Apple Isn't the Next Microsoft (and That's a Good Thing) 269
Nerval's Lobster writes "In a new Gizmodo column, Andreas Goeldi calls it the 'frosted glass' effect: when a prominent tech company's latest upgrade to its flagship operating system features frosted-glass highlights as its primary innovation, you know that company is facing a period of severe stagnation. That's what happened to Microsoft around the time of Windows Vista, Goeldi wrote, and Apple's going down the same road with iOS 7. In light of what he views as Apple's sclerosis, it wasn't difficult for him to abandon his iPhone in favor of a Google Android ecosystem. But is Apple really becoming the next Microsoft? In short: no. Apple seems to recognize everything that seemed to elude Microsoft's corporate thinking six years ago: namely, that even the most successful companies need to keep breaking into new categories, and keep innovating, if they want to stay ahead of hungry rivals. Rumors have persisted for quite some time that Apple is prepping big pushes into wearable electronics and televisions, both of which could prove lucrative strategies if executed correctly. Goeldi faults iOS 7 for its frosted-glass effects, which he compares to those of Vista; but similar graphical elements aside, it's unlikely that iOS 7 will run into the same complaints over hardware requirements, compatibility, security, and so much more that greeted Vista upon its release. In fact, iOS 7 isn't even finished."
apple profits from every product, MS doesn't (Score:5, Informative)
MS has lost billions of $$$ on bing, x-box and other experiments funded by Windows and Office license sales which are now slowing and decreasing. microsoft has been innovating for years but not profitably. they had commercial tablets before apple, mobile devices and cloud services long before cloud became a buzz word.
apple on the other hand has a rule that every product must be profitable. even the apple tv turns a small profit.
Re:Comes to show to trust NO ONE (Score:5, Informative)
Um what, they pushed to get music publisher's to sell tracks without DRM. As for video, where can you get video without DRM? Netflix? Amazon? Huh?
Re:Gizmodo (Score:5, Informative)
3rd Party developers were all to blame? MS created many of the problems themselves; they didn't need help. Many 3rd party developers weren't ready for Vista but they like everyone else didn't think MS would actually release Vista in that level of incompleteness. They thought they had more time. Those developers didn't create the Vista Compatible/Ready fiasco. They didn't make UAC so damn annoying. They didn't cause MS to throw out everything after years of development and start from scratch using a different kernel.
Actually, Vista was the move where Microsoft stopped trying to support the babies. Many 3rd party apps improperly used API calls, long marked deprecated, long warning against misuse in the documentation, were finally culled and the edge cases nailed down. Throwing tentacles into the registry and tweaking hidden and unsupported things were no longer allowed. Dangerous things like writing directly into system directories now needed UAC. Annoying? Sure, but if the apps weren't trying to (ab)use the system, they wouldn't have needed those escalation prompts in the first place.
Apps and drivers that failed to respect the proper models paid the price. The stuff worked in XP despite itself because no one ever thought Microsoft would break compatibility. Well, when you were getting 0-day exploits popping up every few days, it's time to lock that crap down.
It's just like the move from Windows Me. The environment was so polluted and haphazard it was time to clean house. And, if you recall, there were plenty of whining developers back then, too, as none of their stuff worked in Windows 2000 / XP unless they stopped relying on unsafe, crash-happy tricks.
Re:Comes to show to trust NO ONE (Score:5, Informative)
I mentioned if Steve Jobs won the world would be heaven. No more expensive crap. Free standards galore. No more DRM with .WMV and IE 5.5 dictating the future of computing
I have no idea why you thought that. Remember Steve Jobs was the same one who ripped off Woz back in the day. He sued for UI lookalike rights. He got in a fight with the FSF over gcc. If you thought Jobs would be all roses and heaven it's because you weren't paying attention.
Sad no-one realizes how different iOS7 really is (Score:5, Informative)
What's really bad about all these iOS7 articles is how off they are about what has changing.
If the person writing claims iOS7 is "flat", they have totally missed the point.
iOS7 has gone DEEP, not flat. It's many layers where before there was just a flat tree. It's added a literal new dimension to UI and UIX design.
When you actually have it in hand you may understand better, but just know until then anyone who says iOS7 is "flat" has no idea what the heck they are talking about.