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The Future of the Software Industry
madro writes "Remember 'Does IT Matter?' a while ago? Nicholas Carr is back with an editorial in today's New York Times following Microsoft's decision to dramatically reduce its cash stash. Carr's take: Microsoft is admitting it can't find better uses for its cash, due to the growing maturation of the software industry. No mention of open source, although Apple's consumer-targeted model of free iTunes driving iPod demand is one listed alternative." Reader CodeArtisan submits another piece about Microsoft's loot distribution, and Newsforge (which is part of OSDN along with Slashdot) has a story about the future of commodity software.
TO PAY ITS ENGINEERS BETTER
Now they get the same work for a fraction of the price.
Thanks, Mr. Bush. You lowered the tax on outsourcing and made this all possible.
What happens when AI in computers become so advanced that we are no longer involved in their own programming. What if we just dictate to a computer and it programs and maintains itself automatically. Eventually, it forms its own nature form of complexity far beyond human management.
I guess at that point, we just "program" a computer through talking and exchanging ideas rather then sort through code in a methodical way like programmers having to do now.
Life is not for the lazy.
Apple Computer, Inc. (AAPL), beset by angry creditors and faced with severe G5 production problems, is on the verge of bankruptcy and total collapse. Apple continues to nosedive into oblivion, as verified by industry watchers, investors, and, most painfully, by customers themselves.
As a recent study by Bank of America Securities puts it, Apple ekes out its meager existence by peddling new hardware to its existing customers; once those customers are satisfied, Apple will run out of steam . If these disastrous financial forecasts aren't enough, one need only look to Netcraft for confirmation that Apple's market share among Web servers is slowly dwindling down to zero. The market share of Mac OS X is now eclipsed even by that of FreeBSD, another OS that is deeply imperiled.
But the abysmal server presence of OS X is the least of Apple's worries. Apple's most recent quarterly report indicates a death spiral of cash loss. Indeed, Apple has hemorrhaged some $276 million in the last quarter, while racking up a dizzying $2.4 billion in debt. Revenue from sales of the iPod, the portable music player that is barely keeping Apple afloat in this shipwreck of fiscal woe, declined dramatically, threatening to shrink further an already miniscule lifeline.
Likewise, sales of the eMac, iMac and Power Macintosh G5 lines continue to skid. Apple is unable to secure G5 processors in sufficient nubmers to supply its customers with Power Macintosh G5 and iMac computers, as Steve Jobs himself recently admitted. The staggering decline in sales numbers confirms it: there is no doubt that one-time Apple customers, dismayed with the floundering ineptitude of their favorite company, have begun turning away in droves, seeking cheaper, faster hardware from manufacturers such as Dell.
Apple teeters on the precipice of doom, one step away from plummeting to its ultimate nadir of bankruptcy, chaos, and implosion. Wise investors will quickly dump AAPL stock and abandon the doomed company, now less than one year away from complete disintegration.
It's time to move to a new platform: Apple is dead.
YHBT YHL HAND FOAD
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