The Network Garden - Mark Sigal's Blog: Sub $200 Wi-Fi Touchscreen iPods by Fall?

MOST RECENT READS

Michael Pollan: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
In terms of pure readability, I enjoyed In Defense of Food more, but this book feels more important in how it delineates the 'self-perpetuating' ethos of Big Corn, and what that yields in our society. OD looks at the Industrial Beef industry, organic farms, the industrial-scaling of organic, and the more holistic 'polyface' farms. It does all of this in a way that while not completely neutral, isn't snarky, dismissive and judgmental either. If you care about what you eat and why, this book is an eye-opener.
Kevin Kelly: What Technology Wants
A profound piece of work that looks at evolution in organic systems and expands the schema to technological ones. The book presents a unified theory about how life, systems and logic extend over time and space, and what it all means. This one will stick with me for a long time.
Walter Isaacson: Steve Jobs
I have just begun reading it, and while sad knowing the end for SJ, it puts many a smile on the face, seeing how fascinated my kids are by a man they never knew (but whose products they love), and recollecting the last book that I read on Apple thirteen years ago, 'Apple' by Jim Carlton, which was utterly depressing.
Andy Kessler: Eat People: And Other Unapologetic Rules for Game-Changing Entrepreneurs
I consider Kessler to be one of the better analytical minds out there with an extremely enjoyable, amusing writing style. This book, however, was a case of what should have been a 50 pager stretched into 250. As such, it got to be a tired read, and Kessler loses a bit of credibility when he pushed horizontal as the end-all, be-all while trying to downplay the significance of Apple and Amazon as largely vertically integrated businesses. Plus, while he pushes the defensibility of being a market entrepreneur over a political entrepreneur, his arguments read a bit weak when placed alongside our current political climate where political entrepreneurs (think: Wall Street) are more powerful than ever. A disappointment by an excellent writer.
Chip Heath: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
This is a generally enjoyable read, and if I hadn't read so many business and management books over the years I would enjoy this even more. The big knock (for me) on this category is that all of these books have a core metaphor or three that anchor their truth and shape their narrative. Effectively, these things are pneumonic devices, so on some level, the question comes down to how much I will remember of the specifics in 90 days? Probably not so much, although it will definitely reinforce and reinvigorate the stuff that I am already doing.
Frederick P. Brooks: The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist
Brooks wrote the classic on team development dynamics, 'The Mythical Man-Month' so he is already highly qualified in my book. In particular, this book is affirming a lot of my philosophies on development and design, especially as a proponent of the Spiral Model. I especially like the chunk on Conceptual Integrity in design. Somewhat of a dry read is the only negative, and this is not a book for design newbies, as a lot of the context would be obtuse for this audience.
Bill Simmons: The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy
First, some caveats. I am both a HUGE basketball fan (go LAKERS!) and an enthusiastic reader on Bill Simmons writings for ESPN.com. This book is funny but long (~700 pages), and even though it's easy to read one chapter at a time, I devoured it in about 10 days. Why? It fits my axiom of great objective approaches to subjective topics. Bill may not be right in all of his assessments, but he is never confused. Very entertaining, and I learned a ton about the evolution of NBA basketball, and methods for comparing players from different eras. Strongly recommended.
Malcolm Gladwell: Outliers: The Story of Success
This was an excellent book, with Gladwell providing a crisp narrative with clear analogs and ample stories to codify his positions on the elements of successful people. As a frame of reference, I LOVED The Tipping Point and most of his New Yorker pieces but found Blink to be a great big MEH.
Stephen Lowenstein: My First Movie: Take Two: Ten Celebrated Directors Talk About Their First Film
I love films, am a (nascent) student of the art of film-making and am knee-deep in the story-telling and entertainment realm, vis-a-vis my iPhone gaming company, Unicorn Labs. Plus, I am blogging/writing more than ever so understand the mechanics of audience, economy of narrative and sacrificing your "children" (i.e., good dialog and written word) to realize that end. As such, very engaged in reading how different directors went from directorial "virgins" to proven auteurs. About 30 pages in, enjoying it a good deal.
Michael Lewis (Author): The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
I have already read a number of excerpts from Vanity Fair, watched the 60 Minutes segment on this and blogged extensively on the crisis so REALLY looking forward to this. Love Lewis' writing style, save for Blind Side, which couldn't get through.

AppleInsider is reporting that Investment bank Piper Jaffray expects Apple to release new Wi-Fi enabled, touchscreen iPods in the sub-$200 range by September.

Yowza! Talk about mainstream, entry-level price point.

The PJ analyst goes further, noting, “In fact, we believe the concept of the iPod will change in the next 12-18 months from a standalone music player to a mobile Internet device that fits in your pocket."

Two quick comments to this story. One is that beyond the obvious top line objectives to keep growing the iPod business, this is as much about converting the 100M iPod base into the iPhone SDK-powered platform.

Apple can generate serious coin by wooing developers to build apps if the reach of the platform is 100M devices. They can secure a big time halo effect for their Mac business by increasing the integration and leverage between these devices and the Mac. And they can extend their reach into other segments and device form factors if they pull this off.

Two is that beyond the potential market segmenting confusion as price and functionality lines blur between iPhone and iPod touch, they already have branding and messaging challenges.

The platform is called iPhone SDK but if they execute, there will be as many if not more of these devices running on iPod touch (as iPhones).

It is a mouthful to have to write every reference as 'runs on iPhone and iPod touch devices' and it is certainly less crisp, which limits the effectiveness of marketing messages that leverage viral, word of mouth strategies.

Here is a link to the full article.

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Comments

Hi Mark!
Bring it on! We’re ready for Wi-Fi enablement with an eye towards GPS ubiquity as well. Content on mobile devices. Just add location awareness and voila, more targeted info when & where it is applicable.

Posted by: burton at CityTrex | April 10, 2008 at 04:58 AM

Hi Burton,

I love the walking tour concept, and there are all sorts of interesting overlays between content and local services, particularly as you get to the point where the front end to this stuff can be orchestrated from a client application in an iPhone (or an iPod touch).

Mark

Posted by: Mark Sigal | April 10, 2008 at 11:04 AM

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