American Optimism

It has been a depressing few days in many ways. Rich Karlgaard at Forbes writes about European optimism versus American pessimism. There is little leadership around how to beat down oil prices and Congress cannot wait to leave for its summer break end of week. Average equity in homes is at the lowest ever.

But seeing what Apple is delivering in iPhone 3G - not just in its feature set but in the applications its ecosystem has been furiously developing I felt optimistic about US business. Oh, I know most of the parts are made around the world, but the IP and the integration is US driven - a role model for many an industry.

It's its velocity of change which is impressive. When China is building 95 airports simultaneously, and we have not had a major one open in a while, you definitely get a sense of velocity. It's Apple's global thinking which is impressive - 22 initial roll out countries, 70 soon after. When Nokia sells over 100 million phones a year in China and India, you definitely get a sense of global scale.

Many commentators took an opportunity today to point out how we lag much of the world in 3G, which the new iPhone runs on. A decade ago, AT&T and the country boasted the best telecom infrastructure in the world. Today, in broadband, 3G speeds and other metrics we lag quite a bit of the world. Apple is giving AT&T a second chance to be the best in the world.

So, Steve, I can be a tough critic, but thanks for the ray of optimism today...