The hype surrounding Apple’s WorldWide developer Confernce kick-off today is overwhelming. Here’s 5 reasons not to care.
Man, I don’t like Mondays.
1. Mac Upgrades
The Mac is a minority player in the computing industry. Period. That’s 3 periods for emphasis. The fact that Apple may refresh the OS, or add a new device that hooks up to its USB port is irrelevant to almost all but a very small group of users. The only real Mac users who matter are the ones who have the higher end power machines and are using them as development platforms. Typically, developer platforms don’t rate much press. Workstations don’t rate much press.
Ars Technica, you can trust them because they speak Latin much like the Pope, has a chart that shows Mac OS X market share at 5.11%.
2. iPhone OS upgrade is a non-issue
The updates to the iPhone OS are iterative, but tend to be insubstantial as far as the end user is concerned. Secondly, they tend to be automatic anyhow, meaning that there is little decision making or thought that has to go into the process. Listening to someone talk for even 15 minutes about the new features is like listening to someone tell you how to change a tire on a car.
According to Apple, itself, upgrading your iPhone OS requires 4 steps:
- Connect iPhone to computer
- Watch iTunes open and see your device
- Check for updates
- Click download and install until update is finished
3. Keys to the developer kingdom
There are numerous developer conferences. Microsoft has a few good ones, you know. They tend to be great for developers. Developers, by virtue of their expertise, represent a small demographic. A very small demographic. Sure, I would like to know how microsurgery is done, but I tend to avoid reading the Journal of Neurosurgery every day, and telling all my friends what I think doctors should be doing. iPhone developers are not neurosurgeons but they think they are so, the analogy is apt.
According the Board of Labor, there are over 2.7 million people working in computer and mathematical sciences occupations, compared to over 6 million in healthcare, and over 10 million in food preparation and services. The number directly influencing or involved in development for Apple products is less than a tenth of that figure. Who knows how much less but they better have a couple of grand to spend on a few days in San Francisco to be in the running.
4. Steve Jobs is coasting
Jobs has had two moments of inspiration, where most greats have only one. He hit it with personal computers in the 80s and then, he hit this decade with the mobile personal computer. He won’t get a third. No one gets a third. Okay, okay, he got Pixar right, too. Sheesh. No one gets three.
Three is more than enough, and pretty much makes him the Michael Jordan of computing, without the sex and gambling.
No greater authority than Rupert Murdoch said there was not much doubt that Jobs was the best CEO in the US.
5. The mystery is gone
The HTC Evo 4G is out already. It is a formidable product.
Engadget says, “Let us be crystal clear: we love this phone. Nay, we adore it.”
Phonescoop.com says, “The HTC Evo 4G is a very good phone, but more than that it’s a sign of things to come.”
The Android operating system has a lot more going for it than the iPhone OS. Tablet computers are sprouting up everywhere. We have options. We can thank Apple for opening the door, but the door was a floodgate. Jobs will have to open another door and run through it to create a new market. See point 4. Now, everything that Apple does is quaint, and interesting, but it is not earth shattering. Momentum is what keeps the interest. That, and the fact that the technology press is populated by sheeple.
TG Daily, that’s us, covered the growing pressure on the iPhone and the emergence of Android here.
I mean, let’s get some perspective here; how long will we continue to treat everything that comes out of Apple PR as if it were gospel or axiomatic?
Man, I don’t like Mondays!
