Is Apple Killing Inovation?

apple stands for sucking money out of customers, just like every corporation.

Apple continue to make groundbreaking innovations in the design and application of modern technology: The iPhone is, as far as I know, the first consumer device with a working multi-touch screen with decent response, a natural interface style that has since made its way into the trackpads on their Mac machines. There are countless innovations that went into that device alone.

To suggest that their rejection of an application that competes with the functionality provided by their iPhone partners, the cellular networks, is killing innovation or is big brotherly, simply displays not only frustration at the app rejection but ignorance of the actual issues. If they weren’t tied to carrier relationships, I’m sure they would have approved it – but they are, because it’s a damn cellphone, so it’s natural they have to protect the interests of both companies, no matter how much it happens to piss you off.

I think Apple is taking the easy route to blame this all on AT&T. If you think about it, between AT&T and Apple, Apple have much more power. Millions flock to AT&T’s poor network simply to use the iPhone. The other three major carriers are dying to have a chance to carry the iPhone.

I don’t have doubts that AT&T has a hand in this, but Apple has to take it’s share of the blame. It’s a clever move on Apple’s part to push the blame to AT&T, which doesn’t care what consumers think since they have the exclusive on the iPhone, for now.

Killing innovation? No. Apple isn’t the only innovative company in the world and no matter how hard they try, they could never cause serious damage to innovation.

It was a smart move on their part to reject Google Voice apps. If they didn’t, AT&T would probably have stopped supporting the iPhone. Apple and AT&T are just like every other company; they want to make a profit.

Besides, people will find their own ways for working around the system. I just read an article a few minutes ago about a company that has a Google Voice app available for free. The only catch is that you have to jailbreak your iPhone to get it.

Apple doesn’t stand for innovation, they stand for taking your money. It’s always been like this, and it will always be like that. Innovation just happens to be a quick way to get money.

I’d love it if you would elaborate your thoughts about how Apple denying Google Voice’s app in their store, which is indeed the terms of conditions of using their store to sell your apps, could possibly be construed as “the beginning of the end”. The beginning of the end of what?

Of course not. Just like how @chronohart said, it was probably a smart move. And don’t listen to the people who say they’re just money grabbers because they aren’t even though their prices might be a bit high. Apple is a company that gets it. They’re not motivated by money but by making the best product. You never see signs on their store that say ”25% OFF! SALE! Get an Apple loyalty card!” like other companys. No. They understand that when they make quality products, people will rush to have them and not just try to sell cheap products to try and attract customers.

“They’re not motivated by money”
you’re naive.

@ragingloli, I think @TheCreative meant they aren’t exclusively motivated by money. They actually care about making a quality product.

@dynamicduo Google Voice application doesn’t duplicate any of the iPhone’s functions; we can hardly say that Google Voice will be a frivolous addition to the App Market. Being an Apple fan myself, I’m referring to “the beginning of the end” of Apple’s image as being an avant guard company and transforming into a giant like Microsoft. It’s pretty much saying, “we are awesome, so now we don’t have to try to please you anymore.”

@chronohart I find it hard to believe Apple would have to bend to the will of AT&T. Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile are dying to have the iPhone and would offer loads of cash to have AT&T’s contract.

@ragingloli I guess I should have elaborated. What I meant was that they are not only motivated by making money (like what @chronohart beat me to say) They’re not like other companys that just try to make money by making products that are stripped down but affordable. They know that making good products is first on the list. Then the money and profit that they benefit from is the thing that keeps them going to keep making great products that we can all enjoy and love to use.

money comes first for every company. apple’s doctrine so far was quality and exclusivity (you had to buy apple’s hardware to use apple’s os) of their products to justify the outrageous prices the demand.

@ragingloli – you couldn’t make the money they do if their product was crap. People wouldn’t pay for it.

Payless can only charge $8 for their shoes because they are uncomfortable and don’t last long.

More expensive brands can charge more because of it.

It is really like a Sin wave. Somewhere in the middle you actually get your money’s worth.

@jhbao An App for the likes of Google Voice would never jive with any cell service company. So it would matter very much if they pissed off AT&T because no other company would agree to take their contract until Google Voice was no longer available. Google Voice, if you don’t know, virtually allows you to make free domestic calls and very cheap international calls. Hence, anyone making calls to foreign countries could use Google Voice to pay less than their phone service would charge. Not only does the customer pay less, but the phone company also loses that specific business.

Also, the contract Apple has with AT&T probably legally binds them to not provide the iPhone to another company during a certain time frame.

@ragingloli I don’t want to get into this too much because I know I could go on for hours and hours. Apple does such a thing to make sure their products match a particular vision, they put time and effort into a product to make sure it is easy to use and to avoid confusion. For example, the iPod is only able to be used with iTunes because they want their customers to have the best user experience possible. They don’t want you to use someone else music syncing software because they would have no control over the user experience and it could give a different experience than what Apple planned and they want to give the customer the best possible.

they put so much effort into it to make sure that people buy it and to bind them to their brand so the first name that pops into their head when they want a new product is “apple”.
also their lack of compatibility with 3rd party products is solely to make customers depend on them. when they want to extend their products, apple products is the only available option.

@chronohart Google Voice doesn’t allow you to make free domestic calls, it uses your carrier minutes. It steps on AT&T’s toes because of the SMS; but you can already send SMS using email or a chat program.

In regards to the legal bind, we all should know that when the 3rd party app Voice Central was placed on the market, the vice president of Apple himself called the developer to let him know the app has been accepted. The policy change is recent and not within the initial contract between Apple and AT&T.

Here are a couple of articles on the matter:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/27/apple-is-growing-rotten-to-the-core-and-its-likely-atts-fault/

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/27/apple-yanks-the-cord-on-gv-mobile-is-it-trying-to-kill-google-voice-on-the-iphone/

By the way, thank you all for participating in this discussion!

@ragingloli Part of Apple’s appeal has always been that they have tight control of hardware and software to ensure everything works smoothly. They have been extremely successful at that. However, do you think they’ve taken it too far? At what point will the frustration tip you over to another product?

@ragingloli I agree that a lot of the ways Apple uses to control the use of their products is to keep people loyal to them and persuade their customers to buy more Apple products instead of going with a different company’s product. However, it’s unfair to say that is the sole reason for that. As @TheCreative said, they are able to control their users’ experience only by controlling what their users can use their products with. If someone was to an Apple product with some third party product that Apple didn’t support and the user had a bad experience, they would blame Apple as much as the third party.

@jhbao I didn’t realize that the GV app was originally accepted, then later pulled from the market. Even so, Apple has an already long history of accepting apps then very soon after pulling them. That is indeed bad for their image, but it doesn’t have anything to do with their ability to innovate.

P.S. Please don’t think my answers are biased by brand loyalty. I am by no means a fan of Apple and I absolutely LOVE Google Voice!

@jhbao – I believe it does enable to make free domestic calls long distance from your land line. I am waiting for my next bill to find out.

If so, cha-ching!!!

Apple is innovation.

More arguments against Apple by Adam Pash at Lifehacker.

http://lifehacker.com/5324724/bad-apple-an-argument-against-buying-an-iphone

@jhbao – What is apple thinking? I remember the last time I thought this when they pulled out of the virtual choke hold they had on the educational market. Then they got all uppity and lost it. The footing was there. Young minds, getting used to Macs in schools and colleges.

This could have helped people who were hesitant about the iPhone because of AT&T, king of the charge you for every little thing poor service carriers, make a decision to go with them.

They are not that powerful. Do your own innovation and forget about them. New ideas are rarely made by bitter criticisms.