So I saw this little screen cast tonight on the newest page of Hacker News and immediately thought it may get taken down and paid to go away before most of the world got to see it. That being said I did what any self respecting hacker would do, downloaded to my hard drive, saved to my dropbox and S3 accounts and I am now choosing to share that exact video with you guys. enjoy!
Now honestly after watching the video a few times through it seems pretty obvious it’s a fake video and more than likely not what the actual iPhone 5 looks like, but it is fun to speculate.
Ok so to be fair, I am writing this post more in disgust of the current “Android vs iPhone” craze filled debate than anything. As an avid reader of several news aggregators including reddit and Hacker News I feel that almost daily now I am subjected to some sort of variation of which system is better and why, or some blogger who thinks he is writing breaking news with things like “Android overtakes iPhone”.
NEWSFLASH: Android is an open source operating system made to work on several different brands of phones over a wide range of carriers. Apple is ONE company, with ONE phone. This is an apples (no pun intended) to oranges comparison and one that frankly, I am tired of reading about daily. So let’s just settle this ordeal once and for all.
If Android at some point did NOT surpass iPhone as the number one operating system it would have been considered a FAILURE. By the very nature of these two systems, it NEEDED to be the most used operating system for mobile on the planet. While that is a noble concept for Apple, the reality is they make ONE phone, their one phone has made the most significant impact on the market of any product in probably the last 10-15 years, however to believe that it could keep its spot at the top of the market would be insane. with the number of manufacturers and carriers looking to get a leg up it was always only a matter of time before someone or some thing came along to take this title away from Apple, and that should be OK in their eyes too!
Now on to settle a bit more of this argument:
Mr. jobs, it can easily be said that neither of these systems, Android or iPhone is “open” though your argument was probably compelling to some, it was scientifically unfounded and amounted to little more than marketing speak. BUT that is OK … Apple is known for its secrecy and withholding of products. In fact, exclusivity is probably one of the things that has helped apple grow into the behemoth it has. Going after the core business of Microsoft in the mid 90’s would have meant certain death for Apple, instead you wisely chose to go a different direction, point to a target market and aggressively pursue them. You accomplished this and both companies were allowed to thrive.
The Android vs iPhone debacle should be seen no different, I think it compares easily to the Windows vs Mac of the 90’s. Android is going to be widely used because of its whorish tendencies (meaning they will basically give it to anyone who has ever had the intention of building a mobile phone). and the iPhone will always remain a factor in the market because of its fan base, exclusive nature and features which people have grown to know and love. iPhone Users can easily find a place to make an iPhone back glass repair instead of buying a new one.
Does this mean that Apple will fail because their phone loses market share? Absolutely not! does it mean that Android will be the ultimate winner in the battle? Absolutely not! (though they will certainly champion themselves as such). The truth is both of these systems will come out a winner in the end for the same reasons that Apple and Microsoft have been able to co-exist in the desktop market all of these years. Competition is healthy, but sometimes in the heat of battle people tend to lose sight of things. Just because these two are in competition does not mean they are in DIRECT competition. Are they competing for some of the same users? Absolutely … Are they doing it on the same scale? Absolutely not!
So in short, Steve, if you’re reading this just stick to what you do best. Keep getting people excited about the products you guys are shipping out of Cupertino and the people will keep buying them. There is no need to give an argument for “Open vs Closed” or even consider yourself in direct competition with Android unless you plan to start selling licenses of iOS to other phone manufacturers.
And to Mr. Schmidt and the gang of googlers out there just keep up the good work and keep in mind, there is always room for competition in every market. Without competitors your products would not be even minutely as good as they have become and you would probably have some “suits” from the SEC knocking on your door and talking about “Monopoly” … and not the kind that comes to us from our friends at Parker Bros.
What do you think? Do you consider Apple and Android in Direct competition or do you agree with me? Whether you’re an Apple or an Android user, you can never go wrong with a Circles.Life mobile plan.
Are you tired of listening to the iPhone vs Android battle of are you just getting warmed up to it? looking forward to the comments surely to come.
I know, I know, the title of this article is a bit confusing (and by a bit I mean a lot). But what I am talking about is my recent decision to buy a Mac. As a business owner and (gasp) Microsoft Partner and re-seller for the past several years, it was no doubt a big decision for me to buy a Mac. But as a developer and self proclaimed “tech junkie” for me it was just as hard of a decision to hold off as long as I did. No it was not a clever marketing campaign by Apple (but it is clever).
But lets be clear (After all, I believe in full disclosure) it was not a newfound dislike for Microsoft either. I just felt that with the popularity of Mac’s with people of my generation and owning an IT company locally I owe it to myself and my customers to stay on top of technology. Because although I love developing, the truth is I get very little time to dedicate to it because I stay so busy at work or working on other projects. This new interest started several months back when I was living in New Orleans, a city in which I basically knew no one. A friend had a Mac and I had lots of spare time. Though I was not originally overly impressed or amazed with its ease of use or functionality like so many former windows users are I did enjoy the change in scenery (or in this case User interface). But more importantly I enjoyed the developing environment of textmate and the enjoyment of writing apps for my beloved iPhone. From that day forward I knew it was only a matter of time before I would inevitably come over to the Dark side (or into the light depending on who you are asking i suppose). Of course there are other options as well.
The three major players are to always be considered:
So I did what every good developer should do. I spent more time considering my options. And in doing so I did some pretty fun things (well, fun if you’re a nerd like me) I built an Ununtu Server on the latest release 10.04 Lucid Lynx. I configured about 3 separate Windows 7 PC’s (What? I already told you I was a Microsoft Partner), and obviously that comes with perks (like free or nearly free software for demo purposes) and lastly, I bought a Mac! Specifically a 21.5″ LED Backlit iMac with 4GB of Ram a 500GB Hard drive and a 3.06 GHZ Dual-Core processor. And now I am sure you’re all asking … So What’s the verdict? And unfortunately that is where the vague title starts to make some sense.
In short, i LOVE the new mac, and I have grown so accustomed to my pc setup (and all the annoying and seemingly unnecessary tasks needed to keep it up and running) that although I would definitely call myself a Mac convert, I will still use a pc for some time to come. Visit 0rgb for all the RGB products I use for my PC. Probably at the very least until I no longer have an IT company (in which i support mainly PC’s) to run, and I manage to get to do what I really love on a full time basis (developing). So until one of my crazy startup ideas takes off (see the Wired Like Me page and I no longer have to deal with the hustle and bustle of daily life i will most certainly be a Multi-system user. However as a side note I did recently apply to be a Mac reseller to give my customers a chance to look at something different, so with Mr. Jobs’ approval I may be converting even more users very soon, and who knows maybe I’ll even get that break I have been looking for and call myself a true Mac user even sooner than I think.
I am out for now but please leave comments and tell your friends to check out my blog!
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Zach Bruhnke.
