This article on Gizmodo is important, for it signals the shifting grounds of the technology wars: the blogosphere is cannibalizing on Apple. Suddenly, Apple is not THAT cool or innovative, or liberal or fun or creative. It is old, grumpy, resentful, capitalist, police-friendly; and Google leaps ahead of Apple.
Steve Job’s overeaction to Gizmodo’s breaking the news -and publishing juicy photos- of a lost, never-seen-before, super duper secret iphone 4, achieved something few of us could believe just a month ago: the techie-heads crapping on Apple. That’s what happens when a multi-billionaire sends the cops to the house of a harmless nerdy tech website editor.
There is something scary about Google’s drive for global domination. Its omnipotence and omniscience. Yet, it is somehow understandable and with many historical precedents: it is a business and it wants to be everywhere and be used by everyone. The strategy is simple: cast a wide-net and be everything to everybody. The sheer size of Google’s global empire has made it impossible for them NOT to adopt an open platform philosophy. It has been the only way to attract an impressively diverse customer base. So by keeping it loose, they keep it together.
Apple’s vision and philosophy are different. Apple, unlike Microsoft, is not interested in having 100% of the planet using their Macs. They have around a 5% market share and they are comfortable with that. The gross of their money, however, comes from elsewhere: ipod and iphone sales. In the last decade, Apple has been steadily marching towards a technological and philosophical close-down. An obsessive compulsion to have people experience their products in Apple’s terms exclusively has become evident. Though it is impossible to perfectly close a whole computer with a fully loaded operating system, Apple has been moving towards controlling more and more, the ways their computers can be experienced and enjoyed. They have done this by limiting choices and by devising proprietary technology that works only for that 5% of the world’s computers. With ipods and iphones they have achieved what was impossible to do with a fully functional computer: complete lockdown. All in the name of the Apple experience.
Meanwhile, like a cheap whore, Google keeps selling itself the world over. And the more it expands, the more open it has to be....and the more chaos it can potentially engender.
Google fought the China’s Communist Party to a draw. They took a stand, on principle. If Google was able to fight the People’s Republic of China’s government to a draw, it will crush Apple and its petty tyrant. Apple runs the risk of becoming not only a joke, but even more painful, irrelevant. That will not happen today. But just as Google’s strategy for world domination is a long term one, Apple’s demise will take years. But down it will go. Unless it opens up.
Steve Job’s overeaction to Gizmodo’s breaking the news -and publishing juicy photos- of a lost, never-seen-before, super duper secret iphone 4, achieved something few of us could believe just a month ago: the techie-heads crapping on Apple. That’s what happens when a multi-billionaire sends the cops to the house of a harmless nerdy tech website editor.
There is something scary about Google’s drive for global domination. Its omnipotence and omniscience. Yet, it is somehow understandable and with many historical precedents: it is a business and it wants to be everywhere and be used by everyone. The strategy is simple: cast a wide-net and be everything to everybody. The sheer size of Google’s global empire has made it impossible for them NOT to adopt an open platform philosophy. It has been the only way to attract an impressively diverse customer base. So by keeping it loose, they keep it together.
Apple’s vision and philosophy are different. Apple, unlike Microsoft, is not interested in having 100% of the planet using their Macs. They have around a 5% market share and they are comfortable with that. The gross of their money, however, comes from elsewhere: ipod and iphone sales. In the last decade, Apple has been steadily marching towards a technological and philosophical close-down. An obsessive compulsion to have people experience their products in Apple’s terms exclusively has become evident. Though it is impossible to perfectly close a whole computer with a fully loaded operating system, Apple has been moving towards controlling more and more, the ways their computers can be experienced and enjoyed. They have done this by limiting choices and by devising proprietary technology that works only for that 5% of the world’s computers. With ipods and iphones they have achieved what was impossible to do with a fully functional computer: complete lockdown. All in the name of the Apple experience.
Meanwhile, like a cheap whore, Google keeps selling itself the world over. And the more it expands, the more open it has to be....and the more chaos it can potentially engender.
Google fought the China’s Communist Party to a draw. They took a stand, on principle. If Google was able to fight the People’s Republic of China’s government to a draw, it will crush Apple and its petty tyrant. Apple runs the risk of becoming not only a joke, but even more painful, irrelevant. That will not happen today. But just as Google’s strategy for world domination is a long term one, Apple’s demise will take years. But down it will go. Unless it opens up.
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