monkey boy

Thanks to John Gruber I came across this fabulous description of an app store developer dealing with a Apple rep.

Given all my previous dealings with Apple I can't say I'm at all surprised.

Most people know about the video of Steve Ballmer making a scene about the importance of developers. The harsh name he has been called for that video really disguise the fact that he was 100% correct.

The current developer backlash against Apples app store policies are not only completely justified, but are just the tip of the iceberg for the eventual failure of the iPhone platform.

Now it might seem a pretty brash claim to make, especially how the iPhone seems to be becoming a phenomenal success, but there you have it, I truly believe its the beginning of the end for it and Apple, because once you piss off your developers, all thats left between you and the bottom is a slippery slope, no matter how sexy you make the slead you're riding down on.

History repeating

Well looks like Johns still at it:

"It’s unproven whether this model can even work in the long run (where by “work” I mean “produce a phone and software platform with a state-of-the-art user experience”)"

John since you're old enough to remember, let me tell you a story about a fantastic computer, one that was leagues ahead of the competition, with amazing hardware , very easy to use and powerful OS, and obviously very importantly to you: nicely integrated all by the same manufacturer.

This magical machine had a almost cult like following, it was streets ahead of its rivals and had a great market share, at the time it seemed everyone i knew was buying one or wanted too.

It was especially popular amongst the most creative people, it was used to edit video and create 3D effects and motion graphics before most people had even heard of emails.

Yep and you know what, I don't know nayone who still uses Amigas. But everywhere I look people are using those aweful "beige" PCs running that disgusting Microsfot OS that not a single manufacturer bothered to "integrate into a user experience".

Now that I come to think of it, the above also covers another big computer manufacturer whose name starts with A...

Yes some people truly never learn their history lessons.

Timid Icecube

So in this latest piece from John Gruber, he is supposedly championing Android while at the same time managing to put out more FUD then your typical Microsoft press release..

Supposedly the post is all about how he actually wants Android to be a real challenge for iPhones, but how about a bit of reality check John:

"All three found Android significantly lacking"

Umm no, be specific: all three found the HTC G1 lacking.

"The iPhone has grown fast, but even so, it has taken two years of growth to get where it is today. Catching up to the iPhone in an instant — or even within a year or two — is not a feasible goal. So forget that"

I hahaha - oops, soory I guess John was actually trying to be serious.

Heres a bit of news flash for those not lost in that famous Steve reality distortion field:

Apple is trying to catchup to all the other manufacturers!

Hate to break it to you John, but Nokia sold 14 million units of the e71 model alone by 2009. Yep thats one business model only, out of the dozen or more smart phone models they sell worldwide.

Nokia and the other manufacturers might not be making tidy profits like Apple is but check out the stats for yourself:

"Nokia managed to hold onto to its position as the world's largest manufacturer of smartphones. The company has 41.2 percent of the smartphone market."

For those of us who can count, it's Apple that's doing the catching up, not the other way round.

Of course the rest of the article is full of whining about the state of Android handsets and Android manufacturers.

But note the plurals!

Actually what he should be saying is that all the critisms are based on 1 model (G1) from 1 manufacturer (HTC). The second model from HTC, the "magic" has barely started shipping and other manufacturers models are only coming later in the year, so John is certainly doing some real fortune telling if he's already reviewing and dismissing those models.

The best announced Android hardware to date, the Samsung 7500 is also only just coming onto the market so theres no mention of it in the article either - but hey I doubt Johns even heard of it.

And with at least another 5 Android models expected to be shipping by the end of the year from 5 different manufacturers, its nice to see that John can predict the short comings all of them based on the second hand experiences of other bloggers using only the very first hardware model, from a 2nd tier manufacturer.

Let see if the reporting gets better once there is actually some facts to report on...

PS. So I had intended to post this on a seperate blog dedicated to commentary on John Grubers "daring fireball" blog since he doesn't allow comments, the same wya that dying breed of print newspaper editorials don't, but I decided instead to just post it here and label it and all future entries with the intended name of that blog "timid icecude".