Apple Tablet = iPad (=iYawn?) (live blog)

27 01 2010

WSJ’s Yukari Iwatani Kane and Geoffrey A. Fowler are live-blogging the Apple announcement of its new tablet product, which they are reporting is to be called the iPad.  As I expected, it sounds, from their transcribing of Jobs’ words, that the iPad product will be a sup’d up version of the iPhone, which isn’t as powerful (or big) as a laptop but offers much of the core, day-2-day capabilities (email, internet, video, etc.) of a laptop.

Update:

So far, based upon what I’m reading in the WSJ live blog, I’m not all that impressed with the iPad product.  It seems to be a larger version of the iPhone (or, really, iTouch), running many of the same apps.  NYT is going to have an app for it for reading the NYT (now, moving to subscription-based online makes much more sense for them), and they have agreements with book publishers (and will have an iBookstore for purchases).  Still, the memory is so small that it doesn’t look like you’ll be able to replace your laptop.  The comments from readers of the WSJ live-blog have much of the same initial reaction.  It’s going to be interesting to see if there will be the same type of furor for this device, but, my initial thinking is that it will sell great with Apple-enthusiasts, but probably won’t have the same type of mass appeal as the iPhone.  WSJ provides the following video of Jobs’ unveiling of the iPad:

more about “iPad“, posted with vodpod

 

- Gregg J. Lallier


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Apple Tablet and Medical Records

27 01 2010

Although the buzz surrounding the Apple Tablet has become a load roar over the past weeks, we would be remiss if we didn’t highlight the fact that ConnTIP was talking about the Tablet, and its potential with the electronic medical records, close to a year ago (Electronic Medical Records to be “Apple-ized”?).  If reports from VentureBeat are true, it looks like Apple is also thinking about such potential on EMR, as it reported earlier this month that “[r]epresentatives from Apple have visited executives for Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center ‘three or four times’ to talk about the Apple tablet’s potential for  medical professionals at Cedars-Sinai” (See Apple tablet reps spotted at LA hospital). Chris Thorman at Software Advice writes about the report here, and has a short, 8-question survey about the potential of Tablet-like product in the healthcare industry.

- Gregg J. Lallier


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Obligatory Apple Tablet Post

27 01 2010

Considering that ConnTIP is a blog with a focus on technology, we are, I guess, obligated to add to some more free PR to the Apple Tablet craze by having a post about it.  Anyone who bothers to read ConnTIP undoubtedly has read ad nauseum about the new Apple product which is rumored to be unveiled today.  Just do a Google search for “Apple” and “tablet” and you’ll find many articles ranging from main stream media news sources (e.g. CNN, NY Times, CNBC (where  McGraw-Hill Companies CEO appeared to “unwittingly” spill the beans during an interview) and WSJ (which has its own sub-page on the subject entitled “Apple Tablet“)) to more tech-centric sites (e.g. TechCrunch, Inc. and Web 3.0).  This doesn’t even count the plethora of blog entries out, including blogs focused entirely on the Tablet product. 

What has fascinated me just as much as the product and its potential is watching the Apple marketing machine go at full force.  It’s become a somewhat old routine, as far back as the introduction of the Macintosh (and those cool Super Bowl commercials) Apple, and Steve Jobs in particular, has had a flair for the dramatic.  This somewhat viral marketing strategy is all that more effective in the current media/information environment where rumors and hype intensify via Twitter, blogs, YouTube, etc.  Still, hype is not enough to get the type of success Apple enjoys.  I’m reminded of plethora of internet rumors leading up to the unveiling of the Segway, where a new type of transportation was said to have been invented that would revolutionize how we got around (I distinctly remember that some type of hovercraft device was a prevailing thought).  Although somewhat successful in its own right, Segway is nowhere near Apple’s products, and I think it’s because Apple not only has marketing hype and innovative products, but also develops products which appeal to the masses insofar as the products (1) are relatively easy to learn to use, (2) are relatively priced and (3) recognize how people live and work and, as such, serve to make our living experience easier and more enjoyable. 

Apple serves as a great model for any start-up to study and emulate, as, even in one of the worst economic climates in our lifetime, where people have less disposable income, Apple, Inc. posted a 50% rise in profit and a 32% increase in revenue for its fiscal first quarter ended 12/26/09.

-Gregg J. Lallier


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The Digital Age

31 12 2009

As 2009 and the first decade of this new millenium comes to a close, there comes the flood of retrospectives on what the last decade “means” and how life has changed.  Much of what’s out there focuses on terrorism and foreign affairs (rightly so given that the decade has been essentially bookended by 9/11 and the would-be underwear bomber, with a couple of wars in between).  However, in tech/business circles, much of what I have read focuses on the decade being the dawn of the “Digital Age”.

Fortune recently had Steve Jobs on its cover, naming him the CEO of the Decade (The decade of Steve), which, I think, is apropos as Apple has been on the forefront of this digital convergence of entertainment and life.  In fact, after Jobs came back to Apple in 1997, he began the “digital lifestyle” strategy that resulted in the iPod, iPhone and the soon-to-be-released iTablet.  The result, as reported by the Fortune article, is that Apple “was worth about $5 billion in 2000, just before Jobs unleashed Apple’s groundbreaking “digital lifestyle” strategy, understood at the time by few critics” and ”[t]oday, at about $170 billion, Apple is slightly more valuable than Google”.

Such Apple products helped, in part, the spark and accelerate the advancement of the Digital Age, as more and more digital products that can work together came onto the scene.  And now, a consumer has the ability to use various different interrelated lifestyle digital products such as:  cell phones (including smartphones), computers (including personal, laptop, netbook and business), televisions (especially HD), television recording devices (e.g. DVR’s and Tivo), game consoles (e.g. PS3, Wii, XBox), and media players (e.g Blu-Ray).

I’ve been fortune enough to have lived through some pretty exciting technological ages/revolutions before this digital revolution:  the 1980s with the development of the PCs (which, incidentally, Jobs/Apple also had a hand in sparking; and the 1990s with the develop of the Internet.  Only now can I see how those two previous innovative jump-starts were the foundations for this new digital age, which makes me excited for the future when I find out what the digital age is a foundation for.

- Gregg J. Lallier

P.S.  Web 3.0, a blog by Independent Software, has a bunch of different posts about the digital convergence, which people might want to check out, including:


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Electronic Medical Records to be “Apple-ized”?

27 04 2009

ConnTIP reader, Hunter Neal, shot me an email referencing his recent blog article regarding how Apple’s rumored iTablet product (see ZDNet’s description here) could have traction in the electronic medical records field.   Hunter thinks that iTablet could be a big seller in healthcare in connection with electronic medical records (EMR) because:

[t]he primary barrier to EMR adoption has been ease-of-use. Too many physicians are concerned about being able to efficiently use an EMR at the point of care.  Apple, meanwhile, continues to raise the bar on usability and efficiency.  If Apple releases a tablet with the usability of the iPhone, we think it would go over tremendously well amongst physicians.

In fact, we already talk to many physicians that want an EMR for the Apple OS, but very few such systems exist.  We think there is a big opportunity for any “first mover” EMR vendor that writes to the Mac OS and this new Tablet device.

The HITECH provisions of the Stimulus Package (see past ConnTIP post regarding HITECH) makes EMR a point of interest in the tech markets, and a possible Apple product into that market only serves to create even more opportunities for software developers in the space.  Something to definitely keep an eye on…which we will.

- Gregg J. Lallier


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