The Macalope did a double take this week as Vivek Wadhwa somehow managed to get almost the same thought piece published on two different sites. Turns out he’s doubly serious about how Apple needs to license iOS.
First, Wadhwa peddled this already debunked right in the face idea to Tiger Beat In The Valley.
“Why Apple needs to liberate iOS.” (Tip o’ the antlers to Shawn King.)
And all of its profits!
The annoying thing is this is neither an original idea nor even close to a good one.
Apple reported lackluster earnings on Tuesday as the company’s iPhone sales continued to slide. The numbers make it clear that the future of the consumer products behemoth is no longer in its consumer products. The fix? Apple should release a version of iOS for non-Apple devices.
Translation? I AM A SPACE MAN WHO HAS ONLY JUST ARRIVED TO YOUR PLANET AND HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF THINGS PAST OR PRESENT.
This suggestion will seem like heresy to the brand’s loyalists…
You misspelled “idiocy”. It will seem like idiocy.
(Wadhwa has a track record of using the word “heresy” in regards to Apple customers because, you see, it’s a religion. Also, in that article, Wadhwa explains how Microsoft is winning via the time-honored tradition of hearing how Microsoft is winning from Microsoft and Microsoft OEMs.)
…but it may be necessary for the success of the company.
Apple only made $42.4 billion in revenue and $7.8 billion in profit! WHEN WILL THE BLEEDING STOP?!
Imagine those Samsung, LG, and Xiaomi smartphones having an original Apple operating system on them rather than the imitations they are presently running.
Imagine it running like crap because it’s not optimized in the same way it can be on iPhones because Apple controls the architecture and then wonder if they even want it when they’d have to pay way more than they do for Android and Apple wouldn’t let them junk it up with their crapware. Imagine the ridiculously low margins Apple would have in a software licensing model. Imagine the confusing mishmash of user experiences. Imagine shopping for these devices at Best Buy.
Imagine all that and you have a small glimpse of the future of crap that Wadhwa wants us to suffer through.
Now imagine the fact that Wadhwa wrote a whole other article on the same topic and we still have to wade through that. Ugh.
“Apple, it’s time to license the operating system and undo the mistake of 30 years ago.” (Tip o’ the antlers to Philip Speicher.)
As John Gruber put it: “Yes, these last 30 years have shown that this strategy is terrible for Apple.”
History isn’t exactly repeating itself, but Apple is at another crossroads. Its innovation engine has essentially stalled…
No, you could argue that the car has slowed down, but it hasn’t stalled. And you’re suggested fix to this slowing is to pull over in the middle of the desert and light the car on fire.
Wadhwa starts this one by giving us a history lesson about the 1990s, which is about as relevant to now as the lord and tenant farming system in Medieval France. Actually, maybe less so because the Medieval lord and tenant structure does pretty much describes Uber. The thing is, you can’t make money licensing an operating system anymore. By giving their operating systems away, Apple and Google destroyed Microsoft’s business model. And the amount that Apple could make up on extra services would be negligible compared to what they’d lose in hardware revenue.
One has to wonder what would have happened if Apple had taken Gates’s advice [to license the Mac operating system].
Actually, no! You don’t have to wonder, because Apple did just that in the mid-1990s and it sucked! Instead of flooding the market with cheap, downscale devices that Apple wasn’t going to make, Mac licensees made fast, mid-range clones that competed with Apple’s products. They ate their lunch. That’s exactly what would happen this time, too. Why would iOS licensees not go for the higher margin business?
We need for Apple to be releasing imaginative new products, not resting on its laurels because of an advantage it once had.
And the best way to do that is to have it completely destroy its business model and outsource the user experience to cut-rate smartphone makers.
Good advice, Vivek! A+ advicing. The Macalope is sure Apple will give that advice the attention it deserves. By printing out both articles so they can run them both over with Apple Cars and then shred one and burn the other one.