Altos Ventures Musings

A Little Warning For All Those Skeptics of the iPad

Boy people sure do seem to hate the name iPad. I heard that iTampon was the #3 trending topic on Twitter yesterday! 

Here are some things that people said about another Apple product - the iPod. IPOD stands for:

• "I Pretend it's an Original Device"
• "Idiots Priced Our Devices"

To be fair, there was so much hype leading up to yesterday's announcement that perhaps there was no way even Steve Jobs could meet expectations. The iPad was supposed to change the world. Create a whole new category of gadget, which, according to Walt Mossberg and others, Steve has never done. By their definition, the pundits will say that Steve Jobs did not create anything new here either. 

Here is another good quote about the iPod from October 2001 (it sounds like many quotes I heard about the iPad yesterday):

"Apple has introduced a product that's neither revolutionary nor breakthrough"

Finally, here is a link to a video of Steve Ballmer laughing about the iPhone in 2007. 

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/18/steve-ballmer-laughs-off-the-iphone-deems-it-most-expensive-i/

For me personally, I believe the iPad will be the leading product in a killer new category. It has been nearly 10 years since the iPod launched and competitors still have not caught up. I think we could be saying the same thing about the iPad 10 years from now. The integration of hardware (including their own A4 processor - a huge move) and software should keep them in the lead as long as they continue to execute, as they have with the iPod and its successors, including the iPhone. 

I've been anticipating the iPad ever since I got my hands on the Kindle. The Amazon folks have been expecting it too (Apple has been the only competitor the Kindle team feared). 

Over the past few months, I have been anticipating the iPad even more as I have used the iPod Touch and Nexus One more and more as content consumption devices. The Touch, in particular, is just a dream to use; it's really a pleasure. Even though the screen is not nearly as good as the Nexus One (or even my Blackberry) the tactile feel and responsiveness to the touch in my hand as I scroll through information is matched by no other devices I've ever used. Believe it or not, the Touch is the only Apple device I use. I am NOT a particularly big Apple fan. I don't use Macs (although I still do have a 10 year old Mac) and I gave away my iPhone after a year of frustration. 

I am a very loyal Windows and Blackberry user. Yet I have seen glimpses of a product experience that is truly magical with the Touch. If the Touch had the screen resolution of a Nexus One, it would be my only handheld content consumption device. For certain types of content, it's better than my Blackberry, PC or the Kindle. In my office, I have a fantastic laptop which connects to a beautiful, large scree which extends the screen real-estate of my PC. I love working at my desk. But even as I sit in front of two large screens, I often find myself interacting with certain pieces of info on my handheld devices. It's just more intuitive and pleasurable. 

I believe the iPod Touch is one of the most under-rated electronic gadgets ever. However, I have no doubt that Steve Jobs understands its importance. The Apple people know the numbers. Both unit sales and usage/content consumption have been going through the roof. The iPhone gets all the attention but the Touch has quietly become a juggernaut. The iPad, or the "iTouch XL", as some call it will be even bigger (literally and figuratively). It will unleash a whole new content consumption experience. It believe it will become my favorite device. 

In the enterprise world, there are transaction processing systems which require databases that you can write to as well as read from. There are also read only or "mostly read, occasionally write" type of systems which require a totally different database architecture and computer systems. In the consumer world, PCs and phones are much more like transaction processing systems. I use those devices to get work done. I don't find much pleasure using those devices. I just want to be super efficient.

I believe in the personal computing world, iPad and similar type of devices will become the "mostly read, occasionally write" devices that the vast majority of consumers will use and come to love in the coming decades. 

Reference Links:

http://www.businessinsider.com/itampon-reaches-3-on-twitters-trending-topics-2010-1

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2001/10/47805

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/jan/28/apple-ipad-bashed-bloggers-web

http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/20100127/apple-ipad-impressions/

What Makes a Great Teacher (and Entrepreneur)?

Thanks to a tweet this morning by @angusdav I came across a great article in The Atlantic about "one of the most stunning findings to come out of education research in the past decade." Here is the punchline: "more than any other variable in education — more than schools or curriculum — teachers matter." 

So that leads to the question what makes a great teacher? (It's the title of the article).

Here are some qualities of great teachers that the article highlights: 

1. "Relentless mind-set" 
2. "History of perseverance - not just an attitude but a track record" 
3. "Grit - defined as perseverance and a passion for long term goals" 
4. "Life satisfaction" which is later defined as enthusiasm - a zeal for life which is contagious. "The best teachers are more adept at engaging their pupils." 

The article struck a chord because, as a venture capitalist, I look for such traits in entrepreneurs every day. It also resonated because my brother is a great high school teacher whose work I've admired for years. I've always thought, even when we were kids, that he would make a great entrepreneur - and the article helped connect the dots.  

Then when I thought about it, people with such characteristics make a difference in ANY endeavor. I would wager that if you did similar research in any field, you would find that a very small number of people make all the difference in the world. Across all fields, there will be common traits among the super-stars and such traits won't be far off from the ones outlined above.

Nexus One and the Real Reason to Get Excited Today

There has been a huge amount of hype surrounding the NexusOne, the Google phone, which was officially launched this morning. 

After playing around with my N1 for a couple of days during the Holiday break, I decided that it was not for me and asked my wife to give it a try. 

Before I go on, I should first explain that my wife is not like any other N1 user I know. She does NOT think that it's "cool" to use a super-secret device before launch. She could care less about technology. If it makes her life easier, then she will use it. If it does not, she will see it as a waste of time. 

Over the past 10 years, I have tried to get my wife to adopt all sort of gadgets (and software) that could/would make her life easier. She has rejected just about 99% of my recommendations. 

The only gadget that she truly LOVED was the iPhone. Yet, after 3 years with various iPhones she is ready to move on. It says something. Google has a real opportunity!

But what is really exciting is the rate of innovation in mobile. Carriers will no longer get in the way of progress; they will keep trying - but won't succeed!

My wife observed recently that there was a period when I went for years without upgrading my mobile phone. Recently, in about a year, I've gone through 5 phones (iPhone 3G, Nokia e71x, Droid,  Blackberry Bold 9700 and the N1). It's an exciting time. Competition is at an all time high and it will push every vendor, including Microsoft, to up their game. 

It's still a wide open playing field and we are early on in the game. The past decade has been a very tough one for venture capital. If I had to guess, the next 10 years will be a lot more exciting. We'll see...