Walking through emptied out downtown Manhattan on the afternoon before the hurricane “Irene” was supposed to hit New York City.
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Remember high school, when there were new cool kids coming to the school who got all the girls’ attention and then stuck with them rather with the kidswho were there before? This is exactly how Nokia must have felt when they started to lose market share when Apple and Google popped up from nowhere and started selling their own phones. Nokia said “They are not a threat to us, because we’ve been here long before them”.
Easy math
What a misinterpretation that was! Since then Nokia hasn’t been able to launch a single smart phone that worked, they just continued to insist on keeping their Symbian OS, a remnant of the times when phones didn’t have touch screens. And they failed big time.
Now people are flocking to Apple and Google in millions, especially in the USA,where Nokia is quasi nonexistent.
What about Microsoft? They recently launched Windows Phone 7 (WP7), a much anticipated successor to Windows Mobile and Windows CE. Similar to Google, they wouldn’t develop their own phone, but rather sign up with handset manufacturers like HTC, Samsung, LG and Dell. And with Nokia they are simply adding one more manufacturer to the mix.
Why should this be successful? Sales for WP7 phones are disappointing, there is literally no available software and the phones look not as cool as the iPhone or Android phones.
For most people, introducing a Nokia WP7 phone will just go unnoticed, especially in the US, where the brand recognition of Nokia phones is very low.
Why would someone buy a phone from a manufacturer that they’ve hardly heard of?Samsung, LG and even HTC are much more well known among prospective smart phone users.
Two Steves: Captains of two sinking ships shaking hands
And speaking about software, one of the main drivers for the popularity of the iPhone is the App Store. It’s so easy to find and install cool apps, that are mostly inexpensive or even free and have been signed off by Apple, which gives most people some feeling of security. Have you ever looked into the Nokia Ovi Store? The interface is cumbersome, an eyesore, it’s hard to find anything, the checkout process is tedious and counteracts a purchasing impulse and the quality of the apps you’ll find in there is subpar. Not to mention that the quantity is nowhere near the App store or even the Android Market.
“Two turkeys do not make an eagle”, said Google’s top exec Vic Gundotra on Twitter. It’s like trying to merge the good looks of a dumb kid with the smarts of an ugly kid, trying to get the girls’ attention in high school.
This match is set up to fail.
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On the list of things I love about New York, I would hardly add the subway. It’s old, dirty, unreliable and crowded. But it gets me everywhere fast and cheap, so I am actually having love-hate-relationship. And it is the subway, or a subway station, where I am having “Aw, I love New York” moment every morning when I get to work. I live on the Lower East Side, close to the Delancey Street F station that’s connected to the Essex Street J, M, Z station that sits just one floor above the F. There is a ritual that’s happening every morning during rush hour, which you wouldn’t expect happening in a mega city like New York, but after all, hey it’s New York.
"Waiters" on the upper M platform, looking at "Wavers" on the lower F platform
Like everywhere in the subway system you see lots of people standing very close to the track, poking their head out every 10 seconds to see if the train is coming. On the upper platform people are wating for the uptown J or M train, and downstairs people would wait for the uptown F train. Until about one year ago, there was nothing special about that. The two subway lines went to completely different directions. The F train went to 2nd Avenue and Broadway Lafayette and then further uptown, the J,M and Z trains went to Bowery and Canal Street and then continued to Brooklyn.
About one year ago this has changed. The J and Z trains now terminate in Downtown Manhattan, but the M train goes uptown on the F line, but is actually skipping 2nd Avenue. So, on both the upper and lower platform there is a train going uptown and that’s why there are not only people standing around poking their head out, there are also the “waiters” and the “wavers”. The “waiters” are people who are standing close to the staircase that leads from the M platform down to the F platform. They are watching the “wavers” that are watching the F platform and wave once it’s arriving the station. At that time, all “waiters” from upstairs are flocking to the lower platform, which is quite funny to observe. There is also always a “waver” standing on the upper platform, who is working with an accomplice, a second “waver” that is signaling the “waver” from the lower platform, so everyone waiting downstairs can flock upstairs.
The second “waver” on the upper platform is necessary, because of the columns on the upper platform you can’t see the incoming train unless you are standing very close to the track.
This funny, but very useful ritual is happening every morning during rush hour. People that have never met before are standing there to form a working signaling system in order to catch the next uptown train. Once the “wavers” and “waiters” have boarded their train, the next group of strangers will perform the exact same ritual, over and over again.
But this only happens during rushhour. I once overslept and was late for work. When I arrived at the station, there were no “wavers” standing around. I had to make a decision of which train I had to take myself.
Aw, I love New York!
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The most recent iPhone firmware update iOS 4.1 added a new feature to the built-in photo app: HDR, or High Dynamic Range. Usually what you’ll need for HDR photos is to take three exposures of the same photo, the first one under exposed, the second one just right and the third one over exposed. Then you would use third party software like Photoshop or Photomatix to render a photo that would use the best exposure parts of the three photos which allows images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes.
iOS 4.1 does this all automatically, which is great for snap shots and if you don’t want to carry around an expensive camera that allows for exposure bracketing and if you don’t want to buy and use third party software to composite those three images into one.
However, if we look at the results, it’s obvious that the iPhone option is very limited. In the above example I took the same shot twice, once with the iPhone (left) and then again with the Nikon D300s and Photomatix. The photo on the right shows much more range than the one from the iPhone.
But it’s a start 
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Steve Jobs on the cover of "Fast Company" and "Focus"
Let’s take a look at this weeks cover stories of Germany’s Focus magazine and Fastcompany in the US. Both have Steve Jobs on the cover and both talk about his success and Apple.
However, both have totally different approaches. German media likes to bash successful companies, which is actually part of the German society: If someone is successful, there must be something wrong, so let’s bash them. The article talks about how Steve Jobs controls his products and dictates what users can do with them – which is true, but Focus actually says this will eventually lead to Apple’s downfall.
On the other hand, American media loves companies, especially successful ones. American mentality towards corporate success is quite different. Instead of bashing a company, we would like to find out what we can learn from them to also be successful.
These two cover stories this week are a very good example about the differences of German and American media and even the societies in general.
A couple weeks back the same magazine, Focus, ran a cover story about Facebook, how successful it is and how bad it is. A full cover story about how “careful” users would have to be, totally leaving out the good things that Facebook brought to the world – only the bad things.
Link to Focus’ story (in German)
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This is a video that I partially shot and that my friend Richard edited and posted on his own blog. It shows the craziness during the last minutes before and after they opened the doors at the Apple store.
Video: Richard Gutjahr, Marc Labitzky
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It’s pretty remarkable what kind of media coverage you get by just sitting in front of a brightly lit store in the middle of the night. There were several photographers and reporters who spotted me at the top of the line, interviewing and taking photos of me. For them it looked like I would be the first in line to get the iPad, which I was, but I was there with my buddy Richard Gutjahr who actually made the reservations for his two iPads. So, he was really number 1 in line, and I was number 1a.
Below are some photos of me sitting there, and then later outside with Richard. Photos were taken by Getty Images and AFP.
Sitting in the cold and waiting and waiting (Getty)
At one point it was so cold, I wasn't able to sit anymore (Getty)
Florian Brunbauer is showing me and Andras Horvath his newest iPad app concept (Getty)
Richard Gutjahr and I finally made it and now getting interviewed by the media (Photo: AFP)
Since Richard received the first iPad, Apple really, really wanted to interview him
Richard explaining the Apple team, what great future publishing and journalism are going to have, thanks to the iPad
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2 minutes before the doors were opened
We sat there all night and nobody was there. However, at 7am both lines started to fill up quickly. Apple was moving us 2 more times. And at 9am they counted down from 15 to zero and opened the door.
Two happy campers: This couple was among the first in line to grab their iPads
Richard was the first guy to walk in, I was right behind him. When we walked down the stairs, we were greeted by about 100 of Apple employees cheering and clapping at us as if we were movie stars. Richard got the very first iPad of the NY Flagship store! Who would have thought that?
After about 10 we both left the store and then we were greeted by dozens of photographers and TV crews who all wanted to interview Richard. That’s how movie stars must feel on the red carpet. It was insane.
We weren’t able to leave for another 45 minutes or so, giving all those interviews. Then we went to get some breakfast and now it’s bedtime.
Richard Gutjahr - my line buddy, was the first to receive the iPad at the NY 5th Ave Store
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Just now two pizza delivery guys entered the secret entrance to the Apple Store, with about 8 boxes of large pizza. I guess they are done with stocking the iPads and while they are eating their dinner (or is it lunch?), they are getting briefed about how the day will look like.
Pizza delivery guy leaving the apple store after delivering 8 boxes of pizza for the staff
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Apple staff has started stocking the shelves with iPads. They put some veils up, trying to prevent someone to look inside from the street level. But we could still see the boxes. The’re real. The iPad really exists! Only 6.25 hours left.
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