What if…

Apple does to the book publishing business what they did to the music business with iTunes and to some extent the application business with the iPhone.  What if Apple all anyone to publish the own ebook and put it on iTunes for purchase on a Mac through iTunes or downloadable on the new tablet device.  Now anyone can bypass the rejection process and stranglehold of the big publishers and go straight to Apple and publish.

Of course Apple will get their 30%, but the writer will now get more than they got before from a publisher with the hassle of the contract or rejection.

Today anyone could write an e-book and market it on their website, but they could also have written an app for the Blackberry or Palm device too.  Few did until the iPhone came along.  The promise and simplicity of the iTunes clearinghouse could change the publishing business and completely upset the publishing apple cart.

What do you think?

But what about the disadvantages of owning a wireless provider?  First, they would have to fix the horrible customer service issues many complain about the not only AT&T, but every other wireless provider.  Consensus is, there are no good carriers, just varying degrees of poor.  Could Apple resolve such a tough issue? What about all the other phones carried by AT&T? Motorola, Palm, Samsung, etc.  Would Apple just drop them?  Of course it would be nice to have a nationwide network of “iPhone Stores” to augment it network of Apple Stores. Maybe by the time such a deal does transpire, Apple will have a suite of iPhones to complete its product line.  The iPhone 3G, the iPhone Nano, the iPhone this and iPhone that.

This idea is a stretch, but think about the possibilities if they could figure out how to resolve the customer service issues. Isn’t Skype up for sale? What would this do to the Apple TV? Would I be able to download music, the second part of the triangle, from anywhere. 

This gives MobileMe a whole new meaning.

However, no mention of whether the most basic of all software features would finally be added.  

Cut, Copy and Paste!

Why not?  Is it security issue?  Does it drain the battery life?  Is there just no place on the screen for the buttons?  No menu bar…no place for an Edit menu. Huh. Maybe…

You tell me.  Why do you think this simple feature has failed to make the cut.  There must be a very good reason.  I hope it’s not as simple as “nobody ever uses it.” Maybe it’s true.  

If you have an iPhone tell me, do you miss it?  Have you learned to live without it?  Has it absense made you be better user and therefore has reduced your typing errors?

Lets talk.

Apple has already started laying the groundwork by developing the integration components of mail, contacts, calendar, photos and iDisk.  An iWork/Web Pages document could start on the web, be continued on the iPhone and finished on Mac since it would be sitting on the users iDisk as a Pages document.  Speculation already abounds about iWork for the iPhone. Why not have complete web to desktop and back integration.  Look at www.280slides.com for evidence that it can be done. 

Reports are starting to surface about Apple’s move toward rich internet applications.  For the non-buzzword compliant folks this means web applications that look and work like desktop applications.  

With Microsoft rushing toward an online application presence with Live Mesh, I wonder if they notice Apple just strolling along patiently toward the same goal.  Apple doesn’t seem to care about the business market or the impending move of everything to the web, but at the same time they are moving into Google’s and Microsoft’s domain without being noticed.

Keep your eyes open to this one.  Next years MacWorld will be exciting.