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Less. Than. Three. That’s how many days remain until Apple holds their September 12 event and we almost certainly get our first, official look at the iPhone 5. I just put up a fancy new iPhone super page to keep track of all the action, and we have lots more coming this week.
That starts tonight with a special iMore show Sunday edition where I’ll talk geek-to-geek with Fox New’s Clayton Morris about what we can expect at the big event. You don’t want to miss that. But before we get too caught up on the week ahead, here are some final thoughts on the week that was, including Amazon vs. Apple, the ultimate copy loop, and a sentimental moment for yours truly…
Jeff Bezos vs. Steve Jobs
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos single-handily helmed Amazon’s Kindle event last week, introducing a sweeping new range of cheaper-than-ever, more powerful-than-ever gadgets services. Naturally, that led some to compare Bezos to Apple’s late co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, back when Jobs was in his prime.
In that Jobs and Bezos were/are both CEOs talking on a stage to media, and Bezos made just as much fun of Android tablets as Jobs used to, fair enough. But the differences were profound and fundamental.
When Steve Jobs took the stage, he told you what he was about to tell you, told it to you, and then told you what he’d just told you. He started with clear, concise sales numbers and other metrics and finished with clear, concise product grids and prices. He pioneered Apple’s mastery of the linear consumer narrative.
Bezos’ pitch, by contrast, was almost a stream of consciousness, with new devices and features being thrown with little regard for structure or clarity. As a consumer story, it was rambling.
Sure, you could say it was just a media event, but why have a media event if not to help frame your story? Media write for consumers. You paint media a clear picture, odds are that’s what consumers will get. You give media pieces, odds are consumers get whatever the media manages to piece together. That’s not a good thing.
Likewise, to this day, we still have no idea how many Kindles Amazon, a public company, has sold. Even well after the event, it took until Amazon.com was finally updated, to find out exactly what the new Kindle product matrix was. And we still have no real idea where it will be.
The iPad is in 90+ countries. The kindle in barely a handful. Chris Umiastowski pointed out that Apple started with essentially one phone on one network in one country, and everyone underestimated their growth potential. But to achieve that growth, Apple had to forge carrier deals around the world. To achieve the same growth, Amazon will need to forge content deals around the world.
And in that incredibly important regard, Bezos to date has proven to be no Steve Jobs.
The ultimate copy loop
Someone got so upset about Apple winning a $1 billion willful infringement verdict against Samsung this week that, to defend Samsung’s copying, they tried to make it look like Apple was copying Braun… by copying their entire article from something Gizmodo posted in 2008?
I’m not linking to that bait, but you can read John Gruber’s take at Daring Fireball and Matthew Panzarino’s at Robot Tuxedo if you’re curious.
Samsung got what amounts to a speeding ticket for running a red light to the head of the smartphone sales chart, they’ll be just fine thanks.
4 years, 7 thousand posts, and 4 million words later…
Four years ago this week my old boss, Dieter Bohn, and the CEO of Mobile Nations, Marcus Adolfsson dropped iMore on me to run. For the next three years I did my best to run the site while also holding down a full time marketing job in enterprise software. A year ago my new boss, Kevin Michaluk brought me on full time. Last week, I wrote my 7000th article for iMore, and my 2 millionth word for Mobile Nations.
It doesn’t seem anywhere nearly that long or that much. It feels like the blink of an eye. I guess that’s what it means to follow your bliss.
To Kevin and Dieter, Marcus and Andrew, to everyone at iMore and Mobile Nations, and most importantly to all of our amazing readers, listeners, and viewers — thank you! Here’s to many, many more!
Yippie kay yay
Now lets get this new iPhone and iPod week started! (And don’t forget to grab the wallpaper while you’re waiting)
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