Apple

Overheard: iPhone and the Enterprise

The various iterations of the iPhone Configuration Utility could be successfully used in smaller, depot-style support environments, but the tools as currently structured lack the security and remote reach for large deployments to use effectively. Andrew Garcia, Apple’s iPhone Configuration Utility Disappoints

Overheard: Using iTunes as a distributive educational network

Apple just launched K-12 on iTunes U (opens iTunes) that allows schools to use iTunes as a platform to distribute educational content. Not quite sure why a school would find this easier than just posting the stuff on the web, but I do know Apple would love to get all those students spending even more time in iTunes. Jon Robinson, Apple’s iTunes U for K-12 Schools

I can’t think of a single network administrator I know who would recommend putting iTunes on school computers.

Overheard: The future of NAND

Removable flash applications, such as cards for cell phones, drive the bulk of today’s NAND market. NAND growth through 2012 will be driven by the computing segment, such as hybrid drives, and solid-state drives going into notebooks, UMPCs, servers, mobile and enterprise storage and data centers. Ciol, NAND market: Where’s Apple?

I had to look up the acronym UMPC. It stands for ultra-mobile personal computer.

Overheard: Location awareness — is it finally here?

GPS brings a whole new level of precision to the mobile experience. Cell phones have been required to be location-aware for several years in order to comply with the needs of emergency response agencies in the U.S. However, the primitive triangulation system that basic phones use isn’t very precise. With GPS, a user’s location could be pinpointed to within a few feet. Paul Gillin, The Promise and Pitfalls of Location-Awareness

If you do a search on Google for location awareness, you’ll find lot of articles written by people who are excited about the possibilities of mobile devices and location awareness. Advertisers, particularly seem excited. If you look at the dates for a lot of those articles, however, you might be surprised to see they were written in 2001. Will the iPhone really be the tipping point for location awareness 3rd party apps? I’m not going to hold my breath.

Overheard: The iPhone — death by monthly payments

We have had nearly 24 hours to jump out Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field and put common sense behind the announcements made yesterday – especially the company’s iPhone 3G. Christian Zibreg, WWDC 2008: Will the iPhone 3G kill the iPhone?

Christian Zibreg thinks the money iPhone users shell out to AT&T each month is the deal killer. It is for my family.
Just as I was posting this, Verizon called and offered my whole family free phone upgrades and extra minutes. Coincidence? LOL!

Overheard: iPhone vs. Blackberry

I couldn’t type on it and I still can’t type on it, and a lot of my friends can’t type on it. It’s hard to type on a piece of glass.” Mike Lazaridis, as quoted in BlackBerry’s Quest: Fend Off the iPhone

Overheard: We’re locking you in for your own good — the world is a dangerous place.

With enough lock-in, a company can protect its market share even as it reduces customer service, raises prices, refuses to innovate and otherwise abuses its customer base. It should be no surprise that this sounds like pretty much every experience you’ve had with IT companies: Once the industry discovered lock-in, everyone started figuring out how to get as much of it as they can. Bruce Schneier, With iPhone, ‘Security’ Is Code for ‘Control’

Apple will double its U.S. and Western Europe unit market share in computers

Apple’s gains in computer market share reflect as much on the failures of the rest of the industry as on Apple’s success. Apple is challenging its competitors with software integration that provides ease of use and flexibility; continuous and more frequent innovation in hardware and software; and an ecosystem that focuses on interoperability across multiple devices (such as iPod and iMac cross-selling).

Gartner Highlights Key Predictions for IT Organisations and Users in 2008 and Beyond

Overheard: iPhone will be most disruptive tech of 2008

But as important as the iPhone has been to the fortunes of Apple and AT&T, its real impact is on the structure of the $11 billion-a-year US mobile phone industry. Fred Vogelstein The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry

This was a great “big picture” story. The iPhone really shook things up in so many ways, it’ll be awhile yet before the dust settles. Remember when you got your cell phone for free when you signed a three-year contract?

Tour: CNBC’s graphics SAN