Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.
Seen the story? Unbelievable! Rob Enderle tries to compare the wild-ass consumer success of the iPhone, and the growing pains that come from such a rush, to — get this — Microsoft’s Vista bomb!! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???
Hey, USA Today — I seriously believe you need to update your list of quote sources! That is the extremely most *LAME* comment on the situation that anyone could ever imagine….
Or I really should say, our day in the sun — meaning our whole team at DoApp (my new gig). What a bunch of great guys, and I tip my hat to every one of ’em! Especially our illustrious founder, Joe ("Google guy") Sriver, and our crack team of talented developers.
It isn’t every day you wake up and find yourself at the top of page one of your local daily’s Business section. I was even quoted there, before the jump. Here’s the story: Apple Shines on Minneapolis Firm’s iPhone App (Minneapolis StarTribune). But wait, there’s more: another great piece on us appeared late Monday: Minnesota Keeps Feeding the iPhone Habit (Minnov8.com).
Having our myLite Color Strobe and Flashlight app break into the top ten of *all* free apps on the iTunes App Store, surging past many big-name apps — like Facebook, AOL, MySpace, Google, and the NY Times — has been a humbling and amazing experience. (We topped out at #8, after a wild ride up the charts.) We’re even ranked higher than all the apps featured on "What’s Hot" on the App Store front page! (Apple’s a little behind in updating that list, it seems…)
Go grab any or all of our apps on iTunes — just type "DoApp" in the search box. And reviews are always appreciated once you download ’em! (Our apps are getting high ratings by consumers, which you can see via the independent ranking service, Medialets. For example, myLite is currently #25 of all apps — paid and free! — with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5.)
Our other apps are myTo-Dos with Email Support and Magic 8 Ball (it’s mystical, man!). And DoApp has many more iPhone/iPod Touch apps on the way, in a variety of categories. We’re even updating our first three apps with cool, new features. (One you get an app, you automatically get the updates — so sweet.)
Apple said yesterday the number of iTunes App Store downloads is now up to 25 million! Got an iPhone or iPod Touch yet? Downloading apps like mad? Tell us your experiences in the comments…
I’m kinda pissed at Apple. (And I guess at AT&T, too — but then I’m always pissed at them.) I mean, being a longtime Apple customer and a loyal iPhone user and all, not to speak of being an AT&T wireless customer since the beginning of time (I have the whole freaking iPhone package, including unlimited text messages). So the point being, I bought into the whole deal here — okay, Apple? You and your buddies at AT&T should really like me. 
But I just think they treated their existing customers shabbily this time around. First of all, they never really communicated directly to me (neither firm) about what to expect regarding the upgrade to version 2.0 of the iPhone software, in the week approaching The Big Day. I had to rely on what was being reported — and it wasn’t all that obvious, actually. But I did read in a couple of places (can’t remember just where) that the upgrade would be handled by Apple doing a "push" of the v2.0 update to all existing iPhone customers (only those who were "official," of course, meaning signed up with AT&T here in the U.S.). Well, it never happened — still hasn’t. Not a word, and it’s now Sunday morning.
I finally got tired of waiting yesterday. About 11:00 Central Saturday morning, I was chatting with a buddy who told me how he got the update, and it had gone without a hitch for him. So, I went ahead and tried his approach. I hadn’t even tried to go "pull" it down — I was waiting for this "push" that had been promised!
First, on Thursday, I had downloaded iTunes 7.7 — which I’d read somewhere was required first, before I could use the iPhone 2.0 update. No sweat — that happened without any issues. But I found it strange, come Friday morning (I had figured the 2.0 software wouldn’t be available till then), that I still had not seen the "push." So, I clicked on "Software Updates" in my Apple menu, and was surprised to see it tell me nothing was available — that I was all up to date. (Lies!) But I figured, hey, they must be overwhelmed right now, or waiting to update existing customers till all new customers could be served (which is another customer service topic, but I won’t get started on that). 
So I thought, okay, apparently Apple did tell the press that this "push" was coming — so just be patient, I reasoned. What’s the big hurry? I would never even THINK of going and standing in line for a new phone myself, just to be first. So, why should I care when I actually get the 2.0 update to my current phone? Except all the hype about the flood of new apps coming — which I couldn’t use without the new software update — was getting deafening. I was itching to get some on my damn phone and try ’em!
Like a dutiful little Apple fan-boy, then, here I was sitting and waiting for this "push" they were going to do to us — and I get super busy, putting in a 15-hour day on Friday. But, heck, I would have broken for a message from Apple! So, here comes Saturday morning, and I find that the update IS in fact out there for us "old" iPhone users to "pull" down, and that other people already have it! Shees, I’m a laggard. Apple has left me sitting here looking like an ass, waiting for their damn "push"!
I had synced my iPhone earlier Saturday morning, expecting maybe to see when iTunes popped up on my Macbook that "You do not have the current iPhone software – do you wish to upgrade?" — or some such message. Never happened. On the contrary, it said "your iPhone is up to date"! Weird, I thought, maybe Apple’s servers were still screwed up from the barrage of the day before. Then, I hear my buddy ask, "So, do you have the new iPhone software yet? Some of these new apps are cool." I ask him, "How the heck did you get it?" He tells me, and it’s really strange. Get this — even though the message on iTunes tells me I’m up to date, I have to click on a button there that says "Updates" and — lo and behold — I will THEN be able to get my blessed update. WTF kind of usability is that?
So, natch, now that I become aware of this strange situation, I click. In another blast of user unfriendlieness, there’s no feedback that anything at all is happening! So, there I am, wondering WTF to do. But it had warned me on the initial screen that "This will take a while" (mentioning it had to back up all my stuff first). So, I figured I’d better just leave it alone, that something was happening in the background — and that I should just leave my Macbook and tethered iPhone combo sitting there while I hit the shower. Some twenty minutes or more later, I came back to find the process was successful, and the two apps I’d previously downloaded on my Macbook the day before (remember, I had iTunes 7.7 so I could do that), were right there on my third "home screen," just like they were supposed to be! 
Those apps were the free Typepad app — so (you guessed it) I can now enter posts from my phone to this blog! — and the free myLite Color Strobe and Flashlight, a "Utilities" app, so I can be the life of the party at my next rock concert. [Okay, I don’t go to many, but I definitely want to be ready… 🙂 ] 
Alas, what to make of this whole mess? I don’t care about the snafu related to so many people not being able to activate their new iPhone 3Gs on Friday in the stores — I’m talking about the way the software update was handled for existing customers. It sucked. I agree with at least one other blogger who said it should have been offered by Apple FIRST to their current, loyal users, well ahead of the onslaught of the iPhone 3G debut on July 11. Instead, they treated us as not important — didn’t even communicate to us about it directly. And, if they’d have gotten that out of the way first, it would have greatly lessened the burden on the servers for the 3G activation process.
Don’t get me wrong — my 2.0 update process went smoothly. I have my "new" iPhone, I love the apps I have so far, and I will be getting a lot more. But, then, there are things I don’t like about the App Store process, either — the slowness of them getting new, approved apps up there (I know of several that aren’t there yet and should be), the way they handle consumer reviews, and more. But don’t get me started — that’s a topic for another post.
Maybe I’ll do that one from my iPhone (thank you, Typepad app!) — though it will understandably have to be a lot less keystrokes than this one… 🙂
UPDATE: Whoops, meant to include this link to Declan McCullagh’s post on a CNet blog from Saturday afternoon: Apple iPhone v2.0 software on Saturday: Still M.I.A.
It’s about time somebody else started doing this — providing a way for tech startups to get themselves listed on a database. RWW just launched ReadWriteWeb Companies (tricky name), and did it the smart way: by using a platform already available (TradeVibes), instead of trying to code their own.
TechCrunch has really been alone at the top as the only decent resource designed for this purpose, with its CrunchBase service — which now lists some 6500 startups, 13,000 people, and more than 2700 funding rounds. It was only logical they would start such a database, seems like at least two years ago now, with their close ties to the VC and startup communities in the Valley. They do a decent job, as I can attest, having listed a startup there a few months ago. They provide very good, responsive service. (Note that it’s not an automated, unattended service — a real human monitors and approves what you try to list there.) One drawback? You’ll get sales calls like mad once your listing goes live, from outfits such as outsourcing companies in India, etc.
Another service, KillerStartups, which of course does not have nearly the reach and buzz of TechCrunch, offers both a free and a paid service ($50, as I recall). Having learned the CrunchBase lesson, we were more than happy to pay their fee, which means you won’t get hammered with offers from service providers who have so many things to try to sell to startups, it boggles the mind! If you’re too strapped to pay the $50, get ready for the barrage.
Another service launched last year is StartupSearch, a sideline project of Niall Kennedy, whom I can attest is one smart, plugged-in dude. He runs the Widget Summit conference, which I blogged extensively about last fall, and the service appears to be an offshoot of that endeavor — which required an extensive database all by itself. The site says it tracks "facts and figures" about Web 2.0 startups, including traffic to their sites (though it doesn’t say how it does that). However, StartupSearch only lists 81 companies to date. That may now grow with the attention it’s getting on ReadWriteWeb’s post today, which links to it. But it seems Niall, who’s a busy guy, may not be devoting much attention to the site anymore — yikes, his last "Weekly Web Wrap up" was September 10, 2007! (Just before things got really busy for him with the Widget Summit.) But, after all, it is a dot-org.
ReadWriteWeb did a smart thing to launch its service — there is definitely room for another decent offering in this space, and I wish Richard luck. He took his time and did it right. And, now, whenever you read a RWW post about a given company, if there’s a database entry for it on RWW Companies, you’ll see a little widget you can click on to take you to their listing. Cool — I’m gonna test it out.
P.S. Oh, the startup I’m talking about above? You’ll know more on July 11.
UPDATE 7/30/08: The startup is DoApp Inc., at www.doapps.com. Or check us out at the iTunes App Store.
W
Things are getting real interesting out there on the iPhone front, in so many ways. Here’s a case in point: this fastest-ever growing mobile phone platform, as originally introduced last year, did not support Flash (and still doesn’t), but it’s clear that Adobe, the company behind Flash, would sure like to…uh…do something about that? 
Perhaps you saw the news that broke last week related to this. Here are the two items I caught:
• iPhone Still Not Ready for Flash (from CMP’s funky, new Contentinople site)
• Who Needs Flash on iPhone More, Adobe or Apple? (from the great blog "last100," part of the ReadWriteWeb network)
After reading these, I decided to ask a couple of my smart local buddies to do guest posts. First, my longtime designer friend "PXLated" — who’s an almost-as-longtime Apple and Adobe user and follower. Get this, he goes this far back with Adobe technology (I love this story): when he first called ’em for support, John Warnock took the call. [Yeah, for you trivia buffs, that was the founder.] I asked PXLated what the heck was going on, and if he could give me his take over the weekend. His comments follow:
Adobe’s been pushing Apple to put Flash on the iPhone and is using the blogosphere to promote its cause ("we need Flash, we need Flash", blah, blah, blah). Adobe and their surrogates — you know, the old interactive CD developers whose businesses went tits-up when the web took off — try to play it that Flash is a web standard and, to have the full web on the iPhone, you need Flash.
First of all, it’s not a standard. It might be ubiquitous, but it’s not in any way, shape, or form a web standard. There are many things delivered over the Internet (the web, mail, etc), and Flash is interactive multimedia delivered over the internet. There happens to be a Flash plug-in that allows it to be played within a browser, but it’s not "standard" web technology.
So, Apple has basically said no, the full version of Flash is too resource-intensive and power hungry, and even taxes desktop machines. Load up some Flash sites (or several) and it can bring your browser to a screeching halt and max your CPU usage. I’ve seen it written that it’s even worse on Macs than on Windows, as Adobe has never optimized the Flash player for the Mac. Then there’s "Flash Lite," a version that’s on some phones. But, according to what I’ve read, and what Jobs has said, it is too lightweight, in that it won’t render Flash sites as we know them — only ads and simpler stuff like animations. And it won’t even display stuff created in the latest version of Flash.
So, currently, there isn’t a version of Flash that Apple will allow. The full version of Flash is too heavy, and Flash Lite is too light. Bottom line, there is no version appropriate for the iPhone/iPod Touch.
The current brouhaha is that Apple came out with their iPhone SDK, and Adobe’s current CEO said in a conference call last week that his firm would use that to develop Flash for the iPhone. The reality is they can’t without deeper ties to the underlying operating system, or to the Safari browser. That isn’t possible without Apple’s help and approval. It seems his engineers explained the facts of life to him, and a day later he corrected himself.
So, now Adobe is back to square one.
My guess is there’s a lot of politics going on behind the scene, and some of it is historical:
1) Adobe raped Jobs in licensing fees for using display postscript at NEXT.
2) They tried to do that again at Apple for OSX, and Jobs said screw you and developed the whole display technology using PDF. He could do this because Adobe had opened the specs so PDF could become a standard. Open=no licensing fees… 🙂
3) Adobe probably pissed Jobs off (as well as all Mac users) when they were one of the last software companies to release OSX versions of their programs, and used Carbon (a bridge) rather than Cocoa (the native method).
4) Adobe then again took forever to make their apps native for Intel, probably further straining their relationship with Jobs.So, basically, I would guess there is no love lost with Jobs when it comes to Adobe. Hey, they screwed with him when he was down.
The problems for Adobe are many. First, all their big apps (including Photoshop and Illustrator) are mature, and there just isn’t much they can add to them to make people upgrade. They locked themselves into a development box where they can’t utilize all the great underlying OS features to create a nice upgrade, either. So, their only place for real growth is to ride the next wave in computing — mobile — but they can’t if Flash isn’t as ubiquitous on phones as it is desktops. So, there are a bunch of choke points and pressures.
The iPhone points to the future and is a grand success, but Apple prefers to use and promote web standards — like Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), Javascript (Ajax), and the latest in the HTML specs — rather than proprietary things like Flash. Microsoft is introducing a Flash competitor called Silverlight. So, Adobe is desperate because they know the mobile phone/browsing market is many times bigger than the desktop market. If they can’t get Flash to be as ubiquitous on mobile devices as it is on the desktop, the jig is up and they could miss out on the whole next generation of computing. And all those Flash developers will have to learn new skills.
It’s desperation time for the whole bunch, hence the latest outcry.
Thanks, PXLated. This will indeed be very interesting to watch! [Note: I guess I won’t go long on Adobe stock.]
Not being one to ever be satisfied, I then just had to ask yet another of our mutual smart friends for his opinion on the news. Steve Borsch has an excellent blog at Connecting the Dots, and also blogs with me occasionally at Minnov8. He’s very savvy in the ways of Apple and Adobe, having worked for Apple for several years in sales in the ’90s. And he’s as plugged in to where things are headed in the new world of "the Internet as platform" as anyone I know. Here are his comments:
Any of us in the tech sector knows that shrink-wrapped software is dead; the personal computer will be less and less necessary going forward; and that multiple device types connected to the Internet — with most of the processing being done "in the cloud" or at hosted facilities — will be the way most of us get our news, information, entertainment, and social connections going forward.
As the Internet increasingly morphs into the "platform" for applications — either Web, desktop, or the new category of rich internet applications (RIAs) — runtime "containers" will be critical for any company hoping to be relevant, and Apple’s name has come up as one of the most absent players in this space. Ironically, iTunes is often used as the best example of a rich internet application, since one can rip and manage music on the personal computer desktop; share it within the home; buy and download music, movies, and video "up in the cloud" along with cover art; and subscribe to free audio and video podcasts.
Adobe’s AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) is an RIA platform with incredible functionality and the capability to "collapse" many sorts of technologies into a "container" that runs in a Web browser or on a personal computer desktop. Microsoft’s Silverlight takes a different approach (and many design tools exist for creating and deploying Silverlight "containers"), but the essence is the same: next generation hybrid applications that attempt to marry the best of the desktop with the best of what’s delivered over the Internet from the cloud. In fact, buzz has it that Silverlight was a direct strategic response to the ubiquity of Flash (which is on something like 97% of all browsers), and that Microsoft’s abdicating the runtime of video, audio, and animation to Adobe was a very bad idea…especially if the company was interested in cloud computing (which it is now!).
My belief is that Apple isn’t going to sit this one out, and the Flash controversy is all about positioning their approach (whenever it’s revealed), since they have all the building blocks necessary: the most ubiquitous creative platform, called Macintosh; Quicktime (which I’d argue is the best video container); Safari on both Mac and Windows (built on the fast, completely Web-standard browser engine called "WebKit"); incredibly simple "clip" technologies like WebClip (a fast and easy way to clip a section of a web page, and it automagically turns into a widget); and the fastest growing mobile device (iPhone); and many, many rumors of upcoming device-types leveraging the critically acclaimed "touch" technology used in the iPhone interface.
Add to that Apple’s famed ability to deliver easy-to-use interfaces to historically difficult processes and technologies. Probably my best example is the phenomenally good-looking movies and, most specifically, DVDs that can be created with iMovie and iDVD. Having grown up in the interactive space with videodisc and CD-ROM, I can tell you that creating and delivering a DVD is so laughingly simple that one of my non-technical friends (who can barely figure out the radio in his car) has delivered some of the best-looking DVDs I’ve ever watched.
My prediction is that Apple will be delivering different "touch" form-factors in the next six months (along with faster 3G iPhones), as well as touch modifications to their notebook platforms. As user-generated content continues to explode — and demand accelerates for tools to create and deliver it — Apple will be right there with what’s needed to create and deliver at runtime.
There you have it, folks. What my smartest, tech-savviest friends say is behind all this Apple/Adobe posturing regarding Flash. In other words, there’s a whole lot more than meets the eye. And your intrepid reporters at Tech-Surf-Blog [wherever I can find them!] are out there for you, right in the middle of it all.
(For another take on Apple and its culture, check out this great cover story just published in Wired Magazine: Evil/Genius: How Apple Wins By Breaking All the Rules.)
Now, you need to tell me what *you* think about the future of Apple and the iPhone. Don’t be shy — comment below and show your stuff…
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