Here's the point, though, for apple, at least: With apple's current practices, they will turn into microsoft. An incompetent hodge podge of middle management that still has the delusion of grandeur of the olden days and just don't understand why their cool products are spat on by the market.
It's just a hypothesis but one I strongly believe in: Once you start winning via lawyers, you lose the ability to win via engineering. The business focus will switch from "design is everything" to "can we sue / can we patent this", and the engineers you keep and hire simply won't be of the caliber you used to get because it becomes a shameful act to work at apple. This hasn't happened yet, and it took a long period of evil doing by microsoft, but, let's be honest here, this is how it went: I work for microsoft. Sorry. and when that happens, you're history. The company won't die, and might well remain profitable for a long time still, but, like microsoft, it ceases to be something anyone is getting excited about, and it ceases to set the tone in the world. So, far apple's sake: Steve Jobs, cut the crap, stop whining, build nicer products. You know you can do this. Fire the lawyers already. On Apr 9, 7:42 pm, carl <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm still in the camp with Tor. > > I think historically Microsoft has built its business on questionable > ethics, going back almost 30 years. Selling mediocre products in > monopoly-controlled markets. Forcing OEMs to bundle Windows. etc. > Maybe they are getting better, but they now have the burden to prove > that they can "play nice". At least to me I am once or more bitten. > > Apple on the other hand has mostly tried to compete by making > innovative products with excellent user experience. They gained large > market share with the iPod and iPhone with good products, not with > shady deals. But I do agree now that they are on a slippery slope with > some of their aggressive lock-in tactics. I'll keep using their > products as long as they make my life easier. But, who knows, I may > end up with an Android phone next, and use it along side my MacBook > Pro and iPad :) > > On Apr 9, 5:07 am, zeevb <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > On Apr 9, 1:44 am, Tor Norbye <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > I know that Apple is very unpopular right now for having a closed > > > garden, and I think we all wish things were more open. But that's not > > > the same as the things we've seen from Microsoft in the past > > > You may be right but it seems that Apple is heading in that direction > > and their "closed garden" is full of thorns. > > The first one, which I think the Posse mentioned in the past > > (regarding the iPhone) is the banning of Java from the iPhone OS. I > > recall that in the early days of the iPhone you had some hopes > > (especially Dick) that Java support will arrive - but it didn't. Then > > you mentioned that it may arrive by cross compilation but now with the > > release of the iPhone OS 4 SDK Apple is banning any cross compilation > > so there will be no Java (or any other language besides Objective-C, C > > and C++). I expected that the JAVA Posse will show a bit more > > criticism for a company banning the use of the Java language on its > > platform. > > > Second - the app store approval process - Dick mentioned the ban of > > Google Voice which was clearly done for non-technical reasons. As I > > mantioned before in this group, Paul Graham has a well written blog > > post on this -http://www.paulgraham.com/apple.html > > > Third - it seems that their HTC patent suite is part of FUD tactics > > against Android. Wil Shipley, in an open letter to Steve Jobs > > regarding the HTC litigation wrote: > > "You’ve famously taken and built on ideas from your competitors, > > as have I, as we should, as great artists do. Why is what HTC has done > > worse? Whether an idea was patented doesn’t change the morality of > > copying it, it only changes the ability to sue. […] > > If Apple becomes a company that uses its might to quash > > competition instead of using its brains, it’s going to find the > > brainiest people will slowly stop working there. You know this, you > > watched it happen at Microsoft." -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
