HTC's Jeff Gordon: the iPhone is "boring". Could he be right?

/

Despite Apple's record quarter, HTC's Jeff Gordon has deemed that the iphone is "terribly boring".   From his Twitter:

“iPhone is a boring, easy choice. I want a phone that’s more unique, more personal, more stunning when I take it out of my pocket.”
— https://twitter.com/urbanstrata

Regardless of whether or not he is right, Isn't it amazing how far we've come in just 8 years?   When it was first released in 2007, the iPhone was a total revolution of the cell phone industry.  Almost overnight, we went from hardware keyboards and crappy stylus based touch devices to a solution so perfectly realized that the second you laid your hand on it, it almost seemed obvious.  

I remember feeling that the Blackberry Pearl I owned prior to my first iPhone was probably the singular best device I may ever use.   Perfectly pocketable, a nearly perfect miniature hardware keyboard, and a small trackball for navigation.   Not to mention its absurdly long battery life, its surprisingly functional (for the time) web browser, and the insane usefulness of BBM.

Cut to January 9th, 2007, and the original iPhone keynote, and you can imagine how incredibly blown away I was.   Sure it didn't yet run apps like RSS readers and games like my blackberry did, nor did it have BBM, but it was immediately obvious to me that the writing was on the wall.  Hell, my iPhone 6 today still doesn't have the battery life of my Pearl,  but I wouldn't trade it for almost anything.

On some level though, Mr. Gordon is right.   It is starting to feel almost like we're in a holding pattern waiting for that next great revolution to come along.   Like the hardware keyboards and flip phones of 10 years ago, there are only so many ways you can arrange a glass rectangle to create a different product.   Only so many ways to skin an OS, to modify the concept of tapping an icon on a screen.   It feels like we are nearly at the verge of something revolutionary on the horizon.   Unfortunately for Mr. Gordon,  I highly doubt it will be one of his arrangements of a glass rectangle with icons on it.   

The future is out there,  and I can't wait to see it.

FCC Changes the definition of broadband

/

It seems the FCC is on a bit of a roll lately!    Today they have reclassified the definition of "Broadband" internet access to service that is 25mbps or faster downstream.    A significant raise from the previous definition of broadband at 4mbps.  This will force a lot of service providers to increase their minimum speeds in order to continue referring to themselves as broadband providers.   From the FCC:

“We are never satisfied with the status quo. We want better. We continue to push the limit, and that is notable when it comes to technology,” FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said. “As consumers adopt and demand more from their platforms and devices, the need for broadband will increase, requiring robust networks to be in place in order to keep up. What is crystal clear to me is that the broadband speeds of yesteryear are woefully inadequate today and beyond.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel wants to increase the minimum broadband standards far past the new 25Mbps download threshold, up to 100Mbps. “We invented the internet. We can do audacious things if we set big goals, and I think our new threshold, frankly, should be 100Mbps. I think anything short of that shortchanges our children, our future, and our new digital economy, Commissioner Rosenworcel said.”
— http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/29/7932653/fcc-changed-definition-broadband-25mbps

That is a seriously impressive take from an agency that has been charitably called "innovation-averse" in the past.  My question now is how strict are they going to be with ISPs that ADVERTISE speeds of 25mbps and then refuse to / are unable to deliver speeds like that.

I'm still holding out for Google Fiber to show up where I live eventually.

Wall Street's Unrealistic Expectations for Apple

/
Untitled-1.jpg

Apple has done nearly the impossible.  From nearly going out of business in 1997; they have helmed a historic turnaround and as of this last quarter have made THE MOST profit of ANY company in HISTORY.    Let that sink in for a minute, please.   Apple has made THE MOST QUARTERLY PROFIT OF ANY COMPANY IN HISTORY.    One would think that Wall Street investors would be satisfied with literally the largest profits in history.   And yet,  the Wall Street Journal today has begun the drums of expectation, not-so-subtly saying that Apple better keep up that growth curve lest they start the gloom and doom diatribe again.

I'm not really sure how anyone can expect huge growth from a company that has has already made more quarterly profit than anyone else.  Quoting from the article:

“A year ago, Apple Inc. announced disappointing iPhone sales that seemed to confirm long-simmering concerns that the company’s best days were behind it.

Now, after reporting the largest quarterly profit ever for a publicly traded company, the question about Apple is very different: How fast can it grow and for how long? More specifically, do the results Apple posted Tuesday reflect a short-term blip driven by the company’s first larger-display phones or are they the start of a new growth trajectory?”
— http://www.wsj.com/articles/can-apple-keep-up-its-growth-spurt-1422493028?tesla=y

I don't pretend to understand Wall Street, but this obsession with growth over anything is anything but healthy.   I understand that investors want the stock they invested in to go up, but to what end?   I am starting to think that if Apple literally took in every last bit of money in the world, the next day's headlines would be about how Apple's "best days are behind them".

I have to give Tim Cook and Apple a LOT of credit.   Managing the expectations of these lunatics has to be like herding cats.   The fact that they've been able to do it so well for so long is a miracle.  Maybe some investors will realize that making such ridiculous profits will mean that in fact the company they invested in is not actually going out of business tomorrow...

Maybe not.

Teslas are the future, whether you like it or not.

/

I'm not usually much of a fan of obviously marketing-based viral videos.  Generally videos that TRY to be "viral" succeed in only being annoying.  I will however, make an exception for this.  

Showing off the acceleration of the newest iteration of the Tesla Model S, this video shows the reactions of people being rocketed from 0-60 in the Tesla's new "insane" acceleration mode.  This, I would assume is something akin to launch control on your average supercar.   It's a fun video to watch, and it makes me want to take a ride in a Tesla (as the Tesla marketers would want).  But, I have a slightly deeper takeaway from all of this.   It's now clear that the future of the automotive industry is going to eventually be electric;  gas prices be damned.

It's not very long ago that the words electric car were synonymous with thoughts of slow, stripped down, lame vehicles that made a Toyota Prius seem like an exciting drive.  Now, we are facing a world where if you want real performance you are going to WANT to go electric.  Simply because electric motors driven at the wheel will be able to provide way more power and torque than any gas engine ever will.  You won't want to get an electric car to save the earth, you will want to get an electric car because you will smoke anything else on the road off the line.   Once you get the gearheads interested,  it's only a matter of time.

FCC: Blocking wifi in hotels prohibited→

/

Hey look!  Something that proves the FCC can do the right thing once in a while after all!

Today the Federal Communications Commission ruled against Marriott who had started blocking the wifi signals of personal hotspot devices in it's hotels so that customers would be forced to purchase access from the hotel itself.   This isn't the FCC's first step in this fight though, as they fined Marriott $600,000 in October for the same offense.   This is just their way of putting a little force behind their words.   From the FCC's ruling:

“The Enforcement Bureau has seen a disturbing trend in which hotels and other commercial establishments block wireless consumers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hot spots on the commercial establishment’s premises,” the FCC wrote. “As a result, the Bureau is protecting consumers by aggressively investigating and acting against such unlawful intentional interference.
”Such action is illegal and violations could lead to the assessment of substantial monetary penalties.” ”

Apple Posts 4th quarter earnings→

/

Here's the shock of the year.   Apple made a few more metric tons of money.  From Apple PR:

“Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 first quarter ended December 27, 2014. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $74.6 billion and record quarterly net profit of $18 billion, or $3.06 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $57.6 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion, or $2.07 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
”