The View From the Phlipside - Apple Daddy

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

I have mentioned before that I have a difficulty with Apple Corporations rather paternalistic attitude toward those of us who buy their product.  Once upon a time Apple was the fiesty little renegade against the big, bad corporate monster over at Microsoft.  Now that Apple has become one of the, if not THE primary force in popular digital hardware it seems like they have decided to exercise their big corporate muscles.

Steve Jobs has made no bones about the fact that he and his company get to decide what their users get to use on Apple products.  Steve doesn't like Flash so you can't use flash.  Apple gets to decide what kind of apps you'll have access to for your iPhone.  If they decide that you don't need access to that kind of information or those kinds of services then you just can't go there.  Somewhere the idea that I'm an adult capable of making my own decisions has gotten shuffled off to the side.  

It may have finally come to a head now with Apple not only trying to dictate to their users what they can do but telling other companies how they can run their businesses.  Apple has now informed several European newspapers that they will not be permitted to offer free electronic versions on the iPad.  Two Dutch newspapers (and I'll spare you my attempt at saying the Dutch names) were offering their print subscribers free subscriptions to the electronic iPad version.  Not any more says Apple.  The reason is pretty obvious.  Apple wants their cut.  Currently Apple gets about a third of the payment for any subscription or purchase made through the Apple store.  Well if the newspapers are giving the electronic subscription away there's no profit for Apple.  So they simply inform other companies how they will run their businesses on the iPad.  Other publishers including American magazines and newspapers are having similar problems with Apple's determination to control every aspect of the experience and the business models of iPad services.

From the users point of view someone wants to give us something for free and Apple is deciding we can't have it.  And to be honest I'm getting sick and tired of it.  I love my iPod and I like my iPhone.  At the moment they are the last Apple products I'm likely to buy.  Because for all their faults it appears that the big bad corporate types over at Microsoft have more respect for me than Apple does.  And I'll remember that.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010