“Microsoft is a monopolist, Apple is not” r u freakin kidding me? Apple IS everything people always feared Microsoft would become. They just just had really great marketing, or whatever it took, to convince people that they aren’t larger than Google, and that you will obey them at every turn, and that you will wait in line and shell out money when they say, or you will not be one of the coolest kids. Definitely not sticking up for MS, but Apple is the evil entity the Occupy Wall Street hippies should be protesting. Instead they’d probably all walk in traffic for a new iWhatever.
What’s really most annoying is that the only way to protest against these policies is to use the press as a bludgeon until the “Council of Apple Elders” figures out that they’ve stepped too far. Case in point, the subscription kerfuffle earlier in the year was quite egregious in that they demanded to have the best price possible when selling content through their store. As much as I love Apple products, I do not think anyone would enjoy living in a world where one company can basically dictate policy like that just because of the position they hold in the market.
Gotta agree with Joefrey above. There’s nothing I like better than haggling with a car salesman when it’s time to get a car. Or, comparing prices for groceries… so I get eggs, crackers and tuna from Walmart, but tomatoes, ham and soap from Kroger. Yep, bargain hunting is my dream! Oh, and cutting coupons? Bliss! Air fares? I love 'em!
Why oh why ever would we consumers want an environment where the price is guaranteed to be lowest?
A very long time ago I bought one of the early Mac models as my first computer. At the time it was great; I got a student discount for it so it was comparable to most of the other computers on the market, and I could get developer tools for it that included that holy grail of microcomputer programming back in the 80’s: an integrated debugger!
Oh, sure, I liked my Mac, but there weren’t many Mac programming jobs available in those days, what with John Sculley running Apple into the ground, so I made my living in the PC world, first on DOS, then in Windows. Eventually, Steve Jobs came back and resurrected Apple from the junk bin of tech history, but while I salute his genius, I now realize something about myself.
I am an adult now. I can make my own choices about what I put on my own devices, and what I program, and how I program it. If something gets screwed up, chances are that I screwed it up, and that I can fix it. I don’t need the hand holding and the training wheels any more.
Remember the famous iconic commercial that introduced the Mac back in 1984? The one with all the faceless, mindless drones staring at the screen? The irony is that Apple is the company that has shackled the consumer in to faceless, mindless conformity, because that was how Steve Jobs liked it. The box was always closed, because Steve could never bear to open it to anyone else.
So farewell and rest in peace, Steve. You really did change the world, and I salute your genius and your accomplishments. But I refuse to drink the Kool-Aid.
Isn’t this where Windows 8 is heading? It is scary stuff.
If Microsoft added a feature to Windows that duplicated a popular application’s functionality, developers would be screaming bloody murder and rioting in the, er, blogs and web forums.
… Really?
Well, maybe the ones who just got put out of business would be. But who the hell cares about them? Do they have some sort of right to be effectively subsidized by the core OS never improving in a way that obsoletes their product?
OSes don’t exist to make developers money. They exist to make money for the producer. And they do that by making users happy, because then users will choose that OS rather than the competing platforms.
Users are not happy that they need “your” app (Instapaper or whatever) to read something offline. Users are happy when they system comes with a good tool for that.
(Also, for information’s sake, are you new to following Apple?
Because Apple’s always done this sort of thing before. A lot.
It’s commonplace - remember Stuffit? Nope? Indeed, because nobody’s bought it in years, since OSX included compression and archiving in 10.3 rather than bundling Stuffit’s free version.
And Microsoft does it too - who buys or even installs the “free” WinZip anymore, now that Windows has built-in Zip support? The ten people who need some special feature that the base OS doesn’t include [and who don’t prefer 7zip].
It’s universal because it’s such an obvious idea, and so good for end-users.
Dave Haynes’ examples are even better - MSSE is brilliant, and I don’t care if the people at Symantec and Kaspersky don’t like it… Actually, having used their products, I hope they choke.)
(Also, more directly on point - “serving at the pleasure of the king” in the sense that “the OS might incorporate your functionality” is universal.
There’s no OS where that’s impossible; Windows does it, though not quite as often.
Android phone sellers can do it, as they want. Google sure will.)
I’m pretty amazed you think Microsoft has never done this. They have for years and far worse. In fact they have been sued multiple times for just that.
IPhone’s success is largely attributed to great quality of apps available in AppStore and Apple needs to be really little open on there popular AppStore otherwise they could lose the race with Android getting popular and getting more application, games and utility than currently available in Iphone.
Even though there are some hassles involved, the comparative freedom of Android makes it feel more simpatico to me.
I like physical keyboards. I like that I can load SL4A and lash together scripts in Python or Ruby right on the device. I like that I have access to the file system. I like that I can tweak the home screen to bring the stuff I care about front and center, with widgets and even third-party UI replacements.
It can be a pain to get everything set up the way I like it, but to me it’s just the same type of deal as provisioning a new Windows or Linux box.
There is a fine line between rigidly enforcing your standard and becoming a tyrant.
If Apple continues to be too Draconian in its policies they will simply drive developers away from their platform.
Why bother jumping through all of their hoops like licensing the Dev kit,learning Objective C, provisioning an app, blah blah blah when …
You could simply create a Mobile version of your Web App using a bolt-on library like iWebKit?
Contrary to your claim in this article, Microsoft has done the same thing. Two examples: built in zip compression, and free anti virus software. There are other examples. If you don’t want to be copied, patent. If your software is non-obvious, do you really have something to get upset over?
"I consider the iPhone the single most insidious piece of technology in human history.
It’s single-handedly gotten everyone comfortable with the idea of walled gardens and not having complete control of their hardware."
This is really stupid considering the history of carrier control over their hardware.
Being in the court of the king is not a problem; provided you have the option to leave and you don’t lose your stately home by defecting to another king.
The problem is that the king has locked developer in by having an API and language that is so different to any other kingdom.
Users are locked in to a lesser extent by having to rebuy all their apps (and music) if they move to another kingdom.
So for new king to get a large kingdom, what about the new king giving free credits to buy apps to any users to move other and making it as easy as possible for a developer to move as well?
As a developer you could implement a web app instead of an iPhone app; however that is like being a mouse that sits until the king’s table eating some of the crumbs, rather than being a servant that gets to eat the prime left over food.
Wow, what a great article, probably the best you have written.
For all those saying Apple is not a monopolist …
The iphone is a computer with a modem, just because it fits in the palm of your hand doesnt make it any different. If any other company was to apply the same business practices to say a laptop or a desktop, people would be screaming bloody murder.
With Windows you can open zip files, mount virtual drives, create DVDs, automatically shuffle your Desktop background on a timer, and with Security Essentials, you can also scan for threats. These were all things that you used to have to install a third-party application to perform. I don’t see how this is any different than Apple implementing the same functionality as a third-party app into its OS.
Mexicotom and Todd Janes are right. I remember when these things used to require 3rd-party apps on Windows: zip compression, anti-virus software, virtual drives, DVD burning, Desktop background shuffling, and the list goes on.
In fairness, Instapaper relies on an extremely basic idea which makes sense for Apple (or anyone) to incorporate as a built-in feature.