My next device will be on Android (note to Apple)

Sometime around the early 2000’s I decided to ditch all Microsoft products and go to Apple for three reasons;

1. I was fed up with Microsofts anti-competitive business practices
2. Malware on Windows was out of control and early OSX looked safer
3. Apple products had just started to be ‘compatible’, cool, and nice to use.

The IT world has changed a lot since then, MSP’s became SaaS companies and now Cloud service providers, laptops have largely replaced desktops, open source is mainstream and mobile computing is booming.

When I look at Apple Inc now I’m reminded of Microsoft with all the vendor lock in and patent trolling (When patents attack Android) that I despise. It’s time to review the options again.

If I look at the way we’ve put our business (Cleartext) IT together it’s a 100% Linux server shop, both our business and client facing systems. Our personal computing platform of choice is Mac OSX but mobile is a split of iPhone and HTC running Android.  We reached our 'zero Microsoft’ goal several years ago.

Looking forward I see our mobile devices become all Android, even though we love the iPad, worthy competitors are coming to market with Android on board, and whilst we’ll stay with the Mac Book’s for a while I expect I’ll be reviewing Linux based laptops and tablets in the near future.

I realise that the 'man in the street’ continues to buy into Microsofts and Apples marketing but I know that it’s the IT geeks that are the early adopters and lead the mainstream user community forward.

Just as we’ve seen the likes of Sun and […others?] fall by the wayside we see Microsoft and Nokia struggling now because they have less appealing products.

I think Apple needs to take a long hard look at it’s behaviour, unlike it’s failing competitors Apple can lead the market by creating value in great products, it doesn’t need to start wielding the patent ball and chain around. 

Wake up Apple, spend your customers cash on R&D not patent attorneys.