Is Apple becoming like MS?

[Evergreen]

Apple's Animal Farm

I'm sorry, Microsoft. On behalf of Silicon Valley, I’m sorry.

We cursed you, mocked you, labeled you the Evil Empire. Your crime: trying to control the technology world. Sure, we had reason to be upset. During the dawning of the PC era, the Windows operating system made you the most powerful company in tech, and it went to your head.

Your detractors say you intimidated PC makers, crushed Netscape, and tried to turn the web into an extension of the Windows platform. As it turns out, local darling Apple (AAPL) probably would have done the same thing.

Just look at how Apple is behaving today with a fraction of the power you had.

Apple's iTunes has an estimated 87% market share in music downloads, a beachhead it is using to expand its influence in much the same way you used Windows to expand yours. What has Apple done with its dominance? It has refused to let other media players sync with iTunes. It has tried to strong-arm Hollywood into selling content on terms mostly favorable to Cupertino. It has tightly controlled the iPhone ecosystem, insisting that its own iTunes app store serve as the only way to broadly distribute software.

Apple's customer service has always been the best I've ever received, the quality of their products is excellent, and I have no plans to stop using their computers after 15 years. I wouldn't buy an iPhone though because of their restrictions on 3rd party development. The rejection of Google Voice was a bad precedent that makes them look like the monster MS used to be.

 

[eawmp1]

From the days following the clone wars, Apple has always sought tight control of the tight integration between its software (OS) and hardware. Some of the best features of the Apple experience results from this tight integration.

As for 3rd party developer restrictions for the iPhone, Apple is damned if they do or don't. As iTunes is the official distributor for iPhone Apps, Apple can be seen (or blamed) as "blessing" any App (remember Baby Shaker?). Anything that could blemish their image/or violate usage agreement with AT&T will likely be restricted. While their review process has been on occasions seemingly arbitrary, it is new water for them, and the process is improving.

Google Voice may conflict with user agreements with AT&T. OBTW, Google is no David to the Apple Goliath.

Welcome to capitalism. In 10 years Apple could well be marginalized by the next big thing.