Apple - with great power comes ...

Like the comic book said, 'With great power, comes great responsibility'.

Apple has the power now. Do they feel the responsibility?

Veteran Apple users celebrate Apple's rise, and Microsoft's decline, much less than the media might imagine. We remember that Steve Jobs has a history of what some might call "control issues".

Stories like this one remind us we love Apple best when their back is to the wall...

One Little Article - Inside iPhone Blog

...Unfortunately, we don't have An App Store, we have The App Store. The difference is exclusivity. With An App Store, software can be put on the iPhone through some other method. The App Store, however, is the sole way to get software on the iPhone. This leads to some major problems all around. Users who want software that Apple doesn't approve of can't get it, because it's obviously not listed by Apple in the App Store. Developers who aren't accepted into Apple's program, for whatever reasons, can't get on the iPhone at all and thus can't sell to customers. Developers who are accepted are still running into immense issues with updates, bug testing, and more. Ultimately, that's bad for Apple too, as it means those users and developers are unhappy and will aim their frustrations squarely at Apple.

Presumably, Apple has considered all this. If so, they've determined that they'd rather have complete control over the applications available on the iPhone than have more flexibility for developers and customers alike. I can see how this could be good for Apple itself - a dictatorship tends to serve the dictator quite well. I can't, however, see why developers would support it, nor customers...

Android, Please get well soon. We Apple customers need you give the gift of Fear to Apple.