The Chicago Sun-Times is running an article about how its possible to purchase someone’s cell phone records(!). This isnt limited only to the site listed, which sells your phone records including the numbers you called during the one month period. There are, according to Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) , over 40 web sites offering this service.
Brett Arends at Boston Herald would like to see Apple pick up Palm for the $1.1 Billion its supposed to be worth, but I dont see this happening.
What is Palm now? Palm sold its operating system to Access Corporation of Japan. Access has a long term business in the OEM market for phone-internet integration in Japan and Java oriented solutions. A smart buy for Access as this would likely seem to herald the first real penetration of the PalmOS into the Japanese phone market. Without Sony selling PDAs based on PalmOS, where was Palm anyway in Japan? They were quite late to market when the iron was hot in the US, and never did seem to recover there. At the time, the only real player in the market was the Sharp Zaurus, a very powerful handheld that was not only expensive but very difficult to develop applications for; Palm had the opportunity to get into the market quickly but elected not to.
There’s no reason for Apple to acquire Palm. Apple’s brand is on the rise;Palm’s brand is on the wane (WinCE devices slowly but steadily filling up the void). Apple already has an underlying operating system that runs on the iPod. What would Palm provide at $1.1 billion that Apple couldnt create itself for much less?
Gamasutra’s feature article today is called Game Law: To Sue or Not to Sue…That is the Question. This is a fine article that is unfortunately almost as relevant for traditional application developers. In my experience, legal confrontations seem to occur far more in games/entertainment rather than in the shrinkwrap apps market.
I seem to be doing a lot of writing for everyone except Software Destinations! Here is a return to the deadly sins series I started a few months ago, in response to an incredible conference I went to at the Software Association of Oregon in April. To quickly recap, these are deadly sins that CEOs of software companies commit that ultimately destroy their company. This next sin is “Good Planning, Bad Execution”. Read the rest of this entry »
Apple Computer introduced today a new professional photo product called Aperture. Priced at $499, its $100 less than Photoshop CS2. The price point is facinating, both of Aperture and of Photoshop. And Im certain that, while most reviews will certainly indicate that Aperture doesn’t have the feature set of Photoshop, it will certainly make full use of the graphics toolbox underlying the MacOS X operating system. Read the rest of this entry »
In an efford to increase revenue by tapping every dollar earned off of the iPod eco-system, Apple is increasing pressure on ipod peripheral makers to pay up their 10% in the Made for iPod program, according to a report on News.com. Apparently to gain access to critical information regarding a new port, you have to pay to play. Apple is not without precident in doing this. Microsoft, for example, intends on tapping peripheral makers for a percentage for the xBox 360.
Greg Costikyan’s two part Death to the Game Industry: Long Live Games provides an interesting look at the shrinkwrapped game business, and how much more awful it is than the state of application software distribution in North America. Application and game distribution is a rickety thing, full of faults. Greg points most of the serious ones, but regretably the only solution he offers is wishing for a better world in which the creator is exalted. Read the rest of this entry »
eWeek’s Channel Insider takes a look at the state of Mac value-added resellers. This rehashed a lot of the anxiety and “Tell on Apple” gripes that Apple Specialists have had for the last several years. But the emphasis on services, especially for PCs is interesting for software vendors.
I get mixed signals from my channel contacts when it comes to margins on Macs: a very wide variance between what’s been told to me by a big boy reseller vs what the small time Apple Specialists get. Across the board though, they say that customers can take a retail quote from a retailer and have it matched by the Apple Store. There’s no real option for competing on price. Channel Insider’s article also reiterates that Mac only shops have to depend on services to survive (some small timers would say this is based on the tiny margins they get on a CPU).
So what’s the story on software? I think you’ll find almost all the little stores buy from the same distributor, and there’s little there for variation on pricing (this same distributor serves the Apple Store as well). There’s no mistaking the service angle. Resellers I know have said Apple’s been telling them to do that for years. It is a smart way to add value. But with software, Ive never see a reseller carry the same or more titles as an Apple Store or CompUSA for that matter, even though carrying differentiating software titles could be another way that differentiates them from the Apple Store. In other words, don’t take Mac VARs hunger as a signal they will buy your software product — even though they should. They seem content, for the most part, to sell whatever is on the shared distribution menu.
AutoDesk is acquiring Alias Rearch. AutoDesk acquiring Alias is to 3D what Adobe acquiring Macromedia is for 2D graphics and design. The combination of bloodbath and consolidation continues. Read the rest of this entry »
I just read Michael Panda’s rant article How Apple iTunes 5.0 Almost Ruined My Life and can totally relate where he is coming from, having put in six years in Japan myself. This seems like a classic business infrastructure vs technology problem that is at the heart of issues surrounding international distribution. At the heart of this is that good development can solve problems but they cannot resolve territorial issues. Read the rest of this entry »