Posts Tagged Apple

Apple has created a killer ad/app network with iOS 6 Maps

Jun 13

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology | Comments off

Andrew wants to get driving directions to Marine World. He plus it into his iPhone and as it outputs how to get there a banner could roll in from the top that says download the Marine World App that includes park maps, coupons, etc.  Apple is already going to do this on publisher pages if an app is available in the store.  Here is an example.

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You are also seeing it when it comes to expanding beyond just needing driving instructions. The groundwork has been laid to recommend other apps based on rating and need.  Products like Cal-Train apps, Hiking via All Trails and any app related to travel could be inserted.  They can do detection around your destination.  For example I’m going to Mt. Everest and may need a hiking app.  Boom a list can be recommended after entering my destination.

<—apps in list coming in future betas.

Location. Apps. Hypertargetted.

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Setting the stage with iOS 6 and no moving parts

Jun 12

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology, Web 2.0 | Comments off

Yesterday Apple delivered their annual WWDC developer keynote where they discussed a multitude of topics ranging from the MacBook Pro to iOS 6. What I found most impressive about the event was how Apple is setting the stage for much larger initiatives that could really change the industry for the better.

1. No Moving Parts

Pick your iPhone and put your ear to it. You’ll hear nothing. Same with your iPad. Run a magnet over it. Nothing happens. It is due to the fact both items do not have any moving parts. Well now Apple is starting to make the push for consumer computers to follow the same path. They’ve had the MacBook Air for awhile, but now with a fully featured laptop able to leverage this setup it leads to a much lighter and dramatically more powerful machine. By removing stuff like the hard drive and the DVD Drive Apple is able to squeeze in stuff like higher speed quad core processors and gobs of memory (up to 16gbs).

Over the coming year you’ll see Apple shift their entire mobile product line and hopefully the iMacs to this methodology of no moving parts (beyond fans) which means faster, more innovative machines.

2. It’s an App World that you can speak to

By getting more people to use App based experiences for sites like Yelp Apple keeps consumers happy with the best experience possible and keeps users out of the web browser where they could go to Google. Apple is rolling out partner banners that can pop in to users who visit sites from an iPhone.  It lets users quickly see reviews for the app, a huge install button right there. You’ve probably run into god awful interstitial pages from publishers saying HEY DO YOU WANT TO USE THE APP or continue to the mobile site.  This puts an end to that.

But they didn’t stop there because now Siri has integrated App like features directly into it.  You can now say for example I want to eat at Sizzler, Siri will pull it up and you can make a reservation for 2 in about 3 clicks without ever opening a browser or an app.  You just hold the home button.

Your parents and the less technically inclined…are going to love Siri if it works properly because it essentially eliminates the learning curve.  They’ll speak to it, it will present them with some options and they touch the one they want.  The sad part for Google is not one bit of it touches their search results.

3. We aren’t talking to each other anymore

The average phone call is down to 1.78 minutes and it is probably going to get worse. Apple knows this and is now reworking how the phone part of the iPhone works to allow users to quickly respond to phone calls with pre-canned messages.

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When you think about how often you talk on your cell phone (unless you are a lawyer, VC, or sales) it is probably very little.  With an average open rate of over 90% on text messages you can bet a better option to voicemail is SMS nearly 100% of the time.

With iMessages and now a less phone centric integration you could see Apple potentially putting phone carriers in a real bind when users start asking for data only plans, or phone plans that contain only 100 minutes a month of calls.

4. Mobile Wallet

My back hurts from sitting on my wallet. It’s full of 3 credit cards, 2 gift carts (Starbucks and Burger King), Costco, my punch card at Gyro King, Cash, Change, Receipts.  I mean its ridiculous.  The battle over the next few years is going to be who will consumers trust to digitize their wallet.  Apple is one of the very few who has enough bullets in the gun to do this.  You saw the first glimpse of it today.

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It’s called Passbook and it holds everything from Starbucks cards to Airplane tickets.  The best part is they update in realtime if you redeem dollars off of them or the gate is changed on your ticket.  It’s like having the most advanced wallet in the world, plus an assistant, plus the app and you don’t even have to do anything to use it.  It even uses GPS to alert you when you are near a Sbux to let you know you have money there.

What people forget about is Apple has over 400 million credit cards stored in iTunes and you can better believe they would love it if the next time you went into Safeway and they asked you how you are paying you said Credit Card and they simply scanned your phone.  Your picture would pop up on the screen, you’d enter a 4 digit code and be on your way.  You’d probably get a receipt emailed to you instantly with everything you bought.  Apple will do this completely for free so you stay loyal to their platform and will cut Google off at the knees.  Google wants to hit this space badly…sorry boys Apple is going to take 100 million iPhones this Fall to tackle the problem.


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Sprint’s Ad on Steve Jobs

Oct 19

Posted by Andrew Machado in Personal, Technology | Comments off

Sprint recently ran an ad on the back of Rolling Stone to commemorate his legacy. It was instantly eye catching and I took a pic of it last Sunday.

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The questions I ask myself about this ad.

Would it have been made if Sprint was not part of the iPhone 4s launch? My hunch is no, but i’m usually a cynic.

Are we reaching a level of buzz for the iPhone that we could see a vendor like Sprint double down on Apple and offer nothing but iPhones for their smartphone category?

If i’m training a staff about phones and to give customers a killer experience when they walk through my doors then training for one product matrix like the iPhone is no brainer. Paired with Sprint’s all you can eat plans it would be really killer for the customer.

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Thanks Steve.

Oct 9

Posted by Andrew Machado in Personal, Technology | Comments off

You ever seen a grown man have a desktop computer in a backpack?  I hadn’t either until I was about 6 or 7 and my dad on Friday nights would put a mac on the kitchen table for me to play games off of 3.5 inch disks.  It was my first experience on a mac, and I remember to be so in awe of the sounds the computer made inside.  The clanking of 3.5 inch disk as it was accessed and the boot chime.  See back then the operating systems didn’t have protected memory so if an application misbehaved you had to reboot the whole machine. I heard that chime a lot.

My parents divorced when I was in first grade.  My dad and mom lived about 50 miles apart so every other weekend when I’d visit my dad he would drive me back to my mom’s either late Sunday night or early Monday morning before school.  On this drive we’d pass Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino and my dad would constantly point to me that is where Steve Jobs worked.  I of course had no idea who Steve was, but I always associated him not only with Apple but as something I could talk with my dad about.  At 8 your typical conversations rotate around times tables and soccer practice

In 1998 it was finally time for my mom to get a computer for herself.  We formally had a Packard Bell, but she wouldn’t go near it.  The iMac had just come out and after waiting I think it was 90 days it finally arrived and my mom was online for the first time with the screen name Bigmama605.  She still has this as her screen name and email address.

What struck me most about the iMac was not the unit itself or the world’s worst mouse it came with, but the packaging.  I insisted we keep the box.  I kept the box and all the marketing materials and read them like gospel.  At that point I realized marketing was what I wanted to do.

Thanks Steve.

In 2000 I was a freshman at Santa Clara University dying to work for Apple. LinkedIn wasn’t around yet so I relied on my Dad’s network of people to get an “in”.  I was basically told until I graduate school I would be unable to do much, but there might be something coming up.  That “might” was Apple announcing plans for retail stores and after a bit of investigatory work I realized they were opening one in Valley Fair Mall just down the street from school.

In the interview process I was told over 700 people applied and I was lucky to make it that far.  The Silver Bullet in the interview was being asked what was the model # for Apple’s mobile variant of the G4 chip.  How and why would I know that.  Well lucky for me I loved sites like ThinkSecret (which apple shut down) and Macrumors.com enough to have somehow remember it was the 7440 by Motorola.  Art Diaz who interviewed me seemed very surprised and within a week I was part of the opening team.

The best part of getting that job was acquiring the first iPod for 50% off.  Thanks Steve.

A month before the store opened a few of us slept outside over night on University Avenue waiting for the Palo Alto store to open.  Around 7am the next day my dad showed up with Krispy Kreme donuts and hats.  We wore them into the opening and I offered Steve one, but he declined.

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By 2003 I was a Junior in school and via Ron Johnson I was able to be the first Apple Retail intern ever.  If you don’t know the story of how Ron lived under a fake alias at Apple while they assembled their Retail plans its a must read.  As an intern I was able to accidentally run into Al Gore, see Apple’s mock store they built to test fixtures and lighting before deploying and  of course me emailing the entire intern list asking if anyone wanted to fly down to LA for BT’s Emotional Technology record release party.  6 years later this email came up in a conversation.

Later in 2003 a former professor of mine Fred Hoar passed away.  He spoke highly of Jobs due to their involvement together on the launch of Lisa.  I emailed Steve to let him know Fred had passed.  In typical Steve fashion he replied “I was not aware of his passing. Fred had great soul. Steve.”  Probably the greatest email I’ve ever received.  Thanks Steve.

In 2008 Christmas was approaching and I wanted to get my girlfriend her first mac.  I ordered her a MacBook and shipped it to my office.  One problem…I was laid off after the computer arrived. So I walked 1.4 miles home unemployed and carrying this MacBook.  My first layoff, her first MacBook.

Fast forward to 2009 I was being interviewed by Tristan Harris and if I remember the story right he actually brought up that email about BT. Apparently he was working at Apple the same time I was there and got the email.  Tristan is one of the few people I know who can recount as many Apple Keynotes as me in terms of what was announced and how the introductions of products were made.

On Weds when the news came out about Steve I was very stunned.  Apple and especially Steve have played a huge role in not only who I am as a person, but where I look for inspiration.  If it wasn’t for him I’d probably be working at a dead end job coasting.  Instead i’m working for $0 and out to change the world.  I wouldn’t care about software.  Instead I cringe at every email I get from a customer who can’t figure out how to use Open Home Pro.  Frankly I would look at the world entirely different without his existence and for that I say thank you.

Cheers to you Steve. You were the Original Gangster.


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