The "Mobile Me" iPod of the future - from Apple and Intel
I was reading an article today and my light bulb finally went on
- Blam! I really got how cool the Apple and Intel deal is...
I spend a fair amount of my time working with startups and I am
convinced that 95% of innovation occurs in small companies. Only
a small percentage of these fledgling companies beat the odds
and makes their "cool" idea into a reality. They used to go
public but now they mostly get snapped up by bigger companies
that are higher up the food chain.
Large companies spend a lot less on research than they did in
years past. What little they do invest, they spend on making
incremental improvements to existing products. They spend very
little on research that is capable of producing major
breakthrough results.
I almost forgot that big companies can still put together smart
deals that can rock our world. I think that Apple and Intel did
just that two years ago.
The breakthrough is not the recently released Mac that now has
"Intel inside", it is the next generation iPod.
The devices that are going to rock your world are the "Mobile
Me" devices from Apple. "Mobile Me" is a new trademark that I
think, Apple will use to describe new handheld devices that give
you almost everything you want, all the time, wherever you want
it.
I know what you want is a lot! And Apple is going to give it to
you. When they do, I think you will reward Apple with even
bigger buckets of your dollars. Why not? If they deliver you a
phone + music + email + video + browsing + fast broadband that
is easy to use and easy to update; and all for under $500.
Lets look at what Apple and Intel have accomplished:. Music
Player: very well done. Video Player: good start, needs more
pixels Player Content: iTunes is well done, just needs a
subscription plan Cell Phone: weak start, Apple not committed
yet, but Intel has can change that Browsing/Email: not yet an
iPod feature, but consider the Intel influence. Mobile
Broadband: Intel is betting the ranch on Wi-Fi and WiMAX
Intel is clearly betting it's future growth on wireless
networking. It blew billions on phone chips with little to show
for it, then turned to wireless networking with a passion. A few
months ago Intel launched a it's Digital Communities Initiative,
to help cities across the globe build their own wireless
broadband networks. Intel is investing money and energy to
encourage the spread of Wi-Fi and WiMAX.
While city-wide hotspots are a nice idea for laptop users, their
real appeal is to users of a new generation of wireless device
users. But wireless networking is based on open standard that is
a direct competitor to proprietary cell phone networks. Who is
going to build the cool new devices that need the wireless
network? Why Apple, of course.
The chip maker can forget about Motorola, Samsung, Erickson, and
Nokia competing with their own cell phones. That made Apple look
awful good; a perfect choice for building device that really
takes advantage of the new WiMAX features.
With the next-gen iPod, you will be able to move away from the
download model and subscribe to real time media and
entertainment. Forget satellite radio, take your iPod to the
park and watch a movie, or listen to music feeds.
Since you are plugged into the net, place all the calls that you
like call - after all it's free. It's all part of the basic
service. If you feel creative, use the integrated camera to
video conference with a friend or capture some scenes while you
are on vacation to share with your family back home. "Hey honey,
look where I did today.... nah, I'm alright, really".
If you think text blogs are cool, you will love the new
generation of real time video iPod blogs. When news breaks
you'll have lots of on scene video blog to choose from to track
the breaking news.
Apple + Intel may be big but "Mobile Me" will be truly cool and
very disruptive. I know they can make the technology work, lets
see if they start spending to defeat the cell phone lobby and
get politicians to back municipal WiMAX networks.