It's been fascinating to observe the tennis match here.
I don't know if anything I say will matter to the participants, but I
can try...again.
On Jun 14, 2005, at 9:54 AM, Eric Dunbar wrote:
I'd happily switch to another OS and/or hardware manufacturer if the
quality and experience were right, BUT, with Apple and its Mac you
know what you're getting, and you know how long you can rely on them
(that is perhaps their strongest point and why users have stuck with
them through thick and through thin).
That was in Apple's interests before, but the success of the iPod
seems to
be saying to Apple that such reliability may no longer be in their
interests. That is changing the landscape of the market forever, and
in
ways that will not be fully understood for quite some time.
The iPod is a disposable consumer product that does one task, and one
task only! It's not like a computer.
It is not like a computer; it IS a computer!
And NO it doesn't do just one task. Perhaps you haven't noticed, but
it just about has almost as many
peripherals as the Mac itself, and perhaps a few more interesting
ones...
a laser pointer
a radio
and much more
I would not be surprised if some nut to developed a GPS or even a
digital weather station unit for it.
Then there are those Podcasts....
No, mon ami, the iPod is it's own phenomenon whose last comparable
comparison was the "pet rock" of the 70's.
Now the pet rock as a consumer product did only one thing, was
disposable and sold like crazy.
The iPod is THE thing which is much more than what it is; it can be
made to be the consumer utility almost as useful (and to some already
as necessary) as the Swiss Army Knife.
The pet rock nor the Swiss Army Knife never reached the "affection"
level people have for their iPods.
And one more surprise, one can run Linux on the iPod and one can run
YDL from it!
OK, that was two.
A consumer product can become disposable, like the aforenamed pet rock,
just by falling out of fashion or use or whatever originally gave it
meaning... this is unlikely to happen to the iPod for the same reason
one keeps around a compass to discover magnetic north. In short, the
usefulness of the iPod may be something that may pass on to the next
generation of family members, as a pleasant and useful utility. As
long as there are podcasts, iTunes, and those other accessories which
exist for no other consumer product.
The iPod may be for consumers, but it has become much more than another
"consumer product". It may achieve the status of the American hot
dog. If it achieves that then it is eternal!
If you are the first adopter of a new technology you know you won't
get software support for long (e.g. Macintosh (128), PPC x1x0/x2x0,
Beige G3/PB3400). That's a principle that's well known and understood
in the tech universe and not special to Apple (and, if you don't
understand that then you probably shouldn't be an early adopter and
shut up if you ever try to whinge (I love knocking those people down
a
peg or two ;-)).
It seems that Mac users truly tend not to understand that. What else
can
explain the mind-boggling percentage of OSX machines that have already
been upgraded to Tiger?
Tiger is "proven" technology. 10.4 is little different from 10.3.
Moving to 10.0 WAS a major shift, however!
You are just plain wrong.
Tiger is not merely an incremental change as a patch or something of
that sort.
Tiger for those who really use their computers (and that is always the
place where the fallout occurs) is at least an order of difference to
be measured not by linear, but rather exponential, scales.
I'm sure that this will be discovered by many people by themselves when
they really need something and are tired of doing it the way it's
always been done and then it occurs to them to discover just what
widgets can do for them. The light shining on those people just then,
will be a thing to behold. The ooohs and ahhhs may not be as groovy as
a love-in of the 60's and 70's but man oh man -- it will be close!
AND there is NO discussion going on regarding what to expect when
Longhorn is finally released. Apple has a whole new fresh OS ready for
that too! Meanwhile one must attempt to limit one's ooohs and ahhhs in
an effort to at least appear civil, mustn't one?
As all good gentlemen know, one discusses not such things....
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