First things first, G58: Thanks for responding. I do appreciate it.
I'll grant you that marketing isn't my field, and it's quite probable I'm confusing marketing with advertising. I think my point wasn't taken as I intended, especially when considering the size of your response. I'm not trying to pose sarcastic and disingenuous questions here. Most of what I actually wanted to convey was that I think it's absurd for you to write off cloud computing for everyone, and that Apple is rather good at marketing.
The entirety of what I was attempting to say about Apple's marketing/advertising/whatever-term-is-good-enough-for-this-layman-to-use is that I think they are successful because of it. In my view, Apple makes products that are quite good, and is unbelievably good at letting the public know about them. Do you remember the launch of the first generation iPod Nano? It felt like I couldn't go 10 minutes watching any major network during primetime without hearing about it. I've had two iPods, an original iPhone, and an iPhone 3G along with some devices that run on Windows and synchronized with Windows Media Player. The process isn't that much different.
I had a (monochrome) Palm something in the early 2000's. I bought IntelliGolf from their own website and installed it with Palm's desktop software. It was barely more difficult than using iTunes and the AppStore, which is to say it wasn't difficult at all. When I switched to a different Palm and a new version of IntelliGolf came out, I bought that version on Handango...a mobile application store. It's not like we were devoid of games back then either; I played a wonderfully dramatic title by the name of subhunt...with sound!
7-9 years later the process is slightly easier. Still, BlackBerry could install applications through the browser long before the AppStore was made available on the iPhone and my curve let's me upgrade the OS over the air (better than the iPhone, I'd say). Again, in summary, the consolidation of applications was done by Handango long ago and RIM devices supported similar installs as the iPhone before the iPhone existed. So why weren't these nearly as successful as the iPhone? I don't think it was the 10% of easiness that was added to the process...I think it was the fact that non-business users actually knew these things existed through Apple's marketing, which showed what an average person could do with the internet and email on his or her phone.
Do you think I'm actually worlds away from how it actually is with my perception? For viral marketing to work, I think the people being marketed to have to see something useful about it...and the people doing the marketing need to know it exists. I see Apple as a company that makes sure people know their products exist better than any other -- except the AppleTV, of course.
Perhaps we can chalk this one up to the shortfalls of text-based communication. I didn't intend to convey a derogatory tone. I'd like to argue tone is always added by the reader, especially in situations where in-person contact has never occurred; this is also a perfectly honest sentence if it ends after four words
I don't see how this a valid comparison at all. This sounds like a rebuttal to a different argument. The point was that similar mobile application stores existed before the AppStore, and they were relatively unknown. Apple's has spent tons of money making sure it's AppStore is known. If they think it's important enough to spend money on, why wouldn't I think the money they spent getting the word out would matter to it's ultimate success?
Again with the "we all" hyperbolic claims. I was genuinely asking. I used to use Yahoo, and I never thought it was a terrible engine.
You know how the tone you read my post in really ticked you off? I feel pretty similar about you speaking for everyone, mainly because that includes me. Looking back, a lot of the products I have used were total garbage...the first few computers I had, or even that Palm m125. At the time, however, they were not woefully inadequate and did much of the same productivity tasks that today's devices are using, albeit uglier.
It's pretty easy to remember and doesn't really conjure up any sort of negative associations in my mind. For those reasons they seem to be quite good names. Altavista has been defunct for how long now? It stuck in your mind quite nicely. I'd guess 'Altavista' was a combo of alternative vista, or alternative "distant view through or along an avenue or opening" (Merriam-Webster).
Again, I'm talking about your use of hyperboles. I happen to like cloud computing. You saying "WE" don't need the cloud or Chrome OS is ridiculous. Sorry to hear you've actually been in dangerous territory.
Let me refute that with an emphatic "no". I'd like to point out here that I asked you questions about your post. In my opinion, you've read a tone into mine and extracted words and meaning that weren't even there. I don't appreciate you stating your interpretation of my views on progress, especially when you don't have enough information.
As long as we're debating semantics with marketing and advertising, we may as well bring needs and wants into the mix, right? I was attempting to illustrate exactly what you said in your last sentence, which is probably better illustrated by the paraphrasing of the famous Henry Ford quote:
If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse
*Shrug* It's like clockwork on this forum.
I think you thoroughly missed the point of my statements. I read through my post again and the italics on "we" is not very clear. Perhaps I should have bolded it.
I'm making the assumption that you are a consumer. As a consumer, you are stating that
we don't need Chrome OS or the cloud. I was making another attempt to illustrate other things currently taken for granted that consumers have all said we don't need from a first-person perspective. I remember when my father bought a GMC Truck in 1995 with the keyless entry option; it was selected so infrequently the car had to be ordered. I remember in the 90's when everyone with a cellphone was instantly labeled a drug dealer because of how "unnecessary" mobile communication was. There were many groans on this very forum when Google released their own browser, only for some of us to discover how much faster it was than what we were currently using.
The needle on the irony-o-meter is pegged here. You've brought my intelligence into the conversation here for demonstrating the problem with saying something is unneeded with the benefit of hindsight. The only reason I quoted and responded to you was to because you're saying cloud computing is unneeded. Who is to say with the benefit of hindsight your statement won't seem just as crazy? Then what does your quote above say about you?
So, since those three things that consumers like what I'm assuming you are, have said we don't need. Two of them are very much mainstream now, yet at the time of their inception they were shrugged off as ridiculous luxuries by many. The point I tried to make was not about keyless entry -- you can get many models without it, by the way -- but that it's absurd to completely write something off. Hopefully that point has now landed.
Again with the odd comparisons; they must just be sailing over my head. Keyless entry is somehow equivalent to the six feet ahead of me when driving? Is cloud computing the six feet ahead of me and we should be doing something way down the road? Please elaborate.
Back to the original reason for me posting: I don't see how Google is saying anything close to surprising here. Productivity suites are fairing quite well as webapps. To-do lists are much better as a webapp. To think they will not continue to improve is absurd.
Webapps will not, however, replace heavy stats and math software, nor will they replace graphics-intensive games. Isn't it obvious that most games aren't going to the web, though? Does that even need to be clarified? Games aren't restricted to one platform now, why would they be in the future?
Calling something the future of development doesn't mean it's all that is going to exist; it means to me this is where most of the growth will be.
