The "Value" is in providing virtual mindless enjoyment
invite response
2010 Dec 13, 11:13am 2,819 views 17 comments
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Â¥
2010 Dec 13, 1:48pm
You really don't seem to understand Apple's game that well.
Apple -- more accurately Steve Jobs -- has been the dude to put together nascent technologies into compelling products before others.
The Apple II was the first decent microcomputer worth the money. Visicalc was invented on it because during the late 70s it was the best computing on the market.
The Macintosh -- after about 2 years of hardware gains -- was the first personal computer that could handle what we take as today as modern computing. Word, Excel, Photoshop etc were invented first on the Mac because the Mac in the late 80s was years ahead of the competition -- and none of these programs have changed all that much from 20+ years ago.
NeXT was the first OS & machine to marry UNIX, the GUI, and OOP into a platform synthesis that was much greater than the sum of its parts -- it's no accident that the web was invented with this technology suite.
iPhone utterly raped the smartphone market -- Apple's secret here was a quite performant graphics stack and the APIs to access it, plus of course Apple AppStore for connecting users to 3rd party developers.
iPad, dunno really how well this will expand in the future, but there's no denying that Apple, yet again, created the form factor that everyone has to copy now.
So we got Visicalc, Word, Excel, Photoshop, desktop publishing via the Laserwriter, the web, and the touch portable form factor thanks to Apple/NeXT.
Seems like there's quite a lot of "economic productivities" there.
I sometimes don't get it when people want to enjoy things like smartphone, video, game, entertainment, vacation and stuffs like that while they can't make mortgage on time. Maybe, that's who we are?
No Netflix, no iphone, no facebook. Gosh, what's wrong w/ me? I should start diggin... you know... to join the rest of the crowd.
TechGromit
2010 Dec 13, 10:14pm
The Macintosh — after about 2 years of hardware gains — was the first personal computer that could handle what we take as today as modern computing. Word, Excel, Photoshop etc were invented first on the Mac because the Mac in the late 80s was years ahead of the competition — and none of these programs have changed all that much from 20+ years ago.
Actually that's really not true, Word was first released in 1983, it didn't make it the Mac until 1985. Microsoft excel started off at Multiplan in 1982, wasn't released on Mac till 1985. Only Photoshop was release exclusively for Mac in 1990.
NeXT was the first OS & machine to marry UNIX, the GUI, and OOP into a platform synthesis that was much greater than the sum of its parts — it’s no accident that the web was invented with this technology suite.
NeXT was pretty much a failure in my opinion, they really didn't make much money on it, they had to be rescued by apple, and only because they were interested in the operating system.
EightBall
2010 Dec 13, 10:57pm
NeXT was pretty much a failure in my opinion, they really didn’t make much money on it, they had to be rescued by apple, and only because they were interested in the operating system.
It was a technology success but an utter business failure. The NeXT machines were pretty awesome, though.
iPhones were evolutionary rather revolutionary playing off the iPod success. The tightly-controlled "app store" is a boon and a burden at the same time. It makes the device stable but stifles innovation. They are abysmal when it comes to support in a business environment. We fled to the Droids and back to the crackberrys for many reasons - one being that AT&T coverages sucks and the wicked-weird email problems that are damn near impossible to troubleshoot. PDA/Music Player/Mobile Computing/Wireless Communications has been on the path of convergence for a long time. Apple was just the first one there. We'll see how many more rabbits Jobs has in his hat to keep on top - hopefully he has a few more to pull out. Hopefully the only thing he has left isn't a bunch of lawyers suing for patent infringement.
FortWayne
2010 Dec 14, 3:40am
I think you are overgeneralizing the population in a very narrow stereotype.
Â¥
2010 Dec 14, 4:10am
Word was first released in 1983, it didn’t make it the Mac until 1985. Microsoft excel started off at Multiplan in 1982, wasn’t released on Mac till 1985
Apple gave Microsoft very early pre-production Macs and Apple's tech was the closest to the Xerox stuff which the head of the Word and Excel teams had pioneered GUI apps. DOS of course was a total pile of crap during the entirety of the 80s, as was the x86 architecture in general. The Mac eventually successfully lead the desktop revolution of the 1980s, and MIcrosoft in fact was a major contributor to this success. The Excel I use today is almost identical to the Excel I was using on Macs in the late 80s.
NeXT was pretty much a failure in my opinion, they really didn’t make much money on it
You only fail when you fail to get up again : )
NeXT failed as a hardware developer but its legacy lives on in Java/C# (Objective C and AppKit were going head-to-head against Sun's stuff for a while) and much of what personal computing is today, Win7 or OS X.
Â¥
2010 Dec 14, 4:17am
iPhones were evolutionary rather revolutionary playing off the iPod success.
You don't know what you're talking about. The iPhone's revolutionary bits were:
1) Capacitive multi-touch FINGER interaction -- no stylus required
2) REALLY performant graphics stack and the APIs to drive it
3) High-res (160ppi) BIG display to really marry these into a compelling technology product
4) Proper desktop-quality APIs
5) AppStore
Various offerings in 2007 had elements of this -- the HTC Apache had the 160ppi screen, but it was small and not capacitive, and the UI was designed to be operated with a stylus.
AppStores existed in the Palm space but were not fully integrated onto the device or desktop like Apple's.
The tightly-controlled “app store†is a boon and a burden at the same time. It makes the device stable but stifles innovation.
LOL. Apple was veering towards over-control earlier this year but has backed off. You can't name any known "innovative" product that Apple has lost by its policies now. That's pretty much just BS.
EightBall
2010 Dec 14, 5:16am
LOL. Apple was veering towards over-control earlier this year but has backed off. You can’t name any known “innovative†product that Apple has lost by its policies now. That’s pretty much just BS.
The majority of the PC market? That's a big one they lost with proprietary hardware-only policies. At least they didn't crater like Commodore.
1) Capacitive multi-touch FINGER interaction — no stylus required
2) REALLY performant graphics stack and the APIs to drive it
3) High-res (160ppi) BIG display to really marry these into a compelling technology product
4) Proper desktop-quality APIs
5) AppStore
1) A move away from the shortcomings of a stylus - evolutionary move not revolutionary. Touch screens have existed for a long time - they just made it work on a small form factor. I'll agree with you that the multi-touch was ingenious.
2) Wasn't really possible until the hardware (and battery life) was doable. Also, Apple made a huge leap (and won) on the cost side. A lot of this was probably covered up by the AT&T network kickback.
3) Ditto
4) Quality APIs are revolutionary? Ever code on a Palm? I never had a problem with writing to those APIs. The older CE stuff was just awful.
5) Tightly-integrated app store wasn't really possible without ubiquitous access - like you said, these existed in the Palm space. They existed (and still exist) in the desktop PC space, albeit not as a function of the OS.
Jobs has done a great "job" - they certainly have wonderful marketing glitz. If it wasn't so damn expensive I'd probably have Macs at home. They are about as useful in most businesses as a typewriter as nothing besides basic office productivity apps run on them - I can't think of any LOB apps that utilize the Mac. I had some clients that were Mac crazy - but they had to have a Windows Terminal Server to run their business.
Â¥
2010 Dec 14, 6:15am
That’s a big one they lost with proprietary hardware-only policies. At least they didn’t crater like Commodore.
"Marketshare" is not an innovative thrid-party product, but nice red herring there.
A lot of this was probably covered up by the AT&T network kickback.
They sell iPod Touches pretty cheap. Not the subsidy. What Apple did was figure out they needed something as good as PowerVR, and they went out and implemented this.
Stunning future-looking capability, really. I was heavily involved in PowerVR stuff in the 90s and it's a really good graphics architecture. For Apple to push this into a PHONE was awesome.
Ever code on a Palm? I never had a problem with writing to those APIs.
Yes, I got the original Palm Pilot SDK and device. The Palm APIs were warmed over Mac Toolbox stuff from the 80s. iPhone OS was a streamlined and EXPANDED OS X AppKit framework that was years ahead of everybody in late 2007.
like you said, these existed in the Palm space
Stores like Handango existed but were not first-party developed, integrated, and supported. The difference is important, as can be shown by the utter dominance of the AppStore over anything else, and the numerous of copycats now trying to recreate Apple's approach.
"they just made it work"
and that's the revolution my friend. Had you come from the future and showed me the iPhone in say 2005 and asked me what year was this made I couldn't have told you . . . 2015 maybe.
"Evolutionary" my ass.
EightBall
2010 Dec 15, 1:07am
“Marketshare†is not an innovative thrid-party product, but nice red herring there.
Sure would be nice if it were commercially/business viable. It beats the crap out of windows on everything except useful software ;)
Â¥
2010 Dec 15, 8:39am
Sure would be nice if it were commercially/business viable. It beats the crap out of windows on everything except useful software
? you are aware that Macs run Windows natively now, right?
anyway, Microsoft's fear of Netscape pushing down the Win32 platform into irrelevance has largely come true.
Macs are a full citizen again in the computing world, with around half the college market share allegedly.
marcus
2010 Dec 15, 12:40pm
The fact that technology got to where it made big steps up in entertainment and communication toys a big part of business for a while, doesn't really say that much to me, other than that it's a good time to be alive. We all need a certain amount of entertainment of some kind. These things must go in cycles.
Who knows, maybe the recession is even a part of it. People will stay home on facebook (or Patrick) or watching movies or sports on their awesome flat screen TVs, or playing video games or with other electronic toys, instead of being out spending a lot of money.
Yes, we could be working instead, but one can't work all the time.
EightBall
2010 Dec 15, 10:54pm
Macs are a full citizen again in the computing world, with around half the college market share allegedly.
I thought they ruled the college market already - they certainly rule hollywood movies. Google and cloud computing are making this a reality more than anything Apple has done. I remember NeXT machines all over campus years ago...
? you are aware that Macs run Windows natively now, right?
Exactly the problem - Macs shouldn't have to run Windows. Windows sucks. There have been emulators (and now virtualization because they switched ti the same processors) for a long time. That is nothing new. For a while I thought Java would make the OS irrelevant. Instead, it has become a major pain in the ass (for me anyway)
Not sure what that graph represents? I know several people that came back to me with "So which Windows laptop should I buy?" after they got the Mac sticker shock. Sure, they INTENDED to buy a Mac...Wonder where the ChromeOS machines will end up on that graph when they become a reality.
Vicente
2010 Dec 16, 10:01am
Have been Windows for the last decade or more, switched Mrs. Vicente to a Macbook recently. She loves it, much easier to use. I love it because of the smaller support tail. After the first month with her Macbook to hand-hold through the switch, I just realized it's been about 3 months now since I had her come up to me cursing computers and needing some crazy thing fixed. I aim to get more life out of machines than most people her previous laptop was an IBM Thinkpad. The price difference of a solid machine versus generic junk is reflected in it's sturdiness and lifespan, hers was over 5 years when retired. Her 13" Macbook Pro is a smart little machine and more than sufficient for her engineering work. People who chase price alone remind me of my Dad. He'd drive across town to save a nickel on something and not account for his gas and time.
This month we see Netflix makes the S&P500, Eastman Kodak and The New York Times are out. It shows the signs of time. The minimum capitalization for S&P500 is $5 billion dollars, apparently EK and NYT are out of favor.
If you look at what happens in the market, the lifestyle consumption companies and virtual gadgets companies are in favor. Real business and peronal productivity companies are not appreciated by the mass consumers. Apples make toy and gadgets for young and mass consumers, it sell styles and mindless enjoyment but does little for economic productivities. As for Netflix, mass consumers enjoy watching movies instead of spending real time working for economic productivities.