I spent a good portion of the afternoon on Thursday listening to two of the season’s biggest tech presentations: the introduction of the iPhone SDK by Steve Jobs and company and Guy Kawasaki’s interview of Steve Ballmer. I noticed something interesting while listening: both companies realize that they have to change.
Help from Microsoft and developers
If there was any doubt that Apple wants as much market share as possible for the iPhone, Phil Schiller put them to rest as he ran through the features of iPhone Exchange support. As an attempt to break into the (often slow-moving) mobile corporate world, Apple plans to add an impressive new feature set geared towards corporate users in their June iPhone 2.0 software update.
The biggest tweak of Apple’s longtime philosophy came as a result of the upcoming iPhone SDK. Following the technical introduction of the new development platform, Steve Jobs extended an open-arms invitation to third-party developers by way of Apple’s new App Store. Apple’s use of a simplified software repository available to all seems to signal their confidence in developers to really use the iPhone’s technology in new and creative ways. The service isn’t free, though; in a move that is likely to generate as much discussion as the lack of an optical drive in the MacBook Air, Apple retains 30% of the revenue from any sales through the App Store and offers no other option for developers to have apps delivered to the device.
Did somebody say “innovation”?
“Innovation” would’ve been a good word for a drinking game during Guy Kawasaki’s interview of Steve Ballmer.
The interview between Guy and Steve was littered with reminders that Microsoft is now a player in a lot of markets with fierce competition, both on the offensive and defensive fronts. Their buyout attempt at Yahoo and their new focus on Flash competitor Silverlight show their intense interest in the Web. All the usual suspects were mentioned: Apple, Google, Firefox, Linux… would competitors’ names come up in a presentation during Microsoft’s heyday?
Ballmer’s position on many of their key market focuses seemed to concede that they have to change the way they do business, and they’re in a great position to be an even larger force in many tech markets with a few simple changes. Their success may be largely driven by openness, something that never would have been used as a descriptor for the company until recently.
Openness, in fact, seems to be an increasing force on both Apple and Microsoft, two companies known historically for tight control over their environments. Their moves toward open access may result in the success (or failure) of their latest ventures into new markets.
