“To some, Apple’s new announcements at the WWDC represented a coming of age for the company under the leadership of Tim Cook. It’s certainly more open, considering that developers have a little more freedom to talk about prerelease software,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “So now they can actually discuss what they’re doing with outsiders, although they aren’t able to actually review the product or post screen shots. Of course, that doesn’t stop some from doing just that, but at least they have a little more latitude.”
“Little of that impacts anyone outside of our little tech bubble. I mean, if you asked most users of Apple gear what ‘Mapgate’ or ‘AntennaGate’ were all about, their eyes would glaze over. It was never on their radar, even though the first, Maps for iOS 7, was riddled with serious bugs when first released,” Steinberg writes. “In any case, since it is important to the folks who frequent these pages, I’ll focus on the ways some elements of the tech media are unable to understand Apple.”
“It seems curious for a company that has existed since the 1970s. Sure, there have been leadership changes, financial ups and downs, and some really mediocre products over the years. But Apple’s playbook since 1997, when Steve Jobs took over as iCEO, has been crystal clear. Focus on a small number of high-profile gadgets, and support those gadgets with Apple-built software and services,” Steinberg writes. “But that doesn’t stop some of the critics from demanding that Apple open the crown jewels — the operating systems — or Siri, iWork and other products to third parties including Android… Apple clearly picks and chooses which products to offer to Windows users, or to make available online. The critics have no cogent arguments to justify opening up everything.”
Much more in the full article here.
“AntennaGate” was an embarrassment for Consumer Reports, not Apple.
Consumer Reports have embarrassed themselves almost out of existence.
But that doesn’t stop some of the critics from demanding that Apple open the crown jewels — the operating systems — or…iWork
√ Tried the ‘open’ Mac OS on third party hardware. That was a mistake. Surprise.
As for iWork, at least it can work with plenty of other file formats. I’m not sure what his point is.
In general, we’re talking about observers of Apple who cannot comprehend the marrying of software and hardware. They expect everything to be clunky and ‘good enough’, like Windows. No thank you. Apple users want it all! And all of it ‘just works’, usually.
Google maps is still riddled with bugs. Anyone check out the Hoover dam lately?
There seems to be a continued perception that a “product” is either hardware OR software. Microsoft has a product. Lenovo has a product. Put them together and you can use it.
Apple, thank goodness, produces a product that I can use without having to put it together.
My Mac is a whole product. It’s a piece of hardware operated with software. Why on earth would Apple want to split apart their product and sell half of it so some other competitor can also make a product. Wouldn’t be a smart move.