Function Keys

There are many reasons why PC's aren't as good as Macs. But vast population doesn't understand them. Regulators attempt to regulate a market where they have no expertise. Apple's PR encourages magical thinking that further obscures the dynamics of its own success. Thus it seems appropriate to analyze the differences between PC's and Macs to find out what Apple's approach is really successful and why regulators' fashionable Apple-bashing is dangerous.

One object that works very differently on PC's and Macs is function keys. On PC's, function keys are rarely used beyond F1 for help documentation. Their bindings are arbitrary and hard to figure out. Comparatively, Macs build function keys into the OS for display brightness, Expose, Launchpad, etc. Each with explicit purpose and properly decorated, function keys on Macs serve as fast shortcuts to frequently used OS controls.

It's clear that Mac's function key design offers much better utility than PC counterpart. Why do PC's miss the point?

Part of it is the segregation of the PC world. One buys CPU from Intel, OS from Microsoft, and all sorts of parts from different vendors. The doctrine is that a diverse market offers more choices. However, market segregation makes integrated innovation difficult since it's often the case that nobody agrees with each other. It's almost certain that Microsoft considered copying Apple's function key design, but can not do it because it doesn't control hardware beyond Surface series.

Thus, Apple's whole product innovation approach really offers value beyond ostensible market competition. Similar things happen to Social Security, but regulators often don't acknowledge it. Here, it's emphasized that breaking up Apple is not only destroying a superior business model, but also annihilating tremendous values for consumers. They are not going to find products better than PC's.

Hope regulators can learn some lessons what makes Apple successful, and don't try to destroy it under the name of market competition.