Tuesday, January 26, 2010

New Apple Device: Will it Lure Bill Gates out of Retirement?

A few days ago, I blogged about the second generation ebook reader. I was referring to the new device that is being announced by Apple tomorrow.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Apple Execs, who are giddy with glee about their new device. Giddy? Content providers are also reacting the same way. Besides Apple, the winners are users out there and all the book, newspaper and magazine publishers, who were struggling with a digital business model.

It's the OS
The key thing is that Apple began this journey years ago with some critical developments. First, it was all about taking an Operating System (OS) and making it mobile friendly (iPod, iPhone).  Lots of naysayers have ignored this key move. It is the OS here that is strategic. Hardware can be copied. Software and great UI design is much much harder to mimic.

Second it was building two content related ecosystems, iTunes and then the AppStore. No other AppStore has come even close to Apple's success and iTunes remains the gold standard for music distribution.

So now Apple is about to launch a new device with great content and you have a recipe that will crush all comers. Who wins? You do. Students, Soccer Moms and even business people be carrying one soon.

Apple is on a roll right now. Google is a few laps behind (on Mobile) and we keep waiting for a response from Microsoft. It makes one wonder when Microsoft Founder Bill Gates will need to come out of retirement.

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