Wall Street Journal Welcomes iPhone Overlords
The Wall Street Journal has raised the spectre of smartphones replacing laptops, not even realising, it seems, that it is a spectre. Apple’s “cutting-edge” iPhone is held up throughout the article, without a hint of irony, as the prime example of the sort of device that the author sees one day bumping your main mobile computer into a Sarlacc Pit. No mention at all is made of the completely closed and capriciously-controlled nature of application development through the iPhone’s App Store (practical unofficial alternatives to which, in a 180-degree turn from its tolerance of MP3s on an iPod, Apple specifically blocks or limits from its playground).
Apparently, the Journal finds perfectly agreeable the prospect of herds of formerly free-range computer users being corralled into an unholy pen where they will not be permitted to download any new form of software without Apple’s express, case-by-case approval; in fact, the financial rag breathlessly anticipates that the old regime (which happens to safeguard our increasingly unfashionable ability to choose what we can run on our devices) will be willingly relinquished. Perhaps they’d like to volunteer to close and lock the gates when the deed is done?
Now, here’s the part of this Wes Craven nightmare where self-satire turns to horror…
The Journal’s prediction — while ethically tone-deaf — might be right. Apple has already blown right past its widely ridiculed ’10 million phones’ target for 2008, and shows no signs of letting up. So, if you are feeling at all ‘no-big-deal’-ey about this, before you retire to a remote forest cabin to have sex with other clueless teenagers, be forewarned: this rough beast indeed slouches toward Bethlehem to be born.
Advocating a boycott of the iPhone at this point (or of any companies that try to emulate its obviously successful business model: and they will, cf. Zune) is probably a lost cause. By all means, if you feel like doing something, look into Google’s much-talked-about, freedom-loving G1 — or even a Windows Mobile phone would fit the open-platform bill.
But this won’t be enough. It’s the independent application developers themselves who are going to have to bust out their Obi Wan Kenobis here; they’re our only hope. And there are some signs that there may be significant resistance among them to the idea of signing up as complicit contractors aboard Apple’s anti-rebel-coder mobile death star. Not only have some well-regarded formerly iPhone-friendly developers refused on principle to submit their code to Apple’s casual disregard, but a highly touted developers’ conference called ‘iPhone Boot Camp’ in New York simply failed to happen due to lack of interest, and another conference, called ‘iPhone Live’, was cancelled as a “necessary business decision” — a euphemism that Ars Technica interprets as, ‘We built it but they didn’t come.’
That’s exactly what developers (and bloggers: yes, this means you) need to be saying about the iPhone; yeah, they built it, but we won’t come. Not until Apple gets its head on straight, or sticks a pin in it, or whatever it is it has to do to stop Vadering out and start rediscovering the Anakin within. Then we’ll all be able to enjoy the iPhone and its inevitable emulators in the smartphone space, without tattooing Lando Calrissian on our asses and handing the rebels among us over to some traffic-directing, techno-earmuff-wearing dude from the Wall Street Journal.
To be clear, this is my message to Apple: Quit with the ominous mouth-breathing. Open up the App Store to all comers, and institute a store-wide ratings system through which to indulge your elitist tastes. Either that, or allow developers to distribute their creations independently of the Store, without limit. Most preferably, both.
If you do this, I’ll be the first in line thereafter to sell my stuff for your phone, and I will trumpet your Jedi-like mastery of the touch interface, far and wide. But until that day, my sympathies are squarely with the younglings. They are the future, and for them your smartphone virtuosity may come at a terrible, dark price.
PLQ.
[Submitted by The Laroquod Experiment.]
I hope everyone embraces the message to Apple. I can’t help but wonder how many people who complain about DRM music have NO problem whatsoever allowing an imperial overlord to dictate what they can or can’t do on their devices.
Boggles the mind.
One minor nitpick. Saying the WSJ is ethically tone deaf is kind of assuming that they know anything about ethics in the first place. Then again, that’s just me. 😀
with the ability to put skype on a jailbroken iphone though you cant expect a fully endorsed open source free for all from apple… just putting it out there…
Open source is not what I expect from Apple — just an open platform. This is about the freedom to publish your finished binary on the iPhone without seeking Apple’s approval; it has nothing to do with Apple’s or anyone else’s source code. Open *source* is a techno-political movement. Open *platforms* have just been ordinary, common-sense, standard operating procedure in personal computing since the original Apple computer was just a glimmer in Wozniak’s eye … until 2008.
k without splitting hairs TOO much let me rephrase what i said without using the words open source, with the ability to put skype on a jailbroken iphone cant expect apple to not want control as to what gets put on their phones… I realize they are uber nazis with a penchant for being vague in regards to what gets approved or not, which is not cool, BUT, apps are a different beast then DRM’d music…
Why don’t they just close the Mac, too, then? Have you heard that *Microsoft* makes applications for the Mac?! Some of them even compete with Apple’s own. They must be stopped! /sarcasm
If we agree to special dictatorial rules for the smartphone space, and the Wall Street Journal turns out to be right about them replacing laptops, then all is lost…
I can and do expect more from Apple.
dude if you were the CEO of AT&T or Rogers would you be fine and dandy with apple allowing skype on a product that they support?
think realistic bro… this is a new ballgame, im not saying im thrilled with it either but im not pretending apple only has apple to answer to…
people can jailbreak their phones if they so desire but you cant expect apple to act as if they arent in bed with other companies who would get pantsed in public by this
The fact that a slavemaster may be beholden to another slavemaster, does not make them any less a slavemaster, nor does it reduce the urgency at all of throwing off the chains. Let Apple and AT&T work out for themselves your little responsibility shell game — it means nothing to me as a consumer or a potential developer; the important thing is that we push developers and bloggers not to play ball on a rigged field — especially if that field turns out to be as central and important to ‘the game’ as the Wall Street Journal seems to believe.
P.S. Asking people to ‘jailbreak’ their phones before installing your application, will bar them from getting any iPhone software updates from Apple without ditching your app or doing even more hacking — this is one of the ways Apple limits independent developers — and it’s a very severe limit, indeed. Saying ‘let them jailbreak’ is like saying, ‘If the slaves don’t like slavery let them break their chains and go on the run — we will do everything we can to hunt them down, but hey: at least they have that option.’
~The fact that a slavemaster may be beholden to another slavemaster, does not make them any less a slavemaster~
Paul im not arguing this
Im just not falling into the category of feigning shock that some products have arranged measures to protect their bottom line… Id like to live in a world where we flew our poop at each other from grass huts as well but you cant collect airmiles that way 😀
LOL. froggy, I get it. I’m fighting a cause here, not ‘feigning shock’. I’m not feigning anything. If everyone shrugs their shoulders as you do, nothing will ever be changed. So I will counter your apathy with a strong dose of what-the-fuck-somebody-stand-up-for-what-is-right-already — every time.
what about apathy i didnt read everything you wrote
joke
😀
~Saying ‘let them jailbreak’ is like saying, ‘If the slaves don’t like slavery let them break their chains and go on the run — we will do everything we can to hunt them down, but hey: at least they have that option.’~
OR
they could just buy an HTC product
or the google phone
or a blackberry
Agreed!!
In related news today, it looks like Apple is using its App Store iron fist to block Opera from releasing a browser for the iPhone…
From the article (with thanks to Daring Fireball for the link)…
“Mr. von Tetzchner said that Opera’s engineers have developed a version of Opera Mini that can run on an Apple iPhone, but Apple won’t let the company release it because it competes with Apple’s own Safari browser.”
That, and blocking the fart joke app, rival podcast-aggregators, and adult comics, from the App Store — these have nothing to do with AT&T or Rogers, and show Apple to have become an independent slavemaster in its own right.
this is frivolous agreed, not surprising though
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