Entelligence: Heads I win, tails so do you
By Michael Gartenberg 
posted Nov 8th 2009 7:30PM
posted Nov 8th 2009 7:30PM
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.
That's a pretty sappy title. It almost sounds like I'm talking about summer camp. You know, where everyone who goes to camp gets to have a part and everyone gets an award for something.
I think competition is good. I think healthy competition forces people and companies to push themselves further, innovate greater and drive products to the next level. Competition gave us Windows 7, the iPhone, and a host of other technologies and products as vendors looked to up their game and compete. While I don't consider myself a fanboy of anything except perhaps Aaron Sorkin or NYC bagels, I also think fanboys (and fangirls) are good. I like people who are really passionate about the technology they buy and stand behind their passion. It's good for people to be excited about tech. So if you're a Windows 7, Snow Leopard or Ubuntu lover, I say. "Excellent!" Heck, if you're a Newton, Amiga or Vectrex aficionado and hate anything created past 1995, that's cool too. I'm talking about something else. I'm talking about a philosophy that says, If I win, then you must lose.
We've all it seen it a million times. Story after story written about how product X is a product Y killer. But here's the thing: there's no reason that product X needs to kill product Y. There's no reason X and Y can't both can't succeed in a given marketplace, each carving out their respective shares.
I understand that it's not quite that simple, and in the past, not always true. Some of this is historical. Look back at the tech industry and you see it was relatively small just a few years ago. There was only so much room for products that essentially did the same thing, and someone had to win, while others were going to lose. It's even true to some extent in today's market where there are finite resources. As we've discussed before, there's only a certain number of developers and therefore six
mobile platforms won't all be able to offer the depth and breadth of other platforms. Some might not even survive.
But there is a difference between a platform that dies as a result of natural evolutionary forces and one that gets "killed off" by a competitor. Perhaps it's a small difference, but I think it's an important one. Whether you're a vendor or a passionate user, tell me why your stuff is great instead of telling me why your competitor's products are bad. In the end, positive evangelism is the best marketing tool out there, especially in today's market with room for lots of really great products.
I have the pleasure to meet with and talk to a lot of journalists, analysts, bloggers and pundits in the course of a given week In the end, almost all of us want the same thing: cool products that make our lives a little better and empower us to do more while having some fun along the way. We'll take them from whoever delivers. Microsoft doesn't need to kill Apple and Apple doesn't need to kill Palm. There's plenty of room in the market for the best products -- gadget evolution will take care of the rest in the long run.
Michael Gartenberg is vice president of strategy and analysis at Interpret, LLC. His weblog can be found at gartenblog.net, and he can be emailed at gartenberg AT gmail DOT com. Views expressed here are his own.
I think competition is good. I think healthy competition forces people and companies to push themselves further, innovate greater and drive products to the next level. Competition gave us Windows 7, the iPhone, and a host of other technologies and products as vendors looked to up their game and compete. While I don't consider myself a fanboy of anything except perhaps Aaron Sorkin or NYC bagels, I also think fanboys (and fangirls) are good. I like people who are really passionate about the technology they buy and stand behind their passion. It's good for people to be excited about tech. So if you're a Windows 7, Snow Leopard or Ubuntu lover, I say. "Excellent!" Heck, if you're a Newton, Amiga or Vectrex aficionado and hate anything created past 1995, that's cool too. I'm talking about something else. I'm talking about a philosophy that says, If I win, then you must lose.
We've all it seen it a million times. Story after story written about how product X is a product Y killer. But here's the thing: there's no reason that product X needs to kill product Y. There's no reason X and Y can't both can't succeed in a given marketplace, each carving out their respective shares.
I understand that it's not quite that simple, and in the past, not always true. Some of this is historical. Look back at the tech industry and you see it was relatively small just a few years ago. There was only so much room for products that essentially did the same thing, and someone had to win, while others were going to lose. It's even true to some extent in today's market where there are finite resources. As we've discussed before, there's only a certain number of developers and therefore six
All of us want the same thing: cool products that make our lives a little better and empower us to do more while having some fun along the way. |
But there is a difference between a platform that dies as a result of natural evolutionary forces and one that gets "killed off" by a competitor. Perhaps it's a small difference, but I think it's an important one. Whether you're a vendor or a passionate user, tell me why your stuff is great instead of telling me why your competitor's products are bad. In the end, positive evangelism is the best marketing tool out there, especially in today's market with room for lots of really great products.
I have the pleasure to meet with and talk to a lot of journalists, analysts, bloggers and pundits in the course of a given week In the end, almost all of us want the same thing: cool products that make our lives a little better and empower us to do more while having some fun along the way. We'll take them from whoever delivers. Microsoft doesn't need to kill Apple and Apple doesn't need to kill Palm. There's plenty of room in the market for the best products -- gadget evolution will take care of the rest in the long run.
Michael Gartenberg is vice president of strategy and analysis at Interpret, LLC. His weblog can be found at gartenblog.net, and he can be emailed at gartenberg AT gmail DOT com. Views expressed here are his own.
this article is a fanboy-war killer
I wish it would die. Engadget comments are around 90% fanboy-kill-fanboy, 10% actual worthwhile reading.
I think this whole article can be summed up in one song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJTBPdVpdMc
And another thing I wish would stop: being voted "Lowest Ranked" just because I mention the name of certain products. Not making them sound wonderful, not making the competition sound bad, just mentioning the name.
No you nub.
The same person who likes BIG BLOCK 6 Barrel V8 with Ram blowers is not going to wake up one day and buy a honda civic and stuff 3 turbos and computer chips in it because Honda advertises that their car is the best.
Same thing here... Someone who wants to make a custom computer will NOT be shopping at an Apple store with a nasty H1N1 tainted $5 Cafe Latte in hand.
Hence the division of markets.
@bondsbw:
Not saying this is you, but...
Alot of the knee-jerk low ranking occurs to fanboys who feel the need to name their favorite product in every post, preseumably just because they like the way the product name rolls off their keyboard. Such posts usually have nothing to do with the topic at hand.
@Name:
I have no idea who you're talking to or why you're saying that.
If you're commenting on the article, I think you misunderstood the writer's point. I think the writer's point was that there is room in the markets for different devices from different manufacturers which serve a similar purpose. If you're commenting about the "positive evangelism" point, I think you're taking an overly narrow view. The writer's point was not that (to take your example) Honda or Apple merely telling a consumer that their product is best would be enough to change the mind of a staunch critic of the products of those companies. The writer was instead encouraging information and commentary on "why [their] stuff is great" and stating that would be effective marketing for the products. That is, people might be initially opposed to buying a product but might be persuaded by reading reviews, hearing from their friends etc. and reassessing for themselves whether that product is worth buying.
Well put!! Like in nature I believe only the strong survive and I feel this applies to consumer technology as well. The products that appeal and advance the lives of consumers will pull through, and well the ones that don't do it as well most likely won't be here in a few years.
In this market it's Safe to Say that android and apple most likely aren't going to go away and will most likely evolve into greater things. It's also safe to assume thT web os may struggle a bit more in the future and so may blackerry in the future. The os's I think will hurt most will be winmo and symbian and maemo. I think those will be the ones who will hurt more or disappear totally. Either way this article made me feel ok to be an apple fanboy. Ultimately I guess it's ok to b a fanboy, just not an idiot.
I think all Engadget Editors should read this article and learn from it, they are the ones who start flame wars anyway... and I bet that they enjoy it!.
Hell hath no fury like a geek's fanboyism.
Fanboyism sucks.
Maybe its just me, but it seems that the majority of the fanboys are the ones that know the least about tech.
Why do people feel the need to post THEIR own epinion articles at the end of there rant? Not only does that confirm that you are a fanboy, but just makes you look like a conceited douche.
Who actually reads epinion anyway?
Hopefully this article cleans up the comments section a good bit. Engadget used to be a safe haven from the typical graft that has infiltrated the comments lately.
@tmarks11
I agree with you, and they deserve to be downranked. I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about factual statements that show little to no bias.
Ok, look at it this way. Take the following two hypothetical posts:
"The Droid is great."
"The iPhone is great."
At this point in time on Engadget, one of those will be ranked down, and the other will probably be left alone (or even ranked up). No factual data (just opinion), no difference in presentation.
It changes... a few years ago it would be a different story, so I'm not saying that Engadget is totally and always anti-Apple or anything like that.
My point... there's too much fanboyism here, and it needs to stop. And the down-rank should be used for "incorrect", "offensive", "poor attitude", etc. Not for "I disagree".
@RioRyan
if you listen to that as you read these comments, its almost touching. i love sentimental gadget passion.
Reading this article while listening to "Why Cant We Be Friends" was full of WIN
@ Drew
Fanboy wars will continue because people seem to believe that what they own defines then, making them better or more valuable than people who do not possess these things. An affront to what one owns is an affront to oneself. And let us not neglect to mention that if we happen to like things that certain fanboys do not, then it is also an implication that they are uninformed, have poor taste, or both. Of course, this is quite unreasonable and will continue to cause the unnecessary elevation of blood pressure in some afflicted individuals.
Gizmodo could learn a thing or two from this article.
Great article Michael ... after a long time i see someone giving a
totally un-biased veiw of the industry.
I wonder whatever happened to the good old days of just "reviewing" a
peice of hardware or software .... now a days its Everything VS !phone
and the winner is decided even before the showdown which was initially
supposed to be a Review :D ...
yay for competition....
I think the author forgot there are more than 6 mobile platforms now in the market. May be he doesn't give importance to the other platforms, but he may find that the platform he didn't mention may turn out to be one of the winners too!!
Any guess? Well Nokia fanboys know about that.
Maemo.
And there is one more which is Intel's moblin and may be more, which i am not aware of.
I think it it wasn't for the Palm Pre release, the iPhone wouldn't have gotten such a timely 3.0 update to give Copy/Paste and enable A2DP.
The only thing most of these phones are still missing is JAVA/ FLASH full support so we can browse Flash webpages and use chat clients.
As for "fanboy killing"... true gadget fanboys want to see the iPhone get knocked off its pedestal and reversal of the iPhone customers to some new device...thus far, it ain't happening cause Storm, Pre and Droid simply can't knock iPhone out. The fact iPhone uses OSX gives it an advantage pretty much no one can compete with except Windows but they are not releasing their own phone...they only release the software. apple is strong because it ties its software to its hardware and doesn't let other companies infringe on their designs at all.
Eh, Maemo? The only thing Nokia fanboys know about is dead mobile platforms, namely Symbian in its various putrid flavours.
I'd like to wager that 90% of Engadget commenters don't believe a word of this article.
Well probably, but I'm still part of the other 10% :)
I'll take that bet. All of those people can up or downrank you, and if I can still read your text by the end of the hour, you win.
Fanboys are and will always be a minority, just a very loud one.
Engadget has spoken.
I typed a longer, thought-out reply to this, but deleted it with a "can I be bothered?" sigh.
I've been doing that more and more on engadget lately. This place is a mess, not a place for sensible commenting on technology.
Wait, if you can see his post in an hour it means he was wrong and engadget actually embraces the idea of fanboyism being ridiculous. On the other hand if he is downranked then it means he was wrong and fanboys run this site. Make sense?
Sometimes that happens to me, too. Just about to hit the submit button to reply to another post, then end up deleting it after asking myself: "What's the point?"
I still find myself asking that question here.
@karlW
yup, been there, done that. c'mon people, just because this is the internet shouldn't mean that respect can just be tossed aside. imma say it one more time: respect.
I'm sorry. How does this benefit me?
It gives us cool devices to look forward to like the Courier. Progress is nice.
BTW, for anyone who cares . . . the idea of "I win, so you must lose" is called a "zero-sum game."
See, there's an actual term for that. You learn something every day.
:')
But the attempt to kill the other product is what makes the products better each product cycle. So the goal to kill is great should still be there even if it doesn't work. Right?
Not necessarily. What we're seeing is more choices for the consumer. Let's face it: EVERYONE has a cell phone these days, so why does one company need to corner that market? The iPhone is great, but Apple knows it's not for everyone (which is why they only make one of them). You can get a Blackberry, or a Pre, or a Droid, or whatever.
The problem is carrier exclusivity. I'm with AT&T so my choices are very limited (since AT&T is sitting on its laurels with it's current exclusivity agreement with Apple). I can't jump ship and go with a Droid or a Pre (at least until Sprint exclusivity ends in the next few months).
Congress actually started to look into the legality of carrier exclusivity before the health care debate took all the mindshare.
Well the reason this mentality of "killed-or-be-killed" exists in the market is simply due to greed. Every company wants to be number 1 in the business and roll around in tangible piles of money. But if they are less than number 1, they consider themselves as a failure.
But with technology it gets even trickier because of just how quickly things changes over time. A year ago, a phone like the Droid probably wouldn't have been possible for $200, but here we are today. If companies don't seize the moment and keep up the momentum, they will quickly be dethroned.
The one thing I can genuinely credit Apple for is that they timed the release of the iPod perfectly and have managed to keep their momentum going from 2001 until now. And that momentum doesn't even apply specifically to the iPod, which is even more impressive.
So that killer instinct mentality of the consumer technology business world makes a lot more sense.
Careface
"tell me why your stuff is great instead of telling me why your competitor's products are bad."
This can apply to a lot of things. Politics especially.
...except when politics *itself* is the problem....which is...uhh...most of the time, from an economics standpoint.
I see what you did there.
I don't see what he did there. I see no meme.
Politics in and of itself is not bad. Let's just be glad we can actually HAVE public discourse of political topics. Some countries are not so fortunate.
As Winston Churchill once said (and I'm paraphrasing):
"Democracy is the worst form of government . . . except for all the other ones."
As Simon Phoenix once said (verbatim):
"You can't take away someone's right to be an @$$hole."
i hate politics... it almost perfectly mirrors fanboy flamewars on the internet: single-minded ranting, bashing the other side, hopping on bandwagons, hate, and just general ignorance on all sides.
@ maverick
at least with tech there are several parties(OS's, devices, platforms etc...) and people are inteligent enough to pick what fits there best needs unlike with american political system people blindly put themself in 1 of 2 catagories effectively killing any chance of a 3rd party and the needed improvement of our country. Imagine the tech world without GNU, Linux, Android, Maemo or the many manufactures of hardware, our tech would be 230+ years behind like our government.
We're you not the one complaining about too many OS's?
Very well said... each type of consumer will buy the gadget that is in their desired niche of the market. Thus, the reason why all these different smartphones with different OSs can succeed.
I'm a fanboy of many things, and it hasn't brought me anything but disappointment (eg Star Wars, Firefly, etc). When something good comes along, it's good, when something bad comes along, it's a bigger disappointment than it is for non-fanboys. I don't think fanboys are good, especially not when it comes to products. They're good for free publicity/advertisement, but that's about it. I think people who are opposed to something are better than a blind follower. You're going to get constructive criticism out of them, you wont get that out of a fanboy
"Some might not even survive."
Hence the name, "killer".
Some of them may not survive, but not only because one particular product. It might just die off for reasons of its own.
I love the picture! it just looks so cool!
Whitecollarcriminal: sometimes.....people just fail
@Whitecollarcriminal
You do realize that the N97 is a Nokia...right? That your post is one of those posts that should be neither seen nor heard?
Dude. Man. Dude.
Everything's great man, yeah. Love your tech man. Dude...
These Amsterdam bagels are great man. Dude.
Dude.
there is a counter point to this article putting forth a reason why to argue against a product for the same reason, but i wouldnt want to wake up Paul A. Chapel again by explaining it.
Hmmmmm.
From left to right.
The phones in the pictures seem to represent units sold.
Not even close.
They're in alphabetical order: Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Symbian, WebOS, Windows Mobile.
Bagel bitch!
You donut-eaters are all the same fat, stinky and oily. How could you even like eating donuts?? It's like drinking vegtable oil with sugar flavoring.
Now, Bagels are the best toroid shaped food. They are healthy and delicious, and very customizable (they can be sweet or salty, can your donut do salty????!!)
Krispy Kreme donuts are the bomb. I can only eat two without getting heartburn, but they still f&#%ing rock.
replace the Storm with the Droid
I think you meant "replace the mytouch with a droid, the storm with a storm2, the 5800 with an N900, and the touch diamond2 with an HD2 as this picture is from an article several months ago and the headliner devices have changed"
right?
O ok I forgot it was the battle of Os's not carriers
cant replace the N97 with an N900, N97 runs S60 and N900 runs Maemo
NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO. COMPETE. What this article is attempting to do is make people buy all the crappy stuff available now, instead of waiting for newer and better later. This article really has NOTHING to do with technology. It is a mass advertising plot to get people to buy whatever is available now, and be CONTENT with it, not happy. How could you do this? WHY. He is targeting some of the most influential people in the tech industry: the readers who ultimately decide whether or not they buy a device, and spread their opinions about it to their peers, who then pass it along to more peers. THIS IS COMPLETE BS. The only thing that is true is that there is no real "killer" so to speak, just something that is better.
I listened n i bought iphonr 3g $49.
Sony 52" LCD 1080p $1600
ps3 299$
360 $199
14" Asus intel core 2 duo 4 gb ram 400gb hard drive $600
Pah.
Why doesn't Engadget make an iPhone app? I don't really like having to use a link on my home screen as an app would be more iPhone specific.
Add bookmark to homescreen.
I agree with him 100%.
I know first hand. I've owned 17 different cellphones.
However there is not always room for all cell manufacturers.
Sometimes Its not fanboyism. It's opinion based on first hand experience.
I know 1 day someone will kill Sony or my 52" Sony 1080 p LCD 240hz. Or my 360 or ps3 or iphone3gs. Etc. Until that day comes we can only give opinions base on actual hand on experience.
I could not disagree more! If you are looking for a nice smartphone, you have A, B and C to chose from and you are not going to buy them all (unless you are an engadget editor). let us say that A is the coolest product with the lowest price, this will make it B and C killer. so, if A can convince the vast majority of customers that their product is the coolest and cheapest they will definitely dominate the market and kill everyone else.
that is why producers try to differentiate their products from the rest, but still most people compare between Iphones and palmpres and decide on that matter
He is the UnEngadget. Kill him with fire!
I'm not sure which author's contribution offers less: Michal Gartenberg's stuff posted at Engadget, or Paul Carr's at TechCrunch.
Wow, pretty much nailed it haha. I don't care if you think the droid kills the iPhone, or the Pre the iPhone, or the Zune HD kill the iPhone (wait what?). Let people enjoy the product that's best for them.
While I agree completely that there is room in most tech markets for a variety of products, with each one providing a different design philosophy (form vs function, battery life vs speed, capabilities vs cost, etc) I couldn't agree less about fanboy-ism. It is one thing to be a fan of a specific technology (for instance, smartphones) but that isn't really what most people mean by the term "fanboy". Fanboys tend to focus on a very specific brand (if not a single product). Essentially fanboys are just brand loyalists who are prone to putting on blinders and ignoring any negatives of their product of choice while refusing to acknowledge any benefits of its competitors.
There is nothing wrong with having a preferred device, of course. But if your loyalty begins to skew your perception of reality you are doing a disservice to both yourself and others. For example, if your buying choice is dictated primarily based on a specific brand name or marketing campaign, you may well purchase a device which does not fit your specific needs as well as an alternative. Further, in doing so you are NOT encouraging healthy performance/innovation driven competition and likely spreading misinformation as you cling to and spread myopic views like a bad meme.
Everyone's needs are different. There is no 'best' product overall - just one which best suits an individual's needs. If a device suits enough people's needs, then it should be successful in a proportionate way. Far too often, however, fanboy-ism rewards marketing campaigns with brand loyalty that actually hinders advancement.
(Also, they can be REALLY annoying to listen to) - IMHO
Competition:Good!...Better product for consumers who know how to choose.
Kill each other:Bad!...No competition = Nazi world dominance = No HD2
Fanboy: Su(K!....Create narrow-minded blind followers who...just follows.
Bagel:Yum....coz yum
Kudos to you for remembering that fangirls (while we are a minority in the tech industry) do exist!
Everyone knows that the best bagel's aren't in NYC (Manhattan), but in Brooklyn (on east 81st street and flatlands avenue). Must be the water.
As for technology, I think that people will psychologically endorse whatever they choose to buy rather than endorse the products that they passed on. Is a Mac better than a PC? If you own one, then your answer would be yes, and in your mind all other OS's would suck. Given that, fan-persons will almost always defend their choice, even if another technology might be better.
The real test for a technology is the test of time, and overall market share. Great products alone don't mean anything if they can't build market share... anyone remember Sony Betamax? Clearly Betamax was a better technology, but since VHS was able to capture more market share, VHS won over Betamax.
In the area of smart-phone technology, we now have no less than 7 different platforms (iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Android, Symbian, WebOS, Java/Linux) each with their strengths and weaknesses. The thing is that with that choice of platforms comes an overwhelming amount of choice, and for the average user their process of selection is based more on good marketing than actual performance.
iPhone 3GS = All other craps from HTC MICROSOFT PALM BLACKBERRY AND WHATEVER IS CALLED SAMUNG? SAMFUNG? I DONT KNOW ANY SONY ERICSON
so you are basically saying that
iphone 3GS = craps + craps + craps
"with the unique wit" I have yet to see the wit...
This guy needs to go away...
the title is very funny.
competition is great. why is symbian up there? roughly as competitive as Dennis Kucinich in Kansas.
You do know Symbian has the largest market share of all mobile phone OS's right?
Sounds like T-Ball with no score. Someone wins someone loses. That's good the loser gets to try again. What is wrong with that?
P.S. Where in the hell is my CrunchPad!
This article hits the spot! To take it one step further however, I would also like to add that consumers should really take it upon themselves to only utilize marketing for learning that something (some product) exists. One companies claim that their product does what another product doesn't is obviously slanted and should only serve as a unstable jumping off point for a consumer's own research. I think this is especially true when it comes to negative advertising (Apple's MAC or PC commercials, Verizon's Droid Does commercials).
Who takes posts from a comments section seriously? Fanboy or otherwise. If that was the case everybody would have an iPhone by now.
Well, the examples in your article are mostly correct, but I don't think they don't need to kill each other. There is a reason that two products can't survive, and that is exactly getting the market share. Check what happened with Blu-ray. And of course I would say that it isn't a good a product; and I can't be positive and tell you why HD DVD is better, because there is no more HD DVD.
Too often companies kill each other's products just too get their market share, and it never depends on the quality of the product, but on the "size" of the companies involved.
So yes, products have a reason to kill each other and it isn't a good one.
finally, someone who understands me.
Good to see you guys are comin' around.
This blog feeds of anger, hate and sexual frustration of the geeks.
How about not pitting your readers against each other, mkay?
You'll get alot less hits if people don't get pissy 24 hours a day, but at least you'll have a less embarassing Engadget Meetup.
God, can you imagine meeting these people? Every one on here sounds like the douchey IT repair guy from the UK Office.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geZoES9KQ-Q
Seriously, the negativity on pretty much all these comments, and hate, is enough to take down the US Military, Pol Pot and Genghis Khan. Maybe even Tony Stark.
So to you Engadget readers, I say, 'I hope I never meet any of you'...
Peace be with you.
non-fanboys >>>>>> fanboys
I'm not sure what the fanboy deal is. Why be so fanatically dedicated to a specific brand/device unless you have stock in the company or some other vested interest? Does believing that you own the single best item in it's class and that all others are fools for not agreeing serve any real world purpose?
I think a lot of the devices out now have their own weaknesses and a hybrid of many of the top devices would be ideal. A jailbroken iPhone 3Gs with the camera/video capabilites of the Droid, slick multitasking layout from the Pre, and an AppStore with less restictions on hardware access/functionality while maintaining the "it just works and doesn't hurt my device" security would work for me personally.
This title actually doesn't work the way the author intended.
"Heads I win, tails so do you" would support the normal notion that in one possible outcome (heads) I win, and under another possible outcome (tails) you win. In fact the "so" in the title doesn't make sense unless I've already won when I flip tails, and for some reason, you tag along for the win as well.
The title should say something like "Heads I win, tails I do too".
Fanboys and fangirls will unite for once to become the fanboyism-fanboys/girls on this article...
Here's the thing - tech markets resemble "Winner Take All" markets. There's a good reason for the situation. Brush up on your game theory or economics...
What I took from this article was simply the fact that product evolution is fed by forward-progress.
Meaning that if say, Acme has enough money to lead a successful smear campaign focusing on what's "bad" in Sprocket's products, that does nothing to ensure that Acme's products improve.
So... Touting what you have that's BETTER than your competition helps both sides improve. But simply focusing on what sucks about your competition does nothing to benefit us as consumers with better products.
To that point, I'd rather read independent, DETAILED reviews about what's good and bad in a product, rather than hearing people say "Well, it's made by ____ so it has to suck."
I totally think this is a great idea, but unfortunately positive will never attract as much attention as negative. It's human nature to notice the negative more than the positive and so the people that point out the negative, whether it be in another product or just in general, will always get more attention by most people.
Fast forward to 2015.. (mentally rewind to 2003-ish). Razr, the most globally dominated phone at the time. Maybe not the *best* phone out there, nor the best device. Phone didn't *really* do that much considering. Weak Pics, Decent reception (depends on network and who you're asking lol) some midi files etc. Razr's eventually budged for some other minor phones but held the market as one of the most popular phones for years. Now 2009 (almost '10) we have devices that are almost as powerful (in computing terms) as '03 model (average here folks) PC's. Little short here n there but still. Our current gen devices (iphones, droids, pre's etc) Can take pretty good pic's, Store thousands of songs, control your stereo at home (talking iphone apple remote w/ airport), control your tv (again apple) listen to music in the car over your wireless network with no need of physical media, watch movies (even to the tv, res not that great *yet*) and the list goes on. Back to 2015. Today's technologies that are dramatically improving I see in 5 years that the iphone, droid(android) Htc, winmo, palmpre etc fighting to be the first to.. (maybe I didn't write this the way I meant it to sound but.. here it is) We could easily have phones with 3D live streaming video. Connect your *device* to your tv or port or even stream wirelessly right to your television. (if flexible materials keep advancing like they are) your phone could roll or fold up into your pocket and have a screen that has a built in solar cell that is nearly transparent for constant (yes indoor is possible with current technology but its poor) charging indoors or out. Unlimited data storage through cloud computing or amazing nano drives that store terabytes of info.
This is the point I took from the article. As the years progress, someone's gonna advance, a couple people. Apple (yes I know its all mathematical, marketing and strategically planned) got lucky. They had a one up on the other smart phones. I've owned several and I have plenty of complaints about my current toy but that doesnt mean I don't want it to do other things that it could/should do. Future devices WILL do these.. new technologies will arrive to supplant the current holders. Yes, those ideas I suggested.. I'm betting a few WILL show up, some others might be wishes. Each company though wants to be at the top and there are genre's for each market even if the markets are shrinking as the idea of a smartphone becomes mainstream. (yeah, its still pretty new.. most people just want their flashy device to be cool for their tween friends or look rich and cool texting) This is what I got. That I like this device or that. I like my iPhone but I hate it doesnt do flash. I hate that apple is so restrictive in allowing developers to advance on programs that should CLEARLY be in the app store while letting other apps go right on in. Where's the flash? I can go on.. I can also say for all the hacking I did on my winmo phones, the multi-touch sucked. The apple interface is spot on. Droid? I dont know I havent tried it yet. Palmpre? cool device but not quite where the iPhone is *yet* IMO. These companies will probably all hold onto their own niche of what makes them good and blend some of the other competitors ideas with theirs. In the meanwhile, anticipate to see them fight for the first to add some of those above technologies I mentioned (unless I've missed it and they already have it)
I know it was winded :/ forgive me. I usually type something (as some previous people stated) and just stop wondering what the point is. I thought I'd add my 2 cents here.
I think this is a fantastic article, just because it puts a positive spin on the entirety of the technological market. Manufacturers, competition and fanboyisim.