lmac

If I recall correctly, the first version of Apple's online store was acquired when Apple shut down the clones and bought PowerComputing, which had a slick build to order website.

One of DED's favorite forms of storytelling is rewriting history to make Apple and Jobs seem to have thought of everything, but let's remember that we don't write articles about flops. You never see DED defending the genius of Ping, the iTunes social network, or the Apple HiFi. Still, there are lots of things in this article that qualify as spin, or that are just plain false. 1) When the iPad came out, people were stunned that it was just a scaled up phone that couldn't make phone calls, and not a more capable device. They were correct about its early limitations. 2) The product name almost sunk the launch, with people comparing it to feminine hygiene products. 3) The predicted dominance of the eBook and magazine industry never came to pass. 4) Jobs totally missed the importance of the App Store and 3rd party apps, which came later, and really had much to do with the success of the device. 5) Job's insistence that a stylus and keyboard were unnecessary have since been reversed, so which is it? Is Apple on the wrong track today, or did Jobs get it wrong in the beginning? 6) The iPad push into the K12 classroom as a textbook replacement is over. Schools are replacing aging iPads with Chromebooks that cost less, are more rugged, easier to manage, and simply do more. 7) The one big thing Apple got right was to make the iPad the best tablet money can buy, and to keep making incremental improvements. Staying above the low-end competition is what Apple always does, but it paid off because the low end Android and Amazon tablets are clunky, sluggish, and non-intuitive in comparison.

Have any of you read the HG Wells short story, The Country of the Blind? A sighted person discovers a valley where everyone is blind, and thinks to himself, "In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." The reader begins by thinking the sighted man will have an advantage over them, but the story cleverly turns it around, in a number of examples where, for example, the blind are proficient at something that happens in total darkness and they think the new guy is incompetent because he can't do the thing without his sight.

I expect Apple will be there soon with regard to original content for TV. At $15 million an episode, and with only ~4 original shows, good luck Tim. Wish Apple would stick to making innovative software and hardware, and leave the content, whether it be music or shows, to the experts.

There is a market for a waterproof phone. Seal it up. Use bluetooth speaker and mic, and wireless charging, and call it the iPhone Sport series. It's not necessarily for everyone, but I think a lot of people would buy one.  It would allow Apple to push these technologies forward without immediately forcing them on everyone.