[AccessD] Technology "Revolutions"

The smart phone and tablet are ideas whose time has come.  Laying the credit at the feet of any 
single company is simply ludicrous.  Apple played a huge part in popularizing both the smart phone 
and the tablet, but they didn't invent any of it.  Does that matter, not at all.  They played their 
part (mostly marketing IMHO) and they reaped their reward.

However in the end there is no 'forever' winner in anything, whether it be cars, or boats or 
airplanes or PCs or cell phones. Jobs was an incredibly obnoxious genius who had visions and a gift 
for getting them implemented.  As often happens, once the genius goes, the fortunes of those around 
the genius goes as well.  IMO that happened once for Apple and is in the process of happening again.

As for me, I am indeed biased, against Apple.  I truly believe that while their products were very 
good, they were not truly great.  They were well above average.  Their prices were way above average 
and that *alone* is what kept me out of the Apple game for a long time.

In the end they became 'snob appeal' and that finished them off for me.  I am not my iPhone, I am 
not my iPad and I am not my Nexus 7.  I don't buy into the 'ya gotta have an iWidget (or any other 
widget) or you're nobody' mentality.  And since (IMO) their products are good but not great and they 
are overpriced - well above their actual value - I have no real incentive to buy them.

OTOH I do not try and sell the iPeople out of buying them.  Anyone who buys an iWidget got what they 
wanted in laying down their iMoney so who am I to denigrate that.  My sister-in-law owns an 
advertising agency.  She has only Apple products in her business and home.  I support her in that. 
They work for her, she needs what they do and what they give her.

I bought the Kindle Fire because I needed a reasonably priced tablet and that was the *only* one 
that did what I needed for a price I was willing to pay.  A year later I bought the Nexus 7 because 
it was the *only* tablet that did what I *wanted* at a price I was willing to pay.  Notice the first 
tablet was defined by needs (and truly did not do what I wanted) and the second by wants, while both 
were defined by economics.

I love my Nexus 7.  It is a way cool machine.  The iPad probably is as well but it simply doesn't 
meet my requirements (price/value) and AFAICT gives me absolutely nothing that my Nexus 7 doesn't 
for an incredibly lot more money.

So I suppose that you can say that I am biased, I think we are all biased.  We look at our own 
situation and make decisions and get called biased by the same people that came to other conclusions 
and are biased the other way.  I'll admit that I am biased if you'll admit that you are biased.

Looking unemotionally at the technology world today I don't see either Apple or MS to be on the 
rise.  It appears to me that both are declining in influence.  *Nobody* stays on top forever.

Regardless, my boat is tied to the MS world for now, and I am OK with that.

But my tablet and my cell is Android based and I am OK with that as well.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting

Reality is what refuses to go away
when you do not believe in it

On 10/4/2012 9:52 AM, Arthur Fuller wrote:
> I second William's conclusions about social media. After an initial
> interest, I soon removed myself from Facebook and its ilk. I still belong
> to LinkedIn but primarily to keep track of what my old friends and
> colleagues are doing job-wise.
>
> I have a cell phone, not a smart phone. My old cell does text but I have
> never sent a text message. I have however received a few texts but never
> responded.
>
> I did have a tablet, a beautiful Acer Iconia. I only had it for a week. I
> forgot it in a nearby cafe ,a five minute walk from home, and just as I was
> about to open the door I suddenly remembered that I'd left it there. I ran
> back, to no avail. It was gone. In the week I had it, though, I loved it.
> My friend Peter, who has the same one, helped me install some apps he's
> found useful. For me its principal virtues were as a replacement for books,
> especially technical books, and journals such as the New York Review of
> Books. He also made me aware of a pair of programs that enable you to work
> with dvd movies, first breaking them into chunks and then converting the
> chunks to MP4s, so you can watch the movie on the tablet. First movies I
> did that to were the three "The Girl Who..." movies, the original versions
> from Swedish TV (6 hours in all). It was really fun to watch them on the
> tablet!
>
> Since I got and lost my Acer, the Nexus 7 has been released. When I have
> enough spare change I may get one of those instead. Not sure. I liked the
> Acer a lot.
>
> A.
>