In a keynote speech during its Worldwide Developers Conference event, leading tech company Apple announced new features for "Lion," the next version of its desktop operating system OS X; the next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 5; and a new service, iCloud, which stores content in the cloud and automatically syncs it across multiple devices.
In doing so, it demonstrated how quickly the company is circling the wagons on its computing ecosystem, shutting out outsiders unless they play by strict rules -- and nearly doing away with alternatives altogether.
This is hardly the first article ever published about Apple's distaste for working with partners on any grounds but those it sets ahead of time, but in today's keynote speech, chief executive Steve Jobs made it expressly clear that if you want to reach a significant portion of the market for laptops, smartphones and tablets, you'll have to play by its rules.
It's good to be the popular girl, isn't it? Here's a list of 10 proof points, based on Apple's announcements today:
So let's review:
If you're a business and want to sell software, music, movies, TV, books, magazines, newspapers, video games or ads to the growing mobility-minded population that also happens to be increasingly favoring Apple products, you'll have to play by Apple rules.
If you're one of the millions of consumers who use an iOS device and want to send a short message, e-mail, photo, file or business document of any kind -- or want to buy something online -- Apple has solutions that are not just available, but preferred on your chosen ecosystem. You have to go out of your way to find an alternative, assuming it's available through the channels I've outlined above -- after all, Apple's the gatekeeper.
It's a services world, baby, and you're just livin' in it.
A lot of this isn't new. Apple has for a long time offered products that compete with dominant solutions made by rival tech firms. The difference here is that with ubiquitous connectivity, Apple can far more effectively police its network -- that's too strong, perhaps merely "enforce its preferences" -- on a very large group of customers. Facilitating and reinforcing it all is the new iCloud, which keeps all devices in sync and by extension ensures consistency and upgradeability across devices.
Since its inception, Apple has been a walled garden company in many ways. But it was always the minority, far behind the PC in market share, especially so in the age of the Internet. But then a funny thing happened: its computers started becoming popular again. That's not a big deal on its face since the populace looked to the lawless Internet for functionality -- but then Apple rapidly blew past the competition in the mobile space, riding the success of the very-closed "app." Now, the dominance of the mobile platform is seeping in. The iPad isn't a product that no one knows what to do with; it's the new magazine, the new day planner, the new GameBoy, the new in-business-class-and-reviewing-my-presentation device. And now it syncs seamlessly with all the other devices in your life.
The mobile world is moving away from the chock-full-o'-content web and increasingly becoming a world of closed pipes of content, with Apple, Google, HP and Microsoft regulating the flow. Tech fiefdoms scattered across a vast open land have expanded into warring nation-states with adjacent borders. The Mac vs. PC vs. Linux argument from the early days of consumer computing has lost a great deal of its luster in recent years with the development of cloud computing on the open web, but the concept of platform wars is quickly making up for lost ground with the development of cloud computing in the closed mobile space.
Every tech company wants users to use its solutions over those from other companies. But with such a sizable lead in phones, tablets and (lately) computers -- plus the syncing tentacles of the cloud at its disposal, and the inherent nature of the mobile platform -- Apple is making it very hard to offer alternatives from within.
Which nation will you choose?
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