Apple you almost had me….

For the last few years my opinion on apple has actually been softening. Truth be told I was often jealous of what was possible on an idevice. The company had truly reached a new pinnacle of excellence. The iphone 4 is truly a remarkable device. The imacs are probably the best PCs on the market from a build perspective. And yes iOS is a phenomenal platform for developers because of its clear and streamlined hardware interfaces. An excellence in all these categories had earned apple the adulation of reviewers and consumers alike. Unfortunately Apple, you’re still the abusive spouse you’ve always been. It might be a stretch to compare gadget companies to significant others, but think about this if you have a smart phone how comfortable are you with someone poking around into everything on it. Sure you’ll let someone play a game or two, but do you want them reading all your emails, how about viewing all of your pictures and videos. Even with all of this I’ll admit, my perspective will stretch the concept but hopefully the narrative will be entertaining.

Ike Turner should have been on a Sony record label

Years ago I was in a long term relationship with another abusive gadget company, they made beautiful products, with muscly performance that could leave you breathless, we would go around town and people would constantly ask me about him. It felt good, people wanted to be me because I was with him… but they didn’t know what would happen behind closed doors. He’d…. he’d force me to do things I’d never done with another gadget. He had this bizarre fetish with these things called memory sticks, I can’t tell you how embarrassed I was asking for one in the middle of a crowded electronic store. Everything had to be his way. I had to listen to his music. I couldn’t do what I wanted to unless he specifically allowed me to. After a while things would seem okay but he would suddenly say he was unhappy with how things were going and he’d change all the rules,  he said if I didn’t like it I could leave, and finally after a long time I realized I was stronger than him and I could leave. So I did, the only regret I have is that it took me so long to realize how bad for me he was. Over the years we’ve seen each other a few times, and at times it seems he’s learned his lesson, he sees how bad he was, he’s put down his memory stick obsession, and has been trying to get better, for a while he had a fling with Linux (something I thought he could never do) but found her too full of life and abruptly cut things off. For a while I thought I saw him backsliding into old ways when he started talking about these things called UMDs but it was just a fad and he’s moved on. I still don’t think we’ll ever be gadget lovers again, but I hope that if he continues counseling and working on himself someday we can be gadget friends.

Apple just can’t help itself

What prompted this missive about apple is their newly announced subscription business model. A few weeks ago Sony released a version of their ereader software for android. While at first blush this isn’t news, both  Amazon and Barnes and Nobles both offer versions of their ereader software on android and iOS, so this was just a matching your competitors move. What made this unique though was Sony didn’t have an iOS app, it was still in the works. What was the hold up? After a few days Sony released a statement saying their iphone app had been blocked from itunes.  So what? Well the reason the approval was blocked was because it allowed in app purchases of books without giving apple a slice of the proceeds. Other developers, namely Amazon, have gotten around such restrictions by linking to a web page instead of having the program do the purchase itself. Until yesterday this discrepancy in apple's policy towards in app purchases remained questionable, would apple continue to allow developers to link to websites or force all purchase to run through the app store. Yesterday apple announced that all apps that are connected to outside products, services or subscriptions must be purchasable through the app store. Not only that products, services or subscriptions offered outside of the platform must be equal to or more than the in app equivalent.
Wal-Mart or the recording industry

Currently there are two perspectives on this announcement, Many see it akin to the strong arm tactics the recording industry employs leaving both the artist and the consumer poor, others see it like Wal-Mart just carving out exclusive deals for the products in their chain. Obviously I fall into the former category, though I don’t think what walmart does to get their prices low that harmless either. Back when CDs were all the rage people used to complain that the price of CD’s made no sense in comparison to the cost of the medium. The recording industry claimed that you were paying for the content. This argument failed to hold any water because at the same time, numerous artist were complaining about receiving little to none of the proceeds for the record sales. The truth is Apple like the recording industry and like walmart is taking advantage of their large installation base and jacking up some of their prices. As it stands for every dollar spent in itunes 30 cents goes apple. No matter how you slice it though it’s a sign of contempt from apple for its developers and customers alike.

Apple is not as big as they think they are

I can only hope that developers realize that the mobile retail space is not as cemented as the brick and mortar retail space seems to be. People change phones almost every two years With Google, Microsoft, RIM, and HP each having their own store fronts and considerable market share developers should realize apple needs them just as much as they need apple.