[opendtv] Re: Global CIO: Steve Jobs Creating New-Age Broadcasting Network?
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2010 07:39:07 -0400
At 3:05 PM -0600 11/9/10, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
Bert seems to think that companies that operate "walled gardens"
will stick it to their customers...
Well, duh, Craig.
Of course, for game consoles or little portable fashion statements
like iPods and iPhones, it doesn't matter much. I might even add
Kindle to this. Because you won't keep impressing your friends with
last year's toy anyway. So it's okay for the controller of the
walled garden to change things whenever he pleases and obsolete
devices that are no longer cool.
I agree that there is much to be said for mobile devices as a fashion
statement.
But you are missing the mark when you criticize Apple (and others)
for making devices obsolete.
One of the strongest attributes of virtually everything Apple has
built in the past decade is the fact that these products are not
"bricked." We still use all of the iPods we have purchased over the
years. My old 2G iPhone is now a media player at the brewery that can
be used to access the Internet in a pinch.
That phone was upgraded in significant ways by Apple for three years;
iOS 4 is the first version that will not run on the 2G - in this
world, three years of service for a phone is remarkable, and now that
I have upgraded to an iPhone 4 it is still a very useful device.
Rather than obsoleting products, Apple keeps improving the value
proposition of the new products it introduces each year. This is not
unlike the rapid innovation in PCs during the '80s and into the '90s,
except that Microsoft often tied upgrades to new processor features
that made running the previous version of their OS so painful that
you needed to buy new hardware.
And keep in mind that Apple is now the world's largest consumer
electronics company. This industry has always been on a treadmill.
On the other hand, when Tom McMahon said this:
"Speaking of Spectrum, you should see my Hallicrafters World Wide,
recently ressurected from my parents' garage. All hollow state
devices and it still works!"
he could *only* say it because the device works in a totally
unwalled environment.
So, I agree that people willingly let themselves get suckered into
walled gardens. I've said so on many occasions. But my immediate
reaction is to resist these schemes.
Yup. It is amazing watching DTV on Tom's old radio...
Regards
Craig
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