When big companies with great products don’t play well together, they risk losing fanatics and evangelists.
I love my mac book pro. I love the Google platform. I love my new droid x. I hate how they turn my world upside down when they don’t sync together easily.
I was in near fetal position yesterday after a week of researching forums, perusing endless apps and resigning myself to the probability that I’ll have to ditch Entourage which is a far better program than iCal, Mail, and Address Book combined.
Some companies apparently haven’t embraced the idea that making products accessible to many other platforms increases customer appreciation and loyalty. I love my Macbook Pro (but I don’t want an iphone). I love Google platform (but I want it to sync with Entourage – calendar AND tasks). I love Microsoft Entourage (but I don’t want a PC). I love my Droid X (but I want it to be an extension of my productivity tools, not just a way to play Angry Birds).
We want the freedom to pick and choose our favorites without a huge hassle. Apple, Google, Microsoft, don’t lose traction by making us go to sketchy 3rd party work-arounds.
Am I missing something? Do you have similar frustrations?
Like this:
Filed under: Technology Tagged: | cooperation, customer loyalty, technology
Sort of. I love my MacBook but STILL cannot figure out how to move over my old contacts and email from old outlook files.
(I’m really, really technically retarded though.)
http://yourlifesentence.wordpress.com/
Ah, the elusive sync. I’ve not even begun to tackle that task.
For now, I just cathartically play Angry Birds on my iPhone!
Teri, there’s a program (3rd party) called Move2mac that might take care of that problem for you. I used it (or something like it) when I made the change a few years ago. I hope this helps. http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-11319_7-5589357-7.html
oh the simple things like syncing products with your life. i had the same problem as you before. but now i am MAC’d out and have no problems haha. i used to hate trying to find a way to sync it all.
http://enjoibeing.wordpress.com/
I’m preparing to go Droid soon. I haven’t got there yet but I’m sure I’ll have all kinds of issues when I do. Nice FP.
task. Ah, the elusive sync. I’ve not even begun to that tackle
Compromise seems to be the cornerstone of every great technology – ensuring frustration for all who embrace them. While playing nice with each other might be what users wish for, there are inherent incentives for business not to be supportive of competitors. And they know, despite the frustrations, we won’t really give up our toys to make the point.
i get your frustration but if everything synced so perfectly together, i doubt the companies would be creating such amazing products in a way to outdo each other…right?
http://dearexgirlfriend.com/
Thank you!! xoxo
I’m not so sure. There are standard file types that are used by different products in different genres (ie. .jpg for photos, .avi for video, .mp3 for audio, etc.) but people still make choices on the brand/product they will use because of the features that a particular product might have. It’s why Final Cut Pro is chosen over Pinnacle by most people doing video editing or Photoshop is chosen over Picasa by professional photo editors. Although Picasa is probably chosen over Photoshop by those who want to edit photos quickly and inexpensively. The picture file is easily interchangeable between the different programs, but people make the choice of which product they use based on what they want.
I wouldn’t begin until you have a few days to waste (give yourself about 3x more time than you think you will need).
Or find yourself a geek that has a little spare time to dedicate to it.
I miss the good old days when I had an iPaq that would sync with Outlook and give me my calendar on the move. I don’t want mobile internet thanks, but here in Canada if I want a Smartphone that can sync calendars with my PC, I have to pay for a data plan to get a Blackberry etc etc. So I have a rubbish phone and no mobile calendar. I use a lot of notepads and miss some important events now and then….
I agree to a point. I have chosen not to go with Sony video cameras (mini-cams) because their files weren’t compatible on a Mac even though their cameras took great video. Although we might go with a superior “toy”
that doesn’t play nicely with other brands/platforms from time to time because we want it REALLY REALLY BADLY, but it reduces our Rave Factor a bit. In today’s market where the consumer has such a strong and present voice on forums, comments and feed backs, sometimes people do choose to wait or go with a second choice when they hear that they’ll have to invest time, money and headaches in order to get the product to work how they want it to. More and more companies are realizing that the best advertising is word of mouth – and it’s hard to counteract a comment like “I thought that this would be awesome but it turned out to be a huge pain in the neck.” Then again, what do I know? 
Same boat. I have a Macbook at home, PC at work, Droid phone, and buying an Ipad. All work is PC, all home life is Mac and it seems like never will the two meet.
I agree fully with ya buddy!
I know what you mean! But I feel there’s such a power struggle and hunger for $ales that these companies rather aggravate their users rather than accommodate them. I feel as if it is a never ending cycle which will continue to perpetuate unless the heads of these companies adopt a different way of thinking. Your voice is a great start to rectifying this issue though
Give up this.
Wait until this marketing war gets over and start your own. Google and Apple are to big birds to compete and when they grapple with each other, no one will win.
You can only hope for home-grown developers and small companies which will cut the big Apple^Wapple pie into pieces and eat the pieces one by one developing some crappy stuff.
Apple is a closed platform maker. Google… Google is so strange and unrevealed that I don’t want to make any statements about them
You’re probably right wizardist. The reason I went with Droid is that it’s apps are open platform and the good ones rise to the top (if I understand it correctly).
Nice blog keep it up!
I have Evo phone with google software…and it sync’s automatically with my igoogle beautifully including contacts, email, calendar, gdocs and more…. Check it out…It’s made my life much easier.
It reminds me of the Adobe Flash/Macromedia and iPhone conflict which has been going on. Apple refuses to include Flash Player. Adobe follows suit by displaying a somewhat aggrevated message when you open the Flash Player website on the iPhone.
Hmmm, and what if. . . what if Microsoft and Apple released a product together? Is it possible?
Great post! Very enlightening.
Hello, I also experienced the same thing. Each product will have flaws and that’s what happened today. If a product is made perfect, it’s called a monopoly and of course the other products will not sell. We as consumers have to combine several products to get that perfection. I call this the ‘law of markets “.
Please correct if I’m wrong.
Thank you.
I may be the last person on earth who still loves the good
‘ole paper and pen. Technology is over-rated in my book.
I too am on a journey of life, faith, and intention. Please feel free to check out my recent post to find out what fear is holding you back in life.
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Much love,
Shan
You’re totally on this! I find myself CONSTANTLY searching for plugins and workarounds in order to get my mac to perform somewhat basic operations. A great example is my LAME converter… I had to search around for ages in order to find a LAME integrated music converter that was at all easy to use, and even then it came coupled with bad ripping software. So when I could simply just use a single program on windows, I have to use a combination of MAX and a patched XLD in order to do any CD ripping and/or file conversion.
Congratulations on being featured on Freshly Pressed!
I understand your frustration as I’ve always been a Mac person at home and a PC one at work. I still tend to keep my most important appointments written in a small day-timer in my briefcase so that the sync problem doesn’t stress me out.
Thank you everythingneat! It certainly made my week. I agree about the stability of low tech. I’m my most organized with my master and daily lists when I use a good spiral bound. I’ve just surrendered to the siren song of having my calendar, tasks, notes, contacts, music, podcasts, phone, games, navigational system, Bible……all together in something the size of a deck of cards! But the shiny stuff comes at a cost (not just monetary).
There are a few apps out there that sync well together & others that might never. I’m learning which to use & which not to. It’s tough & frustrating.
Great Blog!
I’m just down with not using the best of everything. Apple, Google, and Microsoft are competitors each trying to provide the products that the most people want to buy. It’s not surprising that they wouldn’t cooperate, they’re trying to beat on another. It is too bad though, it would be nice if everything would just work the way we wanted it to.
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We have a few of everything in my household, now if I could just get them to morph into a super cool Power Ranger, I could rule my house!!
Also, my son would think I’m way cooler than I am.
well i think they want to first of all saturate the market and get their profit before looking making their products or appliances work together.That goes a long way to show you that consideration is not about the consumer,majorly,it is about the inventor’s brand,profit etc.
GsyncIt has been an invaluable tool for me using Outlook and Google Calendar/Contacts. Since iPhone does use both Google and Exchange Active Sync I keep the GsyncIt pluging running on my home desktop Outlook and it keeps everything updated.
http://www.daveswebsite.com/software/gsync/
http://www.introspect.me/
I agree 100% with your frustration!
I loved this post. I wish I could integrate everything in my life more easily. I’m still rocking an old school flip phone and I’ve been without a contract for 3 years. I guess what I’m waiting for is never going to happen.