doshea's Profile

No. And John Gruber told you why today. http://daringfireball.net/2008/10/listen_to_tim_cook Don O'Shea

One year my family took a trip to the west coast using Chex cereals boxtops to get 2 for 1 ticket on Republic Airlines. On the way up the coast we stopped at Stanford so that I could visit Art Schawlow to discuss a postdoc in his lab. The Nobel prize slowed down his research. (Not so, for Charlie Townes, who is still at it.) During a tour the lab, he pulled an Apple I out from under a table opposite his desk. It was one of the most primitive looking devices I ever saw during years of doing research. Art said that he kept after Wozniak to improve the display, but he was certainly delighted by the Apple in the era of the DEC PDP machines.

Another take on the future of computers can be found in an article in today's Washington Post by Rob Pegoraro, title "PCs' Mid-Market Blues". http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/technology/ He argues that between upscale pricey machines and cheap commodity devices, the middle of the market will not be governed by performance (they're all about the same), but on tech support. "There is one area, however, that computer vendors control completely, and that could set them apart from competitors: tech support. In most other businesses, interacting with the customer after the purchase is not only considered a normal part of the job, it's one of the primary ways to build repeat business. And it can be done in the PC business, too: Just ask Apple, which has people lining up to talk to the tech-support "geniuses" at its retail stores."