John C. Dvorak, for ITProPortal.com:

Just imagine the scene if Apple had projected “$179” onto the screen during its announcement (and priced the UK model at £149). Apple stock would have rocketed

Yup. Right until the next financial quarterly results came in, showcasing how Apple’s profits had plummeted, at which point the stock would have followed suit.

Perhaps Apple has misjudged the market. Maybe the iPad mini won’t sell that well. If that’s the case, there’s nothing to stop Apple adjusting its price-point later. But people have in the past argued against Apple’s pricing decisions regarding mobile products, and yet all the devices have flown off the shelves. It’d be a brave or stupid tech hack that would bet utterly against that happening this time round.

PandoDaily’s Sarah Lacy has an interesting piece up about long-form online content. The short of it is that readers seemingly flock to longer pieces online, and they have a greater shelf-life, too. The problem: industry conditions (i.e. churn-oriented writing) have ‘trained’ newcomers to prioritise speed over quality. Editors are therefore finding it increasingly tough to find new talent, and tend to use freelancers they already know well; additionally, newcomers aren’t being trained in how to write and research.

This more or less matches what I’ve heard from editors, but Lacy leaves out some important points. First, money is almost glossed over in her article, and that’s the main thing that’s impacted on quality writing. I’ve been writing professionally since the late 1990s, and in all that time magazine rates have only risen in a few cases; more often, rates have dropped or ‘transferred’ over to internet rates that are lower than print ones for essentially the same content. This situation forces even seasoned writers to speed up, or to work extra hours and reduce their quality of life.

Secondly, there’s the issue of a support network. Although I pride myself on rigorously editing and proofing copy before I file it (something that, I’m told, is surprisingly not ubiquitous among freelancers), I’m overjoyed when my work is filtered through the lens of a great sub-editor. There’s always a slight jolt on reading something and thinking “that’s not what I wrote”, and then a warm glow when I realise what the sub’s created is better. Usually, the changes are subtle, but when subbing is done well I hugely appreciate it. But subbing costs money, and support networks have in recent years been obliterated, especially online. In part, speed is to blame: getting things online quickly has been more important than accuracy or finely honed writing. But also there’s the problem that good subs cost money and are wrongly often considered unimportant in the scheme of things.

Thirdly, some writers don’t realise that long-form writing isn’t about churning out thousands of words. Every sentence—if possible, every word—should matter. If something’s superfluous, get rid of it. That doesn’t mean removing character from writing (humorous asides, for example, can be wonderful when used sparingly and with care), but nonetheless recognising when it wouldn’t be detrimental if a paragraph or two happened to be removed. So often, I read long-form articles online that could have easily been written in a third of the space. There’s a lack of discipline evident in the industry, and although that in part comes from the things Lacy mentions—an emphasis on speed; a lack of mentoring—it’s also down to a lack of money and a reduction in the support network for writers. Until all of these things change, I don’t see a rosy future for widespread long-form writing online, only for those publications and writers already making a good job of it.

UPDATE: Looks like I was wrong on this. New new iPad is out today.

Over on App.net, Marco Arment has been wondering about today’s iPad announcement from Apple. One thing he asked:

If the iPad 3 gets updated tomorrow, presumably Apple’s done with the spring iPad updates and will release in the fall from now on, fixing the just-got-one-for-the-holidays frustration with the current iPad release cycle.

Logically, that thinking makes sense, but you also have to bear in mind what currently happens with iPad cycles. First, Apple has a two-spike strategy. In spring, the iPad is updated, causing a major sales spike. Apple then gets ‘holiday’ spikes for free in the winter, regardless. By moving new iPads to the autumn, Apple loses its spring spike.

Secondly, Apple always has massive problems in fulfilling demand. New iPads are often thin on the ground for months after release, and the international rollout is rarely immediate. It’s one thing being frustrated in not getting your new iPad in April or May, but November and December? Apple might lose a little goodwill in people buying iPads for the holidays and then announcing a new one in late-spring, but it’ll lose a hell of a lot more goodwill if it releases new iPads in November and can’t fulfil demand for the holidays.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a minor new iPad bump today, but I’d be surprised if that signalled a change in Apple’s overall scheduling strategy.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Minter at the weekend. Jeff’s been responsible for some of my all-time favourite games, and his titles for iOS are by and large really great. (I’m particularly fond of Gridrunner, Minotron and Goat Up.) The article won’t be out for a while yet, but I thought I’d share a nugget of insight from Jeff, which struck a chord and is great advice for anyone in a creative industry:

Make the things you want to exist. That’s always been my prime motivation. Yes, I’ve wanted to make a living, but really I’ve wanted to make games I want to play. I think as long as you’re doing that, you’ll be happy and you’ll make good stuff.

IT World Canada might be rethinking its whole guest blog thing after running 10 solid reasons RIM will make a comeback, which would have been more accurately entitled ‘Dear Santa: please can you this Christmas send me a box of MAGIC UNICORNS that I can forward to RIM, to help make the company relevant once again’.

The list itself is a great mix of delusion and outright bonkers, and before that author Tim Collins helpfully notes:

It’s not just wishful thinking.

Precisely in the same way this is not a blog post dripped in sarcasm.

1) Developers believe in BB10. RIM has a knack for motivating some of the most brilliant minds on the planet. I personally know several developers who are still working for RIM and who are not the least bit interested in jumping ship.

We all know several developers will be enough. The App Store and Google Play are clearly going to be doomed as the several developers who still give a crap about RIM fire amazing apps out of their brains.

2) Teenagers and messaging. It’s still the best messaging device bar none (this is why teenagers still carry Blackberrys–a pretty important demographic).

Fortunately, the iPhone isn’t increasingly becoming the choice for the teen demographic.

3) RIM has always had the best keyboard. My bet is that the genius engineers at RIM are going to have the best touchscreen keyboard on the market.

Just because. That’s always the best argument. Not: I’ve tried this and it was great. That’s far too sensible. I also love the assertion that because RIM once had the best hardware keyboard on mobile, that will translate right across to the best touchscreen, just because (again). Also, don’t many of those RIM holdouts moan that other systems suck precisely because they lack a hardware keyboard?

4) They smell the coffee. Thorsten Heins has woken up RIM from their dreams of past glory. Now they are facing reality and Heins promises big changes.

Thorsten Heins? Gil Amelio!

 5) Licensing. The BB10 operating system is being licensed for other hardware like Microsoft Windows Phone 8.

That plan’s currently working out so great for Windows Phone.

6) Cash flow + growing existing user base. They still have $2 billion in cash and a user base of 80 million that grew by 2 million last quarter.

Luckily, RIM isn’t haemorrhaging money hand over fist, for example by losing $235m in the past quarter.

7) They dominate the high-security niche market. RIM is famous for the security of its smartphones. That’s one reason they dominated the corporate market before BYOD hit the fan. It’s still the go-to device for most governments around the world.

Still the go-to device for governments! *ignores bit about corporates binning RIM as fast as possible*

8) Leaked specs.

Sorry? I thought you said ‘leaked specs’ for a moment there.

8) Leaked specs.

Oh. Sigh.

According to leaked BB10 specs reported by the Droid Guy, “RIM would be releasing smartphones that would pose a threat to Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X and even iPhone 5. If the recent leaks were legit, RIM might be back with a vengeance. BlackBerry 10 A-Series may also be the Canadian company’s key to reclaiming its position in the market where it has dominated before.”

Because as we all know, a specs list is the only thing that matters in mobile. “We’ve got a 987-core phone running at a billion magigahertz!” “Great, but what apps are available for it?” “A billion magigahertz!”

9) Incremental Improvements are boring. The last iPhone had only incremental improvements. The top two smartphones look more and more alike with every new release. If BB10 can offer us something new that we always wanted but never thought was possible, we’ll buy it.

That plan’s currently working out so great for Windows Phone. Also, people like familiarity. Start out with something great and make it better. Pundits calling the iPhone boring simply don’t understand how most consumers think. Mind you, that’s why they’re writing crap for tech blogs and being wrong all the time when it comes to sales forecasts and the like.

10) The competition is distracted. Samsung and Apple are embroiled in legal battles that won’t end any time soon. Now Apple is going to battle with Google. This is going to be very distracting for them while their competitors RIM, Microsoft and Noikia come back to fight another day.

This point’s fair enough, because Apple and Google each only have one employee, and if that person is distracted in court, there’s no way they’ll be able to work on the next iPhone or Android device.

So, yeah: I’M CONVINCED!