How Apple Dropped the Ball with the iPhone 6

I don’t normally comment on Apple products, as I don’t use them myself. I’m impacted, however, as most of my family has bought into the Apple ecosystem, including iPhones and Macbooks.

I predict that during the next two years Apple will see a noticeable decline in App Store downloads because of one short-sighted decision in the product development department. Here’s how I think they dropped the ball.

My daughter used to have an iPhone 5c and when its contract came due, we decided that the 6 is the next logical and cost-effective step. Normally, when a company comes out with a shiny new device, whether it’s a phone or a laptop or a car, the feature set of the new device is an improvement over the previous device at the same level. Curiously, Apple decided to keep the entry-level iPhone 6 at 16 GB of RAM, the same as the two-year older 5c. I’m not sure what their motivation was for this decision. It might have been to save a few dollars and keep the entry-level cost down. Or it might have been to encourage an upgrade to the much more expensive and substantially increased 64 GB model. Whatever the case, it was a bad decision, because they are strangling their own app store.

I’ve had at least two conversations with my daughter over the last few weeks since she’s had her new phone where I’ve asked her if an app I use on Android is available on the App Store. She’s replied that she doesn’t know and that she doesn’t have space to try it anyhow. That’s just sad on two counts: 1. She has to live for another two years with an inadequate phone, and 2. Apple has lost two years of App downloads from yet another customer. They must know that there are now millions of iPhone users out there in exactly the same predicament. That does not spell good news for IOS developers.

Reduce your IT budget

This article discusses three ways that we help our clients reduce their technology budget. Contact us now if you’d like us to do the same for you.

Embrace the Cloud

Embrace the cloud

You’ve probably heard a lot about the cloud for the past few years. The reality is that using online or hosted services can drastically reduce what it costs to install and maintain your corporate applications. The biggest example of this is your email server. If your email is still hosted in-house, a large part of your IT budget could be reduced or even eliminated by moving your email to Office 365 or Google Apps. In the last year alone we have helped a number of our clients reduce their email costs by migrating them to one of these two major email hosts.

Email is only the beginning of where the cloud can benefit your business. Virtually any service that you are currently using in-house servers for is available as a hosted service. Examples include customer relationship management, oil and gas applications, accounting, facility/rental scheduling, employee scheduling/timesheets and even your phone system.

User training and proper security policies are important to help minimize any risks associated with cloud computing. We’ll be discussing cloud application security in our next post.

Remote Monitoring and Support

Remote monitoring

If your IT support provider is not monitoring your equipment and providing support remotely, you are probably paying too much for your IT services. The tools that Claritech employs today can reduce your support costs and make your users much happier and more productive.

Your users are continuing to do more work from home and on their mobile devices. Traditionally, home computers and personal cell phones have gone unsupported or the users are left on their own for personal device support. Our new service offering focuses on your users and makes sure they are productive with all of their devices, not just the corporate ones.

Outsourcing to Reduce your Payroll

Outsourcing

One of the highest costs of managing information technology is employee salaries. Along with the use of new online technologies, we can help to reduce your payroll costs in the following ways:

  1. By providing the right level of resource for your particular need. As your needs change, we can change the level of resource we provide;
  2. We can provide fractional resources, from very part time to multiple full-time equivalents;
  3. We manage transitions for a continuation of service to keep your business operating, even during times of change.

Contact us today to find out more about our services, including our new Claritech Trust Bundle.

Computer Science and Ballroom Dancing

What do computer science and ballroom dancing have to do with each other? Nothing!

My point is that I think computer science and information technology in particular can be used to enhance or add value to any other industry, career, or education. A dancing robot you say? Maybe not a robot, but there are certainly aspects of IT that can play a role in the dance industry, from choreography and video editing to the more mundane tasks as running a dance studio.

Individuals with a unique background in a field other than IT can bring tremendous value to both the technology industry in general and to those industries in particular.

I deal a lot with health care, and some of the best medical software companies are run by physicians that also understand IT; not by “techies” that also happen to understand the medical profession.

Is ballroom dancing and computer science such a bad combination? Have your say below.