08.24.13
Apple ist der Sieg
Envisioned Culture of Lickspittle corporate headquarters.
It’s fairly obvious Apple believes its urine to be the world’s sweetest Kool-Aid.
From Krugman, an observation on how the mighty eventually fall:
Yep: the uncouth nerds who created Microsoft became incredibly rich, acquired couth, and lost their edge; Apple stayed edgy in part because of Steve Jobs, but also because it was a disappointment for so long. And if its plans to build a high-tech Versailles are any indication, the now super-successful Apple may be heading down the same road as its one-time nemesis.
At the height of his power, Bill Gates and Microsoft rescued Apple and Steve Jobs.
Today Apple believes it stands astride the world, if this article — pointed out in the Krugman post, is any indication:
At what turned out to be his last public appearance, Steve Jobs stood before the Cupertino City Council on June 7, 2011, to present plans for a new corporate campus for Apple (AAPL). Scarecrow thin but forceful as ever, Jobs displayed several renderings of a headquarters intended to accommodate more than 12,000 employees in a single, circular building. “It’s a little like a spaceship,??? he said of the massive, four-story ring, which, at 2.8 million square feet, would be two-thirds the size of the Pentagon and set among 176 acres of trees where today there are mostly asphalt parking lots. “We have a shot,??? he said, “at building the best office building in the world. I really do think that architecture students will come here to see it??? …
The true expense of the campus lies not in green tech, though, as much as the materials—as well as what product designers call “fit and finish.??? As with Apple’s products, Jobs wanted no seam, gap, or paintbrush stroke showing; every wall, floor, and even ceiling is to be polished to a supernatural smoothness. All of the interior wood was to be harvested from a specific species of maple, and only the finer-quality “heartwood??? at the center of the trees would be used, says one person briefed on the plan last year.
The main building will also be groundbreaking in how it’s assembled. While the structural shell will be erected on site, the glass that forms the exterior walls will be bent and framed by Seele in its factory in Gersthofen, Germany. “It’s something like 6 kilometers of glass,??? says Peter Arbour, an architect with Seele, who says that no company has attempted to use panes as large …
You only have to read about two and a half pages of it to get the idea Apple needs the structure, if only for the expanded space to fit all the raging conceits.
There is another historic instance of big world-gripping architectural plans that comes to mind. That went well.
Interior of Albert Speer-designed Volkshalle, to be built in Berlin of Greater Germania after victory in World War II.
Frank said,
August 24, 2013 at 10:05 pm
Apple: Triumph of industrial design over technological competence.
Apple: Pay twice as much for half as good.
Apple: You got hubris, but we got iHubris.
Apple: FreeBSD at a price.
Apple: the iKoolaid of computing.
Apple: Bringing new meaning to the term “jobbed.”
And so on.
Steve Jobs was not a master technologist, but he was a master-marketeer; imagine what he could have done with Amway.
I expect Apple is on its way to being the “A” in AOLville now that its chief snake-oil salesman is off the road.
Dave Latchaw said,
August 25, 2013 at 8:25 am
I don’t own any iGadgets but I’ve always used Macs. The thing is, after my first two, I started buying used. I bought a seven-year=old macPro last year that I anticipate using for quite awhile since it does full HD video and anything I could want in terms of audio production. I don’t think Apple’s future is all that rosy.
George Smith said,
August 25, 2013 at 10:02 am
Apple’s an edifice that appears to me to have serendipitously or coincidentally taken hold of aspects of American psychology that have to do with consumerism. Krugman semi-regularly jabs the company as being a good example for things like triumph of style and not being nearly as good as they think they are. Yesterday for example, I love this line:
In general, the thing about Apple is that it reflects the spirit of Steve Jobs, who knew what was good for you — and left you no way to do things differently. And if you are an atypical user, you end up putting a lot of effort into fighting iOS in order to do simple things.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/on-the-symmetry-between-microsoft-and-apple/?_r=0
He goes into a little detail into why he thinks it can’t maintain its grip.
But the idea that you wish to have an office building that achieves world supremacy in design and size just shows the company and its corporate culture have transformed into something excessively warped. To read the piece is just to laugh if you’re not infected with the Apple disease.
Of course, this has been building for awhile…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpgVXvZSvPs
One gives them credit for making believable to many the idea you can rule the world from your smartphone. In other matters, like the belief that iPhone orchestras would become a rage, just didn’t pan out.
One of the more stupid ideas I saw at Guitar Center was an app built by one of the guitar effects manufacturers, complete with a docking station for something called an iStomp. You’d bring in your thing or buy it, an empty frame with a processor,, put it in the docking station, select the pedal you wanted — fuzztone, delay, reverb, overdrive, whatever — and for the price download and program it in.
It’s pretty much gone now. The majority of the players want it old-fashioned and more traditional looking. The competitors who use digitization, and there are many, are more successful and the standard is to make floor boards or combination hardware that’s a traditional pedal programmed with the software to mimic classic effects.
However, iPhone/iOS guitar pedal appa are still around but not world beaters by any means. The prices aren’t great; the performance is no more good than anything you can buy that’s not for iOS. I don’t think of Apple when I think of guitars and rock music and I suspect most others don’t much either.
But because of the mania that associates with iJunk in the US, a lot of people were compelled to fit things to Apple devices and get them into Apple distribution or risk being thought of as Neanderthal.
George Smith said,
August 25, 2013 at 10:20 am
It’s also worth mentioning that making your own digital stuff for your own proprietary design, in guitar equipment anyway, preceded the Apple way and, fundamentally, remains superior to it.
Line 6 became the dominant company in this and it’s “design,” or “fit and finish” was never as attractive as pieces of iJunk. Its trademark, of sorts, is a red kidney bean shape, in various sizes, but containing a couple chips and its software. It’s been robust for fifteen years. I’ve had them. The only thing iJunk-sized piece which I own now is a Line 6 MicroPod that’s about four or five years old. Once you figure it out, and make sure you have a functioning unit, they’re made in China and the first two I got were dead straight from the shrinkwrap, it is good. It works well in just about any practicality, from headphone practice, to studio recording, to live performance.
It’s laughable that someone would go to the trouble of making their iPhone do something like this and then compare the two but many have. iPhones cost a lot more and when equipped to be like this don’t do things as well as the cheaper item. Which seems to be about standard for everything that is made to turn iKit into something it really isn’t through apps.
Line 6 and others in the equipment market, Korg comes to mind, had iJunk-sized portable hardware/software and design down before Apple. They just weren’t in directly competing business.