Who’s been buying Apple devices since 1989?

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As I often mention, we bought our first Apple device, a MacPlus, in April 1989. Since then we have always bought Apple when it comes to computers and since 2008 also iPhones and then iPads. That is because we are happy and content users.

However, during the first years we always had to defend our choice, actually, it’s not until recently that this attitude had shifted into admiration and it started when Apple launched the first iPhone in 2008.

From the beginning people said that the reason to why we used Macs was that we were ”design people”, meaning that ”since we worked with graphic design we were part of a small and peculiar group of persons who just wanted to have computers that looked nice”. That was a bit humiliating. Like if our knowledge in behavioral science, psychology and pedagogic didn’t matter. Like if our technical understanding of the features and how to use a Mac didn’t really count, because Macs were supposed to be so easy, like handling a toy. It was like some kind of macho-tech culture suggesting that ”real men use PC”. One problem was that people without any knowledge about computers, persons that got scared, needed good advice when they had to buy a computer and somehow, a lot of them turned to these ”macho PC users” to get their advice. Did they suggest a Mac for them? Noooooooooo…

I could never understand that. Even with the PC logic and the conclusion that Macs were toys, they should advice computer novices to buy Mac because they were easy to use, but they didn’t. Sometimes I have suspected that the true reason for advising people to buy PC was to gain some more power and status when this persons needed help with their computer. Because, if they bought a Mac, they wouldn’t need that much help, right?

So, a lot of persons never got close to realizing how much better Macs are. Then they discovered the amazing iPhone. Everyone wanted an iPhone (and they still do, I have seen a couple of examples of working places who by some reason chose to buy HTC smartphones for their employees and they are ashamed to use them and they also get angry, because the phones are obviously not as smart as iPhones). People wanted to talk to me about Apple. They wanted to explain how much they loved their iPhones, it was like they had a revelation: ”So THIS is what you have been talking about all those years? NOW I finally understand why you are so dedicated to Apple!”

Now more people wanted to be in ”club of Apple users”. The phenomena with BYOD = Bring Your Own Device got a real boost with the iPhone – did someone even mention BYOD before the iPhone? Accumulated anger over all the spoilt years they tried to understand how to use their PC:s, frustration over all the viruses and everything that simply didn’t work was released in the wish to throw out those stupid machines and buy Apple.

I coach a handful of Apple users and one of them has always considered himself to be a person that just couldn’t understand computers. They made him sigh and sweat and swear. He started with getting himself an iPad, then he wanted me to help him to get also an iPhone and an iMac. For the first time in his life he said: ”This time I want to learn, I want to know how to use my devices!”. And that’s how it works. I teach him basic stuff, but I also notice that he finds out a lot by himself and that he really uses his devices. He’s happy. He’s curious and interested.

Then he ”gave me as a present” for his mother when she turned 85, together with an iPad. A son gives an iPad together with an iPad coach to his mother. That’s like showing that you care with giving an Apple device. It’s been fun to coach his mother and she’s also using her iPad frequently. She’s amazed.

I think we have only seen the beginning of this development. Kids use iPads in pre-school. So many people are getting used to Apple’s high standard, the combination of high tech and function melted together in beautiful and clean design with a pedagogic user interface. I think there’s no going back from getting used to these high standards. I have a friend that loves Apple, but still has to use a PC at his work. ”It’s a pain every day I have to use my PC”.

Very few persons that buy Apple devices stop buying Apple. I don’t think it’s going to be like this for ever, but the competitors can’t still offer the whole package like Apple do. I have my opinions about things that Apple could do better and I always send suggestions to them, but even so, I am loyal to Apple and will be for more years to come.

At the same time, I welcome good competitors that understands the full concept and especially the importance of bringing designers to the creative process from start. Which for example, Google still hasn’t understood.

Some people argue that Apple isn’t hot any longer, meaning that trendsetters prefer to buy something different to stand out. I partly agree to that, we have got so used to Apple that some persons might find it boring. I’m not sure how much that will affect Apple’s forward development though. It seems they still have plenty of markets to grow on, like China. There are still so many persons wanting to buy their first Apple item in the world. On the other hand, there are also a lot of persons that get a smartphone as their first device that they can use with internet. Their first computer experience is a handhold device and in the developing countries the price is more important than, for example, in Sweden. So, there will naturally come up a lot of competing low-price smartphones that have a big value to persons that above all needs the internet connection. That’s why Verone Mankou has created the first African smartphone, or Congolese to be more exact.

Apple has shifted the world’s expectations of what computers and handhold devices can be like. Now, lets see how that affects the world…

Asa In The Middle’s 2012

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Time for a review of the year 2012. It’s a bit strange that part of what has happened feels like it happened a really long time ago, while other parts feels like they happened yesterday.

My Superfighter Roine wearing a fitting crown on the top pf his head.

The Fighter of the Year: Roine
He has fought against different problems with the eyes since the autumn 2011. After that he has gone through many problems and it got even more difficult when it turned out that he also had high blood pressure. One bad surprise after another. I won’t write the whole story here, but Roine started a fight for better health and he’s still fighting it. It’s been a very tough year for him, he has won many battles and shown that he has amazing fighting spirit. He’s really the Fighter of the Year! I love you Roine. We keep on moving forward.

The Investment of the Year: Apple stocks
What is a year without ups and downs? In January I got the idea to buy Apple stocks. To start with it seemed to be a success, as you can read in this blogpost, but then the stock price developed in another way… Even so, it’s fun to own some Apple stocks. I will keep them for a while. In fact, I would prefer if I can keep them for many years. And I would be very delighted if they increase a lot!

Me and Niklas Myhr standing on a rooftop in Stockholm. Oskar Stenström is the photographer.

The Projekt of the Year: The BOOK
In January I and Niklas Myhr decided that we will write a book together. A book about The Good Rubbish in social media. Wow! Since then we are writing. I write here on Gotland, he in California and we maintain the contact via Facebook and Skype. We have also had one work meeting in Stockholm and two here on Gotland. It’s so fun and inspiring. In November I gave a lecture for a small group testing stuff from the book. Very exciting and rewarding. Thank you Niklas for lightening this idea- and writing-bonfire! We will soon finish the book, right?

The Birthday of the Year: my own 50th Birthday
2012 was the year when I turned fifty the sixth of February. Since it was a bit unsure with Roine’s health in the beginning of the year, I chose to make my birthday celebration simple and easy. I asked Anne and Stefan at Mavens Diner to help me with arranging a tapas-party on a Sunday afternoon. On the Saturday before Alice, Fredrik, Oskar, Dorty and Eddy had arrived so that we could have a more private family dinner together. The tapas-party was very easygoing. It felt so good to have others to help me while I could focus on socializing with the guests. The guests arrived and left and it was fun to see so many friends at Mavens Diner. I dared to take the decision to serve no alcohol, because it was my birthday and I don’t drink alcohol. Thanks to all of you that came and made my day!

The Social Media-suprise of the Year: Spreecast
In May I was invited to attend to a Spreecast when Mitch Jackson interviewed Niklas Myhr. I hadn’t got a clue about what a Spreecast was and I had no idea about who Mitch Jackson was. But, I dived into the Spreecast world and I’m so happy that I did! Thanks to Spreecast I have learnt to know Mitch Jackson and Debbie Elicksen, I got isnpired to read Chris Brogan’s and Julien Smith’s books and in a Spreecast where Murray Izzenwasser participated he suddenly said a couple of simple words that made me understand how we could make an issue more clear in our book. I feel like if I got a chance to mingle with persons in USA while sitting on my couch here in Kappelshamn.

Alice who has been Supercool during 2012!

The Achievement of the Year: Alice
Our ambitious and supercool daughter Alice has outperformed herself during 2012 with managing to take care of her studies at Södertörn University and at the same time being in charge for the marketing at SERO and together with Poina Shafiee arrange the freshmen week in the beginning of the autumn and somewhere in the middle of the preparations for that working as a marketing assistant for Drömstugan. She has not had enough with leisure time during the year, but she has also achieved a lot and made a difference to a lot of others. I wish that 2013 will become the year when she gives herself more time to breath.

The Peace Achievement of the Year: Ronny Edry
I can hardly write about this without getting tears in my eyes. This loving peace movement, Israel loves Iran, that Ronny initiated in March have spread like a epidemic of goodness from human to human, from  country to country. I had the honor to interview him via Skype, in June and afterward I felt like if I had talked to today’s Gandhi. I have huge respect for the work he and a lot of others put into the effort to awake the desire for peace in the middle east. Watch this movie to see how Ronny explains it all!

The At Last of the Year: Apple Store in Täby
How we have been waiting for the first Apple Store to open in Sweden! Me and Roine haven’t had the opportunity to visit any Apple Store abroad, so it was both our first visit in an Apple Store and our first visit in an Apple Store in Sweden. We went there six days after the grand opening and it was exactly so good that we had hoped, and even a little bit better. Friendly and skilled Apple Geniuses, groups with customers learning different things in the store – such an inspiring and nice environment!

The Shift in Cars of the Year: Volkswagen Tiguan 2010 TSI
So, time to get a new car again. A year ago I wrote that we probably would like to have 4W again and in the autumn Roine found this perfect car. We have never before bought a car that has made us so totally happy as this VW Tiguan. It’s almost like when we bought our first Mac in april 1989 – after that we never considered buying anything else but Mac/Apple. I don’t know if I will be that loyal to Volkswagen for ever or if it’s just the features in this car that I like and then it’s possible that I can get that in another car as well? Though, it might be stupid to try another? Volkswagen Tiguan – Wow!

Krister Dahlström, Eva Bofride and Rickard Söderberg at Clarion Hotel Visby.

The Breafast of the Year: Rickard Söderberg
When Rickard went to Gotland to give a lecture about cultural entrepreneurship he initiated a breakfast with me, Krister Dahlström and Eva Bofride. Me and Roine (Stenströms) have worked with the opera singer Rickard Söderberg since August 2011, but never met him, so I was very happy to at last be able to meet him face to face. The breakfast was so intense and inspiring and it was very fun to see how Krister and Rickard connected with their common interest in Japan, even if they come from different places: Krister practicing Kendo and Rickard’s role playing. In the afternoon both me and Roine listened to Rickard’s lecture. I feel so proud to have this wise and engaged man as our customer! Go Rickard!

The Dance Show of the Year: Swan Lake
Fredrik ”Benke” Ryman has once again managed to create a dance show in which he doesn’t only work with choreography, he uses everything to create an intimate teamwork in which every detail is a part of the dance. When Benke creates he can get both light, sound and coulisse to dance and the dancers executes such achievements that I barely thought was possible.

Happy New 2013!
The new year has begun and I am in a very good mood. I think this year has the potential for a very successful outcome. Let’s move forward!

Going up or down Apple?

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Swedish counting-out rhyme:
Äppel, päppel, pirum, parum 
Kråkan satt på tallekvist
Hon sa ett, hon sa tu 
Ute ska du vara nu 
Ja just du!

Translation to English:
Apple, papple, pirum, parum,
A crow sat on a pine tree branch, 
She said one, she said two.
You get out now,
Yes, you do!

Why start a blogpost about Apple, the most impressing company in the world right now, with a children’s nonsense rhyme? Well, some people seem to think about Apple in that way, like if you could count them out with just pointing out a couple of bad things and that will be it.

The thing is, development doesn’t happen like ”Apple, papple, pirum, parum”, it takes some time to count Apple out and I’m not even sure that we have seen the beginning of that, even though the price of the Apple shares for sure has been a bit sad to follow during this autumn. I agree with the pessimists when they say that there will come a day when Apple won’t be on top, but I don’t think we have come that far right now. Maybe it will happen in five or ten years, maybe later, maybe it won’t happen until twenty years from now? But it isn’t happening right now.

Apple has been amazingly successful, no one can argue against that. I think it’s a natural development that huge success gets to a point when a company has to adjust itself. In Apple’s case it’s about getting control, building bonds of trust. They can’t trust Samsung nor Google and that’s why they search for other solutions when it comes to find subcontractors for the crucial parts in the Apple devices and also taking the brave decision to use their own maps. Okay, the maps revealed a lack in their organization, so they also fired Scott Forstall because he was responsible for the maps and the maps was a failure.

This might look a bit shaky from the outside, but in fact they are dealing with their problems and as far as I can tell, it means that they will get stronger.

Then we have the headlines about the devices. Some people try to convince their audience that Apple is losing it’s hotness. Okay, but they are still selling A LOT, right? Apple’s customers are still more loyal than any other brand, right? And that’s because they like (or even love) their Apple devices A LOT.

So, why have the Apple shares value decreased during this autumn? I thought it was very strange until I learned that a lot of funds had to sell out their shares because they got too valuable. Yes, you read that right. Too valuable. If you are responsible for a fund that has rules about how many percents a single stock can hold, then you have to sell off if it gets too valuable. (It makes me wonder about how clever the concept funds are?)

Another factor is the US tax system and some uncertainty of what new rules they will come up with (if I got that right, feel free to help me out here!) so a lot of shareholders want to sell before 2012 has ended.

Conclusion 1: Apple has performed (and is still performing) some changes in order to get stronger. That is good. The funds and the shareholders have done their financial moves ”because they had to”. Apple is still Apple.

I expect Apple to present some good earnings in late January and that the stock exchange rate will rise. I think that it might be a good thing if the coming rise will be at a somewhat lower speed than during 2012, because it might get a bit too dramatic when the hoard of shareholders ran up and down to increase their earnings.

Conclusion 2: Apple causes a lot of buzz. I think that’s a good thing, except that the effect on the stock market gets a bit hysterical.

What is a country now when we have Internet?

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Today we live our lives not only on the physical Mother Earth, but also in the digital cyberworld where borders between the earthly countries are less important. We connect with people from anywhere in the world based on their interests or personality and even if we notice which earthly country they live in, the meaning of it has changed. Our inner images of people living in other countries change when we can see glimpses of their life on internet and recognize ourselves in them. ”She’s like me! He’s like me!”

It can’t be only me that feels a new kind of connection growing over the world, a new sense of belonging and being together, all of us (well, that is all of us who has access to internet) being cyber people or internet persons.

In this global dimension we sometimes get reminded of our earthly countries, like when some country censors the access to internet because there is a conflict between intentions. Trade has always been a great connector between people in different countries – I live in Sweden, the land of the Vikings and I know how much we have to thank the vikings for doing their brave journeys to new places. They learned about other places, they brought home both knowledge and goods. Some of them also moved to other places, like England. (Okay, lets not talk about violence in this blogpost…)

Today I can buy music, books and magazines from all over the world from my iPad and have it delivered in a few seconds. (What do you think about that mr Viking?) I can buy physical items and have them delivered to my house here on Gotland, which will take some days. I can also be the one that sells goods on Internet, if I want to. As soon as we start to trade over the borders we have to deal with the currency issue. It’s a piece of cake in most cases, because the payment solutions deals with it with us hardly noticing it. But if you want to trade globally on the internet, then currency and also taxes might become an issue that’s not so easy to solve.

Where does the transaction take place? Which taxes are applicable? And if the transaction involves not only two countries, but three or four it gets even more complicated. Wouldn’t it be nice if the internet also was a country with it’s own currency?

I found it interesting to read this article in Cult of Android, Google’s executive chairman Eric Smith says:

That businesses must be run more like countries, with diplomatic meetings and the like. He said that “the adult way to run a business is to run it more like a country. They have disputes, yet they’ve actually been able to have huge trade with each other. They’re not sending bombs at each other.”

When a company expands in ways like Apple and Google the earthly borders don’t matter in the same way as they used to, but they still matter.

So, what is a country? I checked Wikipedia. The definition begins with: A country is a region legally identified as a distinct entity in political geography. And it ends with: Regardless of the physical geography, in the modern internationally accepted legal definition as defined by the League of Nations in 1937 and reaffirmed by the United Nations in 1945, a resident of a country is subject to the independent exercise of legal jurisdiction.

When we buy music at iTunes, who’s exercise of legal jurisdiction are we the subject of? When we register an account at Google to start a blog like this or to participate in Google+, who’s rules do we have to follow?

Eric Smith points out an issue that will become more important over the years as our global connections via Internet will expand and establish it’s position as a natural part of our lives. Businesses must be run more like countries, yes. But what if we also need a new ”country” in cyberspace to make it easier to handle money and laws?

Tim Cook: Where is my iPad Maxi?

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July 9th I wrote my first blogpost about a big iPad. Then I called it an iPad Pro, but as we all know there was an iPad Mini that got introduced during this autumn, so maybe iPad Maxi will be a more logic name?

I need an iPad Maxi more for every day. One of the cool features with an iPad is that we can carry it with us in a ”normal” bag or like we carry a book. Mobility is one of the key factors to iPad’s success. Another factor is touch control. We touch the screen to make it do stuff. We work closer to an iPad than to our computers.

I understand the need for a smaller iPad. Kids have smaller hands and will find iPad Mini nicer to handle than an iPad. Some people find that the iPad is a little bit too heavy when they read books – personally I can’t figure that out, because I never hold the book/iPad in my hands while I read, I lean it on my bent legs. But of course, you need a bed or a couch to do that.

But the ability to use my fingers or a pen on the screen has made me change the way I do my creative work. I sketch on my iPad, I draw mind maps on my iPad, I create models on my iPad and I do a lot of research on my iPad. I do this as professional and I need my tools to be professional too. So, where is the iPad Maxi that I need? I need it because a lot of time I need a bigger picture to be able to overview all the details in a model, sketch or a mind map.

I have also learned a lot from using NoteShelf – an app that I can’t stop to admire because of it’s functionality. In NoteShelf I can spread out all the pages and get an overview and from there I can sort them, change the order. I can do that in KeyNote on my computer too. It’s a great feature. I wish it was possible to do it in iBooks, because when I read a book I often want to go through the text again and remind myself about what I have read. Even if iBooks got this feature, the pages would get very small in such an overview. But it would work out fine on an iPad Maxi…

So dear mr Tim Cook: Where is my iPad Maxi. I need it! I long for it!

(Byt the way, I’m not alone with my wish, I found this article on Arabian Money