We've passed the 2 Million Visits milestone at CDB Blog - Thank YOU to our readers

We've had our 2 millionth visit to this blog. Thank you to the readers! This blog was meant to be an interaction with the readers of our book Communities Dominate Brands (the signature book for this blog obviously) and my fourth book and Alan Moore's first. It has since evolved to be a mostly mobile but also media and social blog. And there is a loyal and passionate readership who comment a lot and even take to this blog as a kind of mini-forum at times, where they come to debate with friends and colleagues on major developments especially the past few years around the topic of smartphones.

Two million visits. I am humbled and honored. Clearly our readers find value in the blog, and as long as you keep coming, I'll keep writing. So thank you everybody! If you want to follow me on Twitter, I am @tomiahonen and for those who have not read it yet, please go to Lulu.com to pick up my 10th book out of the twelve - we made that book totally free - 350 pages of original content in the book called The Insider's Guide to Mobile (plus it has several excerpts from my other books as well!) all free as unrestricted pdf file you can download today. The link is Tomi Ahonen Insider's Guide to Mobile.

Comments

[pall Stefansson]

Thank you. When will the site go mobile. With m, or mobile before. P

[Jax667]

THE source for numbers and analyses around the mobile world! Thank you for your great blog, Tomi!

[منتديات العراق]

thanks

[منتديات عراقية]

its good

[منتدى العراق]

thanks aloot

[peter]

good job. please keep focusing on ex-microsoft employee Steven Elop and Chris Webber, it's helpful to examine them from a different inside angle than the so-called main media.

[gustavo]

desde Uruguay: gracias por su trabajo y sus ideas !!!

un gran blog tecnológico; y sobre todo, cuan importante son sus aportes y datos para esta industria; tan así, que pueden ser aplicables en otros rubros tecnológicos e industriales.

[Leather Pants]

Really it is very good stuff, I like your blog posting style....

thanks to share,

[1905 california civil code crooks]

Thanks for sharing this. We're always looking for great resources to share with clients and this post is definitely worth sharing! Great post! your website is fantastic! thank you very much, i like all your topics!

[cycnus]

Hi Tomi,

I was interested on what your thought on the BB fiasco a couple of days back. How much it will cost BB???

Thanks.

[apollo_dev_team]

Hi Tomi,

please move to a mobile friendly blog and forums, will you? Otherwise I'll let Elop kicks your a** ;-)

[UGG ブーツ]

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[MBT shoes]

Don't take just as bring cups and fruits, but instead focus on what you can learn from this.

[Asics Onitsuka Tiger]

Victory won’t come to me unless I go to it.

[R Johnson]

Please continue to counter the Reality Distortion Field© from Apple and its irrational fanb0is and their US mainstream media allies.

On the journalistic equivalent of a BJ for Steve Jobs: I personally would never have had the idea of iTunes, because I cannot fathom why anyone would prefer to be forced to buy something from one company, would desire less control, etc. By putting himself in the shoes of simpletons and the tech-adverse, he obviously appealed to many.

***
"Good artists copy; great artists steal... We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas." - Steve Jobs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU

He invented the PC in the same sense that Al Gore invented the internet.

***
Many of 'his' ideas about the PC were actually not his but came from Xerox's labs in Palo Alto.

Xerox management could not see the potential of that technology but Steve immediately saw it.

He second coming was by chance due to the MP3 revolution.

He was savvy by avoiding the Music industry war on MP3 players that early manufacturers waged and lost.

There were better MP3 players than iPods back then, cheaper, simpler, open (no DRM BS) and with more features made by Koreans companies, but Steve bet on that consumers were dumb enough that they won't be able to rip CDs on their own and put them in their MP3 players and he was right, so he created the iTunes-iPod ecosystem, I hated it as it was back then and hated all the people flocking to them.
He also was lucky that the record industry let him get away with iTunes.

Later, he knew how to transform the iPod=Fun=Apple aura to the Cell Phone product.

I think his understanding and clear vision of what the consumers really wanted or needed was one of his many talents. A market wizard. Only. Not some tech visionary/inventor that the fanb0is and MSM make him out to be.

***
I disagree with the posters who call him a visionary, genius, etc. He was a CEO who nearly drove his company to failure with isolationistic beliefs and tactics, then was rescued by the iPod. Neither Jobs nor Apple invented the small music player, either. Visionary? Genius? Not so much, unless someone can point to some great work of his that demands genius. Being a CEO is not that.

No, he was a man who helmed a company which successfully rescued itself from bankruptcy and is a major player in the phone/tablet/music player space today. He deserves to be mourned by his family, as does anyone who passes away. Cancer is always sad.

***
I watched closely how the MP3 revolution unfolded since the first article appeared of how to rip a CD back in the early 90's and now have a theory that Apple was in cahoots with the Music industry so they can control it with their industry associates.

The RIAA brought to their knees any American company that dared to make MP3 players, ie Diamond and their Rio Players, except Apple and made it hard for foreign companies to market and sell their products here.

When Apple came later with their first iPods I cannot believe how many reviewers back then were so enthusiastic about it.(This was before thousands of review sites appeared)

I mean, no removable batteries, no recording capabilities, no FM radio, bigger, heavier and costlier than many other brands based on flash memory. On top of that iTunes was selling heavily copy protected songs you can't use anywhere else.
These days the iPos is something else but back then it was cr@p.

I suspect Apple didn't play fair in their business. Specifically, I'm suspecting they knew and bought and planted the press to hype their products. A practice they are probably still doing.

Would be interesting to read a serious Biography of Mr Jobs and his work in Apple so we can see all the dirt that went on, if any.

***
Think you are there on something. Same could be said about the iphone. Nokia was kept out from the us market by the wireless communications service providers.

***

After this he is gonna be under the microscope and I think he will come down as a less likeable person than he is now. Apparently he had his temper.

Here is an extract of something I read this morning but heard before.

"Jobs was the "most innovative" entrepreneur of our time, said Andy Serwer, editor of Forbes magazine, in remarks to CNN. He was also one of the most combative: Serwer was not the only person who found himself being personally bawled out by Jobs when he didn't like an article."

***
I disagree with the posters who call him a visionary, genius, etc. He was a CEO who nearly drove his company to failure with isolationistic beliefs and tactics, then was rescued by the iPod. Neither Jobs nor Apple invented the small music player, either. Visionary? Genius? Not so much, unless someone can point to some great work of his that demands genius. Being a CEO is not that.

When did he nearly drive Apple to failure as CEO? Or any other company? He's been in charge four time of companies and all have been profitable successes:

Apple 1974-1985 (made Forrest Gump rich)

... ousted for failure by the then-CEO. Look it up.

NeXT 1985-1996 (sold for USD $429 million)

... yes, sold to Apple, where he still had some cronies, after the main product tanked hard in the marketplace. No revolutionary product-designing visionary genius evidence there.

Apple 1996-2011 (left it the largest company in the world)

... riding the small-music-player and MP3 wave, which he did not invent but upon which his company did a very good job of capitalizing. I'm not saying that he never had any successes-- just that he wasn't a visionary; he fell on his face hard and repeatedly before being in the right place at the right time with the iPod.

Pixar 1986-2006 (sold for USD $74 billion)

See above. Did he invent animated movies? He was (not originally when he was flopping hard, but later in life) good at marketing and predicting market trends. I guess at some point that can drive some Macolytes to proclaim him a genius; I see things differently.

I just don't see managing businesses as the work of a great genius, much less when someone did not actually invent any of the types of products their company sells, but is merely savvy at capitalizing on what others have invented. That shows a certain level of cunning, but not genius. Einstein, von Neumann, etc. were geniuses, for a point of reference.

Sorry. I realize this doesn't agree with a certain quasi-religious worldview, but c'est la vie.

***

[@rodrigottr]

I'm with you R Johnson.

I would never deny the geniality of Steve Jobs. But also would never lose the attention to his stupidities and bestiality.

One of them, and the greatest of them, to become the Spiritual Leader of the technology generation submitting crowds of zombies, all hypnotized by their iPhones, repeating
like one:

"think different"
"think different"
"think different"
"think different"
"think different"
"think different"
"think different"
"think different"
"think different"
"think different"

Hey... wait! I think I've seen this scene somewhere

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8

[@rodrigottr]

And of course I couldn't forget this:

THANKS TOMI FOR YOUR THOUGHTS AND YOUR ATTENTION! WE LEARN A LOT FROM YOU!

[cycnus]

I'm also agree with you R. Jonson, and actually to really understand Mr. Jobs, you really need to know the syrian/muslim culture (his fearless leader nature) and also budishm (the iOS simplicity based on zen budishm) and american dream (greedy capitalist corporate).

...before I continue, please forgive my english, english is not my native language :)...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is my take on Mr. Jobs.... but i will only focus on 1 things.

Being a syrian, mean he has a syrian DNA.

Syrian were in middle east, where living in a desert is not the place anyone wanna be. In a desert only the strong survive, and only the one that dare to confront their enemy could emerge as the leader.

Steve, really shown this characteristic as a FEARLESS LEADER. I read the article at forbes (http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2011/10/10/steve-jobs-was-a-jerk-good-for-him/) and this really show the DNA of syrian. (please note, i'm not saying that this is bad or good, it's a survival of the fittest).

Now, as I read somewhere that steve have a very deep interest in budishm, and even when to india, to ashram to deepen his knowledge about budishm. I would gonna say that steve might be have successful in learning the way to lead a religion. but... after he went to india he realize that having a company with a product is much cooler than a religion leader (search google for this). So, instead becoming a religion leader with follower worshiping some religion.... he manage to create an APPLE RELIGION, where's his follower will WORSHIP his product.

end of part I.

[cycnus]

part II of my view of steve jobs.

Seeing how great the archivement of steve jobs have done, i wonder what would happened if he's life were a different. What if he's not being adopted, and his real parents raise him.

I would say.... i think this is what would happened.
If he were raised by his own parents, then he would be a muslim. Since there were a rule that if a muslim have a kid, and their kid is not muslim, they would not go into heaven.... It's their way to keep their worshiper to run away to another religion.
And seeing how big steve interest in a religion (budishm), he might also have great interest in that other religion. hope not, he become a te**rist.... i'm not gonna continue here, as this would be very sensitive.

the point is, the world would be different.
in other religion, THINK DIFFERENT is against the religion.
because the other religion teach not to think, but to follow.

so, i would really say thank you to steve birth-grand-parents who against the wed of steve birth parents.
As a disclaimer, i have not... in my entire life use apple product... in computer i love pc (linux), in phone i love nokia. but imagining steve in other role made me wanna say that we should really give credit to that man for what ever steve jobs has done for this world. :)

end of part II

[Nokia Mobile]

I also agree with it and obviously readers make the article worthy.