Apple/iPod

Lawyers Laughing All the Way to the Patent Bank

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod, Google No Comments

There’s a Spanish proverb that “fools and obstinate men make rich lawyers”. Given the high-tech landscape these days, it would be easy to tweak it to read “Fools, obstinate men and patents make rich lawyers.”

In the past month or so, the patent marketplace has gone crazy. A consortium happily coughs up $4.5 billion for Nortel’s 6,000 patents. Google wants to spend $12.5-billion for Motorola Mobility and its 17,000 patents, and Wi-Lan has bid $480 million for Mosaid.

For all the talk about patents protecting innovation, it is looking more and more like patents will be used as a weapon to discourage innovation….unless you’re willing to pay for the privilege. We should have seen the writing on the wall in 2006 when RIM paid $612.5-million for NTP, a patent troll, to go away.

With high-tech companies aggressively building their patent portfolios, we should prepare ourselves for a flurry of lawsuits or, at least, threats of lawsuits as everyone attempts to protect their investments.

It goes without saying this will be a goldmine for lawyers who will be happy as pigs in shit as the patent wars are unleashed. With the stakes so high given how much money is being spent on patents, the legals fees for both sides (the patents owners and the alleged patent infringers) will be enormous.

My take is this is going to be a disaster for the high-tech industry as patents rather than innovation take centre stage. For people creating new products and services, it means having to look over their shoulder for an army of lawyers who will contend that a patent has been infringed.

That’s no way to encourage innovation.

How Many Apps Do You Really Need?

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod, Wireless 3 Comments Tags: , ,

On the 37Signals blog yesterday, Niall Larkin’s post on how many mobile apps people really struck a chord.

Larkin argues he only needs 10 apps, mostly because the iPhone comes with many of the apps (e.g. Safari, photos, weather, Mail) he uses all the time. It’s a great point that talks to one of the dirty little secrets of the mobile world: most people only use a few apps but they really like the idea of having thousands of options.

It’s one of the reasons for the iPhone’s massive appeal, while the BlackBerry gets roundly criticized for the shortcomings of BlackBerry App World. Truth be told, BlackBerry App World likely has most of the apps people really need but it gets pounded for not offering thousands of more options.

It’s probably not unlike going to Denny’s, which features a menu with dozens of choices. I suspect the majority of people eat a small number of items, which lets Denny’s offer multiple options with the knowledge that many of them will not be selected.

In the technology world, however, perception is often reality. Consumers like the idea of choice, options and features even though they many not use many of them. It’s the same reason why consumers upgrade devices, hardware and software when what they have is perfectly good.

When it comes to my personal use of apps on my iPhone, most of my time is sucked up by TweetBot, Safari and the camera. Once in awhile, I’ll use Yelp, Dialvetica, Tweeb, AroundMe, Tumblr and Angry Birds. In total, that’s nine apps so I’m clearly in the same camp as Larkin. That said, there are 81 apps on my iPhone, which means most of them collect a lot of digital dust.

So how many apps do you really use or need? And if you had to pay for apps, how many would you have on your device?

Is The Half-Baked PlayBook DOA?

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod, Wireless 11 Comments Tags: , , ,

Would you buy car with no brakes or doors? Would you buy a pair of hockey skates with no blades? What about a laptop with no keyboard?

In what can only be a riddle wrapped up in an enigma, Research in Motion will be launching the much-anticipated PlayBook next week that is, at best, work in progress. From Walter Mossberg’s review, the PlayBook lacks many of the key features that would make a reasonable consumer consider purchasing one, let alone make the PlayBook a viable rival to the iPhone.

For one, the PlayBook lacks cellular connectivity, as well as built-in apps such as e-mail, a calendar, contacts and BlackBerry Messenger. To use these bread-and-butter apps, you need a BlackBerry, which then synchs using software called Bridge. For non-BlackBerry users, they have no choice but to use Web-based applications.

To be frank, the PlayBook’s shortcomings are stunning given RIM announced the PlayBook’s launch months ago. With so much lead time, it’s a complete head-scratcher as to why it would launch something that isn’t ready for prime-time.

RIM says the PlayBook will see many upgrades and improvements in a few months but the biggest danger is it may be too little, too late. High-tech consumers are fickle and not terribly patient so the PlayBook’s half-baked finish will likely see it dissed and dismissed long before RIM can push out newer, better versions.

RIM is clearly hoping consumers will give it the benefit of the doubt for putting out a product prematurely. RIM must believe it needs to move now, otherwise it will give the iPad even more time to dominate the market, and provide Android-powered tablets with the opportunity to stake out more ground.

As someone who has sat on the tablet sidelines to see if an alternative to iPad could emerge, the PlayBook’s launch is disappointing. There is no chance I would buy one, particularly at $499. In fact, the PlayBook’s launch may be the final push for me to finally purchase an iPad.

RIM has never been a terrific marketing company but if this will have to change dramatically if there is any hope for the PlayBook to recover from what appears to an inauspicious debut.

For more, check out Matt Hartley’s story in the Financial Post.

Do the Number of Mobile Apps Matter?

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod, Wireless 5 Comments Tags: , , , , ,

If you listen to Apple, size matters when it comes to the number of mobile apps offered to iPhone users. It’s seen as a strategic strength compared with rivals such as Android, BlackBerry and Microsoft, which have smaller but growing portfolios.

But in the scheme of things does size really matter? Does it really offer a distinct competitive advantage? Here’s where I’m coming from: On my iPhone, there are about 50 apps – many of them downloaded on a whim because they’re free. Of these apps, you know how many I use on a regular basis? Less than five, and I suspect that most people fall into the same camp.

It means if every mobile platform offers the same small group of must-have apps (let’s aggressively assume 250 apps will account for more than 80% of total usage), then having more than 100,000 or even 50,000 apps doesn’t matter.

Yes, I accept the argument that having more apps offers the opportunity to serve the needs of many niche markets. And I recognize there’s marketing mojo in having a large app collection. But if push comes to shove, size doesn’t matter at all as long as consumers have their “basic” needs covered.

I’ve been thinking about this thesis for awhile but it was thrust into the spotlight after reading Randall Stross’ column in the New York Times yesterday on Nokia’s use of Windows Phone 7. One of the people quoted was Thomas R. Eisenmann, a professor at the Harvard Business School, who said:

“What is often missed is the diminishing returns after 1,000 applications. If a platform attracts the thousand-most-popular apps, then it provides almost anything a reasonable person would want to do with a smartphone.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Why I Bought Skates Rather than an iPad2

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod 6 Comments Tags: , , ,

Life is full of choices. You need to choose what to have for lunch. You need to choose how much of a retirement fund contribution to make. You need to choose whether that person you met at a party on the weekend is worth calling for a date. And for many of us in the digital sphere, you have to choose whether or not to buy an iPad2.

As anyone who reads this blog or my tweetsprobably knows, I’ve been deliberating about whether to iPad or not to iPad for several months. But when push came to shove, I decided to buy skates instead – Bauer Supreme to be exact. As much as I didn’t really need a new pair of skates, I needed them more than I needed an iPad.

At the end of the day, the decision was easy: I play hockey three or four times a week so the ROI on a new pair of skates is a no-brainer. I have a MacBook Pro so justifying the purchase of an iPad is more difficult. Getting an iPad isn’t going to make my digital experience or livelihood dramatically better or different. But buying new skates will make playing hockey more enjoyable, although it may not improve my game. :)

As much as I would like to have a new iPad, it’s not a must-have or even a nice-to-have. It’s an extravagance compared with other things. As important, an iPad would probably encourage me to spend more time online at a time when I’m actually trying to be more productive and spend less time online.

So for now, I am iPad-less. But the silver lining is I have a great pair of new skates.

Related links:
- Why iPad 2 Won’t Have Much Competition In 2011—Unless It’s From Amazon
- Media Content Drives Tablet Purchase Intent (eMarketer)

Time to Pull the Trigger on the iPad?

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod 7 Comments Tags: , , ,

I should have an iPad but I don’t…yet. As someone immersed in the digital world personally and professionally, an iPad should be part of my technology tool kit. As well, it’s difficult to tell people about the wonders of something when you have little experience actually using it.

In other words, it’s embarrassing not to have an iPad but I have somehow managed to justify it. Some of my “excuses” are I already have a MacBook Pro and an iPhone so I’ve got the “iThing” covered. As well, I’m not sure if there’s a fit or a compelling need within my technology tool kit. And then there’s the reluctance to purchase the first iteration of any new product, particularly given Apple’s habit of making the next-generation so much better.

But is now the time to bite the bullet and buy an iPad2? Is the newer, sleeker, thinner and faster iPad2 simply too compelling to resist? Has Apple eliminated the “barriers to entry”?

The answer is “Absolutely….definitely…I think so.” In other words, I’m closer to buying an iPad2 but not completely convinced…yet. As much as the iPad is uber-cool, I’m still questioning whether I need/want it or whether it’s the best option given the plethora of tablets hitting the market.

Some of my issues with the iPad include the lack of a USB connection and the inability to tether it to an iPhone (or another wireless device) without a “crack”. At the same time, I’m curious about Android’s “Honeycomb” operating system for tablet devices, which has been much touted.

In other words, I’m still torn about the iPad. That said, if I was walking by an Apple store AND they happend to have an iPad2 in stock AND there were a few dollars burning a hole in my pocket, you never know what could happen.


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