In defense of the borg fruit - Updated


Apple takes flack because the company is out in front
The Company Formerly Known as Apple Computer takes a lot of flack for it's practices and operations.

Most of it is undeserved.

Apple is the company that invented the personal computer.

While there were small scale computers available before the Apple I and Apple ][, they were specialist machines. Most of them were aimed either at the upscale hobbyist or the laboratory.

The Apple ][ changed that.

Apple is the company that made the graphic user interface practical and cheap.

Remember that before the Lisa and before the Macintosh, the only people using anything except text on their state-of-the-art computers were research centers and think tanks like Xerox's PARC or a few visionaries here and there.

The very first web browser ran on the NeXTSTEP. NeXTSTEP was made by Next Computer, a company founded by Steve Jobs and eventually bought by Apple.

USB was another good idea put out to pasture before Apple introduced the iMac and made the USB port the only way to attach peripherals. Overnight USB products became red hot sellers. Today USB 2.0 is the de facto interface standard.

Before the iTunes Music Store, no one made a profit selling music digitally. From the very first, Jobs told the music companies that they needed to offer high quality downloads without copy protection at a minimum price. Ironically, the record companies signed deals with Apple's competition to do exactly that after Apple made them money. Although bound at first by the agreements that Apple made, today DRM-free music is available for a slight fee almost anywhere.

Before the iPhone, the cell phone carriers specified to the hardware manufacturers what features could be used in what areas, often limiting the user interface. The iPhone changed that, and it's no accident that most of the popular smart phone improvements happened after Apple's iPhone.

Now, admittedly, I am a huge Apple fan. I think that they do what they do mostly right.

You'd be hard pressed to find a company that has done more to revolutionize computers and home electronics again and again.

But most of what they get criticized for are the deals Apple cut to get the products shipping. DRM is a great example. Apple was ready to do DRM-less music from the moment they introduced iTunes, but the record companies insisted.

You many not like Apple products, but you can't deny that competition with Apple makes other companies better.

Or out of business.

Either way the customer wins.

UPDATE - fixed, changed "DRM music" to "DRM-less music"

— NeoWayland

Posted: Tue - February 10, 2009 at 07:59 AM  Tag


 ◊  ◊   ◊  ◊ 

Random selections from NeoWayland's library


Pagan Vigil "Because LIBERTY demands more than just black or white"
© 2005 - 2009 All Rights Reserved