Why iAds will fail

iMedia Connection ^ | May 21, 2010 | Brandt Dainow

[SunkenCiv]

I first became involved with computers in the late 1970s. This was before the days of the IBM PC and MS-DOS or Windows. Computing in those days resembled the smartphone market of today -- there was no common operating system.

Apparently this polemical writer missed CP/M on the S-100 bus (it was also available on the Apple II using Z80 coprocessor cards, one of which oddly enough was built by Microsoft if memory serves), used by a whole bunch of small-volume manufacturers. :') IBM was ready to use an 8088 version of CP/M for the PC, the deal didn't work out, so they went with Bill Gates' knockoff version and sales pitch.

[SunkenCiv]

HTML5
http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html

[SunkenCiv]

I'll leave the final word to Ian Wolfman:

"I'm not convinced iPhone/iPad has a long-term future. It's a closed system. It's attractive now because the U.S. lacks an open alternative, but it's inevitable that one will develop."

HTML5 *is* an open alternative, but this author rejects it in favor of the proprietary Adobe Flash -- and in all other ways, a fanboy of proprietary MS products.

[SunkenCiv]

Macintosh now runs Microsoft Office because no one else was interested in providing a compatible office suite. Apple's restrictive policies over the Mac almost caused the death of the Apple Corporation, and it was only by opening the environment to its arch-enemy Microsoft that Apple was able to survive. When Steve Jobs announced MS Office for the Mac to a stunned audience in 1997, he looked very uncomfortable about it

I didn't have to look at the clip -- there were loud boos when Bill Gates' face came up, and Steve was pretty put out, and scolded the audience. Bill Gates had successfully exterminated (through control of the OS, through "cross-development" agreements which were mandatory, through acquisition, or by giving away a lesser but similar product) most competing software companies, and had settled a lawsuit with Apple.

MS-Excel was introduced on the Mac in 1985 -- one year after the Mac debuted, and two years BEFORE it was available in Windows.

Much earlier, Visicalc was the first popular spreadsheet program, was available on many platforms and OSes, and vanished in part due to Microsoft's Multiplan but mostly due to the OS-specific Lotus 1-2-3. Lotus is part of IBM now, and 1-2-3 was a major reason (along with DBase, remember that thing?) the IBM-PC and MS-DOS succeeded in the first place. Lotus also helped pioneer "look-and-feel" lawsuits.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

IBM was ready to use an 8088 version of CP/M for the PC, the deal didn't work out, so they went with Bill Gates' knockoff version and sales pitch.

Well, what I saw them do in the IBM stores was to have both operating systems side-by-side, and they sold CP/M from Digital Research, Inc. (Gary Kildall) for $20 more than Gates' sorry trash system ... :-)

That's all it took, was that $20 bill for most customers. They would look at one and then the other and say, "I think I'll save $20 here!" ... :-)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks! :’)

[Mind-numbed Robot]

There is no end to the number of people who know better how to run Apple than Steve Jobs. Each new product and each new strategy is met with choruses of those predicting failure and saying, “This time Apple has done it! They have screwed the pooch.”

As well as I recall, Apple tried that strategy - operating without Jobs. They failed and he continued to succeed elsewhere. Yet, there are still those singing the same old song - Apple will fail!

[TheBattman]

Interesting that your comment is the exact opposite of the truth. People buy PCs because of what they do. People buy Macs because of what they represent.

Interesting theory. Unfortunately, your comment is - for the most part- as misinformed as the original author's article.

I have been an Apple customer for 16+ years. I can honestly say that I have never purchased an Apple anything because of what it "represents". 100% of my Apple purchases have been because of what the particular hardware could do.

The first Apple (Quadra 610) I was involved in purchasing was with my first teaching job. I basically "sold" the head band director on buying the Apple specifically to run marching band drill writing software (which at the time, the top of the market only ran on the Macintosh). But my experience with that machine, despite the old System 7 funkyness sold me on Apple, as the current "top of the line" PC my Step-Father used for his work was a nightmare in comparison.

And when I purchased my own first Apple (Performa 6400/180), I again had the opportunity to compare directly to friend's PCs. And what I found - Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING was far easier to do on my Macintosh. Clarisworks (later AppleWorks) was my one-and-only office software, and it did what Word did - only easier (I still miss it).

Then I moved up into the real-world and bought a "smurf" G3 tower. What a beast that was at the time! By then, I was sometimes using MS Word and Excel - and also found that the Mac version was more intuitive and straightforward in function. This was about the time that Apple and the Mac platform was beginning to make a comeback. This blue machine did what I still couldn't find a Windows box to do...

Then came my first G4 - Was basically a grey version of the G3. I had done some tinkering with the processor on the G3 and messed up the motherboard. So I found a store demo G4 at the then CompUSA. That machine served me well - until I decided I just had to move up to a dual-processor G4 (Windtunnel). That machine was kind of fund - I filled all the hard drive bays, and maxed out the RAM, put in the latest-greatest DVD burner and it also served me well - and ran some audio editing software I used that was unavailable for Windows.

When the power supply finally died on my last G4 (after 6 years of very faithful service), I opted to replace it with a used G5 dual processor machine. While I would love to stop up to a new machine, the G5 is still plugging along - and I still use applications that are only Macintosh-compatible - that are the envy of many of my PC-using friends and family.

And two last tidbits - In my 16 years of being a Macintosh user - I have seen exactly ONE virus on my machine: in 1995. Even then, it took a whole 5 minutes to clean it off the computer, never to have another issue.

Have my Macs been 100% perfect and trouble-free? No. Have had a few hard drives die (not made by Apple), one stick of RAM go bad (again, not made by Apple). I had the one virus mentioned above 15 years ago. I damaged a motherboard through my ignorance, and had one power supply go out.

My current work provides me with a relatively recent HP Pavilion laptop that is fairly nice. It now gets a good deal of my typing work. But right next to it on my desk is my several year-old 12" iBook G4

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I think there may be some more apps coming...just a guess.

Your statement is safe. Apps help us access life and life keeps changing. The need will continue to increase.