Abstract
Technology is the driving force of the information age. This is seen with the development and competition that is seen with many companies of technology. With the advent of smart phones, there is the competition in the mobile platform. Apple Company has been seen to be a major competing force in technology. This is because of innovative products it manufactures for desktop and mobile platforms. With products like iOS for iPhone devices, Mavericks for Macintosh computers, and iCloud for their cloud solutions, there is much to be desired from this fast growing company. This paper will focus on the developments of different products and their innovative stature from Apple Company. The paper will focus on Mavericks, iOS, and iCloud.
Introduction
Apple Company has developed from dealing with Macintosh products to the mobile applications and now to the clouds. Apple Inc. is a global corporation based in America. The corporation is involved in designing and marketing of electronic products such as personal computers, computer software, and consumer electronics. The company was established in 1976 in California as Apple Computers Incorporation and later it became Apple Inc. in 2007 (Datamonitor, 1-10). The company produces both computer hardware and software products. The computer hardware products include iPad, iPhone, and iPod while the software products include the iWork, which is productivity software, iLife dealing with creativity software, and iTunes, which is a media browser. The company has valuable techniques and in market capitalization it is the largest in the world. The company has delved into the cloud technology with their introduction of iCloud. This is seen to be a development that will win the clients who use Apple products so that they can manage their contacts in these devices.
Literature review
Apple produces a variety of products and accessories that serve the consumers in the international market. One of the products produced by the company is the Macintosh models and its accessories. Some of the Mac accessories include MacBook Air, Mac mini, Mac pro, MacBook, and iMac. As stated by Yadi and Alfi (277) Apple also sells Mac computer accessories such as Wireless Keyboard, Magic Mouse, Thunderbolt Display, Magic Trackpad, and Battery chargers. Among its products, the company introduced iPod in 2001, which is a digital music player. The products had a big market share by being a portable music player. The available iPod variants are iPod Touch, iPod Nano, iPod Classic, and iPod Shuffle. IPad is another product introduced in 2010. The iPad being a content product operates through an operating system that interacts with media formats such as movies, TV shows, video games, photos, magazines, and newspapers among others. It has a notepad, iBook store, iTunes Library, and it includes a mobile version of web browser. The Apple Company introduced the iPhone product in 2007 which was Internet enabled. In the same year, Apple TV was introduced into the market, which is a video device bridging the gap between iTunes and high definition televisions. With the company’s own operating systems, it can manage its products and develop computer software.
There are many operating systems that the company has developed for their Macintosh computers. With competition going higher and higher, companies develop new products for their gadgets in order to introduce new features for their gadgets. Apple has released many operating with new features that will be noticed by the users and will solve the problems that they have been experiencing with the older release. One feature that Mavericks has is the ability to easily network. This ability is enabled with Thunderbolt connector. This feature was introduced in 2011. This connector has been integrated in all Macs and, thus, in the entire line of Mac OS X. This means that all versions of operating systems for Mac can now be able to communicate with one another. Thunderbolt was a connector that was said it could replace other connecting solutions like USB, Firewire, MiniDisplayPort, and eSATA. It was even predicted that this could replace even the Ethernet itself. Up to now, it has not been possible to eradicate Ethernet with the Thunderbolt port. With this possibility, it could mean that the connectivity of a device with Thunderbolt and support IP over Thunderbolt, it could mean that there would be a possibility to transfer data at above 10GBps. This is the same as the speed that are found on some of the fastest speeds in the world today.
Resource management is an issue that has been of concern to Apple. This is evident with the development of Mavericks. Resource management is seen to have been integrated and put into consideration. Performing at peak efficiency has been an issue of concern for Apple. Resource management has been integrated into Mavericks. Other capabilities that have been integrated in the new release include the enhancement on Finder process, and integration of iCloud technology (Yadi, and Alfi 281).
Research shows that Mavericks lacks in security. The previous releases have been seen to be string in security. Research shows that Mavericks operating system is vulnerable to attacks. This is a major concern with the growing attacks on Apple products. Mavericks security has not been perfected, especially the end-user who is the gateway to the security threats to enter to the system. With the release of Mavericks, the end user was not considered. There are security alerts that the user finds them annoying and will disable them. This has not been improved with the release of Mavericks (Yadi, and Alfi 271).
iOS
The development in technology has lead to production of cell phones that uses operating system. The operating systems that are used by mobile phones such as Smartphone are not the same operating systems used by the personal computers. The memory requirement of the phone needs a distinct type of operating system. iOS or iPhone operating system is a product of Apple Inc, which initially developed for iPod Touch and iPhone. Later, is support was extended to accommodate Apple TV and iPad devices. The user interface used by iOS is direct manipulation with the use of multiple gestures. The latest version of I operating system is version 6.0 meant for devices with system memory of over 1GB. The Xcode and iOS SDK enable the developers of applications to revolutionize them.
Most research has been done to compare and contrast the operating systems that have been designed and developed by different companies and how effective these operating systems are in the market. In iPhone OS, the dock on the lower part of the screen is the only feature that facilitates multitasking. For an android phone, the running applications are displayed in the form of screenshots on the entire screen. The iPhone operating system does not utilize the whole screen during multitasking and multiprocessing. It only displays a page full of applications. Such an interface is terribly dull and dreary since the space provided by the bulky device’s screen is not fully used and hence it is inefficient. However, people who have technological challenges find it relatively easy to use an iPhone operating system. Conversely, the android operating system user interface isolates the home screen from the list of applications and allows a space that can be customized with a lot of flexibility. This explains the uniqueness in each Smartphone that uses android operating system.
Though people claim that you can add more applications by installing third party applications, it is not convenient. For example, when try to download an application using the iPhone; you get a message that you need the latest version of iTune in your Smartphone. According to Negrino (162), this implies that you have to download the entire iTune application so that you can get the application you want. Moreover, the application sometimes fails to download after downloading the iTune. Considering the time that it takes to download an iTune application, it is abundantly clear that the iPhone operating system is not convenient. The same task in an android phone can be completed within two minutes. This explains why most business organizations that have implemented the use of Smartphones in business operation, uses android phones.
The performance and speed of both iPhones and other mobile operating systems largely depends on the handset memory and the number of applications that are integrated. The number of applications that the iPhones run is few compared to android. This explains why most iPhones seem to be faster than the android phones. The Google android developers preferred to come up with several applications so that the handset manufacturers develop handsets that can support these applications. The programming language used in developing the application also contributes to the speed of the Smartphone or the tablet computer.
iCloud
Apple’s iCloud has been key cloud service provider in the recent past. Its main function is to provide for transportation and storage of data and information for its users. Its main advantage is its ability to provide high standard security for the information it stores against unauthorized access. It is also a cheap means of storing data and also safe. For instance, data stored in Dropbox is always safe and cheap to keep. However, Apple holds all the decryption keys to this data and can access, modify, manipulate and even distribute it to legal authorities when called upon. This is in a bid to make email investigations possible (Negrino 73).
ICloud is an aspect of cloud computing made available by Apple to users interested. It facilitates storage and access of various services in the cloud, among them calendars, emails, contacts and other services. This application is designed to allow log in with other email accounts that are not necessarily @iCloud.com. It also provides for a portal for all web mail hence making investigations possible. Since it is a cloud service prone to many threats, users of iCloud should embrace encryption so much as a measure to ensuring the security of their information (Yadi, and Alfi 271).
Discussion
The development of newer releases and products by many software companies is to be able to keep with the trends of technology. Apple has been the leader in releasing products that the customers will like. They understand the requirements of the clients.
There is also the issue of security which has been an issue of concern for the various products. The enhancements that are done with the different applications and releases is because of the fact that attackers master the security measures that have been put in place and the company will have to look for other ways to curb the security. This is reason why iOS, Mavericks, and iCloud were released to the market. They have better security management. There are still a lot of issues to be undertaken with Mavericks (Kennedy 261).
There are still challenges that are faced with the innovations that Apple has brought to the market. Forced client merging is a major challenge facing users of the cloud and storage of web mail. Cloud computing technology lacks the isolation mechanisms that could allow users in a cloud, though sharing virtual resources, to operate independently. This has much to deal with memory allocations and individual reputation. It is notable that storage spaces in a cloud are merged, making it relatively difficult for a specific person to store data on a private platform within the cloud. This could attract enormous attacks that could affect a number of users. These attacks, however, have been considered hard to be effected as compared to the individual company operating systems that have been in place in the past.
Conclusion
Apple has been seen to read the needs of the customers and develop products according to the development of the technology trends. This has been seen with the products they have developed in the recent past. The development of iCloud, iOS, and Mavericks has put the company ahead of the competitors. The company has been seen to be ahead in all the three areas of technology development. These areas are cloud computing, mobile computing and desktop computing.
Works Cited
Kennedy, Chris. OS X Mavericks. Questing Vole Press, 2013.
Negrino, Tom. Upgrading to Mavericks: 10 Things To Do Before Moving to OS X 10.9. Peachpit Press.
Yadi, Andri, and Fauzan Alfi. iCloud Standard Guide. Packt Publishing Ltd, 2013.
