MySpace announced today that it is launching a mobile version of their site so users can access the site’s features on their cell phones. They are making waves on news stations and sites.

A former leader in the Social Networking Web 2.0 space, they are already following Facebook which has had a mobile version for some time now. This is not what a leader does, they have to release things before others, not follow the likes of Facebook.

Another area that MySpace will, inevitably follow Facebook is the opening of their platform to developers, an area where Facebook circumvented all others in their rear viewfinder now, by encouraging developers to develop for their platform freely.

I am already hearing people saying, “I am on Facebook” or “You can find me on Facebook”. Although Facebook was originally designed to connect college students with each other, it is already beginning to take off in the business crowd. But this is not what this article is about. I am amazed that a small startup like Facebook is prompting behemoths like MySpace and eventually a lot of others to move in the direction it heads.

I will keep following the trend and see how Facebook moves are changing the Internet space. I will talk about the impact of opening their platform in a future article. This is becoming a concern to Microsoft of all people.

Let’s see how this last MySpace move will pan out for the company. These are just my opinions and observations, I welcome yours.

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Apple can’t make a mistake. Even when it bumbles with such a thing as offending its user base, for some reason it works to it’s advantage. Why is that? Could Sears or GM or even Sony for that matter do that? Probably not. But Apple makes the mistake and offends its users; it apologizes and gives the users a pacifier in way of coupons to use where? in the Apple store, to buy more stuff. This isn’t a new tactic, but few companies can make it come out with positive results, Why can Apple do it? 

Apple has a following of a different sort, one that wasn’t really there after Steve Jobs left and until he was rehired as the CEO. When he came back, the company revitalized the “Why you should buy an Apple” question. A smart and emotion filled guy that read the signals in the market perfectly. 

Starting with the iMac, Jobs read the user. The user, although didn’t yet know it, was asking, ”Why can’t I get a computer that looks different that these gray industrial looking boxes?” Was the iMac different? not really, it was one piece like the Cuisinart (the original Mac), It was bigger, yet had a curvy body, but it came in cool multi color bodies that the user could choose. Well, in so many words, it saved Apple. 

Then Jobs noticed another trend, music was very important to people, it was a way of life. The Napster phenomenon was here. People were trading music, and MP3 quality was just fine. There were MP3 players, but mostly techies were using it because it was not very easy to copy things back and forth (It was easy but most didn’t know it). So the iPod and iTunes were born. 

MP3 players had been out for a long time, way before the iPod, but with the iPod all you had to do was to pay twice as much as the existing players, and register to iTunes and just plug your iPod to your computer via the USB and it would automatically move the proprietary M3u formatted music into the player and you could play it. 

Now Apple is trying to do the same thing to the mobile phone market, but one thing that they haven’t yet learned is, that people don’t like limits. The iPhone could have made Apple disciples out of so many other non-Apple gadgeteers, if only Apple would have made the phone available on all GSM networks as well as a CDMA version, like Palm did with the TREO. 

But the fact that it was only available on the AT&T wireless network, which, if you ask me, has put their network speed to, “Crawl”, so people were hesitant to change carriers. Of course, necessity being the mother of invention, got people cracking into the iPhone’s protective software and cracks are being released which will let anyone use the phone on any GSM system. 

So re-evaluating the situation, Apple decides that they should have set the price much lower; they drop the price to $399 from the $599 debut. Of course the diehard Apple disciples got angry and to say the least, vocal. The Apple strategy machine came out and apologized, through Jobs of course, and announced that it’s paying back $100 to those who bought the iPhone when it first came out, and $200 to those that bought it in the last 15 days. 

Was it a refund, in cash? No! it’s a credit to spend it back in an apple property. You could spend it in Apple’s iTunes, or at the Apple store, maybe buying a new Macbook? Or an iPod, or maybe another iPhone for your spouse, or buddy. Is that smart or what? It’s like asking Bill Gates to donate to Malaria research as punishment for monopolizing the Operating System industry! 

Well, all’s well that ends well. I suppose if they managed to put out the fire with it, more power to Jobs, Steve Jobs that is! This is just my opinion, and I welcome yours.

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