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Comment by bitL | Hacker News Reader

Another company going to do what they don't have any clue how to do. Google+, Bing, ... Seems like we now have 4-5 companies copying each other in a silly way all the time. Apple/MS simply can't do cloud properly whereas Google barely keeps with Amazon, Amazon's AI is horrible comparing to Google, Apple is copying MS' surface and design (!), Google+ can't do Facebook at all, Facebook can't do ads properly, MS can't do search... Looks wonderful for Apple's AI.

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I mostly agree except that Facebook is doing ads quite well. FB's ad revenue is growing by $5B per year, its pretty impressive growth.

Facebook can't do ads properly? I don't have any ties to FB but man, Facebook does ads extremely well. I am not sure on what argument you are basing this on.

I thought MS cloud is doing fine in comparison to Google -- MS is second while Google is third. However, I totally agree with you on others. Particularly, Apple with its closed culture. How many researchers Apple can hire AI researchers while the researchers are so high in demand. The researchers can go to other companies, whom are more open and let the researchers publish their work.

Technically they are still well behind both Amazon and Google (which is shooting itself in its feet by dumbing down the infrastructure they offer to their clients). The same that you stated for AI holds true for distributed systems - not that many top people around. MS is obviously leveraging their Win platform to get subscribers even if they can't match Amazon.

Besides the fact that I disagree with some of your observations, it's not really clear what your point is. Are you saying these companies shouldn't try to compete if it isn't in an area where they've already been successful?

The point is not to do "me too" projects, rather bite the bullet and form an alliance with somebody that offers you better tech and in turn entice them to use what you do best and where they can't compete with you. Instead we have Google destroying all its services to propel up Google+, MS killing their desktop OS and destroying Nokia to catch up with mobile, Amazon pushing tablets nobody wants, Apple ripping off Surface stand and stylus in iPad Pro and neglecting its desktop in the process, and even Linux emulating obfuscating windows registry in systemd.

Gotcha, well that's a great point but it's lost in your original post. I agree with most of your examples, except about Apple in regards to both their new AI work and the iPad Pro.

As far as AI work, I personally really appreciate their emphasis on privacy, and that kind of work seems like it would be a lot harder (or nearly impossible) if they were collaborating with another company. I'd rather have a subpar experience and my privacy than a great experience and my data being sold, mined, subpoenaed, or otherwise being made accessible to systems/organizations that I'm not aware of and don't consent to.

As far as the iPad Pro, I don't own one but when I replace my aging iPad I plan on getting a Pro with the pencil and keyboard because 1) these are features I wanted and I don't mind if someone else implemented them first and 2) all the reviews I've seen about them say they nailed it with their own implementation. I don't think they could've done that in collaboration with MS.

IMO, it doesn't matter whether they can do it, because they must do it.

If they don't somehow learn to do it, they will be eaten by Google and Facebook; the money is not in the hardware anymore. A decade from now, it certainly won't be.

your claim that Apple is copying MS surface puts the rest of this in perspective.

Except that nobody pays for Google services.

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