4 ms·

I am really not liking the whole emphasize-iphoneOS-over everything-else direction of apple recently. When they renamed the company from "Apple Computer" to "A

I am really not liking the whole emphasize-iphoneOS-over everything-else direction of apple recently. When they renamed the company from "Apple Computer" to "Apple", it should've been obvious which way the wind was blowing. They are not going to be selling Macs in ten years.

pyre 17y ago
What are they going to do with their development platform then? I can see how it makes sense for Apple to drop 'computers' and focus on 'devices,' but they are currently restricting their development platform to Macs. Do you feel that they will be able to create a competent development platform for Windows or Linux? Or do you think that we will all be coding on iPhones/iPads in 10 years?
- CamperBob 17y ago
  I can't see using a tablet as a coding platform, but who knows what kind of wacky stuff will happen by the time they get around to retiring the Mac platform. As mentioned above, though, Windows-hosted development is the rule and not the exception in other industries like game development, which are just as technically demanding (if not far more so) than iPhone OS app development.
  - pyre 17y ago
    The problem is that Apple has never shown any sort of competency in developing stable and/or usable Windows applications. They need their developer tools to stay friendly during such a transition, too. They can't just expect i{Phone,Pad} developers to walk barefoot over broken glass just for the privilege of creating an application for the platform. {edit} Either that or they are banking on being so entrenched by the time they drop the Mac platform that developers will have no choice but to 'walk barefoot over broken glass' to develop for their mobile platform.
    - orangecat 17y ago
      They can't just expect i{Phone,Pad} developers to walk barefoot over broken glass just for the privilege of creating an application for the platform. Based on their recent policy changes that is exactly what they expect.
- easp 17y ago
  They created a competent development environment for FreeBSD, so its plausible that they can do it on Windows or Linux. Not that I think it will come to that. Our computing environment is going through another refactoring. The last big refactoring started with the rise of the web, and its not done yet. The next wave started with the rise of powerful mobile internet devices, and will still be playing out in a decade. What will we all be coding on in 10 years? Hell if I know, it could be retinal projectors, and neural implants hooked into "the TouchCloud." Or maybe its something running a descendent of the iPhone fork of OS X with full support for huge displays, keyboards, mice, etc.
necubi 17y ago
Here's the best argument against that pessimistic view: people at Apple, Steve Jobs very much included, use Macs. They obviously love their macs, and would be very unhappy to be forced to move to windows. Steve Jobs does not want to use Windows, so he'll continue making computers that he wants to use.
- CamperBob 17y ago
  Steve Jobs does not want to use Windows, so he'll continue making computers that he wants to use. Jobs would sell his own liver if that's what it took to own the market he's playing in. (Actually, that might explain a few things...) He cannot, and will never, own the PC market with the Mac. Vista was his last chance, I think. OTOH, the portable music player market is a foregone conclusion at this point, and he can, and may, dominate the smartphone market as well, through the incompetence of his adversaries if nothing else. Most great platform success stories -- certainly Microsoft's -- have come about in exactly that way. MS didn't win their Windows and Office monopolies because their products were awesome, they won because everybody else was a goddamned idiot. It's way too late to defeat Windows. Jobs knows that, and the prospect of continuing the battle must bore him by now.
whyenot 17y ago
They are not going to be selling Macs in ten years. People were also saying that 10 years ago. It's hard to predict the future.
rimantas 17y ago
They are not going to be selling Macs in ten years. I don't think so. From their second quarter report for this year: Apple sold 2.94 million Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter
- CamperBob 17y ago
  That's just a temporary halo effect, the result of increased foot traffic brought in by the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

pyre 17y ago

What are they going to do with their development platform then? I can see how it makes sense for Apple to drop 'computers' and focus on 'devices,' but they are currently restricting their development platform to Macs. Do you feel that they will be able to create a competent development platform for Windows or Linux? Or do you think that we will all be coding on iPhones/iPads in 10 years?

CamperBob 17y ago
I can't see using a tablet as a coding platform, but who knows what kind of wacky stuff will happen by the time they get around to retiring the Mac platform. As mentioned above, though, Windows-hosted development is the rule and not the exception in other industries like game development, which are just as technically demanding (if not far more so) than iPhone OS app development.
- pyre 17y ago
  The problem is that Apple has never shown any sort of competency in developing stable and/or usable Windows applications. They need their developer tools to stay friendly during such a transition, too. They can't just expect i{Phone,Pad} developers to walk barefoot over broken glass just for the privilege of creating an application for the platform. {edit} Either that or they are banking on being so entrenched by the time they drop the Mac platform that developers will have no choice but to 'walk barefoot over broken glass' to develop for their mobile platform.
  - orangecat 17y ago
    They can't just expect i{Phone,Pad} developers to walk barefoot over broken glass just for the privilege of creating an application for the platform. Based on their recent policy changes that is exactly what they expect.
easp 17y ago
They created a competent development environment for FreeBSD, so its plausible that they can do it on Windows or Linux. Not that I think it will come to that. Our computing environment is going through another refactoring. The last big refactoring started with the rise of the web, and its not done yet. The next wave started with the rise of powerful mobile internet devices, and will still be playing out in a decade. What will we all be coding on in 10 years? Hell if I know, it could be retinal projectors, and neural implants hooked into "the TouchCloud." Or maybe its something running a descendent of the iPhone fork of OS X with full support for huge displays, keyboards, mice, etc.

necubi 17y ago

Here's the best argument against that pessimistic view: people at Apple, Steve Jobs very much included, use Macs. They obviously love their macs, and would be very unhappy to be forced to move to windows. Steve Jobs does not want to use Windows, so he'll continue making computers that he wants to use.

CamperBob 17y ago
Steve Jobs does not want to use Windows, so he'll continue making computers that he wants to use. Jobs would sell his own liver if that's what it took to own the market he's playing in. (Actually, that might explain a few things...) He cannot, and will never, own the PC market with the Mac. Vista was his last chance, I think. OTOH, the portable music player market is a foregone conclusion at this point, and he can, and may, dominate the smartphone market as well, through the incompetence of his adversaries if nothing else. Most great platform success stories -- certainly Microsoft's -- have come about in exactly that way. MS didn't win their Windows and Office monopolies because their products were awesome, they won because everybody else was a goddamned idiot. It's way too late to defeat Windows. Jobs knows that, and the prospect of continuing the battle must bore him by now.

whyenot 17y ago

They are not going to be selling Macs in ten years. People were also saying that 10 years ago. It's hard to predict the future.

rimantas 17y ago

They are not going to be selling Macs in ten years. I don't think so. From their second quarter report for this year: Apple sold 2.94 million Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter

CamperBob 17y ago
That's just a temporary halo effect, the result of increased foot traffic brought in by the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.