Running Free Aug 14 2010
This was an article I wrote a few months ago, but for some reason forgot to tidy up and actually publish. I’m doing so now as after re-reading it, I still think it’s right, and if anything it’s even more pertinent now given Apple’s “antennagate” issues with the iPhone 4, and the news that Android phones are now outselling the iPhone.
I already dropped a link to this article (ironically penned by Daniel Lyons, of Fake Steve Jobs fame) in my recent link post, however there was a really interesting point in that article that I wanted to follow up on. Daniel says:
I was a little shocked recently when an Apple spokesbot responded to the news of Android’s outselling iPhone OS by reciting the old chestnut about Apple’s having more phones out there.
I was shocked because it’s a familiar line, one that I’ve heard countless times in my 20-plus years covering technology. But I’ve only ever heard it from companies that are doomed and in total denial about it.
We’ve seen this movie before. In the 1980s, Apple jumped out to an early lead in personal computers, but then got selfish. Steve Jobs, a notorious control freak, just could not play well with others.
Along came Microsoft, with Windows, which was a knockoff of Apple’s operating system. Microsoft partnered with everyone and today has 90 percent market share, while Apple’s share lingers in the single digits.
Today the battlefield is mobile devices, and just as before, Apple jumped out to an early lead. And just as before, Jobs got selfish. He won’t support Flash, or any cross-platform tools—because he wants developers locked into his platform, and his App Store, where he collects a 30 percent commission.
I find this fascinating, not only because it rings very true to what’s actually happening, but also because there aren’t a huge amount of people picking up on it. Sure, there are lots of people switching to Android. Sure, there are lots of people questioning what Apple are doing. But specifically comparing this to the last time Apple became irrelevant? Wow, who knew there were so many similarities?
Right now the path that Apple are going down is very odd, and one that I’m surprised no one within the organisation is questioning or doubting (or perhaps they are, albeit not publicly). While they are no doubt a very successful company, they are also stifling innovation, and as Daniel says, they appear to be trying to make as much money off of the ecosystem they themselves created as possible. That tends to only end up with one result - people will want to look for platforms that encourage innovation and competition, and that share the wealth and respect a little better. Apple’s strategy might be working in the short term, but is ridiculous over the longer term, and I think they will need to address these concerns with their next generation of mobile device and platform, or else perhaps they’ll simply be doomed to repeat history, and consign themselves to always being the company that could start a trend, but sure couldn’t bask in it.