iCondom4 - Free

[Neilda]

In the end it comes to generating profits and creating value for your share holders - that is the essence of a corporation. Everything else, is an opinion - Including Mine...

When I ran my business, I concentrated on delivering the best client service and from that profits evolved. We grew from a $7m business to a $100m business in a very short time. Small stuff I know, but it was mine.

I sold the company to a larger corporation whose chief concerns were shareholder value, key performance indicators and other measurements that focussed attention away from what was our primary function - customers. Pretty soon the largest clients left.

Whilst I know that profits and shareholder value are important, my experience is that large corporates spend more energy on measuring and analysing themselves and less on the customer experience. It makes them ultimately less attractive to customers.

This is not my view on Apple (by the way), just a general view.

 

[HHGT]

Wait a minute...I thought for sure that Lauren was going to be a Mustang GT500 Gal...

Great seeing yesterday Randy, sorry I couldn't spend a bit more time with you. Your Son looked like he was enjoying his day out with Dad..

 

[HHGT]

When I ran my business, I concentrated on delivering the best client service and from that profits evolved. We grew from a $7m business to a $100m business in a very short time. Small stuff I know, but it was mine.

I sold the company to a larger corporation whose chief concerns were shareholder value, key performance indicators and other measurements that focussed attention away from what was our primary function - customers. Pretty soon the largest clients left.

Whilst I know that profits and shareholder value are important, my experience is that large corporates spend more energy on measuring and analysing themselves and less on the customer experience. It makes them ultimately less attractive to customers.

This is not my view on Apple (by the way), just a general view.

Part of my personal success has been centered around building companies from the ground up where attention to the customer was my primary product. That allowed us to compete against giants like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman very effectively and the customer recognized this. We rolled out software faster than they could write reports and I fully agree with your statement regarding the customer. In my case, the strong work ethic commitment I got from my staff was in exchange for building share value and creating personal wealth. In each and every case I have sold my companies to large Fortune 1000 companies, the last to a company that generated revenues in excess of $10B per year. Having said that, my entire engineering staff recognized we could not deal with "DRAMA & DISTRACTION" and that is exactly what our experience with Apple was like.

My litmus test is business centered. Can Apple create an equal amount of wealth opportunity for third party developers? My personal opinion is no. Here is one article.... http://www.ipodrepublic.com/third-p...-become-an-iphone-app-millionaire/2009/05/28/ Steve Jobs may have the initial numbers behind his product launches, but I think this is where he differs from Bill Gates. 12 years ago, I personally spent a couple of days with Bill Gates & Paul Ottelini (Intel CEO) at a function hosted for over 1000 international small & medium sized businesses, and I can tell you emphatically that they were just as focused on their 3rd party developers success as their own. Apple indirectly tried the same approach, and many companies like mine decided to stick with the proven "Open Architecture" vs. "The Arrogant" approach. BTW, my exposure to Apple goes back to the IIE computer station.

In the end none of this may matter, Dave (DBK) said it best, its a whopping $200 item... I've made my choice, You make your choice !!!

 

[Kingman]

I call them arrogant because I dealt with their engineering staff. Five years ago, I was paid $500,000 to port an application that my company designed, engineered and deployed to every US Naval Carrier in the fleet. It had taken approximately 4 years to design and fine tune a component of the US DoD C4ISR System (Command & Control) that was to be used in critical situations. The Human Machine Interface we developed and designed with the a team of some of the smartest the US DoD had and still has. It cost over $4M to complete when everything was said and done. The port was to take this HMI and re-port it to an Apple platform. We had to pay Apple a fee which we charged back to the government. My engineering staff would send me endless emails about the arrogance of the Apple engineering team and how they knew what we and our customer needed - I guess they must have all been in the service at one point! I personally called in one day to figure out what the engineering angst was all about. The young turd on the other line was insulting and ARROGANT... I asked to speak to his supervisor and he hung up on me. I followed up with a nice letter to the Director of Customer Advocacy and he told me that all application developers had to go through the designed process and there were no exceptions... What a F@#$!!! I then briefed the Commanding Officer about the situation and he understood and told me this was not the first time. He re-obligated the funds to enhance the Windows version. Is it closed - without a shadow of a doubt!

Months later I sat on a panel that analyzed what the next generation of soldiers will be using - Apple came up again. Present company excluded (Don't want to be on Dave's $hit list), a high-ranking DARPA scientist made a statement at the meeting: "Today's generation have a sense of entitlement about it and we should figure out how to address that in the not too distant future". The conclusion was that while Apple is trying to quickly become the computing device of choice, Google will shadow Apple just like Microsoft did, and Apple and Google are not friends.

With respect to the "But most of us are not in the military" comment, many of us enjoy commercial technology because of the huge $ that goes into developing technology. A simple example of this (and there are many) is Google Earth....Its roots can be found in a Spy Satellite technology that used to be called "Keyhole". There is also the Internet..never mind that was invented by some-one else...

The 'Office of the President' recently purchased 10,000 iPads and 10,000 iPhones........but then again, they aren't part of the 'Intelligence Community'.:lol

 

[ChipBeck]

I hate new technology.

Twasn't me that deleted it.

..................they do care about intuitive, entertaining user interfaces.

I didn't delete it either.

For a low tech old fart like me a simple easy interface trumps everything else. 30 years ago I could turn on my car radio and simultaneously set the volume by twisting one knob. I've driven rental cars recently that required my pulling off of the road and donning my reading glasses to figure out how to turn the damn thing on and set the volume.

When I was a kid I could walk up to any phone that was ringing, pick up the receiver, and say hello with absolute confidence that I had actually answered the damn phone. Today, when Veronica's stupid wireless phone is ringing in our bedroom, IF the receiver is in the charger and not sitting on some random surface in another room, when I pick it up there are a maze of about 20 different tiny buttons, none of which I can read without my glasses, and only one of which, when pushed, will result in my successfully answering the phone. Most of the time I guess incorrectly and push the wrong button which immediately terminates the call. I say hello with NO confidence that I have actually answered that stupid phone. This is progress? Even the simplest electronic accessories are now delivered with 1 inch thick owners manuals detailing a thousand different features that no one will ever use.

I like the i-Phone because it's simple and I have actually been able to use a number of features without ever looking at the owner's manual. Perhaps that's just as well as I no longer possess the multitasking abilities that would allow me to take full advantage of some of the features Dave refers to. Simultaneous GPS navigation while driving my GT, downloading a song, performing financial statement analysis, masturbating while useing iPorn, and moderating the Forum all at the same time would probably result in a serious accident. :willy :ack

Yesterday morning I had to find my reading glasses to make toast. Veronica had equipped our kitchen with a brand-new toaster that would only toast the bread on one side. :confused I needed to find and push the proper small button on the side to turn off the "bagel one-sided toasting feature". :bored

Chip

 

[HHGT]

I didn't delete it either.

For a low tech old fart like me a simple easy interface trumps everything else. 30 years ago I could turn on my car radio and simultaneously set the volume by twisting one knob. I've driven rental cars recently that required my pulling off of the road and donning my reading glasses to figure out how to turn the damn thing on and set the volume.

When I was a kid I could walk up to any phone that was ringing, pick up the receiver, and say hello with absolute confidence that I had actually answered the damn phone. Today, when Veronica's stupid wireless phone is ringing in our bedroom, IF the receiver is in the charger and not sitting on some random surface in another room, when I pick it up there are a maze of about 20 different tiny buttons, none of which I can read without my glasses, and only one of which, when pushed, will result in my successfully answering the phone. Most of the time I guess incorrectly and push the wrong button which immediately terminates the call. I say hello with NO confidence that I have actually answered that stupid phone. This is progress? Even the simplest electronic accessories are now delivered with 1 inch thick owners manuals detailing a thousand different features that no one will ever use.

I like the i-Phone because it's simple and I have actually been able to use a number of features without ever looking at the owner's manual. Perhaps that's just as well as I no longer possess the multitasking abilities that would allow me to take full advantage of some of the features Dave refers to. Simultaneous GPS navigation while driving my GT, downloading a song, performing financial statement analysis, masturbating while useing iPorn, and moderating the Forum all at the same time would probably result in a serious accident. :willy :ack

Yesterday morning I had to find my reading glasses to make toast. Veronica had equipped our kitchen with a brand-new toaster that would only toast the bread on one side. :confused I needed to find and push the proper small button on the side to turn off the "bagel one-sided toasting feature". :bored

Chip

When I shop for a Cellular phone, my only request is LARGE Font for outgoing and incoming calls. Most phones support outgoing large font but not incoming

As far as the Toaster goes, I got so sick of all the stupid features, I went and bought a simple toaster and glued the setting control knob so that no one else in the household will mess with it. That did not go well with the wife but its a battle that was worth winning - So yeah I feel your pain.