360angles

We tell a lot of e-commerce clients that if you’re not going to A/B split test, at least copy Amazon… I have a similar stance on design. If you’re not going to hire an amazing web development and design agency (like us, amiright?) then there are roughly two things you should keep in mind:

• Keep it simple
• What is Apple doing? (I’m only half kidding; you’ll see why.)

So what is Apple doing? Let’s take a look at what I consider one of the best product pages online right now. The product page for the Macbook Air:

My favorite thing about this page is that the call to action (CTA). The little blue “Buy Now” button in the upper right sticks out like a sore thumb, but it doesn’t break the design language of the page in the process. They tastefully drew attention to it by making it the most extreme iteration of their design language.

The button is completely in line with the overall design language,  it’s just been turned up to eleven.

• It has the most drastic rounded corners.
• It’s the brightest and largest concentration of the page’s highlight color.
• It anchors the site navigation of this area on Apple.com by placing it last punctuating it with the bright blue button background gradient. (When you’re making a list and want something to stand out, always put it first or last.)
• It doesn’t look out of place, but there isn’t anything else on the page that looks like it, or more importantly, that competes with it. This is the big one – your CTA should be the most extreme example of your design language, but it shouldn’t look like it came from another site.

One great way to test your CTA’s visibility is the ten foot test. The literal version of this to step back from your monitor 10 feet and see what you can still deduce about the content of your page. Of course, the fake version is to just zoom out your browser a few steps:

You can still read the main title of the page, “The Macbook Air”. Great. You can’t make out much of the other text unless you’re eagle-eyed and even then the vast majority of it is still unintelligible, but that’s OK. One other thing above the fold (not that there’s a fold :) does still stick out, though. It’s that little bright blue button in the top right. You can’t tell what it says, but you still know it’s important.

And back to my earlier note about putting things at the front or back of lists when you think they’re the most important; you’ll notice the first item on that sub navigation list is Design. I’m shocked I tell you… just SHOCKED.

As usual, Apple’s page layouts are a master class in how to get the response you want from your audience. (Not that they never miss, they still can’t seem to make a mouse I care to use for more than about 20 minutes.)

As an iPad owner, general Apple-advocate and tech geek, I’ve been getting asked this question every few weeks since the iPad came out. The frequency is accelerating with the holidays drawing near, so I’m going to reproduce some of the analysis here that I’ve been sharing via email with friends and family. First and foremost, this is not a post for someone asking, “should I get an iPad?” This is more like an iPad buyer’s guide. I’m assuming you’re already going to get one at some point because it’s relevant to your interests. I find this understandable because I love mine. It’s hands down the best casual web surfing and email device I’ve ever used and that’s not to mention gaming, displaying video and displaying pictures, all of which it excels at. So let’s get started with our choices. There are six iPads as of this writing, you can see them here at the Apple iPad product page. This leaves us with seven different options…

1. 16gb wifi – $499
2. 32gb wifi – $599
3. 64gb wifi – $699
4. 16gb wifi+3G – $629
5. 32gb wifi+3G – $729
6. 64gb wifi+3G – $829
7. Wait for some future release of the iPad.

So the deciding factors are budget, space, 3G capability and “now or later?”

Budget

The iPad is a really affordable computer considering bang-for-the-buck from a hardware perspective and a capability perspective. There’s a lot that you can’t do on an iPad, but what you can do you’ll be able to do better than just about any other device. This is basically Apple’s whole user experience model. The iPad just blows the doors off everything else for personal entertainment/education. It’s also noteworthy that thanks to the app store, a flexible interface and ultra portable form-factor, the iPad will continuously be updating its capabilities. Such as using it as a concert piano or to perform surgery. Being affordable in a certain context, however, does not make it cheap. This thing costs a handful of Benjamins, after all. And consider it’s a gadget and made by Apple. This means there’s a sure bet that it will get cheaper (or more capable for the same price) within 12 to 18 months and be outdated at some point. With those truisms as motivation, I’ll strike the two 64gb options from our list, because flash memory prices are currently plummeting like LCD screens were 3 years ago. Conclusion on Budget: Buying top-of-the-line when it comes to electronics is almost always a losing proposition. And if budget is a consideration at all, we don’t want to take that hit. Even eliminating the two most expensive from the range leaves us with several choices.

1. 16gb wifi – $499
2. 32gb wifi – $599
3. 16gb wifi+3G – $629
4. 32gb wifi+3G – $729
5. Wait for some future release of the iPad.

Space/Memory Capacity

What are you going to do with your iPad? Are you going to load it up with movies and music? The music is a non-issue if you have an iPhone or an iPod, because the iPad isn’t going to be a primary listening device. It may be a non-issue anyway, since you can load three days of continuous audio with just 4gb. So the question is really, “Are you going to be watching movies on the thing?” And if you are, are you going to store them there permanently? Or are you going to store them on a computer with iTunes and just load up a couple at a time? Some real-world data on iPad memory usage: I have been using my 32gb for months. My primary use case is surfing and email on my couch/in bed or very occasionally a coffee shop. I may or may not watch a movie or two on it at some point, but there aren’t any on there now. Here’s what is on my iPad at this moment:

• 58 apps
• 1,300 songs
• The last 12 months of photos my wife or I have taken with any camera or phone (994)
• 30 podcasts that are ~1.5 hours each (Recommend TWIT and The Talk Show)
• 13 videos (shorties: music videos and stuff I’ve shot with my phone)

With all that, my available capacity is still 18gb, which means I could fit ~6 full length HD movies on it with all the extras. (For reference, Toy Story 3 in HD is 3.29gb and that’s with tons of extras-two behind the scenes featurettes, the short that showed before the film in theaters and some production art.) Conclusion on space: size-wise the 16gb is too small. I would just be running way to close to filling the thing up all the time, the 32gb gives me plenty of room to breathe even if I want to cart around a couple HD flicks on top of all my other stuff during a trip. So that leaves us with just a few choices left.

1. 32gb wifi – $599
2. 32gb wifi+3G – $729
3. Wait for some future release of the iPad

3G or not?

Where are you going to use it? Mine is primarily a couch computer, so I didn’t go for the 3G. I also take into account the fact that there’s not too many places I’d use the thing where I won’t have WiFi anyway. Most public businesses have it these days, as does my home and work. I’m not going to use the iPad a lot in my car, so I think 3G is only for the serious traveler. Add to this that I can get to email and the internet via my phone if absolutely essential and it’s another nail in the 3G coffin. However, I sometimes wish I had the 3G even though mine is pretty much a couch computer. I’d only need it occasionally, but it would be really nice when I want it. Like if I’m on vacation and don’t want to lug around a laptop: I could take the iPad and not have to count on iffy open WiFi with weird user agreements. 3G is $14-$25/month and the AT&T service is month to month with no subscription or lock in, so you could pick and choose when you have the added expense. And you can buy it straight from the iPad. Having said all that, WiFi is so ubiquitous these days, you’d have to really be a road-warrior to justify the $130 price tag. Conclusion on 3G: WiFi is already ubiquitous and spreading more every day. 3G is for serious road-warriors only or those with no other smart cellular device access.

1. 32gb wifi – $599
2. Wait for some future release of the iPad.

When to Buy?

This is totally a personal philosophy thing. You’re buying a gadget, so no matter what you do there is going to be something shinier and newer in a few months. I mostly ignore this factor when shopping in this product category, or I’d never buy anything. If you know something new is coming next month hold off, otherwise just get one if you want it. Then enjoy it and don’t worry about the greener grass that will inevitably come. Conclusion on When to Buy: The current iPad is a great device. Some day it will be outdated and that’s OK, because it’s still a great device. So get one now and enjoy it.

1. 32gb wifi – $599

Almost… One last consideration: you need to have some sort of base computer running iTunes so you can sync the thing. You can buy content on the iPad itself, but you can’t get system upgrades without iTunes. (Which I think is a big mistep on Apple’s part.) The base machine doesn’t have to be great, but it has to exist and preferably have a big cheap hard drive for archiving content purchases you may not want to carry around with you all the time forever.

TLDR: Get the 32GB, Wi-Fi for $599.

Happy tapping!

Here’s an old Steve Jobs video talking about branding. He’s unveiling the “Think Different” campaign from 1997 and then shows the first TV spot at the end of the video. It’s a really great campaign, but pay attention to the very beginning of this talk:

The big takeaway is in the first few seconds of video:

“This is a very complicated world. This is a very noisy world and we’re not going to get a chance… to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.”

The whole branding thing is just like selling or pitching…

• Lunch pitch: ~15 minutes
• Bar pitch: ~5 minutes
• Elevator pitch: ~30 seconds
• ?

That last pitch is your brand. It’s the ultimate distillation of what you do. Someone just cold-surfed to your site or maybe they’re standing in the aisle at the supermarket looking at you and 20 other competitors. You’ve got five seconds, a logo and one-half line of copy. What is the one thing you want them to know about your business?

If you don’t know, then you’re in trouble.

The most requested iPhone 5 feature may be the ability to actually order one. As of 1:00 AM this morning, myself and about a million other folks have been trying to pre-order the new iPhone 4. I started at about 7:15 AM myself. The results have been less than stellar. The white iPhone is nowhere to be found, and both the AT&T and the Apple pre-order sites keep going down (presumably) under the weight of incoming requests for the new gadget.

I wonder if all this lack of pre-order preparedness will carry over into demand problems when these things are supposed to be delivered on June 24th? (If no one can order one, it’s not going to be a problem.) For what it’s worth, there are reports of a better chance of getting through on AT&T’s site, although I couldn’t get that to work, either.

10:50AM UPDATE: Apple also isn’t taking phone calls at this time.

AT&T has just announced it’s discontinuing unlimited data plans. For those watching the calender, it’s exactly one month and one day after 3G equipped Apple iPads went on sale, aka it’s now 24 hours past when you can return the devices.

Hike up your waders the marketing double speak is thick in this press release…

AT&T*, the U.S. smartphone leader, today introduced new wireless data plans that make it more affordable for more people to enjoy the benefits of the mobile Internet.

Yes, that’s an un-ironic asterisk on the first word of the press release. It doesn’t really matter though, the deal is AT&T is slashing the unlimited plan and now offering DataPlus, providing 200 MB of data for $15/month with additional 200 MB extensions for $15/each, and DataPro, providing 2 GB of data for $25/month, with additional 1 GB extensions for $10/each. Tethering, a feature that all iPhones have been capable of for over a year, will now be allowed by AT&T for an additional $20 per month on the DataPro plan.

The iPad was sold hard with this original unlimited data plan. It was sold by Steve Jobs standing by himself on a stage talking about how revolutionary this all is. How can this business relationship continue? How did Apple end up here? I wish calculating opportunity cost was an exact science; I’d like to see a tally of what Apple is paying for the ongoing damage to one of the most enviable brands on the planet.

As Yanowitz on Hackernews said:

I’d love to be a fly on the wall for the screaming matches between AT&T and Apple.

UPDATE: As of 2:40pm CST, June 2nd, 2010 Apple’s iPad product page does not reflect these new data plans.

Steve Jobs Collage by Charis Tevis for Fortune Magazine

Apple’s stock goes in the tank every time someone publishes a rumor that they saw Steve Jobs sneeze at the local Pinkberry. And with Job’s unprecedented bow-out of the 2009 Macworld Keynote tomorrow it was bound to happen again; Apple stock dipped 2% on Dec. 30th after Gizmodo published a sensational story quoting an unnnamed source about how “Steve’s health is rapidly declining.”

So the man himself has stepped in with these words:

Letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs
Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Steve

There’s been a lot of loud belly-aching over the marketplace implications of the $0.99 price point’s popularity in Apple’s iPhone App Store. Well, Mobile Orchard blew all that out of the water yesterday. Check out the sales distribution of iPhone Apps sorted by price:

iPhone App Store Sales by price

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has cooked up a delicious double entendre for your viewing pleasure and they didn’t skimp on the photos. The secret ingredient? A 45 watt carbon-dioxide laser they used to cut a perfect Apple lattice in the top crust. (And love, of course.)

Best Buy and MacMall just rolled out their Black Friday deals, and there are no Apple product updates scheduled for the rest of the year. The best deals on this chart are highlighted in bold.

[via MacRumors]

Heads up, creatives! You’re precious Mac’s are (slightly) less secure than you thought. Two pieces of malware surfaced last week. From ZD net:

Two pieces of malicious software affecting Apple’s Mac OS X appeared this week: a Trojan horse with the ability to download and install malicious code of an attacker’s choice, and a hacker tool for creating backdoors, according to security vendors.

The Trojan — called ‘OSX.RSPlug.D’ by Intego, the Mac security specialist that discovered the threat — is a variant on an older piece of malicious code but with a new installer, Intego said.

“It is a downloader, and it contacts a remote server to download the files it installs,” Intego said in an advisory. “This means that, in the future, the downloader may be able to install payloads [other] than the one it currently installs.”

In other respects the Trojan is similar to previous versions of RSPlug, which first surfaced in October 2007, Intego said. It installs a piece of malicious code known as DNSChanger, which routes the user’s internet traffic through a malicious DNS server, leading users to phishing websites or pages displaying advertisements.

The Trojan is found on porn websites posing as a codec needed to play video files, a technique used to trick the user into downloading and installing it.

Intego said OSX.RSPlug.D has been widely confused with a separate threat publicized this week by several security firms. That threat is called OSX.TrojanKit.Malez by Intego and OSX.Lamzev.A by other vendors, including Symantec and Trend Micro.

OSX.Lamzev.A is a hacker tool designed primarily to allow attackers to install backdoors in a user’s system, according to Intego. However, the company dismissed the tool as a serious threat because a potential hacker has to have physical access to a system to install the backdoor.

“Unlike true malware and Trojan horses, OSX.TrojanKit.Malez requires that a hacker already have access to a Mac in order to install the code,” Intego stated.

Other antivirus vendors noted that Lamzev could be disguised as a piece of legitimate software and used to trick users into creating the backdoor themselves.

Lamzev is not related to RSPlug, despite several high-profile reports confounding the two, Intego emphasized. “This hacker tool has nothing to do with the RSPlug Trojan horse,” Intego stated.

The Mac platfrom has been virus-free for so long because it wasn’t really a very worthy target. But now that OS X has cracked 8% market share, it seems like the hackers are coming around to the idea that the Apple pond is crowded enough to fish in. (This isn’t surprising, security experts in just about any field will tell you that security through obscurity is not really security at all.)

Having said all that, this is stuff you have to give permission to, before it can install on your machine. So, keep your wits about you, and you should be alright.

Character Illustration by Squiggley Studios.

In 2008 Apple’s sales jumped 39% in Japan.

Why Apple’s sales jumped in Japan – Fortune Apple 2.0 Blog

From Apple Insider…

For the quarter ending in September, Microsoft released revenues of $15.06 billion, net profits of $4.37 billion, and a reserve of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments that added up to $20.7 billion.

Apple reported $7.9 billion in revenues and $1.14 billion in net profit, but those numbers don’t include most of its iPhone business, which is hidden away in subscription accounting under GAAP rules. For that reason, Apple also released its real earnings: $11.68 billion in revenue and $2.44 billion in net profits. The company also reported a cash position of $24.5 billion.

For a company often looked down upon by Microsoft brass, Apple sure is showing them a thing or two. Here’s a chart to put in perspective. When looking at this chart, remember that for years Microsoft’s position on Apple has been that “everyone uses Windows” so they don’t care about Apple. That’s statement still has some truth behind it, but it’s a self defeating argument in light of figures like these. It just goes to show that Microsoft isn’t very good at making money.

The other day, Voltage got an iPod Touch (2nd generation) as a development machine for the office. We use it when building out our Mobile Safari sites for the iPhone / iPod Touch market. These new iPods / iPhone 3Gs don’t come with docks, just dock inserts. I didn’t want to pay $50 for a dock, and the DIY tutorials I could find online about building one were unsatisfactory. Truthfully I couldn’t even find one that used the packaging it came in, which is what I wanted. (Recycling and frugality and all that…)

So, here’s my iPhone 3G / iPod Touch Dock Build with lots of big pictures and detailed instructions. Enjoy… Read more

Reports of the Mac Mini’s death are greatly exaggerated…

• The Mac Mini is #1 and #6 in Apple’s “Best Selling Desktops” at Amazon.com.
• It is also #16 over all in the ultra competitve “Best Sellers in Computer & PC Hardware.”

Apple has released two new “Get a Mac” ads with Justin Long and the hilarious John Hodgeman. In “Bean Counter” they’ve set their sights on Microsoft’s now infamous $300 million dollar advertising campaign, “Life without walls.” Microsoft’s multi-million-dollar baby started out weird and impenetrable with Jerry Seinfeld & Bill Gates, but has become more comprehension-friendly, if not sincere.

Vista’s horrible reputation makes it an easy target and they knock it out of the park (I laughed out loud) in this clip, but I’m still left wanting for some positive spin on the Mac. This is just more negativity about Vista, of which there’s already plenty to go around, it’s starting to feel like a Presidential campaign.

This is from the official marketing material posted last night by RIM’s Storm launch partner, Vodafone. It’s an interesting tactic. They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but when you’re trying to take on a competitor whose main strength is slick, thoughtful products with amazing launches (Mobile Me aside), EPIC FAIL at product launch, may not be the best strategy…

[via Engagdet]