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Would the Last Person, Please Turn Off the Light
At the moment, there seems to be an awful lot of conjecture around apps and the platforms which they populate.
Windows Phone 7 is trying to justify why IT'S the platform that Devs want to develop for. Stephen Elop suggests (because of the 'close ties' with Microsoft no doubt) that the hardware that runs WP7 is the 'way of the future' and it really isn't that simple.
Apple this week released Final Cut Pro X after a short wait and a long update cycle. It was received cooly. There wasn't the mindless and sheeplike behaviour from the Apple die hards that follows pretty much every other Apple announcement. People actually hated it. We're talking 10 year users, career pros and, dare I say it, fanboys.
Why? A simple miscalculation by Apple? God Forbid!
Developers, Developers, Developers was the cry from Ballmer a very long time ago and at the time I thought that he was just being a bit of a 'suck up'...and I still think that. But I think inadvertently, he may have been ahead of the curve
We live in an App Driven World and pretty much nothing more. Hardware is the second and maybe even tertiary choice and the OS is nothing more than the inconvenience that comes with the other two. And FINALLY, the computer industry has awakened to the consumer and mighty 'dollar' they wield. If Uncle Steve thinks we don't know what we want, then he is now sadly mistaken. Every consumer in a hard bitten and desperate economic climate is making choices based on functionality and use and perhaps a little bit of style.
This struck me about 6 months ago when I started trying to upgrade the video for Bagel Tech. I priced out the optimum machine from Apple...I had no choice, I'm a fanboy... and realised that I would have to part with about £3000 to get it right and would probably have to wait for the much anticipated upgrade to the iMac line.
What were my alternative choices? A Windows Machine? Shuddering at the thought, I had to concede that this may have to be my alternative but then the parallel struck me. Applications are the 'Camera Lenses' of Apple. Yeah I like the hardware and yeah it looks nice, but without the shiny aluminium casing its 98% standard components. What I needed was the Apps and only by association, the OS.
I can't start again with Audition instead of Logic 9, I can't switch from iMovie to Windows Movie Maker (shudders even harder). I can't go back to missing all the cool little free apps that I have acquired over the years that tweak and shape my machine. I am ADDICTED to Apple APPS...not Apple, not Apple Hardware, not OS X, not iOS and certainly not the Apps Stores and iTunes Interface. I had driven down a dead end street and sealed up the escape route along the way.
Its ALL about the Apps, not mostly...ALL! And finally, the computer industry has really moved to supply the customer with usability over development and innovation and its what we want if were honest.
The Cool Shiny is nice but after a while you look at the pile of it in the corner of your office or study and realise you dont use it. You eBay it and then you finally grow up and realise you wont buy the next one just because its there...Your wife was right all this time, who knew?
With the collapse in economy, computing has grown up too, supplied it customers needs and responded to the market demand. FCP X is a response to attract, via GUI and Price a greater market sector than the pros who previously used it, OS X Lion is configured to look innovative but actually respond to the commercial hard fact that Apple sells bucket loads more Netbooks than Desktops and finally Windows Phone 7 has been configured to fail.
Why? Its too little, too late. Its a platform which has been too slow to attract developers and service industries who will give it the transfusion of Apps it need to kick start its beating heart. Yes there will be some fans who are loyal and some gambling and porn apps, but most have either already left the camp for iOS or Android
Would the last one of you to leave, please turn out the light?
Ewen
Follow me on twitter at @EwenRankin or @BritishTechNews. Write to me at britishtechnews@gmail.com
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Ewen Rankin