Has Microsoft Got Apple Rattled?

The release of the new Surface tablets, especially the Surface Pro, seems to have started a bit of a measured round of verbal tennis between Apple and Microsoft.  The fact that the rhetoric is restrained indicates that they are playing a serious game here.

Apple are talking up the iPad Air and are touting an Office-like clone that will run on the iPad.  That has to be a way forward and takes the iPad out of the serious toy world into real productivity arena.  Like Microsoft or loathe them, they've forced this agenda.  I've been saying for the last two years that the lack of productive uses for tablet computers has been the elephant in the boardroom.  Sure there's a lot of serious applications for the likes of the iPad and its Android cousins, but until Microsoft launched the Surface earlier this year complete with the ability to run Microsoft Office and to connect to a secure network (for the Pro version anyway), the elephant roamed unchallenged.

But the tablets that Microsoft have launched, along with similar hybrid devices based on Windows 8 by other manufacturers, have changed the game.  Although the RT version of the Surface seems to have stalled, it still represents an amazing amount of productivity for very little cost - around the price of a lesser spec iPad, but weighing only about an ounce more.  You get the touchy-feely iPad-like environment with the tablet, but also the ability to write novels, update spreadsheets, produce PowerPoint presentations with the magnetic clip-on keyboard.  Add SkyDrive with its free 7GB storage and the WiFi connectivity then you have something that is more than the sum of its parts.  The weakness is the apps; Windows 8 is playing catch up with iOS and Android, Windows 8 RT is going nowhere fast.  Because RT has only the Microsoft store available to access apps and won't run legacy Windows 7 or earlier programs it is struggling to convince.

However the Pro, at admittedly nearly twice the price of the RT, can do all of the above and more.  It is heavier, though, and thicker.  I've been using one this last week to see how it compares with traditional laptops when out of the office.  The jury's out at present, but for those situations where a mix of legacy software and business applications are required, the Pro may be the solution.  Connection to a secure intranet seems seamless and the machine is fast in use.

So can Apple catch up with the iPad Air?  Well, one area the Surface Pro is struggling is in the weight department - it is relatively heavy in use.  Apple have a track record of addressing weight issues.  The Pro does have a minimalist approach that Steve Jobs would probably approve of - power button, volume button and one USB port but when used with the new dock it seems to expand nicely.  Apple have yet to get over the USB port concept, which may hold them back.  The unknown quantity is the Office-like software being suggested.  There are a few Office clones around, with Open Office being the best well known.  It works reasonably well and produces MS Office compatible files, but I always feel I'm wrestling with it (I use it on a netbook).  Apple have an uphill battle to create an Office replacement that works on the iPad and makes users feel it is worth the effort. And good luck with printing - after two years we're still struggling to print from an iPad at home, but I find my Surface RT prints wirelessly without any apparent effort, although I suspect that was part of the 8.1 upgrade as I did struggle before.

So Microsoft have challenged Apple and their responses this week suggest that they have struck home.  Apple are getting serious about making the iPad serious.  It should also make Microsoft sit up too - Apple are a very capable company with a track recode of delivering - if Microsoft want to keep their lead in this serious tablet arena then they have more work to do.  Hopefully by the third iteration of the Surface Pro it will have the weight and thickness of the first generation RT.

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Is Apple TV The One To Watch?

It can't have slipped past too many people that Apple have been making announcements over the last day or two.  Much of the news has been substantially reported, or leaked as I like to think of it, for some time now.

For instance it has been an open secret that Apple were going to tidy up the iOS interface, removing all the fussy details and making the whole experience cleaner.  I suspect that they've been planning this longer than the six months or so that they've had us believe it was being worked on, quite probably it has been a longer term aim to pull the interface back to Apple core values for some time and perhaps the muddle iOS 6 found itself in was a catalyst for the final push.  Or maybe it was just pure coincidence.  I'll wait for the biography, it matters not.

But one revelation that didn't get too much notice in the reports I read was around Apple TV, probably because Apple didn't reveal too much about it.  Maybe they haven't worked out exactly what it is they want to achieve, so are waiting for the pundits to throw in their two-pennyworth first so that they can cherry pick the better ideas.  Outrageous, nobody should fall for that ruse, but here goes anyway.

Apple TV has been a long term project in Apple, something Jobs talked about but without any meat on the bones.  I think it was originally a hardware project, a device that let you watch TV on a superlative screen with an interface that was easy to navigate.  Well time has moved on and most screens are pretty good these days.  Navigation can be a black art on some TVs, so I guess there is mileage in that old Apple magic there.

But TV has changed radically over the last few years.  The dependency on the major network schedules has been eroded to triviality, the impact on the viewing figures changing the way producers finance their productions.  One thing is certain, the golden age of TV advertising as we know it has disappeared.  Most of us don't watch a lot of TV live unless there's a compelling reason - a major sporting event, breaking news, reality TV.  I'm guessing about the last one as that's what I hear from others - I've never understood how locking a bunch of morons in a house for a month on end, or gearing up a crowd of no-nothing egotists to compete to run make believe businesses is classified as 'reality'.  The only 'reality' TV I think should continue is 'I'm a celebrity, get me out of here' for the simple reason that I suspect one season Ant and Dec will march the so called celebrities into the jungle and then the TV crews will abandon them all.  We can hope, send me an email when that happens because if I'm watching TV at all it'll be on DVR.

DVR is an almost acceptable halfway house, where we can record hundreds of hours of programmes we might possibly want to watch in the future.  It's all kidology, of course.  Most we'll decide against or the hard drives will corrupt before we get anywhere near the bottom of the ever expanding lists of programmes we have recorded.  I have a suggestion for using the DVR - each time you record a programme put a pound or a dollar in a jar as if you are paying for the right to record the programme. IOUs are acceptable as long as you pay them up with interest on payday.  Take a note out when you watch a recorded programme.  Now you're putting a monetary value on the record button you might be a bit more surgical.

But we're not going to be using DVRs for much longer, because it's so inefficient unless you haven't got access to broadband, then it's indispensable.  But if you have access and if someone smart comes up with a way to select programming as and when you feel like it, for a subscription fee, then that's what you'll use.  We're nearly there now with Lovefilm and Netflix vying for our wallets, with Amazon funding TV show productions as well, but somehow it isn't quite right.   Of course Lovefilm have played a long game, building up the customer base and getting the distribution spot on.  Now that Amazon control Lovefilm that end will only improve further, but as always it's all about market share with Amazon and somehow that always leaves me a little uncomfortable.

Netflix are playing catch up, at least this side of the pond, but they do provide a good service.  However I don't see them surviving an extended war against Amazon, letting alone winning.  But pitch someone like Apple into the fray and you've got a different battle, one that Amazon will find challenging.  Apple will think the process out carefully, probably have a long time since, and if Apple TV is a subscription internet streaming service then they will challenge Amazon directly.  There may be a hardware element, but I don't think we're going to see an Apple TV set anytime soon, if at all. 

There's good reasons to think this, apart from the blindingly obvious that there are plenty of perfectly good TV sets out there and Apple can't just create a new broadcast standard to differentiate itself.  Instead it would have either produce a niche, US product, not really their global vision these days, or they'll have to consider the NTSC, PAL, SECAM muddle and include HD with 3D.  Not your standard Steve Jobs rationalised product range at all.  Apart from teaming up with a major TV manufacturer to lend their Apple vision to the TV interface to augment their project I can't really see Apple getting too close to TV manufacturing.  Unless they come up with a true internet TV that is independent of the various standards.  Now that could work.

However, in the meantime, a streaming service that will leverage iPad capabilities but will still run on standard TVs, perhaps through an adaptor, sounds like an Apple product.  If you're watching TV, the watch Apple.  Because you will soon.

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Apple Gears Up the Lawyers

It's been a while since Apple launched a new iOS.  That in itself shouldn't be a headline, after all, most of us want some kind of stability with our new operating systems,  Unfortunately Apple recently went through a period of updating the iOS practically every other day.  To be fair, some of the updates were better called downdates as they reversed to some degree the changes the previous update had made.

It isn't a period when Apple was covered in glory.  What they were marginally better at during this period was taking on who they regarded as the bad guys in court, principally Samsung although Apple showed they were relatively prepared to take on anyone who they thought had infringed their ideas.  Mind you, recent news from the US puts their legal team into dispute, with early models of iPhone now likely to be prevented from being sold due to alleged patent infringements against Samsung.  Such is the see-saw world in Apple towers.

But Apple have moved on, they've sacked a few, let a few others leave of their own accord, and put hardware guru, Sir Jony Ives, in charge of the new iOS.  Now Sir Jony is famous for his minimalist approach to design and it seems that a lot of the Apple iOS was jarring him, particularly the cutesy detailed touches that have crept in over the last few years - you know, the grain on the bookshelves, the curl of the page when you turn one on an eBook.

I guess these things look great first time off, but to some the novelty wears off.  To be fair to Sir Jony, the simplicity of his iPod designs still keeps people coming back to pay a premium year after year so perhaps he knows a thing or two.

Mind you, some commentators aren't that interested in the sugar coating, or to be more precise, whether it survives or not.  Some think the problems that Apple have to address are deeper than that.  Part of the problem for Apple is that while iOS and the devices that run on it were ground-breaking when they arrived, the rest of the world hasn't stood still.  OK, Apple clearly know this to be true because they've spent a lot of money attempting to sue major manufacturers for what they believe is theft of their intellectual property, and I guess in many of the cases they have a point.  But I'll let the courts decide that bit, partly because it saves me running foul of Apple's lawyers but mainly because it's more fun to watch.  Like Apple ever read this blog!

However Android has improved by leaps and bounds in the last year or so and the tablet world has started to look a lot less than something Apple owns.  Even Microsoft have joined in the fun with their Windows 8 and Surface products.  It's fair to say Apple are relying more and more on their reputation.  After the Apple Maps debacle that's a tricky proposition.

But apart from some cryptic leaks and some strong denials, which of course mean they're not denials, from Apple over the last six months, they've been very quiet.  And that's what happens when clever people concentrate.  The word is that Apple are about to reveal information about iOS 7 and they're very excited.  Nobody is shouting about what the changes will be but rumour has it that the lawyers are lining up their cases ahead of the data release.  Apple want to make sure they keep the product launch information under wraps until they are ready, then they'll go for it.

The longer they leave it, though, the more likely that information will leak, and that will lead to ambiguity in the courts afterwards.  So for that reason and the fact that Apple have come up for air I think the announcement about iOS 7 will come within the next two weeks.  iPad owners and lawyers must be rubbing their hands together.

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Apple Endorses Google Glass

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, would appear to be the anti-Jobs, the man who Steve never was.  Despite having the best top job in the world - and let's be fair, most top jobs look great from where we're sitting, so running Apple has to be the top job of top jobs - he's never looked that comfortable in the role.  He always looks like he's waiting for Steve to pop up and when's the last time you saw Tim Cook wearing a turtle neck sweater?  That's no way to run a hip tech company, surely?

He's been talking about what is coming up in the Apple world ahead of the announcements expected real soon - it's a tradition that Apple like to maintain that they deny anything true and dismiss anything they forgot to invent as a fad.  Like seven inch tablets, for example.  Of course, if Steve had been right then Apple would have been laughing all the way to the bank, but nobody would have remembered he dismissed seven inch tablets as too small to be of practical use.  Now Apple are just laughing all the way to the bank.

So Tim has been talking about Apple - he's really sorry about Apple maps, by the way.  Tell that to the driver who used it to cross the San Francisco bridge and came off the other side in Widnes, Cheshire.

He's pretty dismissive about the iWatch, which pretty much confirms it's nearly ready. Unfortunately the interviewer forgot to ask what colours it wasn't going to come in so we'll have to guess, but I reckon white has to be up there.  And black, for variety.  I guess between the two colours they'll go with anything you choose to wear as long as it's a black turtle neck sweater.

He was extremely dismissive of Google Glass - something about it only appealing to a very specific market, so I guess the bookies will stop taking bets now.  Google must be cock a hoop as Tim has practically endorsed their product.  Is it too late for me to patent the iBowTie?

But Google have another celebration on their hands because Apple are thinking of producing Android apps, which means they've already produced them and are trying to work out how they can launch them without losing face. How about they try mentioning they may be thinking about it?  That might work.  The first App to be ported? How about the iShovel?

Finally he did confirm that iOS is going to be overhauled, like that's been a secret.  It's better than throwing the towel in.  We all know by now that it is going to be a lot less fussy than the current version, visually, but actually I think most users want it to work better, not keep on moving backwards with each iteration.  However Tim has alluded to a more customisable desktop - he's not committing which means it's a done deal, of course.

Apparently all of the above will be confirmed - or denied if we're reading this on a parallel universe - on June 10th.  If Google could rush the production of the Google Glass forward then someone could record the whole presentation using them and upload it onto YouTube on the fly.

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