paul callahan…mostly common sense

Apple’s announcement of “The world’s thinnest notebook. MacBook Air.” got me thinking. Where are we headed in the world of computing? What is Apple really doing here?

For the moment, it looks like the future of computing, as defined by Apple, has two basic elements: beautiful objects and the Internet. 

Apple creates the most irresistible computing objects – you want to have them, hold them, play with them, and show them to your friends.  The desire that Apple’s objects create in the minds of customers is undeniable.

Apart from their industrial design, Apple’s computing objects have gorgeous GUIs.  And the compute engines under the hood serve the common goal of creating delicious access to the Internet.  The days of differentiation through applications are long gone.  The Internet is the application. 

As long as you build a robust operating system – one that does not leave itself open to attack from the enemies of the manufacturer of the beautiful objects – customers are happy.

What about Microsoft?  Vista has a polished and attractive new face, but it rides on an operating system that is full of security holes and plagued with viruses.  As a result, Mom’s and Dad’s tech support is forced to work full time to keep home software defense systems at peak alert status.  How can that be good for business?

On the Linux front, desktop Linux is still for geeks and hobbiests (I count myself among them).  You can build yourself a wonderfully powerful desktop for $300, or buy a very cheap Linux laptop from Zonbu, but the community is waiting for stable releases of the latest GUIs from KDE and GNOME.  Still no competition for Apple.

Google’s mobile phone effort, Android, a Linux based platform and rapid application development platform could change the game, but only if it fosters beautiful objects on par with Apple’s iPhone.

In the end, Apple has an extraordinary edge.  Though the strategy may not be explicitly stated, the results are easily interpreted…and stellar.

Full disclosure: No position in Intel, Apple, or Google at time of writing.

Directory Tags: | Wireless | Apple | Google | 3G | Linux | Mobile

In the world of perception management, it does not get any better than this.  For months before Google’s entry into the wireless world, blogs were buzzing with speculation over the secret creation of a Linux-based gPhone.  But the real coup de grace was the coverage by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times during the week prior, on the day of the announcement, and on the day after the announcement.  Getting that kind of business ink can only be described as a demonstration of pure market power, the likes of which rivals Intel’s paid-for Centrino nonsense of a few years ago and Apple’s recent iPhone launch.

But I have to admit that Google’s push into the world of mobile handsets means nothing but goodness for the business.  Google is not going to stem the melting of the ice shelf in Greenland, but it will change the course of the wireless service provider industry.

The drug that we are all hooked on – the mobile phone – will be altered to bring on more Internet applications and yield an even bigger dependency…Hopefully, mobile operators will see that.

Full disclosure: No position in Intel, Apple, or Google at time of writing.

Directory Tags: | Wireless | Apple | Google | 3G | Linux | 700 MHz |SEC |Mobile |

Like many before me – and I suspect many to come – I have said goodbye to Microsoft. It took three things to push me over the edge:

• An ancient IBM Thinkpad T22 on its deathbed trying to run XP
• One full 8 hour day of my weekend wasted on dealing with a nasty browser hijack
• Hearing a news story that Bill Gates was STILL the richest man on the planet

I finally said, “That’s it, I am not paying the anti-virus geeks any more money…I am not wasting anymore of my precious time off fixing viruses…and I’m sure as hell not shelling out any more money to Microsoft.”

To date, I have converted three out of the five computers in my house to Linux using simplyMEPIS, a distribution based on Ubuntu.

Besides being free (I made a donation to MEPIS), here’s the best thing about it. After the installation, nothing happened. Better yet, nothing happens every day. No viruses. No friendly little pop-up reminders to update this and that. Absolutely nothing. The three laptops just sit there working away quietly. Even the old T22 is running like a top.

Here is the ultimate proof. After successfully converting two laptops, I bought a corporate overstock IBM Thinkpad T41p with 1G of memory and a nice hi-res screen, installed Linux in 15 minutes, made sure the network printer worked, and handed it to my 14-year old daughter with no instructions (other than the login id and password). She has not asked me a single question in a month. She uses Open Office apps, Firefox, and Gaim. Yesterday she asked me to install Skype. I told her that it was already installed. That was it.

Try that with XP or Vista.

Full disclosure: No position in Microsoft at time of writing.

Technorati Tags: | Linux | Microsoft | Ubuntu | simplyMEPIS |