Competition is good! Thanks Andriod

It is a good day. Cause of euphoria is : Statement by Apple on App Store Review Guidelines. Specifically the part

"In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need."

Hurray! I have no doubt in my mind that Andriod is putting intense pressure on Apple to keep developers to stay with Apple's ecosystem.

Andriod surpasses iPhone in new activations

Since the beginning of this year, Andriod has been selling like hotcake. It recently have surpassed iPhone in terms of activations per month. THANKS for voting with your wallet.

Some recent articles
http://blogs.computerworld.com/16883/android_apple_market_share
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/quantcast_android_eats_into_ios_lead_of_mobile_browsing/
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-02/google-s-android-passes-apple-among-new-u-s-users.html
http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=52&articleid=20100803_52_E3_ASonyE564851
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-02/google-s-android-passes-apple-s-iphone-among-new-u-s-smartphone-shoppers.html

The Anti-Social Ping

There are millions who believe Apple could do no wrong. However, I really don't care about those who are blind followers. I am as crtical of Apple as any other company. So I am glad that media is taking a critical look at Ping and commenting on what it is. While it is true that Apple can fix some of the issues in future updates/releases, Apple's image as a company that delivers great experience from the get go is crumbling. My rants aside, this fortune article summarized the issues with Ping very nicely

Excerpts
•TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld. The Problem with Ping: "The biggest problem I have with Ping is that it lives in iTunes. Not only does it live in iTunes, it is isolated there. iTunes is not social. It is not even on the Web."


•All Thing D's Peter Kafka: Ping Averts Its Gaze. Apple's New Social Network Doesn't Really Want to Know Much About You: "This isn't about Apple's walled garden that keeps Ping walled off from Facebook and other services. It's about Apple's decision to wall off Ping from your own music collection."

•Scripting News' Dave Winer. Ping: It's even worse than it appeared: "Ping is not a social network, by any realistic definition of the term... My guess as to why we can't post to the timeline is that Apple is afraid we might say something harsh about them or Ping."

•Xconomy's Wade Roush. The Leaning Tower of Ping: How iTunes Could Be Apple's Undoing: "Adding a social networking interface, on top of all of iTunes' other functions, is like grafting another limb to the forehead of an octopus. It's just too much."

•Cthulhu and other crazies' Swizec. Apple's Ping is a big pile of steaming dung: "Meh I give up, there is nothing worth following on Ping. The artists I do find are labeled as users and everybody knows it's not really them there, it's some automated bot thing to keep us notified of their stuff."

Steve Jobs is a control freak!!

Story: Steve Jobs Wants It Both Ways

Alan Deutschman is the author of many best selling books including The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. In his interview for "The Motley Fool" he shares the hurdles he had to cross to publish his book about Steve Jobs. Excerpts

Deutschman: That's right. Not only did Steve Jobs refuse to cooperate with the book, but he blocked a number of sources from cooperating and then about a month before the book's scheduled publication, he telephoned the chief executive officer of Random House and tried unsuccessfully to have the book killed. Jobs also bought the rights to the photographs that my publisher was trying to license to use on the dust jacket cover, preventing us from using that photograph, even though it was a very appealing photograph of him, and forcing us to scrap the dust jacket and design and print a new one at considerable expense. Jobs really went out of his way to try to prevent and then frustrate the publication of my book, which was an independent book by a journalist doing a lot of reporting, who was going to have an independent voice.

Arrogance is a weakness. His obsession with control, which we have seen in the, most recently in the so-called jailbreak issue about whether consumers can basically hack their iPhones to use their own software that hasn't been approved by Steve Jobs. The man is an incredible control freak. That has had a big upside -- putting his passion into making great products and harnessing the creativity of other brilliant people and having this passion for perfection -- but it also has a downside. And I think where Apple is vulnerable now is Jobs is once again trying to control every aspect of his products. With the iPhone, it has led to incredible early success where they have been able to design the hardware, the software, approve the Apps, completely orchestrate the entire experience for users and do a wonderful job with it. But it leaves Apple vulnerable to open approaches of, for example, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) with its Android operating system for mobile devices. You kind of wonder whether, as in the personal computer industry years ago, whether Jobs' desire to control everything is leaving him vulnerable to other people who are giving up control, who are putting out their technologies for other people to adapt and modify and potentially creating a much bigger market for less expensive products.

Does anyone truly believe we should all encourage his bad behavior? Please vote with our wallet.

The Beginning of the End of Apple

Story: Time Inc.’s iPad Problem Is Trouble for Every Magazine Publisher

"...Last month, the publisher was set to launch a subscription version of its Sports Illustrated iPad app, where consumers would download the magazines via Apple’s iTunes but would pay Time Inc. directly. But Apple rejected the app at the last minute, forcing the Time Warner (TWX) unit to sell single copies, using iTunes as a middleman, multiple sources tell me.

Since then, Time Inc. executives “have been going nuts,” trying to figure out how to get Apple (AAPL) to approve a subscription plan. One of the more desperate suggestions, which apparently didn’t get traction: Pulling the publisher’s apps out of the iTunes store altogether...."

This isn't the first time someone spent all their time and energy and developed a really cool app only to be rejected. If Apple's fundamental claim for tigher control of AppStore is to ensure quality, how come Time Inc's application is being rejected? It is completely unfair of Apple to want a cut on every transation. I pity the magazine publishers who are working with really thin margins but still have to give a share of their revenue to Apple just because it controls the ecosystem.
 
If Microsoft came any closer to any of the things Apple has been demanding, folks would have screamed "Anti-Trust". I really think Apple is taking the path of self destruction on many fronts. I have been telling many of my friends that Year 2010 would be the best year for Apple. Let's see if I am right next year.

Jailbreaking an iPhone is now legal

Story: EFF Wins New Legal Protections for Video Artists, Cell Phone Jailbreakers, and Unlockers

Anyone remember Apple's claim that Jailbreaking supports terrorism? Apple went to great lengths to ensure that its ecosystem is locked and closed. However, I am glad that the Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress have provided DMCA exemptions and legalized the unlocking or jailbreaking of phones (specifically the iPhone).

iPhone4: It Ain't perfect and Apple Won't Admit It

We all know about Reality Distortion Field which in my opinion is just outright deception that Apple keeps employing it when it comes to promoting self.

But that doesn't seem to satisfy Apple at all and it must purge routinely all references to HW failures or issues that may affect its RDF from its support forums. The latest episode is about Apple purging all references to the Consumer Reports dis-recommendation about iPhone4 due to its antenna issues. TUAW, the unofficial Apple blog reports that Apple has been busy deleting threads containing references to it. Wow!