Brian's Brain

As promised, a follow-up to my earlier-today missive...

When the news of Apple's move to Intel became official three-plus years ago, I remember that two sequential thoughts rapidly flew through my cerebral cortex:

1. Wow, this is going to really improve Apple's hardware competitiveness (cost, performance and power consumption), translating to some impressive market share growth over the next few years when coupled with competitor Microsoft's Windows XP's security vulnerabilities.
2. Wow, Apple's in trouble. They higher they climb, the harder they tend to fall...

I realize that these two statements are seemingly contradictory. I've followed Apple to one degree or another through my EDN career (more so in recent times), and prior to then I also interacted with the company in my role as an applications engineer and manager with Intel's flash memory group. My consistent impression of Apple, which others have also documented over the years, is of a company immersed in a culture of control and (one of many manifestations) secrecy, whose origins lie with CEO Steve Jobs.

Apple's historically tight grasp on hardware, operating system and applications suites, the latter to the oft-exclusion of third-party 'partners' (just ask Adobe, for example), has led to a comparatively stable computing platform as compared to the Windows alternative. But the resultant comparative dearth of hardware, software and peripheral options (again, versus Windows) has also historically acted as market share 'cap'. Now, however, a critical mass of consumers are fed up with Windows, and Apple hardware is speedier, battery-stingier and price-friendlier than it's ever been, thereby creating a 'perfect storm' for the company...but one that'll capsize it if it's not careful.

Paranoia was perhaps acceptable when Apple only sold its products to a few market share percentage points' worth of perennial loyalists. Now, however, Apple's targeting a much larger market of Windows converts, who expect Windows-reminiscent ecosystem diversity. The converts also expect a more stable software experience than in their Windows past, but they don't realize that the two aspirations are mutually exclusive. As I mentioned the other day, I own almost as much OS X-powered hardware as I do Windows-based gear, so I feel qualified to comment that the blizzard of regularly appearing Apple operating system and application patches is at least as heavy as that on the Windows side of the house, if not more so. And just as with Windows, Apple-offered updates regularly go awry, get pulled (but not in time for early adopters, who end up with DOA hardware as a result), patched and re-posted.

As the OS X ecosystem expands, Apple will out of necessity be increasingly reliant on peripheral drivers and other code supplied by third parties...third-party code that is at the core of most of the Windows stumbles that users regularly and incorrectly blame on Microsoft. And to that point, hypocrisy is the root of my earlier-today DNS diatribe. Apple's TV commercials, for example, gloatingly make fun of Windows' 'blue screen of death', security shortcomings and other issues. Yet, based on early indications in this era of the 'iPod Halo Effect', I see no evidence that Apple will do any better in this regard; if anything, I'll wager that the converse will be the case. We're now at a month since everyone else released DNS client patches, and Apple's is still yet to be found....and it took Apple three-plus weeks longer than Microsoft to update its server code. Perhaps Apple could learn something from its competitor's Trustworthy Computing proactive and rapid-reactive transformations?

Apple's relationships with various third-party 'partners', as I alluded to earlier with the Adobe mention, is often tense at best. I'm reminded, for example, of the frequent complaints lofted at Apple by Rogue Amoeba on its blog, Paul Kafasis' candor is particularly admirable when one realizes that Apple could quite easily 'cut off his air supply' (to recycle a famous supposedly Microsoft-uttered phrase). When I hear, for example, that third-party developers have to rush out to a nearby Apple Store to buy a copy of a new OS X version in order to polish their apps for release, because Apple hasn't given them an advance copy of the 'gold' code (and because the most recent beta is woefully out of date), that's a pretty damning indication of dismal developer relationship cultivation. And developers' frustrations are also evident in the recent uproar over iPhone SDK nondisclosure handcuffs, as well as Apple's heavy-handed yanking of iPhone apps from its sole-sourced online Store without notification or explanation.

Don't think that Apple's got an enlightened, compassionate view of its customers, either. Incremental iPod and iPhone releases obsolete customers' existing accessories, necessitating ridiculous re-purchases (or hacks) of docks, speaker sets, cables and other hardware (which you can only buy from Apple, because the company refused to license the necessary implementation patents to others). Apple designed the (expensive) optical drive of its MacBook Air so that it'd only handshake with that particular computer. And it slips unwanted software onto your computer under the auspices of 'updates'. In the Windows world, we call that spyware. I had to laugh when, in response to early uproar about the buggy MobileMe service, Apple had the audacity to blame Microsoft's ActiveSync and Outlook. Eventually, sanity prevailed, and Jobs consumed a fitting crow feast. Put that one in your scrapbook, folks, because it rarely happens.

So enjoy your Apple 'experience' while you can, because unless the company rapidly staffs up both developer and customer support to pace its market share growth and quell employee rebellions, along with loosening its dictatorial shackles, things will rapidly go from bad to worse. I mean...when prodigal sons such as Walt Mossberg, David Pogue and Tom Yager are bad-mouthing Apple, you know something's up. Some of this media barrage is, unfortunately, the result of me-too piling-on that occurs whenever the populist press sharks sense there's blood in the water. But it also reflects a much-needed correction to the historically dominant press fawning over Jobs et al. And in contrast to unprofessional media sensationalism, I've been consistent (IMHO) in my critique of Apple's successes and shortcomings throughout the years.

Blast away if you wish, Apple admirers, and tell me to 'Leave Steve Jobs Alone' (warning: contains profanity).

But make sure you write me again in a year or few, when you're regretting your platform transition and pondering a return to Windows, ok?