Brooklyn has 2.5 million people of whom 42.8% are white and 34.3% black. The racial mix encourages ethnic stores. My favorite is:
Guess what it sells? Wigs. Millions and millions of them.
Now I know how New York’s black women suddenly acquired straight hair.
Wife Susan says I don’t go out enough.
Today is a sort of holiday. The stockmarket is closed. That gives me a reprieve to go back to bed and nurse my horrid cold.
Have a great weekend. See you Monday.
By the way, the wig store seems to be owned by a nice Chinese lady, who did not like me taking photographs of her incredible store.
Here’s yesterday’s column on Apple. Several friends said it was “the best I’ve ever written.“
I’ll take the compliment. I’m not shy.
Apple closed last night at $633.68.
Yesterday’s headline:
What makes investing SO difficult today: Destruction by technology. Why I may buy even more Apple. (Which I did.)
They just closed the plant that printed my first magazine. The Easton, PA plant was ginormous. A city block long and almost as wide. The plant printed hundreds of thousands of beautiful magazines each day. It kept hundreds of lovely Lehigh Valley residents employed. The closing came as a huge surprise to most of them.
They’re closing printing plants all across the country. They’ll sell some of the machinery intact. But most will be sold for scrap. It’s the end an era, very emotional for a print journalist like me. I’ve never had more fun in life than thinking up the next magazine, producing the present one. As I think back, there were the flying pig, sunflowers and insect covers. Stuff you didn’t find on the cover of technology magazines.
But they made us different. We had huge fun making them. I think our subscribers had huge fun reading them.
I sold the publishing business in 1997 — not because I anticipated the devastation to print that the Internet has now wrought, but because my partner got sick and wanted less stress in his life. This was ironic because I’ve been touted as having “brilliant vision” to sell “at the right time.” In fact, the gigantic sale price — several times what we thought it would be — was an outright fluke. My partner’s colitis could not have come at a better time — though not for him. My father helped too. He always urged “Take a little home. You never know what tomorrow will bring.”
Tomorrow has come. The accelerating pace of technology — especially the explosion of high-speed Internet, intelligent smartphones and Apple’s iPad — is slashing and burning a broad destruction path through American business. Let’s start with some remarkable numbers:
+ There are now 585,000 apps available to download on the Apple App Store (one of which is mine — Newton’s Telecom Dictionary).
+ Since the App Store launched in July 2008, there have been over 25 billion downloads. Read that again: that’s 25 billion. The World Bank says there are 6.8 billion people in the world. On average every person on the planet has downloaded nearly four apps. And to do that they had to have an Apple machine and access to a broadband circuit. Has any product ever in the history of the world had such penetration? I don’t think so.
You can read the New York Times on the iPad. I read the New Yorker on my laptop. Ditto for the Wall Street Journal, which I long ago stopped subscribing to on paper. We’re all familiar with what happened to printing.
What about popular apps:
+ GPS. My iPhone is a better GPS than my heavy standalone GPS unit.
+ Telescopes. Get Stargazer for your iPad. You’ll literally be blown away.
+ Cameras
+ Alarm clocks
+ Calculators
+ Electronic cooks
+ Newspapers
+ Games
+ Maps. Remember the printed ones you used to buy at gas stations?
+ Yellow pages
+ Restaurant guides. Yelp, etc.
+ Flashlights
+ Cash registers
+ Banking, stock trading, brokerage and loans
+ Travel entertainment. People download movies and watch them on planes and trains.
+ In-store shopping. Get QFReader.
+ Fancy color glossy bird books. Get iBird PRO. It’s got the pictures and the sounds the birds make. Books don’t have the sounds.
+ Textbooks.
+ Long distance and international phone and video calling. Skype is an app. It’s free. Long distance dial-up providers are not.
+ Gambling (including poker)
+ Voting (not here yet, but strong in some countries overseas).
+ Software. This one blows me away. Apple has just released photo retouching software called iPhoto. It’s not as good as Adobe Photoshop. But it’s all most people need. Photoshop costs $699. iPhoto costs $5.
+ Games.
I actually asked Apple if anyone had ever written a piece highlighting industries ripe for App Store destruction and the answer was No. So consider this the beginning of our research. Some conclusions:
1. Though the iPhone is good at GPS, it hasn’t killed Garmin, which is doing well, though its stock is till less than half what it was at its peak in 2007. Garmin sells an app for the iPhone, which is good. It’s embraced the iPhone. That’s the key: Embrace the inevitable.
2. Apple App Store is the easiest place to test your new product ideas and to make a little for your retirement. If you haven’t encouraged your kids to put an App up, you’re missing out on being a good parent. You’re missing out on one of the easiest entrepreneurial opportunities ever presented in the history of mankind.
The App Store is the most remarkable distribution system ever. Think about it. Apple charges you $100 a year to be a developer. For that you can upload as many apps as you wish. They will be instantly available to the over-315 million people who own the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch etc. what Apple calls its iOS devices worldwide. Apple charges you 30% to handle your cataloging, your distribution, and billing. Once a month you get money deposited right into your check account. It’s found money. Also called Money from Heaven. Thank you, Steve.
If you don’t believe that all this is a good reason that Apple stock is going higher, you’re missing something. Read the list again. Send me some examples. Add them as Comments below, please.
Where RIMM? The board has given the new management 30 days to fix the company. The only way — get the new BlackBerry 10 out and make its work properly. Here’s a list of the ten things RIMM has to do to make the BlackBerry 10 work. There’s no way they can do it. Click here.
No one is expecting them to be able to get it working properly. Hence the company will be put up for sale. Some people believe it’s worth $20 a share — 57% above where it is now. At $20 a share, that’s a price tag for RIMM of $10.5 billion. Is that do-able for a company with allegedly 77 million customers? My feeling is NO. But some of my friends are long RIMM and gambling some schmuck will buy the company for $10.5 billion. Stranger things have happened. Microsoft has the money and the lack of sense. Ditto for Intel. It could go lower first.
Harry Newton who is recovering from his two-day flu. He promises to feel more funny tomorrow.
He’s no longer a fetus. Republicans only care about you before you’re born.
Hi Harry,
About garmin, there is a new app that I downloaded about a month called waze that is free and includes traffic conditions based on what other users experience when driving. It's incredible how accurate it is. Drivers get points for reporting hazards as well. I'm not sure what points are worth but people do report pretty much all conditions from a speed trap to an accident. How can garmin compete with that – free real time traffic with free directions.
How about this ? Virus infecting Apple Macs. Check out http://news.yahoo.com/more-600…
Thank you extremely for yesterday's tip on stopping pop ups. I never knew abourt regedit. Today you mention buying maps at gas stations. Heck, they used to be free at gas stations.
Another “cult” member here, Harry.
I shared my experience on here earlier this week about how switching to the Mac has made using a computer a trouble free/headache free experience for me. What I did not mention was the fact that I was a VAR who specialized in systems integration (I was a subscriber to your magazines and frequently attended or sent someone to your trade shows/conferences.) I built a company that grew to employ 88 people and eventually sold it, enabling me to not have to worry about money for the rest of my life at a tender age of 31. I owed all that to MicroSoft and the PC manufacturers like IBM, Compaq, AST Research, and the hybrids like Novell Networks because it was almost impossible for the average person or business without in IT department to make them all work together. There was so much demand for our services as “Authorized Resellers” and integrators for the major brands, we went from start-up to 85MM in annual revenue in just shy of 5 years. The only reason I am mentioning this is to remind you that things have not changed much when it comes to PC software and hardware integration except in the Mac world. Most (if not all) computers claim PnP (Plug'n Play) ease of use but only Macs truly deliver on that promise today. If you were to count the hours you spent fiddling with your PC and Windows software to get it to do what it's maker promised it would do, what would the total tally be? Then, consider the fact that you are capable of doing this yourself but think of how much it would have cost you if you had to pay someone to do it for you. You will realize that people and companies spend a fortune trying to realize the promises made by PC manufacturers and MS Windows based software companies. So, why are you sticking with something that drains you of your resources? Obviously, kids are exceptions to that thought 😉
Harry, I urge you to take Gary's challenge and go out and buy a Mac. Here is the great part – you can try it for 30 days and return it for a full refund if you don't like it, according to Apple. Every product I ever bought from Apple had that 30 days satisfaction guaranty. You can easily see that a lot of thought goes into their products with the user in mind. I know that is rare in the Windows world because I made my living being the buffer that lived between the hardware and software manufacturers who love to blame each other for their products' incompatibilities. If your time is worth anything, you owe it to yourself to go buy a Mac and see what we are all talking about for 3 weeks. If we are wrong, take it back to the Apple store and you have lost nothing. However, we “cult” members are certain you will not be taking it back.
I have a friend who makes a very good living helping people with their Macs and Mac networks. Several in my family have switched to Macs and they frequently come to me to help them with issues on their Macs (even though I am a Microsoft user). My point is that Apple users are “cult”embers in the sense that they outright dismiss Apple's shortcomings or swallow Apple's propaganda without question. To them any Apple problem is a fluke. There are tons of examples. Latest is the “hot” new iPad!
Excellent article today… ballsy and somewhat fanciful, but presented in a very well written format. As to creating an app… I'd like to. I really would like to. I thought I had one. When you have colitis you need a toilet many times a day. A few month ago I was out walking around NYC doing the tourist thing with friends. Finding a toilet in the City, on demand, is not that easy. I thought, “I need a toilet location app”. I mean, they've got a DUI check-point app. Why not a Toilet location app? Far fetched? My friend's wife, Adele, pulled it up in about a minute. If they've got a Toilet App, how low do I have to go to find my “Money from Heaven” app???
Gerry FriesenPS: If you have an app idea, would you mind sharing!
Dear Gerry
The trick I learned in Rome, where the task is not just to find a WC, but also one that is clean. Now where would it be – of course, MCDonald's.
Go into any McDonald's – at least in Rome and ask for a map of Rome showing McDonald's – ECCO!
Dunno if it works in New York, but I reckon if you Google McDonald's Locations New York, on your iPhone/iPad, it will work.
You could add Cooking Apps to your list. The iPad in particular has really changed how people search for, look up, use, and share recipes. Some of the best (I prefer Americas Test Kitchen/ Cooks Illustrated) are embracing social media and are still printing lots of cookbooks, but you have to wonder how long that will last.
Harry-
Loved your print magazines as I have told you before; wish there still was a Teleconnect and Call Center Magazine on line. Two of the best telecom industry publications, EVER. Right beside the Bell Labs Technical Journal for me. I miss them greatly!
Steve H.
And so do I and Gerry — see above.
Harry
All this Apple lovin sounds very cult like to me, looks like your being assimilated into your dreaded group of Apple fanatics. While I use several Apple products it has nothing to do with a cult, they are just better. As several readers pointed out to you in this weeks comments, they also use Mac's and switched from Windows not for any cult like reason, it just works for them.I'm decided today to take up a needy cause that I call “Get Harry to buy and use a Mac” and I'm looking for support from fellow readers. You know it is time, you made money on AAPL, use some of it and buy a Mac. After you use it, you need to report on it. I expect that the best part will be when you tell all your readers that we were right and that you should have switched to a Mac years ago. Still a long time loyal reader, even if you are Macless – Gary
I have a little secret. I have a 17in Mac. And I love it. And I use it. But I don't write this column on it for a number of reasons that are peculiar (i.e. strange) to me. Please keep this secret.