Apple, Communism, and the iPad 2

The latest product presentation of Apple, the iPad 2, proves to be the peak of a problem that has long been slumbering beneath the company’s glossy surface and comes in time with Steve Jobs’ illness and his latest address.

To come to the point, I have long been a so-called fanboy of Apple’s products and strategy, which in fact I still am, if it were not for the recent developments surrounding the company.

Just before Apple released the first iPad in January 2010, people were waiting to see a business as usual second, Apple-like Christmas, expecting that the yet unknown product would surpass even the hype of the first iPhone. It was not until Jobs lit up the screen of the new device that I would innerly scream “This is not happening!” – this time not because it was so groundbreakingly cool, but because I was seeing a massive fail coming about:

The iPad has a terrible UI, which seems to represent a blown-up version of the iPhone. There is absolutely no dynamic in the design, even the small slider to unlock the iPhone was copied and reinforces the first impression that the iPad uses only a small percentage of the actual possibilities the uberhuge screen offers. Even the iPhone’s home screen had not been altered by Apple’s design department to fit this larger device.

Jobs’ announcement that the iPad would not support Adobe Flash at all and his subsequent explanations why first led me to believe him. But after the most recent release of the iPad 2, I had to reconsider my convictions: If we have Flash on all MacBook models, why can’t we have it on a big screen as the iPad’s, too? Why is it that performance of Flash on Mac OS X is getting worse and worse, whereas on Windows, it works like a charm?

Steve Jobs’ historical stubbornness to change his mind on certain topics is now at the center of a massive problem that cannot be pushed aside anymore. Earlier battles to enforce new technologies such as the H.264 codec for video may have worked well, but it seems to me that the decision to “betray” such a huge company as Adobe was definitely a mistake. It will not be possible for Apple to get rid of a technology as widely implemented and accepted as Flash. Besides, HTML5 can by no means be an alternative for a relatively dynamic and mature technology like Flash. Just look at Apple’s current website or the iTunes Store and you’ll know what I mean.

The idea of Apple comprising a bunch of wacky pirates entering a uniform market as it was back in 1984 does not apply to the current situation anymore.

Sadly, Apple itself is currently becoming a restrictive empire of uniformity. Ironically, the path of this development was set when the iPhone was met with success in 2007. Since then, record sales of the iPhone have distracted Apple’s concentration on their core product, the Mac, and ignited a cultural shift from former substance to superficiality as well as from openness and creativity to restriction (closed systems such as iOS), increased censorship (App store) and laziness in terms of innovation.

The seemingly “religious” Jony Ive videos appearing on Apple’s website after each new release praising the unrivaled abilities of the newly designed product confirm this consideration.

To put it simple, the iPad 2 is nothing more than a hyped-up version of the original iPad, supplied with a “Smart Cover” to paralyze potential end-consumers. No changes have been made to its “inner values,” i.e. its UI or its ability to do Flash. All we got is two cameras, a Smart Cover, and a stripped-down iLife suite for iPad that maybe 0.001% of all adopters will ever need.

Steve Jobs’ appearance on stage this week was sort of a surprise, keeping in mind that he is still not totally healthy. Maybe it’s the same as with the pigheadedness of some older politicians (see Berlusconi in Italy) that makes any renewal impossible. The younger ones such as Jony Ive, who have always been loyal to the company, are now wanting to go for something more fresh and innovative, but are kept back by their “foster father” Jobs.

I think it’s time even for former Apple fanboys like me to look for alternatives. Motorola Xoom may be a start, but I prefer getting my hands on it first. At least its Android OS seems to offer an environment that Apple once had, but betrayed for its extreme success.

0 Responses to “Apple, Communism, and the iPad 2”



  1. Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s




People now online…

Nations

Please wait for your comments to be published. They have to be approved first. Thanks.

Blog Stats

  • 37,323 hits

Random Flickr Photos


%d bloggers like this: