Oblong -- the next Apple? Or are they just the next Commodore?

Google is the greatest web company ever. They weren't the first one, though. And in fact, most of the things they did were things others were already offering to the general public, except that they just made it all better:

• Web Search (Yahoo, AltaVista). 
• Web E-mail (Yahoo). 
• Chat (Yahoo). 
• Office Suites (Microsoft). 
• Maps (Yahoo). 
• Translation (AltaVista? Babelfish). 
• App/Media Stores (Apple). 
• Online Storage (Dropbox). 
• Calendars (Apple? Well maybe they're the first one here). 
• Modern Mobile Operating Systems (Apple). 
• Web Browsers (Microsoft, Firefox, Apple). 
• Desktop Operating Systems (Microsoft, Apple). 
• RSS Readers (Not too familiar with these, actually. Maybe they were the first?). 
• Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter). 
• Photo Organizers (iPhoto, etc.). 
• And recently, Mobile Phones (iPhone), 
• Tablets (iPad), 
• Laptops (Macbooks and Notebook PCs), and 
• Desktops (Macs and Windows PCs).

YouTube and Blogger? Acquisitions. YouTube is now this really big thing, of course. What I think is second biggest, Vimeo, although a great service, is not even close. Blogger is not as much feature-filled like WordPress, but it's free and it's simple.

The only things that I know and can recall now that Google was first at and that are great are Earth and Wave, and the latter has now even met its death and reincarnated somewhere on the big web.

And practically all of those are software. Their hardware products are only made by partners, and are really only meant to feature their software.

Apple, on the other hand, was one of the first companies that brought the "personal" computer to the masses -- to contrast with the big thing at that time, Big Blue, a.k.a. IBM, who practically owned the word "computer" by manufacturing these huge mainframe computers aimed at businesses. Commodore, in the 70's, was one of those first companies that found success like Apple. There was also Atari, but let's leave them out for the purposes of this discussion. Commodore made similarly great products as did Apple, but they went bankrupt by the early 90's. (Though that happened mostly because of Microsoft.)

IBM started their own line of personal computers in the very early 1980's -- using the same computing paradigm as the first Apples and Commodores; i.e. a command-line interface (i.e. DOS-like interfaces). Microsoft was also starting at this time, and they partnered with IBM to make DOS for IBM's PCs. And soon, for "IBM clones."

Apple brought the graphical user interface (GUI) -- along with the "mouse" -- to the masses in the early 80's as well. Microsoft soon caught up, had a better business plan, and took over GUI computing with Windows 3.0 in 1990. Until today, most of us are still using the same GUI+mouse computers (though there's the trackpad and trackballs and the ThinkPad red nipple, too). Apple also brought us the LaserPrinter during this early time (and probably the concept of WYSIWYG, together with Adobe), and then the Newton (predecessor of Palm Pilots -- and perhaps of today's modern smartphones and tablets).

But then Apple introduces to the masses yet again a new computing paradigm, touch (and later voice), starting in 2007, and new computing form factors that featured these -- smartphones and tablets and media players. Forward to 2012, their platform is not the #1 anymore, although their products in individual categories are probably still the bestsellers. 2007 minus 1984 = 23 years before a new wave of change. You can argue that the introduction of Siri in 2011 is a new wave of change, but the voice paradigm is not really here yet. I think it's not the next big thing, it's only going to be a part of the next big thing. Like, you know, keyboards, touch or physical, aren't going away. There's the Wii and the Kinect and so on. But what is the next big thing?

Ever heard of The Minority Report, the movie? Or, noticed Tony Stark's computers in the recent Iron Man movies?

Well, I heard about this company who are studying how to bring those kinds of computers to the masses. The company is called Oblong Industries. Check them out in the video below:


Or watch the video in a larger player directly from The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/21/3674396/on-the-verge-episode-011-oblong-industries

My question is, are they going to be the next Apple? Or are they going to be the next Commodore? If they are the next Commodore, will there be another Apple-like company who will put them on the path to bankruptcy? Or, if they are the next Apple, will there be a Microsoft- or Google-like company who will keep them from being the dominant player too long? Time will only tell. I'm excited for the next 10 to 20 years.