post

Apple’s Realizations in 2012

2012 has been an year where we continued to see plethora of Android devices getting launched every other day. But it has also been an year where we saw an unprecedented five major events hosted by Apple in a single year! Two of those were non-product launch events (iBooks event & WWDC 2012). And the other three were events to launch the mighty iPad 3 (I mean third generation iPad with retina display), the bigger iPhone 5 and finally the iPad mini along with the iPad 4 (or fourth gen iPad with lightning connector).

Along the way, we got to see a considerable shift in Apple’s policies.

  • The first one, as I mentioned above, Apple found it apt to have three launch events in an year. Never has this happened before. That’s possibly because, Apple now considers iPad mini to be a brand new segment in their portable device arsenal and important enough to have its own introductory launch event.
  • They have considerably shortened the iPad release cycle. The 3rd gen iPad was released barely 6 months back and we now have the 4th gen iPad. Though the changes are minimal, it still marks a change in Apple’s policy. I strongly believe Apple updated the bigger iPad only to ensure that they don’t have to have two separate launches for iPad and iPad mini from next year. So expect a holiday launch for upgrades of both the products from 2013.
  • Apple finally conceded that iPhone’s screen size of 3.5 inches is probably small enough for most people. Funny thing is, it took them five long years and five iPhone iterations to realize that.
  • This is the year, when Apple realized there is enough demand in the market for a smaller iPad. Almost 3 years (21 months to be exact) after the original iPad was released, Apple saw enough people who thought the iPad is big enough to hold in one hand and wanted a smaller version. Let’s conveniently forget for now that the first Android 7″ tablet was announced two years back (in Sep 2010) at IFA.

iphone-ipad

Awesome right? 2012 is that special year when Apple realized that people need a bigger iPhone and a smaller iPad [Mind you, smaller, not cheaper iPad].

“iPad Mini is a Concentration Not a Reduction.” – Jony Ive

Yeah right.

video

Apple’s new Mac ads are embarrassing

So these were the three super special Apple Mac TV ads released for a super special event: London Olympics 2012. The Verge’s Sean Hollister has some nice words to say about the ads-

They all star a single actor who portrays an Apple Genius Bar employee, and stupidity appears to be the other unifying theme.

Bullseye, Sean. The ads are plain stupid, and nothing Apple like. Looks like someone at the top woke up a week before Olympics and decided to promote the software part of the Mac, rather than those amazingly crafted hardware. Should we blame the Ultrabooks which have slightly taken away the sheen from the exclusive looks of Macbooks?

No.

Expect some heads to roll in the marketing team at Cupertino.

Update: Some arguments on twitter points to Apple aiming the ads towards common people. No company has ever won by showing common people as stupid fools.

post

WhatsApp Messenger for iPhone is Free for a Limited Time

whatsapp

Here is a quick heads-up on WhatsApp messenger app for iOS. The popular messaging app has gone free. I’m not sure for how long, but I don’t expect it to be longer than a day or two. There is no official announcement made by WhatsApp (yet).

If you are one of those handful few who is yet to jump on the WhatsApp bandwagon, this is a great chance to go and grab the app for free.

WhatsApp Messenger [iTunes]

link

Why the Rs 9,999 iPhone 3GS is not such a great buy

Firstpost has this shitty link-bait article and I just fell for it. The article is so good that it took all of the Firstpost’s staff to come up with it (or it is so bad that no one want’s to have their name in author section).

Seriously, what’s the point of owning an Apple product without FaceTime.

Ha! Video calling in India is like the biggest thing right now. “Seriously!”

Ah, in the age of quad-core processors you’d still be paying Rs 10,000 for a smartphone with very basic RAM

Please make up your mind. Your qualms are that iPhone 3GS lacks quad-core processors? “Seriously!”? Duh-uh! Even iPhone 4/4S doesn’t come with quad-cores. So you’ll bash them as well? And how many quad-core smartphones we have for Rs.9,999?

Or is it that you have problems with the RAM? Confused I guess.

“Seriously!”