Good noises for Apple stuff

Ron Enderle has a column about the new Apple products, and he likes them:

When the iPhone 3G was announced, I said folks should hold off buying it until September. I received a lot of mail asking me when I thought they should buy the device given the very nasty set of problems that has plagued it.
I think I can safely say, assuming the massive patch Apple just released holds, and the likely quiet fix to the internal part that was causing some of the problems, that by the end of this month the iPhone 3G is finally done and truly ready for those that don't like the pain of being early adopters.
When the last iPod nano was launched, it was clear to me Apple had screwed up. Now, when most companies do things like this (and this has happened with Apple in the past), they tend to pretend there isn't a problem and suggest critics just don't understand.
The original nano caught your breath, and the form factor was much more visually appealing, while that last nano looked pudgy. It actually didn't look that bad in person, but it clearly didn't photograph well.
Well, rather than trying to argue that they hadn't screwed up, the folks at Apple did the smart thing and returned to the more popular design. Actually, that isn't entirely accurate; they improved on it.
Last week, I pointed out how Apple might be effectively blocking competitors using techniques that are more common in political campaigns. One of the examples was the Microsoft Seinfeld spot, which was inaccurately leaked in an apparent attempt to destroy its effectiveness.
A campaign like this has phases, much like chapters in a book, with this first bit being in line with "it was a dark and stormy night." The rest of the campaign, which should be broad media and accelerate over the next several months, will tell the actual story Microsoft wants told and likely only continue some of the tone of the first piece (Seinfeld should drop out early, as his role was really only to start this off).
We ended last week with the second part of the first phase still setting up the tone for the actual campaign and providing a framework for what will follow. This is more about getting people comfortable with Bill Gates, whom few have actually seen or met and who likely will be with us for much of the campaign. The fascinating thing for me is that this is actually the way Bill kind of is these days, in sharp contrast to how Steve Jobs appears in public and how he is known to be in private. Think of this phase as the "let's introduce folks to Bill" phase. The teaser phase should end in a week or so when the real campaign actually starts.
Microsoft, which has traditionally underinvested in marketing compared to Apple, should be praised for taking a risk, and we should pause in our criticism of the company long enough so we can actually see what we are being critical of. Then, if we don't like it, we are at least basing our opinion on real facts, not what someone else is manipulating us into thinking. This was a hard choice for Microsoft; treating any vendor fairly is a hard choice for us. There are real people working on this; sometimes I think we forget that.

Rico says he can't wait to see what else Microsoft does with Seinfeld; he hasn't laughed at a commercial (and the company behind it) so much in a long time...