December 22, 2009 at 12:09 pm
I find it amazing that Apple has this 'warm fuzzy' reputation, when in fact they are far more controlling and restictive than 'big corporate' Microsoft.
Microsoft does not try to restrict you from running a legit copy on any damned piece of hardware you want (as opposed to Apple's physical and legal restrictions)
Microsoft does not control what you choose to run on your own computer.
I do not remember MS savaging the first amendment in trying to identify and suppress someone who published rumors about possible future products.
MS does not try to use physical restrictions and lawyers to prevent you from playing music you've already legally purchased on someone else's device.
I really find it hard to use 'quality' as the justification for Apple's authoritarian controls. Application behavior and safety could be checked more like MS Windows cert, i.e. developers can choose to have their products tested and labelled. It can be handled by a neutral third party (such as UL in the electrical business). I suspect it is much more to do with a fanatical desire to control their revenue stream. I find it interesting that (according to what I have read) Apple has refused or resisted approving some Google apps because they potentially conflicted with Apple's own revenue stream (or ATT's for that matter)
...
-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
December 22, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I know I have somewhat of a phobia of 3rd party products. This mostly stems from (insert non-technical department here) purchasing these products without a technical evaluation and being left with the mess afterwards.
Stability, perofrmance, security, support and usability are all concerns beyond ticking a box of fulfilling a business requirement that are often overlooked.
Evaluating 3rd party products is time consuming, so having a trusted source doing this for you is a huge benefit. And the trust of the source is based on the quality of the products they approve.
However I believe in the case of Apple, the general market doesn't disaccoiate iPhone apps as not being developed by Apple (when they generally are developed by a 3rd party). So poor quality apps would reflect poorly on Apple, even if they have nothing to do with the Apps development.
December 22, 2009 at 3:06 pm
😉
Unsecure apps are always a problem, but what makes an app Insecure? Do they come from broken homes? I don't think I would trust them either.
December 22, 2009 at 11:13 pm
I'm not saying Apple is perfect, or they're great. However they've built a great environment with the app store, and for every controversial app that gets rejected, they are approving thousands.
I'd also disagree that Unix stifled innovation for 20 years. Multiple shells were developed, numerous add ons that were shared and expanded the capabilies, it grew quite a bit. I would argue that the high cost of Unix caused more problems than proprietary holdings.
Microsoft is very open in many ways, and that's a huge reason they have been more successful than Apple and IBM/Sun/etc. in growing around their OS and development environments. However that doesn't mean that an app store isn't something to learn from.
December 23, 2009 at 8:02 am
As Steve mentioned, Microsoft does offer "Works With" & full certification for most of their products:
SQL Server is an optional component when getting software approved for Windows.
In my opinion, the primary differences between Apple's approach versus Microsoft's is that Apple's business model is fundamentally different. Primarily, Apple takes care of the distribution, marketing & sales transaction. Whereas Microsoft's program is more like a stamp of approval that you have to pay for a sizeable amount of money for.
I think Microsoft also needs to market/promote their certification program more. The program is stringent & thorough, but I don't think end-users (consumers) are aware of the value of having software certified by Microsoft. This is no different than hiring an employee that is Microsoft Certified.
Viewing 5 posts - 16 through 19 (of 19 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply