If you have read my last post, you may have picked up on my expired love for Apple products. There was a time when I would fight to the death to argue the innovation and quality of Macintosh computers and Apple iPods. If you need to know why I have altered my thoughts on this, read that last post. This post is going to be more about what I (and hopefully just about everyone else) have transitioned to.
Today was a monumental day for computer geeks, nerds, and even the normal folk.
I'd like to take a quick moment to break down the different camps of computer people I grew up with. This is important information to understand the massive shift taking place. Through high school there were 3 major camps for computer users. Normal people, often using Windows XP Home Edition. Though, thanks to the iPod, Apple started getting their foot hold back in the 'average user' market again. AV Tech people, those who edit photos, videos, music, ect. Typically these folk enjoyed a Macbook if they could afford it. Otherwise, they settled for a high end HP Windows XP Pro. Lastly you have the Geeky Tech crowd. These guys always had Windows XP (didn't upgrade to Vista) and typically dual booted some sort of Linux.
Back to today. Those 3 camps don't have a home so easily outlined for them. Apple computers still have the market of AV Tech folk like before. But these folk seem to consist of less than 20% of the entire computer using community, so I am going to leave this crowd out. Windows Vista caused some severe damage to both; the average computing community, and the nerdlings.
Enter party 3. Our digital world has shifted so drastically to the hand-held gadgets the desktop and laptop markets saw a decline recently. Who owns the gadget world? It has been a pretty tight tug-of-war between Apple and Google. RIM and Windows Phone are practically null. Any other system is hardly worth mentioning anymore. Google fought slow and steady to provide a proper ass kicking to Apple's iPhone. They succeeded. Google has always climbed slowly to the top of the markets it decides to enter. Many Google side projects still haven't caught on. Today Google made a very clear statement. Apple leads no longer, and Windows is too far behind.
Today was Google's I/O event. Many new directions of the company were announced. More important perhaps than any of the individual ideas is the 'big picture'. It seems clear now why Android took a sort of hesitated demand of the gadget market. Android; the phone company, was a mere test. Android; the software, hardware, and innovative technology company, is the real deal. Aggressive, seems to be the word that first comes to mind after todays announcements. This is a first for Google, a company that always took the back seat in the big boy world, providing free or cheap alternatives to major industry leader's products. Anymore though, there aren't many bigger boys than Google, and they know it. Google has the resources to lead many different industries, and they know it.
So why ditch one major player in the tech world for another just because one is a little behind? Technology changes so fast who's to say RIM isn't going to be in the lead next year with Blackberry Millionbuttonphone42 and Playbook 3? Well, Google, for one. And everyone following Google, which brings me back to my original point.
Google has managed to take the leaders of all the computer camps, and put them in one happy family.
Average users appear to love the increasingly intuitive nature of Google products (only very recently, I know. Was a rocky start) and Geeks, Nerds, or any other tech people love the open source hackability (someone tell Chrome that is a real word).
So where are we? In the arrow head of a major game change for technology. The prediction, Tablets, and phones with accessories are the only computers we need. Google agrees, aggressively. They want you to control your; music, movies, shows, pictures, schedule, email, phone calls, sms/mms, shopping, traveling, gaming, reading, social networking, ect. and now; home theater, TV, kitchen appliances, cars, lights, ect. through open source, cheap or free applications shared on one all-encompassing OS.
Your volley Apple.
I want to add a quick note to this- I have great hope for Windows. Changes need to be made, but adaptation has been one of Win's better qualities. It will likely be a good while before I personally choose Win over Android or Google, but that 4 paned flag will be waving proud for a great long time after I'm no longer a consumer.
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