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Thursday, October 30, 2008
Mr. Jobs,
I am an enthusiastic switcher that has brought many friends, colleges, and clients to Macintosh platform. I love Apple products and the experience associated with it. While I understand one company can not be all things to all its customers, I would think healthy competition would be something Apple to welcome. However, based on recent reports of the App Store refusing applications such as Podcaster and now the Opera Mini browser, I would seem to think Apple is actually scared of it. This surprises me coming from a company that defied all odds in the late 90s to which Michael Dell suggested that Apple close down and pay off its stock holders. Yet here we are a decade later with Apple worth more than the company named after Michael to hear it saying, ‘No!’ to apps that are “similar to other iPhone applications’.
I guess your true intent for the iPhone is drive its overwhelming success into the ground much like you did with the original Macintosh in 1986. Make it a close system and you become the gatekeeper. Prevent competition and hold the keys tightly. Steve, what if AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and all the other carriers had told you years ago when you brought the iPhone to them, “No, your phone is too similar to other devices we carry”? You would have fought tooth and nail to have one of them open their network to Apple. But here you are, closing your network. Why? What possible reason could you have that would be justifiable? Your company just recently threw its support to a controversial proposition with a statement saying marriage shouldn’t be held back from any one. Then Apple turns around and tells its customers that they do not have the right to choose what browser or podcatcher they want. Have you knocked at the door of Hypocrisy this Halloween, Steve?
Don’t kill a great platform with your anti-competitive practices, Steve. Stop tricking us into thinking Apple rocks when it just keeps ruining our treats with such foul offerings in our bag. Do the right thing, Steve. Do the right thing.
October 31st, 2008 at 14:54
I wish these kind of posts would end….
Opera makes a whole lot of sense on the desktop, where interesting UI elements can improve the user experience, and where much effort has already been made to fork browser code to work on multiple browsers…
Flash to the iPhone. User interface is MINIMAL (URL, search, forward back bookmarks). But, do we really want to create a moving target of several different browsers to test against and support? Do we now add a mechanism to decide what application becomes the default browser? What I care about is the fidelity of my web experience, which I feel will be way compromised if there are multiple browsers on the iPhone…
Look, Apple was VERY clear “NO OTHER BROWSERS”
They said it in March. They said it in July. They said it again to Opera (as if there was any doubt they would say no) and now Opera is trying to get the community to get “Up in arms” over something that they already knew was not going to pass. This is not a popularity contest. No one, especially Apple, cares that if someone starts a campaign (“my app was denied, woe is me, start a letter writing campaign to get my app in the store”)
And then, you are trying to compare the iPhone to the Mac? Did the Mac ever make sales like this? Did it ever lead its category? The most Macs there ever were was 10% of the market, and that was long after Steve left (although it is coming back now), The original Mac came in 1984, not 1986. Did a close system stop the NES? How about the Playstation? I thought not…
You write:
“What possible reason could you have that would be justifiable?”
Um, how about a consistent user experience on a device meant to be more of an appliance than a computer. How about not forking JavaScript for those developing iPhone browser apps. Or not forking the CSS implementation. Or preventing support headaches. Or preventing a backdoor way for Java and Flash to get on the iPhone that will muddle the user experience (they are so heavily dependent on “roll over” events) and force many developers sitting on the fence about doing TRUE AJAX instead of Flash to go right back to Flash? I’m just getting started….
“Then Apple turns around and tells its customers that they do not have the right to choose what browser or podcatcher they want. Have you knocked at the door of Hypocrisy this Halloween, Steve?”
Again – Apple said this WHEN THEY OPENED DEVELOPMENT TO THE iPhone. They said it again in July. How is this Apple turning around? They never ever hinted that they will allow other browsers (which again, would differentiate each other how exactly?) Sure seems that many people are embedding webkit IN their apps, essentially creating alternative browsers, without the headache of supporting multiple renderers/interpreters on a limited resources device…
KILL a great platform? You serious? You really think anyone who went out and bought an iPhone is clamoring for another browser? You think Apple is selling LESS iPhones because of this?
Can we PLEASE have some more intelligent discourse over the no browser stuff, and a cessation of the non-stop complaining about Apple doing EXACTLY what they said all along they were going to do?
October 31st, 2008 at 14:58
Oh yeah, and if they REALLY want a different browser, go the Omnicab route – embed Webkit in your own value added UI (if you can come up with something so earthshaking for the iPhone that could improve the UI experience of the Safari browser) Maybe then we can revisit this…