Daniel Eran Dilger
Apple critics have been working to push the idea that the company’s pricing models in iTunes are in trouble and that HBO’s recent deal to sell shows for $2.99 per episode will cause a stampede toward untenably higher pricing. They’re wrong, here’s why.
iTunes’ Content Pricing Not in Crisis
May 15th, 2008 — History, Journal, Markets, Software, Tech, the Media
WWDC sold out with over 5,000 attendees
May 14th, 2008 — AI
Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, scheduled for June 9-11, has sold out for the first time ever. Attendance at the event has rapidly grown as interest in the Mac platform has snowballed in proportion to rapid new sales of Macs.
Build It and They Will Come.
This year however, WWDC is expanding to address the new iPhone mobile WiFi platform, an new expansion Apple illustrated in WWDC marketing with a photoshopped doubling of San Francisco’s landmark Golden Gate Bridge.
Continues: WWDC sold out with over 5,000 attendees
QuarkXPress 8 to target Adobe’s Creative Suite this August
May 13th, 2008 — AI
Quark, Inc. is preparing to release a major new version of its flagship QuarkXPress software this fall, aimed at cementing its lead in the market for professional desktop publishing against Adobe’s rival InDesign product, AppleInsider has learned.
People familiar with the release say the new version is slated to take on the publishing features of Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash in a revamped, standardized, and polished package that will temporarily be offered as a free upgrade to new buyers of the existing QuarkXPress 7 ahead of the 8.0 release in the August timeframe.
Continues: QuarkXPress 8 to target Adobe’s Creative Suite this August
iPod Game Console, Tablet at WWDC? Highly Unlikely
May 13th, 2008 — History, Markets, Mobiles, Software, Tech, the Media
Daniel Eran Dilger
Inventory shortages of the iPhone appear to predict the launch of a new 3G model, long expected to be released this June around the first year anniversary of its debut. However, the rumor mill has recently kicked into overdrive to predict the arrival of another new device based on the same platform, either focused on gaming or serving as a tablet device. This is highly unlikely, for the following reasons.
From Vista to Zune: Why Microsoft Can’t Sell to Consumers
May 12th, 2008 — History, Journal, Markets, Software, Tech, the Media
Daniel Eran Dilger
Microsoft’s marketing of Windows Vista and the Zune have failed in large part due to the fact that Microsoft has not learned how to effectively sell consumer products. Consumers buy Windows and Office, but that’s because they have no choice, not because of the company’s marketing savvy. Microsoft only effectively markets its products to businesses, which represents a very different type of sales relationship.
Businesses are so used to disgorging overloaded language about facilitating and empowering that they don’t find Microsoft’s marketing of the same caliber all that difficult to swallow. Consumers are a whole ‘nother ball game, and Microsoft is striking out in efforts to reach them. This has big impacts on the company’s future prospects.
Climate Counts’ Fake Attack on Apple
May 10th, 2008 — History, Journal, Markets, Tech, the Media
Daniel Eran Dilger
Copying the self-serving campaigns run by SVTC and Greenpeace, the group Climate Counts has made Apple, Inc. the core of its latest press releases. The group says Apple “is not yet taking meaningful action on climate change,” and is a “choice to avoid for the climate-conscious consumer,” but then points out that its “action” metrics are all based on ineffectual political posturing. And the reason for the tough critique: Apple elected not to join the Climate Counts consortium last year and throw money at the group’s ineffectual efforts to “facilitate engagement.”
Zune Sales Still In the Toilet
May 9th, 2008 — History, Journal, Markets, Software, Tech, the Media
Daniel Eran Dilger
Microsoft has been keeping awfully quiet about sales figures for its Zune, a product that many Windows Enthusiasts originally predicted would cause considerable grief for Apple’s iPod. However, despite a new model refresh last fall and plenty of advertising, Microsoft has been left to announce that its actual sales are still a joke.
According to an Associated Press article citing Jason Reindorp, Zune’s director of product marketing, the device has sold “just north of two million” between its debut in November 2006 and May 2008. Apple has sold roughly 76 million iPods during that same period, more than doubling the installed base of iPods since the Zune’s debut.
Flash Wars: Adobe Fights for AIR with the Open Screen Project
May 7th, 2008 — AI
Flash has plenty of enemies and obstacles, but it also enjoys wide deployment and familiarity. Two areas where Flash can offer real value is in displaying and packaging video on the web, and in serving as a Java replacement for developing applets. Here’s a look at how Adobe is working to defend its strengths in the face of competition, and how its efforts to open the Flash specification in the Open Screen Project play into these efforts.
Continues: Flash Wars: Adobe Fights for AIR with the Open Screen Project
Flash Wars: The Many Enemies and Obstacles of Flash
May 6th, 2008 — AI
While widely deployed as a web plugin and among the few web technologies that have become a household word, Adobe’s Flash has more than a few substantial enemies that would like to see it replaced, cloned, or erased.
Additionally, Flash faces a number of significant obstacles that are its own fault. These also erode Adobe’s position and have helped force its hand in opening the Flash specification. Here’s a look at the external competitors of Flash, and how Flash has hurt its own chances to establish itself as a web platform in the future.
Continues: Flash Wars: The Many Enemies and Obstacles of Flash
Rene Ritchie presented Flash cookies as another thorn in the Flash platform for users, as described in the article Flash on iPhone: Video Dream or Privacy Nightmare? - Phone different
Flash Wars: Adobe in the History and Future of Flash
May 5th, 2008 — AI, Markets, Software, Tech
Pitted against Microsoft’s efforts to crush Flash using its own copycat Silverlight platform, open source projects seeking to duplicate Flash for free, and Apple’s efforts to create a mobile platform wholly free of any trace of Flash, Adobe has scrambled to announce efforts to make Flash a public specification in the Open Screen Project.
Will it help get Flash on the iPhone? Here’s the first segment of a three part series with a historical overview of the wars between Flash and Adobe, Microsoft, Sun, Apple, Google, and the open source community, the problems Flash faces today, and what future Flash can hope for as an open specification.
Continues: AppleInsider | Flash Wars: Adobe in the History and Future of Flash
Incidentally, Flash was the subject of the first article I wrote on RoughlyDrafted: Flash in the Plan
