DiogeneX

Interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the Surface Tablet:

“Our PC partners knew in advance we were announcing something today in this space,” Ballmer said.

So how did they feel about it? “No comment.”

Today marked the first WWDC keynote since Steve Jobs’ death. Tim Cook eased into his role as MC, handing off to the normal array of Apple SVPs, although the pensive pauses perhaps betrayed a bit of nerves.

Among the many unspoken messages in the keynote, I was struck by the absence of sentimentality. There was no tribute, no moment of silence, no “one more thing…” Apple has moved on.

The Mac is very much back. After this keynote, if anyone complains that the Mac is a distant concern, please offer them some smelling salts. Each of the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro received updates. And there was even a bit of black cloth action for the next generation MacBook Pro. The Mac Pro update feels like a we-have-run-out-of-previous-generation-chips revision. You have to wonder why bother with such a half-baked update.

iOS is on the back stretch of the race. Where last year was about filling holes, in my opinion, iOS 6 redraws demarcation line of essential services. Mapping, location, messaging, payment, social and Search are being integrated into the OS as service-level APIs. In my opinion, this is less a money grab (see “commoditizing complements”), than a statement that the currency in each of these areas – user trust – is not going to be compromised on iOS.

Siri. OK, so now it helps you be the obnoxious person who pulls out their phone when debating whether Kobe or LeBron is taller. Great. Seriously, though, I like Siri and still believe that its potential remains untapped. But this is a hard problem, and it’s likely several years away from being truly mind-blowing.

Passbook. In a lot of ways, I think Passbook is a lot like AirPlay. It hints at a much greater ambition, which first needs to be field tested. I think Apple believes that users are going to demand Passbook functionality within certain app categories (airplane, tickets, coffeeshops, gift cars). Pull vs. push. And, for the record, I do not think that NFC is the next step.

Lastly, for those of you who watched the Keynote, you will no doubt have seen the “Thank You” video. I believe this is what makes Apple’s approach to the (mobile) computing space so very different from many of its peers. Where some of its competitors market arena robot death matches, Apple shows how its technology is helping to open the world to the blind, to the impoverished, or to those for whom even basic communication is a struggle. You get the impression that someone there gives a damn about the people using their products.

Humanizing technology is not the only marketing tactic. But it resonates, especially when it’s authentic and not a slogan.

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

Steve Jobs, August 24, 2011

Thank you, Steve.

Whenever there is a new major Mac OS X update, in this case Lion, I perform a clean install. This always affords me an opportunity to re-think the software that is essential to my workflow. Thought I’d share my Mac must-haves. There is plenty of other outstanding software out there that isn’t on this list, so don’t read this as anything more than a list of software that fits my needs.

• SuperDuper
• LaunchBar
• 1Password
• TextMate (Better with PeepOpen.)
• Google Chrome
• Xcode 4
• FastScripts
• Boom
• Transmit
• DropBox
• Twitter for Mac
• Apple’s iWork suite
• Soulver
• Homebrew
• RVM

The latest version of Mac OS X (Lion or 10.7) was released today. If you’re looking for a review, please read John Siracusa’s always excellent one written for Ars Technica. Instead, I’ll offer just a few loose thoughts on what I believe we may see over the next several years.

• Larger iPads. Cheaper iPhones (I know… I know…).
• A fork of iOS to support different user interface idioms made possible by larger screen sizes. As an example, Mission Control’s UI strikes me as the application switching interface that the iPad should have.
• Macs and Mac OS continuing as products for higher-end applications and use cases.

iPhones may very well go the route of the iPod, with a model for every purse and purpose. But the iPad’s route, I believe, is quite different. The more I use one, the more I believe that its iPhone-fueled jumpstart was just that. Perhaps it’s better to think of the iPad as the ultimate do-over: all of the Mac’s early promise with 30 years of hard-won wisdom.

Some customers chose to purchase an iPad instead of a Mac, but even more decided to buy an iPad over a Windows PC. There are a lot more Windows PCs to cannibalize than Macs. - Apple COO Tim Cook

While others debate the future of Social Network disruption, I thought I’d list a few of my observations about technology-related discussions within social networks. Consider these an extension of Godwin’s Law. (I’ll keep adding to this list.)

• For any new operating system release, there will always be one person who plays the Vista card.
• Make any point about early-stage technological transformation, and someone will point out that the United States ≠ The World! 
• Nuance and frequently sarcasm do not carry over well, especially in 140-characters. Use them liberally anyway. 
• Every topic is a bridge. And every bridge has a troll. The Android and Apple bridge trolls snap loudly and quickly but can be distracted… Squirrel. The Microsoft bridge troll demands a toll for passage, but otherwise sits counting his loot and sweating.
• Express an interest in a topic, inevitably someone will complain once you’ve strayed from your OBLIGATION to ONLY talk about said topic. Double curse if that topic is technology. 
• Someone will always take it or make it personal(ly). 
• Someone always brings a cloud because negativity gives no quarter.
• Those who can debate. Those who can’t grammar check. (Where would we be if rules couldn’t be broken?)
• Finally, you will need a dictionary.

[Apple] are so successful in their execution that they need the next huge thing to make the stock actually rally. You’ve got to know what the next goldmine is going to be. - Michael Yoshikami

This is mortifyingly stupid. But it exemplifies the labored logic which underlies financial markets and stock price performance. Consistent long-term performance will be deemed a bore, while vapid bangs draw attention and price appreciation. Even when touters are hard-pressed to explain why a business makes sense.

Find a goldmine indeed. Never mind that it’s an inch deep and a minute long.

The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball. They know that overstaying the festivities — that is, continuing to speculate in companies that have gigantic valuations relative to the cash they are likely to generate in the future — will eventually bring on pumpkins and mice. But they nevertheless hate to miss a single minute of what is one helluva party. Therefore, the giddy participants all plan to leave just seconds before midnight. There’s a problem, though: They are dancing in a room in which the clocks have no hands. - Warren Buffet (emphasis added)

At a glance, the iPad is the simplest product to duplicate. After all, it’s just a sheet of touch-sensitive glass with a logic board and giant battery attached.

So why is it proving so difficult for competitors to capture its magic?

Simply put, the iPad challenges the technology industry to build a cooperative product. A cooperative product being one in which you cannot immediately discern the conflicts between all of the teams responsible for the end-product.

In a post-iPad world, a product isn’t going to be good enough if its hardware is outstanding but the software calls in sick. Or where the software is intriguing but the hardware is slow. Or worse, where the marketing team comes up with something so outlandish that it defies comprehension.

In management theory, there’s a well known construct called the Project Triangle. The idea is that a product has three potential properties (Good, Fast and Cheap) but can only optimize two of the three. I’d argue that the iPad is responsible for a new paradigm: Expressive, Understandable and Cheap.

Expressive (which I’d also call macro-functional) means a user is able to accomplish their tasks, however specific, with minimal compromise. Software quality and, to some degree, quantity make this possible.

Understandable means a design (both software and hardware) that emphasizes simplicity without compromising power. Users aren’t forced to fight through a morass of options to accomplish simple things. This requires an opinionated, rigorous editorial process carried through both the product design and its supporting ecosystems.

Cheap means price, value and the cost of a user’s time. If a product requires a mod-kit right out of the box to feel useful, it has already failed. Yes, even if it costs $249.

The essence of the points above are little more than a distillation of Rams’ 10 Principles for Good Design.

Yet instead of optimizing two of the three properties, Apple has managed to optimize all three. So I’ll leave you with a riddle: how can you balance a triangle on all three sides?

Aaron Holesgrove, in a contributor piece for Silicon Alley Insider, titled “Why Windows 8 is not Fundamentally Flawed as a Response to the iPad,” takes the typical path of defending Microsoft’s latest innovation against a mob of Apple fans. In short, he lambasts the critics’ logical inconsistencies, the simplicity of Apple’s toy-like products, and deftly suggests the entire operation is part of an agenda.

I won’t do a point by point shred of Aaron’s post. That’s not necessary. But I do think the most important point for proponents and critics alike is to understand that the jig is up.

The iPad is indeed a toy. But not in the Thomas the Tank Engine sense of being fit for small children alone. Rather, we’ve arrived at an era of computing where computers need no longer be intimidating or inscrutable.

You pick them up and start using them. They welcome casual exploration (“What happens if I tap this, or this?”). There are no frightening blue screens of death or frantic calls to tech savvy relatives.

Perhaps these tablets do lack the complexity masquerading as power that the Technical Tories like to wield as a death blow critique of the iPad and its ilk. But the dirty, undeniable secret, is that the iPad just works (now, straight out of the box). Some might even call that magical.

Windows 8 does look good. But I’d be lying if I said that the sight of legacy Windows wasn’t as jarring as being approached by someone hot, only to be asked if you might be interested in their hideous, fat friend.

The fact is that I want many platforms to succeed, because ultimately that yields more choice and a better overall experience for customers. But without a re-think of the fundamental assumption behind years of Windows software (complexity = power > simplicity), I believe Windows 8 will suffer the same fate as its cousin, Windows Mobile 6.

The WWDC 2011 Keynote is over. Lots of new features, services and APIs were announced, the implications of which will not be truly felt for months or longer. But a few quick thoughts on today’s event:

• Apple’s vision of the cloud makes native apps better. Others see the cloud as a substitute for native apps.
• Some will say that the Mac was “demoted”. I prefer to say that iOS devices have been brought on par with the Mac. The toddler stage for iOS is over. Unsurprisingly, Apple dropped the “Mac” from “Mac OS X.” Over-reading the tea leaves, I’m sure this will prompt speculation about the next version of OS X, in which I believe the distinction between iOS and OS X will become negligible. Perhaps to the point of (gasp) validating Microsoft’s Windows 8 approach.
• The mobile game has changed (again). It’s no longer about app counts (425K by latest count for iOS), app stores or hardware. Apple is making the compelling case that none of this matters without the knitting (a robust services layer) tying each piece together. Anyone can put puzzle pieces in a bag, but it takes a certain skill to assemble the total picture.
• Some fundamental changes were made to Apple’s development tools, which (I believe) go some way toward addressing many of John Siracusa’s points in Copland 2010 Revisited.
• Apple TV was, for me, the elephant in the room. Other than Photo Stream, no new features have been publicly announced for it. Hopefully, more to come here, especially going into a Fall event.