03 November 2014

Apple

Stanislav, eccentric operating system designer of Loper OS, points out the obvious about Apple's unique position in the tech industry.

I argue that Apple now has not one but two monopolies:
  1. A nearly-total monopoly on computer (and pocket computer) systems designed with good taste.
  2. A total monopoly on the Microsoft-free, hassle-free personal computer.

It goes on to say that Apple's exceptionally good and coherent design depends upon Steve Jobs magic, which I don't think is true. Other companies could deliver good and coherent design — in fact, there's a lot of room to do categorically better design than Apple's — but other companies don't. It's not that they don't know how, it's that they don't understand what design is.

2 comments:

Rhett Aultman said...

I got all excited at the idea of an eccentric's OS hobby project, but the link to his source repository is broken and almost all of his blog is dedicated to things other than Loper OS. I'm guessing he gave up work on it?

Lev said...

Loper is wrong.

I) Andriod makes up a majority of personal computational devices.
II) Apple's market share of non-Microsoft desktop/laptop computers is around 75% to 25% (Linux, other *nixes). That is hardly a "total monopoly".