Appletonia – Opine on anything of momentary interest

The iPad.

Apple has done it again!

If you were to look back several years ago on this very blog the iPad was predicted.

This device is remarkable.  Apple will ride a long profitable wave on this one.
It dovetails beautifully into the long term picture and the paradigm shift already discussed.  More opines to follow – if I feel like it . . . .

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Apple quietly upgraded previous-generation white 13-inch MacBooks to NVIDIA’s 9400M architecture.  A move aimed at boosting sales of its notebook during a potential period of reduced consumer spending.

The $999 entry level model now includes the same 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 1,066MHz front-side bus.  It also adopts the same NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared memory.

The white MacBook also enjoyed a doubling of its memory configuration to 2GBs, and employs 667MHz DDR2 memory rather than the faster 1,066MHz DDR3 filly of its aluminum cousins.

The remainder of the notebook’s specifications remain largely unchanged, there is a little blueTooth tweak.  Still has the 120GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard disk drive and 8X SuperDrive.

The benefit of  NVIDIA’s new 9400M platform in addition to FireWire (400). 

The move to further embrace the legacy polycarbonate MacBook strongly infers demand for the notebook remained  strong during the holiday shopping season even though speculation existed regarding a phase out.

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Recent reports claim Apple’s Jonathan Ive (designer of the iMac) has purchased a mansion in the UK, while endless rumors regarding the need for a proper succession plan for Apple is on desperate need.  It is clear that there are important candidates, but Apple must choose one that has the vision, and the intellectual stimulus to innovate and create new products & divisions to grow Apple appropriately.

There is an incredible opportunity for Apple – especially now – as the technology sector and web technologies emerge at rapid pace. I have opined in other entries in this blog endlessly about this.

Appletonia is reporting that “company-watchers” are asking if Apple can produce a new Steve Jobs? What if something happens to Apple’s individualistic entrepreneur, Jobs?
Well something will.

I am very skeptical Apple will make a good choice.
If Tim Cook succeeds, this finance operational wizard might as well shoot innovation in the head at Apple.
Without innovation Apple could look like a Microsoft stock, or worse.

With no proper succession strategy  disclosed by Apple, people are wondering who could it be?
It is no secret that Jobs has always favored Cook.

The first logical choice is Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer. Cook filled in for Jobs when the company’s CEO was fighting cancer in 2004. This is not a play of logic.  The guy is a finance operations guy.  He will not innovate.

Cook was the best person to choose to maintain Apple’s relations with other companies at the time.
He still reported only to Jobs. That’s why.

Apple should have enough time to consider a future CEO that combines some of Steve’s qualities. And that is NOT COOK! No offense Tim, you are great.  But it doesn’t appear you can innovate.  Only the future will tell if we are right . . . and we will be!

In Jobs’ interview at Fortune  this year  he said “we’ve got really capable people at Apple. I made Tim Cook COO and gave him the Mac division and he’s done brilliantly…” Jobs also stated:

“I mean, some people say, ‘Oh God, if Jobs got run over by a bus, Apple would be in trouble.’ And, you know, I think it wouldn’t be a party but there are really capable people at Apple. And the board would have some good choices about who to pick as CEO. My job is to make the whole executive team good enough to be successors, so that’s what I try to do.”
OK Steve, but tell them not to pick Tim, Please?

Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone is fitted for the job. Imagine Jobs having Microsoft’s Ballmer on his team. Would that be OK …?

Jobs, Cook and Ive aside, there are seven possible successors to the Apple “throne”:
– Daniel Cooperman (General Counsel and Secretary);
– Tony Fadell (senior vice president, iPod division);
– Scott Forstall (Senior VP, iPhone software);
– Bob Mansfield (senior VP Mac Hardware Engineering);
– Peter Oppenheimer (CFO);
– Phil Schiller (Worldwide Product Marketing chief);

Who would you pick?

I know who I would . . .
😉

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Holiday Pearl secret, Short Code Mania! You figure out the rest!

The hottest thing for connectivity and application development.

The details coming soon!

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The iSight. How bizarre.  The greatest little camera when first introduced, and now still the finest accouterment to the cinema display. Gorgeous devious with tremendous attributes.

I have seen them sell for twice retail on eBay.

We still need them. Why stop making them! Why lose that revenue? Is it that easy to generate net revenue?  These must be good times (not).

What a beautiful device. Ingenious in conception, still worthy of production.

Even if small,  just a great device.  Yes the third Party Logitech webcam is a killer replacement, and many of the new products have the little iSight built in.  

I am skeptical about the focal length claims on the optics comparisons.

For those of us that love out Cinema Displays, either, place a rotatable iSight in them, or get the old camera out of the manufacturers bin.

Thanks, no applause necessary.  Just had to get that out of my system.

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Don’t Believe Me? Please See First Post on the Market and Financial Crisis.

Seriously, check it out.  You would wish you followed some due diligence.

’nuff said.

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AppleCore Who’s Your Friend?

I couldn’t help it.  if you ever saw (if you are old enough and remember) those two chipmunks, throwing apple cores at each other in delight. OK, forget about it . . .

Here we are.  We are ensconced at a juncture.

Post 9/11, Economy faltering, fear is in us, our societal affect is a cognitive dysthymia.

Everything is swirling unpredictably.  Bailouts, wars, securities plummeting, and our houses depreciating!

We must stop. Breath. Think, with tools of clarity and respect for our good intentions.

And why talk about a computer company?

Rather a corporation, that used to be a computer company.

Apple, is America. As apple pie is an American symbol.  Apple Corporation is the cerebral neocortex of the American experience. The history can be rehashed in detail elsewhere.

Two Icons, young, ambitious, intelligent, with an armementarium of tenacity and a few hundred bucks build a world renowned Brand. A symbol of American Innovation and ingenuity.

We are truly placed in the most perfect part of our history. Apple Corp is a symbol for this. In this blog a primary focus, and also a metaphor for who we are as America.

We are laws, bound in a social contract.  That facilitates the most beautiful things on the planet.  The budding of notions of liberty, conservatism of our beautiful parks and forests.

Apple resides in this social contract.  It is a corp, that delicately balances the Aesthetics against the Utility of things that make our lives better, more fun, more interesting, more entertaining, and much more importantly, more provocative to the future of this nation.  The tools to explore the world around us.  To do research, to create entertainment at the level the world has never seen, the list goes on ad nauseam.

Right here in the USA.

Apple Corp is an example of what we will continue to do. To strive on. To innovate, and create the future, while others piddle around.  There is so much to be done, and Apple will do it, I have no doubt. Jobs has been a genius from day one. No one can be perfect, but that record is as good as it gets. He also did it several times. Very few do that. I have never met the man, but his intellect streams psionically from the beauty of the vast majority of every product he touches his mind to.  You changed the world man, congratulations.  You are the Lewis and Clark of the Electronic Consumer Age. Battled on the frontier, Davy Crocket style, always one step ahead, wincorp always trailing. Copying, plagiarising, trying to keep up.  They could not and still have not come close.

I laugh at every attempt. It is uncanny. It should be a coarse in University. Fully dedicated to this struggle, a natural selection example.  Except here is the beauty. On that sigmoidal curve of usage vs time, Apple sits pretty on the steep portion of the curve.  When the slope hits a max, watch out – that is a phase transition – sort of like the tipping points that the idea books, borrow and pretend they are new concepts.  They are old entrenched concepts and real as you or I. It is inevitable with the right leadership and vision. I have no doubt. All my chips are on that hand.

The helm, like all helms before it, will be handed over, and then it will happen again, as is the nature of things. In the right hands at the helm, the brand will expand, and dominate.  The equity of that brand is more powerful than any but a contested few, and those mean nothing to the world.  Apple is the only major brand that does. I mean compared to Heinz or J&J products brand equity, they are not world changers.  Apple will do it. It will take another decade of solid, indefatigable leadership and dedication. It is a slam dunk.  Everything is in Place, thanks to Mr. Jobs.

The potential is explosive. The opportunities boundless.  A decade age we witnessed the emergence of the web from the internet.  We are now witnessing another dawn, another day, another emergence that only history will tell the story as it happens.  Apple will be a critical part of that unfolding history.  Mark these words now. Apple is a buy. It is a gigantic Buy Now!

Steve, may you be blessed in any way you see fit. You have earned your stars and stripes.

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