{"id":3061,"date":"2010-06-17T03:35:34","date_gmt":"2010-06-17T11:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=3061"},"modified":"2010-06-17T03:39:06","modified_gmt":"2010-06-17T11:39:06","slug":"inside-the-beltway-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/17\/inside-the-beltway-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside The Beltway Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once upon a time this only referred to the talking heads in Washington, D.C., prognosticating on politics like they really knew what was going on in the rest of the country when they didn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it applies to all major media, from TV to newspapers, they’re out of touch.<\/p>\n

Last week Steve Jobs took to the stage to introduce the new iPhone.<\/p>\n

Reports were ho-hum.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, we already knew what it looked like, due to the Gizmodo fracas.\u00c2\u00a0 Next!<\/p>\n

Isn’t that an interesting concept, Next!\u00c2\u00a0 Means we’re done with this, on to the next.\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of like the "Billboard" chart.\u00c2\u00a0 Album debuts at the top and in a month, no one even talks about it.\u00c2\u00a0 Doubt me?\u00c2\u00a0 Have a discussion on "Exile On Main Street" recently?\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas you carry your phone 24\/7, it’s a badge of identity, a badge of cool, akin to a rock and roll t-shirt decades ago.<\/p>\n

Yes, overwhelming iPhone demand crashed the system.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s poor.\u00c2\u00a0 We expect Radiohead to fumble when it’s giving away music, that’s not their primary business, no one’s ever done it before, but doesn’t Apple take orders for a living?\u00c2\u00a0 As for AT&T, the less said the better.<\/p>\n

But let’s stay there…<\/p>\n

When the ban is lifted, when the restriction is gone, when you can get an iPhone on Verizon, never mind Sprint and T-Mobile, Android will not be the dominant platform, certainly not in overall revenue, including apps and advertising.<\/p>\n

All this hoopla about open systems fails to focus on the key element, usability!\u00c2\u00a0 And so far, Apple has never lost this war, never ever, from the original Mac to OS X to the iPod to the iPhone and iPad.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the tight knit between hardware and software.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, has anybody else been able to make a dent in music sales?\u00c2\u00a0 Then why do you think Google can win in the app world?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what it comes down to.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re criticizing Apple for its editorial policy, for being the cultural policeman, and I’m with you on that, it’s kind of scary, but the end result is…functionality.<\/p>\n

There are bogus apps in Android-world, that are stealing from you just like phishing attacks on your desktop. But in the iPhone world?\u00c2\u00a0 Apple reviews every app, there’s almost nothing.<\/p>\n

\n
Google: When in Doubt, Blame the Apps Developers<\/a><\/p>\n

Dark Side Arises for Phone Apps<\/a><\/p>\n

Malware designed to steal bank information pops up in Google’s Android app store<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And now, with FaceTime, you want to join the club, you want to chat face to face and you need an iPhone 4 to do this.<\/p>\n

End result?\u00c2\u00a0 600,000 iPhones sold in a day.\u00c2\u00a0 Far exceeding any previous Apple product launch.\u00c2\u00a0 Ten times higher than the demand for the iPhone GS last year.\u00c2\u00a0 Shouldn’t demand have been less, since people already have an iPhone?<\/p>\n

But they don’t have this iPhone, a breakthrough in look, and functionality, from the aforementioned FaceTime to a high-density screen.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, AT&T allowed people to re-up and get the new phone early, before their previous contracts expired, but what we’ve got here is raw demand.\u00c2\u00a0 Which the mainstream media said didn’t exist, as it’s busy trumpeting Android.\u00c2\u00a0 The guy at Forrester Research said Android is going to catch up <\/p>\n

\n
\nOrders for the iPhone 4 Top 600,000, Apple Says<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’ve got to ask you, has Forrester Research ever been right about anything?\u00c2\u00a0 Especially when it comes to the music business…<\/p>\n

We’ve got it backwards in music, we think we’re Apple, a dominant brand of cool.\u00c2\u00a0 That if we just go on TV, people will buy the featured product forevermore.\u00c2\u00a0 But really, the music industry is Apple in the late nineties, at its low ebb.\u00c2\u00a0 And when you’re in this spot, you don’t broadcast to everyone, you start with your core constituency, and build products so good that the core evangelizes them to others.\u00c2\u00a0 Point being, don’t create a rapper du jour or a pretty face with no real talent and hype it everywhere.\u00c2\u00a0 You may make money today, but chances are you’re going to be Palm or Windows Mobile down the line.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, what’s your long term strategy?<\/p>\n

The music industry has none.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody’s fighting over the scraps that are left.\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile, the audience is banging AT&T and Apple for iPhones the way fans used to line up overnight to buy concert tickets.<\/p>\n

Mmm…<\/p>\n

Now I’m gonna tell you, I don’t carry an iPhone.\u00c2\u00a0 For two reasons.\u00c2\u00a0 One, and this is the dominant point, I refuse to go back to AT&T, the service just sucks.\u00c2\u00a0 I know, I’ve been on both, and Verizon is a pleasure, dropouts are minimal.\u00c2\u00a0 Second, if you’re a power-user and you get a plethora of e-mail, hundreds or more a day, the iPhone is junk unless you’ve got an exchange server, which is great if you work for a big corporation, but I don’t…and I’m not about to switch my e-mail address to get better push e-mail on the iPhone.<\/p>\n

In other words, I wasn’t part of the mania yesterday, I wasn’t buying an iPhone.\u00c2\u00a0 But I knew demand would be through the roof.\u00c2\u00a0 Because I understand the cult.<\/p>\n

Yes, Apple is a cult.\u00c2\u00a0 Gigantic.\u00c2\u00a0 One that people believe in the same way they used to believe in bands. Government crackdowns are irrelevant, it’s like your mother telling you to turn down Metallica, the complaint slides right off of you.<\/p>\n

To bet against Steve Jobs is to bet against the Beatles.<\/p>\n

Sure, the Fab Four eventually imploded.\u00c2\u00a0 And nobody lives forever.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you don’t see the appeal of an iPhone, if you don’t see that people want it on the day of delivery to look cool, then you’re at the back of the pack, a naysayer who just doesn’t understand that tech is the new rock and roll, and that online, the "New York Times" is no more powerful than Facebook.<\/p>\n

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Once upon a time this only referred to the talking heads in Washington, D.C., prognosticating on politics like they really knew what was going on in the rest of the country when they didn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it applies to all major media, from TV to newspapers, they’re out of touch. Last week Steve Jobs took to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Nn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3061"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3064,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061\/revisions\/3064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}