We Heart Apple
There is a fight going on between two of the big five web companies, actually there’s a fight going on between all of them all of the time, but right now it’s Apple and Adobe that are hitting the headlines.
The gist of the battle is over Flash, Flash allows animated, interactive and feature rich websites, it’s also extremely ‘cross-platform’ so it looks the same no matter what screen size or device you use.
Except Apple doesn’t allow it to work on their iPhone or iPad. In fact follow recent developments by Adobe to make Flash even better for the iPhone, Apple have gone out of their way to make sure Flash does not work on their phone.
No matter the reasons or arguments between the two, there is a much bigger issue at stake and that is the main reason despite the limitations of Flash that I have to come down firmly in favour of Abode in this argument.
The Internet has always been about freedom and the low cost to entry for ‘anyone’ to say their piece about any subject they like – true freedom of speech if you like. It’s a value that is constantly under attack and while we might get our heads around Chinese Censorship or even the fact that the Germany government asked Google to remove more content than virtually anyone else in the world. What I find trickier is when companies like Apple try to control us.
I’ve a friend who loves Apple products and they work brilliantly for him… but he doesn’t think twice about spending £2.99 there, £4.95 here, an app there an app here, it’s all about buying the latest track, sharing his photos, signing up for this or that. He is the perfect Apple consumer and I would hate to see his phone bill each month, which he accepts as the norm.
However, what Apple is missing is that most people can’t afford this lifestyle, it’s also incredibly unfair to expect all of us to succumb to this consumerism, for which ultimately we get nothing but a few lines of code. It’s doesn’t ‘do’ anything for us.
Back to freedom of speech, yes we can all join in the Apple program, but Adobe are actually right – this is not about the technology it’s about the ability to do what you want with it. It’s about allowing people to use devices and more importantly the Internet in the way they want to.
Another friend tweeted – “if you don’t like Apple there are plenty of other fish in the sea – go fishing” – that’s all very well but in terms of keeping the Internet free of it just doesn’t help.
Apple need to realise they have to play their part, they have to allow freedom of speech, thought and creativity, they cannot control everyone into some sort of buying frenzy and expect it to work it just won’t. Let us the consumer decide how we want to use the products and then you’ll see what we want to do with them.