Oskar's Weblog

In year 2009, iPhone and Apple did shake the cell phone market, Apple changed the rule of consumer cellular phone market and wake several new and old rivals up. Some people say apple is worthless and the phone sucks( compare to new google phone) but in fact when you think deeply, they did a lot of things and give in a lot.

The very important thing about the product sucess is marketing and the market of the product. Apple did very good job on iPod, as well as iPhone itself. When you talk to people, a lot of people like to get an iPhone is because of the easy to use, the situation just like game console nitendo’s wii; It gets in every market. Thats what apple does and it did make the image of iPhone is fun, easy n hip, after all it is a straight of apple Inc. itself(from Macintosh 1984 to now)

Beyond the target market, functionalitiy is playing the big part of it. When you see the iPhone, you only see several icons on the screen and one button on the front; one on the top and two on the side. Also it has the most important silent switch on the side as well, that’s why the product to get with, eye candy and less button. And the product comes out a fun, hip and easy.

That’s the other example of good marketing product, which is blackberry; Few days ago, when I talked to the lady and she claimed that she wants a blackberry but she stuck with her new Nokia E72. well that E72 looks pretty much the same as blackberry, also have bottom 40 plastic keyboard, and fake trackpad. So I asked her why she wants blackberry, and she replied that because of blackberry messenger and she added everyone in office are using blackberry with blackberry messenger, she wants to get into the cloud, and yes that is the reason of some blackberry rookie to get their first blackberry. Blackberry use the other approach to marketing their product and i think it calls professional image, a newpaper survey claimed 80% of first and business class passengers are using blackberry, only less than 10% used iPhone. That’s the reason of blackberry target on that market, professional and “it just work”, it is an oppsite side of the iPhone, cus when you ask those guy, they will say “I don’t need a fancy things in my phone, I just need what I need”. In fact, Blackberry did fail one time, they tried to enter iphone’s market(blackberry storm) but they fail so they go back to their position and unveiled bold next generation. Because the “bottom 40″ plastic keyboard is one major factor of the device itself  looks professional, it just like a keyboard is a icon of the “work hard” people. Lucky Blackberry did learn that failure and back on their track.

What about android? I think it is hard to succes, because of the position of the market is blur and the target seems wrong as well, especially they have too many cone products on the market, and they are lack of position and target market at the beginning too. In fact Android want to get some of iphone’s market, such as easy, hip and fun, but the problem is they have to many vendor, HTC, samsung, Sony… etc, it is hard to create a image if hip and fun in different vendor, the customer only tend to choose the cell phone by outlook and the price, not by the OS itself, also the OS is too “customize”, once the solid OS is too “customize”, user is hard to learn the OS in the first place, and what that mean is the limitation of  ”customize” is good for the product and the user. A very good example of Android phone screen unlock and  view apps UI flow, they let vendor and user customize it, which is good things but it make the first time user have a difficult time to learn it, that is the downside of the android. Also because of different vendor, they can’t do things like blackberry does in professional field.

The future of cellular phone battle will become two separate way one is to high end and the other is to the rest. In the high end field, Apple and blackberry will remain their good hand in battle, and windows and google will have to counter them, but they have a lot of things to do, from their innovation to the marketing plan, and the key to success is do something different to blackberry and iPhone, not just follow their step.

First, the bottom bar can hold up the six icons.

It does support traditional chinese. It doesn’t have phone function, even if you buy a 3G version.

The CPU is made by Apple itself, it called A4,and it is ARM base.

The iPad requires micro sim, which means the one you have in your cell won’t fit into the slot.

Anyway, I think the device is pretty good, even though it still have a lot of missing function. I think I m going to get one(because I used to wanna get amazon’s kindle), but I still have to wait til june…. gosh, it is kinda long.

I was stay up all night just because of Apple event; Yes I know I m such applefan boy, anyway , everytime they have such event I will stay up all night long, looking at the screen of the text and picture update, and get excited or disappointed on the text lately, don’t ask me why but it is my habit I guess.

Last like Apple unveiled iPad, well it is kinda predicted and I guess the product is “ok”, just fit what people need if they need it. Of course somepeople will say it just a big size of the iPod touch etc, but I think it is kinda different to that. Anyway, I think I will buy one in June, yes is June…… I m not living in NA anymore, so I have to wait dammit.

Beside the product, I m more concert about Steve Jobs health, after I saw the pictures, I m kinda relief, yes, he still thin, but looks gaining weight and looks health on his face. Steve, be health and keep thinking differently.

I guess I had too many chinese and political topic in recent posts, it is all because of the political issues in Hong Kong, I think I should stand up and say my words. Anyway, back to some interesting things… geek’s gadget. It seems has a lot of rumors about tablet device from Apple, for my opinion I love to see one and I “might” get one instantly; Thats because I love to see how Apple make the thing workable and differently;

In this couple year, a lot of company unveiled different kind of tablet, netbook, and portable media play, seems none of its success, it just the era before iPod unveiled in 2002. When more of the products don’t success, means the companies still searching the way to make a selling point of the products. Thats why iPod is success, they found a very solid selling point, easy to use, easy to transfer.  So I hope the latest creation has similar idea and find the very solid selling point.

That is a mock of of iSlate or iPad… or whatever the name is.

lets see what Apple can do in 26 Jan 09, oh btw my iPhone app is on track now, just finishing fixing some xml backend file and now is on track. cool.

When I look inside the technology gadget, I really like to see some simply design, that why I love Apple’s product, their product always use less compound as they can, i.e. the circuits board, and the screw. You always hard to find a screw on body of the product, thats the beauty. What about underneath?

Here is an example of the hardware engineering to show how to make things easier:

Here is the HTC’s new NEXUS one, it has 20 compounds,

What about iPhone 3GS? It has 9 compounds only(I included the sim card which I m not suppose to be) .

I m making this up, to make less compound underneath is way difficult to put numerous amount of compounds underneath the case.  Thats the beauty and thats the engineer should think of, simple is the best.

Photo credit: ifixit.com.

Steve Jobs!

Nice! Steve and Apple won several Advertising Awards in Adweek’s ‘Best of the 2000s’; Stay tune there is more to come in 2010s’.. thats what I hope.

http://www.bestofthe2000s.com/

I love what Steve Jobs said… my another fav. quote:

“every once in a while a revolutionary product comes alone that change everything, and Apple has been, well, first of all once have be fortunate if you get to work on just one of this in your career. Apple has been very fortunate introduce few of those into the world, in 1984 Apple introduce Macintoch, it didn’t just change Apple, it changed the whole industary. In 2001 we introduced iPod, it didn’t change the way we listen music, it changed the whole music industary. ”

Apple and Steve Jobs do influence people, without them we might not have computer, without them we might still thinking how to listen digital music on road, without them we might still using the plastic keyboard cellphone. Sometime I m really angry about some people always say the brand of Apple is their selling point, I think they should look inside, explore the inside beauty of the product, not just the outlook. Can’t you see the beauty inside of its?

Most people think if a person like Apple, that person must be pretend he/she is cool in some country, and some people think use or love Apple is because they want to be different. But in fact some or a lot of people love Apple won’t think on that way, especially for those who know the year of 1979 and 1983. That’s my story of how and why I love Apple and Mac.

Back in 1998, when I was in a computer store with mum, and we were looking for a computer. By that time everyone think computer is a fancy things at home, before that I have my 8086 computer at home as well. I remember that that is the first time I meet Mac, a hockey pug mouse, crystal blue all in one iMac, I think it is cool and pretty, by that time I really want to get one, but it turns out my parent decided to buy an Acer, because they said no one use Mac at all.

So several years pass, and it was 2002, before I get into the college I really need a new computer, because my Dell was missed on taxi. My parents and I went to a computer store again, and this time I know what I really want and I just aimed of that. When we went to store and I asked those sales about does Mac can do AutoCAD and Engineering program sort of things? OF course if you are a sales you will know the answer, at the end I got my first Mac with run in OS X 10.1. So I got back to home hurry and try all the feature in OS X, everything just amaze me, that is the first time I touch the thing I really like, and I just start learning from them.

In fact, all knowledge I know about computer, most of the reason is because of Mac, and Apple. I know php, know a bit of graphic, database and programming, all is because of my first Powerbook. Now I m a developer on Mac, good in php and Mysql, alway have idea to design stuff, all the reason is because of Steve Jobs and Mac. When I start to use my First Mac, I know I won’t go back, also I start learning Computer history, the company’s history and the technology deep inside the Mac.

I m a person who love Mac is because the legacy, the innovation, the heart of making software and hardware, and the insight. So not just the way it looks, moreover is the soul deep inside the heart. I start to research NeXT, read book about Steve Jobs, Steve Woz and the born of Mac, everything just amaze me and I think they are the guy whose I m looking for a long long time. I keep reading how they make the first computer( I know Woz did that on his only ) and how to make the first Apple Computer, their story always give me an energy to work and to think, it always make me think I want to be one of them. I want to be the next Steve Woz. That is the soul in my about the Apple.

I love Apple and Mac not just because by look, and I hope most people love Apple and Mac at the same way, think deep and think differently, try to look deep inside the iphone, the ipod and the Mac, all you will see is the what computer and electrical devices suppose to be, you will see what is human first design, not just like Windows and PC that, you have to gear yourselves to use it, or the machine just a cool blood and not human first home electrical devices, please when you use Apple and Mac, just think you will amaze more than just the outlook.

Find my iPhone: actually it can send msg from your computer to your phone, also it can located where you phone is, it is so cool!!!!
Here is how to send msg from mobile me to iPhone.
Send from computer:

Message show on your iphone screen

Awesome!!!! see the first photo, there is a map to show where the heck is my little suck located

Well Try myself first

Try on model later on…..

It seems not really work… or I need sth shinny???