Consumer Technology: The Year in Review
The iPhone. Windows Vista. Google Android. 2007 was quite a year for consumer technology. And according to the Washington Post’s resident tech expert writer Rob Pegoraro, Apple came out as the clear winner by the year’s end” “often at the expense of Microsoft”, he wrote in today’s year-end consumer technology review:
Apple’s successful switch to Intel processors, which made it easy to run Windows alongside Mac OS X, gets much of the credit for the company’s new popularity. So does OS X itself ” a remarkably sane and simple way to run a computer — and the often-outstanding programs bundled on new Macs.
But Microsoft didn’t help itself, either.
Windows Vista’s steep system requirements made it unusable on many Windows PCs. Vista’s stringent anti-piracy routines alienated law-abiding customers. Its well-intended “User Account Control” security turned out to be a nuisance.
Many third-party software developers who had fueled Microsoft’s past success also sandbagged Vista. Some took months to revise their programs for the new system; some still haven’t finished the job.
Of course, no summary of Apple’s success in 2007 would be complete without mentioning the iPhone; and you can’t really bring up the iPhone without talking about the Google Android project (which has already had a successful level of support from phone carriers, even before being released):
Windows Vista also lost all hope of being the year’s biggest product debut when Apple introduced the iPhone. Its touch-sensitive screen, which lets you zoom into Web pages by spreading two fingers across the screen, brings the same frictionless simplicity to the mobile Web that the Nintendo Wii brought to video games.
The iPhone also showed what could happen if wireless carriers left phone design to people who were actually good at it. What if, say, the Web’s premier source of information could make a phone?
It just so happened that in November, Google announced its Android project and a lineup of phone manufacturers and wireless carriers that will work on it. When it ships the second half of next year (if all goes well), Android will let any user customize it at will.
Not long after that, one of the most controlling carriers ever, Verizon Wireless, announced that it would open its network to any compatible device — not just those customized to its specifications — in 2008.
Other carriers have joined in selling freedom as a feature. For example, AT&T now brags that customers can use any compatible phone on its network.
Mr. Pegoraro goes on to discuss the ongoing revolution in digital rights management (DRM), software “that controls what you can do with a song download”, and the role of (guess who!) Apple CEO Steve Jobs in urging broad changes in the current model of that software. Needless to say, with record labels nationwide in panic mode and online file sharing reaching all-time highs, any and all changes to DRM business models have huge reverberations to consumers and corporations nationwide.
Wal-Mart and then Amazon.com opened MP3-download stores, featuring more unrestricted downloads than iTunes. Apple responded by cutting prices and expanding the selection of its DRM-free offerings; Microsoft, in turn, added a million MP3s to its Zune store.
Some major record labels have resisted this change, but the market will not grant them much choice — their competitors sell a better product.
Summed up, the writer attributes these consumer tech initiatives to the hope that “parts of the tech industry are grasping the value of choice” a feature that might be more attractive to buyers than the usual faster-better-cheaper sales pitch.” We can only hope he’s right.