iOS 7 - Macintosh or iPod?
I was pretty young when the Mac died. Growing up in a PC household, all I knew was that there was a hard core of people who were obsessed with these single-buttoned machines. And I couldn’t play any decent games on them.
A lot of people have classed me a bit of an Apple fanboy, especially when I pull out an iPhone, iPad and Macbook Air in meetings. And that’s before they know about the Retina Macbook at home and the fact I’ve owned every single iOS device, often before UK release.
But something changed recently and it started with Google Now on iOS. Following the disappointment of Siri (which I’ve ended up only using to set cooking timers), it opened my eyes to a different approach — one that felt to me a lot more concentrated on designing something new and valuable to the user.
Before I knew it, I’d set off for a week on holiday with nothing on my homescreen and just Google Now, Foursquare and Evernote in my dock. I’d been curious about Android for a while but this was the catalyst that pushed me over the edge.
I splashed £250 on a Nexus 4 and it (awesomely) arrived within 24 hours.
From the way I’ve heard people talk about it, the original Macintosh was quite an innovation. For whatever reasons, it really pushed things forward. But by the time I was growing up with computers, its offspring was a joke with trivial market share and seemingly no future.
iOS was quite an innovation. It really pushed things forward. But with the experience I’ve had of Android on the Nexus 4 and the relatively meek evolution of the platform in iOS 7, I wonder what the chances are of history repeating.
At the same time, Android is reaching a point where it’s fundamental strengths like fantastic system integration and flexibility are matched by responsiveness, stability and UI/design.
When I made the leap from PCs to my first Macbook, in about 2007, it was at a similar point where aspects like right-clicks and Boot Camp made the platform seem a more complete and realistic possibility. And you might say the iPod and iPhone acted as similar ambassadors to Google Now in this case.
The elephant in the room is perhaps the tablet space, where from what I hear, Android still has a few challenges to overcome. And I’m more than happy to hold onto my iPad for now and give myself a foot in both camps.
What happened with the Macintosh? It’s not something I lived through, so I don’t know the signs firsthand. But it is one of those classic examples of steep success followed by notorious decline.
If Apple’s resurgent success came by returning to Steve Job’s ethos from the first time round, perhaps those same roots foreshadow an equally titanic downfall.