Is Samsung The New Dell?

Gregg Keizer:

Dell last week again blamed Windows 8 for contributing to a decline in PC sales revenue during the quarter that ended May 3. "Windows 8 has been, from our standpoint, not necessarily the catalyst to drive accelerated growth that we had hoped it would be," said Brian Gladden, Dell's CFO, in a call last week with Wall Street analysts to discuss the quarter's financials. Gladden's convoluted syntax aside, this was the second time that Dell pushed Windows 8 under the bus.

Yes, I am sure that Windows 8 hasn't helped Dell at all, but what has Dell done to help Dell? Dell is paying the price for not following the Tim Cook doctrine (The need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products you make). They relied on Microsoft for years to function. It was a nice system for a long time. Dell churned out mediocre PCs running an OS that someone else had to deal with.

At the same time, he also dashed cold water on the near future. "But you look at the recent external data from any of the third-party sources, we would expect to continue to see over the next few quarters year-over-year declines in PC demand," Gladden said, referring to projections by the likes of IDC and Gartner that PC shipments -- and thus sales -- would continue to suffer as consumers and businesses alike buy smartphones and tablets rather than new personal computers.

When you don't own the OS, you will be reliant on someone else to drive innovation. There is only so far hardware can take you. If the OS fails to innovate, there will be less demand for your hardware.

Let's rewrite the above excerpts, but change Dell to Samsung and Windows to Android.

Samsung last week again blamed Android 14 for contributing to a decline in smartphone and tablet sales revenue during the quarter that ended May 3. "Android 14 has been, from our standpoint, not necessarily the catalyst to drive accelerated growth that we had hoped it would be," said Ju-Hwa Yoon, Samsung's CFO, in a call last week with Wall Street analysts to discuss the quarter's financials. Yoon convoluted syntax aside, this was the second time that Samsung pushed Android 14 under the bus.

At the same time, he also dashed cold water on the near future. "But you look at the recent external data from any of the third-party sources, we would expect to continue to see over the next few quarters year-over-year declines in smartphone and tablet demand," Yoon said, referring to projections by the likes of IDC and Gartner that tablet and smartphone shipments -- and thus sales -- would continue to suffer as consumers and businesses alike buy (insert future product category) rather than new smartphones and tablets

Samsung is enjoying a nice ride currently. Google is doing the heavy lighting (making an OS is a really difficult project) and Samsung is reaping the rewards. What are its alternatives if Google fails to innovate in the coming years or moves on to a different product category? Just as Dell has struggled to make software on its on PCs (everyone who knows how immediately uninstalls it), Samsung hasn't proven itself any better. If Samsung can't seem to write decent software, why would we expect more from an OS they might create.

It's quite possible that in 2023, Samsung will be in the same situation that Dell is in today (stuck in a declining industry with no way out).

RSS Feed Update

Like most websites these days, I am moving away from Feedburner for RSS feed tracking. There shouldn't be any hiccups on your end, as I am handling the redirection inside of Feedburner. If you notice anything strange, please let me know. The new feed is: http://feeds.uri.lv/chambersdaily. The link is also on the left of the site. If you want to be sure you are not going to have any issues, feel free to re-subscribe using that link.

Announcing 'Learning To Love Evernote'

I am happy to announce my latest project: Learning to Love Evernote. Have you always wanted to love Evernote, but never really got it? I completely understand! I was in your same place for 4 years, but just recently saw the light. I want to share with you how I learned to love Evernote!

Some of the things you will learn:

  1. Storing manuals for appliances
  2. Organzing things your kids make at school
  3. Using the Evernote webclipper to store recipies offline
  4. Keeping track of you car maintenance schedule

Learn More and Purchase

Surface Is The New Zune

Bill Gates:

“A lot of those users are frustrated. They can’t type. They can’t create documents. They don’t have Office there. So we are providing them something with the benefits they have seen that have made that a big category, without giving up what they expect in a PC.”

There are plenty of bluetooth keyboards and people seems to be getting work done just fine without Office. I believe that the biggest mistake that Microsoft has made in recent years is not releasing Office for iPad in 2010. Fast forward to 2013 and folks are realizing that "work" doesn't always require Microsoft Office.

You’d think that if a signficant portion of the tablet market really does want the more chimeric device Gates describes, Surface would be doing quite a bit better at market than it is currently. But it’s not. Not yet, anyway.

This is a repeat of the Zune vs iPod scenario. Apple innovates and Microsoft copies. The Zune was a really nice MP3 player, but it wasn't drastically better than an iPod at anything. While Microsoft was building the Zune, Apple was building the iPhone and iPod touch.

Are Apple's Massive Profits Immoral?

Joe Thinker:

Among my friends and acquaintances it is no secret that I loathe several big players in the proprietary computer field, including Adobe, Oracle, Microsoft and Apple (among others). These corporations have created business models that allow them to extort ever-increasing profits from their myopic customers. Of those noted, I consider Apple to be the worst offender, by far.

Why is Apple the worst? Would not every company in the world want to trade places with them? They sell a few products at a premium price and have a great profit margin.

As greedy as Microsoft may be, Apple seems a clear winner in the race to extort money from customers. Whether it's their proprietary hardware requiring special converter cables to connect them to the rest of the world where standards rule, or their over-the-top prices for everything they manufacture, or expensive add-ons and expansions such as the referenced article describes, Apple is never shy about reaping every last penny from their zombie customer base.

It seems that what Joe is disagreeing with a capitalism at its core. Apple does not have a monopoly on any industry. If you don't want a Mac, buy a Windows PC. If you don't want an iPhone, buy a Samsung phone. If you don't want to buy music from iTunes, purchase it from Amazon. Consumers vote with their wallets, not with their opinions.

I think the saddest aspect of this greedy mania is what it says about their customers. These are not people with technical expertise who are buying Apple products because they are somehow getting better technology—because they're not! In fact, Apple has frequently boasted about how easy (supposedly) their devices are to use for total ignoramuses. I think they got the characteristics of their core target demographic just about right.

Joe is now insulting Apple customers now along with Apple.

Where money is no object, Apple products tend to do very well. Thorstein Veblen had something to say about that peculiar phenomenon in his Theory of the Leisure Class. Meanwhile, people around the world, especially outside the USA, will gravitate toward Linux, a free operating system that is less vulnerable to hackers, much less likely to crash, much more compliant with international standards, and capable, with thousands of free add-on software programs, of doing everything that Apple and Windows machines can do.

This will be the year of Linux on the desktop!

On the other hand, if you simply want dependable, completely functional and affordable computing capability at a reasonable price, avoid Apple products like the plague—unless you're a Republican!

We just need to move along here. He's gone down a rabbit hole.

David Carnoy with CNET:

You see, I've been around iOS devices long enough to know that 16GB of storage space just doesn't cut it -- throw a couple of high-res games and an HD movie or two on the thing, and you're starting to hit the limit. That put me at $429 for the 32GB model. Tack on the extra dough for sales tax and suddenly I was over $450. And that doesn't include the $29 Apple wants for Lightning-to-30-pin adapter that will allow me to use my old Apple connectors with the Mini.

You will convince Apple to charge less for upgrades when you don't buy its products. Buying about it and complaining is about the same as buying it and not complaining.

Steve Jobs had a pretty good insight on this when discussing it at the D8 Conference:

"Well things are packages. Some things are good in a product, some things are bad. If the market tells us we're making bad choices, we'll make changes. We're just trying to make great products. We don't think this is great and we're going to leave it out. We're going to take the heat because we want to make the best product in the world for customers! If we succeed, they'll buy them! If we don't, we won't sell any. And I have to say, people seem to be liking the iPad!"

If you don't like Apple making insane profits, then don't buy its products. Making profits in an environment where there is ample competition is not immoral, but rather just good business.

Voice Memos and Evernote

One of the things that I've been trying to capture is my son talking at a young age. I really wanted to capture him saying things as only a toddler does, but I needed a way that was easy to process and organize. I chose to store it in an Evernote notebook called 'Children Voice Memos".

The ability to email items into your Evernote database is a powerful tool as most iOS apps support export via email. The first step is to actually thing record something in the Voice Memos app and then share via email.

You then want to enter your Evernote email address. If you enter @Your Notebook Name into the subject, it will automatically organize it. I would also recommend adding a description of what you are storing. Tap on send and you are done! Once you open Evernote, you will see your .m4a file properly organized and playable.

Vigil: Website Monitoring App

Vigil is a simple iPhone app that monitors your website. It's a $9.99 In App Purchase and includes an unlimited number of websites. It let me know a few minutes faster when one of the work websites I manage went down on Sunday night. It includes customizable settings for notification sensitivity that can be managed on a site by site basis.

My only complaint is the IAP model. I will be paying for this through my work, so it's easier to put it directly on a corporate card instead of having to get reimbursed after the fact.

The One Where Dell Admits It Doesn't Know Anything About The Post-PC era

Andre Meier:

But they’re just that – instant reasons. Not well thought–out, reasoned, planned decisions. After the first blush of tablet mania, we’re now at the point where it’s time for serious, planned adoption. There’s now a great deal more choice in terms of platforms out there, and plenty of approaches to managing them. This is where Dell Channel partners can really help their customers make the right decision for their business – a new wave of technology brings with it new complexities.

So everything from 2010 to April of 2013 was just a test run? I guess we shouldn't tell all of the schools and businesses who are deploying iPads that they need to start over with a 'real tablet'.

If the first tablet wave was about the user experience, the second is about effective management and support and productivity. We know they work, they’re useful and that users love them. But we need to prove that, in a corporate environment, they don’t become an expensive headache – and that they do things that provide good to the company buying and supporting them, rather than just the users.

Apple is clearly ignoring the enterprise.

We commissioned Principled Technologies to research the total cost of ownership of tablets – specifically, to compare the cost of managing a thousand Apple iPads and a thousand Dell Latitude 10 tablets over three years. A few highlights: Latitude 10 deployment is 17 times faster, and 94 percent cheaper to deploy, than the iPad. Printing is $5,000 cheaper, as the Latitude 10 doesn’t need printer workstations to print. Latitude 10’s battery replacement can be done in seconds on-site by a company’s desktop support staff – while iPads have to go back to Apple. If half of batteries require a replacement over the three years, that adds up to a lot of iPads going back to Apple – and not in the hands of staff in the meantime.

Are you serious? The study that you commissioned found results that are against the iPad? Are people really complaining about sealed batteries in 2013? I thought we had moved past that arguement.

The iPad is a very popular gaming and media tablet – but it’s a consumer device in a business world and now it’s time for business tablets to get the job done efficiently and effectively. Dell Partners are in a particularly good position to help their customer roll out mobile devices that truly support their employees now and as their needs and requirements change.

There is no possibility of a consumer device making it in the workplace. No chance of a single device being good for work and home.

Here is the link to the PDF if you want to have this gem saved for later.


Additional Thoughts On App Store Economics

I've been thinking a lot of about the environment of App Stores (specifically Apple).  There as been a lot of discussion around the economics of the App Store model recently that seemed to start with this post by Michael Jurewitz.  I had some additional thoughts over the weekend, so I wanted to explain my thoughts further.  

The iOS App Store was a 'green field' for a few years.  There previously had been no decent way to get apps onto a mobile phone.  Apple changed all of that with a simple way to purchase and install apps.  It was a frictionless experience.  Everyone wanted to try it.  People were creating apps that solved problems that most of us did not know we had (hence the term: there's an app for that).  We were all discovering our 'mobile workflows'.  We were eager to try different types of apps.  The iPhone was still a new device, so it was growing at an incredible rate.  Since it was a new device, it was generally new to iPhone customers (rather than upgrades).  Think about your app downloading habits from 2008-2010 vs 2013.  We've all settled into our workflows and usage patterns.  We aren't actively searching for new things as often as we used to.  I've noticed an interesting thing in my usage as well.  It seems like most of the apps I download now are generally tied to a back end services (the Nest app is an example).  We aren't hearing the stories about a $1.99 game allowing a guy to quit his day job.  The iOS platform is still a profitable way to earn a living, though.  It's requiring more effort on a developers part, though.  The market is saturated with tons of quality applications in most every genre.  Developers are having to work a lot harder to stand out among the crowded.

Here is an example: a new city is created.  There would be no businesses in operation inside of this city at its founding  Lets also say that the rules of this city say that you can only do business with someone inside of the city.  I would immediately open an insurance agency.  I'd be the only approved place inside the town to buy insurance.  Would others have the same idea? Absolutely, but there would be so many new potential customers that each person would earn a nice living.  As the city grew, more people would want to sell insurance.  With each agency that opens, everyone else would get a smaller slice of the pie.  How does this equate to app purchasing?  Folks generally only have 1 or 2 'to do' applications.  There is only so many developers that can earn a living making one.  As in any business, only the strong survive.  The best apps will continue to grow, but the marginal ones will not survive.  It's no different than in the restaurant industry or any retail establishment.  You either compete on price, offer something unique, or battle for the same customers.  This is true app developers just as it is for a home builder.  The iOS App Store was like a new city, but now its a more established place to live.  It's a nice place to have a business, but you need to offer something compelling to survive.  One final thought: Consider your buying habits in the Mac App Store vs the early days of the iOS app store.  I know that I didn't spend near as much time searching for new apps in the Mac App Store as I did the iOS.  My workflows were already pretty much set by the time it was released.

I've heard a lot of developers talk about the risk of putting so much time and effort (and money) into an app and not know how it's going to sell.  How is that different with any business?  If I am going to start a restaurant, I've still got to lease/buy a building, buy equipment, buy food, and hire a staff before I can ever serve the first meal.  Choosing to develop apps is no more of a risk than buying a Taco Bell franchise or opening a clothing store.  The strong will always rise to the top.

App Store Economics Are Just Business Economics

Marco Arment:

I haven’t always used these particular apps to solve these problems, but it takes a lot to change my mind on one. If you make another RSS reader or Twitter client, there are certainly a lot of people who could use it, but you’ll need to compete with very mature, established apps. Competing in these categories isn’t about price: it’s about relevance and attention. If you can’t find enough customers here, it’s probably not because you’re charging $2.99 instead of $1.99 or $0 — it’s because your app isn’t convincing enough people that it’s worth using over the alternatives.

Federico Viticci also said:

This is also the same problem I run into every time I’m sent new apps to review: is this going to be better than Tweetbot, Fantastical, or Drafts for my workflow? Should my readers know about this app even if I won’t use it every day? How do I balance the expectations of my readers, who want to know about new apps, with my personal opinions and workflow preferences?


App store economics are largely just general business economics.  If I am going to start a pest control company, I've got 3 options:

1.  Offer the same product and lower my price below competitors
2.  Offer the same product at the same price as my competitors
3.  Offer a revolutionary new way of doing pest control (i.e. only needed once every 24 months)

An app developer has largely the same options when releasing a new app in a genre that is well served.

1.  Offer the same product and lower the price below competitors
2.  Offer the same product at the same price as competitors
3.  Offer a revolutionary new way of doing whatever apps in that genre do

Based on those options, a lot of developers just simply choose option 1.

Let's look at Panic's Status Board.  They are charging a premium and it seems to be selling well (based on the press around it).  It's not $.99, though.  Why can they charge a premium price? They went with option 3.  If I am wanting to launch a new service based company, I have to try to either create a market for myself or compete with the incumbent players.  My favorite Wi-Fi vendor (Aerohive) also went with option 3 when they launched controller-less enterprise WI-Fi.  They offered a product with similar goals as Aruba and Ruckus, but with a revolutionary way of doing it.  There is already a business term for this effect.  It's called Blue Ocean Strategy.  A blue ocean market is where you've changed the game and your competitors aren't relevant in the discussion.  The incumbent competitors are competing in a red ocean (for your scraps). 

My advice to app developers? Look for blue oceans and you can charge a premium.

Using an iPad as a Time Clock Solution

Hardware
We chose an iPad 2 running the latest version of iOS as the input device.  I have turned on guided access and set it where the only accessible section is the actual webpage portion of Safari.  I had the login page of the time clock software pulled up before turning on guided access.  I am not sure that our employees would want to be browsing Facebook at the time clock, but you never know.  We mounted the iPad to the wall using this mount.  The mount was very easy to put together and it seems very durable.  One nice touch of the mount is that it enclosed the dock connector portion of the sync cable inside of it.  This would keep someone from unplugging it (to play a joke). 

Software
We chose TimeClock Plus Web edition because it integrated nicely into our payroll system (I've been told it will take our payroll process down to 3 hours from 1.5 days).  The software seems to work well enough.  It's not iPad optimized, but we've had a good experience thus far.  Their support has been top notch as well.

Conclusion
This is a perfect example of how flexible the iPad is as a device.  It can really be whatever you want it to be.  I'd venture to say that this solution cost about the same as buying an actual time clock as well.

Pre-Software Launch Checklist for Education Developers

If you are making any sort of software for education, please make sure of the following:

  1. The app needs have a built in updating mechanism (if non App Store).  If your app requires a teacher to download a full .dmg file for each update, you did it wrong.
  2. Please avoid In App Purchasing on iOS.  Schools have no VPP options to upgrade.
  3. It needs to work 99.9999% of the time.  If you product requires an IT person to constantly fix things, the teacher will likely stop using it.  Teachers do not like to tinker with things.
  4. Your app will be used by teachers who are busy with parent meetings, grading papers, creating lesson plans, and trying to have some sort of life outside of school.  It needs to be simple.  You need to work hard to make it where it doesn't require a 3 day training class before you can get started.  A good example of how to correctly do is is Explain Everything.

The Mac's Last Stand

iOS has become an incredibly powerful platform. Many of the tasks that have traditionally been done with a regular laptop, can be done on iOS. Is it the same process? No, but it can usually be done. iOS was not only built for a mobile world, but it was also built for a world in which computers should be appliances. A refrigerator accomplishes its goal with relative little fuss. There are a few settings to mess with, but it's not where we would have the itch to tinker with it all day. It's meant to do its job and let us get back to whatever our jobs are. I want to break down what an average user probably does and see where iOS can and cannot handle the task.

Web browsing
Safari is the absolute best mobile browser. Its lack of flash support becomes less and less relevant by the week. There are no plugins to manage (I'm looking at you Java) or extensions to update. It just works.

Email
Mail.app is a fully functional email client supporting POP3, IMAP, and Exchange. The App Store also offers various other third party clients.

Social Networking
Twitter and Facebook offer native apps for iOS that are continually being updated.

Music
iTunes and Music.app solve this problem for most. Spotify and Rdio pick up the slack for those wanting a streaming service.

Movies
Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon have native apps, while iTunes is a great place to build a paid library thanks to Purchases in the Cloud. I'd rather have a service that was DRM free, but that doesn't seem like its in the cards anytime soon.

Writing
The App Store is absolutely chock full of great writings app. I'd recommend you search for Byword, IA Writer, or Elements for plaintext/markdown. Apple also offers Pages for word processing needs.

Presentations
While feeling a bit long in the tooth, Keynote is as fully functional as its desktop sibling.

Photos
This is where 'iOS only' falls apart for me. I have 60GB of home videos/photos (and growing quickly). If it wasn't for this, I think I could stick with an iPad and an iPhone as my only computing devices. While services like Everpix are starting to become a somewhat viable alternative, I still like having a local copy of my most precious media. Perhaps combing some sort of local NAS drive with a service like Everpix could accomplish this goal. The workflow would need to be really simple,though. Everpix has a great automatic upload feature (location based). Perhaps I simply need to move to the 128 GB iPad. My only concern there is that how could I back it up? Apple would have to drastically increase the iCloud storage options.

iOS is clearly the way of the future. Every version is more powerful than the last. While Mac OS X is the world's most advanced desktop operating system, the world is clearly moving mobile.

Simple Finder, Simple iCloud

I've been listening to The Frequency quite a bit lately and it seems like Dan plays a daily sound byte of 'Einhorn is Finkle, Finkle is Einhorn' from Ace Venture: Pet Detective. If you've never seen the movie, then click here for a clip. This actually triggered my thoughts on iCloud. We've seen a lot of articles explaining what is wrong with iCloud. If you want to get up to speed, I recommend this tag section of MacStories. The complaints range from a functionality perspective problem to a 'these APIs are broken problem'. It's an obvious problem if APIs are not performing as they should. Apple needs to fix that. Let's look at that functionality argument. How broken is it? The argument is that files are walled into the app and sharing through the 'Open In' menu is actually just copying. How hard would it be to fix this? It's simple: app permissions. Users have the option to give apps access to their full iCloud rather than just the 'simple iCloud'. I might give Byword.app access to my entire iCloud to see all my text documents, where Day One.app might just get its own 'container'. There is precedent for this as well. Anyone remember 'Simple Finder' from the Mac OS parents controls?

Apple could easily build a simple iCloud (the current setup) along with fully featured iCloud (make it act more like Finder). I'd recommend Apple enable Simple iCloud by default. It could be turned off on an app by app basis. This might be done with a toggle switch inside of the app settings (along with a pop up from Apple asking if the user would like to give this app access to all of the files in iCloud). Say it with me: iCloud is Finder, Finder is iCloud. Wouldn't this solve a lot of the complaints of the power users, while keeping it simple for the novice users?

Redeeming Your Commute

My family has recently moved and my commute has gone from 20 seconds to 20 minutes.  While spending more money on gas is never ideal, I am looking forward to a little 'down time' on the drive home to wind down from work.  You definitely should look for ways of redeeming your commute. What do I mean by that? Spend that time doing tasks you never make time for that are beneficial to your overall well being.  Here are some examples:

1.  Catch up on sermons
Your church likely offers a podcast feed of your pastor's sermons.  If you missed a week or want to re-listen to a message, use this time to do so.  You could easily re-listen to a 30 minute sermon on your Friday commute (assuming you drive 15 minutes each way) and this would help you as you listen to the next sermon on the following Sunday.

2.  Audiobooks
I have never been a big reader, but I do love audiobooks.  If you've been wanting to read David Allen's Getting Things Done book, this is your opportunity.  You can pick up a trial membership at Audible.com and download it.  You could easily listen to a book a month even with a minimal commute.

3.  Technical Books
O'Reilly Media sells DRM free ePub versions of a lot of technical books.  If you are studying for a technical certification, you can load the ePub (or PDF) into this app and then it will use text to speech to read it to you.

4.  Silence
Occasionally, turn everything off and drive in absolute silence. 

5. Podcasts
I listen to a lot of podcasts.  Some of the ones I follow are 5by5, 70Decibels , and Neutral.  Of course, I'd love if you listened to my show as well.  Podcasts are a great way to keep up with news in the field of your choice.

I am not saying you shouldn't enjoy music, but I would definitely advise redeeming your commute when you can.

The Chambers Daily Guide To Photo Organization

I am happy to announce of a new experiment for myself. I have written a small 2 page PDF on managing photos/home videos in a way that is simple, organized, and backed up.  Rather than simply put this on the blog, I am going to sell it for $1.  

Here is the FAQ:

Q:  Why are you charging for this? Shouldn't this be on your blog for free?

A:  I'm trying something new. It cost me about $100/year for the hosting for this site, so I'm trying to offset the cost.  It's only a buck.  I'll probably net about  $.70 after fees, so it's like buying me a coke.  Co-workers sometimes offer to take me to lunch if they can pick my brain about about their home computer, so consider this like taking me out for a coke.

Q: I consider myself a pretty savvy computer user. Should I buy this?

A: Maybe, but probably not.  You probably won't learn a lot from it, but maybe you will.  This is aimed at folks who want to get organized, but don't know where to start.  If that isn't you, then maybe buy a copy for a friend.

Q: What formats do you offer?

A: You get a DRM free PDF file.

Q: What if I think it's terrible?

A: Email me and I'll refund your money.

Q: Do you offer review copies?

A: I guess so.  Feel free to email me.

If you'd like to purchase, click here. Thanks for your support! 

5 Things to Store in Evernote in 2013

1.  Pictures of the tops of all your paint cans so you'll have the formula for future touch ups
2.  Pictures of things your kids make at school (so you can throw a lot of them away)
3.  PDF copies of manuals for anything you buy (google the model number)
4.  Emails that need to be saved
5.  Receipts (I use Scanner Pro.) (This includes medical items or anything that has a warranty.)

'App Not Authorized' Error in Apple Configurator

I have spoken to enterprise support with Apple and this is a known issue. This is more likely to happen if your app library is over 3 GB.

Here is the fix:

  1. Uninstall all your apps
  2. Reinstall each app in batches of 4–5
  3. Once you discover the problem app, redownload the VPP spreadsheet for that app. You then want to reimport it by clicking on the # to the right of the app.
  4. Finish installing the apps in batches to make sure there are no more problem apps.

Again, this is a known issue.