This is getting sillier for every day…

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When I bought my Apple shares in January 2012 I didn’t expect the price to rise as much as it did. I was really amazed but also happy of course. But then things started to change by the autumn and we all know that the price is back to January 2012 once more.

This year has really been a learning year for me and as usual, the best advice I now would like to give to myself is ”Always listen to myself”. I didn’t buy my Apple shares to earn a fortune in short time. I bought them because I like Apple and admire the work they do. I believe in Apple’s way of creating smart devices. Thinking like that, nothing much has changed since one year ago.

The only thing that has changed for me is that I now have a bigger understanding for what the rally of expectations can do with the stock price and frankly, I find it so silly. Grown up men (well, a few women as well I guess, but the ones I read about are usually men) that tries to impress on each other with numbers, tables, statistics and graphs predicting the future for Apple. At some point most of them tried to be the best at praising Apple and then they got confused until they started to be best at dooming Apple. What did Apple do to feed all those predictions? Nothing strange really, they kept on doing a good job.

What do I expect from Apple during 2013?

  • Some new models of MacBooks, iPhones and iPads.
  • Fresh new version of iWork! It’s about time we get a good and well thought-out version of that incredible, enjoyable software.
  • Making it easier to use Apple ID and iCloud, build in better solutions for sharing documents with others. No more confusing messages during updates or installations…
  • New design for the iOS User Interface. Jony Ive – I hope you will come up with something delicate!
  • New, cool devices! Yes of course, we are getting curious: what are you Apple guys working on? Is it the iWatch, the Apple TV solution or what? Surprise me!
  • Continue to sell all over the world. I expect them to grow fast on markets in China and India, but also to grow on other markets of course.
  • Expand their market shares in working places like schools, healthcare, factories, aircraft – well every kind of working place I can think of.
  • To pay their dividends and maybe increase them a little?
  • I finish with my special, personal wish: Please Mr Tim Cook, give me a BIG iPad, an iPad Pro! I would love to work with a bigger touchscreen when I create ideas!

I think it’s okay if the price of the Apple shares don’t rise too fast if it means that the price will continue to increase during a long period, like five years. Because I don’t like the hysteria we had during 2012… I hope that Apple will keep on making a difference to the world. I love Apple.

PS. I found the video on iDownloadBlog.

It’s time to get social Apple!

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Charlie Kindel has written an interesting article about Why Nobody Can Copy Apple and his conclusion is very simple:

It only focuses on one customer: The Consumer.

I see this like a wholeness where it’s not only about seeing the market as business or customers but also about seeing the customer as both a private person and a business person. That’s how I started to think after reading his article.

This goes hand in hand with the development with social media. The old way is to think of business and work like something separate from your private life. In social media the tendency is to let them melt together and become one. We do business with persons, not with companies or brands. A lot of people haven’t yet understood this and are afraid to show themselves in person on Facebook. But we, as being customers, expect to see the person behind the business more and more.

Except from companies like Apple, which is a paradox. Imagine how cool it would be to follow Tim Cook or Jony Ive on Twitter, Facebook or a blog? Actually, that might be what’s missing right now? The shareholders want to get the feeling of what’s happening and all they can rely on are rumors and rare interviews and speeches. And we all need to fill in the empty space after Steve Jobs. I always thought of Apple as an exception from social media but now, starting to think like this, I actually got scared. I think Apple needs social media right now! I don’t think that Samsung’s CEO is blogging or anything, but imagine if Tim Cook could be the first in this business to do it? He would for sure be one of the most interesting persons to follow…

It’s not like one has to reveal secrets just because you have a blog. People want to feel connected to the persons behind the products today. Steve Jobs managed to create that feeling without social media, but Tim Cook who seems to be a really nice and clever man doesn’t have a similar strong connection with the customers and fans. A blog would be an excellent channel for him. He could connect with the customers.

Also, another thing that Apple does against ”the rules” is the system for feedback. I understand that Apple is big, but it is another paradox to think of the extreme high level of customer care in Apple Stores in contrast to the dull system for feedback online. I send in suggestions and feedback all the time but never get a simple ”thanks”. When I send feedback to other companies they often answer me and make me feel like if they listen to me.

I think the Apple Communities could get a more friendly tone and also it would be great to know if someone at Apple actually reads what goes on there in the discussion. That’s also a place where it would mean so much if people could feel that they participated in developing Apple’s products to get even better. Of course, it’s all the designers and engineers at Apple who does 99,9% of the hard work, but even so, it wouldn’t hurt to emphasize the feeling of ”all us Apple users are a big family and we help Apple as much as we can”. 

You know, I think that’s how it all begun? I remember that there were some kind of Apple groups in Växjö (Sweden) and there were more of them all over the world. Today I don’t know what has happened with those groups, I never hear of them. But today we could create that feeling of belonging to a group on the internet.

And I think we are a lot of persons that long for ways to connect with Apple in ways like this.

So, please Apple: consider becoming more social online!

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 

Help Apple Maps!

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Edward C Baig had no problems with Apple Maps.

I have read a lot about the disappointments with Apple Maps and even if the maps were totally right when we drew from Sorunda south of Stockholm to Täby Centrum north of Stockholm (see the blogpost below), I’m still aware of that at some other places Apple Maps really sucks. It’s not something you can neglect. Maps are only useful when they are right. One of the most depressing articles I read was My next phone will be a Samsung, not an iPhone 5 by Michael Grothaus.

The Apple Maps are actually so bad that Tim Cook gave an official apology today.

Here on my island, Gotland, I have noticed that Apple Maps can find the streets but not the street numbers. So, Apple Maps works pretty well, but not optimal. So far.

Should we be mad at Apple because of these maps? No, I don’t think so. As far as I can tell they made the wisest decision they could. (Actually, no one ever makes nothing but the wisest decision – though sometimes it might seem as the decision was not the wisest afterwards.) They just couldn’t go on using Google Maps. Google would not allow them to use turn-by-turn in iPhones, but Google would use turn-by-turn in their devices! Hey, that would give Google a huge advantage! Of course Apple couldn’t accept that. I guess that older conflicts between these big companies played a role as well.

Therefore I totally accept that Apple had to make this decision. Next question is: how will they solve it? But another question is: can I do something to help Apple to make Apple Maps better? The answer is that I can do something to help Apple and I will gladly do that, because it makes me feel good if I can be part of making Apple’s products better. I already do this with always sending suggestions for how to make iWork better. Now I will make an extra effort to check Apple Maps AND every time I find something that’s not right, I will report it. It’s easy to report any faults you find, if you ”look behind the map” you find different options, but if you look above that, you will find, in very small print ”Report problem”.

Now, if you like Apple a lot like I do: make sure that you report every fault that you find. That’s the input Apple need.

It’s not about “just the rounded corners”

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I read this article written by Mr Roger Key and I think he makes some clever assumptions, but there are two things that makes me puzzled:

The use of the words ”passionate” and ”emotional”:

There are questions about whether Jobs was alone in his passionate Google-hate and whether Tim Cook is prepared to carry on the battle in Jobs’s name. Some people think that Cook is less emotional and might seek an accommodation, but so far there’s no evidence of that. It’s likely that Jobs wasn’t the only one who felt the way he did and that some of his team still want the heart of Google’s city burnt to the ground.

I agree that Steve Jobs probably was very engaged in this matter and I would probably also be able to use the words passionate and emotional to describe it, but in this context it’s used like if the opinions about Google was ”just a passionate and emotional thing”, which therefor not should be counted on as a real matter. Real as in ”real business”. I think that’s a misunderstanding about business. Business is not cool and rational, business is about passion, emotions and to get the right feeling. That doesn’t mean you can’t still have knowledge and experience. Quite the opposite actually.

The more you know about a subject, the bigger engagement, the more emotions.

The next thing that makes me puzzled is:

Apple can’t claim to have invented “roundness” or “black.”

No, they can’t and even if that’s what it might look like in the juridical texts, I’m sure it’s about how you combine all this design elements and technical features to create a wholeness. It’s not about ”round corners generally on everything in the world”. It’s about how it’s used on the icons on the iPhone’s screen. Design and layout is about how you combine and it’s even about how you use the empty space in a layout. These things matters when you create a graphic och digital ”personality”.