A Night Unremembered
13 years ago
Monday, December 3, 2012
Here I go again...
I have friends who like Apple products. I think I know why. Apple computers are not primary targets of the various hackers out there, they don't seem to have as many problems, and they are so hip and cool (the Apple products, not my friends... my friends are just as unhip and uncool as I am).
But imagine my lack of surprise when I came across this article:
Upgrading RAM on new iMac practically impossible
I was not surprised because I thought this had been going on for years, if not decades. So, in a way, I was actually surprised.
I have been toying with "personal computers" since 1981 and have always been appreciative of the "open architecture" concept. I was surprised when IBM followed it instead of the proprietary model they had followed in the mainframe and minis.
To be honest, I thought Apple would eventually fall by the wayside because it was aggressively proprietary. That certainly happened to a number of PC makers when they tried it. Apple did almost fail, by the way, but were essentially "bailed out" by Bill Gates and Microsoft in 1997. Apple almost failed not because of its proprietary business model but because of a lack of innovation which the departure of Jobs exacerbated.
"Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs announced that Microsoft would inject more than $150 million into Apple and take other steps to guarantee Apple's near-term survival. Some Apple zealots in the audience hooted. Others sighed in relief. Virtually all were surprised and confused. Even in cyberspace it is odd for one company to bail out its only rival in a key area of business. Between them, Microsoft and Apple sell the operating systems, which dictate how computers analyze and display information, that run virtually every personal computer."
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/archive/index.php/t-2832041.html
In my view, Apple was doing fine until Jobs left to build the NeXT computer (which failed miserably). Jobs is (or was) Apple and things started coming apart as soon as he left. After the Microsoft infusion of cash, Apple soared and under Jobs, began its rise to dominance in devices (iPhone, iPad mostly).
Are we going to see another rough period for Apple?
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3 comments:
I don't consider myself an Apple fanatic but do prefer their products. As long as the computer you use can access my websites and you are happy with it I have no qualms what brand you use. I get a charge reading the pundits - you know - Apple only sold 49 million iPhones, the experts predicted 50 million ..... result, Apple is losing their magic. MS only sold 4 million Surface tablets, they cut the price and reduced orders. Is that another MS fail? Who cares how many they sold (save the investors). I have a 2007 iMac, the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2. I see no reason to upgrade for the sake of having the latest toy. In answer to your question: as long as they are capable of accessing the internet, give me basic functions I need and use I'm not worried about any rough times. Let the company and the shareholders worry about that, good luck to them.
Some claim that in order for competition to truly "work," there must be at least 2 strong adversaries: Ali - Frazier/Norton; Magic vs Bird, Edison v. Westinghouse, France v. England, etc.
You raised some issues about PCs v. Macs which I had not considered before. I started writing my own programs in 1969, using text based commands. When GUI came about and pictures, I was initially lost. I still prefer text to this day as opposed to video, for example. During the time that a video loads up and I start hearing something, I could have read the entire message at least twice and moved on to something else.
I never fully appreciated the technological differences between PCs and Macs. However, I surely noticed the differences in the personalities of those who were PC v. Mac fanatics, and the types of tasks they expected their computers to perform. My sense, although not documented empirically, was that there was a difference between how PC users and Mac user "preferred" to process information and express ideas or concepts.
No science, no studies, just my anecdotal experience.
Paul, you have a good head on your shoulders... no doubt of that.
Inspector, 1969? That would have been COBOL and punch cards, wouldn't it?
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