Since the keynote at WWDC, the world technology audience has been divided. Some fans have been excited for all the new features, while others are looking for every hole and flaw in Apple’s logic and plans. A recent tweet said, “Apple just pissed off: Dropbox, Sparrow, Instapaper, Readability, Remember the Milk, Facebook, RIM, & the carriers. Well done.” Let’s look at each item on the list.
- Dropbox. This in reference to AirDrop, but there are some notable differences. Dropbox’s purpose is to sync files across an individual’s machine. Place a file in a Dropbox folds and nearly instantly, that file is available on every Dropbox enabled computer/devices. You can, however, share folders with other Dropbox users to move files between people. That is not the common use case or intention of Dropbox. AirDrop, which is more like Receivd, allows users to send files to one another in a peer-to-peer fashion. AirDrop is Mac platform specific, Dropbox is not. There is no competition. I will use AirDrop to sling files among common Mac users, Receivd to send files to alternate platform users, and Dropbox to keep my own files in sync.
- Sparrow. It is a simple, minimalist mail client available for $9.99, from a year old startup. Apple updated its own native mail client. Does anyone expect Apple to ignore its own products. At the $10 price point, Sparrow loyalists are likely to stay and even draw new users, but Apple’s allegiance is to its own native applications. Other [more] popular mail clients include - Microsoft Entourage (pre-Microsoft OfficeforMac2011), Microsoft Outlook (current), and Postbox.
- Instapaper/Readability. Reading list in iOS 5 is nearly identical to Instapaper in functionality. There is nothing to say here except that if Instatpaper innovates or updates, they will keep their solid user base. Instapaper may actually be better than the built-in reading list function. The same goes for Readability.
- Remember the Milk. The angry Twitter user chose Remember the Milk as the to do list to defend against iOS. Meanwhile, Things has been leading the way with an iPhone app, iPad app (different from iPhone) and Mac desktop app. Things’ ability to set tasks, due dates, priorities and projects that houses tasks make it indispensible. Remember the Milk incorporates iCal or Google calendar which is handy. Apple improved on the provess by using GPS as well. Now when you walk into the grocery store you are reminded about the items you need so you will remember the milk even if you don’t use Remember the Milk.
- Facebook. There’s no doubt that Apple snubbed Facebook on Monday with the announcement of Twitter integration and the deep rooted connection between it and iOS 5. Users will be able to tweet from within any application native to iOS, making it accessible constantly. Facebook has not received the same treatment. However, is Facebook pissed off? Not likely. With 500 million users, they are not hurting for people. Additionally, there is no proof or reason to believe that Facebook even wanted to be involved. The Facebook for iPhone app has not been heavily updated and there is no official app for iPad. Facebook is very clear about their mobile vision and it is not platform dependent.
- RIM. This can only be attributed to the new iMessages feature in iOS 5 and it’s being compared to BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). BBM works on BlackBerry only. iMessages are on iOS only. So where’s the beef between them? Did Apple take a page from RIM’s playbook? Of course they did. Apple did it with Android when they announced the new notification system. People have been borrowing from each other in this way forever. The similarities drive competition. You may notice that Ford is not the only vehicle on the road. RIM’s lack of innovation is the greatest detriment, not Apple’s iMessages. Remember the BlackBerry Storm that failed miserably? It was RIM’s first attempt at a full touchscreen and was labeled as an “Apple Killer.” So did RIM steal from Apple? Yes, but they did a terrible job at it.
- Carriers. Stumped. Is is the Over The Air (OTA) sync solutions? Did Apple say that most will work only on WiFi? Carriers should spend their energy working on the 4th gen network and achieving ubiquity and closing the gap of The Digital Divide instead of complaining that other companies are cutting cables and going wireless. This makes the carriers even more important to customers. Maybe they should consider unlimited plans again. Maybe the beef is about iMessages and the lack of SMS needed now. What many customers don’t know is that SMS is pure profit for the carriers. They pay nothing for our texts that go across their lines, but they charge us for them. If anything, it can be said that the sending of text messages is helpful to a carrier’s network - I’ll spare you the details about administrative channels in the frequency spectrum and partially full data packets and the injection of SMS messages in the holes creating full packets instead of partially full packets which actually increases efficiency - ever wonder why SMS messages are capped at 160 characters?
Everybody wants Apple to fail, which they had no trouble doing all on their own in the early 1990’s. Microsoft bailed them out with $150million and then Apple created the iPod. Then they revamped the Mac, released the iPhone and then the iPad. They didn’t steal or cheat their way to the top, but make no mistake, they are at the top. Microsoft Windows has looked, basically, the same since Windows 95 (start bar style). BlackBerry has not done anything revolutionary. Android is #2 in the mobile market because they have vision. The fragmentation brought on by the open source mentality will keep them at #2, but they are a good product. It is no secret that they stood on the shoulders of giants when creating their platform. It is what is done. Plain and simple.
So, looking back at the original list. Who is really pissed? Who has a right to be? What were they owed by Apple in the first place?
