![]() ![]() Schiller taking over the App Stores is very interesting - and is definitely a shake-up that seemingly wasn’t widely known internally until today’s announcement. John Gruber, from this Daring Fireball post: Now Schiller’s name is officially on the top and it’s absolutely clear-the buck stops with Schiller. In the past, long-requested features like upgrades, trials, and Mac App Store parity have been nebulous in terms of who and how they could be lobbied. ![]() iTunes infrastructure, resources, and tools-or the lack thereof-has been under Cue but now move at least partially under Schiller. App review has generated complaints about capriciousness and lack of responsiveness pretty much since launch, and that has always been under Schiller. Historically there have been issues in both orgs. What this means for developers in general and indie developers in specific remains to be seen. App Store still lives on iTunes, at least for now, so how the continue to work together may not change completely, but this does cement Schiller’s role as the final word on everything App Store. There will no doubt be some overlap, but also a lot of advantages to being closer together. Cue has and continues to own the iTunes infrastructure, but now passes editorial and business management to Schiller. Schiller has and continues to own developer relations, app review, and evangelism. While Schiller has effectively had that kind of clout for years, the actual structure of Apple Store has been split between his and Eddy Cue’s organizations. Phill Schiller taking over on App Store is interesting. It sometimes seems as if the only vendors making Android phones and Windows PCs who aren’t struggling in some way are the licensors of the operating systems. Sony has abandoned PCs and continues to struggle in smartphones, HTC increasingly looks like it’s on its last legs as an Android vendor, Toshiba is considering spinning off its PC business, and Samsung’s smartphone business – once the poster child for success making Android phones – continues to slip. Meanwhile, their OEMs continue to struggle to make the business work, with several exiting segments of the market entirely and several others clearly having a hard time staying afloat. It’s increasingly clear that both OS vendors turned hardware vendors have decided to embrace the high end along with its high margins, while leaving the scale and the thin margins to their OEMs. How are things working out for the Android universe? Apple builds the software in house and designs all the hardware in house. This has been Apple’s approach since the release of the Macintosh way back in 1984 (with a brief, pre-Steve Jobs-return, when they allowed other folks to license the Mac OS). How does Apple achieve this distinction? Well, it’s due to a combination of factors but it’s probably best summarized this way: Apple provides premium products at a premium price, and is able to justify the premium through differentiation based on a tightly integrated approach to hardware and software.Īpple has always favored this approach, high margins maintained by controlling all the hardware and software. And just as interesting is the fact that, as players that have historically only competed indirectly in the consumer electronics business enter it, at least some of them are choosing to follow Apple’s route to the high end of the market.Īnd, explaining a chart that shows Apple margins towering over the rest of the industry:Īpple is the one exception to all of this, with between 25% and 30% operating margins during the latter half of this chart, while everyone else scrambles at 5% or lower margins. Some tantalizing opportunities to bridge the deep thinking power of Watson through the net and iPhone, all the way to the Apple Watch on your wrist.Īpple, which might be described accurately, if incompletely, as a player in the consumer electronics market, makes telecom-like margins while competing with those barely profitable vendors. That would take the airline’s customer service to the next level. With Watson, the app could learn about a repeat passenger’s preferences and make recommendations specific to them. With Watson, the app will get better and smarter over time.įor example…the Ancillary Sale app delivers predictive analytics to flight attendants, suggesting next-best actions like which beverage or upgrade option to recommend to a passenger. In a financial advisor app, for example, could use Watson Analytics to visually show the advisor what’s trending, what market sentiment is and help them make decisions. Integrating the IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps with Watson will allow them to predict customer trends and improve decision-making. Jonny Evans, writing for Computerworld, had the chance to speak with Kathryn White, the IBM Vice President with responsibility for the IBM / Apple partnership. ![]()
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