Influencer: Apple iCloud, introduced 6 June 2011
Influenced: Acer AcerCloud, introduced 8 January 2012
Yes, Apple’s competitors continue to rip off their ideas, but I give them credit for understanding it’s not just about the devices, but the ecosystem in which they live.
But could Acer have made a shittier looking cloud? Jeez.
Images via The Verge
Starting off the week with some exhaust on two of the worst new car model names:
Volkswagen Beetle E-Bugster
Hyundai Veloster
Are the marketing people doing this to appeal to the hipsters? Do they think adding ster to the end of everything is the silver bullet to success?
News alert – it’s fucking lame.
MG Siegler responds to the rumor Google will introduce their own Android tablet this spring:
The problem here is that Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire at or near break-even (they may even be losing money on each unit sold when you consider marketing, etc). And customers are getting what they pay for — a tablet of significantly less quality than the iPad.
If Google is going to undercut the $199 price, the hardware is either going to be shit — or Google is going to have to take a significant loss on each one sold. Maybe they do that and say they’ll make it back in search advertising. But there is real money they’re going to have to pay to an OEM to get them to agree to that.
Siegler’s whole post is spot on, but what about the ecosystem this “highest quality” Android is going to live in? Eric Schmidt’s quote seems to be addressing the hardware of the device. Hardware is only half the story.
It’s like selling a car to someone who lives in the desert. Sure, they have a great piece of automotive technology with climate control, and power steering and satellite radio, but it’s useless without access to roads and gas stations and mechanics.
This is essentially what Android tablets are today — cars in the desert.
Amazon gets this and while their car might be crappy, they at least have roads to drive on and places to go. Books, music and movies, all a few clicks away. Seamless.
Yes Google has their Android Marketplace but from most the articles I’ve read, it’s a place where you can’t make much money and the piracies rival what you’d see on a Canal Street here in Manhattan.
So for me, I could give a shit what Google releases, if they release anything, this spring. If I have nowhere to go when I drive off the dealer’s lot, it’s not even worth buying.
Justin Williams’s definition of friction within mobile applications:
If at any point in that process I see a crash, frustrating design decisions, confusing experiences or perceive a lack of functionality, I delete the app and go on with my day. Put more succinctly, if at any point in the first use experience I experience friction, it’s game over.
Sounds right to me.
“All their signs look like Unicode errors.”
—Marco Arment on the public signage in Montreal
Build & Analyze podcast Episode 47
via kottke
Over at GigaOM, Michael Wolf says 2012 will be the year the artist-entrepreneur.
Headlines look great with declaratives in them, but the truth is artist-entrepreneurs have been doing quite well for a whille now. In 2007 Radiohead circumvented the middle men and told people to pay what they want for their album, In Rainbows, directly from their site. Prince made a similar move in 2007 with his album Planet Earth and again in 2010 with the album 20Ten. In both these cases though, he gave away his album for free in national newspapers in the UK.
You might say Radiohead and Prince are big names so they can get away with bold moves like this. And this is true. You could also say this about the recent
experiment Louis C.K. did by selling his latest stand-up special, DRM-free on his website for $5, grossing him over one million dollars in a few weeks.
But what about the artist-entrepreneur nobody knows? The guy or girl with an idea, who executes the idea and then gets people interesting in backing it and ends up raising thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars?
Wolf doesn’t address this group and it’s unfortunate, because I think it’s one of the most exciting areas on said topic. How he managed to not at least mention Kickstarter in his article boggles my mind.
I’m not saying this because I happen to have a project on Kickstarter. I originally wrote about Kickstarter and Craig Mod’s inspiring story in November 2010.
I’m happy Michael Wolf wrote his piece. It’s important to see prominent individuals taking this DIY approach, I just wish he showed this approach can work all the way down the spectrum.
What must it be like for a suicide coming down from a high ledge? I’m sure it must be a very sane feeling. That’s probably why they scream all the way down.
via Rage
