Disqus - Latest Comments for G58

Re: Microsoft is Dead

G58 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 07:01:57 -0000

"The idea that MS tried to copy Apple is neither new nor realistic."

I work in marketing and design and trust me, everyone in our industry is aware that Microsoft's focus was Apple. I've worked with people who were actually briefed to research the market's wants. All they got back was: "I want Windows to work better" and "I want Windows to look and work like Mac OS X." Note the word: 'work'.

When you put the two together you get a desire to have something that works intuitively. If MS had the ability to design an OS that works intuitively, don't you think they would have done it - without copying Apple? The timeline speaks for itself.

No, [sigh] of course Apple didn't invent "...all the visual elements..." Indeed many of them did "...came from the NeXT acquisition." "So did Apple "copy" NeXT?" YES! But they did it with the blessing of the bloke who owned the company, and his name was Steve Jobs!! Doh!

"...to think that MS sits idly waiting for Apple to something before making its own move is naive."

I've been accused of many things and have been guilty of quite a few, but naivety isn't one of them. Naive people are prepared to act on 40% of the information. I ask too many questions to be satisfied with anything less that 75% and always aim for 90% plus. If this concept doesn't make sense to you...

"Look up how much MS spends on R&D."

Never make the mistake of assuming that a high level of R&D spend necessarily equals either great innovation or user ready products. In this sad corner I give you the turd coloured Zune and 'Surface' - a PC in a coffee table for god's sake! The errors embodied in these two products alone are enough to make MS a laughing stock in the industry.

But more importantly they're so bad they would destroy a company that wasn't living off a 90% monopoly in its core activity.

And why stop at their colossally bad failures? They also lose tons of money on their so-called successes. How much do you think they lose on every games console they sell? Their most successful consumer hardware product loses them money. Think about that. R&D? Don't make me laugh.

This is a business model from hell. Without the fact that they're still benefiting from their first deal with IBM and have lived off a lazy market happy to mainline the same unstable, insecure, ugly OS for 20 years, there isn't a shred of evidence that MS is worthy of its place in the industry. When heroin and crack dealers create addicts through a cruel process of dependency, they are rightfully vilified and imprisoned when caught. When MS do the same thing, Gates is applauded, and someone lets Ballmer out of his cage!

"As for Intel in Macs ...interesting how all that suddenly didn't matter anymore..."

Road map.

"Real reason: Apple wanted to be on the same chip rev cycle as its PC counterparts and wanted to leverage the Intel name. Plus, it would end the PowerPC supply issues."

That's part of the reason. This one was all about timing. Gaining market share in key areas was the goal. This could never have been achieved without all the relevant factors falling into place at the right time. One rather important one was the successful music industry legal case against Napster.

I've no interest in entering into a pissing contest over CPU speeds and benchmarks and timelines. Intel in Macs happened at the right time for everyone, and had a lot to do with respect - the respect two industry giants have for each other, what their companies are doing and where they are going. There's an obvious chemistry between Jobs and Otellini. Contrast this with the hapless Michael Dell!

"...products that flop tend to be irrelevant...unless they're Sony Betamax or something..."

True. Apple tried games consoles before games consoles were ready and before the world was ready for games consoles. And again, all this was before Jobs' return in '97.

It's Apple post '97 that's relevant here. No-one has ever run a business like Jobs runs Apple. It's more than the dedication and the passion, more than the charisma, much more than the infamous temper tantrums and alleged fear he generates, or even the legendary collaborative choices he makessuch as the one with Jonathan Ive. At its core, Jobs' philosophy has deep roots in Eastern teachings.

Where suited businessmen in the '80s were told by proto Gordon Gekkos to read Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War' because they thought it was a text on how to beat the opposition, Jobs was quietly learning how to understand people. You can't replicate that. But you can admire it - without being a sheep.

Finally, I can agree with your last comment up to the point that it states the obvious and simplifies what's actually going on. Before the first Bondai blue iMacs were announced to the world in May 1998, nearly all computers were beige boxes. 20 years later, most PC manufacturers still produce beige boxes, if not in actual colour then in style. For them, 'design' is what they can bolt onto a box to make it 'look' different. Evidence: Alienware! OMFGG!!

There have been attempts to imitate Apple's design style. Sony have got the sexiest logo since Google in their VAIO. But most of their PCs are cluttered, unimaginative, look cheap and are frankly ugly. And they're at the top of the alternatives list box design-wise.

Design is about emotions to subliminal messages. Design is a discipline that if it can be described, it isn't design - it's gimmickry.

If Apple's designs weren't the only ones that matter right now, why are MS, LG et al so keen to launch 'me too' products that so closely resemble them?

Re: Microsoft is Dead

G58 — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:22:38 -0000

Well maybe you should try Mac OS X. If you're still thinking of Mac OS in terms of 7, 8 or 9, OS X is going to really surprise you. In fact it's so good, the version the majority of users upgraded from, three versions ago, was what MS tried to copy to make Vista. Tried being the operative word here.

As for Mac users being sheep, I think you're missing the fundamental fact that as the most advanced operating system on the planet, actually all we're doing is choosing the best combination of software and hardware available. No-one ever got hung for doing that!

But I certainly don't "need to refresh [my] memory regarding all the Apple products that flopped". They're almost all irrelevant. Only the Apple Puck Mouse and the Motorola ROKR fall into the current time period following Steve Jobs' return and marked by conspicuous success.

The ROKR was a contractual agreement with Motorola who were about to loose the contract to supply PowerPC CPUs to Apple - they just didn't know it yet. Any good business would do the same.

It's what Apple learned from the Motorola ROKR experience that is important. But if I educate you on this one, I'm not convinced you're willing or able to get beyond viewing me as an Apple fanboy/sheep! But here goes anyway:

In the beginning there was Apple. Most people thought of Apples as a computers for graphic designers. Then there was iPod and iTunes. Then everyone started to look at Apple as cool. And Apple started to make money and the share price went through the roof.

Whilst Apple was still tied to Motorola's PowerPC development programme, Apple would always be 'The Others'. Apple decided to test the market with a phone - one they didn't have to make themselves, but one that did what people wanted phones to do.

Then came Intel and Motorola was history.

The first ROKR lesson was that ROKR was a crap name. The second ROKR lesson was that Motorola couldn't really do the job very well. The third lesson was that what the market really wanted was a phone that did all those things, but also did what Apple does best: They wanted a phone made by Apple.

And who are these people? Apple sheep? No. They're everyone!

Re: Microsoft is Dead

G58 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:52:14 -0000

If asked, would you count Adolf Hitler in YOUR list of heroes? Don't answer right away, you may need time to think about it.

Here's an easier one: Would you count Bill Gates in your list of heroes?

I'm guessing maybe you would. But this isn't what makes you a sheep. It's not even what makes you behave like a proto Nazi on here. But is what makes you wrong.

I've never really liked organised religion. Indeed I've never liked organisation that much. But I'll defend to the death anyone's right to their choice of religion and right to worship it. Some refer to this as 'The Church of the Golden Rule' - Do unto others as you would have then do unto you.

What I won't support is the book burners and witch hunters and those too dumb to ask enough questions. But call for them to be banned from the internet or anywhere else? No. Some people need them around - as examples of some of the biggest mistakes ever made in human history.

So where are you on Her Leutnant Schicklgruber? Why stop at banning free speech. Why not gas the people we disagree with? What do you really do with your spare time?

Re: Microsoft is Dead

G58 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:02:12 -0000

"Dell: do you really think we’re idiots?"

All the evidence of Dell's business model suggests that this is exactly how they view their customers.

Everyone I know who's bought a Dell is someone who, when challenged or simply probed for a few minutes, turns out to be the type of person who asks very few questions.

And I don't mean those rare creatures who actually are clever, and don't have to prove it. I mean the ones who read the 'get a life' books on self improvement or went on NLP courses and learned how to imitate being clever.

These are the people who run IT departments and inflict their supercilious, self-satisfied, know-it-all bullshit on the world to cover up the fact that they're idiots.

So yes, idiots buy Dell.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

G58 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:23:11 -0000

Oh dear, it's so obvious you haven't used a Mac in a long while. The use of the 'formfactor' argument to dismiss Apple's current success is only ever made by people who just don't get it.

And that's okay, there are always dumb sheep in the world. Dumb sheep lack the ability to recognise or define why something is right or what makes it great. Dumb sheep need to be guided... and still not all dumb sheep will get it.

But opining on a subject you have limited or inadequate knowledge of is a sure-fire way to get caught out.

And when several of your most intuitive and broad thinking PC using friends buy iPod Touches and iPhones - because of how well they work... the evidence of the utter stupidity of this argument becomes clear.