Friday

In The Economist: Lessons From Apple. While the article doesn’t break any new (management theory) ground, it does highlight the basics of Apple’s success. One thing that’s always impressed me about Apple is this:

… Apple illustrates the importance of designing new products around the needs of the user, not the demands of the technology. Too many technology firms think that clever innards are enough to sell their products, resulting in gizmos designed by engineers for engineers. Apple has consistently combined clever technology with simplicity and ease of use. The iPod was not the first digital-music player, but it was the first to make transferring and organising music, and buying it online, easy enough for almost anyone to have a go. Similarly, the iPhone is not the first mobile phone to incorporate a music-player, web browser or e-mail software. But most existing “smartphones” require you to be pretty smart to use them.

Mr. Gates & Co. should pay attention. The PC, in addition to those “smart phones” that require an MS-EE to operate, is way too damned difficult for the “average” user to master. Macs, on the other hand, don’t seem to be all that hard for the average user to operate easily and effectively…and to “do stuff,” creative, useful stuff. Of course, that’s the thrust of Apple’s clever PC vs. Mac ad campaign. There’s serious truth at the heart of all those Mac ads. You know this if you’ve used both platforms; the ad campaign effectively makes the point even if you’ve never used a Mac. And the ads are entertaining, too.

My next PC just might be a Mac. Just sayin’.

Sorta related: Skype-founder and leading European technologist Niklas Zennstroem, on technology and how it will shape our future. Excerpt:

A technology platform that is based on a solid, intellectual, R&D driven culture has the opportunity to thrive among a hungry community that wants life made easier.

I've spent most of my professional life working in the communications industry. I've seen many technologies come and go.

The ones that fail tend to be too hard to use and impenetrable to the average consumer.

And they fail because the benefit is often overshadowed by the hype. Many potentially great technologies disappear because, quite simply, they do not give people what they want.

That's the key to it really. I am passionate about technology but it is not the never-ending quest to make things smaller, faster, lighter or cheaper that gets me motivated. The sort of new technology that I think about isn't usually born in a boardroom, a technology campus, the back of a garage or as a result of thousands of marketing focus groups.

It tends to originate from a simple idea that can be easily explained to anyone who isn't interested in how you make the technology work but more importantly, interested in what it does.

I’m such a sucker for articles like this…

Steeljaw Scribe has moved off Blogger and now has a spiffy WordPress site. Drop on over and give him a shout-out!

I’m liking the look and feel of the WordPress blogs I read…a lot. The thought has occurred to me— more than once —about moving to WordPress, as well. And why not, you may ask? Inertia, Gentle Reader. The bane of my existence.

Another anniversary, of sorts. I noted yesterday that the 40^th anniversary of the Six-Day War had just passed. Today the BBC has an article about the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty that happened during the Six-Day War, and the multiplicity of conspiracy theories surrounding that tragic attack…in which 34 sailors died and another 170 were injured. Do go read the article if you’re not familiar with the Liberty’s story…Hell, go read even if you know all about it. I learned a few new things.

Today’s Pic: Remember I told you I snapped some pictures of the violent t-storms that moved through P-Town this past Tuesday? Well, actually, the storm didn’t hit us… it passed just to the north and east of P-Town. But it sure made for some memorable pictures! Here’s one such, above.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007.