THE IPHONE & STEVE BALLMER: IT’S TIME FOR HIM TO EAT SOME SERIOUS CROW

MacRevu ^ | Wednesday, August 26, 2009 | Editor of MacRevu

[dalereed]

I wouldn’t have an I phone if they paid me to have it!

[Star Traveler]

You said — Silly fanboi article. Wonder if this is at all news.

—

It’s news when you see all the people switching over to Macintosh from the PC/Windows platform. See even these Free Republic members switching over...

Parallels to make switching to the Mac easier, safe and painless
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2324524/posts

And also when you see Microsoft saying this now...

“APPLE HAS CHANGED THE WAY THE GAME IS PLAYED”, says MSFT Win Mob chief
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2320869/posts

And then, when you see Microsoft employees throwing away their Zunes... LOL..

Letters from Microsoft: An Employee Tosses His Zune
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2319063/posts

[Erik Latranyi]

The out-of-the-box thinking that underlies and animates most innovation involves mashing together technologies that previously haven't been married.

That's funny. I was doing all those things on multiple smartphones long before the first iPhone.

I guess I just didn't drink the Apple memory-erasing, history-altering kool-aid.

[Star Traveler]

Well, there are always a few who are “left behind”... :-)

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"siiigghhhh"

Hey, didn't want you to feed deprived!

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"That's funny. I was doing all those things on multiple smartphones long before the first iPhone."

You had the big screen? A real web browser? A fart app? [grin]

[dalereed]

There isn’t a damn thing on an i phone or a blackberry that I would have under ant condition.

[Star Traveler]

You said — I guess I just didn’t drink the Apple memory-erasing, history-altering kool-aid.

—

Well, the average consumer (of which there are lots and lots out there... :-) ...) — does *get it* ...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2324964/posts?page=23#23

[Star Traveler]

Well, I hope you don’t have trouble back there in the dust, then... :-)

[Erik Latranyi]

Apple KNOWS their customers are... - people who DON’T want their digital-life experience degraded by some company’s grubby fingers.

Go into comedy because you are hilarious!

Apple's policies on what software you can have on your iPhone is really not a company degrading your experience, is it?.

[weef]

Can you think of a Microsoft product that is truly a joy to use?

My Microsoft Comfort Optical Mouse 3000 has been pretty nice. Hasn't been truly a joy to use but it's pretty nice.

[Erik Latranyi]

You had the big screen? A real web browser? A fart app? [grin]

Biggest screen at the time....they get bigger all the time.

Opera browser has been around for WM for years.

Fart noises on my music player.

[ctdonath2]

I’m glad someone is being called on their predictions. Too often big names make big predictions, knowing the rhetoric won’t matter because nobody will call them on it.

[Star Traveler]

You said — Apple’s policies on what software you can have on your iPhone is really not a company degrading your experience, is it?.

—

LOL..., 50,000 apps on the iPhone and the consumers have a “degraded experience”.... you’re really funny there... :-)

Just because Apple makes the developers for iPhone apps conform to certain things in order to keep the iPhone working, working right and not degrading the experience that the consumer has — doesn’t mean that the “developers whining” about creating *anything* is somehow degrading the user experience...

Heck! I remember one developer that was selling his app for $1,000 on the iPhone that did nothing but say that if you bought his app and were able to afford it, you were “something special”... LOL... (the app did *absolutely nothing* except that...)

Apple *killed it* in short order... it’s no longer there.

I guess that’s the kind of “user experience” you would prefer that Apple “let go through”... :-)

[Star Traveler]

Heck, I might even go with another keyboard, myself, if I can get it (I tried several times in the past, but they were out...)...

Matias TactilePro
http://matias.ca/tactilepro/

It’s actually a “remake” of an older keyboard that Apple used to make, but no longer does so... and I lilked it... :-)

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"I will admit, quite frankly, that I think Windows, today, is probably four years, behind — three years behind, where it would have been had we not danced with IBM for so long.” [Steve Ballmer]

A comment on another thread a day or two ago reminded me of something: in 1979, well prior to MS's link-up with IBM in which they parlayed Tim Paterson's QDOS to IBM as MS-DOS (without telling Paterson what they were up to), Microsoft was plugging a version of Unix called Xenix. Bill Gates himself called MS-DOS 2.0 "the bridge to Xenix," clearly signaling a belief that the future of personal computing rested on this flavor of Unix [cf. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/01/31/ms_sells_stake_in_sco/]. Somehow that vision jumped the rails. Perhaps IBM drove that... hard to say, and a bit ironic in view of that company's reliance on Linux today. But it could be that the era Ballmer refers to was the turbulent circa-OS|2 era, in which Windows took its current vector. (Agreed, that was still pretty long ago.) Given that Windows is now the only surviving personal computer OS not based on Unix, the point of Microsoft's deflection from Gates' Xenix-centered vision would be interesting to know.

[ctdonath2]

Paradigm change?

I’ve nearly abandoned my main computer because most everything I need (browsing, email, applications) is in my pocket and very usable despite tiny size. Give me the rumored “iTablet” and I’ll abandon the PC model outright.

Game-changing applications ecosystem?

All applications are available thru a single icon, most can be bought under $10 (lots free), and with two taps are installed & running within seconds of first desire.

This in contrast with trying to find the application exists, finding a source, ordering it with several pages and lots of typing (or driving to a store), waiting to get the physical media (or waiting for the download), running a prolonged installation process, fighting with EULAs and incompatibilities and device drivers and just plain stuff not working.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Apple's policies on what software you can have on your iPhone is really not a company degrading your experience, is it?"

They kept the corral tight for a reason. There had never been anything like the App Store for a cell phone, and the potential for trouble was significant. Security issues, privacy issues, support issues, user-experience issues, network issues, battery issues, legal issues, regulatory issues, partner issues, interoperability issues, compatibility issues, even social issues like porn... all these things had to be watched very carefully.

An example of how things can go bad in a hurry due to software on a cell phone was on display immediately after the iPhone 3G's introduction. An oversight in the phone's networking software resulted in it requesting full bandwidth from 3G towers. It had not been an issue before, nor had it been an issue in testing, because nothing like the iPhone 3G had been seen in any numbers in the field before. But with its big launch and the sudden upsurge in network usage, the 3G network was overwhelmed, and the towers would summarily drop calls. A software revision was quickly issued, but this serves to underscore the importance and risk of software in a cell phone, especially a popular one. It is entirely possible to bring a whole cell network to its knees. It's why AT&T is taking its time with tethering support-- they need to be sure they can handle the flood of new usage.

Bottom line: the policies you speak of were put in place for very sound reasons. Some will ease with time (already have, in fact), others will remain iron-clad, and thank goodness for that.

[ctdonath2]

Tell me: what applications can I get for my Motorola Razr?
Answer: next to none, what exists is crippled and painful to obtain.

True, Apple is getting a lot of flack for refusing some apps - but they’re resolving the issues, and what’s there is orders of magnitude better than other non-iPod platforms.

Tell me: what phone or MP3 platform has a _wider_ range of apps available, demonstrating superiority to Apple’s admittedly imperfect policies?

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"I remember one developer that was selling his app for $1,000 on the iPhone that did nothing but say that if you bought his app and were able to afford it, you were “something special”... LOL... (the app did *absolutely nothing* except that...) Apple *killed it* in short order... it’s no longer there.

Heh. All that app did was show a cheesy graphic of a sparkling ruby. My son pulled out his iPhone and flashed a knock-off of that at me at the dinner table one night, and I about had a heart attack, thinking he'd used the family iTunes account to download it. He got a good laugh out of me. I take comfort in knowing that someday he'll have his own kids.