OSNews

My final plea to Apple is a plea for consolidation. There are many great companies, ex-Apple engineers, shelved projects, third-party developers and users that have walked away from Apple because they felt unappreciated, unheard, ignored or betrayed. The giant that is Microsoft never sleeps, has an enormous amount of capital, has stolen at least 90% of Apple's potential market share, rapidly copies whatever innovations Apple and other companies come up with, and is the brainchild of the richest man in the world today. This doesn't have to be the case, and many of these companies, individuals and technologies have sprung from the original spark that Apple ignited many years ago. It would be wonderful to see a consolidation of these technologies, a welcoming of these customers and developers back into the fold, and a stronger sense of community among us. It truly is "Us vs. Them," where "we" are the ones who think beyond the status quo, and "they" are the cogs in the engine that lacks innovative spirit and rules by sheer size, illegal monopolies and cutthroat business tactics and manipulation. It is time to bring the creative people who brought Apple to where it is today back to the party, and make it a party worth attending. This means better communication and feedback, better developer support and programs, and ultimately better technology and user interface design. It's obviously not enough to simply distinguish yourself by being slightly better or more standards-compliant; bringing together all of the disparate individuals, companies and technologies that embody the founding visions and concepts that made Apple great will ultimately benefit society in ways Apple might otherwise be incapable of achieving.

I say and post these things on the evening of the first MacWorld Expo and Apple product releases of 2002. Seeing as the technologies mentioned in this article were all developed and forced into reality by Apple and Apple's expatriot engineers and companies, some of the industry's best and brightest engineers and artists, Apple has absolutely no excuse to continue down the poorly-defined and implemented software path it is walking down today. The technologies and the ideas exist, designed, implemented and tested. The same old problems remain unsolved. The wireless world is moving forward, and it can do so with or without Apple Computer, as the PC world has proven it can. Barring any truly revolutionary product or direction announcements from Apple in the morning, I deeply hope that someone at Apple has the foresight and wisdom to start truly thinking out of the box. Innovate or die; it's time to throw the Reality Distortion Hammer.

About the Author
Steve Klingsporn is a software developer looking for a fun programming job in the Santa Monica/West Los Angeles Area. He can be reached at steve@seapod.org or http://www.seapod.org

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