Posted on 10/04/2015 1:49:51 PM PDT by Swordmaker
In 2012, when Microsoft first introduced the Surface Pro — a tablet that was also a laptop — it became an industry punch line.
“You can merge a toaster and a refrigerator, but that’s probably not going to be pleasing to anyone," quipped Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Nobody's laughing now. And Microsoft is looking more and more like a trendsetter.
Three years after Cook's jab, the Surface Pro 3 is selling strong — strong enough that Microsoft is expected to launch a much-anticipated Surface Pro 4 at a special event on Tuesday.
In the meantime, Apple and Google have started to pay attention. This past September saw both companies introduce tablet-laptop hybrids: the Apple iPad Pro and the Google Pixel C.
"Apple just admitted Microsoft is right," read a headline here on Business Insider. Another one described the Pixel C as a "Surface killer."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I don't know why Apple didn't see this as a market opportunity.
I didn’t know Apple had such an effective PR department. It makes me want to go out and buy more, more more!!!
I realize that the founders and top executives at Apple tend to lean to the left politically. Same can be said of most of our companies, including Microsoft, Starbucks and Google. I take pleasure in seeing them contort themselves to justify the billions of revenue dollars they are generating with their products and services. Bottom line is that they can talk a good game about how liberal and enlightened they are, so they get invited to the White House and go on cover of Rolling Stone, etc., but behind the scenes, it's cold, brutal capitalism that generates the dollars.
I think conservatives are making a mistake by writing off these companies. Instead, we should be looking to bring them into the conservative fold. We should not cede this ground to the liberals.
“I don’t see the same kind of vitriol on the Microsoft threads.”
Then you arent paying any attention.
“For some reason, many people go out of their way to bash Apple here because of some perceived notion that Apple is a “liberal” company. When in fact, Apple represents the kind of pure, unadulterated capitalism that conservatives should be proud to have in the USA. “
Basically pledging to use everything the company has to target Indiana for the religious freedom law? Cant even imagine where we got that idea that they are a leftist company....not at all. And you can’t hide behind the skirt of “capitalism” as if we on the right are so simple that that’s some sort of catnip to make everything else irrelevant.
“I realize that the founders and top executives at Apple tend to lean to the left politically. Same can be said of most of our companies, including Microsoft, Starbucks and Google.”
And when those companies target conservatives or engage in blatantly leftist activities, how many comments do you recall on FR defending their actions? Hell I screamed at MS for giving that stupid kid in Texas a bunch of free stuff after he brought that dumb clock to school. The type of “circle-the-wagons and make excuses” chorus for those companies simply does not exist on FR like it does for Apple.
“I think conservatives are making a mistake by writing off these companies. Instead, we should be looking to bring them into the conservative fold. We should not cede this ground to the liberals.”
Sadly that shipped sailed back in the 90s as the internet revolution was fueled by leftist in Seattle, San Fran and Silicon Alley in NYC.
For certain they are all about making money, but almost like China is.
You might as well call them “Watermelon corporations”. Green on the outside, but red on the inside. :^/
Okay, that is a little techno-dense for me!
I have a Mac Pro purchased just before they went small and black. I’ve been updating to the latest OS all along. I have a third party SSD 480GB drive. Are you saying that if I update to Yosemite I might lose that drive? How do I know if my drive uses TRIM?
Yes, the people running these corporations are often politically naive and they take a lot of stupid political positions. Giving that fake bomb-making kid a bunch of free stuff was inexcusably stupid and it wasn't just Microsoft.
I believe they can be won over. I don't think boycotting or badmouthing their products is the way to do it.
A few years back, I started going to the Whole Foods supermarket. For years, I shunned it because it was that place where barefoot hippies went to get their granola. But on a rainy Saturday, I ventured in there and realized they have some very high quality foods there. I quickly became a fan. I started thinking that why should I deny myself good food just to make some obscure political point that would never go noticed by anybody? Why cede the good food to the liberals and resign myself to the Stop & Shop?
I got to thinking more and started thinking that if more conservatives shopped at the Whole Foods, we would force the corporation to take a more conservative positions politically because otherwise they would be alienating their customer base. Then, I found out that the CEO of Whole Foods came out against ObamaCare. Now I'm sure it wasn't just because I decided to shop there! I do know however that if every conservative decided to shop at Whole Foods for a day, to support the CEO's decision, that it would cause the entire Whole Foods executive team to rethink how they approach political issues.
As conservatives we have two choices in front of us. We can circle the wagons, attack everybody outside our circle and remain the angry minority. Or we can go out there, assert ourselves, and start winning over converts.
Ummmm...No. Microsoft has nothing to do with these articles. Surface 2 was launched without such articles appearing. The only reason the tech press is saying Apple is copying Microsoft is because Apple IS copying Microsoft.
It just so happens that you can't handle the truth. It's much easier for the typical Appplebot fanatic to believe crazy conspiracy theories with ZERO evidence to back it up than to accept that Apple regularly steals ideas from others and has been doing so for decades.
Listen, if you want to believe in little green men from Mars there is very little me or anyone can do about it. So go right ahead with your crazy conspiracy theories.
Please give any evidence you have that Apple is copying Microsoft. . . any at all. Show that Apple has released a full OS tablet/laptop convertible. You cannot. Show that Apple is in any way duplicated the functionality of the Microsoft Surface. You cannot. Show even that the Apple Pencil works at all like the stylus that comes with the Microsoft Surface. You again cannot. . . because the Apple Pencil functionality is far more than the MS stylus' functionality. . . and there were iPad styluses, detachable keyboards, and other functions available in the Apple iPad ecosystem before Microsoft even thought of making a tablet/laptop hybrid.
The ONLY ONE HERE WHO CANNOT HANDLE THE TRUTH is you. I can prove every one of my contentions with links to the products and the dates PREDATING the introduction of any surface hardware from Microsoft. You cannot. In fact, I already have for the keyboards.
Microsoft has a history of astroturf marketing and in fact were the originators of the FUD campaign style of marketing. This is history. There is no myth about it. YOU are the one who claims that "Apple regularly steals ideas from others and has been doing so for decades" but offers no evidence except your unsupported innuendo and YOU claim I believe in conspiracy theories. You are probably one who still believes Apple stole the GUI from Xerox. . .
Ask the manufacturer. . . but Apple added support for third-party SSDs in June or July by adding more functionality in their own drivers that did not have to compromise the security of the whole computer. It took Apple some time to figure out how to do it, but they did. Some Manufacturers finally released drivers as well. . . and those were also included in later updates to OS X.10 Yosemite. Just make sure that when you do upgrade that you upgrade to OS X.10.5 to make sure you have the latest version.
Mac OS X 10.10.4 Supports TRIM for Third-Party SSD Hard Drives
Tuesday June 30, 2015 9:07 pm PDT—MacRumors.com—by Husain SumraEarlier today Apple released OS X 10.10.4, an under-the-hood update to OS X that introduced several bug fixes and improvements. One improvement, according to Ars Technica, is support for TRIM for third-party SSD hard drives. We previously covered TRIM likely coming natively to the next version of OS X El Capitan but it appears support has already arrived.
No, VandeKoik, it is you that isn't paying attention. I haven't seen it either and neither has the keeper of the Windows ping list.
I have challenged others to point out these vitriolic comments on the Windows threads and I just get crickets . . . because they cannot. I am the only one who has done any thing like a systematic study of such comments on FreeRepublic tech threads and I could not find anywhere near the same level of vitriol on Windows threads as existed on Apple threads.
The insults posts on Apple threads outnumbered even mild negative posts on Windows threads by 19 to 1 and the level of personal attack was far higher. When I rated for vitriol on a scale of mild, medium and vitriolic, the vast majority of the "attacks", if they could be called that on Windows threads were of the mild category, while on the Apple threads, vitriolic personal attacks were very common.
On the Windows threads, attacks were rarely targeting the USERS, but almost always targeting the company, the platform, or machines, while on the Apple threads, attacks were almost always targeted to the USERS, the machines, and the company. . . but always the users with vitriol to the users.
I challenge YOU to find personal vitriolic attacks on USERS of Windows machines in the Microsoft threads. Try it. Look for a PERSONAL attack on a user, calling the user a scurrilous name, or attacking their intelligence, their sexual orientation, their computer literacy, or any of a hundred other attacks similar to what you see daily in Apple threads from Windows or Android users toward Apple product users. FIND them and SHOW them to us.
Chuckle! How you wiggle and twist and turn to get yourself out of the hole you dug yourself into. You in effect claimed that all.these articles in the tech and business press about Apple copying Microsoft are written by writers in the pay of Microsoft. In effect you are saying that highly reputable publications with histories of being tough on Microsoft, who are in fierce competition with each other, somehow got together, took money from Microsoft, then decided to write similar articles about Apple ripping off Microsoft Surface, just in time for the Surface 4 launch, WITHOUT ONE IOTA OF PROOF. These are very serious allegations. So why don't you produce your proof in open forum for everyone to see? I want dates and times and who did the paying of the bribes from Microsoft how much money was paid. who received monies, the works.
Do you have any clue about how such things work? I don't think you do. . . and some are getting spiffs from Microsoft. Bribes? Don't make me laugh. These "journalists" aren't public officials. . . or even very honest.
Look to Samsung's marketing budget in 2013 as an example. . . over $14 Billion, yet only $4.3 Billion was actually spent for actual "advertising". . . the rest was spent on other forms of marketing, including paid posting in social media, getting bloggers, editorials, and reviewers to write about their products, etc.
While Microsoft did not invent that form of marketing they did make the most effective use of it and they have not forsaken it. Some of the biggest names in tech have admitted receiving such pay from Microsoft. Look at Paul Thurrott and his SuperSite for Windows. . . he admitted he was on Microsoft's payroll while writing for newspapers, magazines, and appearing on forums as a supposed impartial JOURNALIST. This is not up for doubt. Thurrott admitted it. . . and he's not alone. Then there's Daniel Lyons, the "journalist" behind "The fake Steve Jobs", knocking Apple and Apple products under an alias, who also toed the Microsoft company line during the SCO trials bad mouthing Linux, who received case lots of Microsoft products for "review" until his sugar daddy cut off the funding . . . and his history of being a paid shill for Wired while working for Forbes. Tsk Tsk Tsk. . . Suddenly he retired the "Fake Steve Jobs" and stopped his negativity toward Linux and was quoted as saying ". . . it was fun, but I sure miss the money!" These things are history of this industry and they STILL happen.
There are many ways of compensating these sites and writers. . . write what we want and you get more advertising or at our highest rates. Another good one is Microsoft sends the writer a "loaner" review product, say a new Microsoft Surface 4, and if the writer does what MS provides hints or using Microsoft's outline, Microsoft just never asks for it back. Or, the author writes what is discussed, and WOW! a one-on-one interview with the CEO is promised. . . but there is certainly an echo-chamber effect in the tech press. All of these things happen.
When multiple sites within a few days of each other pick up the same meme, especially when it is demonstrably not true, it's not independent thought or criticism; it's a press release, which they are merely filing off the serial numbers and repeating. . . and they are being compensated in some way for printing, posting, or otherwise publishing this phony claim. When it comes out within a week of a major product release which will benefit from denigrating a competing makers product and extolling the newer product, then its purpose is to generate public buzz for the upcoming new product and side-track potential sales of the competitor's product. That, SmokingJoe, is MARKETING, not serious product review or even a comparison.
If there were any legitimacy to this meme, these "authors" would have been making these copying claims when Apple debuted the iPad Pro more strongly a month ago, not all of them just a week before the release of Microsoft's new Surface 4.
You can "chuckle" all you like . . . but I do know what I am talking about. These guys are publishing the tune that Microsoft's is conducting.
BS, What are you smoking, Joe?
Microsoft copied Apple and the Apple ecosystem in developing the Microsoft Surface line. All of these predate the Microsoft Surface design and patent applications:
iPad Zagg Ultra-Slimbook keyboard Cover 2011
It’s so much fun to engage the typical true Apple fanatic and watch em squirm and try and wiggle out of a hole of their own making.
I will simply repeat what I have been asking you for the last 8 hours : PROVIDE THE PROOF THAT MICROSOFT BRIBED ANY OF THE TECH PUBLICATIONS/WRITERS THAT HAVE WRITTEN ANY OF THE SPATE OF RECENT ARTICLES POINTNG OUT THAT APPLE IS RIPPING OFF THE MICROSOFT SURFACE/SURFACE COVER AFTER FIRST OF ALL TRASHING THE SURFACE WHEN IT FIRST CAME OUT.
That’s an easy/simple enough request isn’t it? You made the assertion, you prove it. I want dates, names, figures.
Apple, nor Zagg, invented Bluetooth keyboards.
Microsoft Surface keyboards are not Bluetooth. They attach via a magnetic connector...Very nifty actually, I have the original RT that I have been using for a number of years now...talk about battery life!
In any case, you can’t make a valid claim that Zagg got ripped off....lol...I had a Bluetooth keyboard many years ago, shortly after Bluetooth began to show up in devices.... before tablets....In my case I had to buy the transmitter and the receiver...Must have been early 2000s..I still have a Bluetooth dongle and I still use it!
Zagg is just a accessory maker...
BTW, Microsoft had a tablet OS as far back as win98. I suppose you are now going to tell me that MS ripped off that concept as well..
And I did not say either of them did. . . however, if you will look at the first iPad model when it came out Apple did indeed sell a non-Bluetooth attachable keyboard for it. I am not arguing that Apple "invented" these but that the Microsoft Surface is a mere follower of the design style which has a longest history only of this style IN THE IPAD ecosystem.
None of the rest of your claims holds any merit because there were no tablets prior to the iPad with such keyboards. We were not merely talking "Bluetooth Keyboards" but the concept of a tablet with an attachable keyboard. . . However that keyboard attaches or connects to the tablet. Many of the Apple keyboard covers attached to the iPad magnetically as well, in fact Apple holds the patent for that invention. Look it up. They license it to the keyboard makers.
Zagg is just one of dozens of iPad keyboard makers in the Apple ecosystem. That is the point. Microsoft is only copying something that already existed for years, albeit with their own twist on it, but even the Microsoft keyboard was sold as an optional accessory to the Surface Tablet.
As for slate computers in Windows 98, and later, they were not successful, being big, bulky, and heavy, requiring a stylus to use. They were essentially a kludge. However I won't let you put words in my mouth. I did not say that and don't, unlike some of you guys say that Apple ripped off the iPad concept from that. . . a when they bear no resemblance and Apple's worked.
Apple pre-Steve Jobs can be said to actually have invented the programmable, touch-screen stylus controlled, hand-held Personal Digital Assistant device—Apple certainly coined the name and acronym, PDA.
Although some simplistic, non-touch-screen personal organizers—which were more calculators with limited address book capabilities—existed before Apple brought out the Apple Newton, Apple's ground breaking invention defined the first real tablet computers and created a whole new market that lasted until it was subsumed by the smartphones. . . and the Newton preceded all the rest which were based on and licensed under Apple's basic patents, although the Newton itself did not survive Steve Jobs' ruthless product trimming at Apple on taking back the reins in 1997 of the company he co-founded twenty years earlier. Again, look it up.
Look it up?
Don’t need to really....I have lived it..
It’s interesting that you consider so many inovations as being inventions, when they are really recombined innovations by a variety of people and firms, many of which apple has either bought or simply purchased the patents. But in many cases they sorta skipped that part...
Apple at it’s core, (no pun intended) is a fantastic marketing company. They do it very well even if they fell on their butts for a while after Jobs was ushered out..
But when he came back re=energized they took off like a rocket.
But it’s marketing. Recombinant innovations, and what really sets Apple apart from the rest of the competition is their large “cadre” of fan boys, as we call them.
To them, the latest device from Apple is not really a price or feature consideration...It is a aspirational necessity of life.
I can safely say that I cannot think of a single example that compares to what Apple has created in their loyal fan base.
Having said that, I am not now nor shall I ever be a loyal fan of any marketing company. My loyalties may be evident for a local business perhaps as a sign of support for the local economy but that is as far as it goes.. Otherwise, I buy the best available for the best price, and that pretty much eliminates apple from most considerations for me..
I really don’t care what you do with your money. The only reason I post on your threads is to laugh at the defensive responses that go far beyond a response and delve into the psychosis of being a apple fan boy..
You've built quite a strawman out of something I've actually denied. Bribes. I did not say. In fact here, verbatim, is exactly what I did say, upon which YOU irrationally have built your delusional house of cards for me to prove:
"Why do you think there is a campaign from this "author of this and several recent articles that have been posted here seem to think otherwise" saying the same thing? It's an advertising meme being pushed by Microsoft's astroturfering marketing department getting their new product which is about to be released: The Microsoft Surface 4."
I noted that these writers, editorialists, and bloggers who are pushing this "Apple is copying Microsoft Surface" meme, all publishing within a couple of days of each other, if you care to look, are amazingly using the exact same phrases and words, sometimes the exact same sentences, and cite the exact same quotations. . . in the exact same order. Now either they all woke up bereft for a topic to write about and they all came to the same idea simultaneously, and somehow composed the same story in the same way, using the same outline. . . or someone with an agenda provided it to them, already written, and they filed the serial numbers off, put the by-lines on it, and submitted, posted, or published it as their work.
I spent six years doing PR work for a large chorale, I've also been the founder of a large charity and did much of the PR for that organization. If you want a particular news story to run, it's easy to get run, you write it as you want it to be seen, like a news story, usually about twice as long as it needs to be, providing lots of juicy details, send it out directly to a reporter, not the editor, and nine times out of ten two thirds of what you wrote gets printed verbatim. If you're lucky, and they're short of filler, the whole thing gets published, but you always get more than the paragraph that people get who merely submit a request for an announcement on an event or organization.
Good astroturfers don't need "bribes" or people on the payroll to generate buzz. . . because these guys will fall all over themselves with the right attention from the right people, or the right spiffs. THEY WANT ACCESS and will wiggle and wag their tales and wet the floor like a six week old puppy when they think they've got it. That's the bone they're tossed to get them to bark in the night. . . if they don't, bye bye access.
You paid absolutely no attention to what I wrote above because it didn't agree with your "bribery" strawman, which I specifically shot down. You skipped right over that, didn't you, Joe?
Where you're mistaken is right there: you can't serious think that Apple has become the most valuable company in the world, pushing $700 billion, purely on hyping a "cadre" of fanboys. . . And succeeding in selling 1.3 BILLION iOS devices at now approximately 275 million per year in less than eight years, and over 100,000,000 Apple Macs at the rate of 26 million per year and consistently growing rates based purely on marketing hype to essentially the same fanboys? All while taking home 92% of the cellular phone market profits, 50% of the personal computer market profits, and 75% of the tablet market profits!
You're delusional if you think people continually buying Apple products after having personal experience with them, purely because of superior "marketing." That many people are not as deluded as you seem to be. . . they believe their own experiences with multiple platforms, not what they've been told, as you do.
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