[clue-talk] Apple riding the Tsunami of....

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 05-16 09:24, Kevin Cullis wrote:
> what?
> 
> Take a read and make your predictions:
> 
> http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/next_wave_tigers_real_secret_weapon_to_rock_the_market/
> 
> The interesting question: where is Linux in this?

My prediction is that this is hyperbole and that Apple continues to get
marginalized. Sure, they've enjoyed good sales of the Ipod and OS X is neat,
but someone will come along and kick the iPod to the curb on
price/features/branding. And OS X only has <2% of the market?

Some of these ideas have been kicked around for a long, long
time and never seemed to really get much marketshare. Remember network
computers (NCs)? Oracle & Sun were making much noise about these, M$ created
something called Hydra as a sort of FUD response, and most of it seemed to
die on the vine...

Grid computing has been talked about a lot lately...but I don't know if
Apple would be the one to grab this market. I would think if anyone has the
branding for this, it'd be IBM.

Predictions about web interfaces for everything have fallen flat, too -
though web services breathed new life into that for a while. I think Paul
Graham talks about this, too - he thinks a lot of apps are perfect for the
web, but that to think that you could make an office suite something
palatable...well, no.

I know it is said that "information wants to be free" - but how many people
want *their* information to be free? I see comments on this article on the
site about wherever you go, there your files are...okay, that brings some
questions to mind, and they apply whether the files in question are personal
data or corporate data:

1. Who is hosting this, and what are the security policies? HUGE ISSUE right
there.
2. What is the viability of this company? What happens to YOUR data when it
goes under?
3. In the race to the bottom, is this data going to be hosted offshore?
Which goes back to #1. 
4. What recourse do you have for damages caused to you or your company if
something bad happens?

Doesn't a lot of this sound a lot like what ASPs were supposed to do? How
many people are using those these days?

I see they talk about extending this to set tops? My response is, I highly
doubt it (actually, my first response was: HAHAHAHAHAHA!). There are so many
things competing for this area right now. Even with MS' deep pockets and
hordes of smarties, they are having problems penetrating this space.


I don't see people looking to Apple for leadership on these sorts of things.
I don't think they are even on the radar for a solution where I work. Maybe
I'm just out of the loop. Why go to them when the things they are talking
about (like SOAP, and Apache's Axis) are easy to understand, free or agreed
upon standards already?


Lastly: Steve Jobs is an asshole. I know that's putting it bluntly, but even
WSJ had a few op-eds on the guy acting on his ego, and to the detriment of
his company, over a little thing like a book. I think they invoked the term
"King CEO" - which are supposed to be "over" in this new era (we'll see how
long that lasts and if it applies to Jobs). I'm waiting for the guy to get
his comeuppance. He makes Gates look like a saint. 

-- 
Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at comcast.net  
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. 
-Aldous Huxley