Four stories you should read this Sunday, June 10
Three years ago, my Sunday mornings started with the New York Times. Now it's Feedly, which appealingly presents my RSS feeds synced from Google Reader. I mainly use the app on a tablet, and I highly recommend it. This morning, as Apple's developer conference approaches tomorrow, there are loads of punditry -- and much of it pointless.
Four posts caught my attention enough to write about them and all published over the weekend. Interestingly, the majority are guest posts rather than regular staff pieces.
1. Anthony Wing Kosner writes for Forbes: "Apple TV will change the content we Consume on all our screens forever". He presumes like other people that Apple will at the least announce iOS 6 for Apple TV. He opines:
What I predict will happen with a more fully featured iOS on your TV is that over time, viewing habits will change. The act of looking for content which is an annoyance as a TV viewer is a primary activity as a web surfer. The routine checking on your favorite blogs and social networks will change and become more TV-like as people spend more time consuming those things through a combination of their phones, tablets and TV screen. The launch of Airtime is an attempt to anticipate the kinds of live video communications that people will expect as the internet and TV merge. In this vision, bloggers will perhaps become more like TV presenters and we will each have a handful that we check in with regularly. And this is a very different anticipation than the interactive program guides and social media tickers that have been the unimaginative stock of the promoters of 'connected TV'.
Do you know how many times since the late 1990s, I've heard similar gibberish? Or perhaps you? Apple hasn't announced anything, but like so many other pundits he presumes the company will get TV right -- discounting a robust market with established and successful television manufacturers. LG, Samsung and Sony are among those with strong connected-TV strategies. It's one thing to make such a bold prediction about a product Apple announced. The public doesn't know if or when an Apple television will come. But commentaries like this one, appearing in a financially-oriented publication, certainly are good for Apple's share price.
2. Ben Parr writes for CNET: "Apple's plan to dominate all the screens in your living room". He reveals: "The Apple TV App Store is on its way, opening up the floodgates for developers to create killer apps for people's living rooms. The new TV app store will be part of iOS 6, I'm told, which already powers the operating systems of the iPhone, the iPad, and the iPod Touch".
I kind of laugh. Apple accuses competitors of copying, and takes aggressive legal action against them, while copying what others do. App stores on TVs are nothing new, although Apple arguably could flank Android and marginalize Google TV, which has apps, too. But Google TV is a failure. I love mine, but acknowledge its many, many shortcomings. Devices run apps from Google Play store, but there's lacking integration everywhere and search doesn't live up to what Google offers elsewhere.
Yesterday I watched the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival streaming live on YouTube, but had to do so using Chrome rather than the YouTube app. I have the Sony NSZ-GT1 Google TV and Blu-ray player. Watch your back, Google. If Parr is right, Apple will stomp all over you on the way to the living room. Meanwhile, Microsoft's $99 Xbox promotion makes even more sense, as well as its revamped three-screen strategy.
3. Bogdan Petrovan writes for Android Authority: "Asus representative confirms the Google tablet, Padfone and Pad Infinity LTE coming to AT&T". It's a big scoop but unsurprising news given recent rumors. He reveals: "We are able to confirm to you that ASUS is indeed partnering with Google for the Nexus tablet. An ASUS representative, who wished to remain anonymous, told us during Computex that the Google tablet will come by the end of June, and that can only mean one thing -- Google I/O".
In January 2011, while iPad 2 rumors circled, I explained: "The most important tablet is missing from CES, and it's not iPad 2", but a Google Nexus device. In December, when Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said a branded tablet would come within about a half-year, I warned: "Google Nexus tablet in six months is a year too late".
The situation is much worse now that Microsoft partners have shown off compelling Windows RT tablets at Computex, all while Apple's tablet lead solidifies. Google and Microsoft share many of the same OEMs, which will find more leverage moving buyers from Windows to Android. The Google OS hasn't gained market share fast enough to secure solid footing. Windows RT can easily push it aside, and if Android loses the tablet wars it could easily come to lose the broader mobile platform wars -- even smartphones. I'm speculating at what could occur, of course, but the Android Army should worry about advancing Microsoft more than Apple territory before it.
4. Christian Springub writes for TechCrunch: "You don't know anything about other countries". Springub explains: "This is the first and most crucial step every company must take before going international: admit you have no clue how other markets and countries function. Convincing yourself otherwise will set you up for failure...Quick quiz: where do people in Taiwan go to pay their utility bills?"
Americans are particularly clueless, and many bloggers or journalists often are most clueless of all. Granted, Springub writes to CEOs and entrepreneurs. But the point is the same: You don't know Jack about other countries or cultures, and the most successful companies are those that go local.
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