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My anticipation for a new sub-notebook announcement today was not carried through to reality. Instead, iTV became Apple TV and became reality, the iPhone rumors were true but amazingly insufficient, and little else was said over the two-hour-long Keynote. Am I let down at no other neato product announcements? Do I brush off this Keynote as a dull year? Will I skip watching the Quicktime stream once it gets posted by Apple?
No on all accounts. In fact, I see the company rumblings today as some of the greatest progress Apple has made in years. My explanation starts with the tale of the Full House years, the early 1990s and a bit before.
With the first personal computer revolution a few years old, operating system competition was volatile; hardware vendors were ready to ship their computers with an included OS easing the work on consumers. Microsoft licensed 3.1 and, later…, Windows 95 to those vendors, effectively sealing the deal for operating system takeover and dominance. Apple lost footing and momentum and began to fade towards bankrupcy.
As the timeline of technological progression creeps further towards the present, Apple came back following Steve Jobs’ return to power after then-CEO Amelio was ousted by an infuriated Board of Directors. Jobs has the vision that first propelled the company, but his unfortunate exile shorted the electrical lifeline Apple would have needed to compete in the early 1990s. Following the reunion, iMac, iPod, G4, G5, Intel-partnership - it is all common knowledge now, or you can browse Wikipedia to refresh any gaps you may have.
The personal computer market today is torn into two factions: PCs and Macs. Business environments frequently use PCs due to the first Windows proliferation with 3.1 & 95; more and more home/educational/creative users are switching to Macs, with marketshare increases every year. Apple has made enormous software strides in the past 6 years, releasing continuous and major updates to their OS while Microsoft has clearly struggled to get one release off the ground. Apple also has the great advantage of product [every]placement with the iPod.
Now, to the latest. The iPhone announcement today was a major wound for Microsoft; let’s call it the 5th of 10 nails in the coffin. A quick Vista preview shows very few User Interface (UI) advances; it is well known that software engineers are greatly challenged at Microsoft, but not to “find a way to make it happen” but rather to “jump around many committees’ and managers’ wishes”. It creates a disastrous quagmire of productivity, sending bright and promising programmers to their death in red tape.
Again, in the meantime, Apple has launched technology forward, often coming up with their own standards (or grasping very innovative ideas) in order to soar over the present chasms and gaps - FireWire, wireless, axe the floppy, all-in-one, to name a few. The iPhone shows that Apple has two main motives: #1) forget all about the competition and #2) destroy the competition by pursuing #1.
Wars over technology-based consumer goods are fought in two, distinct manners. The first method involves coming up with harder, better, faster, stronger products. This approach is traditional and could be metaphorically described as a tug-of-war against the superpowers where little ground is ever lost or won. Occasional, ground-breaking products are released which set a competitor apart and grants them the limelight; but the effect of the punch is short-lived and is eventually returned.
Apple has announced, in tandem with the iPhone, that they are choosing the second method of war with Microsoft, their great rival: fight your war on a new battleground. Shifting the focus of the engagement allows the initiator home-field advantage; the second-comer has to adjust to a new setting, a new barometric pressure, a new gravity. The iPhone incorporates such unprecedented user interaction while maintaining utter simplicity that Microsoft can only shake in their combat boots. Under the skin, the iPhone is running OS X, Apple’s landmark operating system, yet it is being activated by casual hand motions and ignores careless gestures if the device is accidentally brushed against. Now, again, take a quick look at Vista; does that operating system scream hi-tech UI? … I’ll pause to let the laughs die down.
Apple’s new battlefield will destroy Microsoft. If consumers are greeted with technology like the iPhone, but have to return to their Windows-running PCs at the end of the day, where, naturally, will they turn for their next computer purchase? The day has come when Macs can run Windows, if necessary, and the my-software-only-runs-on-Windows excuse is laughably irrelevant; these and other reasons suggest an imminent moment when Mac marketshare crests 50%, when PC users are deserting the Microsoft militia in alarming numbers.
Lastly, and somewhat in iteration of an earlier point, the iPhone technology seals the deal with CEOs who want to be on the winning-side of the technological war. Considering what we are looking at today, in the iPhone, Microsoft is finding itself devolving and reaching its obsolescence. It’s 2017, we are browsing old photos on our home computer during the holidays, and a conversation begins about the technology we knew while growing up: “Remember dot-matrix printing?” “Gosh, was that a hoot! But what about film cameras, I wonder if pawn shops do anything other than recycle those things now..” “Of course. And who could forget Microsoft? Oh, the things our kids won’t grow up… at least, they won’t miss them.”
I’ve spoken enough. It’s time for me to buy an iMac.