Apples and Androids
Just when you were becoming comfortable with an Android in your hand held device . . . Apple wins a court battle against Samsung and is awarded over a billion bucks.
What does that mean to you?
Pundits unleash opinions in a hurricane of responses. Some say it could mean a very serious blow to Android, the operating system by Google that's free to use and develop. That operating system is - maybe was - direct competition to Apple. (At this point one must remember that competition is good in our market place.) But other pundits say, "No", that the lawsuit defines hardware changes that Samsung has to make to its competing phone.
Some say many other things like the fact that Microsoft may be the winner in all this because their new phone software, due to enter the foray in September, has a real chance of taking a bigger market share with Apple's win in court. Some say that they don't think that it will have much of an impact.
We have to remember that we're talking about a phone here. Well, smart phones, which do actually allow phone calls to be made but who actually talks on their phone? Really!
Samsung has stated that they are going to appeal the ruling and one wonders how long that will take. Apple seeks an immediate injunction to stop Samsung sales of their competing phone but that injunction may not materialize in light of an appeal.
Are you becoming less comfortable with an Android in your hand-held device? Probably, just maybe, the answer or outcome to all of this "Gentlemen, start your lawyers" race will be a long protracted pit stop. Apple would prefer that Samsung be denied the ability to sell their competing phone during the upcoming holidays.
Ah, yes, the holidays. Are you wishing for a computing device under your tree?
Your computing device's job is to organize available data and bring it to you, mostly visually, so that you can do all the important things that you are accustomed to. Just how well, how rationally/intuitively/affordably the device does this for you is a prime reason influencing what to buy, where to buy, how to buy, and when to buy.
Good grief.
There are two main logics in computing device development and manufacture. Apple’s logic is to control and deliver the entire environment that is presented to you: connection through iPhone; music and entertainment through the iTunes store and storage in the iCloud. This gives the Apple-creator total control over the coordination of what you do and makes the user interface a smooth, intuitive operation.
The other logic, represented by Google's Android smart device operation, focuses on making their equipment work gracefully with as much of the various available software, other equipment and connectivity already created by the world's vendors. This tends to bring opportunity for more software creators to be involved, doing it on the creator’s own terms and doing it cheaper.
The Android experience can tend to be less smooth than the Apple core and require more user know-how, but because of the freedom and cost factor of Google's approach, and Google’s more affordable connectivity/computing, the Apple approach in the worldwide market is garnering only about 10% of what Google's potential is for sales. This is apparently true in Asia where a larger portion of humans live and where cost is an even bigger factor.
It may be true that the more gear-head tending persons might migrate to using the Android-type experience which will allow them to experiment with their device and available software, perhaps even create their own software, while persons who are just concerned with smooth-intuitive operation will stick with their iPhone or iPad.
Will there be a winner in this market? It seems that the two logics are needed to fulfill the desires of human kind and we may be living with both for the foreseeable future.
Not making a choice yet?
You are still among many.
9/18/2012
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