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James B. Stewart writes in the NYT that in 1998 Bill Gates said in an interview that he “couldn’t imagine a situation in which Apple would ever be bigger and more profitable than Microsoft" but less than two decades later, Apple, with a market capitalization more than double Microsoft’s, has won. The most successful companies need a vision, and both Apple and Microsoft have one. But according to Stewart, Apple’s vision was more radical and, as it turns out, more farsighted. Where Microsoft foresaw a computer on every person’s desk, Apple went a big step further: Its vision was a computer in every pocket. “Apple has been very visionary in creating and expanding significant new consumer electronics categories,” says Toni Sacconaghi. “Unique, disruptive innovation is really hard to do. Doing it multiple times, as Apple has, is extremely difficult."
According to Jobs' biographer Walter Isaacson, Microsoft seemed to have the better business for a long time. “But in the end, it didn’t create products of ethereal beauty. Steve believed you had to control every brush stroke from beginning to end. Not because he was a control freak, but because he had a passion for perfection.” Can Apple continue to live by Jobs’s disruptive creed now that the company is as successful as Microsoft once was? According to Robert Cihra it was one thing for Apple to cannibalize its iPod or Mac businesses, but quite another to risk its iPhone juggernaut. “The question investors have is, what’s the next iPhone? There’s no obvious answer. It’s almost impossible to think of anything that will create a $140 billion business out of nothing.”
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Kymation on Friday January 30 2015, @05:16PM
A computer on every desk was the first step. A computer in every pocket was the second. What's next? Figure that out, build it, and you can surpass both Microsoft and Apple.
There will always be a next step. My bet is that neither Microsoft nor Apple will be selling it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday January 30 2015, @05:17PM
A computer in every prefrontal cortex.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AndyTheAbsurd on Friday January 30 2015, @06:03PM
I suspect "A computer on every face" may come first - if we can ever get augmented reality/wearable computer to the point where it isn't incredibly stupid looking or incredibly uncomfortable (or both). And the interface needs work; the thing where you have to touch Google Glass to send input to it is just not workable - it should have included an interface on a watch or a ring.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday January 30 2015, @06:15PM
That's called your brain....
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday January 30 2015, @07:47PM
Modifying its perception of the world is a really old and regulated business with lots of entrenched incumbents.
Modifying it in a seamless controlled manner, on the other hand, would make someone very very rich...
(Score: 3) by Immerman on Friday January 30 2015, @07:54PM
Nah, brains are squishy and imprecise, and won't run multiplayer GTA XXI in full sensory immersion mode.
Unless miniaturization and thermal envelopes improve dramatically though, I suspect that only the neural interface would actually be embedded in the brain, along with possibly a very minimal CPU to handle the interface and provide very basic functionality - *maybe* modern smartphone class. Anything more processing intensive would likely require a secondary computer that relegates the cranial implant to a glorified I/O device. Either external, or possibly embedded in the torso where spatial and thermal tolerances are much less constraining.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday January 31 2015, @07:06AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday January 31 2015, @07:08AM
I've heard of it, but I'm waiting to play until they implement cheat codes and quick-save functionality.
(Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Saturday January 31 2015, @07:40AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday January 31 2015, @05:11PM
Maybe, but it's getting really good press - just look at how the subscription numbers have been exploding over the last few centuries. In fact I've heard rumors that most of the early players are actually still playing, they've just had to start new characters because permadeath is enabled on all the servers.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday February 01 2015, @11:08AM
[* And here I use the term in the unusual mathematical sense, which means "exponentially", rather than the derphead sense of "it's big, innit"]
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday February 01 2015, @06:43PM
Well, it was for a while there - seems to be starting to plateau now. Standard sigmoid curve behavior, extremely common in systems when some change temporarily destabilizes the equilibrium state.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday January 30 2015, @08:23PM
You're going to have BRAIN SURGERY to get on the internet? Seriously??
I can see implants to cure medical problems, but brain surgery for no pressing need is simply insane.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ikanreed on Friday January 30 2015, @09:37PM
Nah, as long as I'm bullshitting about future tech, the computer will be a self assembling set of nanomachines that are injected into the bloodstream and self-assemble around existing brain structure.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 31 2015, @06:20PM
Well, in the FAR future [mcgrewbooks.com] maybe. Everything will be made out of nobots.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1) by Arik on Friday January 30 2015, @10:22PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 31 2015, @06:25PM
First, are you nearsighted and also have middle aged farsightedness and maybe astigmatism, too? If so, you can have better than 20/20 vision at all distances! The catch is, it costs $15,000 and they stick needles in your eyes (I have one of the implanted CrystaLenses in my left eye). Still want a brain implant? I don't.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @09:51PM
"Cyber" [wiktionary.org] has already been taken and used for a more general meme.
Has some entity trademarked "Steve Austin"? [wiktionary.org]
-- gewg_