How Smart is Apple ? ….

They are sooo smart …

On one hand I am always amazed at the sheer marketing “genius” and reach of Apple and how it never ceases to amaze me that one company can drum up such fierce loyalty and drama for their products.  And on the other hand I am constantly amazed that as smart as one company can be in certain areas, they can be so damned stupid in others.

One only had to read the mountain of blog posts and news stories to understand that their would be great demand for the 3g iPhone.  I am sure Apple knew this was coming, yet the seemed utterly unprepared.  now I understand their are supply chain logistics that I probably dont totally grasp, but it seems to me fairly obsurd that there are STILL lines to buy the iPhone nearly three weeks after its initial launch.

I will admit I made 2 trips to the mall over the last couple of weeks to pick up a 16GB black iPhone, only to find long, extremely long lines.  My thought was always, “How the hell do I know if I wait in this long ass line, that I will get the model that I want?”  That alone kept me away.

So I was shocked to see this post over at iPod Observer about how Apple is now using a voucher system at the stores !! Brilliant.  It took the company who made $1 billion in profit last quarter 3 weeks to noodle this system out ?  They all must have been busy trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with their MobileMe fiasco ….

According to the post

The vouchers are handed out to customers starting at the beginning of the line and note which iPhone 3G capacity and color each customer wants. If the day’s inventory of a specific model is already sold out or accounted for through vouchers, potential customers will know before they get in the store, making it easier for shoppers to decide if waiting in a potentially hours-long line is worth their time.

So now those poor idiots at the back of the line know that when they get to the front of the line, they actually have an iPhone to take home …

It is truly sad it took this long to come up with this tremendously complicated solution ! Great job Apple.

Watch out Satellite and Terrestrial Radio, Here comes the iPhone

I have not been fortunate enough to get myself a new 3G iPhone, but I did get to upgrade my first generation iPhone to the 2.0 firmware and have been completely impressed with the apps so far in the App Store.

The developers have done great work and I look forward to many more great titles to be released in the coming weeks.

I did have a thought today while at work about some of the apps, in particular AOL Radio and Pandora.  I totally love the regular Pandora site and when at my desk at work, this is the web site I always have up, playing a never ending stream of music I like.  Well with their great iPhone app, I now get that same experience on my iPhone.  I was hesitant at first, wondering how the music would stream over the “slow” Edge network, and was surprised by the quality.  It played without pause.

So as I sat at work, I wondered to my friends, “Do you think that the Pandora app will play through the fm transmitter in the car ??”  We thought about it for a moment and talked about how cool that would be.  So after work, I gave it a go and was pleasantly surprised that Iwas able to stream the AOL and Pandora apps right through my fm transmitter !  What a cool surprise.  I sat in my car and thought about this for a moment.  I have had Sirius radio for about that past two years and I love it.  I have not looked back to terrestrial radio in the least bit.  But now it occured to me that this may being another turning point.  Besides my Sirius I listen to my iPod/iPhone for mainly podcasts since I catch most of my music on Sirius.  But now what if my iPhone could go so far as eliminate the need for Sirius, music and talk.  With Sirius, I bounced between several stations for my music and would catch some talk shows no and then.  Well now with my iPhone, I not only get my fix of talk shows that I want to listen to through podcasts, I also get a music station that is totally personalized just for me, without a single commercial !  Pandora’s algorithm is such that is finds music you like and adds it to your station.  I have several personal stations set up, an Alt Indie, Jazz, and so on and the Pandora app lets me play any one of them.

This is an interesting time for both the satellite and terrestrial radio businesses.  Traditional radio has been looking in their rear view mirror as the new kids on the block, XM and then Sirius crept up to take a larger and larger share of the market.  And now those same satellite providers are trying to merge in order to not only stay alive, but also to continue to fight the traditional outlets for listenership.  Well now with the ability for a platform like the iPhone to stream content you want with no commercials for free, those new kids on the block better watch their mirrors as well.