Quote:
Originally Posted by Maggie Leung
Android's momentum and range of devices give consumers more options than ever. It'll be interesting to see how Apple will balance not alienating consumers, app developers and vendors as it tries to maximize profits. Even successful companies can overreach.
Mobile devices have become user-friendlier over the years, which also weighs against Apple. The fact that someone as tech-limited as I am is willing to switch to Android doesn't work in Apple's favor, for instance.
Apple's key strength has been creating user-friendly access to content. The company is risking undermining that key feature with this current course. If I were a content provider, I might go along with Apple in the short term, to avoid losing market share, but I would be developing Web access so I could abandon Apple as quickly as possible, while holding onto my content buyers longer term. Even if content providers go along for now, they've gotta be wondering what happens the next time Apple decides to put the screws to them.
Apple has created a chilling effect with its current course -- among informed consumers, as well as content providers and app developers. That does not seem like a good long-term business strategy when Android is waiting to eat your lunch. Apple might gain short term, but short-term strategizing can bite. For one thing, it's much cheaper to keep existing customers than it is to attract new ones. And it will be harder to attract new ones if you've made content providers, vendors and app developers skittish.
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very solid posts Maggie. Does the bolded part bring to mind any OS from the past going head to head with Apple and Apple doing essentially the same thing as they are doing now "...do it our [the Apple] way or you can't run on our hardware." Guess which OS won that competition? MS and MS-DOS & Windows of course. Now it's just Google in the place of MS with the with a company already experienced and a HUGE foothold in the business market which is, gee, just like 25-30 years ago. So while MS might be in decline vision wise, there still may be a bright young mind out ther, heck for all we know Google could cough up the cash to do what was unthinkable just 5-6 years ago and BUY MICROSOFT to move in a serious way into the office place overnight. I good example only on a very small scale was HP-Compaq's purchase of Palm. HP knew the hole left in the market, when Palm pretty much went teats-up and Sony dropped out of the PDA market, was never filled yet there is a huge demand for just those devices only updated to modern needs.
If Apple keeps on this path of basically trying to control everything and force compliance from developers (akin to herding cats even in the boom years) it's just going to fall flat when there exists a way to develop for pretty much any hardware platform running the Android OS. And if they ever get apps that can work in harmony with MS OS based business apps, the companies which move in that direction and just drop Apple as they did those 25-30 years ago because of the PITA anal Apple restrictions and limitations, but those companies will be the real winners in this exploding market.
I just don't see any developers writing apps for my industry for OSX or iOS. Still I saw some very nice small utility apps I used on my Touch which i found just great. problem is the aid in productivity those iOS apps offered for me don't translate into increasing the efficiency in doing my day-to-day work. But I do see the potential for and Android + Windows synergy. Sadly, because, as I have stated over and over, I actually LOVED the newest 4th gen Touch. With just a bit larger screen, maybe a 5" 16:10 screen and the ability to add a 3G/4G data only, SIM card would make it the perfect hardware and form factor for my needs.
I guess I just agree with your take on the issue. Give me a device that does what I need, gets out of my way when I need to add more functionality outside your ecosystem and does not make me worry about me placing my trust in a very, well, for lack of a less inflammatory word, fickle company and platform. I need to know it will still be there letting me do what I need to do 10-yrs from now as it's a big investment of time and resources. Right after I find I really enjoyed using the iOS on the Touch, Apple pulls a stunt to make me leery of putting my trust in them, almost the same as back in the late 80s to early 90s when the lost for basically the same reasons to MS.