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iPads complement primary computers, threaten secondary ones
Here's a bit of news that you might have already figured out for yourself. Your primary computer doesn't need to feel threatened by your iPad. Sure, your Mac (or PC) probably felt a little uneasy when you brought that slim, trim, shiny, and lets not forget - magical - little number into your home, but it knew, oh yes it did, that you would come crawling back sooner or later. And you did, didn't you? In fact, you came crawling back straight away because you needed your primary computer to get your iPad up and running, didn't you? As noted by Macsimum News, according to market research firm Technology Business Research (TBR), the iPad will displace many consumers' secondary computers, but not their primary ones, creating a third category for personal computing and connectivity (laptop, smartphone, and tablet). TBR's study points to Apple's success with the iPad, noting that consumers want quick, easy access to their email and the Web in a device that's more portable than a laptop while providing instant-on and more usability than a smartphone. In light of this, TBR believes the market will support all three device styles with only some ground lost by laptops to tablets. To illustrate this point, Macsimum News reports that analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros. has informed clients that the iPad is "slightly cannibalizing" the entry level MacBook, but otherwise Mac sales for the September quarter could hit a record 3.8 million. So, there's no sign of Mac sales slowing down despite the introduction of the iPad. And, for now, your primary computer can hold onto its rightful place in your digital life / family. Photo by mapgoblin. Flickr : cc
Apple awarded new patents
This past week, Apple had a host of new patents officially approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office. From streamlining the way images are rendered to preventing the accidental opening of applications, a large chunk of the patents seem to relate to the ways that a user interacts with a device. Macsimum News has a synopsis of all the patents awarded. A few of the patents that stick out are for operations that we take for granted on a daily basis. One of them relates to scrolling through a list on a touch input device (say your iPhone contacts list), with the acceleration of the scrolling of that list being determined by the input of your finger. That's pretty nifty! Another is for immediate search feedback on a Web browser application, like the Safari search bar. So, for instance, when you start typing in the first few letters of a search query and a list pops up of the potential items that you're searching for - that's immediate search feedback. I think I would be lost without this feature. Often times, I can't remember the title of a song, but if I can remember the first couple lyrics, I can type them in, and a link to the song title will appear in the list. Or when I can't quite remember how to spell a word (embarrassing, I know), I go to the Safari search bar instead of going to the dictionary. Somehow, it's always the easier place to turn to. These are some pretty simple features, but they make such a profound difference in the ways that we use and interact with the computer devices around us on a daily basis. There's some solid innovation going on over there in Cupertino.
Apple wins design patents
Apple picked up quite a few pending design patents this week -- most of them are pretty old, for products that have released but were simply waiting on the official patent. You can see the whole list over on Macsimum News -- they've got the iPod classic in there, the Apple remote, and quite a few patents for handling various functions of iOS or OS X. One of the more interesting ones is patent number 7,7645,236, which seems to describe a broadband antenna, much like the one currently used around the edge of the iPhone 4. Obviously, that's been an object of contention on the new iPhone, but the patent was approved, so Apple owns this design, whatever it is. The wording on the patent is kind of interesting in hindsight -- the patent describes a ground and a resonating element that may lie on the same plane, and they may "be separated by a gap that lies in the common plane." The patent summary then says that, "Electronic components such as the integrated circuits, display, and battery can be mounted in the handheld device so that they do not overlap the gap between the ground element and the resonating element." Guess Apple didn't actually consider your fingers to be "electronic components." It's kind of incredible to think of all the various innovations Apple is churning out. So many patents get filed and never get used again, but Apple's laying claim to some pretty big developments here in somewhat sizable numbers. It makes you wonder just what things are like around the engineering offices in Cupertino -- there's a lot of solid innovation going on there these days.
Time for a Mac App Store?
Way back in June of 2007, I wrote this post, a list of five things Apple could do to bring gamers back to the Mac. I said that Apple should put more games on iTunes, break out the gaming hardware, go casual, and make the experience worth it, from buying to download to playing. Now, a year and a half later, Apple has basically done just that -- with the App Store. There are casual games aplenty, the iPhone works great as a gaming device, and the App Store itself makes it relatively easy to find new games to buy. There are kinks, of course, that need to be worked out, but no one can say the App Store isn't a gigantic success.And so, Dennis Sellers of MacsimumNews asks, is it time for a Mac App Store? We have an App Store for your Mac already -- it's called the Internet, where you can see reviews, download software, and even get updates for the programs on your Mac. In fact, Apple already has a downloads page that looks very much like the App Store's front page, though there's no place there were you can easily see what apps you currently have installed, or what apps you have that need updating. It would work like a Software Update, but for every app you've got.There are lots of benefits, too, the first being that more apps would be sold. Of course, the usual Internet channels would remain open; Apple would just offer a service very similar to the App Store, in that you'd have a program on your computer that would easily add and/or update all the apps you have installed. But would a Mac App Store experience the same price issues that the iPhone's App Store has? It is an interesting idea, though -- the App Store has done very well for both Apple and developers so far, and it might be helpful to look at what works there and how it might be able to come back to the Mac platform at large.[via MacBytes]
