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Is Apple The New Microsoft?
Varg Vikernes writes "Even if you don't count Apple's actions this week as a potential threat to first amendment rights (Apple's crackdown on Web sites that love the company), they do nothing to bolster Apple's public image. In fact the company's success of late has yielded accusations of bullying and potentially unlawful business tactics, along with complaints about the fact that songs purchased from its iTunes music service don't work with music players other than its own. According to Forbes, to some these tactics sound like something Apple's neighbor to the North might employ. They wonder aloud Is Apple the New Microsoft?
Jobs, in contrast, is at his core someone who knows marketing and wants to dazzle his customers. With Microsoft it's what they want and you have to go along with it. With Apple, it's about finding the best customer experience and using that for profit.
Look at the quality of their respective products. What kind of quality do you get from Gates? Convoluted, buggy, but hey it's got features so shut up. What kind of quality do you get from Jobs? Look at Pixar. They are a money-making machine, but they do it by providing customers with top-notch quality. People are glad to give them their money. With Microsoft, it's often a case of grudgingly giving their money.
So a world dominated by Steve Jobs would undoubtably have it's own problems, it would be different problems than we have seen from Bill Gates. Their personalities are different enough to ensure that.
I see your point but when I think of a world not dominated by Microsoft, I don't think of a world dominated by Apple either. Instead I wonder what it would be like if all of those manufacturers from the 80s had made it into the 21st century. What sort of development, competition, changes, might have happened in a world where a Sanyo Silver Fox, Epson, Atari, Amiga, etc., etc., were all viable choices? Perhaps that would have fragmented the market too much, or perhaps we would have seen some real innovation over the past 20 years.
Apple's OS owes a lot to open source software yet there's no iTunes software for Linux. A hell of a lot of DVD players actually run Linux yet you still can't get proper DVD playing software for Linux (legally, I know about libcss).
So what ? If you're that desperate to use iTunes, unlock the files with the "illegal" library just like you unlock your DVDs. And if you don't run Linux, there's probably a Windows or MacOS or Atari or whatever version floating around.
As for me I'm not even through ripping my CDs so I don't really have a use for an online service, especially not one from Apple. I looked at the players on the market, got an iRiver and never looked back anyway.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
That's exactly what the parent was talking about - there's no market share so there's no money in it for them (increased ipod/itunes sales).
Believe it or not, just like Apple, Microsoft also used to have an army of fanboys for whom MS could do no wrong. I remember the fevered launch of Windows 95, with them all lining up outside stores at midnight to be the first to own a copy - I don't think even the Apple fanboys have got this bad yet!
However, for all the blind loyalty, slowly but surely people started to hate Microsoft. I can see Apple going exactly the same way. Why? Because like Microsoft, they have started to screw the average Joe around and act anti-competitively.
When they make their cute little computers, they can pretty much get away with charging at a premium, as they have total lock-in and nobody else can make a compatible, yet cheaper device (and competition is one of the main things that commerce is founded on). However, with, for example, the iPod and iTunes store, a lot of other companies have been able to produce alternatives that are cheaper, and do the job just as well, but better. What's the Apple answer? Lower the costs? Make their products (Fairplay DRM I'm looking at you) more attractive to consumers? Nope. Instead they try to stifle the competition by making their hardware only able to purchase tracks from their own online store (which kind of feels like a car manufacturer only allowing their cars to be used with their own brand gas), and taking legal action against any competitor that tries to provide tracks that can be made to work with Apple's hardware.
If that isn't anti-competitive, and the Microsoft way, then I don't know what is.
Sunday you're Thinking Different, Monday you're a huge tool, paying too much and waiting to think like everyone else.
Please people, Apple has always been this way. Apple didn't get beat by Microsoft because they were nicer, they just got beat. If you were surprised by Apples recent moves then you just haven't been paying attention.
Sigs are awesome huh?
Yes, but it's not as though they could give it away for free, and be happy to get the bucks from the few percent of the few percent of people who only run Linux desktops and also want iPods.
They'd have to port the thing, which costs money, and they'd have to support the port, which costs money. I would expect that it would be a loss to the company. And, as I pointed out in my post, what platform should they give back to? It's not as though Mac OS X is a complete Red Hat under the hood.
Is "giving back to the OSS community" equivalent to providing a binary RPM that only runs on a recent Red Hat/Fedora?
If you're suggesting that Apple open-source its iTunes client, I think that would be fantastic, but I'd guess they're probably bound by lots of patent arrangements and simply can't without mind-boggling expense.
I have seen a smilar boom in Nottingham - my local Apple reseller, who I'm very friendly with given the amount of business that my business puts through them (commercial video maker), has just moved to new premises in a more prominent location in the local shopping centre.
The store is bigger, redesigned, and with more products on show. It's always full of customers.
The manager says business has never been so good. Top sellers: iPod mini, G5 iMac, iBook, 12" Powerbook.
Just because you can't think of an example doesn't mean they don't exist:
http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/
The fastest-growing desktop OS in the past three years has been: (drum roll) OS X.
Did you notice how all of the other posts about user statistics had links to sources? Normally you would want to post a reference of your own to refute the above posts.