Huh? I'm not sure I follow what you are saying. I feel the need to win an argument based on an inability to cope with a debate point... hmm.. what are you talking about Magnus?
Let me know if you ever figure it out. Really, I don't much care at this point. I'm not trying to win you over, just make my point about the direction Apple finds itself going in and my disappointment that they don't seem to care about their core computer market very much anymore and are letting Microsoft run full steam ahead of them while they are off making phones and tablets.
You changed the subject and tried to use the new subject as proof that that the previous opposing opinion was now invalid or proven wrong in some way.
Um, right. I didn't change any subject. I simply provided more reasons for why Apple should include Blu-Ray. How is that "changing the subject" ???
You and others seem to be under the impression that I personally "need" Blu-Ray when I personally don't really want another disc format. Many people do, so I pointed that out. I find it ridiculous that Apple "state of the art" operating system lacks modern video features, whether it be the latest OpenGL or support for the latest HD delivery methods. You meanwhile are drawing pictures of garden tools and talking about McDonalds not selling Tacos....
If you want to argue they only care about phones these days, I might agree with you, but that doesn't change the fact that it's freaking RIDICULOUS for Apple to not support Blu-Ray. It is the SAME thing as if they would have said, "No, we don't need to support DVD drives. CDs drives are good enough." Can you even IMAGINE the the long-term damage and laughability factor Apple would have had to deal with if in 2006 they had ZERO support for DVD drives of any kind within their operating system or perhaps just the ability to read the discs, but not handle any movies and ship NO computers with a DVD drive of ANY kind??? Apple would be a laughing stock. And that's just what I'm saying now. They ARE a laughing stock in the video segment these days. They don't support modern OpenGL. They don't offer any desktop GPUs except in their professional workstation that is too expensive for most consumers. Their "professional" video editing software (FCP) doesn't even support more than one CORE for nearly all operations!!! This from the company that touts "Grand Central" as an operating system feature and their own PRO software doesn't even use it!!!
You seem to think that Apple's problems are limited to one area and hence you want me to stick to that one are (i.e. consumer playback of BD movies), but that is just ONE factor in Apple's clearly lagging support for their own operating system and even the computers themselves. They've decided that phones and tablets are WAY more important than regular computers. They've decided people only play games on their phones. They've decided that maintaining professional software is a waste of their time when they can put all their resources into smart phones and battery chargers. The sad part is that they have more than enough money to do BOTH without endangering the other. THAT would be smart business.
Apple has apparently decided to PURPOSELY change from a leading edge computer company into a gadget/toy/phone company and let their computer lines rot on the vine, ultimately to be phased out completely, thus handing the ENTIRE world computing market over to Microsoft without even putting up a fight. Steve Ballmer should be kissing Steve's rear end all day long! Because it's a GIFT to Windows that they no longer have ANY competition in those markets in the long run because Steve doesn't CARE about them anymore and thinks desktop computers are "trucks" that ordinary people don't need or use. He couldn't be more wrong. Nearly everyone I know still has at least one home computer or a dock for a notebook. No iPhone or iPad will EVER replace home computing entirely, not even close.
Oh no, I broadened the "debate" to include everything that is wrong with Apple's non-use of its operating system beyond iOS. Time for more pictures?
That's the equivalent of "I can't argue your point so I'll just throw something else out there." If you believe there are a number of reasons that Apple should have Blu-ray support then why didn't you state them as a counter point in the discussion we were having as opposed to changing the subject?
This is not a high-school debate. I don't really care if you think my scope is beyond the original points YOU were making. You clearly don't seem to get what I'm talking about in a larger context. I don't care to "win" an argument. I only care to make my points for all to consider.
What's silly is that you are still missing the point. You continually fail to acknowledge the basics of free enterprise and capitalism that state that a company can do whatever it wants with a product and the market will dictate whether they survive or not.
Why should I acknowledge that? I'm hoping Apple doesn't take that route because it WILL eventually lead them right back to 1998 all over again. Smart phones are no way to run a computer company. Everyone else is playing catch-up and unless Apple can CONTINUALLY and UNILATERALLY maintain constant enhancements that keep them ahead of Android and Blackberry, etc. with no screw-ups along the way, they will fall back eventually to a small percentage of the market just like Mac OS did in the 1990s. You cannot put all your eggs into one basket without endangering your company's long term viability. Palm made that mistake and they're pretty much GONE because of it. But Apple has an entire industry to fall back on (computers) if the iOS 'gadget' market dries up. The problem is if they're letting it rot on the back shelf somewhere Microsoft is all too happy to use that lost time to catch up and pass OSX right on by.
If iOS loses share and Apple loses cachet, it will affect the computer market as well and if Windows is significantly better at that stage than OSX, Apple is going to be in a BAD situation. Its stock will suddenly cave on some future announcement that sales aren't meeting expectations and Android is over-taking their early lead and Windows8 looks to be light years ahead of OSX 10.7 which isn't even on the horizon because they were too buys playing footsie with the phone market to even bother putting anyone on the OSX development (we already know Apple MOVES its programmers to other projects; they do NOT keep people working on OSX; they move them to iOS, etc. and REFUSE to hire more people so they can develop BOTH markets at the same time).
This isn't some pipe dream. The writing is on the wall. The iPhone is NOT going to maintain its lead forever. Android devices are NOT limiting themselves to ONE phone. They are spreading like wildfire (just like Microsoft's Windows OS did in the early '90s, leaving "expensive Macs" behind to a much smaller market share in the end. It is indeed Apple's limited controlling view and the inability to push market share beyond just its own limited number of products that lead to them having <10% market share once the product matures (look how the Mac went from over 20% to around 3-4% by the end of the '90s and they still haven't even come close to recovering that market share despite high profits). Apple has a bum product in the iPhone4 right now and it IS going to hurt them over the next year or two. Android phones will come out at regular intervals (3-5x as many hardware updates as Apple and across ALL carriers) and that will lead them to pass Apple by like they're standing still.
Innovation is good for early leads, but fails in the long run when you refuse to MOVE with it. The U.S. invented the VCR, saw no need for it and lost the market entirely. Apple is betting the farm on iOS and letting OSX rot on the back-burner. Windows7 is NOT the disaster that Vista was. They should be moving ahead full steam. Instead, they put their best programmers on the iPhone instead, but they cannot move enough product and if that product has a defect (antenna design), they have NOWHERE to go until the next product cycle. Meanwhile, Android isn't limited to just one phone model and one defect. What makes Apple strong for high profits makes Apple weak for maintaining market share. Without the latter, the former soon dies on the vine.
The trouble with many companies today is that they only look ahead one or two quarters, maybe a year or so at most. Sooner or later that catches up with them. It's what almost killed the American car industry in the 1980s and again in 2009. If the market changes and you put all your eggs in one basket (whether it's cheap and dirty in the '80s or all gas guzzling SUVs and trucks when a gas spike or recession hits), you're SCREWED. Everyone is drunk on Apple's current success like it will never end, but if you look towards the horizon you can see dark clouds in the sky.
Blu-Ray is just ONE aspect of the problems that Apple is creating for itself right now. People like to say that it was the ejection of Steve Jobs that nearly killed Apple and his return that nearly saved it, but history shows data that indicates other things at play. Steve is repeating the same thing Apple did without him in the late 80's and 90's (letting everyone else push market share while they concentrate on high prices and limited hardware models that they control entirely). Steve's own computer company "NeXT Step" was an abysmal failure. It may have had a good OS core being BSD based, but it was going nowhere on its own. NeXT needed Apple as much as Apple needed NeXT. Innovation like iPods and iPhones are great, but they don't last forever. Fads come and go. You cannot base your company's future on a fad. The SAD thing is Apple has more than enough money to hire more people and keep both markets moving full steam ahead. They should have backup devices in the works as well that can be fully developed in an emergency. Intel seemed to be digging its own grave with its stupid Pentium4 design and people were speculating AMD would surpass them and become the lead CPU maker. But Intel had a backup development of the Pentium3 design moving forward in the background and when Pentium4 failed to pay off, the current chip line was able to take its place. What does Apple have to offer if iPhone4 sales drop like stones because of this antenna business? Bumper cases?
I stated the analogy a second time in the hope that you would understand, it appears that didn't work. Instead of acknowledging the valid point you just blindly continue to state that it's inaccurate.
No what I'm saying is that you clearly don't grasp the big picture here and are focused on a narrow analogy that doesn't fit the bigger picture and then cry when someone doesn't stick within those narrow confines. Here, it seems, all you are interested in is driving home this McDonalds/Taco Bell analogy until you're blue in the face, not even realizing that tacos have nothing to do with it. This is about Apple not COMPETING anymore in its OS race against Microsoft. It was winning the marathon for awhile, but now the runner suddenly stops and walks off to go bowling (iPhones) instead of continuing to run the race he's in and let someone else go bowling for the company instead. Steve is so controlling that he does not have time for OSX and will not let someone else take control of that market segment for him. He moves people off the computer segment and to the phone segment instead of hiring more people to do well with both. Apple has stopped running the race against Microsoft and is letting the tortoise run right past the hare. THAT is the real analogy here, not burgers versus tacos unless you're saying that Burger King (Apple) has decided it would rather sell Tacos and change its name and entirely market overnight and then I might agree because their core market is no longer computers, but gadgets that are greatly subjected to FADS. I'm sure SWATCH made quite a lot of money very briefly in the '80s, but where are they now?
I'm sure you will not follow ANYTHING I've said and come back with more reasons you "won" this imaginary debate you think you're having instead of realizing I'm commenting on my problems with Apple as a company. The lack of Blu-Ray in the Mac Pro or any other Mac is just a symptom of the underlying short-sighted disease that is starting to take hold in Apple. I would NOT invest in their stock at this point. It can only go down in the long run.
The bottom line is that I think it's a shame Apple is no longer very much interested in computers. It's THE reason I was interested in them.
