I think the IPhone, the IPad, the ITouch and the Mac are very well designed products. They work great, and they have an elegant design that is revolutionary. Apple has undoubtedly changed the user interface and as a result, the user experience with technology. All these things are wonderful, but I won’t use their products (well, except for my IPod).
My problem with Apple is the strict control they exert over the applications that work with their products. On Dec 21, Jemima Kiss of http://guardian.co.uk wrote an article called:
Apple pulls Wikileaks app, but Android apps remain
Developer ‘Igor Barinov’, or @wikileaksapp on Twitter, said the app was removed “without reasons’ by Apple. He’d earlier said that half the money raised from sales of the app, which cost $1.99, would be donated to Wikileaks and claimed $1,000 had been raised by Sunday, mostly from US sales. Barinov appears to be based in Russia.
If you want an application, you need to get it through the Apple App Store. If apple doesn’t like the application, they can simply not offer it through the app store, and you as a customer will not be able to get the application.
As a long time *NIX user, I have been enjoying OpenSystems software and development for many years. In my opinion, I should be able to load whatever I want onto my device, and use it. While I don’t have any Android devices yet, that is the path I will go down. I’ll be picking Android and Linux based devices from companies that support applications development.
Here is some posts regarding Apple’s relationship with developers:
http://amix.dk/blog/post/19495
http://www.paulgraham.com/apple.html
http://www.slidetoplay.com/story/apple-not-comfortable-with-gaming-on-iphone-allege-developers
Some other articles:
Apple’s Censorship: Bad for Customers, Worse for Bottom Line
It’s Time to Declare War Against Apple’s Censorship
Apple Censorship Reaches New Level of Stupid: Daisy Mae Pulled (FNAR!)
Defending Apple’s App Store censorship
