Geez...
Everyone, go to engadget right now:
http://www.engadget.com/Look at all the amazing things Apple is doing. They are totally taking over the consumer markets. Phones, games, computers, they have their hands in everything. And their user interfaces and device designs are so brilliant that it's hard for people to resist, even if they lack certain "open" and flexible features we would want. Beware, all companies, beware. Better yet, watch and learn...try to do it better if you can.
But what other companies can't do is bitch about Apple taking over their markets. Don't complain, show that you can beat them at their own game. Which means start paying attention to the little things. Don't tell people what they want. Try to understand what normal people want and give it to them. People want shiny. People want easy. People want no-brainers. Yes, Sony...that means you.
Sony does some remarkably puzzling things. For example, they make some fancy device and have 3 models of it: cheap, medium, and pro model. But what they'll do is put some little feature on the medium that the pro doesn't have. So the consumer may want to get the pro model, but is torn because he also wants that feature in the medium model. Seriously, WTF?! And of course, Sony will name the thing "NMZ-3609". That's the name of the thing. Not ipad, not iphone, not actual words. Just NMZ-3609 or whatever else. It's almost like they are sitting at a table and intentionally thinking of ways to confuse the user.
