Well, it's that time of the year again. Apple lovers congregate as Steve Jobs mounts his glorious steed and strides on to the stage. Arguably a better performer than engineer, Jobs has acquired quite the cult following. As the crowd cheers after ever single sentence, whether it be the pointlessness of an integrated twitter, or Apple's knockoff Dropbox (Woot x 3 for copying Microsoft), Jobs gleams with pride feeling like a God among men.
Personally, I did not find the conference all that impressive. It seemed to be just a lot (250) new features being presenting into Apple's new desktop OS, Lion. Most of these new features seemed kind of boring, useless, or just rehashes of what other OSes have already done.
An interesting note: today's desktop OSes are seeing a rapid change towards emulating the iPhone interface, or just SmartPhone interfaces in general. Apparently people like the usability of the handheld interface, and developers are responding to this by integrating many of the same features into desktops. Mac users can expect to see some changes in the OS in addition to the already instated App Store.
I am not so much of a fan of this shift, however. It seems kind of silly. A desktop is not supposed to be big version the squishy iPhone GUI. Granted, I don't like to have to squint to see my icons, but since it's a desktop it has a much higher capability ceiling in terms of the interface and that should be taken advantage of. But if that's the way the computer industry is taking us, then let's hope it starts to branch of further down the road.
I'll say it now, and be put on the record for it. But I believe we are going to be seeing a decrease in the "God-om" of Apple products pretty soon. Many manufacturing companies are successfully mimicking everything Apple does, and then some. The way I see it, two possibilities can occur either A) Apple continues to push out market leading products and spending billions in development which will seen lead to being worn out and run down---destruction or B) They will finally take their seat on the round table of technology and except mediocrity---(which for all intensive purposes in regards to Applitists) destruction.
I'm no econ-major, but history dictates that no one technology group can keep the throne for long without some serious and lethal competition. Apple's day will come, sooner if not later. Samsung, in particular, seems to be exceptionally skilled at matching and surpassing Apple products within months of product release. It will certainly be interesting to see where the future takes Apple.
