Apr 09 / SKYLIGHT DOWNED ‘TIL JULY

Few know that I used to own a pizza place on the boardwalk in Cape Cod back in the early 1980’s. We served a lot of pizza. Hundreds a day and more than you could even count on July 4th. We also had the best pizza. But it was the best because of the taste, quality and the GLUE. Some pizza just can’t get the sauce and cheese to meld with the dough and so when you pick it up the top separates from the bottom and you have a glob of hot cheese and sauce and then a slab of bough shaped like a slice of pizza. That is where Apple comes in. They have glue! Their items go together. If you get one, you will get all.

For the last couple years I wished there had been a device like the iphone but bigger. I could run my entire business off of such a device. I could almost do it with an iphone, actually I could do it in a pinch, but it would not be that much fun and with that small a device it has limitations.

So the iPad came along and has overcome that problem. I am already an iPad fan after the first week. I got 2 on the first day and now awaiting the 3g version that will quite bluntly change how I live life. Laptop? I can now go away without it. That’s a big deal. That’s a new way for me to be more productive and free up more time. Many are used to carrying around a small legal pad. That is all the ipad is, a small pad. But inside that small little pad is a giant of a beast. A new king may have been born. It gives mobile computing an entire new definition. Yes, I know there have been “Tablets” out there for some time….but they have no GLUE!!! And while they attempt to fill in a void, they don’t. The iPad does and that is a game changer.

Now if it were just a personal notepad and organize it would just be cool but would not change how I live life. How you live life. But once you start plugging in their apps, this baby takes on a character that nobody will rival for years to come. That plane becomes a rocket and into orbit you go. Thumb you nose at this device and you will be thumbing your nose to what you could have been.

I know many won’t agree. It’s ok, you don’t see what I see. You don’t see what this means. So it is just hype and Steve Jobs? I don’ think so. Do I really need an iPad? I do, hope most don’t. I will have everything at my fingertips while they say, “I’ll get back to you.” I can have my most powerful tool with me at all times and that has great value. I will keep one in my car at all times. I will have one with me. I will have one on my coffee table. I will build them in the walls and make a smart home much smarter.

50 million iPhones sold so far and when Verizon and Sprint get in the game it will swell to over 100 million. 1 billion apps downloaded months ago. The iPad is no iPhone. It is a much more important tool if you can imagine the possibilities. Together the iPhone, the iPad and the MacBook are GLUE that nobody else has or will have. A cash rich company sitting on tens of billions of dollars may be on the way to being a Trillion dollar company. There is not a question in my mind that every year for the foreseeable future they will gain market share over PC and turn into the most powerful company on the planet. Sorry Qualcomm, IBM, Sony, HP, your numbers may go up, but your market share is as high as it is going to get. Apple has set themselves up for one of the greatest historical victories in the history of business before they even eye the Google Empire who they are about to go against in an epic battle of cash rich companies. In the 1970’s we had “Gas Wars” and prices plummeted to as low as 22 cents a gallon. This decade will see a war of titans the likes of which will be historical. And Microsoft will do everything to be there as well and that may drag a few others in and we are about to see one Battle Royale. I doubt the landscape in 2020 will look anything like it does in 2010. The next 10 years will provide 100 years of change and progress.

Have a GREAT day!
Rick Schwartz