Apple versus the world

Photo / Supplied

This week has seen executives from Dell and HP take tilts at Apple.

Stephen DeWitt, senior vice president of HP's Americas Solution Partners Organization, singled out Apple's relationship with the channel: "Apple's relationship with partners is transactional, completely.

"Apple doesn't have an inclusive philosophy of partner capabilities, and that's just absurd. Unlike Apple, HP is very channel friendly. And if you have an issue with HP you can pick up the phone and talk to someone.

"That's something that's impossible with Apple. As an Apple partner, I can say that it really feels like they're holding you hostage sometimes."

This was in an interview with CRN's Kevin McLaughlin at HP's Americas Partner Conference in Las Vegas.

That's not strictly true. Apple partners can pick up the phone and complain to HP any time they like, LOL.

Well, yeah. It's actually true. It just doesn't seem to be doing Apple any harm. Resellers might well mutter, off the record, that Apple is arrogant and hard to deal with and they wouldn't be alone in that view.

But it doesn't mean they don't like selling Apple products and basking in their associations with the iconic brand.

But it looks like HP is feeling the heat from iPad sales frenzies. HP's foray into the tablet space is anything but certain. Having acquired Palm, you have to imagine HP is betting on technologies the smartphone maker has been developing. Palm was once a leader, after all.

Meanwhile, Dell's global head of marketing for large enterprises and public organisations portrayed Apple's tablet as overpriced.

Andy Lark said at the CIO summit in Sydney, Australia that a fully kitted iPad is expensive because the device, equipped with a keyboard, a mouse and a case, will set you back about $1600. "That's double of what you're paying," he said, adding it is "not feasible".

What is feasible, Mr Lark, is that iPad 2 is scarce as hell because so many people have been buying it.

He then offered the following gem:

"I couldn't be happier that Apple has created a market and built up enthusiasm but longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary. [Apple has] done a really nice job, they've got a great product, but the challenge they've got is that already Android is outpacing them. Apple is great if you've got a lot of money and live on an island. It's not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex."

(At least I live on an island.)

While this may look like a cogent argument, it's actually more like the steaming stuff that emanates from the rear ends of large male ruminants.

The fact Apple's upcoming annual World Wide Developers' Conference (June 6) sold out in under 12 hours with its US$1500 tickets surely makes that clear.

'Open and configurable' sounds reasonable and attractive. It is, but only as the perfect argument, served on a plate, to be trotted out by any of those who decided they can't, or won't, afford Apple's superior products. It's a bit like John Key's 'time for a change' argument in the last NZ election. That wasn't an argument, either: change from what? To what?

Those arguments were never mentioned or addressed, but it didn't matter. The phrase was empty, but hey, it was catchy, and abrogated people from the responsibility of thinking anything through.

I think Dell and HP's new products should take another leaf out of Apple's book with a fruit name for new devices. I suggest 'Sour Grapes' is the most apt moniker.

Johnny Evans, on his Computerworld blog, writes "Once you stop laughing at how desperate Dell seems these days, you might enjoy learning why doctors armed with Apple iPhones can save more lives than those without."

OK, well ... I'll leave that argument to him.

But maybe Dell and HP should just follow Microsoft's lead. Microsoft emulates Apple. A recent leak uncovered plans for Windows 8 to imitate the behaviour of Time Machine in Mac OS X.

Nicknamed History Vault, it would use the Shadow Copies feature that came as early as Vista, but give it a proper visual interface for restoring older files. Like Time Machine, Apple's remarkably effective auto backup system.

WinRumors shows that users could use both real and virtual drives to make a History Vault archive, which could be cool.

As in the case of Apple's forthcoming OS having a two-way thing going with the iOS, the Microsoft OS appears due a few major changes and could "introduce a Metro-influenced interface with some Windows Phone 7 cues".

(Apple's Mac OS X is now ten years old, by the way.)

Microsoft may optimise the majority of the interface for finger touch, and has already said it will support ARM processors to compete properly in battery life with the iPad and a slew of Android tablets, according to Electronista.

And OK, I know I sound cynical and biased, but that's because I'm cynical and biased. There is constant two-way traffic between engineers, too, and even those from seeming arch rivals constantly trade information. Apple has borrowed from lots of people too, especially Microsoft, abandoning its own AppleTalk protocols wholesale for Microsoft routines and Exchange (although who knows what Apple's massive new server farm in the US actually portends?).

Just to show that Mac users can see a good thing when there is actually a good thing to be seen, Cult of Mac has a story about five 'killer apps' Apple should 'steal' from Microsoft.

"Apple is stolen from by just about everybody. Microsoft and other companies steal design and interface ideas from Apple's OS X. Cell phone handset makers steal Apple's iPhone design elements. The new tablet market is essentially Apple's iPad plus the tablets that steal ideas from the iPad. Everybody has stolen Apple's approach to app stores."

But it goes on to talk in admiring terms about Xbox Live's multi-player gaming, Kinect's gesture control interface, Tablet PC's pen input, the user interface of Windows Media Centre and the interaction you get with Microsoft Surface.

See? Two eyes, wide open. As far as I'm concerned, as long as technology keeps getting better for everyone, shouldn't we all just get along?

- Mark Webster mac-nz.com