Vic Gundotra opened Google I/O with a compelling story of his meeting with Andy Rubin on his first day at Google. Vic was asking whether we really needed another mobile operating system. Andy told him why open systems matter. "If google did not act, our future would belong to one man, one company, one vision." Meanwhile, the slide shows a person from the back, with head bowed, and a giant 1984 logo in the background. Wow! The audience explodes in applause.Yeah, this is a self-selected audience, but there's a deep current of fear of Apple and its plans for world domination in the mobile space. Apple's tight control of what apps can appear on the iPhone is billed as managing the user experience, but it's also incredibly anti-competitive. Apple also blocks applications from competitors. I love Apple as an innovator - they have made everyone in the industry better. But I really dislike how they have become fixated on control. They are over-reaching.
I thought "someone ought to do a new version of the Apple 1984 ad, with someone throwing a hammer through an iPhone screen." Did a quick search, and found one was done in 2008, as a mashup on YouTube. Only 254 views this morning. Just tweeted it, and after Vic's keynote, I imagine that's going to go up quite a bit.
It made me think of how far Apple has come since its famous 1984 ad that introduced the Macintosh. It's sad.
It's sometimes harder for companies to survive success than it is to survive failure.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Apple has created "golden cage" ecosystem that many non-geeks actually prefer.
via google.com
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