Alexander Chalkidis

Month: July 2021

  • Apple would have never made a vaccine even if it could

    Apple would have never made a vaccine even if it could

    Look at the market share. Globally Android has 73% of the mobile operating market and iOS 26%. But in Africa it is more like 83% vs 14%. Only in North America is Apple ahead. And this has repercussions which I am amazed the rest of the world puts up with.

    Unlike Google that tries to build products for humans all over the world, Apple is simply catering to its locals. It’s not just the languages it doesn’t bother including. It’s entire distribution and support is focused on the US, UK, France and a few other countries. That’s it. Apple has always acted – and still acts – as if it is a little Callifornian company that made it big. In America. And it doesn’t care about anyone else. The rest of the world can adapt to the products.

    Is it working? Sure. The profits speak for themselves. Is it good for customers? Only if you are American. Here in Greece where I live, if you have a Mac computer you are the proud third minority after Windows (84%) and Linux (9%) as Apple only has 3% market share. Good luck getting any sort of support for your product, most Mac owners struggle to find a friend that knows what they can do about any issue. And they end up paying through the nose for good tech to help them out.

    Globally OS X commands just 15% market share, even in the United States all those iPhone users aren’t buying as they total just 28% compared to 62% Windows users and even Chromebooks are making an attack and becoming popular. Yet somehow Apple isn’t irrelevant. Is it through innovation? Heck no! I would disregard their recent relative success with their own chipsets, it is a short lived fluke much like all those years when they were going to “burn Pentiums to the ground”. M1 is a party trick that fools only Apple die hards. No IT manager is falling for it because we all know Apple never sticks to anything long term. It is a marketing company, not a tech pioneer.

    Is it important? I would say that it is a problem we need to take care of. It skews the market in a big way. A bad way. There are plenty exciting technologies that get shelved behind all the media focus on Apple adding a new button to its iPhone or something equally stupid as that in Apple’s constant efforts to copy Android whilst making it look like it thought of something up on its own.

    So is Google better? Hell yeah! While Apple spends ages dreaming up of new ways to get their phones to use a different dongle that costs 80 dollars for no good reason, Google is out there making products for the entire planet. Saving lost languages. Making useful products we all use everyday like Search, Maps, YouTube and so many more applications of its advanced Artificial Intelligence that actually helps the planet. They are giving away protein databases to scientists and the infrastructure on which so much of the modern world progresses on.

    Google is global, Apple is American.

    And there is nothing wrong with being American. As long as they don’t try and sell their extremely limited in purpose and use case products to the rest of the world. In fact the way Apple refuses to follow international standards and constantly blackmails developers into their walled garden is costing the world economy every day. We live in a globalized world. Amazing collaboration such as what we witnessed recently with the COVID-19 pandemic can only be achieved though open standards and transparency.

    If Apple was into pharmaceutical vaccine and developed a vaccine, it would be ten times the price of competitors, incompatible with anything else, they would not reveal their research results and would expect everyone to pay every year for an update. So why are you letting them control the devices you use every day?

  • The Greek Freak is killing the NBA: how a wonderful person is in conflict with an organization’s core values and audience expectations

    The Greek Freak is killing the NBA: how a wonderful person is in conflict with an organization’s core values and audience expectations

    “…so ….efficient!”  The sportscaster was struggling to find the right words after the Bucks won the championship.  Giannis Antetokounmpo had some pretty impressive stats.  But other than a few blocks was he spectacular?  No, of course not.  He never is.  Despite his unique physical gifts, the man can’t even make a cool dunk.  Unless you are Greek or a Bucks fan, the game he plays is boring.  It is…European.  As an NBA fan I am disappointed.  I think Adam Silver is worried.  This game can not just be about winning and…efficiency.  

    Everyone goes on and on about how Giannis worked hard and made it through adversity.  Rightly so, it is an amazing true story and he is an awesome human being.  But I didn’t sign up for a subscription to Reader’s Digest.  I want my NBA back.  The one with the show above all, the one where players focus on giving the crowd something unique to watch.  Other than a few blocks, the Greak Freak is no freak at all.  He is boring as hell.   Ten years from now they will struggle to find anything to put in a show reel from his highlights.

    Is it important?   It is to me and it is to many of the NBA’s target demographics.  We want stars that are stars, not “amazing hard working people”.  I could go to a factory floor and watch that if I wanted to.  Antetokounmpo is an anti star.  He doesn’t hang out with other NBA players, he doesn’t train with them, he doesn’t know how to make an inspiring speech or even a fun meme.   Already in the United States, rich white parents take their kids to soccer, not basketball. Giannis may be black, but he plays like a boring white person who wins through being gifted and working hard. Admirable. Not NBA though. It will make the rift even bigger.

    In a strange way it is similar to the election of Obama.  Despite the rhetoric, a simmering racism ensured that in the next elections Donald Trump won.  There were many more racists annoyed at Obama’s presidency than could publicly vent during his tenure.  Something similar is happening now with NBA fans.  Giannis doesn’t feature in rap songs because well, he is boring, he is an anti star, he does nothing like all the true NBA stars that built the league.  True NBA fans are sad today.  We are simmering with rage.  We are not racist of course.  But we hate “efficient”, boring players like Antetokounmpo.   When Kevin Durant slogs it out alone in Game7 it is epic. He generates stories, this is what the NBA is about. Giannis has one story, always the same story as his game does nothing to add to it, it is awesome, the boy that sold trinkets at traffic lights who went to the NBA. Fantastic. Let’s make it a movie. For DISNEY, not for the NBA.

    I am Greek.  Everyone here is ecstatic.  I am sad they missed the whole point of what makes the NBA special.  He was lucky to get a ring, now just watch as he fails spectacularly to even make it past the 1st or 2nd round in the playoffs the next years. Giannis Antetokounmpo should move to a European team as soon as possible and leave our league as we like it.