Mac excels where humans fall short
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It was 1988 and I was in the first weeks of eighth grade. I had arrived back after being out for a day. I found a note, intended for my counselor, attached to my absence slip.
The handwritten letter was from my advanced art teacher and it was blunt. She said that I was a good kid but couldn't draw, and could my counselor please find another elective for me?
At the time, it was slightly traumatic. But that turned out to be a great day. The counselor found a spot for me in a graphic arts class. And it was there that I found the Mac.
With the Mac, it didn't matter that I couldn't draw a straight line. MacDraw could do it for me. It turned out I had an eye for design. I used that first Mac to design business cards, T-shirts, and notepads. It helped translate the images in my head faithfully onto paper in a way that my hands seemed incapable of doing.
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That, for me, represents the essential quality of "Macness." On its best days, Apple's computers have excelled by both figuring out what it is people really want to do with their computers and then letting them do it like a pro (or at least fake it acceptably well).
Over time, of course, those qualities of the early Mac were replicated and even exceeded elsewhere. But the Mac, particularly when Steve Jobs returned, staked out new territory where professional tools could be offered up to the masses.
With iPhoto and iMovie, Apple and Steve Jobs recognized that people were acquiring digital cameras and camcorders at a fast rate, but that the actual usefulness of both devices was limited because there weren't simple and useful ways to share the content.
Apple introduced iDVD as a way for people to make their digital movies into something that could even be shared with the computer-less. With photo books, it did the same for still pictures.
GarageBand again tried to take the premise of helping people tap into their inner artist, although I must say Apple faced a tougher battle in turning me into a musician, and I have never opted to test the Mac's limits on that score.
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But Apple faces another challenge, perhaps one even tougher than teaching me music (although my accordion teacher might beg to differ). In many ways, it is the same challenge facing Microsoft. Much of the work that had been done on a PC can now be done on a basic machine, often through a Web browser.
And while Microsoft can work to add online services to complement its operating system, such as Windows Live Photo Gallery, Apple struggles with scale on this front. This can be seen in the way it has struggled to keep its paid .Mac and now MobileMe services on par with the free services from the big names on the Net.
To really thrive (and justify its pricier hardware) Apple needs to identify another key area in which the human mind has trouble transforming its aspirations into reality.
Let's see, what other things am I not good at?
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
"and then letting them do it like a pro (or at least fake it acceptably well)."
The Macintosh was going to be called "Bicycle." Why?
There was a list off the speedier animals.
First, came the Cheetah... eleventh, the man.
But... a "man in a bicycle" rise up to the second place.
So, Steve wanted the computer to empower your brain.
(I think the story is in www.folklore.org)
For instnace, I wonder how many folks (even Mac users) know that you can set up NFS mounts (sorry, "shares") between machines for file transfer and access that is 200%+ faster than you'd get from using the stupid and clunky SMB (sorry, "Windows sharing") network file handling? You can turn your older Mac into a no-**** working server by jamming it with HDD space and using nearly all of the utilities available to Linux (or better yet, install Fink and use nearly all of the Linux utilities too)? You can write programs in there without using Xtools. You can install your own GUI (Xorg/X11) if you want to. Turn it into a web server. I've scripted the unholy Hell out of mine, yet I don't have a single home-built AppleScript written (bash works just fine).
In short - it ain't just for dummies - the Mac can be one Hell of a powerful machine in its own right if you dig in deeper. ;)
Apple zealots like to squeal and shout, but one day Apple will have to face the Music and be forced by a court of law to allow Mac OS on PC hardware... legally.
Thx in advance.
A monopolistic practice is different than having a monopoly. All businesses tends towards monopolistic practices when they can get away with it. Apple more than most. The OP has a point. Personally I'd rather run OS X on a ThinkPad than on a MacBook. It would be nice to have the choice.
How can it be a monopoly when they have less than ten percent of the market?
And would you demand that your Samsung flip phone be able to use the iPhone or Blackberry OS? Maybe you would, but I'm quite sure that manufacturers have a right to limit the use of their proprietary software to their products.
There's nothing wrong with the Windows model of selling just the software to other manufacturers, but just because Microsoft has made a reasonably sound business decision to do it that way, does not make it law.
Imagine a world where, for example, Panasonic can decide it's not going to bother writing the code to make their TVs work, they'll just use Sony's code. If a court can force Apple to sell its OS to competing hardware manufacturers, then Panasonic will be able to demand the right to buy Sony's code for televisions and CD players
How about encouraging hardware manufacturers to develop viable alternatives to Mac OS and Windows? While I'm sure the HP OS would suck, it would still be a step in the right direction, and it would get better. Now that would be an open market. And I would not have any expectation that I would be able to install the HP OS on another system.
That would be priceless. No chair, or desk would be safe.
As Apple OSX is a monopoly in itself. Legally 100% of OSX users had to by a Mac, That is a monopoly in software. If Microsoft is being sued over bundling internet explorer then how is Apple getting away with this.
There are no physical limitations why you can't install OSX on a PC, many people have done it.
As Kev_Orng has stated a ford with a Mercedes engine is possible. Grant it, you can't buy it from ford that way, but there is no one stopping you from doing this yourself, perfectly legal. People put Chevy LS1 engines is other cars. Some drag racers don't have the same manufacture engine the chassis's is.
The Iphone with the Blackberry OS is impossible due to the hardware inside. Those are not computer OSes, computer OS have to run on all different types hardware, Old, new, and future systems.
It is really Apple who is causing Microsoft's monopoly in computer OSes. Microsoft doesn't have a true competitor. A OS for any computer. Yes you can get Linux but most people don't know what that is or how to use it since it requires more knowledge in computing.
The reason some people don't buy Apple is the same as why some don't switch from XP to Vista. They have to spend more money when they have a perfectly good system. Most people use there computers for internet, thus why the netbook has taken off. Why buy a hole $1000+ system when a $400 does what I need just as good.
Apple is also missing a market, A tower desktop for the average person. Yes, you can buy a Mac Pro, But those are more of a server or a workstation not a desktop.
Anyway, arguments about Apple being a monopoly and abusing those monopoly powers to prevent you from running Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware will go nowhere. You'd have to prove that Apple has a monopoly on ALL computers to make that work, which they clearly do not.
Let's note the difference:
1. I make a computer and I also make all the software for that computer. It's all from my brain and hands. You like it all, you buy it, you don't like it all, you buy something else. It lives or dies by how good all the pieces work together. That's an integrated system.
2. I make software - but not the computer. You can buy any computer from any manufacturer and run my software. You don't like my software, get Linux. It works better on some computers, not so well on others, but you can pick and choose the CPU you want. BUT then - after I have achieved massive market share - I tell the computer makers that they have to put an icon for MY web browser on the desktop or they have to pay 3 times as much for my software, and I include special code that only I know, which makes MY apps (which I sell separately) run better with more features than other people's apps. THAT, my friend, is a monopoly.
Hope this helps.
Point being, Apple does not have a monopoly, they make everything they sell, unlike MS. And as long as PC users continue the old arguments about Macs being to expensive "which is a myth" (build a Dell with comparable parts of the Mac and the Dell is more expensive, enough said) this will continue. PC users, who don't use Macs, should not speak of what they don't know of. Can't tell you who many times I have a PC user bash a Mac, yet they've never touched one. I use both on a daily basis, everyday for the past 25 years. So please, PC users, shut up, seriously.
But I was always impressed with the cool whiz-bang nature of it, and there were some neat games preloaded, like this one where you were a secret agent in then-divided West Germany. It was some spy RPG with action elements, which I loved to play instead of doing my school projects.
Now because I was the wife of the founder and a marketing type - and naturally blond, I took a lot of heat from the techies who couldn't imagine I knew a thing about a computer. They all laughed at me agreeing to participate in a company that they said would be making toy computers. We went for it and when it arrived, it came shipped to my office.
I opened the box, and quickly had to leave my office to go downstairs to put out a problem in our production department. When I came back to my office, my kindergarten son, whom I'd just picked up at school, was sitting cross legged in my chair, at my desk in front of this funny looking LITTLE box (you have to remember the size of the original units from other companies - they were sure not 'personal' computers at any level) box that my son is sitting in front of, seemingly playing with. It looked like a mini TV.
I look at the tiny screen and see a drawing of an animal. I ask him, "Sean, what is this?"
He smiles and says, "This is a monkey you are looking at. This is a monkey, he is furry and fat."
I ask him - "Did this come up on the screen when someone turned it on? Who put this on for you?" as I look around the room, see a mess with the packing materials and box on the floor.
He answers, "No, Mommy - I did it myself. See, you just look at the pictures and match them up. And then you move the drawing thing and it moves for you."
For those of you who don't remember, or weren't around then, Apple was the first to use icons. Icons were on the ports and cables to this first system... three slots, one for power, one for printer and one for a mouse - each with an icon that clearly shows you the difference between the cables and ports.
I am in shock that he could do it, but realize that he has been the block builder of the family and ask him again. "Sean, who put this together for you?" He then shows me the icons, assures me that he plugged both in and shows me that he just followed the 'pictures' (icons).
He has something in his hand.... which I'd never seen. He's using it to make lines on the screen. He's DRAWING on the screen. He calls it the draw -er.
At that point, three of our engineers come in and start laughing at the toy computer. I mean I was REALLY taking some heat! I look at them and say, "Some toy, that a 5 year old put it together, drew a picture in less than 10 minutes. How long does it take you guys to do that?"
THEN we had their attention. They then took it over, hooked it to the printer and we typed in the words for Sean for his poem and picture and printed it.I still have that. Dated and signed by my 5 year old. The printer even impressed this tough audience.
Yes, we took advantage of the offer, and completed the survey and test and kept the computer. Paid all of $500 for that first one. When we replaced it with four more Apples (after hacking and upgrading the original to have more memory than originally shipped) we donated it two years later to my son's school, along with two more units.
That first Apple was way beyond its time in the ease of use in word processing (we were using the advanced IBM selectric typewriters then with 10 PAGES of memory). The mouse was the first and the integration of drawing and word processing - choosing different fonts made my work as a marketing person much more fun.
How far we've come in that time, and how far to go in the next 25 years?
- by theoscnet January 29, 2009 10:14 AM PST
- "Let's see, what other things am I not good at?"
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(23 Comments)Well, probably not making a beautiful all-in-one computer. You gotta hand it to Apple on that one. iMac is what brought them back from the dead and still continues to make them popular with quite a few folks.
Is it the most price-conscious decision when buying a computer, not really, but it looks good and it's in a very desirable package which makes up for it. And they have since applied this to the phone-PDA-music player combo as well.