Another Ding in the Universe
Apple has been getting a lot of press—most recently from Fortune’s Top 20 Most Admired Companies, in which Apple was ranked #1, and a few other articles released at the same time.
Yesterday, I remotely witnessed what I predict will be another historic Apple Event. Yesterday, Apple announced their plans for dominating the mobile market in much the same way they have dominated the music industry. Just as the day the iPhone was introduced, today’s landscape looks significantly different than it did yesterday.
It began with a demonstration of upcoming enterprise features. This is the one market segment that we new the iPhone would have trouble penetrating, similar to the troubles the Macintosh has had. It would seem that Apple has deftly removed all barriers to business adoption, something that other companies may not have seen coming. By licensing Microsoft’s ActiveSync, they have one-upped RIM in Exchange integration. As Andy Ihnatko so elegantly put it on his blog:
Note how carefully this event is being orchestrated. Apple has carefully lined up a series of white porcelain plates at the far and of a shooting gallery. Each one is labeled with a known percentage of the marketplace that “can’t” buy an iPhone for specific technical reasons. Annnd…plink! plink! plink!…they’re knocking them all down.
And, then, of course, came the SDK. I’m not a developer, but it’s obvious that this is pretty robust and is likely exceeding expectations. It was exciting to see that developers will have access to the accelerometer, camera, location services, and the multi-touch gestures. We’re going to be able to do some really interesting, innovative, and downright fun things on this platform.
But perhaps what is most groundbreaking is the distribution model. For the $99 entry fee, any developer can sell their applications through Apple’s new AppStore. Sure, Apple will keep 30%, but this is going to make your software available to every iPhone and iPod Touch owner. And get this: it’s going to be as easy for those owners to buy your application as it is to buy a song on the iTunes Store.
Apple is once again creating a complete ecosystem that will result in positive experiences for everyone involved. This is going to be insanely great.