A side question. I personally believe that RSS is a failure, and I don't know why. There are easy comments and responses to this, but I am looking for something deeper - an analysis that would show how it could be changed and adopted on a wider basis.
My context:
When Apple introduced the iPhone and it was a success almost everyone introduced an "iPhone Killer". The zune being a prime example. They were announced with much glee and anticipation. They were not products of flimsy development and thought processes, but serious failures for companies like Microsoft. No one, that I remember, was able to point compelling reasons why the new products would fail, but they inevitably did. Over and over.
How and why did these phones fail? If you have read the book "Flatland", you perhaps came away with a vision of how creatures living in two dimensions would perceive actions that used a third dimension. As I did. Things would magically appear and disappear in a way would leave the Flatlanders completely perplexed. This imaginary "missing dimension" experience reminds of how bewildered people were that the Zune and other iPhone killers failed.
What could that dimension be? My guess is the human dimension. I don't mean in trivial ways like user friendly, I rather as way for people to find it useful and helpful.
My question then, if anyone wants to try, is what would one have to do to RSS to fix it?
[Note 1] Oddly, the OPML "blog roll" example resonates with me much more than RSS ever has.
[Note 2] I have repeatedly tried to use RSS and failed. Both as a provider and subscriber.
iPhones were expensive, so iPhones were mostly used by wealthy people. That made it attractive for companies to make iPhone apps: not because of market share, but because it was targeted to those willing to pay. Software developers were happy for the busy-work, and once a company had its own iPhone app they might as well mention it in their marketing. The public saw all this focus on iPhones and concluded that they must be more popular than they actually were (i.e. the only thing more desirable than a status symbol, is a status symbol you think everyone except you already has!). That boosted sales, making it more popular but reducing its correlation to wealth. At that point it was firmly established culturally, technologically, economically, etc. which makes it attractive via the usual market share arguments.
When Teslas came out in the model S format, they were the “iPhone of cars”, not just because of wealth (which is a piss-poor argument for why something succeeded btw), but because of a fundamental improvement in the essence of the category
If “status signaling” was really as significant an influence as you say, then every single original Macintosh would’ve been a huge hit and clearly was not. Every single Powerbook and Macbook as well, since those are more visible and portable. If you want to talk “fashion accessory,” then there are plenty of phones that were expensive as well at the time that did not take off either.
The reason why Apple was finally successful, is because Steve Jobs took a calligraphy class for fun instead of an engineering class, and all those things like the Zune were designed by engineers, first and foremost. Holistic thinking is not rational.
My context:
When Apple introduced the iPhone and it was a success almost everyone introduced an "iPhone Killer". The zune being a prime example. They were announced with much glee and anticipation. They were not products of flimsy development and thought processes, but serious failures for companies like Microsoft. No one, that I remember, was able to point compelling reasons why the new products would fail, but they inevitably did. Over and over.
How and why did these phones fail? If you have read the book "Flatland", you perhaps came away with a vision of how creatures living in two dimensions would perceive actions that used a third dimension. As I did. Things would magically appear and disappear in a way would leave the Flatlanders completely perplexed. This imaginary "missing dimension" experience reminds of how bewildered people were that the Zune and other iPhone killers failed.
What could that dimension be? My guess is the human dimension. I don't mean in trivial ways like user friendly, I rather as way for people to find it useful and helpful.
My question then, if anyone wants to try, is what would one have to do to RSS to fix it?
[Note 1] Oddly, the OPML "blog roll" example resonates with me much more than RSS ever has.
[Note 2] I have repeatedly tried to use RSS and failed. Both as a provider and subscriber.