The post I never thought I would write
This is indeed a dark day. Today is the day that I hang up my Apple Fanboydom forever.
Don't misunderstand, I still plan on using Apple, Inc's products. They are still the best products in the business, and I am far too heavily invested in the platform to simply jump ship at this time.
No, this is about the death of idealism and the overwhelming love and devotion for what once was a vanguard company, and now seems to be nothing more than a ship of fools.
There is no excuse for the iPhone 1.1.1 update and there is no defense for the iPhone 1.1.1 update.
The Last Straw
Now I am sure you are all thinking that I am insane for even believing that a company the size of Apple would be anything other than evil. Fine by me, I'm insane.
I'm insane for expecting a company that survived the 90's and early 00's on the loyalty and good graces of its consumer base and independent developers, to repay them when times are better.
I am insane for decrying the slap-in-the-face that was given to 3rd party developers that decided to make the iPhone a viable platform with no help at all from Apple.
And yes I am insane for thinking that for once a large corporation would see what was staring it in the face: People love your product so much, that they reverse engineered a way to add value to it.
The majority of the applications that were created for the iPhone were stupid, fun little nothings. But here and there were found indispensable applications that made the iPhone not only more fun to use, but more useful. The eBook reader Books, Apollo the IM client, the IRC client Colloquy and VoiceNotes the voice recorder just to name a few that I, and many others, came to depend on every day.
Success: The Killer of Dreams
It is apparent now that Apple has bought into the NIH syndrome that plagues many large companies. With one fell swoop Apple has destroyed the major selling point of the iPhone for thousands, if not millions of users.
I have gone from using my iPhone many hours a day, to only using it when I need to receive and make calls; possibly when I need to check email or a website quickly. The usefulness of the product has been diminished to almost the point of uselessness in the name of what, "security"... "interface guidelines"?
The position of the company is idiotic and untenable. Had they released the 1.1.1 update, and immediately released an official SDK for native applications, then at least they wouldn't have defecated on all the developers and users who had made the iPhone palatable to a larger audience.
But no, the update deliberately broke compatability with the dozens of applications we all came to depend on, while offering nothing back, but what... vide out? Please.
I just feel sick
Sure the hackers will be able to get around the technology Apple put in place to make it harder to install the apps, but eventually the effort required will be so great that users and developers just won't see the value in it anymore.
The entire sordid affair just makes me ill. This is not good economics and it isn't good marketing. It is the ravings of a brilliant, talented and apparently completely delusional man. He tried this with the mac, and thankfully failed. Unfortunately there was no one there to tell him how short sighted he was being this time.
And because of that fact, we are all going to suffer. Way to go Apple, way to go.
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Stroll on over and visit Aristotle Pagaltzis
October 3, 2007
Apologies in advance for this pedantry, and feel free to delete this comment – but it’s “one fell swoop” (rather than “fail”). :-)
Stroll on over and visit GotLinux
October 3, 2007
After you realize you're insane to think Apple has any respect for their customers, why not consider some alternatives? There is more than Apple and MS in the world...
Stroll on over and visit Apple Fanatic
October 3, 2007
No! Don't leave the Appleist flock we need people like you. I know I know Apple is taking the "I am the almighty company" stance but please reconsider your decision. Regardless, this was a great post and even though I am an crazed Apple fanboy myself I did enjoy reading it.
Stroll on over and visit diabolikmachine
October 3, 2007
I completely agree with you here. Between this, the discontinuation of bootcamp for tiger, and other annoying things I've encountered, I wish I had bought a Dell or Thinkpad. When Gusty Gibbon is released, I think I am going to go back to being exclusively linux.
Stroll on over and visit Tony
October 3, 2007
I feel the exact same way. I really hope Apple gets their act together and gives the customers what they want.
Stroll on over and visit Christon
October 3, 2007
Definitely agree, although I actually haven't updated to 1.1.1 yet. That's because I am waiting to see if it's going to brick my phone, since I am one of the many who unlocked their iPhones so they wouldn't have to pay for an AT&T plan I can't afford. I was enough of an optimist to believe Apple would realize that the hackers were making their product better, and that this was a way around their agreement with a certain cell company. Unfortunately, it appears Jobs is not as superior to to MS's former CEO as I thought he was. It is a day to mourn.
Stroll on over and visit Charles Miller
October 3, 2007
Erica Sadun, an iPhone hacker, has a pretty good analysis of the 1.1.1 update in Wired: Apple aren't deliberately breaking third-party apps, they're just trying to get their own product working properly:
"The new iPhone software appears to be a ground-up rewrite, unrecognizable under the hood to the older version, which Sadun said was "very unfinished" and, in some places, "a complete hack.""
Read more about it here
I think what a lot of people miss is how much effort it takes to maintain a stable API for third party applications. Apple have already had to delay Leopard because the iPhone was sucking up too many development resources, slowing down development even more because every time they change something they have to think whether it'll break any third-party apps really isn't what the _average_ customer wants.
Stroll on over and visit Owen
October 4, 2007
Charles Miller, I think you have it wrong.
Designing an API, an application programming interface, is simply about creating a few hooks for applications to access the underlying architecture of the device. A well-designed API, by definition, hides the code that's closer to the metal, and should be affected by underlying architectural changes. When you build an API, you build the API to be stable.
Knowing this, the choices become either that Apple purposefully changed the API (or whatever hooks non-Apple software uses to access the phone's features) to break those 3rd-party applications, or that Apple's developers simply didn't have the forethought to build a stable API first. The latter case, which is the one I suspect is truly going on, implies that Apple doesn't want or doesn't expect 3rd-party developers to mess with their stuff - their prerogative, but outright stupid considering the potential ramifications to their business.
In both cases, Apple has failed their customers.
Stroll on over and visit Neil
October 8, 2007
Once again it comes down to the mighty dollar. If it takes too much time to grandfather older apps, then just call them obsolete and expect everyone to buy the latest flavor.
Being a little negligent and allowing older stuff to break, just ensures that people continue buying the next generation.
Stroll on over and visit Atomic Bombshell
October 19, 2007
I seriously hope they listen to what you've said here, and the complaints of others (like me) and do something about it. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm still holding out hope.
Stroll on over and visit Señor Epiphyte
October 21, 2007
It is a phone that acts like a computer.
I look at it this way, Apple is still beta testing the computer part of a really good phone...just like they have beta tested many other applications, tools, and services on us (what is now .Mac, Mac OS X.1, iChat AV, BootCamp, and others were 'beta' and we bought them hook, line and sinker).
Consistent with Apple, though, good things come to those who wait and sometimes those good things cost a little more than you think they should.
:)