Personal Electronic Devices Create Apple Opportunities

by , 4:25 PM EST, December 13th, 2006

Personal electronic devices suffer from a myriad of problems that remain unaddressed by the industry. These devices suffer from incompatibility, instability, poor user interfaces, limited software availability and DRM that customers don't view as fair. These issues and the opportunity for Apple were addressed by Daniel Dilger in a Rougly Drafted editorial on Wednesday.

The list of annoyances for these devices is extensive and their solutions are described as corresponding areas of Apple expertise.

Mr. Dilgerwrote: "Mobile phone manufacturers provide their own sync tools, which often try to sync over a network, making it too complex and expensive to be practical... hardware functions may be crippled to protect business models. For example, Verizon has turned off Bluetooth features on some mobile phones to force users to spend their minutes using the company's cell network to transfer files, rather than being able to copy files directly to their PC for free."

In the case of DRM, vendor views can kill a product outright. Sony is cited as an example: "MiniDisc failed because its DRM prevented customers from using the system in expected and reasonable ways. PlaysForSure failed for similar reasons..."

The editorial puts into very clear perspective how the manufacturers of these personal devices have failed and the enormous door that has been left open for Apple. The author concludes "It just so happens that consistency is Apple's core competency, and the platform Apple is building will extend consistency throughout digital devices the same way the Macintosh solved the problems of inconsistency in early computing."

Apple has not made any announcements about a Apple cell phone. The opportunity, however, has been clearly defined.