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As I look back on 2012, a number of products stand out as memorable. I figured I'd use my last column of the year to take a moment to recall each one and what made it special. This is also the time I look back and pick my product of the year -- the one product that I just can't live without. ...
At the core of any major political argument like gun control or abortion is power. If you believe in Argumentative Theory, these battles are less about actually doing the right thing and more about one side or the other gaining social status. For instance, right after the Newtown event, Twitter came alive with gun control advocates calling any...
Dell World 2012 was fascinating this year for a number of reasons. First, Bill Clinton was the big keynote and he didn't disappoint. I think he took an interesting Libertarian view on how the U.S. government could fix the financial problem. Unfortunately, he implied that the first step would be to get rid of the politicians whose zero-sum game was pretty much assuring a really bad outcome.
Last week was defined largely by two interesting stories. One had Apple bringing some manufacturingback to the U.S.(some interesting thoughts on this here),and the other revolved around the outcome of the latest trialbetween Apple and Samsung. It shows you how hard it is to read a judge, though. I thought Judge Lucy Koh would likely raise the awar...
I spent much of last week hanging out with Lenovo. Although much of what we chat about in thosemeetings can't be repeated, one thing I can talk about is how Lenovo almost stands alone in defendingthe PC. While there seems to be a consensus that the PC is dead and being stomped into its grave bywave after wave of smartphones and tablets, Lenovo missed that meeting. In a market defined bydecline, it has demonstrated double digit growth...
After seeing the new Microsoft offerings, Steve Wozniak recently lamented that Microsoft is nowout innovating Apple. Wozniak is the surviving founder of Apple, and his perspective clearly isimportant, but he was the guy who got the product to work. It was the other Steve who was largely responsible for creating the entity that was Apple, and it was the other Steve that made it a huge success.
We've had a couple of weeks to think about the election outcome, and both sides are positioning the results around the issues. This has become so divisive that there is a significant move by Texas to exit the United States and become a country. I've spent some time looking at this, and the real reason the Republicans lost is that the Democrats use...
One of the most interesting rumors floating around last week was that Microsoft was working on a small form factor tablet that will be focused on gaming and branded Xbox. This could be a very interesting tablet, especially coupled with the initial success of the Surface tablet. This is becoming a family, starting with the rumored Microsoft phon...
The last decade seemed to be about the decline of Microsoft, the dominance of Apple, and the emergence of Google. As we go into this decade, Microsoft seems to be trending up, Apple looks increasingly at risk, and Google looks more and more like the Microsoft of a decade ago. It is almost as if the companies have shuffled and changed chairs. I'...
You really don't get a sense of just how limited the iPad is until you actually explore the Surfacetablet that Microsoft released last week. It is like the designers sat down over beers and argued over everysingle shortcoming they found in the iPad and then built into Surface just the right features to make the iPad look inadequate. It is as if th...
There is probably no battle we will see that will better define the futures of the new post Steve JobsApple and Steve Ballmer's revitalized Microsoft than this week's dueling launches. Apple is defined asthe company that focuses tightly and drives people to its products, while Microsoft's strength is in thebreadth of partners that collectively have the power to obliterate all challengers.
Given that the Theme for Windows 95 Was "Start Me Up" (check out this classic ad), Windows 8 likely should pull from the old Beatles hit "Getting Better." As we approach launch, it truly appears to be getting better all the time. It is clear Microsoft has been holding some things back for the launch You see, I've been working on a Windows 8 tablet ...
The technology market is a graveyard of companies that had potential and lost their way either to fail or be gobbled up and lose their identity. Netscape, Novell, DEC/Digital, Palm, Transmeta, ATI, ROLM, Northern Telecom, and FLIP are all names of companies that have left us as independents or completely over time. Most of these firms were high fliers once, but all of them hit hard times, resulting in the disappearance of their brand and identity.
I was watching "The Daily Show" the other night and Jon Stewart walked through the failures of the Obama administration, concluding that anyone who did this badly couldn't be reelected if not for the Democrats' secret weapon. He then showed Mitt Romney as that secret weapon, along with a number of troubling clips that made a powerful point about the impressive number of mistakes Romney is making. It's so bad it reminded Stewart of the book Flowers for Algernon. ...
Sometimes if you stand back a moment, which is what I have to do, you suddenly see broader trends, and what I'm seeing now is that the planets seem to be aligning for a Microsoft decade. However, I'm reminded that the difference between chance and luck is the difference between a hundred bucks landing in front of you unseen and your picking it up. ...
Last week at Intel's Developer Forum, I was on a panel of folks -- led by renowned futurist Briand DavidJohnson -- who are trying to make sure future products are better at taking into account the people they aredesigned for This purpose was connected to one of the major points made by Dr. Genevieve Bell: that weshould take the trouble to understan...
As Apple demonstrated itself with the iPod and iPad, the way to take control of a market is to redefine itaround a model that favors your products. Last week, Amazon took a page from Steve Jobs' book, bothin how it presented the new Kindle line and in how this line shifts the market dynamic from one that favors Apple to one that favors Amazon. CEO Jeff Bezos even had a "one more thing" ending that Tim Cook will find it hard to top...
The Windows 8 launch in October promises to be like no other launch. I think it will drive home several points that many of us don't seem to understand, like the fact that we both whine there isn't enough innovation and run for the hills when someone innovates in a mature market. I think Microsoft will change a lot after this launch, and as a result, the PC ecosystem will be dramatically different next year. ...
The reason we keep asking about Google and evil is because early in their existence they appeared to create a policy of not being evil. This was most unusual, but since then the invasions of privacy and moves like taking self-driving cars on the road without approval in early testing seemed to test that definition. The reason car companies do...
In Silicon Valley where Apple is located, burglaries are up more than 30 percent, largely because police havestopped responding to them. If you are reasonably well off, particularly if you are Asian, and you likenice stuff, the chance you'll get burglarized near Apple's new headquarters is approaching 50 percent odds. If things continue, it will be virtually certain by the end of the decade.
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