> -----Original Message----- > From: Gruss Gott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 8:28 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: New MacBook Pro 15! > > > Jim wrote: > > That's a surprising assessment considering the past few years. > > > > Well, you make some good points, and I"ll keep looking, but it seems > like they're always chasing someone and copying what they do: IBM, > WordPerfect (some Canada company?), VisiCalc, Netscape, Yahoo, Google, > etc.
I'm sorry... but it seems a double standard. When Apple assimilates and improves, it's innovation, but when MS does the same thing it's copying? MS has been a leader in Interface Design for nearly a decade. Yes, Apple is a leader too - and both companies borrow liberally from one another - but MS is a leader nonetheless. Compare IBM development tools to MS tools, or the latest Wordperfect to the latest Word (and this comes from a huge fan of Corel). There's just no comparison: MS is the one to beat. Even if they entered these fields late it's myopic to claim that they're still "chasing" in them - they're the undisputed leader. I just feel like your applying two completely separate definitions. > Even Xbox is just a copy of what was already out there. So where's > their big innovation? What product do they sell, that's new? Xbox Live was the big innovation - and still is. Complete integration of community features into every game was (and is) huge and completely novel. Now they're extending that innovation on the console to Windows with Live for Vista. Big things. > The Digital Life is ok, but SUN started that in the late 90s and it's > not really catching on with corporate folk, but maybe that's just what > I've heard. I think we're talking about two different things. The "Digital Life" that I'm talking about is actually called "MyLifeBits", an experiment in digitally capturing as much of a person's life as possible. Images, conversations, thoughts, etc - and, more importantly, linking them together in usable search architecture. For example how do a system search for a movie that you remember discussing with a client sometime last week? How do you formulate a query to find the restaurant that had the big blue light fixtures and great pot-stickers? The challenges are daunting and the results have been impressive - and are already greatly improving MS products. Vista's (dare I say Innovative) system-wide, consolidated search is an offshoot of this kind of thinking. There's a great article at Scientific American about it (and that article is called "A Digital Life"... and sciam.com is a ColdFusion site so there's lots to be happy about): http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=CC50D7BF-E7F 2-99DF-34DA5FF0B0A22B50 > Apple, for example, has tons of industry unique products: OSX, iPod, > iTunes, iPhone, Apple TV, laptops, Desktops etc, etc As a company > they are one big disruptor; where they go, they change entire > industries. I'm sorry... but none of those products are unique. They all have innovative aspects but all of them improve, to a greater or lesser extent on previously existing products/technology. Where I think Apple's greatest strength lies is in the identification of market segments ready to spend more money for an ownership experience rather than functionality. It's in the polishing of existing technology, not the original generation of it. +) iPod and iTunes are, in my opinion, marketing successes much more than technological ones. The hardware is great, the software (again, my opinion) not so great. The genius was the vertical integration - the success of Apple in this regard, by the way, is almost completely due to their draconian, monopolistic practices. A great business success of course - but unique? No, not at all. Innovative? In some areas to be sure - but that's also up to debate. The main interface element for the hardware predated Apple - Creative came up with it first. And that's my point: Creative may have had the initial inspiration but Apple knew how to make people want it. They entered an already crowded digital music market and made iPod "the thing". It's a great business success no matter how you look at it. +) OSX has many innovative features but like any major software project builds firmly on the shoulders of all the prior research of themselves and their competitors. Apple doesn't work in a vacuum, they (like everybody else) adopt and adapt. You can see shades of XP in many of the contextual design aspects of OS X just as you can see shades of OS X in Vista's visual design. What would you consider to be unique, truly innovative in OS X? There probably really isn't much (software, even huge high-quality software, is very lucky to bring even a single truly innovative feature to the table). +) iPhone... I'm torn about this one. I suppose you could say selling a $250 dollar phone for $500 is "innovative" but I wouldn't. ;^) Seriously tho' the phone itself isn't that innovative - it's an iPod mixed with a phone. The true innovation in the phone is that it's the first commercial use of a multi-point touch interface. But I don't know of a single other feature that's really new. I'm sure that all the features (keeping with Apple's history) will be highly polished, attractive and well done, but I fear not really innovative. +) Apple TV. Come on. That's not ever remotely original or innovative. It's a concession at best. Media extender technologies are nothing new and Apple TV brings nothing interesting to the table - it just does something that Apple's not allowed anybody else to do. I'm sure it will be good at what it does, I'm sure it will work well - but it's far from unique. > And guess who's chasing yet again? MS. Zune. Pfft. Do something > new for once. MS has thousands of initiatives. Some, like Zune, are attempts to gain a toehold into existing markets (and, you must admit, the Zune was actually quite impressive before it was gutted by the RIAA). Other's are attempts to create markets (such as their robotics initiatives and IPTV stuff). I still feel the need to bring up Office 2007. This is their flagship product - second only to Windows in importance to the company. And yet they've risked greatly to introduce an entirely new interaction paradigm. This is not the move of a company content to stagnate. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| ColdFusion MX7 and Flex 2 Build sales & marketing dashboard RIAâs for your business. Upgrade now http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2?sdid=RVJT Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:230994 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
