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Apple has lost the functional high ground
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[Tim Wilson] “Not if you don’t buy TV from iTunes. Do you? I don’t buy TV at all. I get it from some combination of Netflix and Amazon.”
Right, which is why I prefaced my statement with “If you have a big media library from the iTMS…” 😉
I feel like we are talking about similar yet different things. Can the various hardware offerings from Apple (AppleTV, Macs, iDevices) exist as standalone units? Of course. A notable exception will be the Apple Watch which will act as an extension of your iPhone (not smartphone, iPhone only here). The ecosystem isn’t all or nothing, but it certainly exists and it certainly rewards uses for using Apple hardware across the board by giving them features that aren’t available on non-Apple hardware (like the previously mentioned iTMS media streaming, AirPlay, FaceTime, Continuity, etc.,).
Whether or not these are compelling reasons for users to buy the hardware depends on each user but even if you don’t find them compelling they still exist.
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[Tim Wilson] “So yeah, Apple is selling the same thing as the other guys to the extent that there’s iOS syncing with contacts, cloud storage, etc. But NONE of those requires a computer. You can live a long, happy, productive, adamantly ardent iLife without ever touching a Mac.
“You can, but that is pretty recent, where you don’t even need a computer to run an idevice.
I agree with you that Apple doesn’t need to sell the ecosystem. You can work with iOS without OSX, but I would not agree with you that the ecosystem doesn’t sell computing hardware. So, Apple doesn’t need to sell the ecosystem, but the ecosystem sells the multiple Apples.
For many many many people worldwide, their first Apple device is an iDevice. They are going to need more than that, and they go to the Apple Store and buy a laptop. You won’t, your wife won’t, but many will. I know a of people will, and now with Apple being even more present in business they’ll probably sell more as they are, finally, starting to infiltrate corporate IT departments.
Apple doesn’t need to sell the ecosystem, but they are in a huge farking race to build it. Your car, your TV, your music, your work, your communications, your photos. Any Apple device, should you choose to buy more than one, will more or less, and especially with Yosemite, allow you to connect and share what you need to, and its all pretty easy and straight forward. Google has some of this, but it’s not as easy or as functional, at least it isn’t for me, and I can’t run an NLE or other specialized software on the Google quite yet. Microsoft has some of it, but the experience isn’t as good (or maybe it is, thats all subjective). But to say that the ecosystem doesn’t mean much to Apple isn’t correct. Apple IS the experience. The corporate leadership reminds us that every time they take the stage.
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[Walter Soyka] “That doesn’t sound like Apple to me. I think they sell cheap software as an ecosystem play: the value comes in the system and you pay most of that upfront.
“That only works if everything is working. I have problems with Apple software. Nothing catastrophic, but I understand Arment’s comments. The lead is often yours to lose, and the Apple experience, my Apple experince, isn’t as smooth as it used to be. The OSX side is running well, but the IOS side is a little weird. Again, nothing catastrophic, but it does make you wonder about what’s going on.
And from a developers perspective, the AppStore model is going to drive the good ones away if the pricing model doesn’t allow for upgrades. Who wants to keep programming software for free when Apple is moving as fast as they are with all of these updates?
[Walter Soyka] “Apple sells hardware, and ground-breaking new hardware needs ground-breaking new features to entice you to buy. If hardware is the dog, software is the tail. I think we’ll continue seeing this rapid software churn to support and move the new hardware.
“If this is the case, and software continues to languish, then Apple is shortsighted. You can’t sell hardware when the software is shite. I don’t think Apple is shortsighted, that should come as a total shock to everyone here, I’m sure.
[Walter Soyka] “Third-party application developers and users occasionally see some webbed feet, kicking furiously”
Hence Arment’s post. The Swan won’t look very good for very long as consumers have so many options and are so fickle, and developers will only work so much for free, that Apple will further snuff themselves out and lose their constituents not because another entity is necessarily doing anything better, but becuase they failed to keep the experince working well for them.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “And from a developers perspective, the AppStore model is going to drive the good ones away if the pricing model doesn’t allow for upgrades. Who wants to keep programming software for free when Apple is moving as fast as they are with all of these updates?”
Panic (makers of software like Transmit and Coda) put up a year end blog post that’s a pretty interesting look at the state of things from a developers point of view. They talk about the good, the bad, and ultimately why they are pulling their apps from the Mac App store.
https://www.panic.com/blog/the-2014-panic-report/
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That’s a great link, Andrew. Thank you.
I am not a coder, but I want a job with those guys/gals. The enthusiasm is infectious.
What is interesting to me is their pie chart of sales to revenue. Most sales on iOS, most money on OSX. They know that they need to raise their prices on the iOS side, especially becuase they understand their market. I sincerely hope it works out for them, and sets an example of how to do it, which is to charge appropriate prices for the appropriate products.
Also, are sandbox limitations part of the Apple plan? Is Apple security going to allow sandboxed to sandboxed operations at some point? It seems like they would have to if they want to encourage the professional and business sectors to keep developing for iOS and OSX. Of course, I feel like it will happen some day, but that’s more of a world view than a reflection of anything Apple is doing.
Also, with X2Pro now, you can set an FCPX output to X2Pro, which automatically launches x2pro which then grabs an fcpxml from FCPX and imports it in to x2pro. I thought that was a violation of sandboxing, but I’m not sure as I don’t quite understand all the intricacies of sandboxing, and maybe that sort of scripting doesn’t fall within the sandbox agenda.
If this is the case, it seems any app would be able to write in this capability, provided it accepts fcpxml.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “Is Apple security going to allow sandboxed to sandboxed operations at some point? “
That’s actually what the new “Extensions” in Yosemite are (more or less) for, yes. Essentially the same functionality as what you see in iOS 8. I’m surprised how FEW have actually taken advantage of this in OS X so far.
[Jeremy Garchow] “Also, with X2Pro now, you can set an FCPX output to X2Pro, which automatically launches x2pro which then grabs an fcpxml from FCPX and imports it in to x2pro.”
I read about this, but have yet to figure out how this works. Meh. But it’s apparently (from what I can see) not via an extension, so until I can figure how it’s even done, I couldn’t tell you what they’re using. Because theoretically speaking it would be crime against sandboxing, but then it wouldn’t be allowed into the MAS.
– RK
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[Robin S. Kurz] “‘s actually what the new “Extensions” in Yosemite are (more or less) for, yes. Essentially the same functionality as what you see in iOS 8. I’m surprised how FEW have actually taken advantage of this in OS X so far.”
If you read the blog that Andrew linked to, they talk about that even with the new extensions and extensive Apple help, they couldn’t Sandbox Coda.
https://www.panic.com/blog/coda-2-5-and-the-mac-app-store/
[Robin S. Kurz] “I read about this, but have yet to figure out how this works. Meh. But it’s apparently (from what I can see) not via an extension, so until I can figure how it’s even done, I couldn’t tell you what they’re using. Because theoretically speaking it would be crime against sandboxing, but then it wouldn’t be allowed into the MAS.”
It’s easy, you set x2pro as the “open with” app on a duped share master file preset. A dialog box comes up that says “looking for helper application” or something similar. X2Pro opens grabs an XML from fcpx, and waits for further action. It works well.
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[Robin S. Kurz] “I read about this, but have yet to figure out how this works. Meh. But it’s apparently (from what I can see) not via an extension, so until I can figure how it’s even done, I couldn’t tell you what they’re using.”
Applescript I believe. ProVideo Asset Management suite, open the X2Pro dictionary to see the commands.
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
[Jeremy Garchow] “they talk about that even with the new extensions”
Actually I don’t see any mention of Extensions anywhere. In neither post relevant to the matter (nor in the comments). What am I missing? But either way, I’m pretty sure that Panic of all people will know about them and have good reason’s for why they won’t solve their issues. Bummers. That’s pretty much the textbook kind of case I would have hoped and thought would be remedied with Extensions. As well as make for a Send to style option for all kinds of apps (in particular Apple’s own of course) in FCP… but who knows what’s cookin’ for the next update. And I’m no dev, so I have no idea to what degree that is even possible the way one would want/need it.
[Jeremy Garchow] “It’s easy, you set x2pro as the “open with” app on a duped share master file preset. A dialog box comes up that says “looking for helper application” or something similar. X2Pro opens grabs an XML from fcpx, and waits for further action. It works well.”
Ah… very cool. Thanks. That’s actually the way I considered doing it! But figured I’d just be getting a movie file, not an XML. I’ll have to give it a shot. Cheers.
Very odd that I couldn’t Google anything on the matter nor find anything of any real value on their site. It’s very minimalistic to say the least. If anything is actually there, I sure couldn’t find it. I can’t even remember where I even read of it to begin with. 😀
– RK
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[Robin S. Kurz] “Very odd that I couldn’t Google anything on the matter nor find anything of any real value on their site.”
I would think, from what sounds like direct Apple interaction, that extensions would be a healthy part of the discussion.
[Robin S. Kurz] “Very odd that I couldn’t Google anything on the matter nor find anything of any real value on their site. It’s very minimalistic to say the least. If anything is actually there, I sure couldn’t find it. I can’t even remember where I even read of it to begin with. :D”
https://www.x2pro.net/Pages/sharing-directly-from-fcp-x-to-x2pro.html
It’s under the “Help” menu in both the website and X2Pro app.
Jeremy
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