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Apple Never Invented Anything

mondaynote.com

181–190 of 217 posts

Re: Apple Never Invented Anything

#181
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For an unreasonable amount ($30-$40 per device). Looks good when they can say, "But we offered to license to them!" before they file the lawsuit.

You offer 30, they say no, 10, you settle on 15. That's called negotiation.

And you know that Apple didn't say "No, the price is 30." how exactly?

Re: Apple Never Invented Anything

#182
post #130

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There is no other company that can market a company like apple. No other company can just show their product without having to say anything about it. That makes Apple unique in such a fundamental way which is exactly why they are the most (or one of the most) valuable company in the world.

I don't disagree. Apple is among the best marketers in the world. But they didn't invent it - they just do it best-in-class.

They invented a specific kind of marketing where the product was the message. There is no other company in the world to my knowledge that can do that.

See their advertising for the iPod with the white headphones and the silhouettes.

Re: Apple Never Invented Anything

#183
post #143

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Apple hasn't offered to license their patents, they want to kill Android. BTW, I liked my WM5 phone.

> BTW, I liked my WM5 phone. Eep. Scrolling was through the tiny scrollbar on the right, and I'm left-handed to make it even more irritating to use. Closing a window with your finger required a fingernail in the corner (or stylus, add 2 seconds). It insisted on stuffing a Start Menu in there, with careful clickery required to not make mistakes. And a Windows Explorer, with tiny expand-contract [+] thingies. I forget…

so i didn't like my phone?

Re: Apple Never Invented Anything

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UI and UX are innovations. The silly notion that only hard, technical inventions with academic papers attached are innovative is the reason why Apple has eaten everyone's lunch up till now. "Fit and finish" is as innovative as a new algorithm, it's shocking how much of the industry still treats it as a footnote and a detail, despite the entire history of the tech world since iPhone 1 would indicate.

> The silly notion that only hard, technical inventions with academic papers attached are innovative is the reason why Apple has eaten everyone's lunch up till now. No, the reason why Apple has eaten's everyone's lunch up till now is because they're interested in being profitable, not innovative. The GP is correct in stating that Apple isn't innovative - they just take other people's innovations and monetize them by…

> they're interested in being profitable, not innovative

I'm confused. Any rational business is concerned with making money. Profit growth is a symptom of innovation.

> No, the reason why Apple has eaten's everyone's lunch up till now is because they're interested in being profitable

And Microsoft and IBM were not interested in being profitable?!?!

Re: Apple Never Invented Anything

#185
post #148

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No iOS has been done before, as has the iPad. It's nowhere near original. http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/Computers/NC.html#NewsPAD Note the features here: ARM CPU, Touch screen, Contextual media app, "Apps" button down the bottom, self contained apps which were modular, integrated into the OS. I know the OS well (RISC OS) and I've had my hands on an actual device. It was smaller and lighter and less complex than anythin…

You didn't read the article did you? It starts from your argument that a list of ingredients constitutes an invention and tears it down step by step.

The point that keeps being made. Here is that innovation != invention. Inventions tend to be innovative but innovation does not require the creation of new inventions. Otherwise one might argue that there does not exist an innovative chef who does not invent new ingredients.

Re: Apple Never Invented Anything

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Knowledge of key manufacturing processes was a trade secret. So, without patent protection, pinch-to-zoom would have been a secret and the rest of us would never have been able to figure it out? Or, without patent protection, no one would have put in the R&D effort to come up with pinch-to-zoom? Obviously not. The benefits that patents are supposed to provide to society just aren't benefits at all in this case. So,…

I think you're arguing against a straw man. The idea of pinch to zoom isn't patented, it's specific tricks to the implementation, which the patent explains, that are patented.

I'm a computer graphics student with a little linear algebra background.

How you would implement pinch to zoom was immediately obvious to me after seeing it.

Re: Apple Never Invented Anything

#187
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> BTW, I liked my WM5 phone. Eep. Scrolling was through the tiny scrollbar on the right, and I'm left-handed to make it even more irritating to use. Closing a window with your finger required a fingernail in the corner (or stylus, add 2 seconds). It insisted on stuffing a Start Menu in there, with careful clickery required to not make mistakes. And a Windows Explorer, with tiny expand-contract [+] thingies. I forget…

so i didn't like my phone?

My goal was to add some value to the conversation, not convince you or others that you didn't like the phone. It's not about your opinion, it's about Apple and the state of the art at the time, and what they did to change it. If you have some relevant info about why it was great, paint that picture for other HN'ers who might not have used it.

Re: Apple Never Invented Anything

#188
post #100

One interesting point is he brought up Einstein's invention of relativity. Notice that in the scientific community, humanity has been building upon previous work for centuries with no copyright or patent protection, and nothing more than honor, citation, and shame against plagiarists. The fundamental defense made by many is that without patent protection for software, people would not put much effort into innovating.…

I don't think you're aware of the sheer magnitude of revenue that pharmaceutical companies make. They often mark-up their drugs by 1000%.

I've sold software with a crazy markup too. Something like 100,000,000%! Because it's very cheap (far less than a penny) to duplicate the software, but I sold it online for $99.

Pharmaceutical companies do the same thing. It's not the pill that's expensive, it's designing it. Same with software.

Re: Apple Never Invented Anything

#189
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> BTW, I liked my WM5 phone. Eep. Scrolling was through the tiny scrollbar on the right, and I'm left-handed to make it even more irritating to use. Closing a window with your finger required a fingernail in the corner (or stylus, add 2 seconds). It insisted on stuffing a Start Menu in there, with careful clickery required to not make mistakes. And a Windows Explorer, with tiny expand-contract [+] thingies. I forget…

so i didn't like my phone?

Sometimes, love defies reason ;-)

Re: Apple Never Invented Anything

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The supporting technology was available in 1996: https://www.msu.edu/~luckie/seahorse.html Apples innovations wasn't in "the basic idea", it was in lots of implementation details that make that basic idea into a usable product. If you don't see this, then there is no point in arguing further. I could just as well say that there has happened exactly zero innovation in the cell phone industry in the last 30-40 years, s…

It wasnt ubiquitous though as is 3G and WiFi which is why iOS works. If they didn't exist it would have had the same fate as the NewsPAD.

Sure, wireless makes them much more usable, but claiming this is the reason for its success is just as silly as saying laptops weren't successful before Wifi (hint: they were!).

Without cellular data the iPhone would still be a killer device just as a cell phone with a music and video player, and the iPad with a complete office suite and other apps.

Cellular data was widely available in 1996, at least in Europe. I know because I had a PCMCIA card connected to my cell phone at that time.

But of course, you can keep twisting facts to fit your theory all day long if you want, I know nothing I can say will change your opinion.

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