Posted on 07/03/2010 9:38:54 PM PDT by stripes1776
The success of iPhone 4 has been astonishing to witness, despite the antenna issues, proving once again that Apple has a unparalleled ability to differentiate around design and integration, not simply “features.”
Perhaps the best example of this so far is FaceTime, Apple’s take on video-calling. FaceTime makes video-calling on the Android-based Sprint HTC EVO look silly, because the EVO awkwardly requires users to sign up and download a third-party app, then launch it every time they want to talk. Normal people simply won’t do this...
(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...
Funny, the author didn’t mention that FaceTime is over WIFI only - it does not run on your 3G network.
On the other hand, Fring on Android runs on the 3G network. So you can use it anywhere, you don’t have to try to find a WIFI connection to have a video call...
I guess that’s ‘dominance’ though?
Going all the way back to the Steve Wozniak early days working out of a garage, the guiding philosophy of Apple has been to build “the whole widget.” It’s what they do. The disastrous few years in the 90’s were the only example of straying from it, then Steve Jobs returned and set them back on track.
Negotiations with the carrier turns out differently for different companies with different carriers. Wow, who’da thunk. The integration of Apple on the one hand via WiFi, versus downloading a third party app and clicking it for 3G ... well, whatever floats your boat. I’ll go with Apple.
One thing is pretty evident regardless, and that is that carriers do not want devices with certain native capabilities on their 4G networks at present. That will no doubt change in the future, but that future is not yet here.
I’ll tell you this. My wife and family got me an iPad for my birthday
, which was June 19th. I love the thing!
From my hospital bed, and now that I am in rehab (I have sitting and standing restrictions due to the massive reconstruct they did in my pelvic area) from my own bed or wheel chair at our apartment here in Houston Getting on the web, watching movies, listening to music, s,die shows of my pics, and even word processing ( (not to mention the many apps) .
I created the PDF and .doc files for my just published Proposal for Border Enforcement on the southern border. You can download those files here:
http://www.jeffhead.com/secure.pdf
http://www.jeffhead.com/secure.doc
I then created a web page to go with them:
http://www.jeffhead.vow/secureborder/
So, the iPad functions for me at about 85% of my laptop, and it is 1/2 inch thick and 1.5 lbs. Slick piece of technology. All touch controlled, when going back to my XPS laptop, I find myself trying to touch the screen to get things done and the have to revert to the mouse.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my laptop. High-end dual core processors, 4 gb RAM, dual nVidia graphics in SLI...but my 64gb iPad is very nice too and wins for portability when I do not have any heavy graphics or heavy processing needs,
Apple knows how to build a fine product.
The dominance is in mobile devices ... not Facetime.
I wouldn’t give up my iPhone 4.
Droids are fugly anyway.
Apple dives like a dead duck.
They have surpassed Microsoft and are second to Exxon Mobile in market cap. Each company that achieves a dominant position will find it very hard to keep it and most of their sales recently were to customers who already had apple products and were upgrading as Mac-heads do. 70% were upgrades. 30% new.
This has been a trend and it has a ending. All the lawsuits and guns of the blogs and media will now turn their attention from the once underdog to the now behemoth marketer, and it won't be good attention.
Underneath it all, Apple is just a marketer. Their innovations are mostly copied from others and the new phone, the 4G, has virtually little benefit over the 3G. Most analysts are surprised at the lack of new to the new phone. The video chat is ridiculous. You can only chat with another I-phone and it has to be on a wi-fi and not the network. Other phones can do network and work with other phones with video chat. What good it it!
Now we find out they have fudged the signal strength indicator....wonder why? LOL....
I think the jig is about up.
Great, so you’d rather not have the feature available most of the time. I guess that is progress, but for most people I don’t think it is.
How hard is it to set up an app? Most people have done it at least once, and pretty much every one can sign up (you do it if you want an MSN, Yahoo, GMail, ICQ or other account).
Yes, Apple integrates a lot of stuff; at the same time, you are limited in what you can do with your phone, and what apps you can use. So if it works exactly as-is for you, great. But if you ever want anything slightly outside the walled garden Apple has given you, well, you’re stuck.
This is a horrible article that is really embarassing for TechCrunch. I don’t know why anyone would post it here. M.G.’s TC review of the iPhone 4 is far better and more worthy of comment than this tripe.
iPhone dominates in mobile devices? Really? You’re aware that Android phones is outselling iPhones, and both are a pittance compared to the heavyweights like Nokia and Motorola and LG...
But he did mention it. Perhaps you read too quickly: "As a technological demo, FaceTime is impressive. It really is one-click-and-it-works provided both parties have iPhone 4s are are connected to WiFi. "
As the author also says: "Yes, I know, other phones have done video chat for some time now. But the fact that seemingly everyone is talking about mobile video chatting for the first time with this release says just about all you need to say." Nobody is talking about video chat except on the iPhone 4. I have seen it in action and it is clear and sharp video. And also it will be open source for any other vendors who want to use it.
If it's not worthy of a comment, why are you commenting?
Mobile devices means iPhones, iPods and iPads. Apple dominates in mobile devices.
How many of those has Android sold?
Oops, yes I did miss it. Seems to me a feature that's available in a very limited number of places (as compared to that same feature on other platforms that are available everywhere) is hardly a reason to trumpet a device.
But like I said, if you're happy with it, OK. As far as claiming it's a "trump card" reason the iPhone is better, well, I think you'll need something more convincing than that!
That's hilarious. Who's copying whom, here? Looks like the nattering nabobs have given up trashing the iPad and are stepping all over themselves to get some Android kludge iClone tablet to market. Same with iPhone, what the heck is Android if not a copy of iPhone?
Then, you have the entire notion of "apps," a stripped down conception of software applications ... wholly attributable to Apple and only three years ago, but you'd think that's just the way the world has always been, to listen to the would-be crowd busily knocking off Apple again and again.
It's been like this since Bill Gates kludged together Windows on top of DOS with the explicit objective of making it look like a Mac, apparently elusive still, but that was the explicit objective. The keyboard commands, everything that could be just like a Mac was just like a Mac, and what couldn't was still like a Mac but backwards, inverted scrollbars or buttons for expanding and closing windows, etcetera.
Apple was largely responsible for every single thing you take for granted, from the first successful desktop metaphor GUI to using a mouse, to color monitors, to, well, you name it. Everybody else fell in line behind them.
So, again, what are you talking about?
What? Are you serious about that? Really?
Wishing you a speedy rehab.
Apple knows how to build a fine product.
Yes, I agree completely. I just got my first Mac computer: an MacBook Pro. It's the best computer I have ever owned. I am so impressed with the quality of the hardware and software. At some point I will get an iPad as well. And my iPod touch goes everywhere I go. I have all my music on it.
And thanks for the links.
How many music players and tablets has Android sold?
I dunno. Maybe because it ticks off the right kind of Applebots.
So what? Tech crunch have always been a bunch of whores for Apple.
Facetime software is a joke compared to what Sprint has with the EVO. The EVO can call computers using skype, other phones running fring or qik and it can do it anywhere unlike the iPhone which can only do it on wifi....Pathetic.
You’re trumpeting a perceived market advantage that will be very shortlived, PugetSoundSoldier. Then, it’ll be right back to the usual dynamic, which is a choice between the genuine article put together with great care and flair from Apple, or the lower apparent cost of entry for what is for all intents and purposes a less than ideally executed clone.
So why troll? Seriously. Some of us would like to read the thread without someone coming in trying to start fights just for the fun of trying to make someone else mad.
Dear Mr. Head: Thank you for your scholarship and amazing productivity. Your review of the new iPad is very interesting. And I believe you. If you find value in the iPad, then it’s gotta be good. I’ll check it out. Speedy recovery.
You’re welcome for the links, and thank you well wishes for my rehab. I was on my back over 10 weeks so all muscle tone is gone...am learning to walk again.
I synced my iPod touch when I got out. All my iPad apps came over. My iPod touch is a 32gb version.
Great stuff.
On the contrary. I have a WiFi network for my home, as do most of the my friends and the people I work with.
I have a WiFi sniffer on my iPod touch, and from my house I can see 21 WiFi networks. So a lot of people in my neighborhood have WiFi networks in their homes as well. I take this with me and in some neighborhoods I can see up to 45 networks just standing on a corner. So there are lots of people with private home WiFi networks. I am using WiFiFoFum from Aspecto Software. There are several other program available that will do the same.
There are a lot of workplaces that now have WiFi networks. And there are coffee shops and bars and other stores that offer free WiFi these days when you aren't at home. And you can get WiFi in any airport. And aren't some of the Android phones you talk about offering hotspots for WiFi?
There is a nice little app that finds free WiFi when you aren't at home. You can find it here: WiFi Finder by jiwire.
Thank you.
Do check it out. If you get one, you will not be sorry. I have the 64gb WiFi version.
Well, if you were trying to tick me off, you failed in your mission. On the contrary, you have elicited my pity and compassion.
Well, hooray! I’ll work up a Paypal donate button for ya and we can get this all solved.
Oh, yeah...I forgot that anyone who has a dissenting opinion is a ‘troll’ in AppleLand. Anyways, go to hell, Richard. :)
Thanks so much for your generosity and thoughtfulness.
Yes, because that idea wasn't done like 6 years ago. The iPad is a rehash of 10+ years of PC tablets. It's moderately successful; compare iPad sales to netbooks, for example - it's not even close, netbooks dominate and notebooks annihilate iPad sales.
Then, you have the entire notion of "apps," a stripped down conception of software applications ... wholly attributable to Apple and only three years ago
Really? Nokia had an application store back in 2005, about 2 years before Apple even announced it.
It's been like this since Bill Gates kludged together Windows on top of DOS with the explicit objective of making it look like a Mac, apparently elusive still, but that was the explicit objective.
Yes, the Mac, with its single button mouse and shared menu was so well cloned by Windows...;) Never mind color versus B&W! And where did Apple get those ideas? Xerox PARC perhaps?
The keyboard commands, everything that could be just like a Mac was just like a Mac, and what couldn't was still like a Mac but backwards, inverted scrollbars or buttons for expanding and closing windows, etcetera.
Really? The original PC keyboards didn't have an "Apple" button, and they've always had a backspace button (Apple still doesn't). And those other features? Take a look at PARC again. CTRL+C/X/V were from PARC, not Apple. And Microsoft used those, since they were standards by 1977.
Apple was largely responsible for every single thing you take for granted, from the first successful desktop metaphor GUI to using a mouse
...if we ignore PARC, Wang, AutoDesk, and a host of others who were in graphical GUIs with mice or pucks (and, BTW, the mouse was patented in 1970 for use on other computer systems, well before the Steves ever met and started Apple)...
...Oh, and of course Apple released their FIRST computer about 4 years AFTER Charles Simonyi (yes, of Microsoft fame) coined the term WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), and started the entire GUI/graphical revolution...
to color monitors
...other than IBM, Epson, and Xerox having color computers out in 1974-1975... Not to mention the ELF, Super ELF, and VideoBrain which also preceded the Apple II...
to, well, you name it
Someone's been studying their revisionist history!
Anytime. Glad to oblige.
Not so. You're choosing to compare on company's tablet [Apple's iPad] to many other company's tablets; Dell, HP, etc. Let's compare company to company to be fair. Not Apple to dozens of other tech companies.
Android? Not many... It’s a phone OS, not an MP3 player manufacturer or standalone brand. Perhaps you’re not aware of that?
Yes, I think I will go with Apple too. I saw a video on the Internet yesterday. A software developer said that Apple's iPhone was the easiest mobile to develop applications for because there was one hardware platform and one operating system. The Android market was more difficult because each vender has multiple types of hardware with different versions of the operating system. And then when they do update the OS, the apps may fail.
I think Apple really has the right strategy here--vertical integration of hardware, operating system and applications.
I’m aware.
Consistently throughout all of your arguments, you compare one company, Apple, to the combined field of competitors.
Your arguments do not hold up as a result.
You mean video conferencing on a phone? It’s been done for quite a while now, and it’s fully integrated as well, once you download an app.
Unless you mean the act of downloading an app is the problem?
All obscurities and not viable nor commercially successful, PugetSoundSoldier. You’ve got quite the list of every picayune instance, speaking of revisionist history. You know quite well the extremely lucrative agreement between Apple and Xerox PARC. I’m just surprised you didn’t resort to the venerable old saw that Apple “stole” it. Never understood that one, unless it’s just noise to counteract the very well known stealing that went on in the other direction.
You recite “tablets” as if these remotely compare. They don’t, not in form, not in function. No touchscreen, let alone multitouch. Speaking of tired old saws, you’re riding the single button mouse hobbyhorse again, knowing full well that multibutton mice have always worked with a Mac. Do you still have your OEM mouse, or did you buy a better one?
Of course the Windows PC didn’t have an “apple” key. What, do you think they’re that stupid? It’s trademarked in addition to patents. You’ll note that the substitute key for the same function does the same thing, though, if you’re honest.
Where is Chuckie’s WSIWYG computer, PugetSoundSoldier? Is there even an example gathering dust in some display window down the road from you at Redmond?
And when you’re out and about? How about then?
And I guess you have a jailbroken iPod Touch since Apple has banned all WIFI sniffers from their App Store. Not to mention that if you use someone else’s WIFI point that is breaking the law...
I dunno, just seems like it would be easier to use video conferencing anywhere and everywhere, and also one that inter-operates with open standards (not just FaceTime).
Rather, you’re comparing one company to multiple companies; Android is an open OS, it’s not a single company. That’s your comparison, not mine.
So how about Apple versus Nokia? Want to do that? Talk about phones?
Apple did make some inroads into real inventiveness back when they were losing money, but changed direction when the founder returned and became a marketer along the same lines as the Sharper Image business model.
I am not alone in my assessments. Apple has huge following, but the fan base is about tapped out. There are only so many people who marry a company and are willing to use all their proprietary add on's like being forced to all drive red cars and use Apple gas. Most people resent that sort of stuff, and that is what happened to sharper image and other predecessors using this same business model. I could name dozens of them. The app thing was a great way to plant the hook, and every good marketer has a hook.
Analysts on the street are not yet shorting Apple because they are waiting for the solid downtrend to become firm on the charts, but Apple will show that weakness soon as they finish this rollout of 4G and after this, I will predict they come out with a bigger phone and a bigger screen....Oh wait! several companies already have one out or are on the drawing board but all the mac heads will claim it is new innovation by Apple. They did not invent the MP3 player, they just marketed one called the I-pod.
Eventually, reality catches up to the company that does this, and Apple will be no exception to the rule and Apple has have a long run by comparative standards.
I have never bought a product from a proprietary vendor with one exception, I bought a Bose Wave Radio and paid a ridiculous price for it because I had plenty of dough at the time and wanted to treat myself. I can't say it was a mistake because It still works and I've had it for 15 years, but you can't use any other remote with it and you must deal with them for any replacement parts and I am a pretty good board level electronic tech. I resent that. They even rubbed off the part numbers or had them made with Bose Id numbers to make it impossible to repair but I fixed it because I have a good memory for parts in that era.
Apple does much the same with their stuff. it is largely over the counter stuff with mods and changes that make it a must to deal with Apple.(desk tops)
These days the stuff is now mostly throwaway but I would much rather deal with a independent company that builds to suit, or do it myself and as far as phones are concerned, I first want a phone that works and does not lose signal. AT&T ain't it!
I don't know if Apple will ever make this deal with Verizon. Verizon has a 1XEV network for the most part except in large cities and the data draw from I phone users would compromise the network and make the phone have issues. A 1XEV runs everything through the phone servers, where AT&T had to install a additional network to piggy back the phone to handle the data load. That is the 3G. I use a Blackberry storm. I note that their networks are just about at capacity in some areas,(Verizon) but at least I stay hooked up where ever I go and make calls which is the purpose of the phone..Larger cities have 3G service though. I can't see that deal going through, but it might. If it does, it will be a disaster for much of the Verizon network just as it has been for AT&T. That is why they made the video chat app for wi-fi only. The network is overloaded now.
So....for all these reasons and more, I think the run is done.
Apple was largely responsible for every single thing you take for granted
And that's not even close to true. ALL those things you listed were invented outside of Apple and introduced by other computers before Apple. So where's the innovation?
But if you want to talk commercialization, great. What was the first personal computer to sell 1 million units? What is the best selling personal computer model of all time? What computer OS has dominated the computer world for close to 20 years?
You guys might get a kick out of this...;)
No, I bought this when they first offered it on the app store. Bought and paid for and legal. But you can put a sniffer on your laptop.
Not to mention that if you use someone else’s WIFI point that is breaking the law...
Most of the networks you see are private and password protected. But it will let you see the open networks that are free to use. For example, Starbucks, which as of July 1 is offering free WiFi. The point is that there are lots of people using there own private WiFi networks at home. And when not at home, using public WiFi networks. WiFi is becoming ubiquitous.
I dunno, just seems like it would be easier to use video conferencing anywhere and everywhere, and also one that inter-operates with open standards (not just FaceTime).
Well, I can use it from any room in my house. And FaceTime is an open standard. Why even an Android phone could use it if the vender wants it.
Go back up thread. See, I said that Apple dominates in mobile devices.
How many Smartphones, MP3 players and netbooks does Nokia make? Apple dominates in mobile devices.
OK, you’re right. Every innovation in the desktop PC, the cellphone and the MP3 player has come out of Redmond, Washington. Microsoft is known for elegant, integrated solutions and always has been. You want innovation, think Bill Gates and thank Bill Gates. From Microsoft Bob to Zune to Kin to massive $17,000 table computers, Microsoft is always at the forefront and the rest of the industry resorts to copying whatever Microsoft does. /sarc
I can understand people being so-called “bots” for Apple of their own volition, because Apple actually makes a product people love. I know, I fit that description and have since 1988. There’s no explanation for you, aside from a monetary one, however. There is nothing to love about Microsoft. The money isn’t even all that great anymore.
Like I said, if you’re happy being tethered to WIFI and talking only to other iPhone 4 owners, great. More power to you!
Fact remains, though, that video conferencing exists on Android, too - and it’s not just WIFI. More and more people are doing what I do - use my phone for my Internet connection (as a WIFI router, something the iPhone cannot do). No need for an Internet connection or WIFI network at the house, my cell phone is plenty fast (2 Mbps over 3G with Verizon). For those people, they’re out of luck with FaceTime.
Well, I am tethered to WiFi now with Skype and that works pretty good. As for iPhone owners talking to iPhone owners, it's a very impressive service--clear and sharp video. The best I have seen on a mobile phone.
For those people, they’re out of luck with FaceTime.
Well, I am sorry to say that since you have an Android, we won't be placing any video calls to each other. I hope you won't be too heartbroken.
Apple does about 2% of the worldwide market, about 1/20th that of Nokia. HTC, Samsung, LG, and Motorola each outsell Apple in the phone market.
And I haven't even talked about the Asian giant brands like Gionee and Acer (Gionee alone sells about 50 million phones a year, and that's a brand that is basically China and Hong Kong only).
In terms of mobile OS, Symbian totally dominates, and RIM's BlackBerry comes in second. Recently Android started outselling iOS as well, pushing Apple to 4th place.
So, is that domination in the phone market? I think not...
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