Apple becomes Microsoft and Google turns 10

Daniel Lyons in Newsweek has a nice piece on how Apple is turning into Microsoft. As any company comes to control an ecosystem it inevitably starts to squeeze the smaller players and exert its power over pricing and availability.

From inside Microsoft this is pretty amusing. The success of a partner ecosystem means that the partners are successful. I believe Microsoft understands and lives this every day with our partners around the globe. It is a shame to see that Apple might be developing really bad habits.

In other news, Google turns 10. I figure it will be another 10 years before they turn into Microsoft.

Having been through a few cycles in this industry I can very clearly see that some things are pretty inevitable. You just can’t be really big and really small at the same time. It would be amazing to see Google figure it out, but I am not holding my breath.

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Chip Kidd

Although I said I closed this blog, I decided I lied.

My wife went to Bumbershoot last weekend and really did me a big loving favor. Although she does not have the same level of worship of Chip Kidd that I do, she went to meet him and hear him speak. I got an autographed copy of The Learners out of it and she reported that he was funny and quirky and worth spending the time.

Thanks Jen!

If you have never really thought about the art of the book cover, take a few minutes the next time you are in a bookstore and just soak up the images around you. Every book is trying to entice you to pick it up and once you do the cover has to convey enough information to make you open it, perhaps covet it, certainly buy it.  The magic of that is why Chip Kidd (and other designers) really excite me. It is marketing in a micro-second with a single image.