The Evil Empire?

[samsound]

Not to be mischevious,but......this article in today's 'Observer' (UK) may be of interest

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/06/john-naughton-apple-dominates-market

Mutt n' Jeff

[RPSharman]

Apple may hold all the power, but they also hold a much higher percentage of satisfied customers.

[Q]

That's not an "article" it is an opinion piece.

By the way, I don't see anyone forcing millions of people into Apple stores to snatch up their latest products by the millions.

[Jeff Wexler]

Stupid and ill-conceived article. All of the points made about WHY Apple is in a dominate position are actually all favorable and true but why does that make Apple evil? The only specific topic addressed is the ongoing negotiations with publishers --- these negotiations are quite similar to those that went on during the birth of the iTunes platform where Apple had to negotiate deals which the music industry had never even considered, all the while the music industry was imploding, trying to figure out how IT could continue to dominate and be profitable. Negotiating with Steve Jobs has actually saved the music industry. Publishers negotiating with Apple, if it is approached with a clear vision to the future, may well save that crumbling industry as well. As for Apple's "domination" it is clearly spelled out here (quoting from the article):

"Every year, Fortune magazine polls a sample of US CEOs asking for their opinions of their competitors. The results for 2011 have just been released and they show that Apple is the "most admired" company in America. This is the sixth year in a row that it has held that title.

The reasons are obvious. On the product side, Apple creates beautifully designed, highly functional and user-friendly devices that delight customers and provide fat profit margins; it has a corporate culture that reliably delivers these products by specified dates; it's much more innovative than any of its competitors; and it has a unique mastery of both hardware and software.

On the strategic side, the company has displayed a deep understanding of technology and a shrewd appreciation of potential devices and services for which people will pay over the odds. Most CEOs would kill to run a company that possessed a quarter of these competencies. Apple appears to have them all. Its current dominance is built on three big ideas:

The first is that design really matters. It's not something you can outsource to a design consultancy – which is what most companies do – and design is as much about ease of use as it is about aesthetics.

The second insight was that the maelstrom of illicit music downloading triggered by Napster couldn't last and that the first company to offer a simple way of legally purchasing music (and, later, other kinds of content) online would clean up.

And third – and most important – there was the insight that mobile phones are really just hand-held computers that happen to make voice calls and that it's the computing bit that really matters."

As for the idea of "Big Friendly Giant" (Apple should dominate every market it enters but be nice about it) I think Apple is more friendly, certainly to its customers, than almost any other giant dominate company. When Microsoft and the now brain-dead PC was dominating (and I might add that Microsoft managed to dominate, monopolize, not by having the best products that's for sure) did anybody feel all warm and fuzzy trying to get support from Microsoft...  a friendly giant, NOT?

[justanross]

Wow Jeff.  Tell us how you really feel

Jeff are you doing Mi4?

[Jeff Wexler]

Jeff are you doing Mi4?

No, I am not. Lee Orloff was supposed to do it until at the last minute they decided that besides the various countries they were going to be shooting, the main bulk of shooting was NOT going to be in the United States but Canada instead. So, Lee lost the job and I believe they hired different sound people wherever they happened to be. The script supervisor, Ana Maria Quintana, was also put out of a job, and they hired someone different along the way...  so much for "continuity supervision" --- means nothing when compared to the almighty dollar.

-  Jeff Wexler

[justanross]

No, I am not. Lee Orloff was supposed to do it until at the last minute they decided that besides the various countries they were going to be shooting, the main bulk of shooting was NOT going to be in the United States but Canada instead. So, Lee lost the job and I believe they hired different sound people wherever they happened to be. The script supervisor, Ana Maria Quintana, was also put out of a job, and they hired someone different along the way...  so much for "continuity supervision" --- means nothing when compared to the almighty dollar.

-  Jeff Wexler

Thanks Jeff.

I was just wondering because there are rumors it might be shooting in my neck of the woods.

[studiomprd]

" Remember those Apple ads that cast the Mac as a 20-something, self-satisfied hipster while the PC was portrayed by an older, square-looking guy in a brown suit?  Well, those characterizations, unfair as they may be, appear to have some truth to them. "

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/04/22/mac.pc.users/index.html?iref=NS1

[studiomprd]

" neuroscientists ran a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test on an Apple fanatic and discovered that images of the technology company's gadgets lit up the same parts of the brain as images of a deity do for religious people, "

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/05/19/apple.religion/index.html

I suspect the same applies to RED fanatics, too