going to be interesting to see how the media and analysts react to it as this is Google’s play to widen their advertising model.   

MyTake – This is really the best front to attack Apple on. It really doesn’t matter how cool that handset is, if the user-experience is poor, then so is the handset. Google have gone down the same road as Apple by opening up the software to third party developers, which in my opinion was Apple's master stroke. I predict a real clash of the titans type battle between these boys. 

LinkedIn(side information)

I’m all for being upfront, transparent and open when it comes to social networking, even when it comes to LinkedIn. If you start lying on your profile, someone will eventually point it out. But, having said that, there’s probably a point at which you need to pull-back on the openness front, as a very unlucky Apple employee recently found out. In short, an Apple employee by the name of Wei-han Lien listed his responsibilities on his profile, including the fact that he was managing the “ARM CPU architecture”. What’s so bad about that then? 

Well, not so long ago Apple acquired a company called PA Semiconductor to work on new processors for the next generation of iPhone. The big question was of course which type of processor and I guess we all know the answer to that now. 

MyTake – It’s a fumble as opposed to a dropped ball. The market could see the direction this was going, but I guess the company and investors still had some wiggle room that has now probably disappeared. My message to Wei-han Lien – go make a kick ass processor my man, all will be forgotten when they ship a million plus next gen iPhone’s with your processor inside! 

EA plays with iPhone

As if you needed another reason to buy an iPhone, here’s another one (or three) - you can now get SimCity and Sim3 on you iPhone and Spore will be available on September 7. On top on this, a recent EA press release also reveals that Monopoly, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Need for Speed Undercover are currently in development.

After giving the mobile phone industry a huge kick up the behind, it looks like the iPhone is finally about to take a take a bite out of the mobile games industry. In my books, that puts everyone on notice. Still though, the annoying thing is the data charges here in Australia – how is this going to make online-gaming appealing? With EA putting a lot of money into developing for the iPhone, who’ll follow next and what titles? A word to EA – please think of a way to bring FIFA to the iPhone.   

MyTake – Gaming is surely the next big target area for the boys at Apple and the iPhone is the product to do it on. I remember when the original iPhone first came out and a friend of mine from Gamespot.com.au showed me a very basic racing game – I was totally blown away. A few killer titles, some decent online gaming and we’ll see another market flavoured Apple.  

MySpace pokes Apple in the iTunes

So, MySpace comes out and tells the world that it’s set to take on iTunes and Apple does the cultural equivalent of bending down and patting it on the head. The men in white wasted no time in telling the world that Apple iTunes sales have now exceeded that of Wal-Mart stores, putting them in the number one spot in the US – some of you may have read my last post on the Apple Vs Wal-Mart battle where Apple came off in second spot.

Back to the MySpace offering - MySpace Music is a partnership with Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music and although they aren’t talking money, they did say that it would be ad-supported to some extent. In terms of making money, they were quite forthcoming with that detail, stating that they would be selling digital music downloads, ring tones, concert tickets and t-shirts.

MyTake – MySpace is a massive network and the different content flying around is amazing and obviously very appealing to its audience. As for taking on iTunes, I reckon that’s a bit of a stretch. iTunes can be anything to anyone and the important thing is that it acts as your library and your music store. If you think about the demographic for MySpace and then the penetration of iTunes, I think you’ll agree, it’s a bit of a redundant debate. Don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome that MySpace is doing this, the more interesting and appealing content the better. As time goes on, I think we’ll see more and more individual ways of searching, finding and consuming content.

N-Gaging times ahead

First-up, I wasn’t that big of a fan of the Nokia N-Gage device(s), but I am a massive fan of mobile gaming – whatever form it takes. The guys over at Nokia have stuck with the market for quite a while now and I think they’ve come good with the N-Gage service. If you remember the original device and have a few dubious memories, think again, the device is no more but the games remain as a service.

Gamers can log on to the N-Gage site and download a software link that connects them to Nokia’s library of games, which they reckon will be around 30 by the middle of 2008. They already have the likes of EA, Gameloft and Glu Mobile making titles for the service, and who knows, they could get a few killer franchises on board – Spore maybe?

MyTake – Nobody really “owns” mobile gaming, it’s an open field for any brand to go in and do something great. Sure, we have handhelds from Nintendo and Sony, but a solid content-based system with some appealing titles? Not yet. With Apple getting further and further in to the mobile space, I think a true games service isn’t far off for them either. Nokia beat them to the punch on this one – can they make they most of it?

Surfin’ Safari

Safari, for those not in the know, is the internet browser that comes as standard with all Apple Macs and has a pretty good reputation among Mac users. Until recently, only Mac users got to experience Safari, but that all changed with the announcement last year that Apple was going to make Safari available for PC.

Now that’s interesting and all, but the really interesting thing is the way that they (they being Apple) have distributed it. Jobs and Co came up with the light-bulb idea of delivering Safari as part of its latest software update as well as including it in its iTunes software. Now, I don’t need to tell you about the penetration of iTunes across both Mac and PC – it’s enormous.

MyTake – genius move by the boys at Apple, even if it is a bit of a Trojan horse. Distribution is everything when it comes to content, that’s why I am a firm believer that Apple is going to be a major threat to the likes of Blockbuster in the next few years. However, we have to remember that the power is in the content as well as the distribution model.

I'll have an iPod with the lot, thanks....

Is Apple about to change the music game again? Jobs and co are apparently working on a deal to offer fee access to the entire iTunes music library based on a premium-purchase model for the iPod and iPhone. Basically, you pay a bit more cash for iPod/iPhone and you get the music for free…or maybe at a reduced cost. Details aren’t clear at the moment, but it seems to be similar to mobile phone plans as in the more you pay for you plan, the more free stuff you get.

Another rumour doing the rounds is that there could be a subscription model on the cards for the iPhone, again no details have been released, but it would make sense for them to extend their music model into that sector, which is largely dominated by the telcos.

MyTake – Is there no stopping the juggernaut that is Apple? These guys innovate like the rest of us breath. Once again, the power of the platform (iTunes) could breath new life into the record industry by opening another way for customers to purchase music. Companies are finally coming to terms with the actual worth of content and I think that this is something that consumers will welcome. At the end of the day, it’s about empowering us with choices and options, and the more choices and options we have, the more records you’ll sell.

i(pod) of the tiger….give me two more!

Personal trainers, love them or hate them, they usually get results for you. But not everyone likes to have some muscle-moulded bloke or whippet of a women screaming “One more! One More!” at them. Well, there could be a new choice on the horizon. As part of the Nike + iPod partnership, the fruit ‘n’ swoosh duo are working with a number of gym-equipment manufacturers, including Fitness, Precor, Star Trac and Technogym, to make their equipment compatible with the Nike + iPod system.

The result would see gym goers hooking up their iPod Nanos to a piece of gym equipment, record their workouts then upload the results to the nikeplus website. Presumably, this would then allow them to analyse the results and help with their next workout session.

MyTake - It’s very interesting to see that more and more personal data is being captured by us, the individual. More and more aspects of our lives are being digitised for us to review, analyse and share as we choose – in this case you could imagine mates gloating about their calorie-busting sessions, or 20 minute sprints, hey, there could even be a Facebook app in there. Through the different tools out there, it seems we are creating almost real-time digital versions of ourselves - what we like, what we feel, what we want, and now, how hard we are exercising. The more of us we have out there, the easier it is for others to interact with us, which is the true power of the social network. “Alan is….”

iTunes kept from No 1 spot by the Wall

It may seem like it’s been around for ever, but in only five short years iTunes has become the second-biggest music retailer in the US. According to a new survey by NPD Group’s MusicWatch survey, the only retailer to out-muscle iTunes in 2007 was Wall-Mart, aka HD DVD killer.

Apple’s journey into the top three US retailers has come of the back of worldwide take-up of the service, mainly due to the phenomenal success of the iPod. But this is not to downplay what has been achieved in terms of brokering deals with the major record house – not an easy thing to do.

MyTake – iTunes is everywhere and if you think about the power of what is a solid distribution model, Apple are in a pretty sweet spot. In addition, not only do they have a great distribution model, it’s a model that gives you what you want, when you want AND it’s customisable. Thinking about the true nature of content sharing, iTunes is the perfect personal content aggregator, only it’s not run by a (ro)bot, it’s run by you.

I hope you like Jammin' too

Welcome to the next generation of jamming! Since the dawn of time, mankind has been using everything and anything to make music and that's not set to change any time soon. A bunch of guys have taken two iPhones and a Nintendo DS and created the "iBand". Check out the video below.

MyTake - Music is becoming more and more accessible, letting more people get involved and make music. I wonder how many great artists were never discovered because they couldn't get in a studio, or couldn't afford a guitar. The idea that people could sit around jamming on their iPhones then share the result with pals via Facebook or MySpace is one I think will happen sooner than we think. It's all about content, and sharing that content - the more personal that content gets, the more it’s worth sharing.

HD DVD feeling blu

Having been around the first time Sony fought a format war, I kind of thought that they deserved better luck this time around. After losing out with the BetaMax format over 20 years ago, it’s looking increasing likely that the company’s high definition DVD format (Blu Ray) is about to be crowned winner as the biff-up that is HD DVD Vs Blu-Ray draws to a close.

The HD DVD corner has become an increasingly lonely place as more and more of its supporters defected to Blu-Ray, the most notable being Warner Bros and most recently, Wall Mart. The only one still in the HD DVD corner is Toshiba, and it looks like they are about to call it quits with News agency Reuters quoting an unnamed Toshiba source as saying: "We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next-generation DVD business."

Blu-ray, developed by a Sony-led consortium, looks to be the future of disc-based movies, but is the future in discs? With broadband speeds increasing, movie downloads on the increase, hardware like Apple TV and software like Xbox 360’s Video Marketplace already out there, you have to wonder why we’re still talking discs.

MyTake - When I asked a good mate of mine his opinion, he’s response was: “So that makes 99 per cent of the market standard DVD and 1 per sent Blu-Ray”, he’s got a good point there. Market saturation is a long way off and the hardware is still expensive – and I don’t just mean the Blu-Ray players, you’ll need a HD LCD/Plasma to go with it. There’s still competition in the market for Blu-Ray, they need to pay attention to the life cycle of the DVD and look at the development of downloadable movies – I think it’ll be a photo finish.

Game on for Apple?

It looks like Apple could be about to step into the highly competitive video games console market after the company filed a trademark extension with the US Patent and Trademark Office. It could all be speculation and some experts have dismissed it as being related to the current iPod games on offer, but the extension included: "handheld units for playing electronic games", "handheld units for playing videogames", "stand-alone video game machines", "LCD game machines" and "electronic games other than those adapted for use with television receivers only".

Having worked in the games industry as a consultant, I know first hand how brutal it can be – so, can Apple crack it? Well, some might remember that they’ve been there before with the ill-fated PipPin consoles that struggled against strong competition from Sony, Nintendo and SEGA before being consigned to history as an ugly footnote on the company’s otherwise brilliant record in the product space.

MyTake – tough one this, on one hand Apple has an awesome record in the product space, rewriting the rules and even creating new markets. On the other hand the gaming market is a hard place to succeed. But, if they do enter the gaming market the other boys had better watch-out, gaming is about fun, listening to the consumer and giving them want they want – and that epitomises what Apple is all about.

Ring ring, Ca-ching, ca-ching

The apple still tastes sweet - at least, that's what budget sheet says. Steve and co saw record profits up 57% in the three months to the end of December manly lifted by demand for Mac computers and iPhones. That's right, for everyone that wrote it off as a Newton, there's a van round the back giving away large portions of humble pie.

the BBC reports "Sales of its iPhone, released in June last year, reached 2.3 million and lifted its earnings to $1.58bn (£806m), up from $1bn a year ago."

My take - Steve, you deserve a knighthood - as does Mr Wasniack and the rest of the Apple boffins. It ain't easy being that cool, but hey, someone has to do it.