Whoa, BXChen being... informative? Maybe? At least he does go to the other side of the fence from time to time instead of spouting off about the iPhone. Maybe the clubkid is learning.... no douchebag tags on this blog post, I gotta hand it to the kid this time:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/zune-marketplace/comment-page-2/
And, WIRED really knows how to bury their commenters, so here's my take:
If there are any flaws in this article it's that there's not enough technical meat; that being said it was quite informative. If true, then I'm kinda sad for $MSFT, they're missing a big chance here to compete with $AAPL, and make both platforms better thru competition. Such as it is now Apple wins just by showing up.
I also find it surprising that bxchen is being slammed on this when he's usually regarded by the great unwashed as a $MSFT fanboy, and anti-$AAPL.
In my opinion $AAPL is re-defining the device space. All the iPhone *is* is an iTouch with camera, GPS and phone guts. Not only do 'iPhone apps' run on the touch, but the user 'owns' the apps to transfer to whatever device is tied to his iTunes / AppStore Account. That includes games, lots of games. You'd be surprised what runs on the 'Touch, including location aware apps (via wireless AP placement), Skype (because it supports the mic'd headphones), and camera apps (because there is a camera roll but no cam... yet).
Note that I don't care about the market forces that may limit this functionality. Marketing analysts are mostly WRONG, especially in an economic downturn.
Apple's main problem is that their AppStore is a glorified package manager run by inept sales & marketing types. It's a cluster you know what, and will continue to be so until they throw [some of] the same technical acumen [at it] that gave us the iPhone. That means automating the submission process and raising the bar so that crapware doesn't make the cut... and there's a LOT of crap in the crAppStore.
This isn't lost on $MSFT, they don't want the same problem that they see $AAPL going thru, and are content with just the package manager and a few trusted vendors. Can you blame them??
And for all you disbelievers, you need go no further than to the Wii Store on your console. I mean, those of you who have something other than an XBox.
There's also another problem here, and that's to do with tech companies losing their innovative edge as more "technical assets" are retired or laid off, to be replaced by folks overseas. There's no innovation there.. so now you have entrenchment tactics like the DRM in the iPhone and $MSFT 'not going there' with their app store.
You have to hand it to Gawker, they don't bury their commenters like WIRED does. Example, I can easily link back to my comment on Silicon Valley's Mass Delusion on VW. Easily.
Status: Staring at an old copy in the bookshelf of:
"Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country" (William Greider)
[it seems that a lot of MBAs get their degrees doing disser ^h^h^h^h book reports on this tome]
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