A Truly Integrated Programme
It's interesting to see the company which brought us 'Think Different' think big as well. What one journalist has called 'the iPod juggernaut' continues to roll on by making previously unheard-of alliances with the manufacturers of other kinds of juggernauts.
I love the idea, personally. It seems that Steve Jobs and his merry men have thought of making the iPod truly ubiquitous (now that's a phrase which would be catchy if it weren't so awkward on the tongue), and are now succeeding beyond everyone's wildest dreams. Well, almost everyone. I have no doubt that Jobs and his team have even wilder dreams and are fully confident of realising them.
Somewhere out there, companies like the somewhat ambitiously-named Creative are trying desperately to play catch-up with the Applecart. They're failing simply because they keep aiming at a moving target instead of ahead of it. The main problem, of course, is figuring out where the target will be next.
This isn't so hard; what's difficult is predicting how fast the target will get there. Apple has defied the pundits so often (too fast, too slow, too odd, too wonderful) that the predictive task is sometimes only one that the faithful and true believers (the Applecore?) can assay with any confidence.
The kind of integration that Apple forges with allies in other industries is the sort that educationists ought to pursue. Schools just don't have the talent to excel everywhere. Just as Apple doesn't manufacture cars to put its iPods in, but hitches its cart to Mercedes-Benz, Volvo et al., so too schools should scorn proprietary in-house software solutions and stuff like that. They should just make partnerships with industry leaders outside (many of whom would only be too glad to be presented with a testbed of 2000-3000 avid volunteer users).
Then again, the image of a school as an industrial juggernaut (even in the relatively benign education industry) is a rather spine-chilling one.
I love the idea, personally. It seems that Steve Jobs and his merry men have thought of making the iPod truly ubiquitous (now that's a phrase which would be catchy if it weren't so awkward on the tongue), and are now succeeding beyond everyone's wildest dreams. Well, almost everyone. I have no doubt that Jobs and his team have even wilder dreams and are fully confident of realising them.
Somewhere out there, companies like the somewhat ambitiously-named Creative are trying desperately to play catch-up with the Applecart. They're failing simply because they keep aiming at a moving target instead of ahead of it. The main problem, of course, is figuring out where the target will be next.
This isn't so hard; what's difficult is predicting how fast the target will get there. Apple has defied the pundits so often (too fast, too slow, too odd, too wonderful) that the predictive task is sometimes only one that the faithful and true believers (the Applecore?) can assay with any confidence.
The kind of integration that Apple forges with allies in other industries is the sort that educationists ought to pursue. Schools just don't have the talent to excel everywhere. Just as Apple doesn't manufacture cars to put its iPods in, but hitches its cart to Mercedes-Benz, Volvo et al., so too schools should scorn proprietary in-house software solutions and stuff like that. They should just make partnerships with industry leaders outside (many of whom would only be too glad to be presented with a testbed of 2000-3000 avid volunteer users).
Then again, the image of a school as an industrial juggernaut (even in the relatively benign education industry) is a rather spine-chilling one.
etched with acid at 10:22:00 am
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