“The hype is reaching fever-pitch, and the odds are still stacked that Apple will announce a device combining the functionality of an iPod and a mobile phone in January next year, but whether such a device will actually sell is another question,” Bill Ray writes for The Register.
Ray writes, “There seems little question that an Apple phone product will be launched in 2007, and that it will work with the iTunes service and have a very pretty industrial design and a smooth interface. Strapping an iPod to a mobile phone is not a great technical challenge, which makes it all the more remarkable that Motorola did it so badly with their ROKR handset. Maintaining the features which made the iPod so popular in a mobile phone will be much more of a challenge.”
Ray writes, “The iPod brought with it amazing industrial design, a well designed interface, and a new usage paradigm. Portable music players already existed, but the iPod was better looking and easier to use. It also came with the promise that you didn’t just carry music with you, you carried all your music with you. That factor alone changed the way portable music was perceived, and was central to the adoption of the iPod.”
“The iPod has moved away from that paradigm, with the Nano and Shuffle only able to store the most diminutive music collection, and recent rumours suggest that an Apple phone will have 8GB of flash-based storage; comparable with the Nano. But it was that function which sold the concept to many people, with the style and simplicity of use keeping them hooked,” Ray writes.
Ray writes, “It is important not to underestimate the importance of the iPod industrial design, or its scope. I recently had to sit in a pub as two iPod fans reminisced about feelings when opening their first iPod box, and their overwhelming admiration not for the product, but for the box in which it came. It was sickening, but demonstrated the loyalty iPod fans feel, and the expectations that will need to be met.”
MacDailyNews Take: Ray’s use of the adjective “sickening” speaks volumes about his underlying feelings. Just because people like Bill Ray want an Apple product to fail doesn’t mean it will.
Ray continues, “Apple will launch a mobile phone in January, and it will become available during 2007. It will be a lovely bit of kit, a pleasure to behold, and its limited functionality will be easy to access and use. The Apple phone will be exclusive to one of the major networks in each territory and some customers will switch networks just to get it, but not as many as had been hoped. As customers start to realise that the competition offers better functionality at a lower price, by negotiating a better subsidy, sales will stagnate. After a year a new version will be launched, but it will lack the innovation of the first and quickly vanish. The only question remaining is if, when the iPod phone fails, it will take the iPod with it.”
Full article here.
Ray makes a lot of assumptions to arrive at his seemingly deeply-desired failure scenario. What if the “iPhone” is sold simply as iPod – just like the “video” iPod was marketed? Are people going to stop buying iPods just because Apple decides to include phone capability? Of course not. That’s just one possibility. Obviously, it’s far too soon to proclaim Apple’s “iPhone” a success or failure (we’d wait for the actual product/service release, at least), but we’ve iCal’ed Ray’s comments for future reference, that much is sure.
Related articles:
Analyst: Apple iPhone economics aren’t that compelling – December 08, 2006
CNET editor Kanellos: ‘Apple iPhone will largely fail’ – December 07, 2006
What a douchebag.
I’ve pointed this out before, so please pardon the redundancy . . . but The Register is a British rag. And for some reason the majority of UK publications are really down on anything Apple. Not sure why, but they are. So take ANYTHING coming from the sceptered isle about the Mac, the iPod, or anything else produced by Jobs and company with the proverbial grain of salt.
Liberal assumptions.
Conservative assumptions. Lots of them sure, but still made based on existing models of cell phone sales and service models. I would think that Apple would want to do it differently.
Portable music players already existed, but the iPod was better looking and easier to use
And this is why the new iPhone will be a success! Cell phones are way to difficult to use, poorly designed from a user standpoint, and all the menus are hard to navigate.
If Apple can produce software for it that is easy to use, even if it has less features, that alone will make it a resounding success.
::<magic word = problem>:: as in The problem with most cell phones is they are difficult to use.
It takes a real talent to be able to say. out loud and in public, that something that doesn’t even exist will fail. If it doesn’t appear as he predicts, he’ll be crowing about how Apple must have read and understood his logic.
What a dork.
MDN Take today:
…Obviously, it’s far too soon to proclaim Apple’s “iPhone” a success or failure (we’d wait for the actual product/service release, at least)…
Back in 29 September 2006 (6 weeks before Zune released)
MacDailyNews Take: Even if Zune was beautiful to look at, offered double the capacity of iPod at half the price, and actually offered some compelling feature that the iPod doesn’t have… the Zune cannot win.
Could someone explain the change in attitudes? Or is there a hint of hypocrisy here. We suffered months of Zune bashing before even seeing the thing.
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft’s Zune is D.O.A. and, note to Microsoft, no amount of faux “Zune fan” websites is going to help.
28 Sept.
Revisionist: Hypocrisy to some, bias to some, better educated speculation to others.
I believe this is mostly driven by ideology. M$ is OK is in the minds of most British rags because they embody the caricature of a monopolistic, evil, incompetent American corporation. But Apple aims to create products and services that are truly useful, even elegant, for the individual consumer–thus Apple symbolizes the best hopes for a market economy, while M$ symbolizes our worst fears. If Apple is successful, it destroys the British left’s ideological assumptions, while if M$ succeeds, it confirms them.
That, and the British press likes to build something/someone up, then tear them down–makes for better drama, which they believe sells.
Cheers!
Revisionist,
You are aptly named.
MDN’s SteveJack was quite clear: Apple cannot lose. And Microsoft cannot win. That Microsoft is even trying Zune now only highlights their rampant mismanagement and bad decision-making…
If Microsoft’s Zune shows any real signs of life — a longshot based on history; Microsoft’s been trying to best iPod for half a decade already — Apple CEO Steve Jobs can simply license FairPlay to Microsoft’s former “partners” at very favorable terms to Apple, as they do face Microsoft’s big scary steamroller. Favorable terms will naturally include dropping “Plays For Sure” Windows Media DRM compatibility and FairPlay exclusivity for an extended period of time.
People aren’t going to stop buying iPods just because some other lesser companies finally have iTunes-compatible players. Ditto for buying from the iTunes Store. Jobs has to be thanking Microsoft which must be why he goaded them into this Zune nonsense in the first place. After everyone else licenses FairPlay from Apple, then everyone — except Microsoft — will be iPod+iTunes compatible. Game. Set. Match.
From MDN article: Zune: Apple cannot lose. Microsoft cannot win. (July 26, 2006)
Bill Ray is a JACKASS
Earlier this year we already knew that the Zune was going to be a modestly-revised Toshiba Gigabeat, did we not? THAT was what we were basing our bashing (!) on, for the product had already been released in one form or another.
The Gigabeat was an abject failure, the Zune was to be its first cousin . . . where’s the problem slamming it?
I can’t wait for the phone to come out. I’m buying one. I don’t care if I have to change carriers and I don’t care if it plays music or not. I want a phone designed as well as an iPod or a Mac with seamless integration with my computer. A camera would be nice if it will be as good a camera as my Canon, but if not, don’t bother.
conservative and liberal assumptions…
Libertarians would know better…
I only said that to make a point.. Idiots who inject politics, especially the asinine bi-partisan politics of the Ununited States, are hte cause of the disunity in this country more than anything else.
Hmmm, Apple sells an “unlocked” iPhone able to work across all major carriers. Market it as a new member to the iPod family. Price it not to far north of the iPod Nano with comparable storage capacity. Sounds like Apple to me. Only they’ll probably update the iPod at the same time, to tie the two together as much as possible. Talk about shaking up yet another industry.
Does anyone, other than Apple Bashers, really believe Apple will make all the half-assed mistakes M$ always seems to make when introducing a new product? An Apple-to-be-renamed “iPhone” might not be a success to the extent iPod is, but it almost surely will not be compared to competitors that offer “better functionality at a lower price.”
You don’t have to be an Apple fanboy to know Apple screws up much less often than M$, and with all the negative press M$ has gotten for the Zune and Vista, it would be mind boggling to think Apple would make all of the same mistakes.
uhhh… : I’m not sure about TowerTone, but I wasn’t making my judgment on a political stand. I’m saying Ray’s assumptions are consertively made. I’m guessing that TowerTone was saying that Ray took a lot of liberities with making his assumptions.
“You don’t have to be an Apple fanboy to know Apple screws up much less often than M$, “
Sure, Apple never fail. Apple has been involved in developing no less than 20 different operating system projects. After many dismal failures, they eventually gave up on the idea of trying to develop their own operating systems and finally achieving stability using an OS developed by other people.
Look down the list below and see how many Apple OS projects actually saw the light of day, and how many of those we commercial successes.
Apple DOS
Apple SOS
Apple ProDOS
Lisa OS
Mac System Software
System 2-6
System 7-9
GS-OS
A/UX
Netware for Mac
Apple Network Server
Star Trek
Raptor
NuKernel
TalOS
Copeland
Gershwin
NextStep
Rhapsody
Mac OS X
Thanks, Bruce, exactly what I was fixin to say…
uhhhh, taking a little liberty there with the quotes, aren’t you? anything else?
MW:upon, as in “once upon a time, everthing wasn’t so political…”
Dumb dumb dumb dumb
http://www.BitchRepublic.net/
That sounds like the old 1990’s Apple to me, not the Steve Job’s run Apple of the 2000’s. I’m glad Scully isn’t on board to screw it up.
It’s all hype and no facts so saying that the iPhone or whatever it is will fail is premature and stupid. We all have to wait for MacWorld and find out what this really is and what it can really do.
Making judgements now is rediculous without the facts.
How many:
Better read what I said again. I didn’t say Apple doesn’t make mistakes,or have failed projects, I said, “Apple screws up much less often than M$”. That statement is absolutely unassailable. Maybe next time you should read before you type a snappy response.
I haven’t found any general trend toward Apple-bashing among British publications. It seems that the Register in particular is heavily influenced by Andrew Orlowski, who appears to have some kind of personal grudge against Steve Jobs. (Either that, or he’s just a larval Dvorak wannabe who’s realized that bashing Apple gets page-hits.)
-jcr
Why does my breath smells like ass?
Ray remembers me a meeting with one of my clients (a tow and crane company), where a salesman of that company (yes, a salesman of them) defended to buy PCs and I, as their consultant, defended Macs (they already had 95% of their computers being Macs).
He made a comparison table with lots of stupid arguments, one of them was “Networking”. In the Mac column he stated a “con” because “We don’t know if, in the future, Macs will have the same kind of conectivity as PCs does, even in our LAN or the internet”.
He just want one of his friends to sell generic PCs; he will receive a compensation.
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MW = ‘little’ as in shame.
Here’s to the morons who always want others to fail just so they can feel better about being the abject losers they so obviously are!
No doubt this fool said the iPod would fail for the same reasons.
I have found that most people don’t want most of the features that many of the phones offer. They want a phone that can make and receive calls, keep a contact list, and perhaps a camera. And they want an iPod. Put them both together and it’s one less thing to carry. These things will sell like crazy. And, I agree, I think they will sell it not as a phone, but as an iPod that has video and phone capabilities.
I believe that any Apple phone will incorporate a remote to control iTv and other Apple products. That will be one of the compelling reasons to buy.
Blah blah blah… but what caught my eye was the following?
“…but we’ve iCal’ed Ray’s comments for future reference, that much is sure.”
Can you explain this – is this something you use iCal for? Can you extrapolate on that – you might be on to something here that I’ve been looking for and never thought of – using iCal for notes and reference.
Please extrapolate.
Regards,
The winning solution, I believe, is to simply add phone capbilities to all new ipods, and give the customer his/her choice of provider.
“That statement is absolutely unassailable.”
Well in the field of operating systems, it’s clear Apple screwed up way more than Microsoft ever did.
Microsoft doesn’t make hardware, but Apple screwed the pooch with the Lisa, Apple III, the Newton, the Quicktake, set top boxes, the choice of 68k processors, the choice of Power PC processors, bad fans, faulty power supplies, exploding batteries, locking Shuffles, scratching nanos, whining and overheating and randomly shutting down Macbooks.
Damn, when you look at it, how many products has Apple not screwed up in it’s history, or had commercial success with?
Hey, let’s remember that the Register is barely a week or two past their last howler. “Apple iTunes sales PLUMMET”…..we all have to remember and remind each other and everyone where this excrement is coming from
I love this blog, but why not include the “background” of these pathetic scum up front at the top of the posting…..
HMFAP:
>Well in the field of operating systems, it’s clear Apple screwed up way more than Microsoft ever did.<
Excuse me. Microsoft has NEVER had a better OS than they do now. They’ve ALL been at least as bad as XP SP3 (Vista). There are STILL over 100,000 active viruses attacking MS users’ computers in the wild. Most of the “failed” Apple systems you cite were simply superceded by better products. You can still buy a Newton today on the used market, but it will cost you significant money. I could make a long list of obsolete MS offerings, bu what’s the point? They all sucked.
And since you brought up that point.
How many companies have tried to do what Apple has done in building a computer and os? How many have succeeded?
How many companies do you buy from that have made complete to partial failure in products?
Your point is mute…. why you ask. Simple to error is human.
But how many companies hold the same design excellence in interface and product in the computer industry……. compare Apple to art or automotive, see how people would relate to it.
Better products, better design, better standards!!!! But not without risk!!!!
Randian said : “And for some reason the majority of UK publications are really down on anything Apple.”
Maybe because Jonathan Ive is British ?
Dear HowManyFailedApple Projects:
Get up off your knees, you silly ho.
What Apple has never done, as a company, is cost this nation billions of $$ in lost productivity- ever. That’s a crown only Microsoft can claim.
Frankly, Microsoft should be prosecuted by the Dept of Homeland Security for the national menace they are … too bad all of you Stockholm-syndromed, M$ sheep accept their utter lack of interest in your computing security (other than their ability to profit from it by actually charging you to fix holes in their OS- the mind boggles ), as well as utter lack of innovation in general, to be the status quo.
We understand your refusal to acknowledge the existence of alternatives- that would also mean acknowledging – to yourselves – what deluded fools (and sheep) you’ve been.
Randian, are you the brother of Endian?
“taking a little liberty there with the quotes, aren’t you? anything else?”
Nothing else, except that I was utilising “artistic licence”
> Damn, when you look at it, how many products has Apple not screwed up in it’s history, or had commercial success with?
You have to take risks to create and define new markets. Microsoft just lets someone else create and define the new markets, then tries to copy the success five years later and take over “eventually.” If it did a good job of copying, that would be one thing. But Microsoft tries hard and gets it wrong most of the time.
This “Bill Ray” guy obviously has no vision. He’s trying his best to make Apple fit an existing mold of the mobile phone business, and thinks all Apple can add to the mix is a shiny device with a loyal user base. But it’s obvious Apple will try once again to create and define a new market.
* Just like it was not the “Video iPod,” this new product will not be an “iPhone.” It will be a iPod, that happens to have wireless connectivity. Unlike Microsoft’s laughable use of “local” wireless, Apple’s implementation will use a mobile phone network to make it something truly useful and “must have.”
* In addition to the obviously features, using the wireless capability and a direct connection to the iTunes Store, Apple can sell an iPod that can be used without the need for owning (a fairly recent) Mac or Windows PC. We geeks reading MDN may not believe it, but there are millions of potential customers who love music but hate using computers, maybe more than the existing iPod user base.
* Apple needs to maintain control over the user experience (not hand it over to a phone company), so it will probably “go it alone” with the service. Obviously, it will need to partner with a wireless carrier for the mobile network (behind the scene), but the service will be offered by Apple directly to its customers through its online and physical stores.
* And “there’s one more thing,…” You’ll be able to use this new iPod device as a mobile phone.
British… OK, OK, I like redheads – always a good reason to visit Scotland (and whiskey is too, of course).
Brits are afraid of anything new and they still think they’re as powerful as they we’re. Or at least that’s how it seems sometimes.
Like rubber bags filled with hot water to keep you warm at night. WTF. What’s wrong with the good heating and heat isolation (triple the glass, save the gas). In Finland you would die in winter if you didn’t have a proper house.
Well, all countries have their weird things.
Americans that drive in a snow with summer tyres? One of the funniest things I don’t get about USA. My father told me that he just watched as the Man of the house burned rubber to melt the ice under the wheels, just to drive the Dodge in to the garage. Guess that’s one way to do it.
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I ran 3km on ice today, OK there was sand on the ice, so i guess it doesn’t count. On Dec 24th, there wasn’t and the ice was wet. I was sure that I would brake some bones.
Your point is moot, not ‘MUTE’
Yeah, no Mac fan websites (probably secretly run by Apple) were predicting the untimely demise of the Zune from the second it was announced.
Oh wait…
John C. Randolph “I haven’t found any general trend toward Apple-bashing among British publications”
It would appear that you don’t read many UK publications.
For a start, there are numerous examples of the BBC taking a decidedly negative stance against Apple, in one case changing a neutral story several hours later to add some hostile opinions. They frequently include negative comments in Apple stories, even though those negative elements are not relevant to the story itself.
Channel Five’s ‘Gadget Show’ will do almost anything to put an Apple product in a bad light. Some of their tests included showing how a Mac tower wasn’t repairable after being dropped from a window onto concrete and that an iPod didn’t work when submerged in water. But it’s not as though it’s a programme that anybody takes seriously, so it’s of little consequence.
For print, you could try the Guardian with their resident buffoon Jack Schofield, who goes out of his way to knock Apple products and promote Microsoft’s. When Apple users correct him, he hysterically calls them names and frequently ends up making himself look even more foolish.
Then there’s The Times and The Sun. Both owned by Murdoch. They were both OK about Macs and iPods until Apple started looking like becoming a big player in the media business. These days, both papers appear to be keen to knock any possibility that Apple might be a rival to Murdoch’s considerable TV interests.
The Mail and the Express tend to follow the pack and will repeat a bad news story about Apple but like most, never get round to printing any sort of retraction when the story turns out to be based on a false assumption.
Reuters are frequently negative about Apple and as far as I can tell were the earliest source I could find of the untrue story about Apple launching a $100 iPod at the time on the iPod nano launch ( Reuters claimed it was a fact, not speculation and it was widely reported elsewhere ) – the iPod nano was then initially perceived as being very expensive because people had been lied to about an iPod for less than half that price. Reuters always publish negative Apple stories, but manage to find it somewhat easy to overlook the positive ones.
The Independent and Telegraph are generally neutral, tending to print stories based pretty well on facts, although they are not above re-printing a false story that’s been published elsewhere.
I’m trying to think of an UK mainstream publication that comes across as being an unswerving Mac supporter, but I can’t think of one.
AlanAudio, that is weird. Really. Are all those Papers owned by the same huge corporation. That would explain. otherwise…
Repoting on Apple in Finland has turned into neutral (almost), although it’s still very pro-Microsoft. Whatever thay do is great and innovative, the articles always give you kind of feeling that the criticism Microsoft faces, it shouldn’t be taken seriously. Those magazines shower in MS money and if MS decides to turn off the hot water…
MW: total. Microsoft = total world domination
“Most of the “failed” Apple systems you cite were simply superceded by better products.”
Yet many on the list did fail dismally commercially. A bunch of the rest failed dismally technically. And many on that list were not upgrades for others, but technically incompatible efforts.
For example, the almost unbroken chain of attempts to write an new OS:
Star Trek
Raptor
NuKernel
TalOS
Copeland
Gershwin
Apple’s OS group were six time losers before they finally gave up and went with Mach/BSD.
If by superseded by “better” products, you mean they were all superseded by products that actually made it out of the lab in and into the real world, I’d agree, They were superseded when Apple finally decided to give up on the OS writing business and use a good, time proven open source alternative where other people had got the fundamentals right while Apple had been muddling around trying.
The chance that Apple or Next could write an OS from scratch are about zero. it’s a skill the company has demonstrated that it just doesn’t have.
“Excuse me. Microsoft has NEVER had a better OS than they do now.”
But this isn’t an argument of how good Vista is, or even whether Apple finally hit pay dirt with a long established open source OS, it’s a discussion of how much Apple screwed up in it’s operating system writing ventures over the years, to the point where it finally gave up.
“How many companies have tried to do what Apple has done in building a computer and os? How many have succeeded?”
As noted above, not Apple. Apple gave up on writing operating systems some time ago.
But in answer to your question, dozens of companies have built computers and the operating systems that run on them over the decades, most have been commercially successful for some time then been acquired, gone out of business or faded away. The universe is a lot bigger than Mac OS X vs Windows.
“We understand your refusal to acknowledge the existence of alternatives”
I’m sure in your mind “Alternatives” mean Windows vs Mac OS X. In the real world over time it’s been a lot more diverse than that.
This prediction is from the fool who works for the electronic rag that brings you articles like:”Hate Xmas? Stick your kid’s Barbie in the blender” or “ebsites fog up as office passions rise” or “Ancient pyramids discovered in Bosnia”. Just a sampling. I heard his next article is “Space Invaders implant chips in Mac user’s brains”. Don’t go to the bank on Bill Ray. BTW, isn’t he really Billy Ray Cyrus, the one hit country western singer, turned technoexpert?
This Ray guy is a moron!
I cannot believe that MDN (and others) are yet to take apart the most obvious flaw in his tripe!
Sorry, but he writes that the success of the iPod was based on the paradigm that it allowed people to take all their music with them.
He then goes on to say that the Shuffle and Nano, and soon to be iPhone indicate that Apple has moved away from this crucial paradigm.
Rubbish!
1) The first gen iPod was 5GB (with 10GB launched in March 2002)
2) Most people do not fill their 80GB iPods with just music (there is video and more)
3) The success of the Nano/Mini shows that most people don’t need more than 8GB (or less).
4) He TOTALLY misses the real reason that the iPod was successful where others failed – iTunes!
There WERE other HDD portable music devices before the iPod, and they could hold just as much music, hence the “take all your music with you” paradigm existed for those players too.
The isssue wasn’t taking your music with you, it was how to do that SIMPLY and EASILY and CONVENIENTLY.
Even now, it is iTunes that allows someone to have 80+ GB of music and/or video on their PC, and yet it EASILY manages that music to get as much on the iPod as is possible (512MB – 80GB depending on model).
And THAT is why iPhone will be successful as a phone/music player – it’s ability to work with iTunes (and some decent design – UNLIKE the Motorola)! The Nokia Nseries and all others cannot work with iTunes, so you cannot manage getting music on your phone as easily or simply etc.
As Steve Jobs noted when the Intel processor switch occured, the Mac is not about the hardware, it is about the software – aka Mac OS X. Same here Mr Ray, the iPod is not about the hardware it is about the software, in this case iTunes (Quicktime)!
Here ends the rant!
My 2 cents,
Luke
I’ve been looking at getting a new phone after the first of the year — here’s how Apple could succeed:
Offer a seamless syncing utility with the iPhone. Something similar to iTunes that works on both Mac and Windows.
The problem with many of the phones out there is that, as a Mac user, I’ll either have to download or purchase additional software to use many of the cooler features — either Missing Sync or something else (there’s one for the Blackberry but I forget what it is). I want to be able to use it right out of the box.
I’d like a phone that has:
* a calendar that I can sync to iCal
* a contact list
* a web browser so I can check news and sports stuff
* and of course can make and receive phone calls
Camera and other stuff is optional — I’m not too concerned about the storage issue, as I’d likely just put my top favorites and the daily podcasts on the device, and use the iPod in places where the phone is supposed to be turned off (like on planes and at the doctor’s office).
Hmmm…wonder how many of these same people predicting that the iPhone will fail are the same ones predicting the iPod would fail…or who ten years ago were writing articles entitled, “The Death of Apple”…
AMENDMENT:
“As Steve Jobs noted when the Intel processor switch occured, the Mac is not about the hardware, it is about the software – aka Mac OS X. Same here Mr Ray, the iPod is not about the hardware it is about the software, in this case iTunes (Quicktime)!”
SHOULD READ:
As Steve Jobs noted when the Intel processor switch occured, the Mac is not about the hardware, it is about the software – aka Mac OS X. Same here Mr Ray, the iPod and hence the iPhone is not about the hardware it is about the software, in this case iTunes (Quicktime)!
Daniel — If you look at the “drawer” on the side of the iCal, there’s room to type all sorts of information; at the top you enter the specific information for the event (time, location, whatever), then at the bottom there’s an area called “Notes” where you can list reminders (like if you’re going to a potluck, what you’re on the hook to bring) or other information. And supposedly things are going to be even more robust in the new version of iCal — maybe enough so that I can ditch Entourage once and for all…
Masa, I didn’t say that all those papers were owned by the same people for the simple reason that they’re not. I did point out that The Times and The Sun were owned by the same company ( I used the word ‘both’ to imply two of them ), who also have considerable UK and US TV interests, but all the other outfits I mentioned are separate, although some do have links to other media.
The only common factor is that they are essentially UK sources which I offered as an example to John C. Randolph, who said that he was unaware of any Apple bashing in the UK. Some of the more blatant examples have previously been highlighted here and elsewhere.
HMFAP,
Microsoft bought what became MS-DOS. All they did was polish it up a bit.
Everything since has been based on that purchase. Some of that original code is still in Vista. Since that initial purchase, Microsoft has acquired other parts of their OS through licensing, purchasing software companies and outright code theft. To say that Apple is not capable of making a modern OS and Microsoft is is just ludicrous. Microsoft does not yet have a modern OS.
Apple purchased Next and got back Jobs as a bonus. Both Next and Apple engineers have contributed greatly to the open source BSD Unix underpinnings of OS X. Apple and Next have done more work on the entire Mac OS X as it is today than Microsoft has actually done on that bloated code base now known as Vista.
“To say that Apple is not capable of making a modern OS and Microsoft is is just ludicrous. Microsoft does not yet have a modern OS.”
The evidence is basically there. Unix, while ahead of it’s time 40 years ago, can hardly been described as a Modern OS. More like an OS from the dawn of the minicomputing age (which is over by the way). The guys from Next didn’t write the OS, and Apple sure hasn’t enhanced it much.
Now if you said that Apple spent significant time on the GUI, I’d buy that, but significant time on the OS? No way.
And as to open source contributions, Apple has taken more from Open Source projects than it’s ever given back. They try to do the minimum thay can do to use other people’s stuff and not violate the licensing terms while actively making sure what they contribute back as useless as possible for any practical purpose.
But then, there’s a reason Linux is more popular than Mac OS X.
Fact: there are too many morons online for the Register to fail. It IS too bad they havnt yet.. what a bunch of hyped up wanna be journalists.
FAKE NEWS ALERT FAKE NEWS ALERT
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So far it’s all just rumors, anyway, until they officially announce it. Leave it to the Register to keep the excitement going over this vaporware. Thanks for the free advertising, though, Ray.
I can’t wait to see what this proposed new iPhone will do. If Apple has anything to do with it, I can see some new innovations and designs that might just change the whole mobile phone industry. I’m really hoping that Apple will actually develop a PDA OS based on the Mac OS X. But, that’s just me. I’m still holding out for a Mac smartphone. We’ll see.
This idiot is why I hate “writers” and “analysts”. Firstly, he makes the assumption that the “iPhone” actually exists. It may or may not exist, but his assumption that is based on nothing more than speculation and rumors is dangerous to Apple as a company. Secondly, he assumes that it will be released in January, at MWSF. How many times must I repeat that if Apple DOES have a telephony device of some kind in the works, that it will NOT be released at MACworld San Francisco. If it is released at all, (which is now highly likely, because if Apple were not developing a phone their stock price will tank after each announcement that does not contain an “iPhone”, and they know it…) it will be released at a special media event so that all the “analysts” can show up and gloat about how they can see the future and predict what Apple will do. Bullshit.
</rant>
–mAc
The iphone was finally revealed today and judging from the response all my friends gave it, it looks like Apple has another clear winner on it’s hands. So much for Bill Ray’s views, maybe he can get a job writing for the National Enquirer or The Star.
Matty, you got that right.
I use both Mac and PC products, both have their pros and cons, PCs more so though. But here is why I won’t buy, or even want to use, the iphone.
1. It’s too large and unconventional for me to want to use it as a phone. I might be a prude, but I don’t even like talking on a Blackberry, and this shape looks even less comfortable to hold and talk with. Where do you grasp it at, the sides? Ergonomically it seems to be lacking in this case.
2. Touch screens are nice, futuristic, and in some applications even beneficial. I don’t believe cell phones is one of those instances. I make a lot of calls, many of those calls I make without looking at the keypad by finding the tactile “5” key raised bump as a reference point. With this phone I would have to look at it first, and to say one would get used to it is not entirely true. I’ve used a phone that did not have a bump on the “5” key, it was not nearly as efficient as ones that do.
3. itunes. I don’t know how anyone could possible like using this product, I really don’t. There are so many things wrong with itunes I don’t know where to begin. Let me just say that for anyone who likes to be able to just drag and drop their music into their player that itunes will only give you headaches. The insipid insistence of itunes synching everything is utterly ridiculous. If I OWN two ipods, or four in my case, why can I not just plug one in and drop music into it? Maybe I’m missing something here, but I own the cd, I ripped the music, I wish to listen to the music on my car’s ipod and my workout ipod…what’s the problem? I DON’T wish to synch anything, just put music on the player that I bought. For this reason I downloaded Yamipod (freeware) and have been in heaven ever since. Never again will I play with itunes and their ridiculous control-freakish software.
3. I like the fact that currently when a battery dies or a unit becomes defective it’s just ONE thing. If my ipod dies, I don’t have music. If my phone dies, I don’t have a phone. PDA, Laptop, PSP: same thing. The convenience for combining everything (which is debatable because we don’t know how well it will handle pc based apps yet, if at all) will quickly be erased once the thing farks up, and we all know this happens, even to Macs. I would NEVER trust this machine for work, never, it’s too much riding on one small device.
4. For $599, 8 Gigs of storage is a joke. Yes, some of us DO use the whole 80 Gigs of storage on our ipods. See, I have a 300 Gig Maxtor external FULL of mp3’s, avi/mpeg/quicktime files, and photos. I need drive space, and I use my ipod as a storage device when I travel or need to transport large files. The limited storage of this device would require me to carry my ipod, external drive, or laptop anyway. 8 Gigs, i thought they were joking; I don’t care if it’s flash memory, they should’ve stuck at least five flash cards in the thing then, especially for that ridiculous price.
I hope Apple comes back with something I find more useful and practical, I really do. I’ve never been one to second guess Apple before, but I just don’t see myself using this device in the future. Good luck to those who buy it, I hope you find it great and then some.