It may be time to retire the term “mobile media” and replace it with “personal media.” Because what is happening behind closed doors in homes across American is not so much mobile as, well, personal.

I came across a queue reduction application for the iPhone and iPod Touch four years ago that was intriguing. At the time it looked like the application wasn't quite finished or certified for use yet by Apple and Starbucks, but from what I gathered at the time it was meant to work something like this:

Creating a new category. The Holy Grail of Innovation. The Holy Grail of entrepreneurs. It’s when you can create a new category that you command the skies. Think of the iPad. Is it a new category?

One trend was highlighted again today. Of eight people sunbathing and reading around the pool, only two had paper books - and one of those was me. My excuse is that I had been running a conference in Miami and was given a book on quantum mechanics. Otherwise there would have only been one paper book in evidence.

For many years now I’ve made predictions, and for just as many years I review how I did. This is the week I do the reviewing, my predictions for 2012 should arrive around the New Year, assuming I find the right inspiration. 2011 was a strange year in many ways. We lost Steve Jobs, stupid Internet legislation reared its ugly ...

This holiday season Amazon introduced its tablet, the Kindle Fire. It was seen as a major move for Amazon, a possible threat to Netflix and an attractively priced alternative to the iPad. The media gushed. Jeff Bezos did his best Steve Jobs impression. It won’t mean a thing. A year from now, the iPad will still rule the tablet world.

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” The most frequently cited words ever spoken by Thomas Edison - for better or for worse - stand as a benchmark for the relationship between inspiration and human effort. But most people need more than 1% inspiration to do anything. In his genius, Edison only needed 1% inspiration…and our mourned wunderkind Steve Jobs as well. But the rest of us need much more than 1% to swing us into action.

New data from Google this week shows that tablet usage spikes at night. The implication is that we tend to use tablets out of the work environment when they can be enjoyed in conjunction with TV usage. In fact, as the research suggests, there is much concern about how much attention tablets are diverting away from broadcasts.

Innovation is an inherently emergent process. It’s not just about where we want to end up; it’s highly dependent on where we are. Where we begin has a profound impact on where we can go.

Apple has built a truly sustainable competitive advantage and is definitely worth the current valuation premium. If you’ve just upgraded your iPhone you will not be happy if Apple is bringing out a new one in a few short months. In addition to launching both iPhone 5 and iOS 5, there will be the new iTunes 11 bought to you ...