It ’s a new class , but one PCWorld pundit is n’t compose “ 2011 ” on her check-out procedure . In fact , she ’s still writing “ 1994 . ” She ’s not the only one . At CES , Microsoft is still render to pass off yesterday ’s tablet as today ’s slating .
Well , at least one thing is Modern this week : the Mac App Store ! New like a stiff yoke of underclothes that may make chafing . rag some people — and mythical beasts — might enjoy .
Do n’t estimate . Do n’t you make bold judge .
Out with the old, in with the old!
PCWorld ’s self - title “ Linux Girl ” , Katherine Noyes , showsthat just because it ’s a new yr does n’t mean we have to throw out tired , one-time argumentation .
Whereas the very promising Macintosh computer could have provided much acuate competition to IBM ’s PC , Apple ’s determination to keep control of the gimmick maintain its market share humble , I believe , and doomed it to a marginal role .
So it could go with the iPhone .
The Macalope likes to guess that somewhere there is a cabaret of goofy pundits who have made the argument that Apple should have licensed the Mac O , blissfully unaware of the counter - arguments , counter - examplesand , well , account . They meet and pledge and fume cigar and laugh — hour angle - HA!—about silly Apple and how cockamamie it was — and still is , HA - HA!—for not licensing its operating systems . Because party on the face of it pass on grocery ploughshare and nothing else . And in a unruffled ceremony this week , fill with ritual and infuse in tradition dating back to the other 1990s , Katherine was afford her nightspot blazer .
It is rather rich to be lectured on which operating system has a “ marginal character ” by someone who says this is at last the year Ubuntu will become a “ serious contender in the mainstream , even among non - technical consumer . ”
Do n’t stop believin ’ , Katherine . Hold on to that feelin ’ .
take more …
Though it ’s enjoy a first mover vantage in the smartphone field , the Android floodgates are now open , and promise to make the iPhone a niche twist for Apple enthusiasts .
Dictionary.comdefines “ ecological niche ” as “ a clear-cut segment of a market . ” So we can strike that Katherine ’s talking about the section of the securities industry where all the profit is .
The piece is a lilliputian unpaired because her impulsion for writing it isa piece by Jean - Louis Gasséewhich specifically have the air out of the “ iPhone = Mac 2.0 ” meme . Katherine ’s reaction to Gassée ’s deconstruction looks like , after some redaction , “ iPhone = Mac 2.0 times eternity . ”
The Macalope ’s birth a laborious fourth dimension seeing how the iPhone ends up a “ corner gadget ” in the foreseeable hereafter , but Katherine is entitled to her belief , no matter how many fact seem to fly in its face , like bugs into the mouth of a driver lurch down the Highway of Illogic ( which , incidentally , is outside Phoenix ) .
Android isdoing well , there ’s no denying that . But these chickens remain , to date , unhatched .
The “ big wrinkle , ” [ comScore aged analyst Mark Donovan ] say , could fare in 2011 if the iPhone moves to Verizon Wireless , after being exclusively on AT&T since its launch . “ Certainly if it does , you will see an uptick in iPhone ownership , ” he said .
“ Uptick ” may beunderstating the thing . As may“if . ”
rivalry away , the mart looks rosy for both platforms , as smartphone ownership overall increase by 64 % from last class , comScore said . The iPhone saw an step-up of 61 % — a good number , although it was overwhelmed by Android ’s astronomical leap of more than 1,000 % .
…
The potential nonstarter in all of this ? Other chopine .
Exactly !
So while most of the tech industry thinks it ’s Apple and Android fighting for smartphone dominance , the sales number suggest that Android ’s main gains are come at BlackBerry ’s disbursement .
If this is a battle that ’s just between Apple and Android , it ’s been one that Apple ’s been fighting with one limb tied behind its back — a check that looks to be terminate soon . This competitiveness ’s just getting interesting .
Déjà vu
So , CES was this week and Microsoft used the show to re - re - re - precede its slate / tablet / open / whatever - Word of God - they’re - using - this - yr strategy . There ’s an erstwhile locution that “ the definition of insanity is doing the same affair over and over and gestate different results . ” If that ’s true then it might be clock time to take the sharp scissors by from Microsoft .
Adrian Kingsley - Hugheszings the company thusly :
lend a stylus to a Cartesian product only emphasise the fact that Windows does n’t work on tablets . OEMs might as well bundle a keyboard and mouse with each Slate .
Adrian ’s cracking wise , of course . Add computer hardware ? No , that would be absurd ! or else they ’re adding software program , in the form ofcustom interfaces that baby-sit on top of Windows 7 on a surfslateletandmake the darn thing usable .
Custom apps from Samsung will help optimize the touch experience …
Microsoft has apparently decided it ’s not in the stage business of making the substance abuser ’s interaction with surflatelets anything other thanjust likeWindows 7 on the background , except with a style . The Macalope ’s no billion - dollar software program fellowship with a sweaty , sticky CEO , but that seems like a pretty large error to him .
The party’s in your Dock and everyone’s coming!
The Macalope hopes you expend the holidays build up up a resistance to shouty one - sensation reviews , because the Mac App Store is here ! It ’s catch some technical glitches , it ’s upsetting the raw ordering of thing , and it ’s probably in penury of some fixing , but here ’s how the horny one knows it ’ll be a success :
Without vacate his furred butt out of the chair , he boughta pretty cool gamefor his Mac … for a dollar .
Is that right for developer ? Well , Majic Jungle Software , probably hoping for an former ride up the Top 10 lists , must think so or they would n’t have priced it that agency . On the shiny side , the Mac App Store has given us something other than app bundles to reason about .
While there arelegitimate complaintsabout the pricing limitations , that has n’t lay off some from diving head - first into a perchance shallow pool . For Pixelmator , which hasgone App Store - only , it ’s probably an easy way to differentiate themselves from theirpushy installer - lie with competition .
Oh , Adobe Installer ! We could never give up you !
Seriously . We hit Command - Q like 8,000 times .
