“It’s always been interesting to me how differently Apple, Google and Microsoft express their ambitions. Google’s and Microsoft’s ambitions have always been global in nature. On the one hand, organizing the world’s information and on the other hand, putting a computer on every desk,” Jan Dawson writes for Tech.pinions. “Whereas Apple’s mission has been decidedly more localized: creating great products, used by individual people. This also seems to have driven these companies to create very different kinds of products, with Google and Microsoft creating operating systems that enable other companies to create the products end users actually engage with and Apple tightly integrating hardware and software to create the end-user products itself.”
“But I sense a shift in these companies’ ambitions, to the extent they’re almost switching places in some respects. Google, which has always trumpeted the open nature of Android, has now done a dramatic about face in the last several years, purchasing smartphone and thermostat makers, creating Google Glass and driverless cars, and even creating a far more limited, less open version of Android for wearables in the form of Android Wear,” Dawson writes. “Google, the evangelist of ‘open,’ is becoming a lot more integrated and controlled in these areas, even as its ambitions remain impossibly broad, either because it fears losing control of the opportunities its created or because it simply believes others won’t do the job as well (or possibly for both reasons).”
“Microsoft on the other hand has shifted its focus to the more parochial level of Apple’s ambitions, having largely achieved its goal of getting a computer on every desk (and now witnessing the related outcome of a computer in every hand),” Dawson writes. “Apple’s ambitions have also expanded beyond computing to areas such as health, which have a far more fundamental meaning in most people’s lives. Interestingly, the HomeKit, HealthKit and Swift initiatives have all likely been underway for some time, but Apple has kept them under wraps. I think all of them bespeak an ambition on the part of Tim Cook which we haven’t been aware of until last week.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
“bespeak” forsooth!
Fanciful nonsense.
Slow news day, “but the boss said get me another opinion article that mentions Apple, or you’re fired.”
Wow this guy is really insightful and deep.
…not.
Hey fellows, go read the comments under the link. There you will find thoughtful intelligent input. Nothing like the critics and haters who generally populate MDN comments. Nothing added, just negativity and vile. MDN seems to draw very few posters that have any sense of adding to a discussion, just hate, ridicule and nonsense. Again, go compare the thoughtful comments below the actual article. Then come back and read the dopey things here. Please.
Here is my thoughtful comment: Are you trying to shame MDN readers into censoring themselves? Because unlike other websites, MDN does precious little of that itself. In fact, the more curated sites approach sterility in their discussions, which can lead to no healthy intellectual progeny. The only exhilaration in such places is in gaining points for one-upmanship. Here at MDN at least is a no-holds-barred arena, where seventh graders have a chance to arm wrestle seasoned veterans, and where everyone can enjoy an occasional belly laugh at the expense of an opinionated nitwit. And there are many such laughs to be had here. 🙂
Well put Hannahjs. I do enjoy slapping the occasion twerp.
Your right about other sites and their sterility.
I would disagree. Take Asymco for instance, it has lively discussion but its level of respect and genuine attempts (and successes) at adding insight are often as wonderful to read as the articles. Reddit has many threads where discussion is generally of a high order. There are many good examples.
Why settle for less than the best, especially on an Apple fan site? Surely here of all places there is much to say that is positive, and looking for insight has value. Why not up the game and accept that the world and the issues around companies we love and not-so-love always have interesting and meaningful shades of gray.
The best-selling Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy has glorified BDSM, and cemented a new trope in contemporary culture. It has polluted the meaning of your phrase ‘shades of gray’ in the same way that sexual politics has ruined Stephen Foster’s phrase ‘when our hearts were young and gay.’ Time to devise a new phraseology.
As for Asymco, of course it is curated, and to an extent that it encourages all-night dorm room confabs amongst art majors. By contrast, MDN is a walk through the streets of lower Manhattan—anything can happen.
Yup, the article’s comments went into introspection on Modernity went on and on.
I’m off.
Wow! You are correct. The full article is thoughtful and wort the time it takes to read. The same can be said for the comments engendered by the article. Several orders of magnitude more thought provoking than the drivel that passes for meaningful dialogue on MDN.
And yet, here are you and CupertinoJoe, adding to the drivel. Thanks for the enlightenment.