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iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

cringely.com

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Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#41

Post by coliveira »

chrisjsmith wrote: post #7

I think there are too many PC's running windows available at a low price point to make this argument even worth considering. You can get laptops for less than the price of an iPod touch. Add to that, Windows Live's offerings such as Mesh, Hotmail (with Windows Live Mail client), SkyDrive and Office home and student edition are actually really good despite them not getting as much press coverage. People only talk abou…

There is a difference between happy and comfortable. Most people using Windows are just comfortable enough not to make the effort to move to another platform. A lot of tech people are just like that (the ones that are not passionate about new Apple machines). On the other hand, these are the people that have less weight on the decisions of new users...

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#42

Post by jherdman »

hnsmurf wrote: post #21

I don't get it. Most of what iCloud does is already being done on smartphones for free. Gmail and Exchange Server both already sync contacts, calendars, and email quite nicely across devices. I haven't had to manually transfer any of that to a new smartphone since long before there was an iPhone. The music thing is nice too, but it's either a paid solution or an incomplete one. Apple once released a stat that only 10…

The key differentiating factor is that the iCloud heralds an era wherein all of your data is decentralized, all of the time, and that this is the default for all users, on all Apple devices, all of the time.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#43

Post by JonnieCache »

Total_Meltdown wrote: post #2

I think we need to realize that PCs (laptops or desktops) and mobile devices (tablets and mobile phones) are good at different things, and going forward will be used for different things. For example, I'm sure everyone (especially on this site) has noticed that software development is kind of a big thing. I don't see any indication that I'll be developing any software on a mobile device any time soon (especially not…

I think we can all envisage a future where we are exclusively using web-based office suites on post-PC devices. A lot of people are already doing this.

What I can't imagine is a world where we are developing those web-based office suites on the same post-PC devices that they are deployed to.

Try and imagine using XCode on a tablet under iOS all day. Doesn't sound very appealing does it? Or autocad, or solidworks or arcGIS, or any number of other industrial applications.

For the PC to disappear, somebody is going to need to define a whole new category of much more powerful post-PC devices. I can envisage a superpowered tablet with a bluetooth keyboard that wirelessly links to any nearby display, but that doesn't sound very post-PC to me. And it doesn't answer the question of how to develop UIs for tasks of irreducible complexity without violating iOS's mandatory UX simplicity.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#44

Post by ansy »

It's all about ubiquitous computing versus desktop computing. Microsoft's manifest destiny was having a [Microsoft] computer on every desk. Its whole existence is built around achieving and capitalizing on that vision.

We are entering the age of ubiquitous computing. Computers everywhere. Not just for every person or every pocket. But multiple computers for every person for every function that can be augmented.

Apple gets it. Google gets it. Microsoft merely looks like it understands because it is desperately copying everyone else. But really Microsoft is lost. So utterly lost now that we're no longer in the age of desktop computing.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#45

Post by falcolas »

ansy wrote: post #44

It's all about ubiquitous computing versus desktop computing. Microsoft's manifest destiny was having a [Microsoft] computer on every desk. Its whole existence is built around achieving and capitalizing on that vision. We are entering the age of ubiquitous computing. Computers everywhere. Not just for every person or every pocket. But multiple computers for every person for every function that can be augmented. Apple…

I'm not sure I agree. The Microsoft Kin showed this kind of forethought, but it was perhaps a bit too early, with a bit too lean-featured a phone.

If they had continued the kin-like ubiquity with the Windows 7 phone, and merged that ubiquity with Windows 7 itself, I think it would be a much stronger competitor than it is now; perhaps even pushing Apple and Google on the defensive.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#46

Post by chrisjsmith »

coliveira wrote: post #41
chrisjsmith wrote: post #7

I think there are too many PC's running windows available at a low price point to make this argument even worth considering. You can get laptops for less than the price of an iPod touch. Add to that, Windows Live's offerings such as Mesh, Hotmail (with Windows Live Mail client), SkyDrive and Office home and student edition are actually really good despite them not getting as much press coverage. People only talk abou…

There is a difference between happy and comfortable. Most people using Windows are just comfortable enough not to make the effort to move to another platform. A lot of tech people are just like that (the ones that are not passionate about new Apple machines). On the other hand, these are the people that have less weight on the decisions of new users...

Interesting perspective. Ironically I have had a pile of recent Macs (I think it's 8 now from G5 iMac to a mid-2010 MacBook Pro) and always end up back on Windows on an old ThinkPad for some reason or another. Comfort may just be that reason (other than the slight enlightenment recently that a user can be productive on the simplest of tools).

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#47

Post by JonnieCache »

blhack wrote: post #38
Total_Meltdown wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam.

Steam has nothing to do with running games on a mac, it's just a storefront for downloading them.

Meltdown is pointing out the fact that there are many, many good games available for the mac. To run good games on the mac, one simply has to install them, with steam being one of the best ways. It was a stupid question.

Anyway, a more technically accurate answer would've been "cider," but I am loathe to promote such an unsatisfactory compromise ;)

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#48

Post by loso »

coliveira wrote: post #41
chrisjsmith wrote: post #7

I think there are too many PC's running windows available at a low price point to make this argument even worth considering. You can get laptops for less than the price of an iPod touch. Add to that, Windows Live's offerings such as Mesh, Hotmail (with Windows Live Mail client), SkyDrive and Office home and student edition are actually really good despite them not getting as much press coverage. People only talk abou…

There is a difference between happy and comfortable. Most people using Windows are just comfortable enough not to make the effort to move to another platform. A lot of tech people are just like that (the ones that are not passionate about new Apple machines). On the other hand, these are the people that have less weight on the decisions of new users...

I use Windows 7 and I am happy with it. There are a lot of people in tech who are happy with it. I have switched platforms several times over the years but I always end up back at Windows. People who use Windows are only using it because they are "comfortable" is a very big assumption.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#49

Post by stcredzero »

spenrose wrote: post #5
programminggeek wrote: post #3

iCloud is a great idea, so is Google Apps, so is Office 365. None are designed to "kill Windows". iCloud's real purpose is to sell more Apple hardware, not kill Windows. Hurting Windows sales would simply be a side effect. It's a smart move to put iPads and iPhones on equal footing as the Mac in that regard. If your docs, pictures, apps, and music are all on iCloud, your computers become disposable digital devices. W…

Upvoted b/c I think your rejection of Cringely is right, but the reason is different. Jobs/Apple are not in this for the money. They simply believe that iOS + cloud is a better way to compute.

They simply believe that iOS + cloud is a better way to compute.

At WWDC. I won't say anything specific, but I'm beginning to think that Apple's business model is/has been to take all the awesome stuff that people developed in research labs since the 60's, and they're implementing it when/where it makes sense.

Basically, Apple has been in the business of arbitrage of R&D awesomeness. (As opposed to the most common use of R&D as a corporate epeen.) Considering there's decades of unimplemented (or badly implemented) good ideas, this seems like a sustainable model.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#50

Post by Total_Meltdown »

JonnieCache wrote: post #47
blhack wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam has nothing to do with running games on a mac, it's just a storefront for downloading them.

Meltdown is pointing out the fact that there are many, many good games available for the mac. To run good games on the mac, one simply has to install them, with steam being one of the best ways. It was a stupid question. Anyway, a more technically accurate answer would've been "cider," but I am loathe to promote such an unsatisfactory compromise ;)

Right. I mean, I'm not the biggest Apple fan, but in the interest of fairness I thought it was worth pointing out that gaming isn't as much of an anti-mac argument as it used to be, which is what the mtw seemed to be implying.
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