PointConcept

With Apple selling its two millionth iPad recently, it was noted that the company now sells more devices in the IP range (iPod, iPhone, iPad) than its Macintosh computer range.
Steve Jobs has been heard to comment that Apple is a mobile company now.  

None of this is a surprise. The tight correlation and control between the OS and the hardware is a fundamental premise of Apple since Jobs returned to the head of his company.
One of the first things he did was stop all third party production of hardware to run the OS. No Windows running on IBM clones.

This meant that the same integration we see in mobile phones and their software was always present in the Apple approach. It was a great part of the marketing. The idea that you could take a Mac out of the box give it power, plug it into your phone line and be connected to the web and doing what you wanted within a mere few minutes.  
The connected part is important too. Apple was pushing the web very early and concentrating on making it easy to be connected and assuming you would be doing things which required you to be connected. Mac’s were never supposed to be isolated from the world.

So the groundwork for the iPhone and the iPad was laid many years ago. Apple as a mobile device vendor was a natural progression of its philosophy of tight control and connection. Jobs just needed the rest of the technology to catch up.

Pundits are saying that the new iPhone (version 4) has opened the gap again between what Apple produces and what others are doing. By others they often mean Google and not Microsoft which seems to have missed the boat.

It all comes back to the natural transition Apple have made and the philosophy of user experience. While Apple talk of experience and ease of use (out of the box and using) and what you can do with it, others are still talking about what it does and how it does it.

In this the pundits are wrong. It is not that Apple has opened the gap with the technology of the iPhone or the iPad. The technology can be copied. It is that Apple has always understood the purpose of the technology and is why they have kept tight control.

Good technology should be invisible. It should let us do our tasks without creating tasks of its own. We should be able to take it out of the box and get on with using it.

That is why Apple will lead. They talk about what you can do with their products. Not what the product does. There is a difference.

Original post for Sunlive.co.nz.

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First let me apologize for being quiet for the last couple of weeks, I have been rather busy with a secret project.
A few weeks ago when I went to the Auckland Cloud camp I had a good chat with Vaughn Rowsell, founder of VendHQ.

VendHQ is a true Kiwi innovation in the true fashion of our early adoption of EFTPOS. Think of this as CloudPOS. It is a point of sale which runs directly through your browser and connects you to scanning hardware through any PC or Mac you want to use. This means far lower overheads for small business. No expensive terminals with ugly software and constant visits to upgrade. The system stores your data off-site, as well as locally, so it’s all backed up on secure servers. If your connection goes down your tills keep working and update when the internet link comes back.

But the cost and security is only part of what attracted me to VendHQ. For small business owners who have a physical shop and an online outlet, it offers the possibility to harmonize the two into one POS. No double-handling of stock. When you run out online it’s gone from the store and vice versa, with the system knowing – and warning you before hand to get some more stock.

Via your website you can provide customers with access to a record of everything they buy in either store front, offline or online. Track rewards, special offers and provide the kind of customer value the large retailers go for with loyalty cards.
Customers in a hurry could potentially run into the shop, grab some items, scan them themselves, and pay online later. I say potentially, it’s an honesty box issue.
Staff could assist shoppers by going round with them and adding items via an Ipad or other small USB enabled device, or a scanner with wireless to a PC.
Accounts would be a simple thing to have and have settled up online. Easier to track and record than the system they use in my local supermarket (a book).
VenHQ is in its final beta testing now with some forward thinking shops. It’s worth a very good look if you need a better system or are setting up a shop.
http://vendhq.com/

Original post from sunlive.co.nz April 9 2010.

And this is the problem with just about every lame speech, every overlooked memo, every worthless bit of boilerplate foisted on the world: you write and write and talk and talk and bullet and bullet but no, you’re not really saying anything.

It took me two minutes to find a million examples. Here’s one, “The firm will remain competitive in the constantly changing market for defense legal services by creating and implementing innovative and effective methods of providing cost-effective, quality representation and services for our clients.”

Write nothing instead. It’s shorter.

Most people work hard to find artful ways to say very little. Instead of polishing that turd, why not work harder to think of something remarkable or important to say in the first place?

Is this a mantra for the modern age?
I will say no more.

Well, Google has taken the next step in its world domination plan, banning Microsoft Windows from internal use.

Employees will be given the choice between Apple’s Mac OS and Linux.

Adding insult to injury, Google is also publicly citing Windows security problems for the decision and blaming Windows vulnerabilities for the China hacking incident.

So that’s 20,000 Windows licenses that won’t be sold and renewed at Google in future years. 

Given that Google is in the process of introducing a competitive platform and operating system (Android/Chrome), this move isn’t surprising.  The important question for Microsoft is whether other companies will follow suit.

David Gelles and Richard Waters, FT:

Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees.

The directive to move to other operating systems began in earnest in January, after Google’s Chinese operations were hacked, and could effectively end the use of Windows at Google, which employs more than 10,000 workers internationally.

“We’re not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort,” said one Google employee.

“Many people have been moved away from [Windows] PCs, mostly towards Mac OS, following the China hacking attacks,” said another.

New hires are now given the option of using Apple’s Mac computers or PCs running the Linux operating system. “Linux is open source and we feel good about it,” said one employee. “Microsoft we don’t feel so good about.”

Keep reading at the FT >