The iPod nano, now in its 7th generation, has traveled a convoluted journey through time. While first conceived as a smaller, more convenient iPod for youngsters and for exercise, its various incarnations have transmogrified according to shifting technical winds, never quite settling down and finding its true self. Perhaps it has now.

Recently, Nokia was caught faking an ad that showcases its smartphone image stabilization feature. That thinking process fascinated John Martellaro.
 

The recent Apple affair with Tim Cook and John Browett can be analyzed from several perspectives. First, as captain of the ship, it’s Tim Cook’s first visible mistake, and there was a process by which he corrected it. Second, one has to ask if it’s happened before.

The user interface of Apple’s OS X operating system and its defalt apps is getting simpler over time. That’s a natural thing to happen as Apple seeks to widen its audience for the Mac. However, it causes some heartburn for experienced users. What can we do about that?

Apple is right to defend its intellectual property in court. Nowadays, Apple has the money, resources and patents to defend its inventions and deserves to profit, alone, from its creativity. However, there is also a temptation to let the legal battles seduce Apple into paying too much attention to the competition. That would cause fallout.

As corporations become successful and grow, they find that the partnerships they had before, necessary to prosper, must be handled differently. Size and power mean influence, but how that power is finessed to change the game in its favor is the next big challenge for Apple.

PCs aren’t going to go away. Macs aren’t going to go away. What’s going to change is the relative sales and opportunities for tablets compared to PCs and Macs. As a side effect, Macs will survive and flourish. PCs? Not so much.

Science fiction writers, unlike competing technology companies, are blessed with the ability to delight the reader with a coherent vision of a marketplace. For example, scifi authors are more likely to portray a consistent picture of tablet-based magazines for the sake of the story’s inspirational value. In real life, however, what we get is a potential mess. How has that come to pass?

The Google Nexus 7 tablet is the product of a very different vision than the Microsoft Surface. The Nexus 7 is a consumer product for content consumption. The MS Surface is a perpetuation of Windows and content creation in a Windows environment. Which one will survive?

Why are some users fretting about Apple’s plans for the Mac Pro? Why is there angst, in some circles, about iOS-ification? What forces are causing Apple to shift its consumer focus? John Martellaro, in his usual style, digs deeper and explores what we’re losing and what’s to be gained.