This video of Steve Jobs and John Lasseter being interviewed by Charlie Rose in 1996 has floated around a bit in the last few weeks, but I finally got the chance to watch it this evening.
Knowing what we know now about how Pixar would turn out, it’s amazing to see how these guys viewed the future of their industry.
Earlier tonight, Jony Ive was interviewed in Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit in San Francisco. The transcript is a fascinating read, but the answer Apple’s Senior Vice President of Design gave to the last question asked really stopped me in my track. Here’s it is, with Ive’s reply in bold:
Do you see yourself moving beyond consumer electronics?
I do see the watch as a move away from consumer electronics.
That’s a huge statement.
When the Apple I first surfaced in 1976, the consumer electronics was industry was vastly different than it was just a few years later. Before the late 1970s, “consumer electronics” meant things like audio systems and televisions; afterwards, the landscape was dominated things like computers, hard drives and eventually music players and smartphones.
While Apple wasn’t the only company responsible for the computerization of consumer electronics, it’s one of a very few that still survive from those early days. Hundreds of PC makers have come and gone, and the ones that are left are dying. The Mac may be growing, but it’s doing so in a market that’s collapsing.
Of course, smartphones and tablets are the escape route for Cupertino. Dell, HP and others have struggled to ship compelling devices, watching the future slip through their fingers like sand.
I can’t help but think about Ive’s quote in this light. Apple’s looking beyond the tablet and even beyond the smartphone, searching for what’s next. The Apple Watch is about supercharging fashion with technology, but it’s also about survival. The Apple Watch is pushing the boundaries of what is possible today, reaching for tomorrow in a profound way.
We shouldn’t be surprised; this is what Apple’s always done, since those days in the garage.
On this week’s Connected, Myke and I revisit the Twitter and Health apps, then discuss the current state of iOS 8, the Pebble’s future and Apple’s upcoming press event.
This episode of Connected was made possible by:
Jim Dalrymple:
It’s very sad. Glenn is a great guy and friend, but I understand the issues of being an independent publisher on Apple’s Newsstand—it’s not fun. Apple should just admit that they don’t give a shit about digital magazines and be done with it.
I couldn’t agree more; Newsstand should go away, and digital publications should be normal apps that can live right on the SpringBoard, not hidden behind a terrible icon and UI that only adds confusion.
Glenn Fleishman:
My labor of love the last two years has been The Magazine, first as its hired hand and then, in May 2013, as its owner. The sad truth has been that, while profitable from week one, the publication has had a declining subscription base since February 2013. It started at such a high level that we could handle a decline for a long time, but despite every effort — including our first-year anthology crowdfunded a bit under a year ago — we couldn’t replace departing subscribers with new ones fast enough. We’re a general-interest magazine that appeals to people who like technology, and that makes it very hard to market. “Pivoting” to a different editorial focus would have lost subscribers even faster.
While I was sad when I first about this news, like Marco, I’m not surprised:
Many non-ideal factors and decisions I made up front probably contributed to The Magazine not being sustainable forever. But the biggest challenge was simply that running a magazine today is a really tough business. I thought making a high-quality app was the hard part that was keeping iPad magazines from being more successful, but the app turned out to be the easiest and least important part of the business.
Today’s news is a blow to independent journalism. I was thrilled to be in the third issue; it’s something that is still on my “hey let me do a freelance article for you” resume.
That said, I can’t help but agree with Marco — publishing is a hard business. Growing an audience is difficult; keeping them may be even harder. We’re reading less and less long-form material, and that is bad for everyone, publishers most of all.
There’s a new Kickstarter project to fund a hardcover book of The Magazine’s second year of essays. The first book was great, and I’m sure this one will be as well.
Apple’s fall event will be on campus in Cupertino. Jason Snell breaks open the Kremlinology.
Shawn Blanc:
The site has thrived for these past 3 years. We have always subscribed to the principle that quality and honesty breed trust and attention. What I want more than anything when it comes to this site’s readership is to have people who trust that we’re not here to rob them of their time.
And today, we are taking things up a few clicks.
While I’ve transitioned to The Sweet Setup, Tools & Toys will always hold a special place in my heart. This redesign and re-focusing are excellent. If T&T hasn’t been in your RSS collection before, you should change that today.
Robert Sorokanich at Gizmodo:
If you’re wondering about the rain and storms in Memphis, you might have gotten a big surprise in your Twitter feed today. WREG News Channel 3 briefly directed its Twitter followers to a link that not only had zero radar information about the #memstorm — it was a PornHub user’s profile.
Whoops. And I totally don’t buy the “we were hacked” excuse.
Chuong H Nguyen:
Almost three weeks since it has launched, iOS 8 adoption currently sits at 47%, identical to the current share of its predecessor, iOS 7. That’s a change of only 1% over the course of the last couple of weeks. iOS 7, by contrast, is believed to have hit over 60% adoption by this time last year.
There are lots of factors at play here.
There are a ton of iPhone 4 users still out there; the phone was still for sale this year in some countries.
The iOS 8 OTA update is huge, and many users don’t know how — or have the desire to — clear space on their devices. It’s insane that 8 and 16 GB iPhones are still a thing.
I think the shock of iOS 7 (what I have named the OMG I UPDATED MY PHONE AND EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT syndrome) is a factor as well. While iOS 8 is not drastically different to operate, the users who were surprised by iOS 7’s well-known UI changes are just the ones to be afraid of it happening again.
The cynic in me, of course, fears that Apple’s reputation has already been damaged. Here’s what I wrote just a few days ago:
Microsoft and Google both have trouble getting users onto the newest versions of their software platforms, which Apple pokes fun of in keynotes on a regular basis. A few more bad releases and Cupertino could be in the same place, which is bad for the company and third-party developers.
Time will tell if iOS 8 is the beginning of this story. I sure hope it isn’t, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
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Well, Robb Lewis made my day.
For years, I’ve used an iPhone dock at my desk. In addition to keeping the screen where I can see it easily, and a vertical iPhone is much quiter on the desk if it vibrates than one laying flat.
However, with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple didn’t release a first-party dock. This Twelve South dock is a little fiddly to assemble, but it’s rock-solid and really adjustable, so even with a case, iPhones fit easily. I’ve got one on my desk now, and if you’ve used a dock in the past, you should check it out.