This week, the buzz about Apple's new release of iTunes 9 began. One headline read, "more iTunes 9 details, Apple Developing Social networking application?" The timing is impeccable following the departure of Google's Eric Schmidt from the Apple board on August 3rd due to the continued "conflict of interest" between the two companies. It is becoming more and more clear that the future of Apple and Google will be building castles in the same sandbox. Google is moving more aggressively into Apple's core OS and browser business, and Apple wants to dominate application platforms for mobile. With a move into social networking, they add Facebook to their list of direct rivals.
The story made me think of Apple's biggest missed opportunity in the last few years. It involves an innovation to an existing product that could have made them a leader in the social networking space, and put them in a unique position for greater domination of Google, Facebook and others.
I'm speaking about Apple's Address Book. Consider the fact that Apple sold 2.6 million computers and 5.2 million iPhones in the second quarter of 2009, all loaded with Address book as the main application to store user's contacts and allow for remote syncing between various devices. Address Book uses the standard VCF format and has been included as a standard app since Apple launched its OS 2002 and tens of millions of users around the world are currently managing their contacts through the application.
As it stands, Facebook is mostly a dynamic address book. It does the functional things people need an address book to do: storing essential information about people and managing communication with your network including direct messages, event invitations, birthday wishes, pokes, games and more. Active user updates assure the information is correct and messages reach the user while social components increase engagement. But I don't use Facebook for any considerable messaging because their delivery system is inferior. You can't easily drag and drop contacts, or create sub-lists that are for specific events or categories or handle multiple email accounts, easily export your contacts to lists etc.
By looking at Apple Address Book's production summary we see something quite similar: "Address Book provides a flexible and convenient way to store contact information for family, friends, and colleagues online" but in a point of differentiation, it "is integrated with Mail, iChat, and other applications, allowing you to enter contact information once and have instant access to it from multiple applications."
So basically, the essential and popular functions of Facebook, which include organizing and finding your friends and new contacts, communicating with groups, tracking and organizing lists of friends for events, birthdays and beyond could be done by an app that is based on your desktop, integrated with all your other devices and connects to standard communication tools. Add an intelligent and simple online interface (think Twitter) and you have everything you need for communication, CRM and social.
It is entirely likely that Apple has been thinking of this for years. A move into social media would be a significant undertaking and was likely not a priority in relation to Apples core products. Yet their biggest product win in the past decade, the iPhone, is intrinsically tied to making communication easier. With the launch of MobileMe I couldn't help but shake my head in disbelief. It was a weak attempt at bringing online functionality and improved sync to Address Book, but instead of creating a social communication tool that could have easily been Twitter years before the microblog service, they chose to concentrate on sync. If the name of the game is owning the conversations, a next generation Social CRM system would dominate that market.
I have watched companies like Plaxo, Salesforce, 37Signals HiRise and Facebook enter the space of Social CRM and used many of them, all the while I still keep uploading my contacts to the Apple Address Book. If Apple had entered this market more aggressively they would be bringing their innovation and ingenuity to a market where the biggest player, Salesforce.com, is completely bereft of any design aesthetic or UI expertise. 37Signals saw a gap in this market and all they did was create a slightly more sophisticated web based Address Book. They are currently managing over 8 million contacts.
Apple has sold over 30 million iPhones. Exponentially how many contacts are in the Address Books of those phones? At a company who has become a market leader bringing ground-breaking products to market with utility and design in mind, this seems like a lay-up. Google Wave has certainly stolen some thunder from this potential and with their amazing team has a chance to redefine what online communication and contact management will mean, but Apple has the iPhone market, and the built in Address Book contact management that comes with its continued growth.
I want to open my Address Book either online or my desktop and be able to speak directly to people, see their ambient activity, easily send them birthday messages, create small lists that I can invite to events and comment on their status....and I want it integrated with a superior communications toolset, synced with Mail, iChat and my iPhone with a simple web based UI that allows for conversation.
Apple is no longer just a hardware company. They created a killer OS, they have pushed into the Office suite with iWork, nudged at Adobe with Aperture and Final Cut and are deeply entrenched in the browser wars. Now with iWork.com, Apple has moved into the online document editing and management space that has been a key product area for Google. They know how to build great web-enabled software. They know the connection between the desktop and the internet. They know how to build community. So why not make Address Book the best Social CRM tool ever? From a branding perspective the name Address Book is as ideal in its functionality and established connection to Apple.
So did they miss their chance to create the first active social network that syncs with all your devices and has the ability to facilitate connections between millions of like-minded individuals with a simple expansion of their embedded software products. I don't think its too late. Lets see if Apple thinks the same.
Follow Matt Spangler on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mattspangler
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I do wish Apple owned a nationwide cell network so that they could straightened out the cell and data service part of the business.
The Lisa had an office suite, and it was made by Apple, not Microsoft. Apple blew it there, too. Big time.
It had some shortcomings. Its original floppy drives weren't reliable. It was too expensive, mostly because of the high cost of RAM. The Mac had much better sound (Lisa had none). Its designers made the mistake of using a 5 MHz processor instead of a 10 MHz chip. There was no graphical co-processor to speed up window drawing, which made it seem even slower. But, keep in mind that the IBM PC was much more primitive.
If Apple had managed the two projects (and kept promoting the Apple II line well which was very profitable), better... It had a far superior system (as compared to IBM and eventually early Windows), even an office suite.
The Lisa had protected memory. No bomb screens! How many years of frustration did Mac users have to suffer with because the Mac OS didn't have it until OS X? How much productivity was lost? (Although Windows had protected memory starting with 95, I believe, it wasn't very good. NT, which was a different OS, finally became stable... but only after a long time.)
The Lisa had a sophisticated hard disk based OS and 1 MB of RAM. The original Mac OS, although obviously better than DOS, was designed to be tiny and couldn't even handle a hard disk.
The Lisa had multitasking. The Mac didn't get that for years.
The Lisa had expansion slots. One of the things that made the Apple II a success was that it was an open system. A simple closed system appeals to a subset of consumers, but not to everyone.
The Lisa had a document-based (task-based) interface that was more intuitive than the Mac's program-based design.
Your referencing the Addressbook is interesting but a great many iTunes users are on PCs and unless they are running Office the Addressbook there isn't as full featured and the Mac Addressbook.
Knowing how apple fights to keep iTunes closed I wonder if they would publish an API to allow access to the local and online message store. The api was one the the major features that helped Twitter take off beyond the SMS model. Think about how many people use the web page interface only, even my +70 year old mother uses a windows client to talk to her friends on Twitter.
And I really don't want a company that is selling me my hardware, music and movies to also be peeking at my messages. There is a serious privacy problem with one company having their fingers in so much of my stuff.
What if a greedy apple executive decided he could get a bigger bonus by allowing the movie or record companies access to the message stream? I'm sure they would love to know, filter and sell what is being said.
Oh, just to brag..
2 mac mini's
1 iMac
1 17" macbook pro
1 iPhone GS
2 16Gig Touch
1 32Gig Touch
1 Old iPod Video (gen 5.5)
1 iPod Nano
Personally, I don't see Apple getting involved in this.
Apple revolutionized music.
Apple revolutionized cellphones.
Now it's time for Apple to revolutionize automobiles & personal transportation.
Build an electric car for the rest of us, Apple. You can do it!
Oh and the batteries won't last 2 full days without a charge. He's not so happy about that either.
Others rave about them, but He's the hi-tech guru I trust for advice on EVERYTHING.
And you are right, they would make a heck of a one!
They've adopted some "big ideas" from outside Cupertino in the past - waiting until they could do them with their usual panache. Maybe this time.