Jason Calicanis abandons reason in a lengthy, anti-Apple rant. Others have dismantled it fully, but I’ll add my two cents to a particularly frustrating passage. Jason writes:
“The funny/sad part of the debate so far has been the technology folks who are actually arguing for less choice in the name of ease of use/customer support. The fact is, allowing certain folks to easily/officially/legally jailbreak/unlock their phones is something Apple could do easily. Same with opening up iTunes or the App Store. Apple could easily make users flip a warning or two-like folks do on routers-when users opt-in to doing something a little more ‘hacky.’”
Abandon ease of use and customer support for more “choice?” Where do I sign up for that? Ask a system administrator how easy it is to support a network and users with a lot of “choice.” Let’s say, Jason, that Apple allows people to “…easily/officially/legally jailbreak/unlock their phones.” Then something goes wrong. Who’s responsible for the cleanup? Apple? Hell, no. But those users will beat a path to Cupertino for a “fix” to the problem they created.
If I want to put a hemi engine in my Volvo station wagon, that’s great. But it’s not Volvo’s issue when I’ve got a telephone pole in my front seat. Likewise, I can’t condemn Nintendo because my Wii won’t play PS3 games.
I’ve used Apple products since 1994 and have never felt hindered by a lack of choice. Everything works perfectly. Mail, iCal, Safari, my Macs, my iPhone, my iPod and my Apple TV do exactly what I want them to do every day. I add a calender event and pow! It’s everywhere. I download a podcast and it’s distributed just as quickly. Where’s the problem?
Because I can’t run any Windows or Linux app I want? Oops, I can, and Apple provides the how-to for free. Because I can’t use a music player with iTunes other than the iPod? Oops, I can.
To ask Apple to change their wildly successful business model to accommodate a small group of hackers and devotees is ridiculous.
Well said, Dave. Well said.
You are hearby my proxy for all responses to anti-Apple rants.
[...] months ago that was designed to draw outraged reaction from readers (I’m ashamed to say that I bit). Thoughtful debate was not Jason’s intention with that piece — he simply wanted the [...]