Response to Steve Jobs' Open Letter Regarding Adobe Flash
What's up, Inter-Tubes?!
Yea, I don't blog much any more. But, I do want to take a moment to do a quick post.
I'm a tech nerd, and what got me into technology... My small little Catholic school in Daytona Beach, back when I was in the 1st Grade in 1983, had the money to invest in a small computer lab. And what did we have? Apple IIe. Like many kids of my generation, we were awed by the dancing bear when you got a math problem right or spending a lunch break playing Oregon Trail. Apple Computers were a huge, huge deal. And when my finally got its first computer, I lobbied hard for a Macintosh. But what did we end up getting? An IBM, thus making me the Microsoft fanboy that I am today (to prove that it all comes back around again, my current laptop's a Lenovo, formerly IBM's personal computing division). Like many at the time, my family felt that Apple's were toys but IBM's were computers.
What brought about this image? It wasn't that you couldn't accomplish many things on an Apple. It was that Apple wanted so much control over the things that you did on their machines that developers went to the more open platform offered by DOS and then by Windows. And it wasn't just what you could do on the computers, but also the computers themselves. DOS, to the chagrin of IBM, wasn't a proprietary system... It was available to any computer maker and could be customized to do whatever task that was needed. While Apple computers were usually technologically-superior, it didn't matter if its superiority didn't do anything you wanted it to.
Controlled environment vs. open platform? Hmm... Sounds familiar. Yes, after Steve Jobs resuscitated Apple from near-oblivion, it seems like his original business model may hurt the company once again. Instead of the personal computer platform, Apple is using its dominant position in the mobile and portable devices platform. With the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, Apple has a dominant position when it comes to mobile devices. They use it now to bully those who wish to develop for it. If you want to develop for any of Apple's mobile platforms, you have to cow-tow the Apple line, just as developers had to do in the 1980's with Macs.
Here's the thing... When you create your own world, you can set the terms for those who choose to live in it if you want to. But in an environment such as technology, with so many creative types, they're not going to stand idly by while you set boundaries when they can choose another environment without rules. I believe this is already beginning to happen in the mobile environment. Now that there's a lineup of devices using Google's open-source Android software. While it's limited to phones right now, the talk of their own slates to rival the iPad will likely be out before the holidays. Now, you have once again Apple - with their one device that only does what Apple wants it to do - against a more open system, this time Android available on a variety of different devices and customizable to do what you'd like.
C'mon Apple... You know what you're doing is wrong and it won't stand for much longer. I have an iPhone, and I like it, but I imagine my next phone will have an Android OS. Every time I see the blue Lego when surfing on it, I want to throw the phone across the room. Why would I want to get an iPad for it's great Internet surfing experience when I can't use it to surf the Internet?! I don't use the iPhone capabilities as an iPod, either. Apple's desire to control what's available on the iTunes store and pricing is such a turn-off when you can use Amazon to get a better price or Zune Marketplace to get an unlimited subscription. I'm just saying, it seems like once again your stubbornness will cost you in the end when your pop culture appeal flames-out (which, I believe, it inevitably will).
I'm not here to damn Apple, even as a Microsoft fan... Apple has always proven to be the king of innovation in the tech environment, and one can only imagine what the landscape would be like right now had Apple failed in the 1990's, as they were so close to doing. I just want an open and fair environment for developers and not to be dictated as to what I want by some preppy in a black turtleneck.
P.S. - Gotta love the irony in Jobs' open letter talking about how he refuses to support Flash because it's a completely proprietary property. Hmm...
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