The Apple Beat: Dissecting the Apple Teamnote

Apple CEO TIm Cook played quarterback for the keynote but everyone pitched in

Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Last week’s iPad announcement wasn’t so much a Timnote as it was a Teamnote. Apple's CEO Tim Cook served as quarterback during the keynote focusing on the ‘big picture’ aspects of Apple’s business like the Apple Retail Stores, user adoption of iOS and did a good job of setting up the other speakers who focused on granular topics such as product features.

see above for the full Apple Media Event Keynote

Apple’s senior VPs Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller took care of the spec slides and demos of the newest announcements. Both pulled their own weight and Schiller managed to keep the audience entertained with his snappy sense of humour as well as his practical approach to how products and technologies should be used.

Apple’s usual announcements and keynotes at Macworld and at WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference), also known as Stevenotes for obvious reasons, were always the ‘Big Top’ events where the world gathered to see the newest innovations coming out of Cupertino.

For this year’s iPad unveiling and Apple’s first big announcement for the year, Apple CEO Tim Cook, got things started and warmed over the crowd with his welcoming and earnest manner.

Eddy Cue is a software guy (VP of Internet Software and Services) and his exuberance for what can be done through iCloud, iTunes and  AppleTV  really came through. He was visibly excited about 1080p HD video on the AppleTV.

Phil Schiller is a seasoned keynote speaker and did a great job introducing the iPad but more importantly he focused on how the device would change the way people do things like watching and recording video, taking photos on a tablet (still an awkward assumption) and creating music and art on the new and improved tablet.

Sitting three rows from the stage (and two rows away from Jonny Ive, Scott Forstall and Bob Mansfield) It was easy to pick up on the vibe and tone of the keynote. Here are some of the points we took away from the keynote.

It is a Post PC World

“The PC is no longer the centre of your computing world, it is just a device,” Tim Cook pointed out during the keynote. From the time he stepped on stage, the Post PC mantra was revisited throughout the entire keynote.

85% of Apple’s revenue comes from iPhones, iPad and iPods; so it is only natural that it will focus its efforts to further develop this massive market.

iOS devices, being smaller, are  also less complicated to design and manufacture, they are more integrated, use less parts and yield higher profit margins.

There is also is more user and developer interest in mobile apps than there is for desktops and notebooks.

“The devices you use the most need to be more portable, more personal and dramatically easier to use than any PC has ever been,” Cook emphasized during the keynote.

iCloud, it just works

With 100 million users in less than a year, iCloud has proven to be a successful cloud service. A lot of what makes Apple’s products successful runs on the iCloud infrastructure (and the various data centres Apple has set-up to keep things running smoothly).

Competing PC manufacturers like Lenovo and Acer are trying to replicate the iCloud and adding these services on to their new tablets, ultrabooks and smartphones. It will be interesting to see how they can implement things differently and if the inclusion of a cloud ecosystem can work as well for them as it has for Apple.

4G LTE is coming to other Apple products

The next iPhone is almost certain to have LTE (Long Term Evolution) data and we are crossing our fingers that Apple might see the wisdom of allowing LTE SIM cards on the MacBook Airs.

Many notebook users depend on Internet connectivity and to have LTE level data on an ultra-thin notebook with long-life battery will be a killer feature even if it costs a bit more.

 

The new iPad’s biggest competitor is the iPad 2

With the 16GB iPad 2 now being offered at $419, it comes in under the price of the the majority of 9 inch and 10.1 inch Android Tablets from Samsung, Motorola, Sony, Toshiba, LG, Lenovo and others. Many consumers who would purchase an Android tablet because the iPad’s price was too high, now have the opportunity to possibly buy the tablet they originally wanted at a higher price.

I’ve had a number of people ask me whether they should get the new iPad or the iPad 2. My answer is to ask them how they see themselves using the tablet. The iPad 2 is still a superb device that will satisfy a large percent of tablet users.

It is still faster than most of the competing tablets in the market at least in areas where speed counts the most like surfing the web, playing games and booting up and shutting down.

Users still get a bounty of apps and now some compelling productivity and content creation applications with the entrance of Adobe’s Photoshop and the long rumoured Microsoft Office for iPad around the corner. Apple’s own iPad apps are superb, specially that new iPhoto that was demoed at the launch.

Best of all, iPad 2 has the latest OS, iMessage and FaceTime capabilities which are built-in features that no other tablet can compete with right now.

This makes the iPad 2 the biggest competitor to the new iPad and I think both are going to sell extremely well. Apple has planned the biggest International iPad rollout yet.

AppleTV isn’t just a hobby anymore

Now on its 3^rd generation, the AppleTV is far from being considered a hobby. Apple has managed to maintain the same small size and functionality but the device can now project 1080p HD video and it costs just around a hundred bucks.

How can AppleTV become even cooler? We think Siri is enroute to Apple’s set top box sometime within the next year, either through a software update or when the next generation of the device shows up.

Whether or not that next AppleTV will in fact be an HDTV (Retina Display anyone?) remains to be seen but I think a sleekly designed,  voice controlled and smart HDTV will change the game in the TV space.

 

Apple is still Apple, and the best is still to come

The most moving thing for me in the iPad keynote was the stylized Apple logo that popped up on stage at the dying moments of the presentation.  What at first it looked like a messy abstraction, was actually a shout-out to Apple’s older multi-colored logo.

It was a reminder that Apple is still Apple, a company built on innovation and defining its own market.

The only difference is that now Apple is the most valuable brand in the world and it has the resources to actively focus on anything it wants to and that the world should expect great things.

Tim Cook seems pretty convinced that they can keep the momentum going forward as he promised great things in 2012.