3 ms·

Only answering this because of the ecosystem comment. I wish manufacturers would make products that work well with anything. Like Apple watches with Android ph

by WWLink 10y ago

Only answering this because of the ecosystem comment. I wish manufacturers would make products that work well with anything. Like Apple watches with Android phones and vice versa, Apple TV running Amazon's Prime TV app, Amazon's Prime TV box running Apple's TV app, etc. All of these ecosystem-exclusive things are annoying and in some ways I believe holding technology back a little.

MagnumOpus 10y ago
We all wish that and they are not just holding back things "a little" but by massive amounts. But alas companies are usually not in it to advance technology, but to make shedloads of money. Lock-in, incompatible ports, moats are all by design to reduce customer attrition from inferior products by some margin. Peter Thiel's "From 0 to 1" opened my mind to this. SV VCs also don't care about your tech too much - but they are insanely focused on what your "moat" is. I.e. lock-in, patents, network effects etc.
- dkonofalski 10y ago
  While lock-in might be a motivating factor and benefit, it's also just that it's really hard to make something that works with a competitor's something-else without your competitor sharing all their details. It's much easier for a company to guarantee the experience of the end-user when they only have to worry about things they have control over. You can't just make that kind of simplification as if it's proven fact.
dkonofalski 10y ago
I don't mean to offend you, but that's such a naive comment. Look at how many problems Windows has with all the hardware that it needs to support. The entire reason you get ecosystem-exclusive things is because it's nearly impossible to make things cross-compatible to such a degree that it doesn't turn into a giant game of finger-pointing. If your Apple Watch series 4 doesn't work with your Nexus 20 phone, whose fault is it? Who needs to fix it? It might be holding technology back a little but until we get away from capitalism and there's a financial risk/reward system to making sure everything works and nothing is shared, we'll have to deal with this exclusivity.

by WWLink 10y ago

MagnumOpus 10y ago

We all wish that and they are not just holding back things "a little" but by massive amounts. But alas companies are usually not in it to advance technology, but to make shedloads of money. Lock-in, incompatible ports, moats are all by design to reduce customer attrition from inferior products by some margin. Peter Thiel's "From 0 to 1" opened my mind to this. SV VCs also don't care about your tech too much - but they are insanely focused on what your "moat" is. I.e. lock-in, patents, network effects etc.

dkonofalski 10y ago
While lock-in might be a motivating factor and benefit, it's also just that it's really hard to make something that works with a competitor's something-else without your competitor sharing all their details. It's much easier for a company to guarantee the experience of the end-user when they only have to worry about things they have control over. You can't just make that kind of simplification as if it's proven fact.

dkonofalski 10y ago

I don't mean to offend you, but that's such a naive comment. Look at how many problems Windows has with all the hardware that it needs to support. The entire reason you get ecosystem-exclusive things is because it's nearly impossible to make things cross-compatible to such a degree that it doesn't turn into a giant game of finger-pointing. If your Apple Watch series 4 doesn't work with your Nexus 20 phone, whose fault is it? Who needs to fix it? It might be holding technology back a little but until we get away from capitalism and there's a financial risk/reward system to making sure everything works and nothing is shared, we'll have to deal with this exclusivity.