With Mountain Lion's iCloud Integration, Apple Strengthens the Garden Wall

snydeq writes "With WWDC around the corner, iOS 6 rumors are taking center stage, but the real action for developers may be around iCloud. Forthcoming OS X Mountain Lion will integrate iCloud into the formal file system, making iCloud usage much easier and thus more common, and thanks to iCloud Documents, which lets apps open and save documents directly in iCloud, developers will be able to better tap iOS-to-OSX document syncing in their apps, a la iWork. But there is a downside to this opportunity: 'For developers, it further enmeshes you in the Apple ecosystem, almost in the way that America Online did in its heyday. Case in point: OS X apps can use the iCloud Documents APIs only if they are sold through the Mac App Store.'"

Comments

Garden Wall?

[rueger]

I don't know y'all, feels more like Kudzu to me.....

Either way

[BitHive]

This signals the beginning of the end for something.

Tim Cook's first big fuckup.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what this is.

As a long time Apple user I can say that if things keep going this
way I WILL be looking elsewhere for my next computer purchases.

Re:Tim Cook's first big fuckup.

[ChrisKnight]

Don't lay this on Tim Cook. This was Steve Jobs's plan; Tim is just carrying on with it.

Here's my prediction: The version of OS X that comes after Mountain Lion will only let you install applications/software from the App Store. Again, Steve's plan; not Tim's.

Re:Tim Cook's first big fuckup.

[Nerdfest]

You can't say you didn't see this coming. This has Job's fingerprints all over it and has probably been planned for quite some time. I think fans have been saying this sort of change wouldn't happen on OS X just because of denial. Yes, for now it's still better than iOS in that you can still install stuff from outside the garden, but with the direction things are heading, even that may go in the future.

Re:Tim Cook's first big fuckup.

[Grayhand]

Here's my prediction, you are dead wrong. "The version of OS X that comes after Mountain Lion will only let you install applications/software from the App Store." More paranoia than reality. After spending better than a decade growing their OS and finally challenging Microsoft on the desktop front they shoot themselves in the foot by forcing all sales through the app store? They'd loose half their customers overnight. First off no one would upgrade to to Mountain Lion and most would hold off buying new equipment. Third party vendors would be shutout so the backlash would be epic. It may be a wet dream over at Apple but no one is that monumentally stupid. The number of pissed off customers would dwarf the Vista revolt. Why lock the barn door while more are trying to squeeze in? There's simply no rational reason to do it and there are major downsides. Sure they will keep trying to make it or attractive to use the app store but shutting out other vendors would be shooting themselves in the foot with a nuke. They'd also be putting an antitrust target on their chests so any gain would be offset by customer backlash and the next ten years in court.

Re:Tim Cook's first big fuckup.

[gnasher719]

And? They already killed Mac OS X Server and removed X11 support, I somehow doubt Apple really cares about anyone that uses Mac OS X because it's UNIX.

You're posting nonsense. MacOS X Server is well and a live. They killed the XServe hardware which sold only about 300,000 units a year from what I heard. They are selling the Mac Mini Server, and MacOS X Server will run just fine on any Mac Pro. X11 support is available, and Apple tells you were to get it.

Anticompetetive

[ohnocitizen]

Any way you slice it, this is unethical. Restricting usage of an API to developers who sell through your platform (and thus give you 30%), giving your own private cloud service filesystem level integration... Imagine if Microsoft made either of these moves.

It is just more of Macs becoming iDevices

[Sycraft-fu]

Apple doesn't want you to have a computer, they want you to have Apple devices where you buy stuff from Apple. They want you to sit around and consume the content they sell. They've been heading that direction for awhile now, this is just a continuation of it. It isn't likely to be too many more years before they lock it down entirely, and Macs are just large stations for accessing the Apple Store/iTunes.

Apple is all about the locked-in ecosystem where everything is their way, everything runs through them, and they get a cut of everything. This is just another step down that road.

Re:It is just more of Macs becoming iDevices

[PopeRatzo]

They want you to sit around and consume the content they sell.

You have just described our entire culture.

We are no longer meant to be active participants, but merely passive consumers. And the latest innovations, we're not even consumers, but rather the consumables.

Facebook, for example. Its users are not its customers. Its users are the product they are offering to its real customers. This disconnect from the natural relationship of buyer and seller is a trend that leads us to a not-so-great place. The reason that Facebook's users are not its customers, is because people don't have any money, so the only thing they have to offer to the marketplace is their personal information, their habits, their discussions, their personal communications.

How much would you pay to use a service like Facebook? And why do you not have the choice? The notion that advertising is the only way to monetize the Internet is either an example of just how unimaginative our economic overlords really are. And cowardly. Because if it were a traditional buyer-seller relationship, then they'd actually have to offer something of value. They'd have to answer questions, provide a product or service of actual value. But that's too hard. And too honest.

Apple is going this direction too. Its customers are becoming less and less the people who buy their products and more and more the people who use their products to sell stuff to those of us who have their products.

We will see an Mac desktop OS that only allows installation of software purchased not from, but through Apple. Count on it.

Re:It is just more of Macs becoming iDevices

[petsounds]

The reason that Facebook's users are not its customers, is because people don't have any money, so the only thing they have to offer to the marketplace is their personal information, their habits, their discussions, their personal communications.

While this sounds very delicious in its sensationalism, the reason Facebook is free is the same reason all social media services are free -- you won't attract a critical mass of users if your service sits behind a paywall. People don't want to use a 'social' service in which their social circle has to pay in order to interact with each other.

This has nothing to do with people's ability to pay or not pay -- some community-driven pay-to-play sites seem to be profitable, e.g. eHarmony.com, Ancestry.com, Second Life. They aren't Facebook-level profitable, but they stay in business. The difference is that those social services are driven by discovery of new social contacts, not bringing your current circle over. And they offer features which people are willing to pay for. Sending messages, sharing photos, writing comments... these features are so ubiquitous now that they essentially have no intrinsic value, except for profile mining in the hands of unethical capitalists like the Facebook team.

Facebook is just a digital mirror of brick-and-mortar corporate conglomerates who offer seemingly much better value than local, customer-focused businesses. And people eat it up, thinking there's no downsides.

While I'm quite ardently against Apple's walled garden increasingly becoming a SuperMAX prison, at least customers are actually buying a product, and Apple's business goal is not selling your information. Their goal is selling hardware, and getting a cut out of every app store purchase. Apple just wants to keep you locked in, but I do believe MOST of the people who work there really are trying to make good products that help people. Every feature rollout on Facebook by contrast is another transparent attempt to get more data about your life.

Re:It is just more of Macs becoming iDevices

[Anonymous Coward]

Other (who knows what this actually is): 4%

That 4% is everything from apps like Final Cut to Safari's cut from Google ads to printed photo books from iPhoto or Aperture to backpacks sold in the retail stores. Hardware is where the money is.

This is what Mac users WANT

[Gothmolly]

They want it to Just Work. They want to buy it, plug it in, go pointy-clicky and have it work. People have an expectation that computers and technological devices (tablets, phones, etc) work without screwing around with them.

Doesn't Matter

[Jane Q. Public]

"Don't lay this on Tim Cook. This was Steve Jobs's plan; Tim is just carrying on with it."

It doesn't matter whose idea it was. It is still a bad idea. They are making exactly the same mistakes that Microsoft did, for the same reasons Microsoft made them, and from which Microsoft has not, to this day, recovered.

Cook or Jobs, either one should know better. I could see this coming from a mile away, and they have had plenty of warning. If Apple keeps this up, the results will not be good for them.

Re:Doesn't Matter

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't matter whose idea it was. It is still a bad idea.

Yeah, because it really sucks if when your machine gets stolen, you're able to get all your apps and your files back from a server in North Carolina or Oregon. Seriously, doesn't Apple know that people enjoy the hassle of losing data? WTF are they THINKING?

You just dont get it, even after all this time.

[FlyingGuy]

YOU are geeks / nerds / techies / whatever label you prefer. Apple does not even count you as part of their customer base.

Apple is selling the coolest tech for largest market segment. You buy an apple device and it JUST FUCKING WORKS out of the box. and like it or not that is what people want. They don't want to have to do what you love to do and they HATE doing.

They want a device that just does what they need to do, and like it or not apple devices do just that.

Re:You just dont get it, even after all this time.

[FlyingGuy]

You arrogant little piss ant!

There are people I know personally that I am willing to bet the contents of my 401K that are WAY smarter then you are and they could give a shit less about repairing, hacking, or twiddling with the i[whatever] because that is not their interest.

Just because you get a woody playing with hardware like it was a blow up doll, does not mean the rest of the world does.

Now go sit in your mothers basement and have a great big huge glass of shut the fuck up.

Its about having apps screened not about sales

[perpenso]

Any way you slice it, this is unethical. Restricting usage of an API to developers who sell through your platform (and thus give you 30%), giving your own private cloud service filesystem level integration... Imagine if Microsoft made either of these moves.

Its about having apps screened and approved not about sales. Free apps (gratis) from the App Store can use iCloud for storage too.

Easy = Bad

[Stiletto]

Only on Slashdot would making software usage "easier and more common" be seen as a bad thing.

Re:And yet Apple is popular around here..

[evil_aaronm]

I know - don't feed the trolls. But this is utter BS. "While limited" - how? On my MacBook Pro, I can run the suite of Office tools; I can compile and run common X11 apps; I can even connect serial devices and do bit-level twiddling if I want. I can open a shell and run bash or ksh scripts until the cows come home. I can edit HD video and multi-track audio. So, how am I limited by using Mac OS?

And then implying that all nerds must be SM freaks - referring to the configuration contortions that Linux users often have to go through to get just about anything to work? - is just ridiculous. Because, surely, any self-respecting nerd would rather fuck around trying to get drivers to work for some video card or printer rather than just do some actual work. Seriously? Ok, maybe things are better, now, with Linux; I wouldn't know - I stopped banging my head on the table some years ago, and bought a Mac. Now? I just focus on what I need to do rather than what configuration file I need to play with to get X11 up and running.

Maybe you just don't understand that some of us have more important things to do than mine, refine and then cast the materials needed for every metal and plastic piece of the mobo, then solder them by hand, one eye blindfolded, left handed, if you're normally right handed, to be considered a "true nerd." Maybe an abacus would make you feel more manly. Knock yourself out. I'll just put my formula into a spreadsheet, get my results to my boss, and then move on to the next assignment.

In other words: I can get down and dirty with a Mac, if I need to. Most of the time, I don't need to. I'm cool with that. You keep punching those bit codes into your Altair, though; we're all real impressed.

Re:Er.. I'm not sure how this is terribly differen

[shutdown -p now]

You can integrate any app with Google Docs - it doesn't need to be sold only on Android Marketplace.

(no idea about Office 365)