Assignment: Who has the Staying Power?: Apple Versus Microsoft

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started the Apple Computer Company in 1976 when they released a personal computer called Apple I (Kimmel 1998). Since then the Apple Company has grown into a multi-billion dollar empire. After nearly forty years of steady competition with Microsoft, and a downward spiral in the market, Apple has developed new systems and software that have made them one of the most successful companies in the 21st century.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak came together with the idea of creating a personal computer (Kimmel 1998). Already on the market when they arrived on the scene, was the first Personal Computer (PC) called Altair (Bellis 2008). Bill Gates, the mastermind behind Microsoft, had previously written a language for the Altair called BASIC, the first real software development the world had experienced (Kimmel 1998). The two Steve's entered the market with their first product Apple I. It was aimed at hobbyists and computer geniuses, but Jobs and Wozniak wanted to develop something easier to use and more advanced (Bellis 2008). They went on to develop Apple II (Kimmel 1998), a much more user-friendly PC that was aimed at the everyday person (Wozniak 1977). It contained more memory, BASIC interpreter, colour video graphics, extended video software and came assembled in a plastic case (Wozniak 1977).

The Apple II was revolutionary. It included a program called VisiCalc. People used this to input data in a spreadsheet, similar to that of today's Microsoft Excel (Bricklin 1999). This program instantly drove sales of the Apple II higher; transforming the way people did business, and resulted in a higher turnover of business tasks (Stockwell & Muir 2008). It became an essential tool for businesses all over America. However, perhaps the most successful development in the Apple II was the GUI, which stands for Graphical User Interface. A GUI is "a program interface that takes advantage of the computer's graphics capabilities to make the program easier to use" (Graphical User Interface 2004). For example, GUI's specifically included things like a pointer on the screen, icons representing different programs on the desktop and the desktop itself is also a GUI (Graphical User Interface 2004). Windows and drop boxes are all things that make the use of a computer a much easier task and it was Apple that first made it available to consumers. GUI also became popular with Microsoft, competition remained rife between the two companies (Tuck 2001).

The Apple company began to lose its momentum in the early 80's, virtually straight after its first major success on the market (Kimmel 1998). Major management issues occurred, as the company grew in rapid proportions. Steve Jobs began to worry that his control of Apple would be taking away from him by shareholders. The staff employed by Apple were all being treated differently. Some received stock options while others did not, and salaried employees received far more benefits. This caused major rifts in the company, succeeded by a downfall in sales with Apple III and LISA (Kimmel 1998). Microsoft soared ahead with new operating systems like Microsoft Works, which was the starting point, for future operating systems Windows 95, 98, 2000 and XP (Microsoft Company Timeline 2008), while The Apple Company had to fight off a bad reputation and poor sales (Tuck 2001).

It is only now in the 21st Century, that Apple has truly made a comeback. With their quick-witted advertisements on television, savvy marketing ploys and innovative programs, Apple has re-remerged as strong money making machine (Goralnick 2006). Apple introduced a modern and easily identifiable design for each of their products by putting an 'i' in front of all their products. Things like iMac, iPod and iPhone. Apple is now doing better than ever. While Microsoft had by far the more successful run in the lead up to the 00's, Apple have proved a comeback making $5.41 billion in sales in the fiscal quarter ending June 30, 2007 (Dalrymple, Michaels & Snell 2007, pg. 18). They have made their systems much more user friendly, by including all the programs anyone would ever need on their computers. For example, iMacs come fully assembled with iTunes for your music, iPhoto for your pictures, iChat for networking, iDVD for watching movies and iCal for your to record your upcoming events (Apple 2008). Apple has also found a way for Microsoft Office (including Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Entourage) to work on their computers  by having Intel-Based Processors (Snell 2007, p. 9). This essentially means that Microsoft have acknowledged Apple's popularity and made an investment in them. This has put Apple on top of the game by allowing both Windows and Apple products to work on Macs (Snell 2007, p.  9).

One major piece of evidence that Microsoft is struggling is with their release of Windows Vista, which coincided with the release of Apple's new iPhone (Soat 2007, p. 12). While the iPhone was a massive hit with fans, with 50 000 of them turning up to hear Steve Jobs introduce the new product, Vista had nowhere near the same effect. With only 15 000 fans, Bill Gates failed to make as big impact an impact as Apple, if any at all. There was something that Steve Jobs said in his presentation"This is something Microsoft will never be able to rip off," (Soat 2007, p. 12). This statement sparked fury within Microsoft and started yet another unspoken battle between the two companies.

Already Vista has seen a lot of issues, especially when concerning compatibility between it and Apple Products like iTunes (Worldwide Product News, 2007, p. 1). Many of the Microsoft fan base have either downgraded back to XP or converted to Mac (Dubie 2007). Vista lacks any support for its users (Thomas 2007) and has been a disappointing addition to the Microsoft Corporation. While no one argues that Microsoft had the more successful run in the lead up to the 21st century, it is now being said that Apple could surpass any success by Microsoft within the next 5 years, should they continue their rising trend in the market (Apple News Media Reports, 2007).

In conclusion, The Apple Computer Company, now simply known as Apple have had a tumultuous ride in the market of PC's. With brilliant ideas in the beginning with Apple I and Apple II (Kimmel 1998), Apple have made a comeback with their modern design and savvy marketing skills (Goralnick 2006). Based on the evidence, Apple has learnt from their mistakes and now has the staying power while Microsoft, seems to be suffering a downfall of sorts. It is now after 40 years of PC's, a society has a much more competitive market, and finally gives consumers more choice about their PC's (Jobs 2007) and is becoming more and more apparent that consumers want Apple.

References

Anonymous, 'Graphical User Interface' http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/G/Graphical_User_Interface_GUI.html Accessed on 20th May 2008.

Anonymous 2007, 'Apple Advises iTines Users of Vista Compatibility Issues', Worldwide Computer Products News. (February), 1

Anonymous 2008, 'The Office Suite Smackdown', Macworld. Vol 25, Iss. 5 (May), 52

Anonymous 2008, 'Microsoft Company Timeline',  http://www.thocp.net/companies/microsoft/microsoft_company_part2.htm Accessed on 28th May 2008.

Apple News/Media Reports 2007, 'Apple to Surpass Microsoft Revenue in 5 years?', http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/01/29/apple.to.surpass.ms/ Accessed on 30th April 2008

Apple 2008, 'The Official Apple Website', http://www.apple.com/ Accessed on 20th May 2008

Bellis, Mary 2008, 'Inventors of the Modern Computer'. http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa121598.htm Accessed on 20th May 2008

Bricklin, Dan 1999, 'Was VisiCalc the First Spreadsheet?', http://www.bricklin.com/firstspreadsheetquestion.htm Accessed on 29th May 2008

Dalrymple, Jim; Michaels, Phillip; Snell, Jason 2007, 'Apple's Record Sales', Macworld. Vol. 24, Iss. 10 (October), 18

Dubie, Debbie 2007, 'Microsoft Struggling to Convince About Vista', http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/infrastructure/applications/

news/index.cfm?newsid=6258 Accessed on 30th May 2008

Goralnick, Jared 2006, 'Mac Advertising Envy: Why Can't Microsoft Respond?' 

http://www.technotheory.com/2006/05/macadvertising-envy-why-cant-microsoft- respond/ Accessed on 30th May 2008

Jobs, Steve 2007, 'Thoughts on Music', http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/ Accessed on 30th April 2008

Kimmel, Leigh 1998, 'Apple Computer, Inc: A History'. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/3682/applehistory.html Accessed on 20th May 2008

Snell, Jason 2007, 'The Post-Windows World', Macworld. Vol. 24, Iss. 5 (May), 9

Soat, John 2007, 'Microsoft Versus Apple: This Time, It's For Real', InformationWeek. Iss. 1121 (January), 12

Stockwell, Stephen; Muir, Adam 2008, 'Lecture 6: A Brief History of the Computer and Internet', Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, 23rd April 2008

Thomas, Andrew 2007, 'Dear Microsoft, Vista Doesn't Work Properly', http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/10/08/vista-rubbish Accessed on 30th May 2008

Tuck, Mike 2001, 'The Real History of GUI', http://www.sitepoint.com/print/real-history-gui Accessed on 28th May 2008

Wozniak, Steve 1977, 'The Apple II', BYTE. Vol. 2, Iss. 5 (May). http://www.geocities.com/

Athens/3682/applehistory.html Accessed on 20th May 2008.

Topic 12 - Electronic Civil Liberties/Creative Commons/Free and Open Source Software

Lecture

This weeks lecture related to last weeks in that it discussed peer-to-peer file sharing and also free software that is available online for consumers. We talked about all the different software that we use on a day-to-day basis. Things like MSN, Mac OS, iTunes and Windows are just a few. Adam discussed two different organisations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Creative Commons. The EFF is an organisation that protects and promotes online civil liberties. Creative Commons is an organisation that allows artists to distribute their product to the public, but also allows them to assert some control over how it is done. The public are able to share remix or alter music made by an artist online for non-profit purposes and without the worry of breaching copyright laws.

Readings

We had a couple of readings this week. The first was Why Software Should Not Have Owners by Richard Stallman. This reading discusses copyright laws in relation to software programs. He talks about how certain companies will tally it as a loss each time someone downloads or copies their software for free, regardless of the fact that the person illegally downloading it probably would never actually buy it anyway. Stallman reacts negatively to copyright laws, suggesting all software should be free in order for everyone to get along. He seems to scoff at the idea of an illegal download as being detrimental to the company that made it.

The second reading this week was called FLOSS. It stands for Free Libre Open Source Software. The reading again discusses open source software and explains the particulars about it. That once an organisation decides to license a piece of software as free, then the public may download and distribute it as they please. They acknowledge that this is advantageous as it means there is more circulation of the software. The third reading, Creative Commons by Cory Doctorow. It again is very similar to the other readings, specifically focussing on Creative Commons and what was discussed in the lecture. Creative Commons is an organisation that allows you to download and distribute art without worrying about copyright penalties.

Tutorial

I used this time to focus on study for the exam, going over all the blogs for the subject that I had done over the semester.

Topic 11 - The Ethics of Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

Lecture

This week's lecture discussed Peer-to-Peer file sharing and whether or not it is ethical. We watched a movie called Steal This Film II, which talked about copyrighted material being distributed amongst members of the public. It discussed how the entertainment industry have had to take many different courses of action in order to stop piracy and that while they will never be able to fully eradicate it, law enforcement can make it as tedious as possible for the offenders and let them know that there are consequences for their actions. Peer-to-Peer file sharing can be considered immoral as it means people are receiving music without people paying for it and are essentially ripping off the artist who made the music/movie/tv show. It is stealing. However, in the grander scheme of things, it's such a miniscule issue. Generally people do it because they only want one song off an artist not the whole album. And a lot of the time, real fans of an artist will go out and buy the album in a store, to support the artist and have the artwork to prove it. In conclusion, I think Peer-to-Peer file sharing is okay in moderation. 

Readings

This week the reading was called When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, The Birth of Dissent, and A Brief History of Record Industry Suicide. It is written by Demonbaby, a blogger who works in the record industry. He starts off by noting the unbelievable amounts of money that are spent in the industry, superbly ridiculous amounts on dinners, alcohol and hotels. He then delves into the history of digital music, how before we came to use MP3's it was all about cassette tapes and then CD's and that any copies made were pretty scratchy and of poor quality. And then Napster was developed, a Peer-to-Peer File sharing system,  and suddenly people were able to copy and share music as they pleased. The record industry treated Napster and other programs like it as a threat. The record industry did not move with the times, did not supply digital music quickly enough for the masses and the public sought what they wanted by pirating and Peer-to-Peer File Sharing. Sure people would still buy CD's of the bands they liked in order to support them, but generally computer users had found a cheap and easy way to get music, and the record companies and artists began to lose money, since essentially the public was stealing from them. It is really only recently that the industry has tried to crack down on piracy. Most acknowledge that it will never fully be eradicated. The industry has turned more digitally friendly, with the release of MP3 players and online stores like iTunes offering competitive prices for music per song to scale down piracy and be more flexible for today's needs.

Topic 10 - Blade Runner

Lecture

In the this week we watched the movie Blade Runner. The film is set in the future, centres around the story of the human race on other planets creating another species of themselves, called replicates whose sole purpose is to be enslaved by those who made them. Typically, as always with these sorts of stories, the replicates rebel against the humans, using their own technology against them and the humans then have to fight them off and defend themselves against their own creations. The story sends a clear message; that in such a technologically advanced world, it is possible to have consequences and basically have our own creations slap us in the face. To rely too much on technology, is to possibly give away everything we have worked for and that advances in technology do not necessarily suggest positive influences.

Readings

The reading this week was called An Exploration of What It Means to be Human by T.J LeGrice. It's talks about the 1968 novel by Phillip K. Dick called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep? The novel was later released as Blade Runner. The article dicusses the Voight-Kampff machine that features in his novel and in the movie Blade Runner, which measures a persons emotions and emotional capabilities and is able to detect whether a th subject is a real person or a replicant. The article offers an explanation as to what a 'Blade Runner is': human (a) 1: of or relating to people or humankind, 2: having the nature, qualities or characteristics of people or humankind and 3: of or relating to humankind as distinct from God or gods, animals or machines.

The article also goes on to compare androids and humans, and while humans acquire all the above qualities, androids only strive to and that is the biggest difference. You cannot build or invent human nature, it is innate. And no matter how advance technology will become, those human qualities can not be faked.

Tutorial

There was no set activity this week, we did more planning for our essay's.

Topic 9 - Cyberpunk

Lecture

The lecture this week discussed the term "Cyberpunk" and how it came into existence. Cyberpunk is a form of science ficiton genre. It relates to topics such as body modifications, genetics, computers and corporate developments. There are 5 different themes that fit under the heading of Cyberpunk. They are Technology & Mythology, Utopia & Dystopia, Cities as Machines, Technological Change and Modernism to Post Modernism. Each of these themes is a starting point for Cyberpunk stories or ideas and the stories evolve to represent one of these themes.

We then watched a screening of La Jetee which was a French New Wave movie made up entirely of still shots with narration over the top. The film was a post World War III look at Paris where the remaining survivors of the nuclear disaster attempt to go back in time to the pre-war era to perhaps prevent the war and gain more food and supplies. The films production was definitely different from anything I've ever seen before. I liked that it was different, but I found it dragged in some places. The narration was distracting since we had to read sub titles of the storyline, plus their actions. One pivotal part of the story, was when the woman looked into the camera longingly. It is the only shot with movement in it, and I thought it was interesting that the director decided to use it. To me it seemed to be the only real part of the movie, the only part that evoked any real emotion.

Readings

We read a chapter from a Cyberpunk novel called Burning Chrome by William Gibson. I found it almost impossible to read. It is filled with technical jargon that disrupted the flow of the book, but anyway I somehow managed to get through it. It was set sometime in the future, with computers being the controlling force throughout this fictional world. The story focusses on two hackers, who attempt to gain profits by hacking into systems and stealing whatever they can. I guess what the story was trying to portray was how dangerous computers can be, and that while today we have sought many good things from technology, it would not do to rely on it too much. There is always something or someone at the other end of your computer that could possibly steal your passwords, your bank account details or your identity.

The second reading was Plato's Allegory of the Cave. It explains social conditioning and how we accept things as we see them because we have been conditioned to do so, not because it's the way it is. Plato uses the example of prisoners being locked in a cave, in which they are seated with their backs to a fire. In front the fire is a walkway, where the captors move puppets along, so they create shadows on the walls that the prisoners can see. Plato suggests that if one prisoner was handed a book and a shadow moved across the wall at the same time and he said "Hey, a book," that he could be talking about the shadow on the wall and not the book in his hand. This is just an example of how things are not necessarily what they appear and that we are conditioned to believe things in a certain way.

Tutorial

In the tutorial this week, we were allowed to work on our Essay's. I have chosen to do my essay about why Apple computers are better than Microsoft and show examples of that. I have started with a short history of how each company came to be, but will mostly focus on the features of each operating system, highlighting the differences between them

Topic 8 - Are Games a Waste of Time?

Lecture

The lecture discussed the concept of video games studies and how people are now heading into careers where they study video games and become advisers for game companies. They look at different aspects of the games, such as the long term effects they have on players, the persistence of the effects, and looking at games as a cultural practise in our society. We examined the differences between Narratology and Ludology. Narratology is the study of video games from a literary perspective, full of story-telling elements and people think it can be examined like text. Ludology is different to Narratology in that it does not concern with the story telling element of the game, but rather the game-play elements. A big point in the discussion is why are people playing video games? The general consensus being that people do it to escape reality and live out their fantasies without dealing with the consequences.

Readings

This week the reading was called Trigger Happy, by Stephen Poole. He goes on to talk about how in video games, the impossible can happen. Physics, rules of logic go out the window in these games, so pretty much anything can happen. Video game companies do this to enhance entertainment value and make their games more popular. Regardless of what is real and what is not, the idea is to make the game more challenging for the players and perhaps the "fakeness" of it all does that. Poole does confirm that certain companies do consult mathematicians and scientists in order to make aspects of the game more realistic, however at the end of the day, video game companies just want to sell their product and the way to do that seems to be to make the game as exciting as possible. 

Tutorial

The tutorial task this week involved progressing our skills in Microsoft Word and Excel. The tasks were pretty easy, involving writing a letter, using different font styles and sizes, double spacing, bullet points and then more advanced skills such as track changes and mail merge. Then in Excel we had to input data, use formulas, make graphs and use macros. Word I found easier than Excel, simple because I use it more. The instructions were pretty straightforward, though I'm likely to forget them since I have no real use for Mail Merge. With Excel, I've used it before when having to present results for an assignment or something like that, but I rarely use it otherwise. I can see why Excel would be useful for me in a business setting, to input data and create rosters or something like that, but at the moment, I can get by without it. It's good to get the general gist now though, to help me later on.

The next task is to discuss the qualitative differences between Instant Messaging applications like MSN and 3D environments such as Second Life which we researched in week 1. The main obvious difference between the two is the fact that one is 3D and holds more visual images but there is more to it than that. 3D environments offer far more options for users. You can build an avatar to represent who you wish you were or want to be, and there are perhaps more exchanges between people rather than just conversation.  I guess 3D worlds add more quality since it sucks you in almost. MSN is just having a conversation with a computer, but 3D worlds offer a life, a setting where you can carry out any task you could do in the real world and in that respect they have more quality. 3D worlds have the danger of not allowing you to snap back to reality, people live through their computers. On MSN at the end of the day, it's easier to turn off the computer and stop chatting.

Topic 7 - Cronenberg: Cinema & Technology

Lecture

We watched the film eXistenZ. The movie was about a woman, Allegra, who had created a virtual reality game called eXistenZ. She is about to release her game to a focus group when she is attacked and her game is damaged. In order to inspect the damage she convinces her friend Ted, to accept a "game port" in his own body, so they can play the game together and find out what's damaged. After that the 2 are on a journey, unable to differentiate between what is virtual and what is reality, which is certainly the message that the director David Cronenberg is portraying. The movie really makes you think. What is reality? How do we know? And how to virtual gamers know the difference? It has now become that these days that virtual reality is so real, it is becoming impossible to tell the difference between that and actual reality. The danger of this is that there are no consequences in a virtual reality - it is just a game. You can kill, steal, perform any criminal act and nothing will come of it, you go on your way. For those who cannot differentiate between actual and virtual reality means there can be no consideration for the consequences.

Readings

A paper called The Military-Entertainment Complex: A New Facet of Information Warfare was our reading for this week. This paper gives evidence about how military and entertainment have always been interlinked. (For example, the military have always used songs and chants in their marching for entertainment value, and it works in reverse with organisations like the USO (United Services Organisation) providing entertainment for troops in war torn countries and Hollywood taking it on and using them as storylines in movies.) Currently, we are seeing the effects of this so called Information War, in relation to the Iraq war. The media are trying to develop an "us against them" attitude towards the war. They have set up the story like its a plot in a movie, amping us up to believe that we are winning, like it's a good-natured competition.

The article makes reference to the Dixie Chicks making a negative comment about the war in Iraq and consequently having their record sales drop. This demonstrated to critics of the war, that people are enjoying the "show" performed for them by the media and caused a massive silence of negative opinions in relation to the Iraq War. The danger of this is that if we don't hear different opinions and only pay attention to the song and dance the military/Hollywood combination are trying to spin us, then we lose our objectivity of these current events and are all but brainwashed into believing that war is the only way.

Tutorial

There was no tutorial class this week.