[X3D-Public] Everybody’s Business - How Apple Has Rethought a Gospel of the Web - NYTimes.com

Thu Apr 22 08:35:48 PDT 2010

The market argument that controlling more of the backend creates a  
logistically sounder system for the consumer is hard to refute by  
numbers.  Logistics curve, number of managed changes and consumables  
says that for the most bug-free consistent experience, the Apple  
method is sound.

It may not be true.  Closed systems are typically non-resilient  
diverse environments.  How this will work out feature for feature in  
fielding useful systems to the web is obvious:  more closed gardens  
with noise at the interfaces.  On the other hand, telling Adobe to go  
screw themselves given the number of professional Flash authors (a  
non-trivial skill set) is hubris and they will pay dearly for that.

No Joe, HTML5 is not enough.  HTML5 plainly has become Apple and  
Google's to play with and Microsoft's to cope with.   Trying to smooth  
over Apple's strategy to dominate all of the backend processes and  
applications that enable third-party applications to be vended to  
Apple hardware consumers is a straight forward monopolistic and  
predatory move on the developer ecosystems at every level from code  
head to contentDiva.   This isn't simple an X3D problem.

For once, X3D/VRML97 has a better position than Adobe, true, but  
something larger is at stake.

len

Quoting "Tony Parisi" <tparisi at gmail.com>:

> With Apple's recent change of iPhone OS licensing terms (new in V4), client
> middleware is history. All they have done is galvanized the 2nd generation
> of developers to focus on Android. Apple is determined to stay at 10% market
> share at whatever they do. Add phones and book readers to the list. In 2
> years Android will take over.
>
> That is, assuming anybody in that pack of 50 device manufacturers for
> Android can make a decent f-ing phone. It's a big IF but I think it's going
> to happen.
>
> Too bad. My honeymoon with Apple has been too short. I was finally able to
> make my house 100% PC-free less than a year ago -  I have four macs and two
> iPhones in the family now. It was like the sun finally came out after a
> decade of gloom. Too bad it didn't last long... but at least the sex was
> great.
>
> Tony
>
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 9:23 PM, Joe D Williams <joedwil at earthlink.net>wrote:
>
>> HI len,
>> would it make you happy if they did html5 <video> and <audio> elements that
>> played at least what most X3D players would do? And a reliable object/embed
>> element that can work with a clean registration process and a consistent
>> real time connection with the host DOM?
>> And even a sandbox/no sandbox iframe element?
>> Right now X3DOM is working fairly well right under their nose, like in the
>> other browsers and really, soon IE will be better.Thanks and Best Regards,
>> Joe
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: <cbullard at hiwaay.net>
>> To: "Don Brutzman" <brutzman at nps.edu>
>> Cc: "X3D Graphics public mailing list" <x3d-public at web3d.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 10:36 AM
>> Subject: Re: [X3D-Public]Everybody’s Business - How Apple Has Rethought a
>> Gospel of the Web - NYTimes.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> The politics of technology marketing are shaping themselves to the
>>> American
>>> zeitgeist of increasing insularity and local control to enable tightly
>>> focused
>>> expansion of market domination.  The closed garden is very familiar
>>> territory.
>>>
>>> As long as the consumer can be distracted, something the West Coast
>>> marketing machines now excel at, yes, Apple can go on doing what they  are
>>> doing with few consequences except other experienced competitors  finding
>>> ways to use Apple's own contract language to keep them out of  any open
>>> development initiatives.
>>>
>>> Slow strangulation of Apple is becoming a possibility.  THAT won't be  an
>>> open process.  Apple will react in their usual insular way: "what's ours is
>>> ours and what's left in the open is ours too".
>>>
>>> Apple: The Ultimate Free Rider.
>>>
>>> len
>>>
>>> Quoting "Don Brutzman" <brutzman at nps.edu>:
>>>
>>>  Interesting article regarding economic success on the Web
>>>> via closed platforms.  Excerpts below.
>>>>
>>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/technology/internet/11every.htm
>>>>
>>>>  April 9, 2010
>>>>> Rethinking a Gospel of the Web
>>>>> By STEVEN JOHNSON
>>>>>
>>>>> FOR about a decade now, ever since it became clear that the jungle of
>>>>> the World Wide Web would triumph over the walled gardens of  
>>>>> CompuServe, AOL
>>>>> and MSN, a general consensus has solidified among the otherwise fractious
>>>>> population of People Who Think Big Thoughts  About the Internet.
>>>>>
>>>>> That unifying creed is this: Open platforms promote innovation and
>>>>> diversity more effectively than proprietary ones.
>>>>> [...]
>>>>> Over the last two years, however, that story has grown far more
>>>>> complicated, thanks to the runaway success of the iPhone (and now iPad)
>>>>> developers platform — known as the App Store to consumers.
>>>>> [...]
>>>>> Those of us who have championed open platforms cannot ignore these
>>>>> facts. It’s conceivable that, had Apple loosened the restrictions
>>>>> surrounding the App Store, the iPhone ecosystem would have been even more
>>>>> innovative, even more democratic. But I suspect that this  view is too
>>>>> simplistic. The more complicated reality is that the  closed  
>>>>> architecture of
>>>>> the iPhone platform has contributed to its  generativity in  
>>>>> important ways.
>>>>> [...]
>>>>> None of which is to suggest that the iPhone/iPad ecosystem couldn’t
>>>>> benefit from
>>>>>
>>>> a little more openness. Apple should stop blocking apps that compete
>>>>  with the iPhone’s default apps — e-mail clients, for instance —  
>>>> as  this is
>>>> the one area where innovation has truly suffered.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Of course, innovation and democratization are not the only reasons to
>>>>> champion open platforms. Given the current size of the iPhone’s installed
>>>>> base, as well as the projections for the iPad’s adoption,  it is  
>>>>> troubling
>>>>> that one company can single-handedly veto any new  application on a whim.
>>>>> [...]
>>>>> But whatever Apple chooses to do with its platform in the coming years,
>>>>> it has
>>>>>
>>>> made one thing clear: sometimes, if you get the conditions right, a
>>>> walled garden can turn into a rain forest.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Steven Johnson is an author and entrepreneur. His new book, “Where Good
>>>>> Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation,” will be published in
>>>>> October.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Is everyone resigned to having to always pay for their 3D graphics,
>>>> and always being vulnerable to losing everything if a company tanks
>>>> or changes hands?
>>>>
>>>> all the best, Don
>>>> --
>>>> Don Brutzman  Naval Postgraduate School, Code USW/Br brutzman at nps.edu
>>>> Watkins 270   MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000 USA  work
>>>> +1.831.656.2149
>>>> X3D, virtual worlds, underwater robots, XMSF
>>>> http://web.nps.navy.mil/~brutzman <http://web.nps.navy.mil/%7Ebrutzman>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> X3D-Public mailing list
>>>> X3D-Public at web3d.org
>>>> http://web3d.org/mailman/listinfo/x3d-public_web3d.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> X3D-Public mailing list
>>> X3D-Public at web3d.org
>>> http://web3d.org/mailman/listinfo/x3d-public_web3d.org
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> X3D-Public mailing list
>> X3D-Public at web3d.org
>> http://web3d.org/mailman/listinfo/x3d-public_web3d.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Tony Parisi                             tparisi at gmail.com
> CTO at Large                         415.902.8002
>