Terry Judd wrote:
> On 21/01/2013, at 01:34 PM, Richard Gaskin wrote:
>
>> But now the younger generation is smarter and far more tech-savvy
>> than their parents, and all that hand-holding is just not cool
>> with them. They know what they're doing, and they like software
>> that respects what they know.
>
> Hey Richard - I hope you're haven't bought into the whole
> Prensky/Tapscott/digital natives/net generation BS ;) The current
> crop 'youngsters' might be extremely prolific users of technology
> but their typical pattern of use seems to be quite superficial.
I wasn't familiar with Prensky until your mention here, but after
reading a bit about him I wouldn't be as quick to dismiss some of the
notions he proposes.
This is just something I see. Sure, all anecdotal evidence is suspect,
but I see some cognitive shifts happening which seem to merit attention
for those who design software systems, and perhaps other products as well.
The idea isn't particularly revolutionary, nor even all that new: the TV
generation had McLuhan, and Julian Jaynes' exploration of the impact of
literacy in "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the
Bicameral Mind" takes that story back to the dawn of civilization.
For better or worse, we collectively have very nimble minds, ever hungry
and profoundly adaptive.
>> In 2012, for the first time in Apple's history the biggest buying
>> demographic was no longer 18-35, but 35-50. The core Apple audience
>> is changing, growing a bit older each year.
>
> A bit like Facebook then. It doesn't necessarily mean that the
> younger demographic is abandoning Apple/Facebook - rather that
> ownership/participation has plateaued there while it is still growing
> in the older age groups. Or not?
I didn't mean to imply the shift was exclusionary; of course it isn't.
It's merely telling, about the nature of design and the role of Apple in
our changing world.
In 1983 Steve Jobs gave a talk at IDCA where he was describing a dynamic
that affects all organizations, and while at that moment he was
addressing IBM the pattern he describes applies equally well to all
companies, even, eventually, Apple itself:
"We started with nothing. So whenever you you start with nothing
with you always can always shoot for the moon, you have nothing
to lose. And the thing that happens is, when you sort of get
something it's very easy to go into cover-your-ass mode and then
you become conservative..."
@~minute 51:
<http://soundcloud.com/mbtech/talk-by-steven-jobs-idca-1983>
Apple got where they are on a message of "Think Different", but now that
they're the largest and most powerful multinational in tech that message
no longer applies.
This leaves room for the inevitable changing of the guard.
Perhaps one of the OSes Andre now favors in response to Apple's closed
nature will be the thing that displaces iOS.
Many years ago I bet the farm on Apple, and it nearly caused the demise
of my company. Even today, at Apple's apparent peak, few successful
developers write for Apple OSes exclusively.
With multi-platform tools like LiveCode, developers and their clients
are at last immune to the ever-shifting seas of fortune for any single
OS vendor. At last we can recognize OSes as the commodities they are,
and ride the wave of any of them as each crests in turn.
No matter how much innovation has dazzled us in the last two decades,
it's all just beginning. We would do well to prepare to have our minds
blown by what's coming in the next few years.
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World
LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/FourthWorldSys
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