My Utopian View (Of Hardware) - Part 2

Continuing the series.

Point 4 - Platform uniformity unlocks developer creativity
Apple seems to have a disproportionally large percentage of truly creative development taking place on its Mac platform. Consider Textmate, X-plane, Coverflow, Delicious Library and iAlertU as a few of the numerous examples of third-party wonders that exist within the Apple community. Feel free to show me applications that show similar levels of innovation in the Windows/PC realm, if you can find them.

Why does Apple seem to have this lock on developer mind share/imagination? There are several factors at play, but I think the following are the most significant:

• Apple's image as a platform for creative developers draws in creative developers. In this case perception actually does create the reality. Where other platforms trumpet that they are "ready for business" or some other mundane idea, Apple encourages it's community to be rebels, innovators, outside-the-box types. This message/mantra is adhered to by the Apple community.


• A high quality API makes a big difference. I won't assert that Apple's API is better than Microsoft's but I will assert that it is far better than anything on Linux. Instead of wasting cycles in trying to invent wheels, Apple developers are free to invent sleek enclosures for their 100mpg automobiles. Maybe that's a bad metaphor, but the point should be clear.


• Hardware consistency further reduces developer headaches and extends creativity into new dimensions. This is the biggest point of the three, in my opinion. When development isn't hamstrung by having to consider the lowest common denominator, truly interesting steps can be taken in development. Consider as an example Delicious Library, linked above. Now that most Apple computers being sold include a built in iSight camera, the developers at Delicious Monster could be free to think of innovative uses for those cameras. The result is software that enables a bar-code scanner through the camera that then allows users to catalogue their books, music, movies and more, simply by holding things up to the camera. iAlertU is another example of an interesting application that is only possible with a cohesive hardware platform.

Taking variables out of any equation makes the equation easier to solve. When you remove hardware variations, API variations, environment variations, etc., the problem of how to make things "Just Work" becomes a lot easier.

With fewer hurdles and roadblocks in place, Apple developers are free to explore creative ideas and options, options that aren't necessarily out of reach on other platforms but are prohibitively complex or would reach a statistically insignificant portion of a diverse user base. Consider that point - even though by most measures Apple only controls 4-5% of the consumer computer market, the remaining ~90% of Windows based PCs are composed of such diverse components, in such innumerably complex configurations, that the ability to reach large portions of the market requires that developers for that platform not push any technological boundaries. The incredible diversity of the PC, a strength on one hand, becomes a liability with regard to innovation.