Gates is like VW - Massively popular, but not the cutting edge
I think what people so often miss is that time can really change one's perspective. Had Bill Gates died ten years ago the computing world's perspective of him would have been massively different. I remember waiting with baited breath for the upgrade to Windows 3.1 because I had to have the next best thing. I remember trying to read everything I could get my hands on about 'Chicago' - the code name for Windows 95. Had Bill passed away in the midst of Microsoft's heyday he would have been revered with the same awe that Steve is today.
If you want to talk about legacy, Steve could not have passed away at a better time. He brought Apple back from extinction and was at the helm at a time when the company released products that has captured the hearts and minds of many (love it or hate it). Chances are that won't last forever. Nothing lasts forever.
There are two outcomes for Apple now: they continue their reign under new leadership. In this case Steve Jobs comes off as brilliant because he managed to create an empire and pass along his genius to a new generation. The alternative is that Apple goes down the tubes. In this case, it becomes evident that Steve Jobs truly was the genius of Apple and they couldn't have succeeded without him.
Bill Gates had the misfortune of having to quit after his glory had faded.
Look behind you. The door over there is not positioned such that the latch is not trapped in the strike plate. Please don't let it hit you on the way out.
Nobody has the brand recognition in the tablet market that the iPad has. That is fact. If you told somebody you bought a transformer or a zoom, they wouldn't know what you were talking about. More and more people know Android, but still a much smaller set than iPad.
For the uneducated masses, the iPad is the real thing and the others and knockoffs. Your product might be just as good, or even better, but this doesn't matter because the perception is the iPad is better. If you can convince people that your product might not be the best, but might be good enough, then you might be able to convince somebody to buy it if it is 1/3 or so less in price.
Best case, people are pleasantly surprised that the 'knockoff' is actually pretty good. Maybe they don't miss the app store because they find all they want in the market. Maybe they discover their phone can do things the iPad can't. Then you can get established in the market.
But for the same price, people aren't as willing to take a chance on the off brand.
Are you using Google Apps for Business? Or just a domain with email hosted by Google? One is free, the other is paid. http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/terms/premier_terms.html. There's a link to the paid SLA. I use the free one, and I do have the odd issue (not rare, but not all the time - and generally not for an extended period of time) connecting to their servers.
This distinction should be kept in mind during this discussion - I get the impression everybody involved here isn't aware of it.
So long as Apple is getting enough reports, they should be able to isolate fairly easily what the particular units have in common. Again, they control the whole stack - hardware down to software, so there is no trying to figure out what kind of machine it is - presumably with a serial number or some debugging app they could pinpoint exactly what hardware it was, down to the chips on the motherboard, because they made it all.
That's fine, except Apple doesn't deserve the same grace that IMO Microsoft deserves. Developing Windows is inherently challenging because there are countless combinations of motherboards, video cards, disk controllers, etc etc.
The advantage that Apple has always had is that they control the entire stack - from hardware down to software. They can choose whatever chipset they want, whatever display adapter they want, and whatever components they want.
It is quite conceivable (and I would expect them to do so) for Apple to have at least one model of every computer they sell that their operating system needs to run on, and they can test their product on each of those machines. It should also be possible for them to identify what machines it will not function on and refuse to upgrade those machines until such time that it is stable.
Bitbucket doesn't have the features that Github has. On bitbucket, pull requests are basically email notifications to the repo managers. On github, you can view changesets and now you can even do one click merging once the changes have been reviewed. There are a bunch of other features also that bitbucket just doesn't have yet. Hopefully bitbucket will improve because it will be good to have the competition to drive features.
Those two both seem to be strong contenders and both have a large customer base. I think Google has a strong place, but I *don't* know that they are a monopoly.
I mean, let's face it, Skype is dominant because of its market penetration. A web based solution or imbedding in a browser that has large market share would negate that.
The point is, if Google wants to take on Skype, they need to make it quick and easy for people to use, and installing another client is a barrier.
I mean, if you want people to develop for your platform, you need to protect the investment of your developers. They might forgive you once, but if it happens prematurely too many times they will start looking elsewhere.
I don't know if it is fair to say that MS has a very poor track record. DOS programs written in 1988 still likely work on PCs running Windows XP. In more recent years I would probably tend to agree with you though.
It isn't stabbing anybody in the back until they drop support for the platform.
Responding to the market and building stuff that will work on the machines of your target market is called flexibility and responsiveness.
If you can deliver a better experience with HTML5, then it makes sense to do it. Developers might look at this move and get the sense that it may (though in some cases maybe not) be wise for them to follow suit - not because Microsoft is dropping the platform, but because you can get better results in HTML5.
Because rich websites end up as HTML on the client and user agents can collect, manipulate and republish the content in a variety of ways. I would imagine (don't own an iP* so couldn't say for sure) that the app would inhibit that.
That's looking at it the wrong way though. Stuff written for the cloud is intended to be portable and easy to move. If you outsource your cloud stuff, then you are dealing with businesses that are competing. There is motivation for the cloud company to service your needs - i.e. you need more stuff done, you pay for more services. You don't have the same motivation with an internal IT department.
And those reasons are mostly historical. To say that lacrosse has been more popular than hockey in Canada as a whole within the last thirty years is plain ignorance. According to http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2010/06/07/con-lacrosse-cra.html the Canadian Lacrosse Association represents 40,000 members. That is insignificant compared to the popularity of hockey.
Lacrosse may have had its ups and downs in terms of popularity, but it has been a long time since it has been more popular than hockey in Canada.
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Gates is like VW - Massively popular, but not the cutting edge
I think what people so often miss is that time can really change one's perspective. Had Bill Gates died ten years ago the computing world's perspective of him would have been massively different. I remember waiting with baited breath for the upgrade to Windows 3.1 because I had to have the next best thing. I remember trying to read everything I could get my hands on about 'Chicago' - the code name for Windows 95. Had Bill passed away in the midst of Microsoft's heyday he would have been revered with the same awe that Steve is today.
If you want to talk about legacy, Steve could not have passed away at a better time. He brought Apple back from extinction and was at the helm at a time when the company released products that has captured the hearts and minds of many (love it or hate it). Chances are that won't last forever. Nothing lasts forever.
There are two outcomes for Apple now: they continue their reign under new leadership. In this case Steve Jobs comes off as brilliant because he managed to create an empire and pass along his genius to a new generation. The alternative is that Apple goes down the tubes. In this case, it becomes evident that Steve Jobs truly was the genius of Apple and they couldn't have succeeded without him.
Bill Gates had the misfortune of having to quit after his glory had faded.
Indeed... we should discourage competition. No company should ever endeavour to do something that has already been done.
Look behind you. The door over there is not positioned such that the latch is not trapped in the strike plate. Please don't let it hit you on the way out.
So *that's* why they have yellow lines where I live. Interesting.
Nobody has the brand recognition in the tablet market that the iPad has. That is fact. If you told somebody you bought a transformer or a zoom, they wouldn't know what you were talking about. More and more people know Android, but still a much smaller set than iPad.
For the uneducated masses, the iPad is the real thing and the others and knockoffs. Your product might be just as good, or even better, but this doesn't matter because the perception is the iPad is better. If you can convince people that your product might not be the best, but might be good enough, then you might be able to convince somebody to buy it if it is 1/3 or so less in price.
Best case, people are pleasantly surprised that the 'knockoff' is actually pretty good. Maybe they don't miss the app store because they find all they want in the market. Maybe they discover their phone can do things the iPad can't. Then you can get established in the market.
But for the same price, people aren't as willing to take a chance on the off brand.
Are you using Google Apps for Business? Or just a domain with email hosted by Google? One is free, the other is paid. http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/terms/premier_terms.html. There's a link to the paid SLA. I use the free one, and I do have the odd issue (not rare, but not all the time - and generally not for an extended period of time) connecting to their servers.
This distinction should be kept in mind during this discussion - I get the impression everybody involved here isn't aware of it.
Google might design a system that lets you track what channels you use and suggest that you unsubscribe to different packages to save money.
So long as Apple is getting enough reports, they should be able to isolate fairly easily what the particular units have in common. Again, they control the whole stack - hardware down to software, so there is no trying to figure out what kind of machine it is - presumably with a serial number or some debugging app they could pinpoint exactly what hardware it was, down to the chips on the motherboard, because they made it all.
That's fine, except Apple doesn't deserve the same grace that IMO Microsoft deserves. Developing Windows is inherently challenging because there are countless combinations of motherboards, video cards, disk controllers, etc etc.
The advantage that Apple has always had is that they control the entire stack - from hardware down to software. They can choose whatever chipset they want, whatever display adapter they want, and whatever components they want.
It is quite conceivable (and I would expect them to do so) for Apple to have at least one model of every computer they sell that their operating system needs to run on, and they can test their product on each of those machines. It should also be possible for them to identify what machines it will not function on and refuse to upgrade those machines until such time that it is stable.
Yet, they failed to do so.
You used pre-grown trees? When I was a lad it took years to build a house because we had to grow our own trees.
Bitbucket doesn't have the features that Github has. On bitbucket, pull requests are basically email notifications to the repo managers. On github, you can view changesets and now you can even do one click merging once the changes have been reviewed. There are a bunch of other features also that bitbucket just doesn't have yet. Hopefully bitbucket will improve because it will be good to have the competition to drive features.
http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?campaign_id=229565125950&placement=emu&creative=tfa&keyword=brd
http://www.amazonservices.com/content/product-ads-on-amazon.htm/ref=az_mm_pads?ld=AZPADSMakeM
Those two both seem to be strong contenders and both have a large customer base. I think Google has a strong place, but I *don't* know that they are a monopoly.
Would be interested to know how you did updates. I always had problems with insufficient space to install the updates and such. Is there a trick?
So which is it? Are most clocks not electric? Or do most clocks run on DC?
This.
These stats do not say anything about how many handsets had hardware issues. The stats given relate to how many support calls there are.
And what about voice conferencing and video?
I mean, let's face it, Skype is dominant because of its market penetration. A web based solution or imbedding in a browser that has large market share would negate that.
The point is, if Google wants to take on Skype, they need to make it quick and easy for people to use, and installing another client is a barrier.
The only thing I can assume is that he left out the number of downloads on each device. So it may be proportionally more. Maybe not. Who knows.
Sure.
I mean, if you want people to develop for your platform, you need to protect the investment of your developers. They might forgive you once, but if it happens prematurely too many times they will start looking elsewhere.
I don't know if it is fair to say that MS has a very poor track record. DOS programs written in 1988 still likely work on PCs running Windows XP. In more recent years I would probably tend to agree with you though.
What's easier to tell somebody who wants to chat with you?
Go to this website, download X, install it, click here etc etc etc
or
Click on this link I sent you in an email and start talking?
Why in Chrome?
Why is Skype as popular as it is?
The answer is ubiquity. Everybody has Skype.
Packaging it in Chrome means that you get a significant user base without requiring people to install *another* client.
It isn't stabbing anybody in the back until they drop support for the platform.
Responding to the market and building stuff that will work on the machines of your target market is called flexibility and responsiveness.
If you can deliver a better experience with HTML5, then it makes sense to do it. Developers might look at this move and get the sense that it may (though in some cases maybe not) be wise for them to follow suit - not because Microsoft is dropping the platform, but because you can get better results in HTML5.
Because rich websites end up as HTML on the client and user agents can collect, manipulate and republish the content in a variety of ways. I would imagine (don't own an iP* so couldn't say for sure) that the app would inhibit that.
In short, it's DRM.
That's looking at it the wrong way though. Stuff written for the cloud is intended to be portable and easy to move. If you outsource your cloud stuff, then you are dealing with businesses that are competing. There is motivation for the cloud company to service your needs - i.e. you need more stuff done, you pay for more services. You don't have the same motivation with an internal IT department.
And those reasons are mostly historical. To say that lacrosse has been more popular than hockey in Canada as a whole within the last thirty years is plain ignorance. According to http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2010/06/07/con-lacrosse-cra.html the Canadian Lacrosse Association represents 40,000 members. That is insignificant compared to the popularity of hockey.
Lacrosse may have had its ups and downs in terms of popularity, but it has been a long time since it has been more popular than hockey in Canada.
When was the last time lacrosse was more popular than hockey in Canada? By depending on the year do you mean years and years ago?