I really think Apple needs to take a page from Google's book here and adopt the 'don't be evil' philosophy.
This is very disappointing to me because I see Apple like a tennis player who can tell you where he is going to hit the ball, yet still beat you there every time. I think they should welcome the competition and view copycats with pride. You don't get it right all the time.
I'm sure it was nice viewing Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 with pride. It was probably wonderful being proud of Bill Gates trademarking the term "PDA" after hearing John Sculley use it in a talk. It's probably pretty flattering to see Google switching from designing Android as a blackberry clone to designing it as an iPhone clone.
To paraphrase a joke from the last depression: $5 and some pride gets you a nice cup of coffee at starbucks.
If you actually ever used a Xerox desktop of the era you'll see that Mac OS was markedly simpler to use than Xerox's UI, and had all kinds of improvements over it (overlapping windows, drag and drop, a menubar than benefited from Fitt's Law).
Everyone steals ideas, but simply coping is pathetic.
That they tried to exert too much control over their platform and lost out to competitors who could offer more choice and better value? Yes the same thing has happened here, but the answer is not for Apple to abuse the legal system as a substitute for competing on the merits of their product.
Comments
I really think Apple needs to take a page from Google's book here and adopt the 'don't be evil' philosophy.
This is very disappointing to me because I see Apple like a tennis player who can tell you where he is going to hit the ball, yet still beat you there every time. I think they should welcome the competition and view copycats with pride. You don't get it right all the time.
I'm sure it was nice viewing Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 with pride. It was probably wonderful being proud of Bill Gates trademarking the term "PDA" after hearing John Sculley use it in a talk. It's probably pretty flattering to see Google switching from designing Android as a blackberry clone to designing it as an iPhone clone.
To paraphrase a joke from the last depression: $5 and some pride gets you a nice cup of coffee at starbucks.
I'm sure it was nice viewing MacOS v1.0 with pride (if you worked at Xeroc PARC).
It's kleptomaniac turtles all the way down!
Ah, this tired old chestnut.
If you actually ever used a Xerox desktop of the era you'll see that Mac OS was markedly simpler to use than Xerox's UI, and had all kinds of improvements over it (overlapping windows, drag and drop, a menubar than benefited from Fitt's Law).
Everyone steals ideas, but simply coping is pathetic.
Well I think they remember all too well what happened last time with PC wars. This time they're playing for keeps.
That they tried to exert too much control over their platform and lost out to competitors who could offer more choice and better value? Yes the same thing has happened here, but the answer is not for Apple to abuse the legal system as a substitute for competing on the merits of their product.
I'm pretty sure Apple learned a different lesson...