Entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, the dog loving, Tesla driving, indefatigable self-promoter, is forsaking Apple products in his fury at some of the company’s recent actions, like banning the Google Voice app — The Case Against Apple-in Five Parts.
While he has a couple of points, he’s wrong about the rest. In fact, the things that Calacanis rags on are the things that make Apple and the iPhone great, and he’s misguided not to embrace them. Here’s why:
Here are Calacanis’s criticisms, and the reasons he’s mostly wrong:
Calacanis: Destroying MP3 player innovation through anti-competitive practices (locking other MP3 players out of iTunes)
Calacanis is confusing iTunes with an operating system. Apple is not being anti-competitive by keeping iTunes proprietary. Apple is under no obligation to open iTunes up, and would be stupid to do so. The reason the iPod/iTunes combo works so well is because other players are locked out. It’s called vertical integration, Apple’s long-standing practice of tying software to particular hardware. It makes the system much more stable, reliant and easier to manage, and is the number reason people love their iPods — they just work when you plug them in. It’s already been demonstrated what happens when you open your system to allcomers — it stinks. Microsoft’s Plays For Sure was such a system, and it was so unreliable because of all the hardware players it had to support, it became known as Plays For Shit and was dropped.
Calacanis: Monopolistic practices in telecommunications (Choosing AT&T as exclusive partner)
Calacanis rips Apple for choosing AT&T as its exclusive carrier. While I’m no fan of AT&T, I see it as a necessary evil. America’s wireless industry is behind. There isn’t healthy competition between carriers, and exclusive lock-in contracts and carrier partnerships are standard practice. I hate it, but I’m happy to pick up an iPhone 3GS for $200 instead of $600 because AT&T will milk me for the difference over two years. And just because the exclusive partnership sucks here in the U.S. (becasue AT&T sucks), similar exclusive deals overseas are much happier. I’ve talked to German and Austrian iPhone users who are delighted with the network service they get. And when the AT&T contract ends in a couple of years, we’re going to see non-exclusive carrier deals.
Calacanis: Draconian App Store policies that are, frankly, insulting (Playing nanny by banning non-approved apps)
Calacanis’s only good point is that Apple is playing nanny by deciding what apps you can or cannot run. Yeah, you can blast zombies but you can’t look at nipples. Apple’s approval process for the App store is inconsistent and capricious, but I’m willing to give the process time to mature because I agree with the thinking behind it: to ensure the best user experience. Apple is trying to weed out the garbage and make sure the whole platform isn’t tarnished by poorly written apps that destabilize the device or the network. Not to pick on Microsoft, but look what look who gets the blame for all the crappy software that destabilizes Windows over time. It’s not the fly-by-night app developer looking for a quick buck.
Calacanis: Being a horrible hypocrite by banning other browsers on the iPhone (Such as Opera, which Calacanis’ likes)
Again, Apple is trying to protect the user experience, and the browser is so central to the iPhone, Apple would be dumb to let others screw it up. How quickly would people would hate their iPhone if the defualt browser was always crashing? Again, this is Apple using vertical integration to protect the experience, not some imagined business monopoly.
UPDATE: Craig says: “And, of course, there are loads of other browsers on iPhone, including iCab. What Calacanis is actually moaning about is the lack of third-party rendering engines. Firefox runs on Gecko, so it doesn’t get on. Opera runs on Presto, so it doesn’t get on. iCab runs on WebKit, and so Apple says “fine”. The one that would be most interesting: what will Apple do if Google submits Chrome to the App Store?”
Calacanis: Blocking the Google Voice Application on the iPhone (let people choose what voice and data services they want on their iPhone)
It’s a little premature to point the finger at Apple for banning Google’s Voice App when AT&T is the more likely culprit (even if AT&T did deny it), but Calacanis conflates the inability to run the Google Voice App with the inability to run whatever voice or data services from whichever carrier you choose. While I’d love in principle to see the wireless internet as open as the wired one, it just ain’t going to happen any time soon. The carriers maintain the networks by charging for voice and data. It’s just wishful thinking they’re going to embrace the open wireless internet and become like ISPs. I want my iPhone to to make me breakfast tea; just ain’t going to happen.
