This fall, the tech market will witness a perfect storm as three major technologies and industry forces converge to deliver a whole host of new products for consumers.
One of the more interesting questions I get asked about as an industry analyst who’s followed Apple since 1981 is why Apple is so successful. It’s an honest question because to those unfamiliar with Apple, the company’s rise and current dominance in non-PC devices is somewhat puzzling.
There have been two recent announcements about watches that work as companions to smartphones, and both show a lot of promise. Is it time for Apple to create a smartwatch tied directly to the iPhone?
Thanks to Apple, the role of tablets in our lives is being broadened now. But if you “think different” you will see that the tablets of the future will just be screens that use web browsers to connect us to everything we need from the cloud, and thanks to subsidization, they’ll be cheap enough that each room in our homes can have one.
Intel and its partners are about to launch the biggest promotion of a new product category called Ultrabooks since the company’s Wi-Fi based Centrino launch early last decade. And Microsoft is about to launch a major update to Windows called Windows 8 that introduces the new “Metro” touch user interface. Together they are critical products for the future of each company individually.
I have no doubt that Apple is going to become one of the most powerful video distribution networks by nature of its existing customer base. The sooner TV networks see things like Apple’s distribution vehicle as a critical way to get their content to the masses quickly, the sooner they can fine tune business models to take advantage of the new era of video content.
Imagine a very small device that houses a powerful processor, operating system, custom user interface and data files. A device that can be docked into a multitude of screens that are accessible around the office, school, home, shopping malls and other places. I believe this is exactly the vision Apple has for the future of the iPhone.
My experience from 30 years of scrutinizing Apple and Steve Jobs makes me think that there are probably three key goals behind the company’s strategy to reinvent TV.
One of the more interesting data points that came out of Apple’s recent earning report is that the iPad is becoming a major hit in the enterprise. Apple CEO Tim Cook pointed out that virtually every Fortune 500 and Global 500 company is already using the iPad in their businesses and adding more each quarter. The iPad is quickly becoming a serious business tool.
Don’t think of Siri as just a voice interface. Think of it as the gatekeeper to natural language searching of diverse databases and search engines that Apple will link to an ad model, which could eventually make Apple the third major search company in the world.
Over the last 10 years, Apple has done a rather amazing job of disrupting quite a few industries. By my account, it has dramatically impacted the PC, tablet, consumer electronics, telecom, music and TV industries in a big way. And I believe that Apple is on the cusp of disrupting at least four more major industries in the next three to five years.
