Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Help for a Post-Jobs Apple

We have a Post-Jobs Apple now, some things are not working out.

Apple Maps was a disaster, and iOS 6 is buggy on older devices. Nothing that cannot be fixed with some debugging and quality control. Steve Jobs was considered a jerk, but it was only because he would reject work and send it back to be redone so that the quality was there before it shipped to the public. Tim Cook ought to do the same thing that Steve Jobs did.

There is a market for cheaper smartphones, and Apple's iPhone cannot meet that $100 smartphone need in foreign markets. Apple will have to redesign a new phone to reach that $100 market. Let us call it the ePhone after Apple's eMac and other educational devices that were cheaper in price. Make the case out of plastic, don't use a retina display, use a slower ARM processor, use less flash storage maybe 4G or 8G with an option for a MicroSD reader to store things on. Apple can make an ePad and ePad Mini based on those designs for people who want a Tablet for under $200 and still want iOS. Start selling them in foreign markets to compete with Android devices and cheaper smartphones and tablets.

Not everyone can afford a Macintosh, but many want to develop for iOS and the Macintosh. This has lead to the 'Hackintosh' movement of cracking Mac OS X to run on PC hardware and cut into Apple's Mac sales. The solution to this is simple, Apple makes a 'Rent-A-Mac' program where they create virtual machines that run different versions of Mac OS X and OS X Server software that people can rent for $X/month to connect into with a remote control software Apple develops for Windows and Linux systems, that uses the Apple ID and Password to log into and manage virtual machines. I'd imagine $5/month for a 512M RAM Mac OS X 10.6 or 10.7 system with XCode and a dynamic IP in a virtual machine and $8/month for a Mac OS X 10.8 system with 1G RAM and XCode with a dynamic IP. Apple can rent Mac OS X Servers with a static IP for more money that can host web sites, etc. Apple should do this before some other company finds a way to create Mac OS X virtual machines for rent.

Make an add-on for Mac OS X to run iOS apps for testing, and allow it to work like an iPad but using a mouse on a Macintosh. Have it emulate different ARM processors.

Innovate the 'iAuto' device. A device that replaces the stereo system in an automobile and has a Siri voice activated system to play songs, read email (text to speech), play videos, and the like. It has a built in Mefi device to provide Wifi access for iPads, iPhones, and uses a Data Cell Phone carrier contract when bought to cut down on the price of the device. It uses the Apple App Store to download apps and can sync with other iOS devices to play videos or songs with Airplay. The iAuto can be installed by a automotive dealer, and Apple can make deals with the automotive industry to pre-install them in some automobiles by request. It also has an AM/FM radio built in, and some models have the Satellite Sirius/XM receiver option. Apple designs the iRadio app to use Radio Streams over the Internet using the cellular data plan to stream them live. There is a small touch screen to use to navigate and display a GPS using Apple Maps or any Maps or GPS program.

Bring back Apple Sherlock as a web search engine, and make it an app for iOS. Have it filter results with Web 2.0 tags and have users add tags to each web site that is submitted. Have a way for users to flag spam so it can be filtered out as well. Make Sherlock a web site integrated with other Apple web sites so it can search for Apple products or for Apps and even give reviews by the users on them.

1 comment:

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