Google's Android is Eating Apple's Lunch

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

I'm pretty sure that Google is as evil as the other companies. It's just younger and has less skeletons in the closet.

True but the thing with Google is unlike other tech companies its eco system is the Internet so what's good for the Internet is normally good for Google.

[MrDoug]

Apple has saved the best for next.

[kennyc]

Pixarlicious!

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

It only took a few years on Mobile Read for me to understand the indifference demographic when it comes to professionals who use the Mac: It appears that many people here are programmers drawn to e-readers partly for their textual purity and ease of format manipulation. This is not a criticism; rather, it's a statement of site-wide priorities which don't begin and end with book lovers.

It's very likely that a programmer might ignore end users whose profession is dependent on macs (viewed as a dumbed-down locked-in system). They have to rely on macs not simply due to the diverse practicality of the tools themselves but because of compatibility with multiple formats and arrays of software between pro users and the people who pay them.

Since at last I'm beginning to understand this, I'll ask people who aren't interested in professionals in the arts to ignore the rest of this post.

The question is what's going to happen to professional use in the wake of the abandonment of professional needs. The easy answer would be to return to Windows, since the elements are all there (most specifically, Digidesign and Avid). But if that happens, there will still be a wake of bodies -- people who had to buy $40,000 systems to work with filmmakers, only to discover future development on their systems closed and their archives at least partly unreadable. Struggling small studios will go bankrupt and so will some professionals.

If Apple's pro-end market dies, the question is what will happen to all of that work. It looks as though Apple is not inclined to care or make concessions to past users at any level, as shown by the utter discontinuation of firewire on newer Mac laptops. People cannot even use Apple's migration assistant to move expensive authorized programs from one machine to another, let alone use legacy audio hardware without buying third-party interfaces like the Sonnet Echo (which might or might not do the job, as reports from professional users have shown). And never mind the recent move to make all future laptops impossible to customize.

That's a market which is small by comparison to Android's, one which only Microsoft seems to care about at present. Undiluted linux is powerful enough for music production but has not been its most problem-free environment so far and I doubt it will be. In terms of the future, I only wish that Windows were taking bites out of Apple.

Niche markets are always last in line for support. Even all the way back to the '60's mainframe dinosaur world. Doesn't matter what the niche. That's why, in the old days, you had VAR's - Value Added Resellers. Third party middlemen who did the customization needed for niche markets - at a pretty penny. And when they went broke or left the market, you were out of luck.

Microsoft's world view was to control the OS and basic broad market packages - and leave open the hooks for the equivalent of VAR's to deal with the niche markets. The reason was they wanted to grab the big buck products, and let the rabble have the rest. The results were all sorta of minor incompatibility problems, but a broad swatch of niche products.

Apple (from 1980, with one short exception in the mid '90's) tried to control everything. The result was a very consistent result, on average, but a vastly smaller "world". However Apple addressed some niche markets, not due to the needs of the niche markets, but because they were what was available after Microsoft had grabbed the big, mass market applications.

Now Apple, through iOS, has become Microsoft. Unfortunately, having got the big bucks, (and the big power), they have no compunction about stepping on those who got them there. This should come as no surprise, they've been doing it for decades. (But always in the name of a smooth-running product!) Think Motorola, Power PC, and soon Intel based software, as Apple migrates iOS to the desktop - using ARM processors...

Sadly, Microsoft is doing the same. Starting with Vista, they started killing their "back catalog" of software. Can't run Word 97 in Win 7, go buy a new Word. The old one would work just fine, but there's no money in it for Microsoft, so kill the past.

I feel sorry for those professionals dependent on old software, but the big boys don't care. And Apple is a Big Boy now, no matter what the hype machine says...and they want to make you rebuy your system every couple of years for their profits...

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Sadly, Microsoft is doing the same. Starting with Vista, they started killing their "back catalog" of software. Can't run Word 97 in Win 7, go buy a new Word. The old one world work just fine, but there's no money in it for Microsoft, so kill the past.

I feel sorry for those professionals dependent on old software, but the big boys don't care. And Apple is a Big Boy now, no matter what the hype machine says...and they want to make you rebuy your system every couple of years for their profits...

There is no profit in following the old adage " If it ain't broke, don't fix it." And you are right about them not caring. It is all about the money, and not legacy programs, that work just fine for the user. For the company's it is more of a evolve or die thing, and drag the consumers along kicking and screaming as they evolve. Imho!

[SeaKing]

Aren't they just slowing down the migration cycle as was done before.

Computers are pretty good these days. The programs are pretty competent. I can see folks just sitting awhile, for years before moving to do something.
Indeed they just miss entire cycles.
For example, I missed Vista, and probably will miss W7. My desktop is 14 years old. I am looking into "Chromebooks."
Apple, I only fool with for friends or relatives.

Is there some hot expensive technology out that I can't resist? Nope. (I just bought a used $36 Droid 1 for use as a tablet.)

I am becoming a "bottom feeder."

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by DustyDisks

There is no profit in following the old adage " If it ain't broke, don't fix it." And you are right about them not caring. It is all about the money, and not legacy programs, that work just fine for the user. For the company's it is more of a evolve or die thing, and drag the consumers along kicking and screaming as they evolve. Imho!

Yes, damn the consumer, corporate shareholder profits are all that matters!

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Sadly, Microsoft is doing the same. Starting with Vista, they started killing their "back catalog" of software. Can't run Word 97 in Win 7, go buy a new Word. The old one world work just fine, but there's no money in it for Microsoft, so kill the past.

I know people who complain about having to make a website work (and work well) with ancient versions of web browsers because there are still people who use them. Office has seen some upgrades in the past 15 years, and if you are concerned about paying, you could just try open source. The latest version of OpenOffice.org supports Windows 8.

[holymadness]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Well, if we believe the pundits (which I don't) about this being a post-PC age, that won't matter because the mainstream in moving in other directions.
(shrug)
Each product has a natural market that is receptive to its pro's and con's. Usually, trying to go beyond those bounds proves fruitless.
The best products are simply the best at meeting the needs of their target users and waste no effort trying to be what they can't.

The post-PC age isn't one in which PCs no longer exist or cease to be relevant, it's one in which PCs are just one computing device among many, such as tablets and smartphones.

For professional applications, high-end gaming, and a slew of other functions beyond the ability of mobile OSes and apps, the PC will remain the device of choice for at least several years yet.

[holymadness]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

That is the *long-term* threat Apple faces: people who commit to Android or WinPhone will be equally wedded to their investment in applications.

This has always been the case, but you've got the trend backwards: in every survey for several years now, far more Android/Windows users express an interest in switching to Apple products than the opposite.

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by holymadness

The post-PC age isn't one in which PCs no longer exist or cease to be relevant, it's one in which PCs are just one computing device among many, such as tablets and smartphones.

For professional applications, high-end gaming, and a slew of other functions beyond the ability of mobile OSes and apps, the PC will remain the device of choice for at least several years yet.

I think you are wrong at the moment we are in transition phase so we have pc as well as other devices in the future apart from the mobile devices the rest of the stuff like high end gaming other forms of heavy processor requirements would move to the cloud. The only thing that is stopping this from happening is Internet speed but with Google pushing for high Internet speeds this will change.
As the kids of this generation grow up they would have grown up buying digital goods and very few physical goods. So for them to subscribe to a gaming cloud service like onlive will make more sense then buying a console.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

so kill the past.

^ Also the mantra of the City of Houston. Nothing lasts long enough to become historic, because buildings are sold and demolished so easily.

[holymadness]

In addition to profit, engagement is another arena in which iOS and Android differ significantly. I have repeatedly asked: what do Android users do with their phones? Despite Android's massive market share, its users lag behind in every metric of mobile engagement: less browsing, less WiFi use, fewer photos uploaded, fewer app purchases, fewer games played, fewer online purchases, and so on and so on. Asymco goes into this today with news that 77% of mobile retail traffic came from iOS devices this Thanksgiving weekend:

We’ve become accustomed to thinking that platforms that look similar are used in a similar fashion. But this is clearly not the case. The shopping data is only one proxy but there are others: developers and publishers have been reporting distinct differences in consumption on iOS vs. Android and, although anecdotal, the examples continue to pile up.

And engagement is not a frivolous platform attribute. It is highly causal to success because it correlates with all cash flows associated with ecosystem value creation. Especially when a platform like Android depends more on engagement than “monetizing hardware.”

I’m not satisfied with the explanation that Android users are demographically different because the Android user pool is now so vast and because the most popular devices are not exactly cheap. There is something else at play. It might be explained by design considerations or by user experience flaws or integration but something is different.

Someone I know recently bought himself a Galaxy SIII. Not long after, I offered him some Google Play credit, or just some apps he wanted, for his birthday. He turned me down, saying, "I don't know about the Google Play store because I have never tried to buy anything off of it. I haven't been using many new apps lately (other than what I downloaded when I first got the phone)." I ended up getting him a case instead.

[holymadness]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

I think you are wrong at the moment we are in transition phase so we have pc as well as other devices in the future apart from the mobile devices the rest of the stuff like high end gaming other forms of heavy processor requirements would move to the cloud. The only thing that is stopping this from happening is Internet speed but with Google pushing for high Internet speeds this will change.
As the kids of this generation grow up they would have grown up buying digital goods and very few physical goods. So for them to subscribe to a gaming cloud service like onlive will make more sense then buying a console.

Huh? The cloud doesn't enter into it, it's just a distribution and storage mechanism. Your ability to run software is always constrained by your hardware. If you want to play high-end games or do professional-quality video editing, you are going to need a high-end CPU and GPU.

EDIT: Hmm, I just read about OnLive (never used it before). Seems like you might be right, if the experience is decent. Really interesting. Still a ways off, though, if only for the constraints imposed by most Internet connections that you mentioned.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Office has seen some upgrades in the past 15 years, and if you are concerned about paying, you could just try open source. The latest version of OpenOffice.org supports Windows 8.

OpenOffice also perfectly highlights one of the reasons businesses still shy away from open source software, the political/religious arguments that end up with the open source community spending too much time fighting each other. Like any real-world rebellion or insurgency, it eventually fractures into smaller groups who care more about fighting each other than the establishment they were originally trying to bring down.
Do I choose OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice.org? Which will give me the best support? Which is more likely to still be a viable project in 5 years time? 10?
Of course I might have chosen StarOffice in order to get the hopefully better support that Oracle offered, but StarOffice and its successor are dead now as a result of this infighting.