doogald's Profile

I thought that Apple had to drop Facebook integration at the last minute because Facebook refused to let them use the API? Apple surely demonstrated Ping with FB integration. I agree with all your recommendations, but I think that they have some time to do this. It took a while for most of the social network sites to get third party APIs, etc., worked out. I do think that it's silly that this is only available within iTunes (or on an iOS device), but it's still early. Apple surely is not shy about releasing a product or technology if it in not 100% feature ready. OS X was basically an alpha release when it came out; the original iPod had no iTunes for Windows for years (I think is supported Musicmatch, or something, after a while), and no store for years, either. The iPhone had no apps when it was first released. I think is Ping stays what it is now, it's doomed to failure. We'll see what Apple does with it.

I honestly do not think that Apple cares all that much about being a niche player in the desktop OS market. At this point I think that they are content with trying to continue to grow share, or hold on to as much as they have gained in the last five years, realizing that they have a huge advantage now in the mobile market that people will be slowly migrating to as the devices become more powerful. Apple pretty much said that in their last quarterly financial phone conference; that they care more about growing profits that they do about short-term fluctuations in market share, and that they will not sacrifice profit for the sake of share. And as Microsoft's hardware partners continue to compete themselves into lower profitability with crappier products, Apple will, in the long-term, do just fine.