Friday, March 26, 2004
Here's an article about bluetooth on Mac vs Windows. It's interesting that this article came now because I was just having a discussion with Roy about Apple and Microsoft's product development systems.
At one point I said "I wonder what percentage of people with Macs and bluetooth use bluetooth, vs Windows users with bluetooth." (I said this days before I read this article). I'm sure the Mac percentage is 10X higher, just like when wireless (802.11b) first came out, the percentage of mac users was way higher than windows. It's just easier.
The bluetooth implementation on the Mac is so incredible. I sync my phone with my computer for address book and calendar, I use my phone to surf the web on my computer anywhere, and my computer does nifty things like pause/unpause iTunes as I leave/enter the room.
As for our actual discussion: Microsoft seems to have a development system where product managers design and spec features, and engineers just code them. I definitely prefer Apple's model where I am responsible for coming up with new features, designing them, speccing them, presenting them, coding them, etc. I love to code, but I'm not a code monkey.
The other big thing Roy brought up was the man month problem which basically has to do with things getting inefficient as you have too many people on one project. I think Apple deals with this by not being bloated. There are probably 2 engineers on iChat, 5 on Mail, and just a handful on iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, etc. You don't need lots of people to write great software.
Finally, I love Apple's quick development cycles. EVERY APPLE PRODUCT REVS TWO TIMES A YEAR. Some projects do slip their schedule, but you can always count on two revs of every hardware and software product Apple makes.
Anyways, this was a very interesting conversation because I didn't realize these companies differed so much. I wonder if people know the development cycles of companies they are applying to work for. I imagine there are some engineers who prefer each system.
p.s. I am posting this from my laptop, in the middle of nowhere, using my bluetooth cell phone as the internet connection.
At one point I said "I wonder what percentage of people with Macs and bluetooth use bluetooth, vs Windows users with bluetooth." (I said this days before I read this article). I'm sure the Mac percentage is 10X higher, just like when wireless (802.11b) first came out, the percentage of mac users was way higher than windows. It's just easier.
The bluetooth implementation on the Mac is so incredible. I sync my phone with my computer for address book and calendar, I use my phone to surf the web on my computer anywhere, and my computer does nifty things like pause/unpause iTunes as I leave/enter the room.
As for our actual discussion: Microsoft seems to have a development system where product managers design and spec features, and engineers just code them. I definitely prefer Apple's model where I am responsible for coming up with new features, designing them, speccing them, presenting them, coding them, etc. I love to code, but I'm not a code monkey.
The other big thing Roy brought up was the man month problem which basically has to do with things getting inefficient as you have too many people on one project. I think Apple deals with this by not being bloated. There are probably 2 engineers on iChat, 5 on Mail, and just a handful on iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, etc. You don't need lots of people to write great software.
Finally, I love Apple's quick development cycles. EVERY APPLE PRODUCT REVS TWO TIMES A YEAR. Some projects do slip their schedule, but you can always count on two revs of every hardware and software product Apple makes.
Anyways, this was a very interesting conversation because I didn't realize these companies differed so much. I wonder if people know the development cycles of companies they are applying to work for. I imagine there are some engineers who prefer each system.
p.s. I am posting this from my laptop, in the middle of nowhere, using my bluetooth cell phone as the internet connection.