Advocates of Watson made by Karelia Software, LLC claim that Apple copied their product without permission, compensation, or attribution in producing Sherlock 3. Some disagree with this claim, stating that Sherlock 3 was the natural evolution of Sherlock 2, and that Watson was obviously meant to have some relation to Sherlock by its very name.
The phenomenon of Apple releasing a feature that supplants or obviates third-party software is so well known that being Sherlocked has become an accepted term used within the Mac and iOS developer community.
Usually something to do with running a tumblr full of Benedict Cumberbatch/Martin Freeman fanfic.
But in this case, it refers to the fact that there used to be a Mac app called Watson (made by Karelia Software) that let you search all your personal files. Then Apple added an OS feature called Sherlock that did the same thing and ripped the rug out from under the third party developer. (Sherlock has since been replaced by Spotlight in more recent MacOS versions)
By analogy, anyone making software in the Mac ecosystem (or any ecosystem really) risks being ‘Sherlocked’ by having their idea ripped off and turned into an OS feature.
Calling it ”sherlocked” is recency bias on our part. Apple learned it from Microsoft, who took a thing that happened from time to time and operationalized it into a full-blown business strategy.
One by one, Microsoft took aim at successful DOS and Windows applications, especially business applications, and displaced them. Lotus… WordPerfect… Everyone, really. Unless your app was for a niche too specialized to be worth the hassle, Microsoft wanted to use you for market research and then either buy you, buy your competitor, or clone you.
> Calling it ”sherlocked” is recency bias on our part.
It has been called “sherlocking” in the Mac sphere ever since the Sherlock 3 incident. Any bias is not on our part, as this was more than 20 years ago. Yes, some of us were there (I was, so maybe I share some responsibility), but the combination of the minuscule Mac market share at the time and its steady growth for the 2 following decades means that the people who were around at the time are a statistically insignificant fraction of us today.
It is not unique and in retrospect we can find many historical examples before that, but it was a particularly high-profile one, it made a lot of noise, and the name stuck. Also, most Mac users at this point avoided Windows (or eve worse, dog forbid, MS-DOS) like the plague so this would not have been in people’s minds.
When accused by Steve Jobs of ripping Apple’s technology and designs off, Bill Gates is said to have cooly replied:
"Well, Steve, I think there's more than one way of looking at it. I think it's more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it."
