Inside Apple Computer's Walled Garden
Charlie Stross:
The real reason why Steve Jobs hates Flash: My take on the iPhone OS, and the iPad, isn't just that they're the start of a whole new range of Apple computers that have a user interface.... Rather, they're a hugely ambitious attempt to keep Apple relevant to the future of computing, once Moore's law tapers off and the personal computer industry craters and turns into a profitability wasteland. The App Store and the iTunes Store have taught Steve Jobs that ownership of the sales channel is vital... as long as he can charge rent for access to data (or apps) he's got a business model.... A well-cultivated app store i... a customer draw... a powerful tool for promoting the operating system... an ecosystem. Apple are trying desperately to force the growth of a new ecosystem... in five years flat... the time scale in which they expect the cloud computing revolution to flatten the existing PC industry... [into] interchangable suppliers of commodity equipment assembled on a shoestring budget with negligable profit.
Signs of the Macpocalypse abound. This year, for the first time, the Apple Design Awards at WWDC'10 are only open to iPhone and iPad apps. Mac apps need not apply; they don't contribute to Apple's new walled garden ecosystem. Any threat to the growth of the app store software platform is going to be resisted.... Steve Jobs.... "It is not Adobe's goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps." And he really does not want cross-platform apps that might divert attention and energy away from his application ecosystem....
Let's peer five years into the future... LTE will be here. WiMax will be here. We will be seeing pocket 4G routers similar to the MiFi but featuring 50-100mbps internet connectivity.... The availability of 50+mbps data everywhere means that you don't need to keep your data on a local hard drive; it can live on a server.... The iPad by 2015 will have evolved. There will be smaller models with 7"/18cm screens, and larger desktop models... newer processors.... But where it will really shine — the value proposition that will keep punters forking over huge gobbets of steaming money, in the midst of a PC industry that's cratering — will be the external benefits of joining the Apple ecosystem. If you're using an iPad in 2015, my bet is that... you'll just have data on demand... backups... stored in Apple's cloud... software updates... will simply happen automatically in the background... nor will worms or viruses or malware be allowed. You will, of course, pay a lot more for the experience than your netbook-toting hardcore microsofties.... You'll... be surrounded by a swarm of devices that give you access to your data whenever and however you need it.
This is why there's a stench of panic hanging over silicon valley. this is why Apple have turned into paranoid security Nazis, why HP have just ditched Microsoft from a forthcoming major platform and splurged a billion-plus on buying up a near-failure; it's why everyone is terrified of Google: The PC revolution is almost coming to an end, and everyone's trying to work out a strategy for surviving the aftermath.
Cade Metz:
HP eyes webOS iPad rival: Borgs Palm for tablets too: In purchasing Palm, HP intends to build and sell not only a new collection of phones based on Palm's critically-acclaimed webOS, but a line of webOS tablets as well. On Wednesday, the two companies announced that HP has agreed to acquire Palm for roughly $1.2bn - $5.70 per share of Palm common stock - and according to Todd Bradley, executive vice president in HP's personal systems group, the PC giant will use Palm's engineers, webOS mobile operating system, and other intellectual property to fashion all sorts of mobile devices for use at work and at play...
Joel Johnson:
Microsoft Cancels Innovative Courier Tablet Project: According to sources familiar with the matter, Microsoft has cancelled Courier, the folding, two-screen prototype tablet that was first uncovered by Gizmodo.... It appeared from the leaked information last year that a Courier prototype was probably near to completion. The combination of both touch- and pen-based computing was compelling. Perhaps the strong launch of Apple's iPad, currently the only available "mobile tablet" from a major vendor, caused Ballmer to reassess the commitment of Microsoft in a soon-to-be-crowded market.... It is a pity. Courier was one of the most innovative concepts out of Redmond in quite some time. But what we loved about Courier was the interface and the thinking behind it.... Hopefully some of the smart thinking we have seen in Courier will find its way into Microsoft's tablets, whether they're powered by Windows 7 or Windows Phone 7...
Jay Yarow:
Apple Doesn't Have To Worry About The HP Slate Anymore: Apple's iPad team doesn't have to worry about the HP Slate tablet.... An analyst asked what HP would be doing with its iPad-rival. HP's Todd Bradley responded, "We haven't made roadmap announcements," but that HP will explain its Slate plans in more detail when the Palm deal closes.... [I]f HP was still all-in with its Windows-based Slate, we think Todd may have said, "we still plan on partnering with Microsoft on the Slate."
From the Arcbives: Justin Scheck and Nick Wingfield last February:
PC Makers Ready iPad Rivals: Computer makers are developing strategies and devices to challenge Apple Inc.'s iPad.... In the next few weeks, executives from Hewlett-Packard Co. will meet in the U.S. and Taiwan to tweak prices and features on an upcoming keyboardless computer dubbed the Slate.... H-P has discussed selling a version of the Slate—similar to the iPad in size and features, and including a cellular connection—for a price below the $629 Apple charges for an equivalent iPad, one of these people said. Executives at Dell Inc., Acer Inc. and Sony Corp. say they are all watching Apple as they refine their own products. And Microsoft Corp. has a secretive team working on a two-screen tablet device....
"For us, the iPad launch is a benchmark," said Mike Abary, a vice president in Sony's Vaio PC division....
Sumit Agnihotry, a vice president of marketing at Acer, said the company... is developing products midway in size between a smart phone and a laptop, including an e-reader that will come out later this year....
Microsoft has a group of designers who operate out of a little-known company incubation laboratory in Seattle called Alchemy Ventures... working on a two-screen tablet, code-named Courier... it's unclear whether the company will introduce the gadget, these people added. A Microsoft spokesman declined comment....
H-P announced its Slate a few weeks before the iPad... decided to wait for the iPad's unveiling before selling the Slate so it could see Apple's device "and tweak things," such as pricing....
John Thode, a Dell vice president in charge of portable devices, said the company predicted Apple wouldn't do a small-screen tablet since Apple already offered the 3.5-inch screen iPod Touch. So after doing consumer research in 2008 that showed customers would buy Web-surfing gadgets with a five-inch screen, Mr. Thode said, Dell began developing a tablet dubbed the Mini 5. The device, which Dell unveiled in January, will likely go on the market this year using Google Inc.'s Android software.
So any sign of the Mini 5?
