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In defense of Apple

Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

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Apple has been getting a lot of flak recently, from us as well as elsewhere. People aren’t happy the the iPhone App Store isn’t allowing Google Voice, or in general about the policy of not allowing any app that does something already available from Apple.

Apple is scared of competition, stifling innovation and generally annoying people by not doing whatever it is people want. I’m not sure things should have got so bad, despite my earlier claim they might be losing their cool.

It is certainly true that if Microsoft was seen as being this controlling today, it would get roasted by the press (as it has done in the past). But I think Microsoft are in a very different position, as they have a massive market lead over the rest, and unless you can pay more for an Apple,  or are brave enough for the uber-tech-nerd world of Linux, you will use Microsoft. So they’d better listen to people, as people mostly aren’t using them by choice.

But you choose to use a Mac, or to buy an iPhone. Apple products are beautifully designed, incredibly user friendly, and generally don’t crash. People loved the iPhone when it came out, but now it’s being demonized for not being able to do something it has never been able to do. Maybe the iPhone would be improved with Google Voice –  but it’s no worse without it. It seems a great deal of this is that users feel they are being denied a free service, but you can’t blame companies for wanting to maintain revenue.

To me, people are wrongly assuming that because they own a product, they have a say in its development. They don’t. Apple, like Nintendo, make incredible products by not listening to people, and being secretive. There may be odd things that other companies do better, but none of them get the whole package as right as the iPod and Mario creators. When lowly users are allowed to get involved, you get a big mess as the Simpsons showed us years ago with “The Homer” automobile.

As for exploding iPods: that just sounds cool!

Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

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