Rev2.org

Facebook is the largest social media site of its kind and eBay is the biggest online auction site you will find around at the moment.  Therefore, it is not surprising to learn that an agreement between the two has been garnering a lot of interest online in recent days.

According to the latest reports, the best parts of each site are going to come together to provide a more dynamic and user-friendly experience for people who are looking to buy online.  New plug-ins are due to be released for use with Facebook that in turn will make shopping on eBay much easier and more social in some respects.  Instead of simply buying something, you will be able to log into Facebook and share your opinions of the item.  Similarly, sellers on eBay will be able to take advantage of the new social media aspect.  This will enable them to promote whatever they sell to a much bigger audience than they would otherwise be able to reach.

As you can see this looks to be a big story that has great potential for the social commerce world.  It remains to be seen whether the results will be as good as the promise.  Some people question whether social shopping is safe enough to be a success, as it requires the sharing of information – something that not everyone is keen to do.  Nevertheless, this collaboration certainly has promise for the future.

I’m an avid Apple products user and have been for years.  Steve Jobs is one of my personal heroes.  I’m not an engineer or even really all that technically minded when it comes to invention or electronics.  Break open my iPad and I can’t tell you what circuit does what or which wire powers which.

On the other hand, it turns out Jobs wasn’t like that either.  He was a visionary, a maverick, and someone who understood the importance of design and the user experience.  Jobs changed the world by insisting that electronic gadgets not only function well, but look good and be easy to use too.

While many are mourning his departure and talking about his vision and what he brought to the world, I remember Jobs as the guy who stood on stage with big, bold graphics behind him, and said “This is what we’re doing.  You don’t have to admit that you like it, but I know that, deep down, you do.”

It wasn’t arrogance that powered this attitude he projected.  It was truth.  He knew how great the stuff he was overseeing and designing was.  He knew the rest of the world would see that too.  His genius wasn’t in the boardroom or the laboratory.  It was in the understanding that if he, Steve Jobs, personally thought a product was great.. so would enough other people that it would become a best seller.

This wasn’t anything special that Jobs possessed.  His genius was in understanding that core idea and running with it.  Something most other CEOs would never dream of.  By embracing the idea that gadgets and computers were to be made for PEOPLE to use, not robots or automatons who spend the day calculating spreadsheets and compiling data, Jobs created markets for his products instead of trying to compete.

Steve Jobs thought about people when he designed products and because of that, he changed the world in a big way.  That’s why he’s my hero.

There’s been a lot of buzz since Amazon introduced the Kindle Fire last week.  It’s been touted as the next “iPad killer” and crows of the imminent doom of Apple were heard.  Except.. the Fire won’t do either of those things.  In fact, it probably won’t even take much of the iPad’s market share.

Why?

Because it’s not a tablet competing in the same market as the iPad.  Simple as that.  The Fire is not a universal tablet that can be customized into any of a number of roles.  That’s what the iPad is.  Instead, the Kindle Fire is a tablet that specializes in the job of delivering content – namely books, magazines, and the like.

That’s a different market.  The only rivalry between Amazon and Apple will be where the two markets converge, but that’s a small segment for both of them.

Here’s what I mean:

The Kindle Fire is a tablet second, an e-reader first.  It’s primary purpose (and the reason, incidentally, that Amazon is selling it at a loss) is to deliver content.  Content which, it so happens, Amazon is the world’s leader in delivering.  It’s not there to act as a platform for apps, Internet connectivity, or as a portable Netbook replacement.  It’s there to make it easy for the user to access books, magazines, movies, and so on from the Amazon Web platform.

That seems very straightforward.  Apple makes its money by selling gadgets.  Amazon makes its money by selling information (content).  The two companies are very different.  They are not generally in competition.  In fact, there’s a Kindle app for the iPhone.

All this talk about the Kindle Fire being an iPad killer is nonsense.