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With the dust settling on the 2008 MacWorld event in San Francisco, attention is being turned back on Europe this week, with the news from unofficial sources that Apple has failed to garner the huge numbers anticipated to adopt the iPhone in the UK. Word on the street too is that Europe is beginning to show some interest in the attitude-changing device, but is it a success in Europe?

To be frank, the iPhone is a nirvana-esque type of device. It is without doubt the most beautiful embodiment of that holy grail of the mobile communications device that so many actors in the technology field have spent 10 years trying to bring to market. Combining the phenomenally successful iPod platform, with a cellular telephone, WiFi-capable device with full and unbridled internet abilities and an email client that brings email to the masses in a way people can understand is amazing. Giving the opportunity to people to ‘touch’ their email and music is also a huge achievement for metaphor. But the device, while revolutionary in its abilities, is a bit of a lame duck in the hands of Europeans.

While it’s certainly not the case in Ireland (where we pay the highest prices for mobile phones and services in Europe), the UK has a thriving and highly-competitive cellular phone industry. With a population of almost 80 million alone in the UK, the phone market there reached saturation some years ago – yet people continue to adopt the latest phones for the best prices. When visiting Cardiff a few years ago, I was shocked to see the latest models being flogged by mainstream carriers for almost nothing (and some at £0). But the reason is simple – competition has driven down the price of the devices and the marginal profits gained from the competitive advantage on contracts yields massive revenues for the companies involved.

Contrast this with the Apple iPhone – a device which combines so much into a device that it does indeed warrant a high-price, and people will run like hell from it. The simple fact is the iPhone is just too expensive. It’s irrelevant whether it has an iPod or email in it, for the average consumer is concerned with things like ‘What kind of camera is in it?’ and ‘How easy is it to text with?’ and ‘Is the battery good?’. The consumer isn’t going to pay top dollar for a product that they perceive to be just a phone with an iPod stuck on. However, the iPhone is more iPod than phone. It was designed as an iPod, and phone features were added to the mix in order to consolidate a user’s physical digital footprint into one single device.

The main reason therefore that the iPhone is failing in the UK (and Europe too) is its price. And as we enter a huge recession in the EU, the iPhone’s luxury must-have appeal will be sacrificed due to its costly yield. Which is a dramatic change from the years when phones such as the Nokia 8800 was the must-have device because it was more expensive than the rest (and was a crap phone to boot). Now people want functionality over form, reliability over ergonomics. And while the iPhone is a revolutionary product, it will suffer from its futuristic design.

Europeans, and none more-so than the Irish, are a text-loving breed. On average, I send over 100 SMS messages per day. This is not uncommon in Ireland, and given that I’m a man, you can imagine that the number of text messages sent by women is a multiple of that. In fact, we’re so good at ‘texting’ each other here that we can type better on our phone’s twelve-key layout, than on a 105-key keyboard. The iPhone lacks this fundamental feature of tactile touch and connection with the phone. It has a beautiful and extremely clever QWERTY keyboard. But the problem is that this keyboard is a touch-screen keyboard, which relies on super-human hand-eye co-ordination to hit each key every time. This is no good to people raised on a diet of 4-3-5-5-6 (H-E-L-L-O) keystrokes. I’ve frequently sent text messages to people in my pocket while not looking at the keys. It’s great when you’re at a funeral and someone has a funny story to tell you right at that moment. It’s not that it doesn’t happen! So imagine remembering the x-y co-ordinates of the letter ‘M’ on your iPhone keyboard when it’s in your pocket on a freezing wet November day? It’s not going to happen. The fact is, we need keys to feel our way around. Most people here text without even thinking about which buttons to press, similar to how we now type on our keyboards at work. In fact, some of the stupidest people I’ve ever met who can’t type their name on a keyboard without looking, could write a 160-character text message faster than you could say ‘What kind of phone do you have?’.

So what of the Irish situation. Well, the iPhone still hasn’t beholden itself to being sold here yet. Still no announcement from Apple as to when this might happen, despite everyone and his dog predicting it’ll be in February of 2008. But the problem is, given that there’s only a population of 4 million on this island, and about two-thirds of our population are either too old or too young to adopt the iPhone in their droves, the device will be the target of the adoration of the middle-classes. These are the people who stupidly bought houses in the last 5 years and didn’t sell them when they had the chance. They’re now poor, struggling to make ends meet and not entirely aware of the fact that they’ll spend every day until they’re 90 years old working to pay off the debt they owe to the banks. This narrows the gap to fewer and fewer potential buyers of the iPhone. To be honest, if you take the ratio of 80 million in the UK buying only 200,000 iPhones, that means that in Ireland, Apple could only hope to sell 10,000 iPhones here. At a price tag of about €300 per iPhone, that’s only €3,000,000. Apple takes only 25% of that, meaning the company will make only €750,000 for ploughing iPhones into Ireland. Think about it, how much money will actually make it back to Cupertino? And then wonder why you’re asking yourself why Apple haven’t launched it here yet??

The answer is simple. If it’s not catching on in the UK, it’ll never catch on here.

How do Apple rectify that? They really cannot. While things might work in the US for the iPhone, Europeans want a phone that is easy to text with, can take reasonably good pictures and costs nothing to own or run. The iPhone is the antithesis of this. More is the pity.

diarmy

As a now well-seasoned Apple user, I’ve finally decided to plan ahead for 2008 for what I intend to buy. Here’s the list so far:

Apple TV
This product is a definite must have now. Thanks to the software upgrade it got on Tuesday, the Apple TV is now a formidable contender for my movie watching this year and going into the future. Watch out for the review when I get it!

Apple Time Capsule
You can never have enough storage, and if you’re like me and you have a broadband ADSL wireless router, you know that it’s completely crap. Especially if it came from the monopoly in Ireland. The 1 terabyte variety should do nicely. No more USB and noisy HDD case for me!

Apple iMac 24″
I’ve been trying to convince myself that it’s a worth-while investment. So, if things go accordting to plan, I’ll invest in this beauty. To anyone who’s thinking of investing though, be sure not to buy from the so-called ‘Apple Stores’ in Ireland - go straight to Apple.com for the best quality product.

What? No iPhone?? Well I frankly don’t see the point in it yet. It’s too expensive and I got an iPod touch for Christmas so that’ll do pig, that’ll do.

diarmy

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc., pulled off an impressive feat of oratorship on Tuesday. He announced software updates and a new notebook computer. And that’s about it. Of the past 4 January keynote speeches I’ve watched from the venerable Jobs, this was the least fluid and exhilarating. Last year’s pitch was indeed a major announcement, with the iPhone turning the world of mobile communications on its head as it struggled to figure out how to compete with this product that would be a major contender for the lucrative all-in-one devices market. This year however, Jobs stopped short on beauty and instead announced a pretty basic lot of software updates. The only other hardware released on Tuesday was the Time Capsule all-in-one backup solution, but even that was met with questionable audience reactions. This speech also had some noticeable mistakes too, with an early reference to ‘Tiger’ from Jobs as opposed to ‘Leopard’ for which he was speaking. Others cropped up too, but what struck me is that it was one of the least prepared speeches I’ve seen the man accomplish in recent years.

At 52, Jobs is not a spring chicken anymore, but he is enthusiastic about Apple, and that must be admired in the man who’s had a pretty turbulent past, including being fired and rehired. But the reaction online and offline to Tuesday’s keynote speech at the Moscone Center in San Francisco has led to a flurry of comments and criticisms of the January flagship product, the MacBook Air. I’ve outlined some of the gripes below so no need to go into detail here.

But the Air did steal some of Jobs’ wind at the announcement (pun intended), resulting in most commentators missing the true great revolution announced. Apple is revolutionizing the video rental market. Among the third act of his speech on Tuesday, Jobs caught my attention when he addressed the fledgling Apple TV product. This was never meant to be a huge seller, but merely an exercise in getting feedback. From that feedback, Apple has tuned the product to one which I personally look forward to purchasing this year.

Apple TV is to be the driving force in the living room behind what is now going to emerge as the most fierce battle yet for our traditions. If it works according to plan, Apple will see off yet more bricks-and-mortar business than ever before. The video rental stores. Apple have made video rentals simple. As it’s rolled out in the US now and internationally this year, broadband-enabled homes will be able to choose from a huge selection of 10,000 movies right from their living room - but here’s the key that no other competitor can offer at present - it can be done from your TV. The Apple TV product is going to be the next revolution in the coveted race to become the leader in home entertainment.

Many companies have tried to catch people as they sit watching TV at home with offerings such as the Microsoft Media Center and other products such as movie rentals by post etc. These solutions however called for too much complexity. Now, Apple is changing that. For the first time, users will be able to properly rent movies from their TV via their broadband connection and Apple TV. At prices that will sent shivers down the spine of video rental stores here in Ireland, Apple will corner this market very quickly. At the moment, a video rental from a major store in Ireland will cost you (oddly, depending on its location) about €5. That involves getting to the store on time, choosing from a poor titles list, and depending on the film’s availability at the time, it’ll mean that you could walk away with nothing. If you’re lucky to get the film you want, you have to return to the store to give it back, or face severe penalties.

Apple’s solution is unquestionably the simplest yet. Sit at your TV, browse the titles, press the ‘Rent Movie’ button, wait 30 seconds, and watch it. The title is valid for 24 hours from when you commence viewing and there’s nothing to return. And with a price tag of an estimated €3.00 a title, it’s curtains for the bricks-and-mortar video stores.

I’ve been involved in recent months with a product trial for movie rentals via kiosks in public places. My view of the product is not good - because it’s too complex and involves you going to get the movie, as opposed to the movie coming to you. In an country where we go to the cinema more often than any of our European buddies, that’s a big pain in the butt!

I cannot stress enough how this product is so brilliant. This will do for DVDs what iTunes did for CDs - basically seal their fate. No longer will people suffer the torture of getting half-way through a movie and end up missing a chapter because the disc is scratched, or suffer the indignity of being surrounded by massive shelving of complete and total crap in a video store at 8pm in some awful shopping centre with people fighting for the latest releases because the store has only 10 copies. No longer will you have to get soaked wet walking back from this store, clutching the DVD you didn’t really want to watch and realise that you have to walk back tomorrow to return it. No, this is going to be completely different.

All those people who have late fees on DVDs, say goodbye to the dirty and over-priced video rentals when this product finally unleashes itself on our shores. It will change the way you entertain yourself on a Friday night when you realise that Pat Kenny has no-one worth watching or on Saturday nights when you see that Tubridy has just gone out the back and pulled in Gerry Ryan again because the researchers couldn’t get Bertie in time. So long - so long!

The only saving grace for the XtraVision, Chartbusters and whoever else has these video rental stores, is that broadband isn’t everywhere. So Eamon Ryan, now’s your chance to undo the colossal f**k up John Gormley is doing to the Green Party - buy back the national telephone network, give everyone broadband at high speeds and low costs, and let’s all stay in on a Friday night and watch a movie on our Apple TVs. Who knows, it might even spare some money on Garda resources who won’t have to watch our streets from bored teenagers out on the town because they don’t have a proof of address to get a DVD from a rental outlet. Do our social life some justice, give us broadband, and let Apple bathe us in entertainment heaven!

diarmy

The announcement by Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday morning in San Francisco heralded Apple entering the Ultra-portable market. While the cat was out of the bag for a while on that note, no one really expected the MacBook Air to be so thin. At it’s slimmest it’s an amazing 0.16 inches thin and blows every other ultra-portable out of the water in terms of its slimline form factor. However, there’s a significant cost to this weight loss.

The weight itself isn’t too impressive. That’s partly thanks to the battery, which most people will find is the heaviest single entity within their laptops. However coming in at a mere 1.5kg (approx) is a great feat for what is essentially a 13-inch laptop.

But the weight of the product isn’t what’s causing the controversy on the blogosphere at the minute. The real dilemma for Mac fans and prospective buyers is the sheer cut-down costs used by Apple to bring this item to market. The hard drive within the MacBook Air (currently at a non-upgradeable 80GB) is shockingly small. While most people wouldn’t have the need for all of this space for their music alone, the fact that a 160GB iPod Classic is available with the exact same hard disk as is in the MacBook Air, begs the question why Apple decided to opt for the smaller 80GB disk.

Another of the major complaints wielded against the Air is the complete and total lack of expandability through ports. There are 3 ports on the Air; USB 2.0, Headphones and a mini-DVI port. The lack of Apple’s own FireWire standard is amazing here, considering the 4-pin variety of the IEEE 1394 technology provides much fast real transfer rates than USB 2.0. Although FireWire is clocked at 400Mbps and USB 2.0 at 480Mbps, FireWire is noticeably faster than USB with the same hardware such as an external drive. Having only one USB 2.0 port is also unfathomable as USB is ubiquitous at the moment and any one wanting to connect more than one device to the Air (such as an iPod and a Mouse) will have to sacrifice one connection in favour of another, or buy a powered USB 2.0 hub (which paradoxically makes the Air a wired product by consequence).

My gripe however with the Air is its price. For an ultra-portable computer, one would expect a high price in terms of dollars and cents, but the Air is out of reach of most buyers who would appreciate the Air’s beauty. Students in college would be the best customer and a key growth area for Apple’s install base, however at €1,700 in the Republic of Ireland, it’s beyond most parents’ or students’ budgets. It’s in line with other ultra-portables, but Apple missed a trick here. If the price had been lower or marginally higher than the current MacBook varieties, users would have gravitated to it in their droves, acceptably sacrificing an optical drive for portability and weight. But having it in the higher regions of MacBook varieties seals out those potential masses and closes the market to them completely. After all, if it were coming in at €999, people would forgive its tiny hard drive capacity and un-changeable battery and paid out the money for an amazing feat of design engineering.

However, I’ve noticed this trend in recent years by Apple, and I blame the book-keepers for it. Apple’s products are always perceived to be higher than the competing PC manufacturers, however they make up for it in reliability, design and specifications generally. But the Air is the odd one out in the notebook segment of Apple’s business. It has relatively poor specifications and upgradeability but is priced beyond the reach of its core target users, young adults with a yearning for change in a Microsoft-controlled world of college campuses and businesses. Likewise with the iPhone in the USA. When launched at $500 in July of last year, it was a massive success, but it was also at the same time a massive failure as it priced most people out of the market once the initial savers took the plunge for the anticipated gadget. However from the UK sales, it’s easy to see how Apple got it wrong. Yes, it may be better than most phones on the market now, but it was priced to compete with BlackBerries and Palms, when it should have been priced to compete with Nokias and Samsungs. Therein lies the issue - people who would buy it were priced out. Apple is starting to show signs of being run by the accountants and not the salesmen as the ever-evident drive to maximise every last cent of corporate money is coming to the fore.

Personally, I like the Apple MacBook Air. I love that the design isn’t compromising the form of the notebook, and the fact that yes, for the most part, this is designed as a complement to an existing Apple system - as a mobile version of the desktop for short periods. But in doing so, and in pricing it out of reach of the people who would buy it, Apple is bringing undue pressure upon itself as it tries to increase its install base and subsequent loyalty base. Apple products are among the best designed in the world. While most PC users are ignorant to the benefits of Mac (frightened off by jealous and stupid loyalists to the Windows environment) their pricing strategies are becoming a bit too pretentious of late. Sacrificing users for profit is poor strategy for a company who has seen record growth in sales on the back of the ‘Mac Myth’ (the atmosphere of ‘everything Apple does is cool’). This is now having a kick-back online with many devotees voicing their anger at the company’s over-pricing and creating for the first time in recent years, a negative atmosphere.

Doubtless people will buy the MacBook Air - but I would easily manage to budget for it if it were in reasonable reach of my pocket. Sadly it’s not, and as I contemplate my next purchase from Apple, it will not unfortunately by an Air.

diarmy

MSN Messenger, that loveable rogue that seems to hang on longer than the smell of wet dog on a car seat in summer, got a much-needed UI overhaul recently. In true Microsoft (MSN) fashion, the installer is now breathtakingly slow and monotonous. Gone is the useful MSI installer and in comes this ridiculous automatic installer that takes up to 20 minutes to install the notoriously slow and hungry app.

The app covers Windows XP machines in Vista’s gooey GUI but is still only a small shell for the maximized app. The program is still hideously slow, although login times are better now. Still jam-packed with stupid ads at the bottom of the main window, it’s more of a lateral upgrade than anything new for the ancient messenger.

I must confess to being a GoogleTalker almost full-time now, and it’s strange to fire up the old Messenger and see the contacts I never keep in contact with.

I’d reccommend you hold off on upgrading to be honest. This version is pretty pointless. Then again, so is Microsoft’s whole ‘Live.com’ crap.

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