Code In Vain

Apple is known for its innovation.  At the late 70’s and 80’s it ruled the world of microcomputers with the Apple pc. but somewhere things went wrong.

It began with Microsoft striking a deal with IBM. Then with a bit of luck, greed, reverse engineering, and legal sorcery, Compaq made the first IBM PC clone. Then the road was open to ever cheaper clones, and Microsoft’s hardware support strategy opened the gate to versatile configurations. It was what we call today (and maybe even then, but I was too young to know) a disruptive technology. Microsoft changed the way the computer business worked. Up until that time, software was sold as part of the hardware itself and not separately. Microsoft technology broke through.   Respect.

As a side note, until now Apple holds ground regarding selling hardware and software combined , which might be a limitation in the PC business but surely comes to its advantage on the mobile world.

Back to our story, for years Apple wandered in darkness , until the big break through in the form of the IPod and its successor the IPhone. It may be that it all went the wrong way since Steve Jobs left Apple, and things got back on track upon his return. Major parts of Apple’s new business are based on NeXT technology (Jobs’s company that was eventually acquired by Apple), and his involvement in product development is infamous.

If it is so then Apple is truly a one man show.

This time the battle is about services (or SaaS) .The IPhone and IPod are clients to the ITunes SaaS.  But with Apple’s restrictions on application runtimes (in effort to control the store) and banning of innovative applications it is heading the wrong path again.

Like it was in the 70’s Apple defined the market but will Google with its  mobile computing and mobile communication take over it ?

Don’t get me wrong I LOVE my IPhone, but I’m starting to feel that it would be my Ivory tower. Like a 90’s Mac.