Michelle Steiner

<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ing-Apple-boss
-left-plans-years-new-products.html>

He has also been overseeing the development of the delayed iCloud project,
which will allow Apple users to store their music, photos and other
documents remotely and masterminding updated versions of the iPod, iPad,
iPhone and MacBooks, ensuring at least four years’ worth of products are in
the pipeline, according to Apple sources.

--
Tea Party Patriots is to Patriotism as
People's Democratic Republic is to Democracy.

Paul Morgan Wesley

On 10/07/2011 07:11 PM, Michelle Steiner wrote:
> <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ing-Apple-boss
> -left-plans-years-new-products.html>
>
> He has also been overseeing the development of the delayed iCloud project,
> which will allow Apple users to store their music, photos and other
> documents remotely and masterminding updated versions of the iPod, iPad,
> iPhone and MacBooks, ensuring at least four years’ worth of products are in
> the pipeline, according to Apple sources.

What a strange obituary. E.g.:

"It was also revealed today that Jobs fought hard to get plans approved
for a spaceship-style company headquarters in California."

The discussions about the project at Cupertino city Hall have been on
the net for months. Some kind of Swam Lake song project.

OTOH, if the iPhone 4s was designed by a dying man, it's easier now to
understand why it is lame. (Cf. "Dismayonnaised" in comp.sys.mac.system)

Mike Jacoubowsky

"Paul Morgan Wesley" <pmw@nonotknow.tw.com> wrote in message
news:j6o248$71b$1@dont-email.me...
> On 10/07/2011 07:11 PM, Michelle Steiner wrote:
>> <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ing-Apple-boss
>> -left-plans-years-new-products.html>
>>
>> He has also been overseeing the development of the delayed iCloud
>> project,
>> which will allow Apple users to store their music, photos and other
>> documents remotely and masterminding updated versions of the iPod,
>> iPad,
>> iPhone and MacBooks, ensuring at least four years' worth of products
>> are in
>> the pipeline, according to Apple sources.
>
> What a strange obituary. E.g.:
>
> "It was also revealed today that Jobs fought hard to get plans
> approved for a spaceship-style company headquarters in California."
>
> The discussions about the project at Cupertino city Hall have been on
> the net for months. Some kind of Swam Lake song project.
>
> OTOH, if the iPhone 4s was designed by a dying man, it's easier now to
> understand why it is lame. (Cf. "Dismayonnaised" in
> comp.sys.mac.system)

The iPhone4s is hardly lame. There are a myriad of improvements, one of
which will be interesting to see how it works in real life (the
antenna-switching scheme that offers the possibility of more-reliable
use as a *phone*, what a concept!). The new camera functionality &
faster speed alone would be enough for most companies to claim "new
model" and not mildly-updated status. Plus better battery life, a big
thing for a lot of folk.

But three things worked against the iPhone4s being seen for the phone it
should-

#1: New improved guts in same old case. Dumb.
#2: Mismanaged expectations. This was the first Apple product in recent
memory where the most-fantastic rumors didn't hold to be true. When
rumors got so wildly out of hand, Apple should have stepped in and
factually discredited them. How far out of touch with reality did the
rumors get? How about the Wall Street Journal reporting that Sprint paid
$20 billion to be the exclusive carrier for the iPhone5?
#3: Calling it the iPhone4s instead of iPhone5.

I'm sure there are good reasons for all of those, but whatever they
were, they weren't good enough, and Apple has built expectations out of
a history of knocking everything out of the park.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

nospam

In article <-8SdnYzso_R0-w_TnZ2dnUVZ_tCdnZ2d@earthlink.com>, Mike
Jacoubowsky <MikeJ@ChainReaction.com> wrote:

> The iPhone4s is hardly lame. There are a myriad of improvements, one of
> which will be interesting to see how it works in real life (the
> antenna-switching scheme that offers the possibility of more-reliable
> use as a *phone*, what a concept!). The new camera functionality &
> faster speed alone would be enough for most companies to claim "new
> model" and not mildly-updated status. Plus better battery life, a big
> thing for a lot of folk.

right, it has a slew of improvements.

> But three things worked against the iPhone4s being seen for the phone it
> should-
>
> #1: New improved guts in same old case. Dumb.

if they changed the case then all the existing accessories would no
longer fit, like cases, docks and other stuff.

> #2: Mismanaged expectations. This was the first Apple product in recent
> memory where the most-fantastic rumors didn't hold to be true. When
> rumors got so wildly out of hand, Apple should have stepped in and
> factually discredited them. How far out of touch with reality did the
> rumors get? How about the Wall Street Journal reporting that Sprint paid
> $20 billion to be the exclusive carrier for the iPhone5?

boy genius came up with that claim, not the wall street journal.

> #3: Calling it the iPhone4s instead of iPhone5.

get a marker pen and write a big 5 on the back. does the name make that
much of a difference to you?

> I'm sure there are good reasons for all of those, but whatever they
> were, they weren't good enough, and Apple has built expectations out of
> a history of knocking everything out of the park.

like selling 200,000 in 12 hours on at&t alone, more than any other
iphone launch? and then there's verizon and sprint.

JF Mezei

Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:

> The iPhone4s is hardly lame. There are a myriad of improvements, one of
> which will be interesting to see how it works in real life (the
> antenna-switching scheme that offers the possibility of more-reliable
> use as a *phone*, what a concept!). The new camera functionality &
> faster speed alone would be enough for most companies to claim "new
> model" and not mildly-updated status. Plus better battery life, a big
> thing for a lot of folk.

Image stabilisation for movies will also be interesing, if it works.


> #2: Mismanaged expectations. This was the first Apple product in recent
> memory where the most-fantastic rumors didn't hold to be true.

And this is where "under new management" questions arise. Was it Steve
Jobs himself who made the leaks to control/manage the rumours to
*properly* hype products ?

I wouldn't be susprised if the $20b Sprint deal story was concucted by a
competitor and leaked to WSJ. (or to whomever got the story first).

The WSJ lost a lot of credibility by publishing it though.

The problem is that it is likely that Steve Jobs had given a "wink wink
nudge nudge" to some employee to make the controlled leaks. But at the
same time, Jobs and others were very publicly punishing anyone caught
leaking anything. So those employees who worked covertly for Jobs would
no longer do it and might not walk up to Tim Cook and announce
themselves as the one who were leaking info on behalf of Jobs in the past.

Tim Cook was naive to think that announcing that the event was held in
their own *small* auditorium would set expectations of a small product
refresh instead of a brand new revolutionary phone. Wild rumours had
already been circulating for quite some time before Apple even made the
invites to media.

When Jobs unveiled the 4, he mentioned something akin to "many of you
have seen photos on the internet and may be worndering what those black
lines are on the casing... (and explains the separate antennas).

Apple was fully aware of what rumours and pictures were circulating.

When the prototype that was likely meant to a journalist was taken at
the bar by someone else Apple should have made arrrangements for the
journalist to get another one.


One possibility however is that Apple deliberatly let this wild
speculation go to discredit such speculation so that next time around,
the media will speculate much less about a new model and perhaps this
way, Apple won't have to make controlled leaks (when leaks are strictly
prohibited) to manage media expectations.

On the other hand, total silence about future model will not create
hype/excitement about it and Apple loses a lot of marketing value.

Only time will tell how Apple will manage the net iphone launch.

> --Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
> www.ChainReactionBicycles.com


Hey ! I thought of you. Just got a Contour camera for my bike.

Your Name

In article <-8SdnYzso_R0-w_TnZ2dnUVZ_tCdnZ2d@earthlink.com>, "Mike
Jacoubowsky" <MikeJ@ChainReaction.com> wrote:
>
> The iPhone4s is hardly lame. There are a myriad of improvements, one of
> which will be interesting to see how it works in real life (the
> antenna-switching scheme that offers the possibility of more-reliable
> use as a *phone*, what a concept!). The new camera functionality &
> faster speed alone would be enough for most companies to claim "new
> model" and not mildly-updated status. Plus better battery life, a big
> thing for a lot of folk.
>
> But three things worked against the iPhone4s being seen for the phone it
> should-
>
> #1: New improved guts in same old case. Dumb.

Nothing new there. Apple has done it with the iPhone and iPods Touch, as
well as their computers, but they aren't alone - many manufacturers do the
same thing.



> #2: Mismanaged expectations. This was the first Apple product in recent
> memory where the most-fantastic rumors didn't hold to be true.

Really?!?! I'm not sure which planet you live on, but here on Earth no
product ever released by ANY company has ever met all the "most-fantastic"
rumours.



> When rumors got so wildly out of hand, Apple should have stepped in and
> factually discredited them.

Apple never makes any comment on unreleased products, whether that's to
confirm or deny rumours.



> #3: Calling it the iPhone4s instead of iPhone5.

The iPhone 4S is a "speed bump" release, just like the iPhone 3GS was.

Technically Apple should simply drop the numbers entirely and have just
the names "iPhone" and "iPad", just like they do with all the other
products they make.



> I'm sure there are good reasons for all of those, but whatever they
> were, they weren't good enough, and Apple has built expectations out of
> a history of knocking everything out of the park.

Apple never builds expectations. It's the media that builds expectations,
and as usual the media got it almost completely wrong - if you want to
blame the real culprits, aim their way.

Tim McNamara

In article <-8SdnYzso_R0-w_TnZ2dnUVZ_tCdnZ2d@earthlink.com>,
"Mike Jacoubowsky" <MikeJ@ChainReaction.com> wrote:

> "Paul Morgan Wesley" <pmw@nonotknow.tw.com> wrote in message
> news:j6o248$71b$1@dont-email.me...
> > On 10/07/2011 07:11 PM, Michelle Steiner wrote:
> >> <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...e-Jobs-Dying-A
> >> pple-bos s -left-plans-years-new-products.html>
> >>
> >> He has also been overseeing the development of the delayed iCloud
> >> project, which will allow Apple users to store their music, photos
> >> and other documents remotely and masterminding updated versions of
> >> the iPod, iPad, iPhone and MacBooks, ensuring at least four years'
> >> worth of products are in the pipeline, according to Apple sources.
> >
> > What a strange obituary. E.g.:
> >
> > "It was also revealed today that Jobs fought hard to get plans
> > approved for a spaceship-style company headquarters in California."
> >
> > The discussions about the project at Cupertino city Hall have been
> > on the net for months. Some kind of Swam Lake song project.
> >
> > OTOH, if the iPhone 4s was designed by a dying man, it's easier now
> > to understand why it is lame. (Cf. "Dismayonnaised" in
> > comp.sys.mac.system)

BTW you're responding to a known troll with dozens of nyms. He's only
marginally more sane than kolldata... (although I've suspected Gene's
apparently derangement is an act).

> The iPhone4s is hardly lame. There are a myriad of improvements, one
> of which will be interesting to see how it works in real life (the
> antenna-switching scheme that offers the possibility of more-reliable
> use as a *phone*, what a concept!). The new camera functionality &
> faster speed alone would be enough for most companies to claim "new
> model" and not mildly-updated status. Plus better battery life, a big
> thing for a lot of folk.
>
> But three things worked against the iPhone4s being seen for the phone
> it should-
>
> #1: New improved guts in same old case. Dumb.

There I have to disagree with you; a new case creates all sorts of
design and development problems, whereas swapping in a new processor and
such isn't so complicated.

However, I think there was clear disappointment in large part because of
what you write below:

> #2: Mismanaged expectations. This was the first Apple product in
> recent memory where the most-fantastic rumors didn't hold to be true.
> When rumors got so wildly out of hand, Apple should have stepped in
> and factually discredited them. How far out of touch with reality did
> the rumors get? How about the Wall Street Journal reporting that
> Sprint paid $20 billion to be the exclusive carrier for the iPhone5?

The WSJ ceased to be a factual reporter of business news years ago.
Damned shame.

> #3: Calling it the iPhone4s instead of iPhone5.

The iPhone 5 would have required a new case, I think, which immediately
visually differentiated it from the iPhone 4. People would have been
really peeved if this product was called the iPhone 5.

> I'm sure there are good reasons for all of those, but whatever they
> were, they weren't good enough, and Apple has built expectations out
> of a history of knocking everything out of the park.

Not everything (Newton, anyone?) but enough grand slams to make most of
us forget about the less successful ones.

OT: how's Jobst?

--
Your time is limited. Don't waste it living someone else's life.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

JF Mezei

Your Name wrote:
>
> Nothing new there. Apple has done it with the iPhone and iPods Touch, as
> well as their computers, but they aren't alone - many manufacturers do the
> same thing.

There is a difference here. Apple has a unified product line, so any
changes are easily noticed.

HTC has a gazillion models, basically one "exclusive" model per network,
but they are all very similar to each other and when they do product
tweaks, it is much harder to really know because they usually release
the tweak to one network, then rename it and change slightly for another
network and so on. Hard to keep track of.


> Apple never makes any comment on unreleased products, whether that's to
> confirm or deny rumours.

Officially correct.


> Apple never builds expectations. It's the media that builds expectations,
> and as usual the media got it almost completely wrong - if you want to
> blame the real culprits, aim their way.

You are being naive. Don't think for a minute that Apple hasn't fed
rumours in the past. It is/was part of their marketing strategy.
Officially, they'll deny it, but we all know they do/did it.

In the past, Apple was excellent at building and managing expectations
without maming any official statements. And rarely were people/media
disapointed in a product launch.

JF Mezei

Tim McNamara wrote:

> The iPhone 5 would have required a new case, I think, which immediately
> visually differentiated it from the iPhone 4. People would have been
> really peeved if this product was called the iPhone 5.


Is this is where the rubber meets the road. is the smart phone market
not mature with only incremental tweaks to the technology and form
factor to come ? If so, it is quite possible that the iphone 4 case
might last a number of years, with significant rework of what's inside.


In one of the youtube videos of jobs I posted a few days ago, Jobs
mentioned that one reason that Apple succeeded with music players where
japanese failed was software.

And at the end of the day, work on IOS may become more important in
keeping the iphone ahead of the competition than improvements to hardware.

Note: adding LTE is something media is looking for, but that will not
change anything to you and me. Just another tech to exchange data,
except this one will be priced at a premium and will let you reach your
monthaly usage limit in 2.3 seconds instead of 10 minutes of use.

JF Mezei

Michelle Steiner wrote:

> The reason they held it there was that it was Cook's first product intro as
> CEO; a smaller venue let him dip his foot into the pool, as it were,
> instead of jumping into the deep end.


Cook had introduced the CDMA iPhone in February. This wasn't his first
time making keynotes.