Unlike many tech companies, Apple has a long-range vision. Maybe you didn’t see how the iPod would develop, the ongoing improvements in the iPhone or the path from Mac OS X 10.0 to 10.6, but there’s little doubt Apple had broad concepts about the direction of these products from Day One.

I wasn’t surprised when I learned that there was a program to develop a version of Mac OS X for Intel processors years before Steve Jobs announced the switchover at a WWDC. Sure it had only been rumored for quite some time, but a responsible company would always keep the options open, and Jobs was quoted as saying just that when questioned about the future of the PowerPC.

Of course, the tech press generally doesn’t have a concept of long-range goals, although one recent article outlined the substantial but incremental changes you see in each generation of an Apple product. But you don’t see the end game until you take a look at the entire picture after several years have passed. Then a smile comes to your lips.

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In recent years, it was widely assumed that Apple and Google were working together to combat Microsoft. That may have been true at one point in time, but a lot of things have since occurred hat have put Apple at Google at loggerheads.

The most recent salvo in this growing conflict was that intellectual property lawsuit against HTC, a Taiwan-based mobile phone manufacturer. The action, involving 20 Apple patents that they claim have been violated, is regarded as an action really targeted at Google. So HTC is supposedly the proxy.

Now that may, in part, be true, but one fact frequently overlooked is the fact that some of the devices mentioned in Apple’s complaint use the Windows Mobile OS. So what does Google have to do with that?

More to the point, one key reason for Apple to go after HTC is because that company appears to be the largest maker of Android devices. I suspect Apple’s attorneys have reasoned that, without being installed on any devices, Android would be nothing more than an idea, not a source of infringement. It’s only when it’s actually used on a shipping product that the issue arises.

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Sometimes I feel that I’m becoming the tech equivalent of the Media Matters Web site. That’s the one where they analyze what they regard as erroneous reports from their opponents. Since they have a liberal orientation, that means anyone with a conservative bent; their biggest target is Fox News.

But I have no political agendas to advance. I’m just interested in reading responsible and informed commentary and news about my favorite subjects. Contrary opinions don’t bother me, so long as they are based on logic and reason and not knee-jerk reactions to something that hits the wrong emotional nerve.

Unfortunately, far too many news sources, particularly the online variety, seek hits and ad revenues above everything, and the facts be damned! Combine that with the terrible proliferation of lazy research, where it doesn’t seem they are even doing a basic Google search, and you understand why such much misinformation passes muster.

I’m also deeply concerned about the fact that some of the sources quoted in these stories have their own overt agendas that make anything they say suspect. Unfortunately, what they say is taken as near-gospel anyway.

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When I suggested recently that we had returned to the silly season, perhaps a little earlier than I might have expected, I didn’t know how right I was. A recent article, from a site that I won’t name, is now suggesting that the iPad is the first nail in the Mac’s coffin, that it won’t be long before only the Mac Pro remains in the lineup. We’ll all be using iPads real soon now, at least according to what’s being implied in that article.

Now there is some reason to believe that a portion of traditional Mac users might decide the iPad is all they need. That, of course, holds true for tens of millions of current Windows users, particularly those who have embraced those cheap netbooks.

The real issue, however, is what purpose the iPad serves in the real world. Yes, Apple will offer a single productivity suite, an iPad version of the various iWork apps, sold separately for $9.99 each. However, that is but one example, and unless or until there are loads of such products available, the iPad is destined to be largely a consumption device.

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