Amen to this article on the market

segmentation of smartphone users into discreet pools of consumer and business demographics. I posted way back that BlackBerry wouldn't make a consumer friendly phone, and although they did in the Pearl, which has a camera and MP3 player, there's no way it could touch the iPhone on the digital media capabilities. Don't get me wrong, I love my Pearl, but I do so because it's my "killer work email smartphone with a camera and MP3 player on-the-side" workhorse. And, as suspected, iBankers haven't been given the liberty to choose the Pearl's slim form factor option as a corporate-sponsored phone because it lacks the QWERTY keyboard. If you haven't noticed, QWERTY spells PRODUCTIVITY ON MY DIME. Sorry Goldman interns. Now, key to Apple's success in this venture is to make a killer email integration. I can't emphasize how important this step is. Without it, the iPhone is not a smart phone. I would imagine that Apple is going to be smart enough to recognize the demographic split as mentioned, and create seamless integrations with GMail and Yahoo, that leverage a UI that is iPhone specific (read: NOT GMail Mobile). At the same time, it will draw competition from RIM to enhance their media solutions, but this is inevitably in the pipe. Obviously a fool's bet to say that RIM will outplay iTunes, et al. but they need to improve just to stay competitive. However, that doesn't mean that Apple couldn't move into the business user space, but they now would have to replicate BlackBerry server functionality, and that's not in Apple's ballpark to focus on B2B services. Personally, I wish that RIM would get bankrupted by patent lawsuits and then once that's cleared, Apple could make a hostile takeover while RIM is cashless... cruel, but man, how perfect a device would be born out of that fire. No for the Boodos. WHAT IS UP WITH APPLETV? This product has got to be the weakest modern Apple product launch to date. Just when Apple seemed to be poised to  be the only  big player capable of preventing Microsoft from taking over our living rooms, internet television and subsequently... the world; Apple dropped the ball! Apple failed on this version of AppleTV because:

1. It doesn't stream videos from your desktop...
2. It doesn't stream videos from your desktop?
3. It doesn't stream videos from your desktop!?!?!
4. Doesn't let you purchase from iTunes
5. ....

Long term, Apple will correct these, but it's funny how analysts have just figured out how pervasive the internet TV

revolution could be on marketing, advertising and literally up-end mass media as we know it... because while Apple is just scratching this surface with AppleTV vision, guess what, Microsoft already has the hardware, distribution mechanism and loyal base of installed users. It's called the Xbox 360, and it does everything that AppleTV doesn't do yet .... today. I am utterly amazed by how ingenious the Xbox team are in creating this internet TV settop box, hidden and originally sold in a video game console's skin, that  has silently and subtlety made bill Gates the next Ted Turner or Rupert Murdoch. I should also point out the extreme luck that enabled this clean sweep. Sony failed to maintain their title of console king by absolutely blowing the PS3 campaign, from just about every perspective from design to operations. This opened the door for Microsoft to saturate the market, err, steal  the market from Sony. And now, Apple just helped by coming up short on the typically stellar launch of the AppleTV. The paradigm shift that traditional print media faced when the internet grew as a medium is a drop in the bucket, ad -dollar-wise, compared to the disruption the internet will bring by eclipsing TV. That's like hockey taking over major league baseball as the top sport in America. Again like the RIM quandries for the iPhone, you can parallel the differentiators for Microsoft XBox 360 and AppleTV. Apple has the content and licensing  model in iTunes, where Zune and whatever unheard of DRM platform Micrsoft has is infantile (can you smell a partnership?). On the other hand of the corollary, Xbox has the added benefit of appealing as a console to young gamers as well as a perceived cost / value benefit in that it serves as the dual use internet enable home theatre device. AppleTV, not so much on serving multiple age groups. Expect them to use the  iPod / iTunes community as leverage into the youth demographic. I end with a quote that I actually agree from Bill Gates (or I should say whatever visionary in his digital staff prepped him for) : "I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had."