WWDC: 6 numbers, 6 things and 6 considerations

Every year at the beginning of June Apple descends on the Moscone Center in San Francisco to bless the adoring crowds of developers amassed in the auditorium with a 2 hour long keynote that opens a 4 day conference on everything OSX and iOS.

No hardware was announced this time around, while software played a key role, especially in the last 30 minutes of the presentation, when Apple rained a veritable cascade of goods on developers: 4000 new APIs, a new programming language named Swift, a new graphics platform called Metal (rock on Apple!) and a whole slew of new features. But since I am no developer and I understand next to nothing about those things, I’ll just be focusing on the “consumer” part.

This is not going to be a summary of the keynote announcements. I am just going to share my thoughts on what Apple unveiled. I sincerely hope not to bore you to tears. Let’s jump right in with some numbers, shall we?

6 numbers

• 9 million registered developers
• 80 million Macs have been shipped so far
• 130 million customers bought their first apple device in the past 12 months
• 98% of Fortune 100 are using iOS
• 300 000 000 visitors every week on the app store
• 1$, the price per month for 20GB storage on iCloud Drive

6 things I liked. Liked, not loved, that’s too strong a word.

1. Dark mode. Seriously, Apple, what took you so long?! There is nothing as hateful as having a blindingly white finder window making your eyes bleed when you are trying to get some work done at night. This is probably my favorite “feature” in Yosemite. Now, if they would just make changing icons easier…
2. Mail markup. This might make me switch to using Mail as my default client. Basically, Mail markup lets you doodle on photos and PDFs you send as attachments, directly into Mail. Need I say more *-*?
3. Family Sharing. Up to 6 family members, using the same credit card, can share app store purchases across devices. And parents will be sent notifications and requested to approve their kids’ purchases in real time, before the little ones can buy that 99$ add on.
4. Photos will be synchronised across devices… and so will edits. The editing software appears to be more powerful and modified pictures are automatically saved and then uploaded to the cloud, from where the other devices connected to the same account will have instant access. This should in part fix the eternal “where do I put my photos” problem, thanks to full iCloud integration.
5. Extensions. Photo filters, widgets and (amazingly) third party keyboards. Apple has finally opened its gates. Well, just a little bit. Apps will be able to talk with each other, and not be caged individually inside their sandboxes. You will be able to translate a webpage using Bing (good luck with that though), use third party photo filters directly in the photo gallery app (cough- Instagram invasion –cough) and use SwiftKey as your default keyboard, although all processing will need to be done on the device, no keystroke data is to leave your phone (thank God). And Touch ID will be available to developers. 1Password, anyone?
6. Home and Health kit. Smartphones are increasingly connected to every part of our life, and there is buck to be made in the space. Apple is happily jumping on the bandwagon with Home kit and Health kit. Which do exactly what you expect them to do, they enable your device to talk with others and open up a world of possibility for developers. Interesting to note the (apparently) close integration with Nike, who just recently dropped development of its Fuel Band in favor of focusing just on the software part of the technology.

6 things I don’t particularly care for

1. Spotlight. In a desperate effort to keep you away from Google, Spotlight is now more powerful than ever, suggesting anything from movies to restaurants to Wikipedia articles. Too bad it is still vastly inferior when compared to Quicksilver.
2. iCloud drive. It is compatible with Windows, evidence that the competition here is not OneDrive, but Dropbox. This could deal a hard blow to the storage company. However, on my part, I still think Dropbox is superior (Android integration and automatic photo upload from multiple sources being two of the chief reasons).
3. Safari. It is still a sad excuse for a browser, although it is now a very fast (according to Apple) excuse. Question: why are you getting rid of the favorites bar?! I’m sticking with Chrome, because integration, extensions, themes and favicons (I have more than 50 favorites just in my bookmarks bar, I’d die without them XD…)
4. Interactive notifications. Hello Android, I never knew you could reply to messages directly from the notification bar.
5. Whatsapp. Ehm sorry, I meant Messages. Group messaging, audio notes, do not disturb, location sharing, media gallery to keep all the media you share with a contact in one place. Sounds familiar? Maybe Facebook will sue them.
6. Dr Dre. Seriously? And that is probably not even his real phone number. (I haven’t tried though, have you?)

6 themes I think are important

• Apple can actually be funny. In an adorably nerdy sort of way. Some highlights: OSX Weed and “I hope the rope is multithreaded”.  Although they didn’t make an OS XXX joke. I was hoping for that…
• Your computer = your phone. Not just because the software and the UI look the same, but also because of two things Apple calls Continuity and Hands off. Meaning, you can start writing an email on your iPhone and pick it up on your Mac, you can answer a phone call on your desktop and use AirDrop between an iPad and a MacBook. Integration is the magic word here.
• No Google, thank you. They even mentioned BING for crying out loud, but the big G only got called out when they said “googling” while demoing Safari.
• On the other hand, while bashing Android and its rampant fragmentation problem (Google needs to fix this…), Apple is desperately copying all of its features. Just a couple of examples: fast email deletion, interactive notifications, lock screen widgets, third party keyboards, cloud integration, “Hello Siri”…
• Life, not just device. As I mentioned earlier, our smartdevices are increasingly part of our routines and frankly I am excited to see where the automation will take us. We have been talking about smart homes for more than 17 years (maybe more than that, but I was not in the condition of understanding what was going on before than, me being a toddler at the time), maybe it’s finally time I can have a conversation with my fridge and scold my thermostat if he misbehaves through my phone when I feel lonely. I think I’d love that.
• Open those gates! Or, as Apple likes to put it, add “Extensibility”. I don’t think it would have been possible for iOS to have remained a walled OS under the developers’ pressure to me more competitive with Android. Again, as with the previous theme, endless possibilities exist at this point. And we’ll have to wait and see what apps developers come up with. I’m still not gonna switch to iOS, love my sweet sweet Android KitKat too much

All in all, I have to say I am satisfied with WWDC. The exciting part was mostly technical, I feel Apple wouldn’t be boasting its new programming language and graphics engine in front of 4000 developers if they were not truly convinced they had something awesome on their hands. On the “consumer” side, nothing blew my mind, other than the dark theme. Which is not even supposed to be that big of a deal but ehi, I have my priorities! It seems to me they are playing catch up to android and don’t feel like they need to introduce any groundbreaking features to keep their market share. With Customer Sat(isfaction) at 97% I guess they can afford to.

I’ll stop rambling. Congrats on reaching the end, you have successfully read through 1300 words. Here, have a virtual cookie.

Turn up the Beats! 3 reasons why Apple’s acquisition sounds right. And 3 why it does not.

Another day, another interesting (?) acquisition in the tech space. Why is Apple (supposedly) willing to spend some 3 billion of its hard earned cash on overpriced headphones and Hip-Hop artists? Let’s start, as usual, with a couple of numbers.

Beats

• 1.5 billion in revenues in 2013
• 20 million songs available on its music streaming service, the quite cleverly and originally named Beats Music
• 120$ a year to have the privilege to listen to Justin Bieber without being interrupted by ads
• 200 000 paying subscribers (contrast with Spotify’s 10 million… )
• 11 headphones models and 3 bluetooth speakers
• 64% of overpric- ehm, “luxury” headphones (>100$) sold in 2012 were Beats

Apple

• 90% of Apple’s cash is offshore
• $130 billion in dividends and share buybacks promised in the next two years
• $150 billion cash stockpile
• $3.2 billion the offer price for Beats
• 75% of revenues come from iPhone and iPad
• 45 billion revenue last quarter
• 800 million customer accounts

Those numbers should cover it. Let’s do some thinking now.

As I see it, there are three possible reasoning for Apple to be buying Beats.

1. Swagger. Beats is apparently cool with the kids. I wouldn’t know, I am definitely not part of the demographic (the cool part, I am definitely a kid) and I do not particularly like Hip-hop. Anyways, as evidenced by strong sales, and by the fact that if you walk around town you will have seen at least one person sporting a pair of Beats, folks love these earphones. This could serve to reinvigorate Apple’s appeal with the young crowd, who does not necessarily want to have the same mobile as their parents.
2. Streaming. For the first quarter ever, digital downloads have declined. As the FT recently titled, we are maybe on the verge of the death of the download. On the other hand, the rise of “the Stream” is apparently unstoppable. Have you used iTunes radio? Yes? You are part of the 8% of the (US) population who has elected Apple as their provider of choice.  iTunes radio is definitely a lot bigger than Beats music, however Beats has a cooler app, designed by hipsters for hipsters. And how can Apple not like that? Plus it’s innovative, in the sense that there is no free ad supported version and that all playlists are curated by real humans, not by dumb computers.
3. Connections. In the form of Dr. Dre and Mr. Iovine, veterans in the music industry, who bring contacts, network and know how probably not possessed by anybody at Apple.

Sounds reasonable right? To me personally, not really, Here’s why.

1. Let’s face, the Beats headphones are not that good. Admittedly, if you love you bass down low, you are going to have a field day with the Beats, in any other case, you are probably going to hate them. They are not especially comfortable, they tremble is drowned, and most of all they are ridiculously overpriced. Even Apple headphones in comparison look dirt cheap. And the big A could probably have designed great headphones without Dr. Dre advise. (better than those things they ship with iPhones nowadays…)
2. Is the streaming really that valuable? After all, it’s only 200 000 customers. To be fair, I have not tried the app (for two reasons: I don’t have 10$ and they don’t have Vocaloid music on there) but from various reviews posted online it doesn’t appear to be a particularly innovative concept not paying scheme. It’s gimmicky and playlists are not dynamic. Meaning they don’t change, they stay the same. Therefore you need to trust the curators have done a great job selecting the songs! I also have some qualms about streaming. Unlike movies, which you tend to only watch ones (with some exceptions -cough-start wars-cough-), you listen to music a lot more. I have listened to my favorite songs, which I am not going to name here for fear of sounding ridiculous, for more than 300 times. Having to find your favourites every time, and searching for them it’s a lot more cumbersome. Plus, and this might only be me, I am too much of a control freak to not have my music on my SD card at all time. Finally streaming doesn’t work on the subway, or when you have limited data. I don’t see the “download” death coming about anytime soon. Maybe if we all had 4g unlimited data, then I would reach a different conclusion. But then we would all be flying on dragons and watching unicorns running free in the grass.
3. Do people at Apple really have no music industry contacts? Are Dr. Dre and his acolytes that valuable to justify a 3.2B price? I doubt that.

Which brings me back to the only key issue here, as with any M&A deal: valuation. With a price that is almost triple that of the most recent post money valuation, this deal will definitely put some wide smiles on Carlyle people’s faces, but I really do not see it being justified in a company who has 1.5billion in revenue but does not disclose whether it makes a profit or not.

At the end, I fear the only reason Apple is acquiring Beats is because they have become to big to be innovative, and to boring to risk something new. With incremental and marginal improvements on their product lines, and the only upcoming “surprises” in the pipeline being a iWatch and a “real” Apple TV (not the streaming box), it looks to me like one of my favourite companies has lost its hedge. Do not get me wrong, I am typing these on a Mac, and I would not be parted with it even under death threats, but I frankly believe Apple has become more a luxury brand rather than a technology one. And this acquisition only serves to reinforce my belief.

5 Reasons to Get the S5. And 5 Not to.

Wow that was brief. In less than an hour, at Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Samsung dropped 3 (or 4) new products: the S5, the Gear2, the Gear2 Neo and the Gear Fit. So, should you buy it when it comes out in April?

Start saving now! You’ll wanna buy this. Here’s why:

1. Water Resistant. No more losing your mind when you accidentally dunk the poor smartphone in the toilet.
2. Super dim display. And now you can read at night without wanting to rip your eyes out because the screen is too damn bright!
3. HRD. On video! I don’t know how well this is going to look, but it sure sounds really interesting. Plus faster autofocus, 360 views (Google Sphere anyone?), and selective focus while editing.
4. Super battery save. Turn the screen black and white, switch off all the irrelevant functions and 10% battery will last you up to 24 hours (in standby).
5. Private mode, aka pr0n mode. Swipe your finger on the finger print scanner embedded in the home button (Apple lawsuit approaching!) and get ready to browse all the “private” videos and photos you hid on your SD card. Enjoy!

But wait! Maybe you are better off sitting this one out. Why, you ask?

1. Boring design. Nothing new here, come on Samsung! And what color is “Copper Gold” anyways?!
2. Same old cluttered interface. Apart from a minor redesign of the settings menu, which IMHO makes it a lot harder to navigate, there is nothing new here. I don’t want your hundred thousand apps Samsung! And you keep adding new ones. S Coach? What next? S Nanny?
3. Heart beat sensor. On the back. Next to the camera flash. Because I am going to check my pulse every time I hold my smartphone.
4. No companion software update. I’m being selfish here, I so want this. Kies is terrible, let’s not even mention it. Having a reliable piece of software that can synch all my media without having to go crazy using DoubleTwist and Android File Transfer would make things easier. Because not all our media lives in the cloud (not yet).
5. Price. Not announced. Not even hinted. I guess it could be because it varies so much world wide, but still an indication would have been welcome.

Bottom line: I don’t see anything really amazing about this device. There is nothing here to blow my mind. Sorry Samsung, I will stick to my S3 for the time being.

Afterthought:

The highlight of the press conference was probably the launch of the Gear Fit, and the revamp of the Gear line overall. However I feel that we have too little information to really judge the devices, as of now. And what information we have is so wrapped up in marketing fluff that it is really hard to tell whether the smart watches will make it. Let’s wait and see. I am not really excited about those products either though (I know, I’m hard to please XD)

7 Reasons WhatsApp Acquisition makes sense for Facebook (and 7 Why it Doesn’t)

Numbers
Let’s start off easy with some numbers, shall we?

• 450 millions
• 70%
• 1 million
• 80%
• $40
• 55 people
• $19 billion
• 34 billion and 19 billions
• 600 million

What are these numbers for? Try guessing, the answers are at the end of the post.

7 Reasons Facebook Made the Right Call

1. Facebook messaging app is terrible
I don’t think anybody, not even the most die hard Facebook fan, would define the Facebook messaging system as “great”. It is of course one of the most popular messaging apps out there, but only because it is still Facebook. However, it fails to provide a reliable platform, not allowing easy file sharing on mobile and clogging users with useless (although extremely cute) stickers. And we shall not mention chatheads. Let’s not even go there.

2. Growth
With Facebook’s growth slowing down, and the supposed “teen escape” from the website, Facebook needs to enter a new space where potential growth is still great. With 1 million new users every 24 hours (although this number seems a bit large to me), WhatsApp appears to be the right choice.

3. Use its cash
With seemingly scarce opportunities to invest its cash into its own business operations, Facebook has been looking into acquiring new companies. This is not the first big profile acquisition Facebook has made. A little less than a year and a half ago, it bought Instagram. Facebook’s deals comes hot on the heels of another similar acquisition by Japanese online retailer Rakuten (楽天), who bought the IM company Viber for 900 million dollars a week ago.

4. Information
Who would say no to 450 million phone numbers? Not certainly Facebook. In the age of the Web, where the most valuable good a company can obtain is information, the more users are willing to volunteer their data, the better it is. And a messaging app, where most communication is personal, can be as a goldmine for Facebook. The company could learn at what time we are most active, whether we tend to send pictures or video messages, and how often we check our mobile (although they cannot, thank God, see your messages: those are deleted as soon as the server sends them out to the recipient. And we have to thank WhatsApp founder Jan Koum for that). I expect WhatsApp terms of service to change very soon. And as usual, nobody will read them.

5. Protection
Facebook is scared of competitors, that is the reason why it bought Instagram, and it is also part of the reason why it decided to buy WhatsApp. Absorbing a powerful and fast growing competitor lets Facebook not only eliminate a threat but benefit from its former rival’s growth and user-base.

6. Portfolio of Apps
Ever heard of Paper? What about Poke? But surely you have heard of Instagram and Messenger, right? Breaking itself up, Facebook tries to conquer an entire home page on our smartphones, a decision I personally find extremely annoying, but that apparently some people like. With Facebook Home, the (obnoxious) Android launcher that pesters you with badly cropped friends’ pictures, and Chatheads, which appear and disappear at will (and sometimes refuse to render properly, at least on my phone) Facebook is truly trying hard to own your mobile device. Another app (and one that actually works for once) can be a great addition.

7. Ads (eventually)
They have sworn they will not add ads to the app, but I suspect that they will in the future. I still hope they won’t though. Including ads will considerably enlarge their mobile ad revenue, which reached 53% of the company’s total advertising income.

7 Reasons Facebook Made a Terrible Mistake

1. Price per User
Have they paid too much? Are WhatsApp users worth $40 each? Considering each of them pays $1 a year to use the service and there are no ads in the app? Some people have pointed out that Facebook users are valued (based on market cap) at $140, which is considerably more. However, Facebook is able to extract more than $7 of revenue out of each of them, that is double what WhatsApp is able to gain.

2. Size
With just 55 employees, but a valuation of 19 billion dollars, the company will come to represent 11% ca. of Facebook’s market value. Which is undoubtedly a lot. And considering this deal will be settle with stock, we can expect a non indifferent dilution effect, about 8% (considering that part of the deal will be settled in cash). We are not considering the increase in revenue this acquisition will bring to Facebook, but since WhatsApp doesn’t reveal its figures, we will have to wait and see.

3. No integration (at least not anytime soon)
They are going to operate as two separate companies, so no benefit of having a better messaging service to tie into Facebook (I don’t know how you feel, but that would make my life so much easier). Don’t expect to see a better Facebook chat anytime soon. Stickers and Chatheads are apparently here to stay.

4. Monetization
Cannot include ads, cannot increase subscription price, cannot diminish length of free trial. How are they going to make money off of this thing? Don’t get me wrong, I am perfectly happy with not having to pay for anything, and I am no Facebook shareholder (although I sometimes really want to be). This does trouble me though. Time will tell, I guess.

5. most users are already on Facebook
Of those “new” 450 million users, how many of them are already Facebook aficionados? I’d say most of them, they might not be active users, but judging from my (limited)(non indicative) sample, most smartphone users have both a blue F and a green phone icon on their home screen.

6. no US
Facebook is not getting US growth in this deal. Snapchat has taken over WhatsApp as the most used messaging service, and since we all know how social networks function (they only work is everybody is on there), there is little chance of Americans switching back to WhatsApp. However, I should point out that the most popular IM app in the US is still Facebook.

7. ?
I couldn’t think of a seventh reason, maybe you can?

Conclusion
Trying to pin a number or value a company like WhatsApp, with massive growth and massive potential (hopefully) is always a hit and miss exercise. I personally think that overall the acquisition makes sense for Facebook, and I am looking formward to see what the social network powerhouse can do for WhatsApp going forward.

Thanks for readings this :)!
And now that you patiently waited, here are the answers:

• 450 million: active WhatsApp users
• 70%: users who check WhatsApp daily
• 1 million: new users every 24 hours
• 80%: WhatsApp market penetration in Spain and Portugal
• $40: price per WhatsApp user
• 55 people: employees at WhatsApp, 32 of which are engineers
• $19 billion: price Facebook paid for WhatsApp
• 34 billion: messages sent by WhatsApp Users
• 600 million: photos shared by WhatsApp users