I’m not going to talk about the pros and cons of Apple iPhone (well, maybe I’ll do, but just a little).
Everybody is talking about it. Everybody with a little knowledge of what pdas can deliver knows that iPhone is the sexiest device on Earth, but not the smartest. Tech forums often compare Nokia n95 to Apple iPhone and the result always is: n95 is the real new thing, but Apple masters marketing and design magic and it’s definitely the trend setter.
All this said, I prefer to look at it in a different way. I see Apple’s move as a smart way to keep growing when the mp3-phone-player tsunami is coming to clean away their nice niche. I don’t think we will have to wait long to see the washing machines on the market capable of playing mp3 and YouTube videos. It’s clear tha the iPod - Apple’s cash cow - cannot be milked forever. So they had to move forward. They had to do it quick: that’s why iPhones have this little hitch with the battery duration (it drains faster than a Rum bottle at a party of exchange students) and they lack of a very little thing for a third-generation phone: a third-generation communication system (i.e. umts)! It will come, sooner or later. But still it’s not there and this is very disappointing.
Anyhow, timing, design and marketing of the iPhone were just great. The idea to grab “only” 1% of the global market looked also great, at least it kept happy the investors. But, this time Apple is not dwelling in his own niche. Apple is trying to steal it from other players like Nokia, Motorola and Samsung. I work for a finnish company, so I must admit that I like Nokia products. What I like the most is the ability of Nokia to adapt to the ever changing market. Nokia is now selling 6 out of 10 phones sold worldwide. It’s competing on every segment, manufacturing phones for the rich western countries and for the emerging markets as well (which are extremely important: Motorola is said to have lost the 2nd place to Samsung due to its inability to compete on the emerging markets).
So the question is: will Nokia let Apple eat out the richest and most profitable segment?
A first hint of future Nokia strategy appeared already in February: “the iPhone will stimulate the market“. The idea is that Apple, with its marketing power, will change people’s mind and show the benefit of multipurpose phones. After all the iPhone is no big deal. It’s just a computer with Unix-like software running on a Samsung processor. It should not be difficult to replicate it and offer it at cheaper prices. It could also be a nice way to penetrate the US market where Nokia is not very strong.
Today the big news (even though it was partly revealed at the beginning of the month): Nokia will go on Internet! Apple biggest success was to get extremely high returns from the supply contract signed with AT&T in the US and the new contracts signed or about to be signed with European operators. Nokia will start doing a similar trick, but this time offering directly a number of services (gathered in a single portal called Ovi - gate in Finnish) specifically designed for their phones but accessible also from the regular PCs. After a couple of acquisitions, Nokia is now ready to start-up its own iTunes, but with some interesting differences: in my opinion the most important one is that mp3 will be delivered directly to the phone - no need of PC software to download from the website and upload to the device as for the iPhone. Nokia wants also to fire-up a new social network, they will make available the nGage concept for all the new n-Series phones and will extend the free-maps service to all new models with built-in or bluetooth GPS receiver.
All this will happen in the fourth quarter of 2007, right before Xmas. They also presented a bunch of new models with 8GB flash disk and better design (even though Apple’s one remains unrivaled) and they showed a kind of exact copy of the iPhone which will be available beginning of 2008. The phone is so close to the iPhone that it really looked more like a message to Apple like “hey! Is this all you can do?”.
So, Nokia is fighting back, in the way Apple would do. Who will be the winner? And, will Samsung and Motorola sit and wait the end of the game? One thing we can take for granted: Apple is not anymore alone trying to milk a rich niche of consumers.
Archive for August, 2007
Nokia Vs Apple: The Empire Strikes Back
Published August 29, 2007 computer , finance 1 CommentTags: linkedin
I registered andreamorgante.com at Aruba.it website. I’ve been using Aruba as service provider for more than 3 years and I cannot complain, even though there are a lot of things to improve. In the very beginning I used to run my own CMS (Mambo) on a Aruba linux server. It was too time consuming and anyhow the result was not comparable with awesome services like WordPress. So last year I moved to WordPress and I kept andreamorgante.com as a simple redirect to morghi76.wordpress.com. Some time ago this domain mapping thing appeared among the options in the dashboard and immediately thought it sounded just great. The domain mapping would have allowed me to replace the morghi76.wordpress with andreamorgante, making the website links looking as the one I used to run my own CMS. I had to go for it! And I went for it! Here is how I did it:
- I changed the subscription to Aruba.it services to domain registering and DNS managing only, which actually is the cheapest among those they offer
- I tried to change the name servers (NS) from Aruba to WordPress ones but the feature - even if listed - it’s not available from Aruba admin panel. In other words, it’s there, you see it, but you can’t use it. It does not make any sense to me, but it’s the way it goes if you register your domain at Aruba.it. I had then to turn to the helpdesk. They changed the parameters (you’ll find them in wordpress admin page, so I will not post them here) in 12 hours
- I waited that the change propagated in the network. Every DNS-related website says it takes 24/48 hours usually, but you can check if the change took effect checking your domain at DNSstuff or DNScheck
- After 72 hours, I kept getting the error message in WordPress anytime I tried to map the domain. So this time I turned to WordPress helpdesk
- WordPress helpdesk was even faster: they fixed it in few hours. I was finally ready to start the domain mapping procedure
- It really takes few minutes: if your DNS settings are correct and your domain is pointing at wordpress NS you will be asked for 10 credits and after that you’re done!
Extra feature: why not having your domain-related email too? WordPress allows you to use Google Apps service in conjunction with theirs. Anyhow, for the time being only the MX webmail is supported. Few clics and you can setup a number of email accounts for your domain for free. That’s at least what I did
More and more linux in computers for consumers: Asus eeePC
Published August 23, 2007 computer , moleskine 0 CommentsIt’s not a breaking news anymore that Asus is going to distribute his brand new little toy - eeePC - starting from this September. The eeePC is a subnotebook, among the cheapest ones in its segment. It’s cheaper than the “smartphone companion” Palm Foleo, the Microsoft-driven nanobook and far cheaper than the UMPCs. It’s slightly more expensive than the “laptop for children” notebooks, but it will be offered worldwide as its design will appeal both the rich western countries looking for a light companion to fill the gap between smartphones and notebooks and the developing countries looking for an inexpensive solution to solve the digital divide issue. Starting at 199$, it’s going to shake the market as many of us will find out that to perform a number of common activities (email, web, photos etc.) a 199$ computer is more than enough. That’s of course possible thanks to a well featured linux OS, designed to fit the purpose. Actually I have already read bad news concerning price increases which would add 100$ to the final price, but let’s wait for the official figures from Asus, who’s planning to sell 500.000 worldwide next year! In the meantime, it’s nice to notice that Linux is getting more and more popular also in the consumer segment: Dell is widening its selection of products featuring Ubuntu as standard OS, Lenovo will sell laptops with Suse and HP will deliver hundreds of computers with Ubuntu for an Indian University. As Bob Dylan used to sing “times are a’changing”.
Era da molti anni che non giocavo a Monopoli. Ricordavo per lo più solo quei particolari che sono entrati a far parte della cultura popolare. Chi non conosce espressioni come “andare in prigione senza passare dal via” o luoghi come “Parco della Vittoria”?
E’ stato un po’ come giocarci per la prima volta, eppure - sarà forse perchè ho perso due volte di fila? - qualcosa non mi ha convinto. Passi il ruolo della prigione, attualissimo, che ti permette di riposarti per tre turni lasciando agli altri furbetti del quartierino l’onere di scannarsi sul tabellone per poi ritrovarti all’uscita più ricco di prima. Anzi, sarebbero da lodare gli ideatori del Monopoli per aver saputo anticipare i tempi, immaginando che nell’Italia del ventunesimo secolo la prigione sarebbe diventata un catalizzatore di fama e successo, un momento di riflessione in cui perdere qualche chilo di troppo e rivedere le proprie strategie, un trampolino di lancio per la carriera dello spettacolo, il giro di boa che trasforma la vita grigia del banchiere nello sfavillante mondo delle serate in discoteca, ambiente che ci ha già regalato soddisfazioni presidenziali. No, non è il ruolo della prigione ma quello della banca a rivelare l’età ormai avanzata del Monopoli: la banca, infatti, garantisce per il giocatore e copre in toto i suoi debiti in caso di default. Inoltre, ripropone all’asta i terreni oggetto del fallimento senza fissare una base d’asta minima. E vogliamo parlare della tassa patrimoniale a quota fissa (sempre 10000 lire indipendentemente dal reddito) o degli interessi sull’ipoteca (10% sempre e comunque, senza relazione con il numero di turni di gioco trascorsi tra accensione ed estinzione)? Pura utopia! Magari le banche di oggi fossero queste - ma lo sono mai state? Oggi le banche prestano soldi ad imprenditori con le pezze al culo e per riprenderli distribuiscono obbligazioni spazzatura della stessa azienda che hanno contribuito ad indebitare vendendole ai loro correntisti. Oggi le banche offrono mutui ad alto rischio che poi vengono cartolarizzati, rivenduti sul mercato e con due o tre passaggi finiscono nei portafogli dei gestori di fondi pensione. Oggi le banche non coprirebbero mai una perdita, non perderebbero mai i soldi di un’ipoteca. Già… Magari le banche fossero quelle del Monopoli.
