The next wave of PC’s:

http://news.cnet.com/The-next-wave-of-PCs/2009-1032_3-6240749.html?tag=newsmap

Intel Atom, Via and the Netbook

On the Apple side, there seems to be some misunderstandings, even though I did not want to focus on Apple in the article.

“Just to set some examples, you can only buy music through their iTunes store, there is no software to install to iPhone other than the default one and even worst you can’t even customise its interface! Ok, I get it Apple! I am a stupid sucker for gadgets and I don’t know anything about how they work”

Completely wrong on this one… You can add web apps on the iPhone, purchase, download for free and distribute applications from the App-Store which has been announced and will go live on Monday…

“You can only buy music from their iTunes store”

Not true… You can upload MP3’s, MP4’s, AAC files and purchace music from Amazon, Napster and all the other music stores that sell DRM-free MP3s. Apple just integrated a service in a product and that’s what made it successful.

“Anyway, I don’t think it will be long until another brand launches a competitive series of trend-making digital products and then we will find out if Apple made a long lasting product like Windows which set their mark in the digital age or just a top-selling fashion gadget series that faded away through the course of time.”

Well, Apple has made its mark in the digital content business with round 80% market share for its iPod and 1st position in music retailing in US, including physical stores. This is the mark of the 00’s, along with Netbooks like the Asus EEE, which have founded a brand new category in personal computing.

I dont claim the above, the market does. Windows is still the king, but with a reducing market share. The innovation and the spotlight is now elsewhere though (Web 2.0, Facebook, Google, Netbooks, the iPhone).

It doesn’t take too much effort to figure out that you are a font Mac lover, which is ok by me. But since you set the start of your retrospect back to the 90s, you have to give some credit to Microsoft for helping PCs to become one of the main digital era driving forces

I know that this sounds like a cliché, but still it’s true. In the late 80s and until mid 90s, the elitist market approach that Apple followed drove away young PC users to Windows, as it offered far more applications than the professional oriented Mac OS products. Giving to the consumers the freedom to choice what software to use and eventually what to do with their computer is what drove young people to familiarise with digital technology.

I don’t want to depreciate the role Apple played in the evolution of the PC era, as they are the ones who originally developed a window based GUI, but it was Microsoft who managed to catch the attention of people and intrigue them to start using personal computers for tasks other than work.

It’s not a long time since Apple directors realised their mistake and start promoting a new range of products designed to “sell” and at the same time formalise a new life style… Minimalism and simplicity are coming back, as they became the fashion of the decade, but is that enough excuse for a company to commercialise digital applications that fit to this fashionable mould?

Just to make this clear, I am not referring to the actual body design of gadgets such as iPod and lately iPhone, which in my opinion is pretty good in both cases. I am trying to make argument based on the actual purpose of those devices, which is nothing else than allowing us to enjoy the earliest digital conveniences.

In consequence, Apple, is not only telling us how our “digital accessories” should look, but what to do as well. I really don’t like when others dictate how we should live our lives, although I don’t consider myself being an aginner. Apple not only is telling you what you should do with your digital gadget, but they are making you pay for that as well. I don’t think anyone can call that a bargain…

Just to set some examples, you can only buy music through their iTunes store, there is no software to install to iPhone other than the default one and even worst you can’t even customise its interface! Ok, I get it Apple! I am a stupid sucker for gadgets and I don’t know anything about how they work. But why should they take away from me the chance to make my life easier by customising the way iPhone for example looks or even better learn by experimenting with it? And I think that you all agree that curiosity and the tendency to differ is in human nature. Moreover, as far as I know achieving customer satisfaction is the number one rule of commerce.

As nothing is set on stone these days, I might pop in a CarPhoneWarehouse shop one day and buy an iPhone, but still I will find it pretty annoying that purchasing the handset automatically means signing an agreement with them about what I am going to do with my phone.

Anyway, I don’t think it will be long until another brand launches a competitive series of trend-making digital products and then we will find out if Apple made a long lasting product like Windows which set their mark in the digital age or just a top-selling fashion gadget series that faded away through the course of time.