I read Steve Jobs Thoughts on Flash and why Flash is locked out of the Apple products. It is an interesting piece yet I do not understand it. It seems to me he is missing one of the biggest reasons for why to allow it.
The consumers.
They should choose if they want a “bad” performance or not. Not Apple. Not any company.
Anyhow.
In this whole discussion technology has been brought up. Yet the whole time seems as the discussion has been between technologists about technology. It is not about technology ultimately. It is about what the consumers want and give them as much as possible.
I heard all the arguments that oh yeah they can get a lot of content. True. Can they get all? No. Allowing only some channels is moderated content distribution. That is bad. Really bad.
And.
It is the core problem. It is completely overlooked.
Just think about it. Apple – a software and hardware company – indirectly chooses what content is allowed on their platform and not. Does that make any sense? Nope. I don’t get how you claim that approach is open in any way. It is not. It is not cool and very closed.
I also don’t like it because it invites more companies – which not content driven with the expertise – to start making decisions constraining the content availability. This make even less sense on devices that should move towards more freedom of content. It is not a very healthy development.
It seems as Apple is successively moving more and more towards locking down their “platform”. If they want to or not is their business, yet I personally do think it is a mistake. However don’t start pointing fingers on others claiming they are closed and you are not. They might be closed or open.
The bottom line is that Apple does not stand for a completely open platform.
Putting any constraints on your platform will diminish your market and that makes no sense from a business perspective either if you do not think it will cost you more than you gain by having it.
On a bigger picture note, the web was created to bring freedom to information, yet we continue to see moves these days by technology giants bringing constraints and boundaries. Maybe we are too driven by our short-term financial spreadsheets and short term goals. I do not know. These items have to be there. These items are needed. These items alone should however not dictate where we go though.
I do know we have a bigger responsibility here. I understand the different sides here, yet I do not think we as a global society would gain from this. Some will. The ones who need more freedom will not. We with freedom should not put obstacles in their path for freedom.
Oh and then we have Facebook and their Open Graph… Scary. Pew. That’s for another day.
At least the sun shines outside. :-)
