After my post this week where I expressed my disappointment that Apple has chosen to almost deliberately screw people who had the "audacity" to tinker with their expensive iPhones, I received a post which embodied the very point my post was trying to make. That is the mindless, aimless and deft argument that Apple can do no wrong. Merely mentioning a disappointment was enough to send one to make a comment that only stated the position that I had already mentioned in my post. No originality in its thinking. It is akin to the mainstream media's repeating Bush's talking points. The Apple fanboys are merely repeating the Apple issued mantra of "we told you from the start we were not going to support third party applications and we also said that 'it is POSSIBLE that the update will render your phone inoperable.'" Blah, Blah, Blah. This does not address my main point. Why pursue those early adopters (not to mention the significant price drop only 72 days after release)? Why pursue those who are so fascinated with the product that they spend countless hours trying to INCREASE functionality? Why treat them as criminals? According to the comment to my post, apparently to modify a phone is somehow immoral and also breaching your contract. Perhaps this person should take a remedial course in contracts. Hacking the phone does not cancel the contract, for if this was the case then ATT would cancel your contract. WIll that happen? Hardly. Will it void the warranty? Yes. So what. Immoral? Jesus, when did your allegiance to a corporate entity turn into some sort of self righteous morality? Do you not realize that contracts are broken all them time. Contracts are like anything in business. It is a calculus of expenses. If breaching a contract would be financially or strategically beneficial and outweighs the potential liability, they'll breach away. Stop living in your Rush Limbaugh bubble of superiority, for this IS the real world. Until you have gone behind the scenes with large businesses negotiating contracts you have not the experience nor the knowledge to presume to tell me what the real world is.
So... back to Apple. As I eluded to in my post. The closest analogy I can think of is Metallica. To refresh one's memory. During the heyday of Napster, Lars Ulrich, Metallica's drummer and spokesperson went on a crusade to stop illegal filesharing. They tracked down users IP addresses of users and sued them. While no one questioned his legal foundation for doing so, the public backlash was LOUD and proved to be quite disruptive. Sales of subsequent albums tanked and permanent damage had been done to their core fans. Metallica looked like greedy, rich, arrogant bastards who were pursuing working class, ordinary people for loving thier music. In the end, only Metallica lost. Just Google Metallica torrent to see if Lars' quest had any significant meaning. Are downloading torrents still illegal? Sure, but the demand to listen to this band remains-albeit without the impassioned quality they had thrived on for nearly two decades. The aftermath was so severe that they hired a psychologist to work with them. This is fucking Metallica running around with a self-help guru- hardly the image that their base wants to see. Personally I loved the movie as I found it incredibly insightful, but I am certainly not one of their "base," but I digress.
So we now have Apple doing the same thing. But here it is even worse. At least Metallica had the argument that filesharing was against the law. Modding the iPhone may void the warranty but it is certainly not against the law. First the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) specifically excludes unlocking. It is possible that the there could be some other violation, but it is grey at best and would certainly set precedent if it did. But they are going after those who are their most loyal fans. Hardly anyone is complaining that such activity voids the warranty, but rather that this is a heavy handed tactic. I've heard comparisons to MS and Sony on the X-Box and Playstation. EXACTLY. Sony and MS quickly attacked those who modded their machines. BUT look at their image? How many would say that MS is good to their end users? Lest I remind everyone of Windows ME? Must I remind you that Dell has gone back to XP from Vista because of the problems? How about Sony? Sony, who invented the small music format but was so fucking stubborn that they missed their opportunity and are just now in 2007 abandoning their ATRAC codec used on MiniDisc (in fairness to Sony, the codec was exceptional). Both of these companies, at one point in their history, were the gold standard. Growing up if you had a Sony Trinitron, you were cool. Remember when the MS mouse first appeared? A work of art! With Windows 95, Microsoft finally blew past Apple's then aging OS 9 and I made the switch to them after being a loyal Apple customer since 1988.
Like Apple switching to Intel, so too has MS yielded on their stubborness and incorporated far more Mac-like features into their products. When it comes to phones, Windows Mobile and Smartphone have far surpassed Palm, relegating it to the dustbin of posterity. WM6 Smartphone is a decent OS. It is very functional and highly customizable (notice that customizable is not a fucking bad thing Apple!). There is a large developer community and MS works with them to encourage its expanded usage. The iPhone, like many Apple products, simply leapfrogs ahead of any offering from Samsung, Microsoft, and the giant Finnish Nokia. Despite the claims by HTC (a Taiwanese company that is putting out some amazing products and the company that made my last phone, the T-Mobile Dash) that they have a product as advanced as the iPhone, I remain skeptical. But Apple is blowing this opportunity to embrace their biggest fans and, instead giving them the Metallica-like treatment.
Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, Metallica, Microsoft, Napster
