From my Tumblr:
“For another metric, we measure adoption. If you look at Windows 7, it took them about 20 weeks to reach 10% of their base. It took Lion 2 weeks. - Tim Cook”
Six million copies of Lion downloaded so far — 80 percent more than Snow Leopard - The Next Web (via thenextweb)
Sorry, kids, this was one of the many misrepresentations (lies, even) presented in today’s underwhelming Apple event. Comparing Apple’s success to Microsoft’s is pretty much identical to comparing apples to oranges. Why are the numbers above no significant? Because Apple charged a pitance for their single-versioned OS which was downloadable. If Microsoft had such a system and chose to sell a single OS at $30/per, they’d reach higher saturation, too. Instead, Apple did something entirely different and blamed Microsoft for not doing as well.“Yes, with the new ‘wheel’ from Apple, you can do so much more than you could with that old fashioned plank you drag around. The guys who designed that thing were morons.”
Sure, it’s an improvement, and Apple’s system does move more product, but it’s hardly fair to compare.
But they pulled this crap all over the place. It's like they were trying desperately to cover for the fact that they weren't announcing an iPhone 5. Most of the numbers they presented were just utter bullshit, like those above. At one point, they compared PC market growth to Mac market growth as though that meant something at all. PCs are still everywhere. It makes sense that their market growth is a paltry 4% since they're already owned by everyone. Yes, Mac market share jumped 23% and that's nice, mildly impressive even, but the comparison to the PC market is just not a logical one.
They called the iPod Touch the number one handheld gaming system. But that's a total fallacy. The iPod Touch isn't a gaming system at all. It's a convergence device. It's like the Swiss Army Knife people claiming their knives are comparable to the butter knives in your silverware drawer. And newsflash, I have yet to see Super Mario games show up on iOS. When they do, maybe I'll think about retiring my DSi XL.
Is any of this type of behavior new? No. But this time around it seems worse than usual to me. Basically nothing in today's event made me want anything Apple is offering right now. I couldn't care less about their entire line. Well, I'd like an iPad 2, but only because iPlayer isn't available for Android. But that had nothing to do with today's announcements and I'm not about to drop $400 just so I can use one app.
What really scares me is that there is so little actual innovation going on these days. People will point to "Siri," Apple's new voice-recognition/command system available only on the iPhone 4S, but since when does anyone like to use voice commands? Android has had similar features (not as built-up, obviously) for a while and I've never used it once. Sure, some folks might like literally telling their phone what to do but I like the tactile experience. I don't want to broadcast to everyone around me what I'm doing and I feel like speech requires more thought than just pressing buttons or touching icons. I can be thinking about what I'm going to do while my fingers tap the icons on the screen, rather thing thinking of the right words to say to get the right app or info to pop up.
So, basically, Apple's "innovation" is something I don't think people really want. It may seem like a cool bell/whistle, but really, it's nothing that innovative. It's just another layer of interface. Plus, who wants their requested information on that tiny screen? I don't care how crystal clear the screen is, I still feel like I'm looking through a hole at the words I want to read.
Anyway, it's just more "fun" from the Apple Reality Distortion Field.
I still have three more questions for Apple:
1) Why does the iPhone 4S not support 4G networks?
2) Why no iPhone 5?
3) Why no plans to put out a midsized device, like a 7in tablet? (I already have a 10in netbook and you already sell a 10in Macbook Air, don't you? Won't people who own those not want an iPad?).
Apple continues to make me shake my head.
