Linked List: June 28, 2021

Monday, 28 June 2021

Mark Gurman’s New ‘Power On’ Newsletter 

Mark Gurman, in the premiere edition of his newsletter for Bloomberg, Power On:

Let’s get right to the point: I wrote this newsletter on an iPad Pro. That might not sound like some shocking revelation, but trust me, I had all but relegated the tablet to video watching and light gaming duties. Since this month’s release of the iPadOS 15 beta, however, I’ve left my laptop mostly behind and have done the vast majority of my work from the iPad.

Now I have even stronger feelings for what Apple Inc. needs to change about the iPad — and it goes beyond software. It’s time for a giant screen, one in the 14-inch to 16-inch range. I love the speed, touchscreen, versatility and Magic Keyboard, but the 12.9-inch display is far too small for someone accustomed to a 16-inch MacBook Pro.

And I’m not the only one who thinks that: I’m told that Apple has engineers and designers exploring larger iPads that could hit stores a couple of years down the road at the earliest. They’re unlikely for next year — with Apple’s attention on a redesigned iPad Pro in the current sizes for 2022 — and it’s possible they never come at all. But a big iPad would be the perfect device for many people, including me, and would continue to blur the lines between tablet and laptop.

I dig the conversational tone here. Gurman is, indisputably, the best and most accurate Apple rumor reporter. But his writing feels held back by Bloomberg’s restrictive house style for reporting. With this newsletter he’s freed from all the repetitive boilerplate about “people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because blah blah blah”.

As for bigger iPads, would a 16-inch iPad still be hand-holdable? If not, would it be in a true laptop enclosure? Or could they make it hand-holdable by making it even thinner?

‘Google’s Messaging Mess: A Timeline’ 

Chaim Gartenberg, writing for The Verge:

Within that mess of product names are two core issues: Google’s apparent love of launching new services and its inability to combine products under one umbrella.

Competitors like WhatsApp demonstrate what the opposite approach could be: a chat service tied to a user’s phone number that allows for video and voice, all from one app. Or there’s Apple’s iPhone approach, which ties email addresses and phone numbers to two services: iMessage for text and FaceTime for audio and video.

Google keeps falling into the same cycle, though, one that has repeated itself throughout the years. It’ll build out new services, integrating them into more areas of its product lineup, then try to wipe the slate clean, launch new services that (eventually) replace the old set, and start the cycle anew.

Eye-opening to see it all laid out on a timeline like this. My first thought was that this exemplified my argument the other day about Google’s lack of institutional focus. But it sort of works against my argument that Sundar Pichai is shepherding Google in a more focused direction — a bunch of these false steps in messaging were under his leadership.

It really is quite a comparison to email, where Gmail was announced in 2004 — while Google was still a nascent company — and they haven’t wavered since.

Apple Mac Sales Triple in India After Apple Opened Online Store Last Year 

Jingyue Hsiao and Joseph Tsai, reporting for DigiTimes:

Apple became the fifth largest PC brand in India in the first quarter of 2021, with shipments of desktops, notebooks, tablets and workstations combined to reach 208,000 units, according to data from Canalys. Canalys pointed out that the significant increase in Apple’s notebook and tablet shipments in India was due mainly to Apple opening its online store in September 2020.

Research firm IDC’s figures also show Apple’s PC shipments in India (excluding tablets) grew 335.5% on year in the first quarter and only lagged Asustek’s by around 2,000 units.

iPhone sales in India are up too, but these numbers are about the Mac and (I think) iPads. A lot has changed for Apple in the last 20 years, but one thing remains unchanged: they sell more products when they have their own stores, online or physical.

Nilay Patel Interviews Satya Nadella on the Business of Windows 

Satya Nadella, in a terrific, wide-ranging interview with Nilay Patel:

The other point is it also lives in an ecosystem. Let’s say Windows has a billion users. So does Android. So does iOS. In fact, Android and iOS will have more than a billion users perhaps, or maybe Android has 2 billion, [and] maybe iOS is similar to Windows’s size or what have you. But the reality is any Windows user — we have to start with the assumption that they have a phone and that phone may be Android and iOS and we have to design for it.

I do think that operating systems are important, but they’re important in so far as they compose with everything else that’s part of my life, whether it’s other devices with other operating systems, [or] whether it is clouds that I use, which are powering some of the applications and experiences.

It’s a practical reality, really. Let’s meet Windows users where they are, and meet their current needs and unmet, unarticulated needs.

I crack wise about the inelegance of Windows, but I do think that under Nadella, Microsoft knows what Windows is and what it’s supposed to be, and Windows 11 is exactly that. That’s a strength. That know thyself confidence comes across in this interview.