Exactly. It is actually sad to see Parse shutting down. I have built a few apps with Parse and they have been working well. It's true that we shouldn't rely too much on 3rd party service provider but we shouldn't ignore the bright side too.
I just had a lesson about e-commerce in the last semester. My professor said it would be much better if the price includes the shipping fee (if the fee has no big variation) since customers hate calculating the total price by themselves. They would also feel paying less if they do not see the extra cost.
This trend is foreseeable. Mobile devices are replacing part of the function of the PCs. Besides, the growth of hardware is much faster than the software. A 7-years old PC is still performing well if we only require basic function. We do not need a new one. The sales figures will keep declining if there is not new value provided by PC.
I think this kind of intelligent personal assistant is quite useless. Especially for people who are non-native English speaker. The voice recognition is bad and always requires internet connection. This kind of software consumes computing & storing resources.
I don't think it is a good idea for any company to integrate it in the OS.
China: We passed the law. Everyone on earth knows we are controlling the internet.
U.S.: We support freedom but due to national security, we can control the internet without passing the law. By the way, please help us to hunt Edward Joseph Snowden. He violates our definition of freedom and transparency. Thank you!