Linked List: October 15, 2013

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Angela Ahrendts at TEDx Hollywood: The Power of Human Energy ★

Apple’s new SVP of retail and online stores, speaking at TEDx Hollywood in March this year. A bit touchy-feely for my taste, but interesting. As she says up front, what she’s talking about is difficult to articulate. Rare to get insight like this into the mindset of an Apple executive.

For Many Hard-Liners, Debt Default Is the Goal ★

Bruce Bartlett, domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and as a Treasury official under George H. W. Bush (well known left-wing radicals both):

This week, according to the Treasury Department, it will exhaust its “extraordinary” measures to avoid hitting a hard debt ceiling. It is not known precisely the date at which it will lack the cash to pay interest on the national debt, but on the day that happens, the United States will be in default.

The Obama administration and those on Wall Street have long thought that such a prospect was so horrifying that it would necessarily lead to resolution of the current budget impasse. What I don’t think they understand is that there has been a movement under way for some years among right-wing economists and activists not merely to default on the debt, but even to repudiate it.

In other words, these right-wingers aren’t using the threat of debt default to undo the Affordable Care Act — they’re using the threat of undoing the Affordable Care Act (which they know/hope Democrats will not agree to) to get what they really want: putting the United States of America into default.

Right on Schedule: Apple Announces Special Event for October 22 ★

This one is in San Francisco, in the Yerba Buena Center. To me, that signifies that this is a bigger, more important event than last month’s iPhone 5S/5C introduction on Apple’s campus. Higher profile location, and the space holds more people.

(I think it holds a lot more people, but I’m a bad estimator of crowd sizes. The Yerba Buena Center website says their theater has 757 seats. I’d guess Apple’s Town Hall holds at most 350 people. Anyone know how many seats are in there?)

Update: A few readers pointed to this 2011 piece by Jeff Richardson, wherein he links to a 360 degree panorama of the Town Hall theater, which shows a seating capacity of about 250. But I think Apple recently put all-new seating in the room, and an anonymous little birdie on Twitter says the official capacity is now 301, which sounds about right to me.

Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to Join Apple as Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores ★

Apple:

Apple today announced that Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, will be joining Apple in a newly created position, as a senior vice president and member of our executive team, reporting to CEO Tim Cook.

Ahrendts will have oversight of the strategic direction, expansion and operation of both Apple retail and online stores, which have redefined the shopping experience for hundreds of millions of customers around the world.

Hindsight is 20/20, etc., but the CEO of Burberry sure seems like a better fit for Apple than the CEO of Dixons.

Update: 9to5 Mac has Tim Cook’s company-wide memo announcing her hire.

Pizza Place Geography ★

Interesting visualization of the franchise chain pizza shop locations in the U.S.

All I can think looking at this map is that there’s a lot of terrible pizza out there.

From the DF Archive: ‘A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm and Is Getting Out of the PC Business’ ★

HP’s problem, in a nut:

The traditional PC market is shrinking and Apple takes most of the profit in what’s left of it.
The growth is all in smartphones and tablets.
HP’s only OS choices for the mobile market are Windows/Windows Phone and Android, which puts HP right back in the same low-end commodity business that it wound up in with the PC market.

The irony is, HP had a solution to this dilemma: Palm and Web OS. I’m not saying it’s a sure-thing that they could have made a success of Web OS if they had stuck with it. But it would be hard for them to be in a worse place than they are now, and they would have been able to control their own destiny.

It’s just sad how far HP has fallen.

Meg Whitman Finally Sees Intel and Microsoft as HP Competitors ★

Julie Bort, reporting for Business Insider last week:

On Wednesday, [Whitman] blamed some of HP’s growth problems on Microsoft and Intel:

“HP’s traditional highly profitable markets face significant disruption. Wintel devices are being challenged by ARM-based devices. … We are seeing profound changes in the competitive landscape. … Current partners like Intel and Microsoft are turning from partners to outright competitors.”

Yours truly, four years ago:

It’s not just that Apple is different among computer makers. It’s that Apple is the only one that even can be different, because it’s the only one that has its own OS. Part of the industry-wide herd mentality is an assumption that no one else can make a computer OS — that anyone can make a computer but only Microsoft can make an OS. It should be embarrassing to companies like Dell and Sony, with deep pockets and strong brand names, that they’re stuck selling computers with the same copy of Windows installed as the no-name brands.

And then there’s HP, a company with one of the best names and proudest histories in the industry. Apple made news this week for the design and tech specs of its all-new iMacs, which start at $1199. HP made news this week for unveiling a Windows 7 launch bundle at Best Buy that includes a desktop PC and two laptops, all for $1199. That might be great for Microsoft, but how is it good for HP that their brand now stands for bargain basement prices?

It’s not a new problem for HP that Microsoft and Intel are attempting to consume all the value from the PC industry and leave the actual PC makers holding an empty bag.