A daily digest of IT news, curated from blogs, forums and news sites around the web each morning. We highlight the key commentary and demystify the real story.
What happened? It's a new week and suddenly the whole world hates Apple (AAPL), and wants to kick Steve Jobs in the goolies. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers dissect the anti-fanboi sentiment, and ponder thoughts of anti-trust investigations.
Your humble blogwatcher has selected these bloggy morsels for your enjoyment. Not to mention a brand new Simon's Cat...
Jason Calacanis rants and raves:
Over the last 12-18 months, my love affair with Apple has waned. Steve Jobs peculiar, rigidly closed, and severe worldview have started to cramp my style. ... Im starting to look past him and back to Microsoft for a more healthy relationship that is lesswait for itanti-competitive in nature. ... Apple is now the anti-competitive monster that Jobs rallied us against in the infamous 1984 commercial.
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Apple will face a user revolt in the coming years based upon Microsoft, Google and other yet-to-be-formed companies, undercutting their core markets with cheap, stable and open devices. Apples legendary comeback ability will be for naught if they dont deeply examine their anti-competitive nature. Making great products does not absolve you from technologys cardinal rule: Dont be evil.
Ian Forrester summarizes:
Calacanis wrote a extra long essay about why the love affair with Apple is over. Its a good read and hopefully adds to the mounting public pressure. The essay is broken dowin into 5 main points.
Destroying MP3 player innovation through anti-competitive practices
Monopolistic practices in telecommunications
Draconian App Store policies that are, frankly, insulting
Being a horrible hypocrite by banning other browsers on the iPhone
Blocking the Google Voice Application on the iPhone
Of course I've been writing similar things for a while but its always good to hear Mac fans coming to their senses.
And the scales fall from Dion Almaer's eyes:
I have been thinking it kinda fun and cute to watch Palm and Apple go at it on whether the Pre should be able to talk to iTunes. Instead, I should be friggin up in arms. ... Dont lockup my darn data Apple. ... The next war will be around data and who owns it. Hopefully the winners in the cloud grok ownership, and we get the best of all worlds, being able to go between services and devices.
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Apple is treating its users badly, and its developers even worse. ... It feels like we are at the start of a real sea change. A bunch of people reached out to say I am kinda feeling that too.
C.K. Sample III plays Devil's advocate:
These are not my thoughts on the subject, but rather how I think Apple would respond. ... Apple doesnt prevent any manufacturer from making its own MP3 players. ... We ask that this entire section [about the App Store] be dismissed as it is based on gossip. ... We, as manufacturers of [the iPhone], owe it to our consumers to keep the overall experience as safe and secure as can be found on any other mobile telecommunications device. ... one might note that there has been a rise in anti-trust interest in Google, one of our clear competitors.
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While Apple can appreciate Mr. Calacaniss opinions, we also would suggest that Mr. Calacanis ... lacks the experience that we have running a profitable hardware manufacturer that continues to be the largest minority in a space that is dominated by products running Microsoft operating systems. To take any actions other than those we have taken would not only be actions that we think would lessen the performance and value of our hardware for our consumers, but would also be a miscalculation in the current broader market of our competitors.
John Biggs can't believe his eyes:
It is the end. Jason The Animal Calacanis is thinking about maybe quitting using Apple products. ... This is not the thought process of a well man. Perhaps Jason spent too much time next to his Tesla roadster or maybe the stress of running Mahalo has finally gotten to him.
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In all honesty I kind of agree with him. ... In terms of tech-per-day, PC and Macs tend to a one-to-one parity. ... With OS X problems are much more impressive [then with Windows] (one recent problem occurred when I upgraded and needed to roll back yet Time Machine didnt recognize the old back-up).
But Howard Lindzon just shrugs:
Why waste the time standing in front of a freight train, unless you just like hearing yourself talk.
Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 24 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him as @richi on Twitter or richij on FriendFeed, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itblogwatch@richij.com.
