Its official - Apple has now taken the lead in ‘cool’ consumer smart technology. Proclaimed an outright winner by the quick consumer test on the BBC technology website when pitted against the Archos and Dell Streak, the iPad could now become yet another iconic gadget from the ever expanding Apple empire who clearly have the pulse of the business and consumer market.
A trio of slick new devices has now seen Apple overtake Microsoft as the Global leader – On Wednesday, Apple’s capitalisation closed at $222bn compared to Microsoft’s $219bn.
Other manufacturers are not giving up the fight however, with Archos tablet and Dell streak also performing admirably using Google’s much acclaimed Android OS.
Its fair to say also that there has always been a degree of scepticism around the launch of Apple’s Smart tech hybrid – maybe their risky ‘toe in the water’ approach to re-launching a tablet format device has allowed others to profit in the wake of their trail-blazing.
Apple have shown themselves to be adept in translating what is ‘cool’ and ‘hot’ into a ‘must have’- which is why they have become the clear market leaders. But perhaps it wasn’t such a risky venture? They do seem to have impeccable timing for getting it right.
I remember Bill Gates declaring a few years back that there would be a wholesale change in the future in the way we work – from local applications where the computing power and data is localised towards what is now loosely termed Cloud computing. - but this would also need wholesale changes in thinking and attitude to the way we work (and play!). And as our Global internet usage accelerates astronomically it was was only a matter of getting the product launch timing right. Apple have shown that they can do this with consummate ease.
Gathering Clouds
But lets rewind for a minute and explore the ‘cloud topography’. Currently Blogs, social media and the like are ‘remote’ media applications we can access through a browser.
These applications are essentially about quick communications but now include a range of media tools for photos, music and video. An opportunity was looming large to link all of this activity up to mobile devices – at the same time there has been a seismic shift from users to browsers, from the PC work station mentality to mobile connectivity.
Apple foresaw this and stepped up to the plate by providing the complete package – slick mobile devices + the apps to go with them . Almost at the same time Google adopted a more more open source philosophy by releasing the Android operating system which could be run on a range of devices and thus liberating users from the shackles of Apple’s cash cow.
But will it stop there? Why not have all our applications and data outsourced ,i.e. in the cloud, rather than have everything reside inertly on our PC or laptop or smart device? After all, the cost of the hardware as well updating applications is tedious. If its all taken care of ’in the cloud’ for us we’re left free to get on with the things we should be doing.
This is no longer a vision for the future but a reality for many businesses who now see outsourcing all their networking and IT administration requirements as the way forward rather than employ in-house expertise.
But maybe we’re all not comfortable with this concept just yet . I for one am still sceptical about uploading all my stuff to a remote centralised location with very little knowledge of where my bit of the cloud happens to be at any one time. Perhaps we are rightly still suspicious about the ‘cloud’ and view it as a metaphor for ‘we really don’t know exactly where stuff is or who can access it ‘.
Will this mindset change? I think it has to. Having recently emerged from a what was a almost a viral meltdown on my own home network, I now have to confess to a false sense of security with all my data residing on my home and business PC network.
We have become so connected that perhaps we forget that we have now become irrevocably interconnected.
So maybe its time to start handing over the reigns to the experts in the cloud…or maybe not just yet.
