robbyx

macplusplus said:

javair said:

It'd be a pain to not use the dock. I put only my frequently used apps there. Been using it since the first iteration of OS X, and from back then up to today, I place it on the right side of the screen. The right side of the screen is where the old finder shortcuts and launcher used to sit in OS 7, 8, & 9, so it made sense to me that this too is a launcher. I always thought Microsoft converters would like the dock on the left side of the screen as that is where they were use dot seeing their Windows shortcuts and such. Having it on the bottom of the screen was annoying. It seemed in the way, and it made my window viewing areas even shorter.

Dock on the left was a NeXT practice.

Pretty sure right side was the default. The menu block was in the upper left corner. My NeXT dock was always on the right side of the screen. Of course windows didn’t minimize into the dock, but tiled across the bottom of the screen. I miss the NeXT UI. 

USB-A is massively entrenched. It will take years (decades) for the PC side to let go. I appreciate why Apple wants to move USB-C forward and make it ubiquitous, but, at this point, I think they are doing us all a great disservice by not including a “legacy” USB port for convenience. 

designr said:

fastasleep said:

robbyx said:

boltsfan17 said:

robbyx said:

I'm not against Apple producing original content, but I don't think it's going to turn into a major revenue stream for them.  I worry the quest for content is a fool's errand.  For years I've said they should buy Nintendo and I still think that would be the best acquisition they could make.  The lion's share of App Store revenue is video games and IAP associated with video games.  Nintendo is profitable, has numerous well-established and beloved global franchises, and does good work when it comes to hardware and game controllers.  I hope the original content play works out for Apple, but I think getting serious about gaming would be a much smarter move.

The thing with original content, all it takes is a few hit shows. Look at Netflix. There is a ton of crap they produce but they do have hit shows. As far as Nintendo goes, I completely agree. With their huge catalog of titles, imagine what that would do for the neglected (with gaming) Apple TV. The gaming market is booming worldwide. That would be a smart move by Apple to invest in that $140 billion/yearly and growing piece of the pie. 

My concern with content is that Apple is late to the game.  They should never have let Netflix become Netflix.  I'm a big Apple fan and longtime customer (35 years!), but it will take a lot to convince me that I need another streaming service.  Netflix has become a juggernaut.  Yes, Apple has "disrupted" other markets successfully in the past, but there's no guarantee they can do it again.  It seems expensive and risky whereas Nintendo is basically a guaranteed win.  Nintendo has some of the most well recognized gaming franchises in the world.  They have a huge built-in fan base who buys every new console they release.  They are the king of mobile gaming (and I don't mean smartphone games).  It seems like such a no-brainer to me.  Slogging it out in the fickle original content space - trying to build a back catalog of hits, trying to convince the public they need another service - seems highly risky and, frankly, more like a vanity project than anything else.  Gaming prints money.  Why Apple continues to treat it in a very half-assed way makes no sense to me (and never has).

You don't think they have smart people being paid a lot of money to weigh all of these sorts of things and make well-informed decisions? 

Probably. But there are lots of companies with smart people being paid to make such decisions. It's not just about those aspects. It's also about will, vision, strategy, etc. What's more, people in companies can often be blinded by their current circumstances and past history. There's a reason why so few companies make major successful leaps into new industries or even products in their same industry. There's a certain institutional inertia and blindness that can occur anywhere. I seriously doubt Apple is immune to these kind of things...long term. In fact large and very successful companies can also have hubris that leads to over-confidence about potential success in other industries. I suspect things like gaming, entertainment (movies, TV, media, etc.) are very different from what Apple has been really good at for its entire existence. Those differences shouldn't be taken lightly.

Well said.  And we know that Apple isn't immune to institutional inertia.  They've done it before.  Anyone remember the 90s?  I think so many Apple fans have become so lazy when it comes to their own opinions about Apple.  They've become incapable of objectively critiquing anything Apple does due to Apple's past decade of success.  Any criticism is automatically dismissed because Apple never makes mistakes and disrupts every industry they touch in these people's minds.  Of course these people's memories are also very short.  It wasn't always that way and it's foolish to assume that just because Apple (or any company) has had a successful run, that that run will go on forever.

I'll also add that I don't think Apple has been very smart at all when it comes to video.  They should - and could - have entered the content arena much sooner, but Eddie Cue is perhaps the least visionary executive they have.  He's been asleep at the wheel while Netflix built a global brand.  Unlike user experience and customer service, original content doesn't give them much room to distinguish themselves.  It's either good or bad and the (often fickle) public will respond accordingly.

fastasleep said:

robbyx said:

boltsfan17 said:

robbyx said:

I'm not against Apple producing original content, but I don't think it's going to turn into a major revenue stream for them.  I worry the quest for content is a fool's errand.  For years I've said they should buy Nintendo and I still think that would be the best acquisition they could make.  The lion's share of App Store revenue is video games and IAP associated with video games.  Nintendo is profitable, has numerous well-established and beloved global franchises, and does good work when it comes to hardware and game controllers.  I hope the original content play works out for Apple, but I think getting serious about gaming would be a much smarter move.

The thing with original content, all it takes is a few hit shows. Look at Netflix. There is a ton of crap they produce but they do have hit shows. As far as Nintendo goes, I completely agree. With their huge catalog of titles, imagine what that would do for the neglected (with gaming) Apple TV. The gaming market is booming worldwide. That would be a smart move by Apple to invest in that $140 billion/yearly and growing piece of the pie. 

My concern with content is that Apple is late to the game.  They should never have let Netflix become Netflix.  I'm a big Apple fan and longtime customer (35 years!), but it will take a lot to convince me that I need another streaming service.  Netflix has become a juggernaut.  Yes, Apple has "disrupted" other markets successfully in the past, but there's no guarantee they can do it again.  It seems expensive and risky whereas Nintendo is basically a guaranteed win.  Nintendo has some of the most well recognized gaming franchises in the world.  They have a huge built-in fan base who buys every new console they release.  They are the king of mobile gaming (and I don't mean smartphone games).  It seems like such a no-brainer to me.  Slogging it out in the fickle original content space - trying to build a back catalog of hits, trying to convince the public they need another service - seems highly risky and, frankly, more like a vanity project than anything else.  Gaming prints money.  Why Apple continues to treat it in a very half-assed way makes no sense to me (and never has).

You don't think they have smart people being paid a lot of money to weigh all of these sorts of things and make well-informed decisions? 

Um, that kind of goes without saying, doesn't it?  Why bother offering opinions on a forum, much less reading a forum in the first place, if that's your answer?  Seems like you're just wasting your time.  Why do you care what people on the Internet think if Apple already has smart people to make well-informed decisions?  Very strange response.

That said, smart people often get it wrong, even Apple.

boltsfan17 said:

robbyx said:

I'm not against Apple producing original content, but I don't think it's going to turn into a major revenue stream for them.  I worry the quest for content is a fool's errand.  For years I've said they should buy Nintendo and I still think that would be the best acquisition they could make.  The lion's share of App Store revenue is video games and IAP associated with video games.  Nintendo is profitable, has numerous well-established and beloved global franchises, and does good work when it comes to hardware and game controllers.  I hope the original content play works out for Apple, but I think getting serious about gaming would be a much smarter move.

The thing with original content, all it takes is a few hit shows. Look at Netflix. There is a ton of crap they produce but they do have hit shows. As far as Nintendo goes, I completely agree. With their huge catalog of titles, imagine what that would do for the neglected (with gaming) Apple TV. The gaming market is booming worldwide. That would be a smart move by Apple to invest in that $140 billion/yearly and growing piece of the pie. 

My concern with content is that Apple is late to the game.  They should never have let Netflix become Netflix.  I'm a big Apple fan and longtime customer (35 years!), but it will take a lot to convince me that I need another streaming service.  Netflix has become a juggernaut.  Yes, Apple has "disrupted" other markets successfully in the past, but there's no guarantee they can do it again.  It seems expensive and risky whereas Nintendo is basically a guaranteed win.  Nintendo has some of the most well recognized gaming franchises in the world.  They have a huge built-in fan base who buys every new console they release.  They are the king of mobile gaming (and I don't mean smartphone games).  It seems like such a no-brainer to me.  Slogging it out in the fickle original content space - trying to build a back catalog of hits, trying to convince the public they need another service - seems highly risky and, frankly, more like a vanity project than anything else.  Gaming prints money.  Why Apple continues to treat it in a very half-assed way makes no sense to me (and never has).